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didn’t understand a word he was saying.
    The beast moved its muzzle to a diamond-shaped space close to Liam’s face and licked him on the cheek. Liam laughed. It felt wonderful to laugh. He hadn’t laughed since before— your first —hadn’t laughed in forever.
    “There’s no telling what the screws will do if they find you here. Probably shoot you,” Liam said, forcing his hand through the links to stroke the dog’s fur. He suddenly felt better than he had in a long time. “Thank you for the visit. If you see my Ma—”
    The hound growled.
    “Where did that monster come from?” It was Hugh.
    Liam brought his hand back through the links. He wasn’t afraid the wolfhound would bite. Somehow, he knew the dog wasn’t snarling at him.
    “Why were you talking to it?” Hugh asked, picked up a stone and threw it at the dog. It hit the fence and bounced off. He selected another, smaller. Sharper.
    “What’s it matter to you?” Liam asked, getting up from the ground. Hugh could beat the shite out of him, but Liam didn’t care. He wouldn’t have the poor lost thing tortured. Liam shivered with electric energy and narrowed his gaze, willing Hugh to forget the dog, to go the fuck away. Liam focused with all his hate.
    Hugh blinked. The fear was plain on his face as he took a step back. The dog barked.
    “Put down the rock, Hugh.”
    In a daze, Hugh dropped the stone.
    Stunned, Liam stared in disbelief. The wolfhound barked again.
    A thought occurred to Liam, and he decided to take the chance. “I’ll have my neck scarf back, you fuck.”
    Hugh pulled the brown scarf from around his neck and held it out for Liam to take. Liam wrapped himself in its warmth and felt more comfortable at once. “Now, get the fuck away from us.”
    “It’s fucking mad, you are.”
    “Aye. Sure. The dangerous sort of mad,” Liam said, “and you’ve made me all the madder.” He smiled in satisfaction as Hugh panicked and ran.
    “Thanks,” Liam said, but when he turned he found the wolfhound was gone.

Chapter 4
    Long Kesh Internment Camp
    Lisburn, County Down, Northern Ireland
    3 January 1972
    The wolfhound didn’t reappear, but Sanders did, and Liam returned to his former dread. The nightmares came back and several times he woke up screaming in the middle of the night, which didn’t endear him to the rest of the barracks. So, he stopped sleeping as much as he could, starting in fear at furtive movements in the dark. The others began to avoid him outright—Hugh having told them of the wolfhound and of being bespelled. Liam was cast from his food clique which meant he couldn’t share food parcels and was once more left to eat whatever the guards served. Rumors were whispered just out of his hearing and sometimes within it. His eyes glowed red when angered, and he growled in his sleep, the others said—proof he was possessed by a demon. That was why he didn’t go to Mass when it was offered or look in mirrors. They said he’d grown the beard only to hide the devil’s sign. In addition, a ghost was said to haunt Cage Five at night, and its howls could be heard in the wind on the other side of the hut’s tin walls. Several men moved out and into whatever accommodations could be arranged in the other huts. Hugh and Tom remained. Soon, Hugh stopped eating, fell sick with a fever and then died in the infirmary. Shortly after that, Tom was mauled by an Alsatian during a barracks inspection. The wounds quickly became infected, and he lost an eye and three fingers. About the only positive effect was that word got around that bad things happened to people who crossed Liam. When two guards were reported missing, those outside blamed the ’Ra, but those inside Cage Five suspected otherwise. A rumor surfaced that a shredded uniform sleeve was all that had been found of either man. Both were said to have beaten Liam, and soon the suspicions spread to the guards. A few prisoners knew the rumors for rubbish, Kevin being one of them,