Page 93 of Where Broken Wings Fly

She fell against his chest a second time, hugging him tight enough to likely tear her injury further. “I never thought I’d see you again.”

The crack in her voice cracked me, too. Because she meant it.

I grabbed onto Killian’s shoulder and yanked him away from her, stealing her hug for myself as I braced her weight against me. “I’m so, so sorry Niamh. You never would have—”

“Oh, be quiet—” She smiled, tears trailing her cheek as she looked at me. “—I’d do it again. I’d do it every time.”

I finally cried, too. Because she meant that, as well.

The last to join us was Raegan.

He sauntered towards us like he had not just won a battle but like he had a successful night at a bar. Niamh met him halfway, crashing into him like a bowling ball to pins that had him cackling and hugging her, tight enough that I nearly stepped forward to warn him of her bandaging.

Then it was Shea, not a hug but two curt nods between the two of them and mischief in their eyes that spoke louder than any words ever would.

At last, Killian stood proudly in front of his Prince, one hand over his heart before he bowed. Raegan rolled his eyes and muttered something which had Killian toppling over not from a bow but from laughter, before the two of them wrapped one another up in that brutish hug of theirs. But even that hug lasted longer than it normally did.

When Raegan finished with his ceadan, his eyes fell on me.

There was something behind those eyes. Something confusing and enchanting, something that made my stomach churn in two different ways, something that made my knees wobble.

He walked towards me, stopping a few feet away and assessing me toe-to-hairline. Only then did he release a breath, but something remained tight in him. Something remained wound and he showed no sign of letting it go.

“I would like a moment to speak with you.”

It was spoken like a statement, but somehow it was a question. So I nodded.

Killian, Shea, Niamh, Raegan, and I all walked, slowly and quietly, back towards the castle. It was there that I assumed Raegan would say what he needed to say, which was only confirmed as his jaw tightened and released, over and over the whole walk back.

~

By the time we stepped over the threshold, not a lot of other pixies had made it back just yet. We were among some of the first, crossing through those two front doors and beginning a trek down the hallway towards the staircase.

With every step we took, voices grew louder and more powerful, nearly shaking the walls around us as whispering turned to discussion which turned to shouting. We turned the next corner, almost to the staircase, only to see a sizeable gathering at the throne room doors.

“What’s going on?” I asked no one in particular.

Raegan snapped back, his whole body a straight line as his pace picked up not towards the staircase, but to the throne room. One glance to Killian suggested that we would follow, the four of us nearly jogging to keep up with Raegan’s long paces.

Raegan pushed and shoved through the mumbling group at the doors, clearing a semi-passable path for us to follow him through.

Once in the throne room, the center of the commotion was apparent almost immediately. Five or six pixies were all huddled around something in the midst of the room, several feet away from the throne itself. They all looked down at whatever it was, one hand over their mouths and their faces as pale as sheets.

Raegan had hit the end of his short tether, apparently. “What is i—”

His words were cut off by his own tight gasp as the group parted, revealing what was capable of stirring up the castle.

Raegan said nothing, gave us no inclination as to what was going on, only dropped to his knees and hung his head. Only once he had resorted to that position and his height was no longer hindering our vision, did I see what was happening.

There’s an old saying. Lose the battle, win the war.

As I looked at the body on the throne room floor, I wasn’t sure whether we had lost or won, nor did I know if yesterday's fight had been the battle or the war.

Because amongst it all, while the majority of the kingdom had been away fighting, another ploy had been in motion all along.

While the people of Choilltean fought for Saoghal, the Rachainn had killed the King of Choilltean.

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