8
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“I demand to know what happened, at once!” the King of Choilltean roared.
I was glad for Killian’s body in front of me, acting as a broad shield against the wrath of the King as he paced furiously back and forth.
I only got a quick glimpse of him as I was shuttled into the throne room, enough for me to notice how little his features matched his son’s.
“We warned you of this,” a pixie standing off to the side muttered, immediately earning the fury of the King as he whirled on his heel to him.
“Do not test me now, Fergus. Pixie blood flows freely upon my lands and I just may feel inclined to add to it.”
The room fell deathly silent.
“Someone, tell me what happened. And if I hear one more mention of the Rachainn and your conspiracies, the tongue on which the tale is told will be forfeited.”
Everyone gulped. Me included.
“If I may, Father?” Raegan stepped forward from where he had been lingering in the shadows.
He was more undone than Killian was; his muddy hair splattered across his face where it had cast itself in rampant blood, the same patterns that were splashed all over his chest. Scarlet still dripped from the tips of his fingers as he worked them against his shirt in an attempt to dry them.
“What is it?” the King hissed in response, hardly offering Raegan a shred of attention.
“I have a witness to the attack.”
“If it is one of your ceadan, you can save it–”
“It’s not.” I wasn’t enjoying how sly Raegan’s face was becoming as his features elongated and pinched. “A completely unbiased witness.”
King Ronan was intrigued enough to wave a hand in his son’s direction.
To my horror, it was me that Raegan motioned to draw closer. I shot a look up at my side to Killian, who looked just as tense at the whole ordeal as I did. With a subtle dip of his chin, he freed me from the binding of his safety and stepped away from me.
Dammit.
Just a dream.
Just a…
Just—
“Olivia, come here,” Raegan purred, forcing me to remember Killian’s warning of the Prince. With every step that I took towards the throne, I felt the fox-like stare of the Prince on me and the wheel of deceit spinning behind his eyes.
King Ronan scowled at Raegan as I paused in front of them. “You would dare bring a Faiche’Rugadh before me?”
“Not a Faiche’Rugadh, Father.” Now, Raegan’s smirk was tangible upon his face.
The King took a large step towards me, his oak-like eyes narrowing on my face as every one of my limbs froze. The hooked ends of his ears just protruded from the deep, auburn tint of his hair, which was noticeably free of any blood or gore.
“I see,” he huffed. “You’re collecting toys, Raegan?”
There was a hint of a threat beneath those words. Raegan could have saved himself the dishonour that was thrust his way from prying eyes by explaining I had been brought here by Killian, but he didn’t. His jaw only pulsed as he snarled the glares away.
King Ronan tried his best to soften his sharpness. “Tell me, child. What did you see?”
Every single pixie in that room was staring at me. Amongst it all I could hear the whispers and giggles, I could feel the way their eyes flayed me from shoulder to ankle. As if he could tell, Raegan strode forward and placed his body between me and the crowd. It only made me feel worse.
“We… We were attacked.”
The King nodded, looking more unimpressed by the second.
“Some were… were flying on… on something. Oth-others not. Bows and.. Bows and arrows. Swords. So much blood.”
“It’s alright.” He smiled. “You’re safe now. Did you see who attacked you?”
“Yes.” I twisted my fingers around one another as I tried to use Raegan’s body like a forcefield behind me. “They all looked different. Hair of blondes and greens and blues… But one thing was the same amongst them all.”
The King sighed as if he already knew what I was about to say.
“Not a single one had ears.”
At my declaration, the entire throne room erupted into unfiltered havoc.
People were screaming, some began to direct their horror towards one another.
Before long, several fist-fights had broken out.
All the while, King Ronan simply walked over to this throne and dropped himself into it, plopping his chin on his fisted hand as he watched.
Raegan stepped closer to me, his fingers just grazing the small of my back as he whispered, “Good job.”
In a way, I knew it wasn’t a genuine response. Apparently Killian knew too, he arrived at my side only seconds later and pulled me away from the dais.
“You’re alright,” he murmured as he wrapped a large arm around my shoulders and yanked me against him.
It was strange, because I was alright. Not with all of the violence, with the images of dead bodies behind my eyelids and the constant streaming of blood that blurred my vision.
But I was alright in the sense that my whole life I had floated day-to-day, feeling like I never had a true purpose.
For the first time, as I watched the lives of innocent pixies be taken, I found myself not only feeling something, but wanting something.
I wanted to protect them.
Perhaps that made me a fool. I knew nothing about them. I wasn’t even fully convinced they were real. But it landed heavy in my chest, in my soul, that I had to protect this place, these people. Something capable of freeing me from the darkness of my own mind needed to be saved, no matter what.
I just wasn’t sure what a mere human could do amongst it all.
~
Killian was several paces down one of the hallways when he finally released me and planted his weight against one of the walls, rubbing at his eyes. “I should take you back.”
“What?” I exclaimed, only to clamp a hand over my mouth seconds later. “No.”
He shook his head a few times, looking anywhere but my face. “This isn’t a game, Olivia. If the Rachainn are truly behind this, then… It’s not safe here anymore.”
“It was never safe here, you made that much clear by being my guard-dog at every turn.” It was supposed to be a joke, but neither one of us laughed. “I don’t want to leave. Please. Let me help.”
What wasn’t supposed to be a joke, made Killian laugh. “Help? Do you have any notable fighting skills I wasn’t aware of?”
“Well, no, but–”
“Have you ever even wielded a weapon?”
“I’ve shot some arrows before.” That wasn’t a lie. Charlotte had forced me to an archery range for one of her birthdays. If I wasn’t mistaken, we were fifteen. But he didn’t need to know it was a decade ago.
Killian almost looked impressed as he cocked a bow. “Did these arrows actually hit anything?”
I bit down on my lip.
“That’s what I thought.”
“Please, Killian. Please don’t send me back.”
His body approached mine in one large movement. “You could die.”
“I was dying when you found me.”
He frowned at me, a hurt in his eyes that wasn’t meant for him but for me. With a gentle hand he pushed some of my disturbed hair back, his fingertips grazing against the rounded tips of my ears before he pulled away. “I won’t be able to guarantee your safety.”
“Okay.”
We held the unwavering gaze back-and-forth, until he finally sighed and followed it up with a grin. “You are a strange female.”
“Thanks.” I tried my best to match that intense, unbridled grin that he constantly wore like he was born that way.
My adventure of a lifetime was no longer a dream. I refused to believe it was for a second longer. While that was a good thing, it meant that I had something to lose. Because for the first time in years, I started to see the light.