Page 71 of Why Broken Wings Fray

Raegan nodded again. “He was…” Raegan swallowed, his throat bobbing as his eyes darkened. “He was the last foal of my mother’s caraid, Rose. She, uh, passed. With my mother.”

Raegan had yet to openly speak of his mother, of the horrific slaughter of her at the hand of his father. For that reason alone, I placed my hand on top of Raegan’s where it rested on his bent knee. He glanced down at the connection of our fingers before releasing a long sigh and rolling his head to the side.

“I remember the day Rìoghail was born. They said–” Raegan paused to laugh, shaking his head. “They said he was pure evil, that Rose would be better to abandon him to nature than to raise such a force.”

We both smiled as we looked at him, now mighty and proud amongst his herd.

“That was when my mother said that he must have been a gift from Cernunnos, that the god had placed Rìoghail with us so that there was something to counter me.”

I didn’t miss the way that Raegan’s eyes were watering, his eyelashes thick and wispy as he blinked.

“You two are well matched.”

He chuckled. “We weren’t, for many years. He was stronger and more stubborn – yes, more stubborn than I. I think it was the day that my mother died, the day that Rose died alongside her, that we finally found a common ground.”

“They… They, uh, passed together?”

“It’s common. When one shares a greater form of caraid, like me and Rìoghail and Gliocas, or you and Urram – it is common that when the pixie dies, the caraid can follow. Such a bond is not meant to be broken. Our souls are too intertwined.”

I thought back to Gaoth and Killian, my brows pressed close. “But not always?”

“Not always.” Raegan was lost to contemplation as he hummed, until the noise stopped dead in his throat and he threw his hand up. “Look! Oh, this is my favourite part.”

Raegan, powered by excitement, rose to his feet, dragging me up and along with him. It was hard to look away from him and towards where his finger was pointing, but I did. And I was glad I did.

Because the little copy of Rìoghail had decided to lift his snow-white wings for the first time, the feathers were still somewhat wet and stained with blood. He let out a snort that I knew all too well from Rìoghail before he fanned those wings, testing the limitations of the span and the stretch.

“They always try to fly on the first day,” Raegan said through a soft laugh. “And they never manage it.”

“They wouldn’t be the only ones to take on more than they can handle, then.”

Raegan took my words harsher than I intended for him to, his smile sliding off of his face as he craned awkwardly to look at me. “What does that mean?”

“It just… This side of you, Raegan, I wish you were able to become it more often.”

Another thick swallow caused the sharp edge of his throat to shift. “Well I cannot.”

“But you just seem so much happier–”

“I learned long ago that the side of me that appears happy to you will not do me any good. It is a side that I must abandon, sooner or later.”

I shook my head, already mourning the Raegan that stood before me. “I don’t want that.”

“Neither do I.” He meant it, too. His face shadowed almost immediately, sucking all of the radiance from him in one simple expression. “I was going to let it go. Give in for good. But you… You make me want to hold on to it.”

My brows turned upwards as I tried to hold onto a face of neutrality, losing in every way that counted. The moment was not lost on us as he reached up and pushed some of my hair behind my ear, pausing on the curve of the tops of them just like I had for him. His thumb brushed over the rounded, human edge of them several times, his eyes locked onto the simple motion.

“I know what you would ask of me, if you were selfish enough,” he whispered.

Swallowing, I shied away from his gaze.

“I beg you not to. Because while I may be a King, Olivia, I would obey your every command.”

We both lingered in that silence, in the soft admission that he had finally offered me after so long of me not knowing where we stood. It was a heavy truth, a damning confession, but the way he whispered it was so painfully gentle that I had nothing to say to him.

He moved closer to me, his body a new sort of warmth that I knew the sun could never mimic.

Raegan, once upon a time, had drawn such a thick line between us, such a dividing obstacle that I never thought he would try to break down. At least that was what I had thought, until this very moment where he had already revealed far too much of his vulnerability