Page 79 of Where Broken Wings Fly

“You two go ahead, I’m going to find Raegan. Do you know where he is?”

“I think back at the castle, but Olivia–”

“Thanks, Niamh.” I paused, if only to look her right in the eye. “Really, thank you.”

She had more to say. I had more to say. And for that reason alone I spun on my heel and trotted back towards the castle, determined to let nothing halt my plans.

I sprinted along the stretch of roadway between us and the castle, caring little for how my legs screamed beneath me or how my lungs filled with acid instead of air. As I ran, I saw a blur of colour on my right side. By the time I turned to face it, it had disappeared. Moments later, the blur appeared on my left side. Again, when I looked at it, it was gone. I was only a minute or two from the castle, but something made me stop. Made me look around.

Which was when I saw it. Not a blur of movement at all, but an African Grey parrot in all of his glory sitting on a nearby branch, preening at his feathers.

Greys were not native to England, not in any way, shape, or form. So I frowned at the strange bird in this strange place.

“Olivia,” it cawed, making me leap so vigorously that I was afraid for a moment I had left my skin. It wasn’t the fact that it was talking that made my heart skip a beat, only the fact that it somehow knew my name. And had followed me far enough to gain my attention.

It seemed unreasonable to try and talk to the bird, so I just stared.

It was a bird, so it just stared.

When I was finally done with our odd staring contest, I went to take a step.

“Olivia,” it called again, this time making me shriek instead of leap.

“What?”

“Follow me.”

It didn’t give me any chance to object, instead jumping from its perch and fanning its wings out, gliding a long path away from the roadway and into the depths of the woods. I glanced over my shoulder several times, somewhat expecting Killian and Shea to be playing some sort of immature prank on me. But there was no one, only the busy bodies of Choilltean hustling from one end of the kingdom to the other.

I had no choice but to push into a jog, trying my best to keep up with the blur of grey and red that dove and shot between trees, over and under canopies.

I knew the African Grey was some sort of bad omen when he led me not to something mystical or magical, but to Raegan, slumped over in the center of the forest.

His head snapped up as I approached, his eyes wide and bloodshot. “What are you doing out here?”

“What are you doing out here?” I hissed as I stopped, folding my arms over my chest. “Is this some sort of joke? Because if you’ve lured me out here just to try to get me to apologize, you can save it.”

One of his brows shot upwards as his mouth opened. But the bird cut him off.

“Quit your bickering.”

We both refocused our anger towards one another to the bird, instead. When Raegan saw him, though, he rolled his eyes and sighed as his body released a lifetime's worth of tension.

“Very funny, Urram.”

The African Grey stood proud, setting his wings back against his side as his beady eyes watched the two of us.

“U-urram? That’s you?”

To prove it without words, the bird opened his mouth and shot a small flame out of it, scorching an already dead-looking leaf next to us.

“Killian sent for me.”

“That little–”

“Killian?” I took a step nearer to Urram, examining the uniqueness of his shimmering feathers that mimicked that of his scales. “I asked him if I could see you…”

Raegan blew out some sort of rage in the form of a sigh as he let his spine fall back against the tree he had been brooding under.