Page 10 of Why Broken Wings Fray

“Don’t do that. Don’t make me into some sort of living martyr for your cause. I am curious, that is all.”

He smirked at me as I frowned, then motioned for us to begin walking. I would never quite understand how the pixies were able to navigate a world so large, especially when we were surrounded by nothing other than stretching blades of grass.

“I never sympathized with the Rachainn,” he began, treading carefully in front of me and checking over his shoulder every few seconds to assure I was upright. “Until Diarmuid sent me into the human town one day to investigate a disturbance. Fairies, they thought. Not uncommon, especially on the far border of Cluaineach where the fairies stumble through the human world.”

I hadn’t been able to relax my frown, even more so as he spoke about the fairies. I couldn’t help but wonder if I had ever seen any, yet had no idea. I didn’t even know what they looked like.

“It was the day after the attack on Uisge, the day after the attack on the dragon's den. Aisling and I had just returned home from the Beltane Ball, and I hadn’t even had a chance to settle back home before Diarmuid had me pursuing the fairies.”

Aisling. I wanted to ask him where she was, if she knew about what he was doing. Especially because they seemed to be inseparable. But I didn’t want to interrupt him and lose the opportunity of some answers.

“It wasn’t fairies causing a disturbance, but some of the Rachainn who had been exiled from Saoghal. And it wasn’t a disturbance, just a bar-fight-gone-wrong that involved a—” Rory paused to let out a big laugh, “—just a young pixie female who decided to submerge a drunken patron in water.”

His face had changed. It was light and soft, his eyes bright and alert. And that laugh – it melted into a smile on his face as he shook his head a few times.

“I looked at her, this threat that I was supposed to deal with, and I knew, Olivia.” He stopped walking, turning to face me instead with so much joy on his face. “I just knew.”

“You knew what?” I whispered, though I wasn’t sure why. It was as if making a loud noise could shatter this bubble of happiness around Rory, who I didn’t realize could be more happy than the pixie I had met all those months ago.

“She was my mate. I looked at her and it just… It nearly suffocated me. I fell to the floor, and my chest – it was like it was being crushed, only for her presence to breathe life back into it. Into me. It was… It was like a death and a rebirth in the span of ten seconds.”

I was smiling. I didn’t want to smile, not with how furious I was at him. But I was smiling because how could someone listen to such a description and not smile? What was life, if not for living for that?

“She’s a spitfire, Olivia. She really is. I can’t wait for you two to meet.”

Rory was back again, living in this freeze-frame as if we had never snapped into a place of enemies. Like we were still friends, offering me that sharp smile that he had always offered me.

“You joined the Rachainn just because she was one?”

He shook his head several times. “No. Not at all. I joined the Rachainn because even if I had been capable of convincing her to come back to Saoghal – and trust me, there’s no convincing Maeve to do anything – we could never have been together.”

“She is from Uisge,” I sighed.

“Yes.” That humour melted off of his face as his features darkened. “The thought of being torn from her…” His fists clenched at his side before he let out a deep breath. “Nothing exists for me in this world outside of her, now. You have to understand that. How was I supposed to simply… let her go? Why would Cernunnos pair us if we were not supposed to be together? And it was then, right at that moment, that I doubted all the rules I had stood by.”

I nodded at him, once and then twice, before I let my eyes fall to the floor.

For a long while after learning of the Rachainn, I had my doubts about what side I stood on, torn between understanding my friends, their culture, their ways, and understanding the desire for change within Saoghal. But hearing that – hearing him describe his whole lifeline being a pixie from another kingdom, bound to love one another by the gods themselves – it was harder than ever to understand why Saoghal kept such strict rules.

~

After walking in utter silence, Rory twisted his hair over his shoulder and finally stopped. “We’re here.”

The scenery around me had hardly changed for over an hour. We were still bordered on all sides by thick strands of grass that Rory continuously pushed through. The sky was still witnessing it all above, a mirage of blues that were further assisted by that overpowering sun in the midst of winter.

“I can’t…” Rory shook his head a few times, a moisture in those amethyst eyes. “I can’t cross the border.”

“Magic?”

“No,” he shot me a knowing look, a sorrowful smile on his face. “I just… I can’t. I don’t want to return home – not until it can be a home for both Maeve and I.”

Pity drove me to take Rory’s hand in mine, squeezing ever so slightly. “I can go on alone.”

He pulled the pack from his back, a tattered fabric-thing that looked like it had joined him for several pub-crawls. From it, he retrieved a shrunken human water-bottle, plastic and all, that was filled with that familiar pink juice.

“Drink it slowly, Olivia.” He glanced around, his eyes scanning our surroundings several times before he looked back at me. “We will aim to meet here tomorrow, when the sun sits in the same position in the sky.” I looked up, only to be interrupted from doing so by Rory grabbing my shoulder. “Be safe. Come back here tomorrow, regardless of what happens.”

Nodding, I went to turn away.