Page 119 of Why Broken Wings Fray

“Let her go,” he snarled, his voice a haunting depth of rage. Then, louder and more powerful, his voice carrying across all of Saoghal. “Let Olivia go or I will gut you myself.”

A roar overhead stopped short, followed by an eerie silence. The three of us took note of this, tilted our chins to the sky, and saw that Raegan’s words had reached none other than Urram.

Urram, who decided that saving me from the Rachainn who still had a blade to my throat was far more important than fighting with Gliocas for a moment longer.

Urram, who was no longer protecting himself as he tucked his wings in tight and nose-dived in the sky, prepared to flatten Brian if he didn’t alter his speed.

Gliocas came out of nowhere.

Truly, nowhere. There was no sight of the carmine beast in the sky until he was there, all at once, his fangs glistening as his mouth hinged open.

There was an overly-liquid, squirting sort of noise as he found the flesh around Urram’s throat.

There was a wretched, hollow croak as Urram’s jaw went slack and his eyes of molten silver widened.

There was a scream, coming from me, as I shoved at Brian and watched Urram shake back and forth as Gliocas ragged on his neck like a dog with a bone.

Gliocas, hissing in success, released his oldest friend.

Urram free-fell. While he did, I heard him.

One last time. His voice was old and wise, foreboding and demanding as it tunnelled through my mind. Because it was not through my ears that my caraid spoke to me but through some alternate path, some way that meant as he fell from the heavens and his wings stopped beating, his throat spitting out the last of his embers, a trail of blood pouring behind him, I got to hear him one more time.

“There will never come a time, Little, where I am not beside you.”

The agony was too much. My body shook at a vibration that should’ve separated meat from bones, as I watched helplessly.

“You and me,” he said. “For the rest of time, caraid.”

And then he was gone. The earth shook as his body hit it, the whole realm of Saoghal feeling as Urram of the Grey Skies descended upon it, as the Silver Wrath released a sorrowful, whale-like noise that shifted the skies above us.

I fell to my knees.

Everything within me tightened up, coiling and coiling and coiling, burning and burning and burning, until it was released through my body in the copious tears that streamed and the roar that ripped from me.

My caraid.

Except Urram had been more, would always be more, because it wasn’t just the bond of Saoghal’s magic that wound our souls together but love and friendship.

My lips trembled as I stared at the empty patch of sky where my caraid had fallen. Both of my hands reached for my face, clawing and scraping as if I could pull the agonizing grief from deep within me.

“You and me,” I whispered, knowing that Urram would not, could not, hear me.

54

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“Olivia,” Raegan cried out as he abandoned all care for what was going on, making the large steps until he was at my side right as I collapsed. In his arms, I went numb, lost all feeling, lost all care, as the sound of Urram’s last words and last cry reverberated my entire skull, over and over.

Rachainn were launching themselves at Raegan left and right, but he managed to keep me balanced over his knees as he elbowed at them, hitting each one square in the nose and causing them to rebound off of him. After too many of those, he switched to his fist, pounding mercilessly at the pixies all around me as I slipped into an abyss that I feared would never release me.

The few that Raegan could not handle, another did. Two others, actually. Killian on one side, grabbing pixies by the neck and knocking the lights out behind their eyes with either his own head or his fist, then tossing them aside. And behind me, I caught the occasional glimpse of purple hair as bodies fell and Rory continued to grunt over and over again.

With bloodied-fists and a split brow, Raegan allowed Killian and Rory to take over keeping the Rachainn at bay, and focused solely on me as he pushed some of my hair out of my face.

“You will survive this,” he said sternly, not only to convince me but to convince himself. “Let’s get you out of here.”

I didn’t want to leave. Not knowing that Urram’s body was out there, somewhere, mangled and destroyed and alone. He didn’t deserve to be alone, even once he was long gone, even as he stepped into Mag Mell and left me for good.