Page 57 of Where Broken Wings Fly

“Olivia?” Raegan called out, making Niamh, Shea, and Killian all turn and frown at me. I only shrugged at them, wondering what he could possibly want with me. “Come, please. It’s Gliocas.”

His voice was shaky and hollow, which was the only reason I sprinted away from the others before I could offer them an explanation.

Deep in the back of the shadowed cave, illuminated only by a single flickering flame at the tip of his finger, was Raegan. His eyes shot towards me, a panic in them that did not belong to a prince.

I ran towards him, slamming to a stop and dropping down to my knees so I was at his side. “What is it?”

He looked back to what was before him. Gliocas, sprawled out on the floor of the cave, breathing slow and laboured with raspy attempts that stretched at his ribs.

“Little,” I heard from behind me, a guttural purr that belonged to none other than Urram. Swinging my chin over my shoulder, I saw his familiar moon-lit eyes peering down at Raegan and I from the height of the cave.

Feeling both better and worse at his sudden appearance, I turned back to Gliocas whose nostrils had begun to whine.

“Is he hurt?” I whispered to Raegan, who nodded his head. He lifted his other hand, which I saw was dripping with blood from where he had tried to press against the dragon's wound.

“A sword,” Raegan began, using his finger to point out the beginning of the ravenous gash that started at the dragon’s soft, fleshy skin beneath his wing. “It swiped, starting here and ending there.”

It was at least as long as the full span on my arms from finger-to-finger.

I shouldn’t have, but I gasped. He was bleeding out, and fast. That was only further proved as Gliocas’ eyes fell shut and his body went limp in front of us.

“He’s going to die,” Raegan said, to no one in particular.

“Yes,” I sighed, looking around the cave desperately. “Unless…”

“Unless what, Olivia?”

I turned to see tears lining the Prince of Choilltean’s eyes.

Whispering a curse to myself, I continued to scan the cave. “We need to stop the bleeding, first. But I don’t have any of my tools.”

“What do you need?”

What didn’t I need? I needed the clinic and a clear mind to work on a creature a hundred-times larger than the cats and dogs I normally worked on.

And I needed to stop my hands from shaking. It was one thought, one small thought, that brought a calm to me at last.

I had asked myself, over and over, why I was in Saoghal. Maybe it had been to show me the light that I had given up chasing years ago, or maybe it was for this. Maybe it was to be given the opportunity to save the already broken heart of a Prince.

So I let out one last shaking breath, squared my shoulders, and looked at Raegan. “I don’t have many options, but we need to stop this bleeding and we need to stop it quickly. Your flame – can you… Can you press it on his wound?”

Urram growled at the sound of that, but I chose to ignore him.

Raegan looked hesitant.

“We need to close as many of the vessels as we can before he bleeds out, Raegan.”

While the Prince contemplated this, I shot my voice towards the cave-entrance. “Do any of these fields have poppy?”

Niamh, quieter than usual, responded. “I think so!”

“Get as much as you can, now.”

The faint patter of boots on stone rang out before it was followed with the heavy beating of wings.

Raegan still hadn’t begun to burn Gliocas’ wound. His hand trembled where it hovered over Gliocas’ body. I set mine over top of it and squeezed. “Raegan, please.”

His eyes met mine and heat erupted in the small contact between our skin. I pulled away just as flames wrapped around his fingers, where he finally set them against Gliocas.