Page 90 of Why Broken Wings Fray

There was Killian, grunting as his face shifted into extreme concentration. In that slow sliding of my eyes across the scene before me, I couldn’t figure out why he looked like he was battling an ox. Until I saw what was in his hands. Or, really, who.

Prince Tadgh, bound at his wrists and his ankles, his mouth gagged, was flopping against Killian with all of his might. He threw his weight left and right, gurgled and growled, howled and yelped beneath his gag, but Killian held fast and affirmed his grip on the Prince of Uisge.

They weren’t the only two people in that hallway, battling it out. No – at Killian’s side was another of Raegan’s ceadan, dark haired and hollow-eyed, one that I recognized from our dinners but had yet to meet. What he held in his hands – who – was even more horrifying.

Queen Tonn of Uisge, writhing against his hold, crying beneath the mask that had spread over her face. Except it wasn’t a mask like anything I had ever seen, but something that had sprung out and wrapped itself around her face, over and over.

And what it had sprung out of? The necklace. The necklace that Raegan had asked me to deliver to her. The peace offering.

My jaw fell open right around the time that Tadgh’s eyes met mine, wild and panicked.

“Let them go!” I screamed.

Another came flying out of the throne room only seconds later, who I knew to be Raegan without even looking. And behind him, the doors slammed shut and others of his guard took to standing at them, refusing any of the pixies within to exit.

“Let them go!” I roared again, ignoring as Raegan strode towards me. I was a wild animal as I moved towards Killian, my hands going to claw at his forearms for him to release the Prince. He looked to me, an apology between his brows, and shook his head.

They couldn’t do this.

It was an act of war.

So I launched myself at Killian, prepared to tackle him to the ground if it meant freeing Tadgh, and therefore Queen Tonn, but I didn’t get the chance. A pair of wide, strong arms banded around me, and I was left kicking and screaming against Raegan’s hold as he tried to keep me steady.

“Let them go!” I hollered for the third time, my voice hoarse and pained as I refused to blink off of Tadgh and Tonn.

“Olivia, please be quiet,” Killian begged as he continued to try and haul Tadgh. But seeing me, seeing an ally that he believed would somehow be able to help him, renewed the fight in the Prince of Uisge.

He managed to slip out of Killian’s arms, somehow.

Which made things worse.

Much, much worse.

I turned into Raegan’s chest, trying my luck at swaying his decision, when the chaos took to new heights.

More and more of Raegan’s guards sprinted towards us, but it was on that brief glance that I noticed what I had missed with the ceadan that worked alongside Killian – their eyes were all the same. All the same lifeless, lacking depth of black that seemed to stretch down into their souls, giving the viewer a clear glimpse into what lived within them, as if there was more to them than just their skin and bones.

Tadgh made yet another gargled sound as he hit the ground, grunting as his body resisted the height he had fallen. But the Prince of Uisge moved quickly, wobbling his way across the floor until he was near his mother. With a powerful roar, he pulled his arms to either side and tore the bindings of brambles from his wrists, spraying blood across the hallways as they slid through his skin and severed veins.

“Release her, vermin!” Tadgh bellowed as he reached up. He did not reach for the daggers on the hips all around him, but for that mask around his mothers mouth.

“No!” Raegan shouted as he tried to move around me, but I blocked his body from their path and Tadgh was successful in ripping the cage that had formed over Queen Tonn’s mouth.

The guards drew nearer.

Those eyes of a true abyss started to glow.

It was obvious why Queen Tonn had been given the necklace, why it had taken to her face and kept her mouth still, as she opened her lips and began a low, sorrowful melody that caused me to sway. Except it was not that allure that threatened all around her, but the water that she began to summon from everyone’s bodies. Droplet by droplet I could feel the moisture sucking from my being, reaching deep into my bloodstream and yanking anything that resembled fluid to the surface.

The guards reached us and I knew I wasn’t looking at pixies. Not the pixies I knew and loved, not their eyes of glistening wander and their smiles of unbreakable joy. No, these were husks, mere bags of flesh that resembled some of the ceadan that I had seen up and down the hallways, but now were lacking all humanity as they stared absently at the task at hand.

The ceadan guard who had been at Killian’s side moved towards the Queen, his hand outstretched towards her throat, the veins along his arm turning black.

Queen Tonn shot him one look and pulled the remnants of liquid from him, leaving a dried up corpse to crumble at her side, nothing but ashen bones to remember him by.

And I snapped.

“Enough!” I screamed at them all, throwing myself from Raegan and placing myself equally between all sides. I threw both hands up, one in the direction of Queen Tonn and Tadgh who were about to finish us off, the other towards the remaining ceadan that approached.