Page 35 of Why Broken Wings Fray

“I do trust you.”

I did. I wasn’t lying about that, not that I felt the need to lie to Killian.

“Do you?” His body pivoted towards me, and for the first time since meeting him, Killian intimidated me. I wasn’t sure if he meant to, but he did. It was just his aura, his sternness and the power that I knew he contained within his muscles, all placed in front of me as he tried to… accuse me?

“Of course I do,” I breathed, letting one of my hands rest on his chest to somehow humanize him again. Or soften him, considering he was a pixie and couldn’t be humanized.

“If you don’t, it’s okay. I am just telling you that you can, you know. So if one day you want to tell me, perhaps, just maybe how you shrunk yourself down and entered Saoghal again, you can.”

My hand fell from his chest and I stumbled backwards. I quickly took back my previous declaration, I did feel the need to lie to Killian at that moment. Not that any lie would be capable of concealing the shock that took my facial features by storm.

I trusted Killian. I trusted him with my life. But not with this. Not when I knew how he felt about the Rachainn, how loyal he felt to the ancient and sacred ways of his world. Not when he would see it as nothing but a betrayal.

My mouth opened to spew some sort of lie, but he shook his head. “Don’t. You don’t need to tell me. Because whether or not you trust me, one thing I am sure about is that I trust you. Tell me when you are ready.”

I was glad that he smiled and turned, beginning to walk away once more. Because hearing that, seeing the devotion and truth of it in his eyes, I nearly crumbled. I nearly admitted.

But regardless of what I wanted to say or do, nothing would change the fact that Killian was of Raegan’s ceadan. He was bound to Raegan not just by magic but by love and friendship for his friend. Regardless of what Killian would have wanted to say or do in response, he would be compelled by duty, by honour, and by loyalty. I would not put him in that position.

So I nodded to myself, confident with my decision, and trotted to keep up with him.

“So…” I mumbled, not sure whether I wanted to truly ask him what was lingering on my mind. His eyes, dark and somewhat hooded, met mine as we walked hand-in-hand. “Ciara? There’s a… history there?”

“A tale as old as time,” he sighed.

“What do you mean?” I asked through a nervous giggle.

He regarded me with a somewhat sly grin. “The two of us have found a mutual companionship with one another on occasion. Over the years.”

My brows shot high before I could stop them. “You two are involved with one another?”

Killian bobbed his head side-to-side. “We hate one another. But sometimes that can be the ultimate flame. And in the past, the occasional time that our hatred was too strong but our desire still present, we simply found another.”

My eyes pinched as I watched him discuss such private matters with ease. “Another?”

He shrugged. “Another male. Another female. Someone to be a fleshy divide between the two of us before we killed one another.”

My stomach stirred. “You… you shared?”

Killian caught my tone immediately and his smile grew in its mischievousness. “The more the merrier, I say.”

My throat started to swell as I refused to swallow the question that sat heavy within. “With… With who?”

Killian’s eyes flashed a twinkle of knowing. “You want to know if I have shared with Raegan, don’t you?”

I couldn’t hold the heated gaze that remained on me for a moment longer. Refusing to make a noise, I turned away from him and sighed, instead.

Killian prowled closer, his body brushed against mine as we walked, his lips pressing hot air to my ear as he whispered, “Do you wish to be shared, Olivia?”

The answer did not come to my mouth but it came to my mind. Flashes of the scene that the three of us could create. The heavy, laboured breathing matched between the two males I cared for and the heat of their bodies on either side of me. A somewhat dance of challenge; Raegan with his possessive, demanding movements and Killian with his eagerness to bring pleasure to those around him.

So quickly my cheeks flushed red and I could not shake the thought of being placed intentionally between them, feeling the way that they differed and revelling in the ways that they were similar.

Killian had stopped walking and was now staring down at me, something dark and almost haunted in his gaze as he peered along his nose at me. Seeing him like that, in front of me, only made the images come faster and with more clarity, my mind filling the blanks and placing Raegan behind me.

My mouth went to open, to answer him and stop the churning of my stomach and the aching that spread at my want, but Killian beat me to it.

“I’d be happy to oblige you. Though I cannot say the same about my King.”