Page 36 of Where Broken Wings Fly

Instead, the corner of his lips twisted upwards. “Would you believe me if I said I was lonely?”

“No.”

“Then I shall say nothing.” As some of his hair tickled at the side of his face, he pushed it back and tucked the strays behind his ears. Learning from the dinner a few nights ago, I forced my eyes away from the mutilated ends and looked down at our moving feet, instead.

It was then that I realized just how truly alive I felt. Envy pushed its way into my being – was this how most people felt everyday? Did others wake up with this energy thrumming through their body without the assistance of medications or countless hours with professionals?

Silence warped those feelings. Took the pure innocence of happiness and twisted it into jealousy and spite. I couldn’t stand the silence any longer.

“Do the others know?”

Raegan hummed to himself, convincing me yet again that he wasn’t going to answer. But he did. “Know what?”

“About your secret life.” I accentuated the response with showy hands as I chuckled, finding a lightness in the conversation. Apparently, Raegan did not feel the same way. His face contorted until it was the stern, cold mask that I had seen back in Choilltean.

“That’s not fair, Raegan.”

He huffed as his legs resumed his normal pace, forcing me to skip along just to keep up.

“You can’t just say nothing about it. It’s not fair.”

Slamming to a stop, Raegan spun until he was an immovable mass in front of me. The last time he had stood so closely to me was when he had threatened my ears for eavesdropping, and I had forgotten just how large the Prince was.

“Who are you to tell me what I can and cannot do?”

“No one, but–”

“That’s right,” he spat. “No one.”

Floating along most of my life, I hadn’t felt anger in quite some time. But at his abrupt tone and his attempt at physical intimidation, it surfaced on my tongue and lashed out at him. “I think what you are doing is cruel.”

He tipped his head, the slant to his neck more menacing as ever as his nose scrunched. “Do you honestly think I care what you think?”

“Yes,” I growled. “Yes, I do. I think you care what everyone thinks. Isn’t that why you prowl around your kingdom like you’re in desperate need of something being removed from your behind–”

“Watch it.” Raegan moved quickly, his moves as fluid as water as he pulled a blade from a hidden sheath within his chest-plate. He placed it out between us, laying it along the line of his arm where he peered down the shimmering metal at me. “You will watch how you speak to me.”

I folded my arms over my chest as I frowned at his weapon, the tip of it inches away from my bobbing throat. “You promised Killian you would protect me.”

“From others.” As if he meant to further prove his point, he placed the tip of that dagger at my chin and tilted my head up towards him. There was a wicked hunger in his eyes that I chose to ignore.

“Is this the type of prince you are, Raegan? One who refuses to be questioned, one who believes he is so right and the world is so wrong?”

Raegan’s jaw feathered, his grip firm on the dagger.

“I pity you. Being a coward is no easy thing.”

Conflict birthed a war behind his eyes, his face twisting as each of his muscles tensed against the insult. But something won out beneath the sudden temper, something gentle and soft like the very meadow that we stood in. He looked like he was born to it more than ever as the satin-appearance of his hair blended with the beams of sunlight behind him, his vibrant eyes melting into the grass surrounding us. The darkness behind his face was Choilltean, but the brilliance of his body was Cluaineach.

His hold on his dagger slackened ever so slightly. “You think I am a coward?”

“Why else do you taunt the people of Cluaineach? Why else let them continue to believe you to be their heir, even though you and I both know that you have no plans to be? It’s cruel, what you are doing to them.”

With defeat etched into the creases of his face, he lowered his arm and let the dagger rest against his leg. “No one speaks to me this way.”

Bitter laughter snaked out before I could stop it. “Maybe because you threaten to silence them when they try.”

After sliding his blade back behind his chest-plate, he copied my crossed arms over his chest. “You speak cold, hard truths, human.”