Page 75 of Where Broken Wings Fly

Lifting a finger, I poked his chest. “He might have been a monster. But then what would that make the one who let him slowly bleed to death in the midst of a conversation that planned the slaughter of his people?”

I wasn’t sure that my point even made sense, but I had said what I wanted to say. So I moved away from Raegan and slammed my bedroom door several feet away, leaving the Prince to linger in the hallway with an absent look on his face.

27

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Killian collected me from my room a day and a half later, the first morning that I rose without a tight tension across my entire body. The first day that I was me again.

“What would you like to do today?” he asked, his voice aimed to sound excited, but the darkness beneath his eyes speaking louder.

“I want to go and see Urram.”

Killian stopped in his path, where we had strolled several minutes beyond the doors of the castle. “What?”

“Urram. I wish to speak with him.”

Frowning, Killian continued his walk. Not towards the village, nor the barn, but in a direction we had yet to travel — deeper into the forest.

“We can’t. The kingdoms are on lockdown. It would be a miracle if we could make it out of Choilltean, and even then we are likely to be shot down flying over Uisge.”

“Lockdown? Until when?”

He pushed his hands deep into his pockets as he looked up to the canopied sky. “Until the battle is over, I guess.”

I had a response prepared to that, but two familiar faces stepped out from behind trees along our path, Niamh and Shea beaming sly grins in our direction.

“Ladies—” Killian mocked a bow to them, earning him two eye rolls and a tight-lipped smile from myself.

“We’ve come to steal Olivia,” Niamh declared, Shea nodding along at her side. Killian cocked a brow as he looked down his side at me.

“I didn’t plan this!” I laughed, stepping forward between the three of them. “Where are we going?”

“Somewhere that the ever-lasting reek of male hormones can’t follow us,” Shea said, shooting a sharp glare at Killian who threw his hands up in defeat.

He finally dropped his hands, turning to me. “If you want to go with them, then go.”

I had been looking forward to spending the day with him, but the thought of spending it with Niamh and Shea was far too intriguing to let pass. So with a childish grin I patted Killian on the back, letting Niamh and Shea lead me deeper into the forest.

~

Quite possibly the most useless fact I learned while in Saoghal was that it took the pixies an hour to scale the full height of the elms. It took a human, shrunken down to the size of a pixie, two hours and three breakdowns, not to mention the numerous splinters and handful of hair that got caught on a branch and I had to cut free.

“Why–why are we up here?” My mind was caught between fighting for breath and speaking, but as I finally caught up to them at the very tip of the tree, I let myself ask the question.

“For the view, of course.” Niamh grinned from where she sat, perfectly placed on a large leaf overlooking the ocean beyond Choilltean.

“O-okay,” I huffed, “let me reword that. Why am I here? I was under the impression Shea had a strong dislike for me.”

Shea gasped as she found her position on the leaf above Niamh’s, watching me as I clung to the trunk.

“Shea doesn’t dislike you.”

“On the contrary.” Shea wasn’t doing herself any favours by the way she glared at me. “Of all the females Killian has taken a liking to, I dislike you the least.”

“Thanks… I think?”

I wasn’t going to dare touch on the topic of Killian while the two of them watched me like they were hawks and I was a field mouse.