Page 34 of Why Broken Wings Fray

He laughed bitterly, but there was some hesitation in his face. “Not at all. Of course I don’t. It just so happened that your arrival lined up far too well with the events of the Rachainn and all that occurred after that.”

Frowning, I glared at the back of Ciara’s head who was being scolded by Shea. And by scolded: Shea had a handful of Ciara’s hair wrapped around her fist that she continuously yanked and brought forth shouts of agony.

“No one can control Raegan, therefore no one is responsible for the downfall that has followed in his decision. And it’s not like you would ever work with the Rachainn,” Killian said, following up his strong stance with another bout of laughter. Even the other pixies laughed along with him.

I did not.

~

We wound our way down street after street, the compacted dirt and grass beneath me more familiar than any stone pathway in the human plane. For the most part, all I received were glares from the pixies that watched us. A handful shouted out vulgar terms or voiced their wishes for me to die, for the gods to take me and unplague their lands. One actually threw a small pebble that hit me in the cheek and blossomed a bruise there. While Killian growled and shoved me behind his rock-solid body, Liam pulled an arrow free and nocked it in the pixie’s direction. Only after I barked for him to stop and not run an arrow through the frightened pixie who had tried to attack me, did we move forward and continue on.

Eventually, we came to the end of the villages, to the small clearing that I had seen Raegan in only days prior. Standing there, looking across the blanket of green grass around me, it was hard to consider that it had only been a few days since Raegan snapped straight and found me staring at him. It felt so distant that it should have been a lifetime ago. But that was the cruel yet relieving part about Saoghal – it would forever feel like home in more than one way, and my time within it moved far quicker than my time away from it.

“We leave you here,” Ciara said, sounding unbothered completely by it as she squared her shoulders and planted her feet.

Liam, though, allowed his face to crack into a sad smile as if we knew one another. He stepped towards me and placed a hand on my shoulder, even when Killian stiffened at my side and warned him otherwise.

“Be safe, Olivia,” Liam said, his voice soft and kind. “I do not yet know you well, but my cousin spoke so highly of you. For her, I beg you to be safe.”

My frown softened into more of a confusion than anything else as I stared at him. “Your cousin?”

The way his face received a wave of sorrow from somewhere deep within him was enough to confirm her identity long before he sighed and said, “Niamh.”

For that, for her, for the memory of her, I gasped and grabbed onto his forearm. He startled at the contact, only to smile at me. “We will change that when I return, Liam. That you do not know me well – we will change that. As I would like to know you, too.”

He nodded before finally sliding his hand from my shoulder, taking a sizeable step backwards where he lined up with Ciara and resumed the look of a royal guard once more.

I knew Shea the least of all of my pixie friends, but I knew that she would never offer us a sad, love-filled goodbye. Instead, as she clamped down on an apple with her fangs, she looked at Killian and said, “Don’t do anything too stupid.”

Killian’s grin was wild once more as he met her in a stern handshake, one that paused as they gripped onto one another's forearms and shared a stern gaze. “I would never.”

Their smirks were matched, until Shea nodded and put her love into the squeeze of his forearm. She looked to me next as she released him. “I’m supposed to threaten you, Killian. To promise you agony and eternal punishment if she comes to be harmed.” A pointed stare at me from Shea was enough to make me swallow. “But I cannot be bothered, so let me just say this – keep the human safe, won’t you?”

For this, Killian’s smile fell and his face was as serious as a graveyard. “By the blood in my veins, I will not let anything happen to her.”

Shea was happy enough with that response, taking a step back until she was alongside Ciara and Liam. But Killian wasn’t quite done. “Tell Raegan not to worry. She’ll be back in one piece.”

Guilt stirred my gut as my eyelids sat heavy against my eyes. Both Killian and Raegan knew one another well enough, knew what was in one another's hearts, and it seemed like sooner or later, the three of us would have to address it.

Not today, though. Killian braced his fist over his heart and bowed to his fellow ceadan warriors, all of which returned the proud and valiant gesture back to him.

With his burly hand on the small of my back, we cross the invisible border of Cluaineach.

17

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I was thoroughly relying on Killian to direct us towards the bay that Uisge primarily sat within. I could smell the water, the salty aroma of it swarming my nose at all times, but I was beyond confused as to which direction it was coming from. Killian wasn’t, though. Or at least that was what I was set on believing, considering his pace was strong and incapable of being deterred.

We walked for a few hours before he finally stopped and allowed me to catch my breath. Except I didn’t, because he pressed close to me and his whisper slid across my skin.

“There’s something I need to say. Something I’ve wanted to say since I saw you in the dungeons. But there have been too many eyes on us, too many ears overly accustomed to listening.”

I glanced up at him, needing to take a small step backwards just so that he could not hear how loud my breathing was as I fought to satisfy my lungs. He waited for me to say something, so I just rolled my wrist at him to continue while my cheeks flooded with heat.

“You can trust me.”

The desire to breathe normally again was lost as the weight of his words found me, forcing me to straighten my spine and steel the gaze I shot at him.