Page 16 of Where Broken Wings Fly

“Two, please.” He dipped his chin at her, either ignoring her flushed cheeks and batting eyelashes or completely oblivious to them. At least I wasn’t the only one that felt overly flush in the presence of him. She nodded, accepting her defeat before shuttling herself back into the hut behind us.

I wasn’t sure how to start a conversation with him, so I let the silence stretch until the cafe-pixie returned moments later and set down two steaming bowls of stew. Vegetables bobbed on the surface, but the thick chunks of dark meat within were what made my stomach growl audibly.

Killian pretended not to hear that and slid one bowl towards me, leaving the second for himself before waving the server off.

“Did you come prepared with questions?”

I managed to snap out of my state of bewilderment, leaning back in my chair. “Only about a thousand.”

He motioned for me to continue just as he started to dig into his meal.

“What is a… Saoghal?”

His eyes snapped up to me. “Where did you hear that?”

Folding my lower lip between my teeth, I tried to scrape up an excuse. “Someone was talking about it in the hallway while I waited for you.”

Awful excuse.

“Oh.” He frowned, then shrugged as he looked back at his food. “It’s the name of our plane of existence. Our world, if you will.”

“But you live in my world.”

“Do we?” He grinned, a drizzle of grease starting to escape the corner of his lips. “It’s just what we call the world we exist within.”

“Okay.” I shuffled in my chair. “What about a… ceadan?”

“Were you eavesdropping on the guards, Olivia?”

Wincing, I nodded. Thankfully, he only laughed at me.

“Ceadan is the name of the guard that exists to protect members of the monarchy. Though sometimes I believe it to be a mockery — Raegan could fight off a hundred of us and not break a sweat.”

“That!” I pointed at him. “How do you know so many… human words? You use our terms as if you have used them a thousand times before.”

To that, Killian shrugged. “Some of us come and go from your world as needed. There are a handful of us in the ceadan whose sole purpose is to learn and understand humans.”

“Like you?”

He laughed again, this time at me. “No. Niamh.”

All at once, my questions slithered out of my mind and disappeared in the midnight breeze.

Instead, I just said what came to mind. What had been nagging at my mind, burrowing deep into my thoughts until I could focus on nothing else. No one else. “Will you tell me about Raegan?”

“No.”

“No?”

“No. My Prince is off limits for discussion.” All witty charm faded from Killian’s face as he looked at me.

“But… I can’t explain it. I just don’t understand him.”

“Good,” Killian sighed, setting down his food. “Only fools think that they understand the Prince.”

“I know you said I’m not to trust anyone, but… I trust you.”

Softness returned to those darkened-jade eyes of his as he looked at me.