Page 27 of Where Broken Wings Fly

What I wasn’t ready to admit aloud yet was that I, too, was having doubts about that.

Take-off was easier this time, my body becoming more attuned to Gaoth’s and Killian’s subtle, silent commands. We took to the air within moments, trailing behind the others as a mirage of tails swung ahead of us across the ocean breeze.

Once we stabilized in the air, Killian leaned over my shoulder. “Give her a show, Gaoth.”

Gaoth whinnied between closed lips, tucked his wings tight to his side, and began his descent down towards the water. As I started to imagine us diving deep beneath the sea, Gaoth brought his wings back out to full span and let his hooves drag along the water, leaving a sharp trail behind us as he glided.

The world looked far too small yet far too big as we soared across the surface of that body of water, Gaoth and us reflected back towards me no matter which direction I looked over his shoulders. Killian had his arms out to the sides, his nose tipped to the sky as his teeth glinted between the witnessing sun, utter ecstasy pumping through his veins just as it did mine.

Laughing along with the pixie, I copied his motions until we were just two bodies with stretched arms. Only then did Gaoth begin to angle his body, adjusting his wings until he was tipped to the side and both mine and Killian’s hands were dragging along the water instead of hooves.

Stealing a long look at the water, I swore I saw faces peering back up at me with the same glee on their face that I saw in my own reflection. They bobbed just beneath the surface, eyes of coral-purple and deep-sea-blue shining between the ripples.

“I love being up here.”

Killian let out a soft grunt as Gaoth twisted himself, returning us to the herd ahead that enviously looked on.

He nodded, his chin grazing my shoulder. “Perhaps Speur would be the place for you, then.”

I liked this. This pretending that this could be my future, the rest of my life. The avoidance of thinking that I only had twenty-nine days left before this illusion would shatter and I would return home.

Just as I thought of that, I began to compile the long list in my head of excuses and lies that I would have to conjure up to my family and my boss as to my unexplained absence. With the oncoming headache grinding at either of my temples, I shook that thought away and focused on the expanse of blue between Gaoth’s ghostly ears.

“Speur?”

“Up there.”

I turned awkwardly, one hand braced on Gaoth’s neck and the other on my thigh, to see Killian. He had one finger pointed up to the heavens, where a soft cloud started to form above us.

“There are pixies up there, too?” I gasped.

“The Gorm’Rugadh. Pixies in the clouds.” He smiled, though it was distant and not totally belonging to him. “The Kingdom of Speur.”

“Show me, one day?”

Residing in my eyes was the shadowed mourning for a life I could not live, which appeared in his eyes before he blinked it away. “Of course.”

“I want to see it all.”

“It’s a tall order, but I’ll give it my most honourable of tries,” he said just as I turned back forwards, but not before I felt his hand rest against my waist. A shiver traipsed the length of my spine, disappearing only as his hand became a constant against my side.

11

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Choilltean had set the bar far too high for me.

We finally landed amongst a meadow where the tips of the grass dominated above us, the odd petal of a flower peppered out amongst the walls of green, and the sun had full domain to blast down on our backs and set a constant stream of sweat down my spine.

But it was just that – a meadow. No glorious castle with fireflies strung over every inch, no winding paths of branches nor houses placed high into the sky or down low beneath roots. Just a meadow.

I wasn’t sure why Killian thought I would like Cluaineach more than Choilltean, so far it was nothing more than what I could see in my own backyard.

Rìoghail reared up, his front legs striking the air just as Raegan leapt down from his side. Both of his glistening wings snapped straight as he fell back down to the earth, his mighty head swinging side to side as he snorted.

“They leave us here,” Raegan announced to no one in particular. Shea, Niamh, and Killian didn’t question this statement, resorting to sliding down from their own mounts and watching as the pegasus’ collected into a large group before us.

Gaoth wasn’t gone yet and I already mourned his departure. I was left wishing I had stroked him one more time or thanked him more as he took to the sky with the other three, leaving us to watch their tails as they swished against the horizon until they were visible no more.