Page 112 of Why Broken Wings Fray

I was halfway down the cellar stairs when I heard voices – Rory and Brian, accompanied by others that I had yet to meet but carried the raw wilderness of the pixies within the tone.

I didn’t care. With Urram’s talons tight around my shoulder, I thundered down those stairs and cared very little for how loud my footsteps were.

When I levelled out on the dug-out floor, the first thing I saw was a long curtain of purple hair followed by two matching eyes that snapped up towards me. I wasn’t sure how Rory was going to react to seeing me again, especially after impaling him with a small iron toothpick, but I should have suspected it would have been exactly as it was.

His lips peeled upwards as a large grin spread from ear-to-ear, and then Rory was charging towards me with his arms wide open.

“Olivia! Oh, you fool, I was sure you were going to be–”

He was only a second away from wrapping his arms around me in a bear-hug when I pulled my fist back and felt his nose crack beneath my punch.

With his hand thrown up over his bleeding nose, it was a task to understand his next statement. “Yeah, okay, I deserved that–”

Another punch to his gut, forcing him to curl over and convulse with a cough.

“And that,” he groaned.

Shaking out my aching hand, trying to hold a steady face as my knuckles threatened to disintegrate, I whirled my full attention to his healing body. “Whose idea was it?”

“What–”

“I know you were only following orders, Rory. I choose to believe that you were doing what you thought was right. But I do not believe you came up with that plan. I do not believe you were malicious enough to dream up such an idea.”

He was about to object once more, but his eyes shifted a hair or two. No longer looking at my face, but sliding over my shoulder to whomever stood behind me. I already knew who was behind me.

Brian could not stop the flying fist that soared his way. The whole cellar grew deathly silent as my knuckles cracked against his nose, immediately freeing a stream of hot blood down his face.

He roared out, moving his hand for the dagger on his waist, but I moved quicker. I punched again, once across his cheek as I tried my best to ignore just how much pain it was causing me. Then a second, while he was recovering from the twisting momentum of the last hit, to his groin.

I wasn’t sure what, exactly, I was going to do when he returned upright, a hand gripped tight around his dagger and murder in his eyes as he moved towards me. I was starting to consider releasing Urram on him, when Rory suddenly leapt in front of me.

“Do not touch her,” he snarled, a creature of the wild once more as his teeth bared and sharp fangs were revealed to all. “We wronged her, several times. Find respect in her desire to return the favour and leave it at that.”

Brian’s eyes pinched as he continued to snarl at me, showing no such behaviour.

“You touch a single hair on her head and I will knock yours from your shoulders,” Rory bellowed as he pulled his own blade, preparing it out in front of him as he continued his rabid noises.

Their animalistic nature had never been so apparent as they were in this moment, as Brian let out a low whimper and hung his head, sheathing his blade once more and turning away from the two of us.

“I don’t forgive you. I won’t ever forgive you, Rory,” I spat as Rory turned to face me, a fresh bruise forming beneath his eyes already as he quirked the corner of his lip up.

“I believe that,” he said. “But gods, Olivia. I am thrilled to see you alive.”

I said nothing. Made no attempt to change my face. I only stared at him, ignoring Urram who was preening himself.

I was glad for the sudden distraction that was a tremendous commotion in the direction of the stairs behind me, followed by a series of grunts, growls, and otherwise unnatural noises.

Then, from a voice I would never forget, that filled my heart with such warmth, there was a roar, “Unhand me, wretched amadán, or find yourself relieved of the appendage!”

Killian.

50

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“Killian!” I cried out as I pushed away from Rory, arriving at the base of the stairs just as those familiar dark eyes appeared in the room.

“Olivia,” he wailed as relief washed over his face. The sight of me restored a ferocity to him, ripping himself completely free of the Rachainn who held him so firmly. He was moving towards me, earnest and desperate as his arms reached out and I flung myself into them.