Page 96 of Why Broken Wings Fray

“Oh,” I said through a shy laugh. “Of course. Sorry, Liam – the events of this night have been…”

“I know.”

He finally reached me and dipped his chin as if I was someone worthy of receiving such a respectful movement. I matched it, smiling as I rose.

“You should not be down here alone,” he said, offering me the bend of his elbow. I stared at it for a long while, trying to decide whether to take it or not. It was as I drew a long breath, intending to use it to ground me and blow it out just as slowly, that I smelled Liam. Truly smelled him, for the first time, taking note of small indicators that were what differentiated one person from the next.

I recognized it.

“Aisling,” I whispered, my eyes wide as I regretted saying it and not thinking it.

Liam’s face blushed a horrendous shade of red as he retracted his offered arm. “What?”

“You… Wow! That venom must be really strong if even I am capable of putting two and two together."

I didn’t think it was possible for his cheeks to blush even more, but they did, until all of his features were overshadowed by that rich sheen.

I wasn’t sure if I was insulted or impressed when Liam decided to completely change topics by saying, full of accusation, “You weren’t really down here looking for Killian, were you?”

Yet again I had no idea what to say or do, finding myself incapable of lying to Walking-Happiness, so I sighed.

“No, I was looking for Raegan.”

That shut Liam up, his mouth slamming closed as he stared at me. “Oh. R-right. I suppose it’s getting to that time of day, isn’t it?”

While I was glad he had taken the bait, I was far too confused and curious to let that slide. “That time of day? What do you mean?”

“For your drink.” Liam shrugged as if it was obvious before he motioned for me to follow him out of the dungeons. Begrudgingly, I obeyed. “You always have that tonic around this time. Though I suppose with the Ball tonight you probably missed a serving.”

The tonic… Oh!

The disgusting cherry-looking stuff that Rory had packed into bottles for me. The stuff that I would rather dehydrate than drink, but it kept me small without having to rely on someone else.

“Oh, right,” I laughed. “Yeah, I guess I do normally drink it around this hour.”

Liam nodded as we reached the stairs, pausing to allow me to walk ahead of him. “I’ve heard it’s important to drink it at the same hour everyday, Olivia. Or else it won’t work.”

Frowning, I cautiously paused at his side and looked up at him.

“My mother used to take it. After me, she was struggling to conceive another with my father. That fertility tonic was the only thing she could think of to help.”

I didn’t care that Liam saw – my mouth fell open.

Fertility tonic.

Rory had me drinking fertility tonic.

43

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There were no words to describe the type of anger that I tunnelled deep down and in to. Considering that these days, it took a lot for me to feel much other than numbness, that was saying a lot. But my body took to rattling, a constant and steady vibration that didn’t stop and likely would never stop until I had answers.

Rory had those answers for me.

Which meant that I needed to quicken my pace. My plan had been to go to him tonight, after the Imbolc Ball, and convince him to turn the Rachainn’s sights off of Raegan as there were no ancient scrolls with god-summoning rituals. And while the death of Queen Tonn definitely threw a very large kink in that plan, I still wanted to pursue it. And now, I had to. Because Rory was going to explain himself, and he was going to have to do a very good job at it.

There was only one thing to do before I left. I refused to leave without checking on both Raegan and Killian, both of whom I last saw trying to wrangle three Kelpies and their oozing wrath. I had a lot I needed to say to Raegan before I left, because while the journey to Rory wouldn’t take long, the not-yet-had argument that was sitting between Raegan and I would have distracted me from the anger I felt towards Rory.