Read Online Dark Side of Dawn: The Nightmare Chronicles by Kathryn Smith - Free Book Online Page A

apparently twenty-plus years of knowing what you are hasn’t provided you with adequate motivation.”
    She was such a bitch. I managed to keep my mouth shut, even though I wanted to defend myself—and tear a strip off of her. Nothing I could say could change the fact that she was right. I should have learned more about this world. If I hadn’t turned my back on what I was and what it meant, I would have known that it was wrong to bring Noah into this realm.
    I would have known that I shouldn’t be able to bring Noah into this realm, which was really what this was all about. I scared them. Well, bully for them. They scared me too.
    “And your involvement with that same human put him directly in harm’s way,” the Warden continued. “Something every Nightmare has sworn not to do.”
    I knew that harming humans was against what the Nightmares stood for. We were protectors. “I haven’t sworn anything,” I retorted, ignoring my father’s shaking head. “I never asked to be half of this world and half human. I never asked to be a freak. I may have broken your rules, but it wasn’t my involvement with Noah that got him hurt, it was the fact that a Night Terror, working for people in this realm, decided it wanted to cross over into the human world and chose Noah tobe his body. If I hadn’t stopped that Terror, you’d have bigger problems right now than me.”
    I was mad—nostril-flaring mad—and the Warden looked at me like I was a bug on her shoe. “You claim that the Terror called Karatos acted on the orders of another?”
    I took a deep breath, forcing my temper down. “I don’t claim it. Karatos told me him…itself.” I had to remind myself that the thing that had tried to kill me and Noah wasn’t human.
    The Warden lifted her chin defiantly. “Did the Terror reveal the name of his benefactor?”
    That was an odd way to put it, since there had been nothing good about what Karatos had done. “No.”
    She looked far too pleased. “Then you have no proof.”
    I lifted my chin as well. “You don’t have any proof that I acted out of disregard for this realm either.”
    I had her there, and from the dislike shining in her creepy eyes, she knew it.
    “Indeed,” she replied frostily. “And so we have this inquiry into your actions. The Council plans to watch you closely, Lady Dawn, and discuss your past behavior. If you are found to have acted out of good intent, without lasting effect on this realm, then you will be found innocent and no further action will be taken against you.”
    Okay, so this didn’t sound so bad. I hadn’t done anything wrong, so there shouldn’t be any ramifications. So why did I have this sinking feeling in my gut?
    “However,” the redheaded witch continued, “if it is determined that you acted willfully, with the intention of harming this realm and what it stands for, then I will have no choice but to pass judgment upon you and see that punishment is carried out.”
    “P…punishment?” I sputtered like a stuttering kid on a bad sitcom. “What kind of punishment?” And why did Morpheus look so pale? He was king here, damn it, and I was his daughter! I don’t care how spoiled I sounded, but I was this realm’s Paris Hilton, and the worst punishment I should get was a few days without cable.
    The Warden actually smiled at me, but there was no warmth in it, just the opposite. “To disregard the rules of this world is akin to treason. And the penalty for treason is unmaking.”
    Thank God Verek chose that moment to take my arm again, because I might have fallen flat on my ass at that moment. Oh shit. I was in such trouble.
    The equivalent to unmaking in the human realm was death.

Chapter Five
    I clung to Verek for maybe four or five seconds before making myself shake off his grip. Sure I was shaky, but I wasn’t about to advertise the fact.
    “Shame on you, Padera,” came a soft, whispery voice from the side. “You’ll frighten the poor girl.”
    Was that genuine