Page 4 of Why Broken Wings Fray

Urram.

My heart beat more violently in my chest. What could Rory have wanted with me that he couldn’t appear in front of Urram?

The one time my protector – my caraid – was not at my side, and Rory leapt at the occasion.

I stared at him, the fire-alarms still blaring overhead, the red-and-white lights flashing across the clinic and contrasting his purple aura.

“What do you want, Rory–”

“Saoghal,” he breathed, his eyes full of desperation as he dared a step towards me. “Saoghal is in grave danger, Olivia.”

3

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With the fire-alarm still blaring overhead, Rory took a step towards the reception desk.

I poked at the air with my scalpel again. “Come any closer Rory and I will stab you. It might not hurt, but I know where your heart is and I’m pretty sure there’s a healthy amount of iron in this blade.”

For extra theatrics, I stabbed at the air a few more times.

“Someone has learned how to use her fangs,” Rory grinned, flashing his own two elongated canines at me. He was just as he had always been, charming and simply happy.

“Yeah, well,” I stuttered, my eyes whipping around the room to locate any better weapon. “I had to learn how to, didn’t I?”

There was a flash of hurt in his eyes as his brows pressed against one another.

“You killed one of my friends–”

“I didn’t mean to,” he cried out. I knew I could be naive, but seeing the sudden accumulation of moisture in Rory’s eyes made my arm waver ever so slightly. “I have never wished for harm to come to any pixie. You must believe me.”

I snorted. “I could be convinced that Niamh’s death was an accident. But the King of Choilltean? Go on, I wish to hear your excuse for that.”

Rory’s face tightened as he pulled his hands tight to his sides, his eyes diverting from mine. “I never wished harm on anyone. But when it came down to one evil or the next, I picked the lesser.” Then – which made things worse as he looked more cowardly than ever – he said, “Besides, it wasn’t like I killed him.”

Cackling like a witch, I shook my head. “Tell me, how was killing King Ronan the lesser evil? The last I heard, you tempted an all-out war across Saoghal. For someone who claims they do not want to see harm to their kind, you sure found a way to be in the center of it all.”

There was that wince again, his purple eyes hooded as he blinked a few times. “That’s why I’m here.”

That wavering arm of mine finally gave in, my emotions taking the steering wheel and letting the scalpel fall from my hand. “What’s happened?”

Rory let out a decade-old-sigh and moved towards one of the overly-stained seats in the waiting area. I waited, my eyes pinched tight, as he slumped down into the curve of it and released yet another pained groan.

“Every kingdom is turning on one another.”

I tutted. “So nothing has changed.”

“Lots has changed,” his eyes wouldn’t meet mine, instead he kept them placed on a fleck of dirt a few inches away from his shoes. “Choilltean and Cluaineach – yeah, that was a mess. Raegan handled it poorly. No one thought he would do what he did. Yet the aftermath… He didn’t take care to tread carefully, Olivia.”

That sounded like Raegan.

Hearing Rory talk of Saoghal, of Choilltean and Cluaineach, of Raegan… It warmed my chest. Lately, the whole experience had felt far too similar to a dream. But his words, although plagued with concern and a dash of panic, they breathed life back into that little world.

“Those of us who managed to escape before Raegan rounded us up… We’ve been hiding here, amongst the humans.”

Cocking my head to the side, I stepped around the reception desk and leant my waist against the counter. “Surely you can’t hold this form for very long.”

It was spoken as a statement, but in all reality it was a question. A demanded question, actually, because not being able to remain their size was the whole reason I was torn from Saoghal.