Page 76 of Where Broken Wings Fly

I crawled across the carpet of green that was the elm leaf Niamh sat on, perching myself at her side as we looked across the ocean. The sun was viscous above us, bringing down a heat that would never reach the ground of Choilltean but was content burning at the tops of their trees.

“What’s that?” My eyes caught on something just to the side of the sea, near the barn that I had already visited several times. It was a large, vast patch of dark objects collecting on the sea-shore, crossing into the woodlands slowly but surely.

“Ah.” Niamh sighed, following the line from my finger to the source. “Preparations, I think.”

“Preparations for what?”

“For–”

“Don’t, Niamh,” Shea growled.

But Niamh ignored Shea. “For the battle, of course.”

I tipped my head upwards, catching Shea’s eyes from where she lay across her leaf, her head dangling towards us. “Why can’t she speak about it?”

“She can, just not to you.”

“Raegan.” I shook my head, sending him a silent slew of curses in my head.

Niamh placed a soft hand on top of mine, squeezing ever so slightly. “What you said to him… that was harsh.”

“And untrue,” Shea added.

My spine snapped straight as I alternated a glare to each of them. “He told you?”

“He didn’t have to. The whole castle heard your argument.” Niamh swung some of her dark hair over her shoulder, looking back out to the sea. “Tell her, Shea.”

“No.”

“Tell me what?”

“She’s not going to let it go until you tell her.”

“She’s right, I won’t.” For extra measure, I crossed my arms over my chest. “Tell me what?”

Silence stretched between the three of us, the absence of noise so damning I was prepared to take to the trunk of the tree just to reach Shea and shake some sense into her. Just as I started to move towards it, she sighed.

She let out three more sighs before she started. “When Killian and Raegan found the Rachainn that day on the tanker, he had been shredded and picked apart. They’re not sure if it was by the hand of one of those from Uisge, or if it had been an animal of sorts. My bet is on a hawk—”

“Shea!”

“Sorry. Anyway, Raegan got him back to the castle. The same healers that tended to you, tended to the Rachainn.”

“Raegan didn’t torture Eoghan?” I let out a much needed breath, one that I had been holding since I saw Eoghan die.

They both shook their heads.

“Why didn’t he just tell me that?”

Niamh let out a little giggle. “When it comes to the Prince, it’s best not to try and understand his actions.”

“He still made a spectacle of his death,” I grumbled, turning away from the two of them and looking out at the very ocean that had sealed the Rachainn’s demise.

“No one said he was perfect.” Shea shrugged.

Letting that sink in, the three of us returned to staring at the vastness that was the world beyond Saoghal. The docks off to the north, home to vessels belonging to the humans who docked and undocked as the minutes ticked by. The small specks on the horizon that signified the beginning of homes and businesses. The string of dark clouds against that very horizon, not completely natural but there nonetheless.

~