Page 116 of Why Broken Wings Fray

I mimed zipping my mouth and throwing away the key.

I wished I could retract my hatred and anger at Rory for only the rest of the day, because he stepped up to my side and squared his shoulders, nodding down at me. I was still rattling with fear and all I needed was a friend–

Killian took to my other side, his chin higher and his body stiffer than Rory’s. I knew, deep down, that Killian was terrified of the decision he had made, of the severing of every tie between him and his family and his friends, yet he managed to look strong, to look unwavering, at my side. And for that, I would forever be thankful.

If our story was to end today, it would end as it began – side by side.

Ten minutes later, we breached the highest hill of Cluaineach and looked down across the villages. The sun, hovering somewhere on its downward descent, bled a blanket of golden power across the world and left little to no shadows around us.

That was when I saw Raegan. That was when we all saw Raegan.

Down the hill, atop Rìoghail, the golden stallion positively glistening beneath the sun that lived and breathed for the two of them.

But at their side was the true indicator as to how Raegan believed this interaction would play out. Because Gliocas, normally a cherry-red Red Macaw with a tail of rainbows, was no more. He took to his true form, to the towering mass of carmine and scarlet, hide thick and scales shimmering.

Urram took to the skies and shifted, a silver menace slamming down next to us just as we began the slow, cautious walk into Raegan’s domain.

52

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I was not overly well-versed in the ways of politics and general warfare, but the way that we simply walked towards Raegan and he walked towards us seemed far too safe and far too easy. There was, of course, an entire army at his back. Pixies of Cluaineach with their hair of the meadows and their wings on full show, each sporting a variety of weaponry from basic blades to full long-bows and everything in between.

At least he was prepared.

He dismounted.

I stared at him and he stared at me. Neither of us blinked off of the other as we advanced, our strides matched, our feet falling in the same pattern. I did not want to remember him this way, his body adorned in leathers and his forehead pulsing a vein that I knew was tempered by the events of the day.

But mostly, I didn’t want to remember him looking at me the way he was. Because it was not excitement to see me again nor tension from the way of our meeting, but disappointment. The disappointment wasn’t because of who I travelled with but the fact that I had returned.

I could imagine him, if he could pull me aside and whisper to me. I could hear the words he would usher, the quiet plea to turn and run before this blew up the way it seemed like it was going to blow up. That silent imagination of his words did the opposite, though – I started walking faster towards him, speeding up the army at my back.

He did the same.

I wanted to run. Faster than my legs could carry me. Faster than Urram’s wings could beat. Just to him and into him, to whisk us away from it all and disappear amongst the magic of Saoghal once and for all.

Except that was the problem, wasn’t it? No matter what Raegan and I did, no matter what we wanted, we would damn Saoghal. I understood, all too well, how he felt the division between what he wanted and what was right for his people. Because as I strode down that hill, each rhythmic thud of our boots beating a new fate into Saoghal, I realized that I was just as torn between the two. Between him and the life we had dreamt of, and the world that I loved more than life itself.

Like him, I knew the day would come where I had to choose. I just hadn’t expected it would be this day.

~

We stopped and they stopped.

Urram was a whole different creature to the dragon I had once known. All of his scales were lifted, the mane of leather along his neck erect and fanned just as he angled his head to reveal his horns to his old friend across from him. They both took a similar stance – rounding their back and lifting their shoulders high, hardly balancing on the winged forelimbs and instead relying on the powerful muscles of their hind ends.

Yet again, kin was turning on kin. Friends were turning on friends. And lovers…

I swallowed as I watched Raegan’s eyes tighten, his glare unapologetically on me and no one else. I saw the pleading, the thousands of words he wanted to use to chase me out, but just as he had made his decision, I had made mine. I would not leave him now, not in the hour of his greatest need, when all that he knew was being turned against him.

His eyes shifted, for only a second, to the body at my side. One of his nostrils scrunched, his face twisting into fury, before he blinked off of Killian and found me, again.

“Raegan Righ’Faiche’Fiodh’Rugadh,” Brian began, stepping forward and placing himself between Rory and I.

I had forgotten about Rory, but now that he was apart from me and Brian took his place, I dared a glance at the purple-haired pixie. Only to see him staring beyond Raegan – not to just anybody, but to his pink counterpart. Aisling, tears in her eyes as she blinked in disbelief not at him but at me. Next to her, Shea, whose face had become a weapon and any shred of our existing friendship went up in dust.

Everything was falling apart. In the most catastrophic of ways. In a way, as Raegan and I found one another’s eyes again, we both knew that it had always threatened to come to this.