16
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“This is Ciara,” Shea announced, prepared to offer no further explanation as I halted in front of her at the double-doors of the Cluaineach castle.
Killian waltzed up to my side, kitted in his leathers and dual swords sitting comfortably over his back. “She’s another of Raegan’s ceadan,” he explained, either overly aware of how confused I was or simply helpful. It was hard to say.
“‘Another of Raegan’s ceadan,’” Ciara, who somehow looked even more ruthless than Shea, scoffed. “I recall a time when you considered me much more than that, Killian.”
My eyes shot wide as I forced myself to swallow, desperate to keep my expression from my face.
Killian shot her a cruel smile and an even more unpleasant wink that she rebounded away from and snarled at. It was like watching two alley-cats prowl one another, except no one said a thing.
“And I’m Liam,” another pixie said, bowing handsomely in front of me and scattering his sun-kissed brown hair across his face.
He swept it back with a calm ease as he rose at last, offering me a smile that could contest Killian’s in the mischievous-joy department.
“I wasn’t sure if anyone was planning on introducing me. ”
“Oh shut up, Liam,” Shea and Ciara both barked at the same time, which only brought about a new tension as the two females glared at one another.
It seemed, as Niamh had once explained, that not all pixies got along. And, the bond that I had seen between Raegan, Killian, Niamh, and Shea, had been a rarity. Because these four definitely did not respect and adore one another in the same way.
All of them wore the same attire of leather. Leather arm-guards, leather breast-plates, leather shin-guards. Ciara had two swords over her back beneath her meadow-grass-green hair, whereas Liam had an intricately carved bow strung over his back and a quiver swinging from his hip.
“Do I get a weapon?” I squeaked.
No one thought that was odd, except for Killian who looked at me as if I had two heads. “You? You want a weapon?”
I shrugged. “Look at you all. I feel left out.”
He grinned, the creases beside his eyes more welcoming than a rising sun. “Do you even know how to use a weapon?”
It sent a rush of thrill through me to see him so carefree once more. “Of course.” Pulling my hand from deep within my pockets, I revealed the scalpel that I had inadvertently brought with me. “See?”
For extra theatrics, I stabbed the air a few times.
“Oh, and it’s mostly iron,” he said, nodding as if he was impressed. “You could kill a fair few pixies with that.”
“Or just one.” We both relished in the snide smile that took over my face.
“Are you two done?” Ciara snapped, leaning her weight over one hip. Shea snarled and shoved at her, nearly knocking the golden-eyed pixie clean off of her balance. Unfortunately for Liam, this meant that she slammed her body against him and then punched him in the side for it.
He flashed a look of agony in my direction that made me reconsider laughing at the ordeal. Something about him was so sweet, so innocent, that I couldn’t help but think of Niamh. But as quickly as that thought came up, I swallowed it and nodded to everyone.
“Let’s go.”
~
Killian took to a whole new persona as we strode out of Cluaineach, the blinding heat and penetration of the sun rays nearly taking me to my knees.
It was because of the version of himself that he became that I did not truly fall, caught at the last minute by the possessive grip he had around my shoulders.
“I’m fine, now,” I mumbled. “You can let me go.”
“Not going to happen,” he murmured, the purr to his tone undoing my pointed focus. I was about to ask him to elaborate on why he had suddenly become a fleshy shield at my side, but I didn’t have to.
The reason was obvious.
Pixies, slowly and cautiously, poked their heads out of their various homes deep within Cluaineach. Whether it was from within the stems of mushrooms, from the deep pits within the grass, or the strangely-balanced huts atop strong blades of grass, heads appeared all around us.
It was unlike the other times that I had moved through Cluaineach.
Instead of them flooding the streets with their songs, dance, and merriment, that eerie cloud of sickness remained above the kingdom.
But that wasn’t all – it was the look of the pixies that poked their heads out.
Intrigued? Somewhat. Furious? Definitely.
Not at Shea, Ciara, or Liam who took up a somewhat defensive position in front of us. Not even at Killian, whose one arm had switched to wrap around my waist, his other gripping his sword in his hand. No, those looks of hatred and ill-wishing were directed at… me.
I could feel their gazes flaying me alive, taking all that I was and burning it into a collection of ash at my feet. I shied away from the thousands of cruel glances and instead focused on my feet, on how Killian’s step was shortened just to keep us moving at the same pace.
“Why… Why are they looking at me like that?” I whispered, partially afraid of the answer, partially afraid that speaking would be the only thing they needed to suddenly launch an attack on me.
“Do not worry about it,” Killian assured, his arm moving once more to my shoulders where he braced his large hand on the back of my head, tucking me against him as we walked.
“I want to worry about it. They look prepared to kill me, Killian. Why?”
I felt his throat bob as he swallowed, the rest of his body tensing. “There are… whispers. About you.”
I jerked away from him so violently that I nearly quickened my death as every pixie shrieked and shot back into their homes. “Me? What about?”
“They believe you to be a… Well…”
“A bad omen,” Ciara shouted just as Shea said, “A bringer of evil.”
“A… A bringer of evil,” I gasped, both of my hands moving for my chest. “That’s… that’s absurd!”
“Is it?” Ciara shot back, refusing to turn around as she led our group. “You were in Saoghal for, what? Three weeks? And destroyed it upon your departure.”
My mouth fell open at such speed I nearly swallowed a firefly that ripped by. Turning, I looked up at Killian who was nervously walking along at my side. “Do you believe that?”
He laughed bitterly, but there was some hesitation in his face. “Not at all. Of course I don’t. It just so happened that your arrival lined up far too well with the events of the Rachainn and all that occurred after that.”
Frowning, I glared at the back of Ciara’s head who was being scolded by Shea. And by scolded: Shea had a handful of Ciara’s hair wrapped around her fist that she continuously yanked and brought forth shouts of agony.
“No one can control Raegan, therefore no one is responsible for the downfall that has followed in his decision. And it’s not like you would ever work with the Rachainn,” Killian said, following up his strong stance with another bout of laughter. Even the other pixies laughed along with him.
I did not.
~
We wound our way down street after street, the compacted dirt and grass beneath me more familiar than any stone pathway in the human plane.
For the most part, all I received were glares from the pixies that watched us.
A handful shouted out vulgar terms or voiced their wishes for me to die, for the gods to take me and unplague their lands.
One actually threw a small pebble that hit me in the cheek and blossomed a bruise there.
While Killian growled and shoved me behind his rock-solid body, Liam pulled an arrow free and nocked it in the pixie’s direction.
Only after I barked for him to stop and not run an arrow through the frightened pixie who had tried to attack me, did we move forward and continue on.
Eventually, we came to the end of the villages, to the small clearing that I had seen Raegan in only days prior.
Standing there, looking across the blanket of green grass around me, it was hard to consider that it had only been a few days since Raegan snapped straight and found me staring at him.
It felt so distant that it should have been a lifetime ago.
But that was the cruel yet relieving part about Saoghal – it would forever feel like home in more than one way, and my time within it moved far quicker than my time away from it.
“We leave you here,” Ciara said, sounding unbothered completely by it as she squared her shoulders and planted her feet.
Liam, though, allowed his face to crack into a sad smile as if we knew one another. He stepped towards me and placed a hand on my shoulder, even when Killian stiffened at my side and warned him otherwise.
“Be safe, Olivia,” Liam said, his voice soft and kind. “I do not yet know you well, but my cousin spoke so highly of you. For her, I beg you to be safe.”
My frown softened into more of a confusion than anything else as I stared at him. “Your cousin?”
The way his face received a wave of sorrow from somewhere deep within him was enough to confirm her identity long before he sighed and said, “Niamh.”
For that, for her, for the memory of her, I gasped and grabbed onto his forearm. He startled at the contact, only to smile at me. “We will change that when I return, Liam. That you do not know me well – we will change that. As I would like to know you, too.”
He nodded before finally sliding his hand from my shoulder, taking a sizeable step backwards where he lined up with Ciara and resumed the look of a royal guard once more.
I knew Shea the least of all of my pixie friends, but I knew that she would never offer us a sad, love-filled goodbye. Instead, as she clamped down on an apple with her fangs, she looked at Killian and said, “Don’t do anything too stupid.”
Killian’s grin was wild once more as he met her in a stern handshake, one that paused as they gripped onto one another's forearms and shared a stern gaze. “I would never.”
Their smirks were matched, until Shea nodded and put her love into the squeeze of his forearm.
She looked to me next as she released him.
“I’m supposed to threaten you, Killian. To promise you agony and eternal punishment if she comes to be harmed.
” A pointed stare at me from Shea was enough to make me swallow.
“But I cannot be bothered, so let me just say this – keep the human safe, won’t you? ”
For this, Killian’s smile fell and his face was as serious as a graveyard. “By the blood in my veins, I will not let anything happen to her.”
Shea was happy enough with that response, taking a step back until she was alongside Ciara and Liam. But Killian wasn’t quite done. “Tell Raegan not to worry. She’ll be back in one piece.”
Guilt stirred my gut as my eyelids sat heavy against my eyes. Both Killian and Raegan knew one another well enough, knew what was in one another's hearts, and it seemed like sooner or later, the three of us would have to address it.
Not today, though. Killian braced his fist over his heart and bowed to his fellow ceadan warriors, all of which returned the proud and valiant gesture back to him.
With his burly hand on the small of my back, we cross the invisible border of Cluaineach.