The Fire and the Sky (Book 3 of the... - Chapter 31: Chapter 31

May had imagined this meeting going dozens of different ways.
However, none of those imagined scenarios considered a Dawn who didn't realize who she was supposed to be meeting.
With a nod, May got to her feet.
"My name is May Alana," she said, loudly though her voice shook. "I've been told you're my birth mother."
Dawn Gardener pressed her cuffed hands to her mouth and burst into tears.
"They kept your name!" she exclaimed. She looked skyward. "Oh, Tiio. Kaleo. Thank you!"
To May, there was something disarming in hearing Dawn uttering her parents' names. It seemed to make everything come into focus; made it real.
"Would you like to sit?" May asked, not knowing what else to say. Dawn hesitated for a moment, staring back with an expression that looked mildly disappointed. Then she gave a shaky smile, nodded, and shuffled to take her seat on the opposite side of the table.
For a moment, neither said anything. They sat and took each other in with wonder and disbelief. Necar hadn't been kidding when she said May was the spitting image of her birth mother. That they were related was unquestionable.
"I can't believe you're here," Dawn whispered.
May offered a small, brief smile. "Neither can I, to be honest."
"How did you find me?"
"It wasn't easy but I know a guy who knows a guy."
Dawn grinned. "Have you seen your father yet?"
"No. We haven't tracked Oliver down yet. Do you know where he is?"
The grin faded a bit. "I haven't seen or spoken to him in..." she looked into May's eyes and thought for a second. "Twenty-five years?"
"I guess that makes sense." May shifted, realizing that meant the pair had been separated as soon as they were captured after her birth. "I'm sorry about that."
"Don't apologize, it's not your fault." Dawn placed her hands in the table, palms down. She seemed to be reaching, cautiously, toward May. The chains of her cuffs clattered against the worn wood. "None of this is your fault, May."
There was a moment of silence that yawned between them like an ocean.
"So," Dawn ventured, dipping a toe in. "Tell me everything, won't you?"
May considered how to sum up a lifetime. "Everyone's doing well. Ora's married. She has a son, a little boy named Omi, and she's pregnant with number two."
Dawn shook her head. "That's nice, hon, but I want to hear about you."
"Oh." May squirmed. Her mind went blank, like she forgot who she was in an instant. "I, well... I like to dance. I'm pretty good at it, actually. And, uh, I have a girlfriend."
She stopped. Just let that dangle between them and watched for Dawn's reaction. Her birth mother waited a beat, and then beamed.
"Are you in love?"
A wave of giddiness rushed up from May's stomach and broke across her cheeks in a blush. Even now, the truth of her feelings for Em still excited her "Yeah."
"Oh, May. That's wonderful. I'm so happy for you."
She looked like she meant it.
And then she started to cry again.
May clutched her knees and waited. She watched Dawn weep and then considered her own heart. Nothing had changed; there was an absence where one would expect affection or longing to be. And then she felt bad again.
Her eyes scanned the room, the walls. There was no clock. She had no way to tell how much time they had left.
"All I ever wanted for you was happiness," Dawn whispered. She picked at the dry beds of her fingernails. "All I could do was hope." She lifted her eyes. Her lips trembled. "Oh, honey. We wanted you to have everything. We wanted you so badly. And I'm so, so sorry."
"Are you sorry that you stole the star or that you used it to wish for me?"
It sounded a lot colder than May intended. She meant it to be straightforward. Her birth mother's words had actually struck something inside her; she was curious.
Instead, Dawn gaped back as though May had screamed the question at her. Her mouth hung open and her eyes shone with hurt.
"No, neither. I would never..." Dawn trailed off. She shook her head and tried again. "I meant I'm sorry that I couldn't be there for you. That your father and I weren't the ones who got to raise you."
Heat rose behind May's cheeks. "Oh."
Dawn returned to her fingernails. "So, Tiio told you about the star, did she?"
"A little. What she knew, anyways, which wasn't very much." May said. Her heartbeat skipped now that they were finally getting to the heart of the matter. "Are you in here because you stole it?"
Eyes narrowing, Dawn cocked her head and regarded May in curious silence. "How much do you know about your father and I, May?"
"If you're asking if I know about your long, illustrious careers as notorious thieves, then I'd say I know enough." May couldn't help but smile, just a little. "Grant Parker and Necar Devereaux say hello, by the way."
A mix of emotions played out across Dawn's face. First came wide-eyed surprise, followed by a huffed laugh and rounded out with crestfallen acceptance. "This is exactly the kind of life I didn't want for you. We were going to keep you away from all that, and it found you anyway."
"To be fair, I kind of went looking for it," May admitted, watching as Dawn rubbed her already red eyes with her knuckles. "But if you're bringing it up, does that mean you actually got caught?"
Dawn sat up and exhaled. She seemed so tired to May, even though she'd never seen her any other way.
"On paper, I'm in here because of my... career choices. But that's not the real reason."
May nodded. "So it was the star. Did the Loyals do this to you?"
Dawn's expression dropped and the color drained from her face. Her eyes darted to the window in the door May had entered from and stayed rigidly trained on it. "May, keep your voice down."
Bull's eye.
"I don't understand." May dropped her voice to a whisper and leaned closer across the table. "If that's the reason you're locked up in here, why don't you just tell them where it is? Did you lose it?"
It was as though the very temperature in the room dropped by several degrees. Dawn's expression grew icy, and she leaned back in her chair. She gave May a wary look up and down.
"Who put you up to this?"
"What?"
"Is that the real reason you're here?" Dawn jumped up, her chair tipping back and clattered to the polished concrete floor. "I thought it was weird they'd have us meet in an interrogation room. Do they have something on you? Whose side are you on?"
With every word her voice grew louder. She spoke faster and panic filled her eyes.
"What are you talking about?" May gaped up at her.
"Oh please," Dawn spat. "They've been trying to get me to give up that star for years."
May felt her chances at getting the answer she came for slipping away. The last thing she needed was for Dawn to think she was on the Loyals' side.
"You don't understand," she begged, hands up in surrender. "I don't want the star for myself or for anyone else. I'm trying to get it back where it belongs."
"So are they."
Shit. "This isn't about the appeasing the Stars, Dawn. I'm trying to save the woman I love. I'm trying to put a stop to all this bullshit once and for all."
Dawn pulled a face. "What does your girlfriend have to do with any of this?"
"She's Starborn, Dawn."
Her words reverated around the room like a struck bell. Dawn dropped her face into her hands and shook her head in despair.
"Please," May begged. She grasped at her options, knowing full well this was her last chance. "Mom, I need your help."
A muffled sob came from behind Dawn's hands. Slowly she lifted her face and forced a smile.
It was the saddest smile May had ever seen.
"I never told the Loyals where to find that star for the same reason your father and I brought you to Hoku in the first place."
"Why?" May was practically wailing. She came around the table and reached a hand out to the woman who wished her into existence.
"To keep you safe."
Both doors slammed open at the same time. A rush of guards stormed the room from either side. Two grabbed Dawn and forced her violently to the ground, shouting for her to get down and stay there. Another two came at May from behind.
Before she could react, they seized her arms.
"Dawn!" May cried, thrashing and kicking. But she was no match for both of guards. They dragged her from the room, and maneuvered her down a hallway.
But they weren't taking her back the way they had come.
With panic pulsing through her veins, May continued to fight. She lurched from one side to the next, trying to throw the guards off balance.
"Stop!" she shouted as they lifted her off the ground. "What's happening? Why are you doing this?"
The guards didn't answer, so she kicked at them instead. Her foot connected with the thigh of the guard on her right. She heard her victim grunt, but still they didn't speak.
Then the guard on her left grunted too, even though she hadn't managed to land a kick on her yet. The guard's grip went slack and she fell forward, dropping May in the process.
Back on her feet, May pushed the hair out of her face to get a better look at the fallen guard. It was impossible to tell what had happened, but she was definitely unconscious.
"What the –"
The second guard let out a strangled noise and dropped. May gasped, suddenly standing free between two mysteriously felled guards.
She whirled around, terrified she would be next.
But instead of a would-be assailant she found the most unlikely of saviors:
Jeremy Parker.