Page 24 of Where Broken Wings Fly

Together, they were two princes let loose amongst the world.

10

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We flew until my head felt heavy, until my chin pressed against my chest, until Killian wrapped two arms around me and stopped my quick descent down towards the earth.

“Hold on,” he whispered as he leant forward, pushing both of our bodies low until we were laying across Gaoth’s neck. I should have known what was coming, but I still screamed as Gaoth dropped his weight forward, his wings snapping to his side as he let gravity drag us down towards the ground at a questionable speed.

When we were moments from becoming splattered mist across the sandy-shore, Gaoth released his wings from his side, tilted them, and guided our landing towards the rushing waves that lapped up the side of the beach.

As I toppled off of his side, I released a mouthful of puke onto the grains beneath me.

“You did good,” Niamh beamed as she patted me on the back, forcing another ball of vomit to slide up my throat and burst from my lips before I could stop it.

“I’ve seen worse for first-timers,” Shea grumbled, disdain lacing her words that appeared to be as natural as breathing for her. I managed a meek smile and tossed two thumbs up into the air, just as Raegan and Killian swung down from their mounts.

We were on the sea-shore, several hundred metres from the walkway that I had used to gain access to St. Michael’s Mount only a day prior. Yet instead of being the same size as the people now walking across the slippery stones, I was no bigger than a large stone placed amongst the granules before the water.

Nodding towards the humans, I turned to Killian. “They won’t see us?”

“You humans have this phenomenal ability to very rarely care about anything beneath your own noses,” Raegan spat as he adjusted the leather chest-plate across his front. “We’ve appeared far more obviously before them, yet they cannot think about anything other than themselves for long enough to notice.”

“Easy, Raegan.” Niamh patted the Prince on the shoulder. “One of these days, you’ll let me take you amongst them so you can see what plagues their minds.”

He only rolled his eyes as he turned back towards Rìoghail and stroked his mane.

“You’ve spent a lot of time in our world?” I asked her, finally feeling brave enough to speak to someone other than Killian.

Niamh nodded towards Killian, “Where else would I get Mr. Fussy’s favourite food?”

Killian scowled at her as I chuckled. “What’s his favourite food?”

“Maple Syrup. Puts it on everything. And I mean everything,” Niamh beamed. “But to answer your question — yes, I have. Purely business, though.”

“Yeah, right,” Shea scoffed as she made to change one of the dark-red braids that hung around her face.

~

Crashing waves caused me to jolt as I spun to face them, the mere height of the quickly-moving water making me gasp. Spraying droplets from the collisions rained down on us like pieces of wrathful hail, forcing me to jump to the side and out of their way.

“Now what?” I asked Killian as he finished mumbling to Gaoth.

“Now, we wait.”

The others seemed to understand what that meant, each of them taking to the sand, letting the heat of it burn at their legs as they sat out of the wet-zone.

I found my place at Killian’s side, pulling my knees up to my chest and resting my chin on them. The only one who was still standing, pacing left-to-right, was Raegan as he chatted away to Rìoghail.

“What’s his deal?” muttering, I leant closer to Killian. He lifted his eyes to assess Raegan, took a deep breath, and twisted to face me.

“He doesn’t want to do this.”

“Obviously.”

Killian tried for one of his signature grins, but it didn’t quite meet his eyes.

“Why not?”