Page 13 of Why Broken Wings Fray

That lasted another thirty minutes. Back to the wall, staring at the stone and trying to decipher little images out of the cracks and stains.

One hour of that.

With a sigh, rotating my body until my back was against that stone, I slipped down and cared little for how far the mulch sank as I sat in it. Hope was fluttering in my chest, hope for the possibility that Urram – any minute now – would acknowledge that I wasn’t home from work.

As I sat there, playing with some sprouted weeds in the corner of the cell, I tried to plot out how long it would take Urram to find me.

Ten minutes to fly to the clinic. Five minutes to realize I wasn’t there. Perhaps an hour, maybe two, to track my scent down to that pub. Five minutes for an outrage that I was with pixies – and Rachainn, of all possibilities. A few more minutes for that to blossom into a literal explosive display. Then another thirty minutes to track me to Cluaineach.

A few more hours. That’s all I had to endure.

So I rocked my head back, shut my eyes, and let sleep find me deep in the murky shadows of Saoghal.

~

I woke to raised voices. It felt like only hours had passed, yet the sconce that I had stared at for several minutes prior to my sleep had disappeared completely, now replaced with a new wax already well into its own cycle of melting.

Rubbing at two sore eyes, I pushed up to my feet and cocked my head in an attempt to listen to the voices.

“–this is outrageous! Unhand me, now–”

“Quit your bickering,” a low voice snapped, followed by the faint scuffling of bodies that suggested someone had been pushed. “If you expect a meal over the next two weeks, I suggest you keep the shouting to a minimum.”

A final shove, a thud as the prisoner hit the mulch, and then the low groan of a heavy gate.

The prisoner, who now resided in the cell next to mine, ushered a sharp word beneath his breath that I could only assume was a curse. Then, like me, he pushed his way through the thick muck until his back was against the wall.

Pity and boredom had my mouth opening in preparation to speak to said prisoner, until more voices carried down the length of the dungeon hall. I slammed my mouth shut and angled my head once more.

I didn’t have to guess that this next prisoner was swearing – the tone and hissed-like way that he was cursing at one of the guards was evidence enough. After an onslaught of serpent-like words, none of which I understood, even I shivered and took a small step away from the bars.

“Utter a single one of those words in my King’s castle again, and your tongue shall be fastened to a necklace for you to wear,” someone snapped back.

But that voice.

I’d know that voice in any lifetime.

I shot forward, nearly stumbling on some solid thing amongst all of the mud, and slid my way towards the bars. Pressing my cheek against them with all of my might, as if I might slip my head between the clay-like surfaces, I squinted against the flickering torch light and tried to find him amongst the small group of guards that were pressing forward down the aisle-way.

“Put him in the fourth one there,” he said, then went to turn around and retreat.

With everything that was left in me, I called out, “Killian!”

One of the bodies halted, their backs to me and their heads hanging. Then slowly, painfully slowly, Killian rotated his body. I couldn’t see a single part of his face or his body, but I knew it was him. From the way he carried himself to the gravelly tone of his voice, then in the way he charged towards my cell without thinking.

He gasped as he slammed to a stop in front of me. “It cannot be. Olivia?”

I nodded several times, not able to contain the tears that were suddenly streaming down my face.

His eyes roved over me several times, shifting from my feet to my head, my left arm to my right. “I don’t… What are you… Why…” His gaze slid to the cell itself, checking every inch of it as if looking for a reason for me to be there.

“Killian,” I mumbled, those tears falling faster as I flattened myself against the bars once more. Reaching a hand between them, I was only seconds away from being able to touch him once more, when one of the guards bellowed from afar.

“DRAGON!”

It took me far too long to understand what was happening.

First, it was Killian in front of me. A certain sort of heartbreak in his eyes as he looked at me, as his focus quickly moved to that of my cell door and his hand reached for it without question. When his fellow guard roared out, though, Killian’s face shifted into something else. Something not quite Killian, because it was laced with fear.