31
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I slept for a day and a half.
People came and went as the sun shifted through the sky and night took form again. Killian entered and exited as he pleased, always smiling down on me when he thought I was asleep, always adjusting my hair so that it did not strangle me in my sleep.
Shea and Aisling paid me a visit at some point, setting some tea on the small table beside the bed. The smell of it, the overwhelming scent of something somewhat minty yet sweet, was what drew me out of sleep long enough to drink it all.
Raegan waltzed in and out, too. I always knew when it was him without opening my eyes, without him speaking.
Not only was it his scent, something earthy and natural that caused my nostrils to flare and threatened to throw me right out of the bed, but the very beating of his heart.
It pulsed through the room like it was a living thing that resided within the walls, rumbling the structure of the castle.
He did various things as he entered. He often brought small items of food, mostly fruit, and the occasional cup of tea.
He had a seat that he had pulled from another room set at the edge of my bed, where he sat and spoke to me.
Mostly when I was only half-conscious, too deep into a pit of exhaustion to answer.
But he continued to speak, to ramble off complete and utter nonsense.
Tales, mostly. Fairytales, the types of stories that they told to young pixies, all of which were capable of setting me back into sleep, which was when he would leave.
And I always knew he had left, because the parting of his subtle warmth, his caressing scent, and his mere presence would yank me right back out of sleep.
Each time I would look over to see his chair empty, groan, and try to throw myself back under the covers.
~
I had slipped back into another stretch of sleep that likely would have kept me for a few more days at least, when shouting rose from the hallway, only for my door to be nearly bashed in completely.
“Oh–”
“Olivia!” Raegan shouted, his face steamed red and his eyes almost bloodshot. There he stood, completely unkempt from his hair that was blasted in all directions to his shirt that was untucked and on an angle. “Olivia! Olivia! Wake! Wake now!”
All I could generate was a pained groan, the back of my hand placed to my brows, and a curse that he may or may not have deserved.
“Come! Come on!” he continued, relentless as ever, as that hidden smile on his face started to gleam the farther into my room that he pushed.
At last he was at the edge of my bed, peering down at me, contemplating. It took me too long to figure out what he was contemplating as he flicked his eyes from my exhausted face to the covers around my neck. He wasn’t seriously going to–
“Raegan!” I screamed as he tore the sheets clean from my body and allowed a nasty breeze to slide over every inch of me. “You brute! Give it back!”
He laughed, innocently and joyfully as he snatched more and more of my covers, pulling them back and holding them above his head when I reached for them.
There was something so carefree to the King as he let out another bout of laughter, the noise so powerful that it shook the walls and fastened itself to my bones.
So much so, that even though I was freezing and my teeth were clattering, I couldn’t help but to grin and shake my head.
“Why are you in here? Oh, you ignorant bull, I’m freezing!”
“Come come come,” he continued, striding away from my bed and discarding my sheets on the floor. He moved straight for the armoire, disregarding all of my tuts and retorts that demanded he leave my room at once and allow me to rot in the warmth of my bed.
One by one he peeled clothing from their piles, flicking them over his shoulder with such precision that they knocked me square in the face. Grunting for a whole new reason, I finally gave in as the stubbornness that was Raegan seemed unwilling to quit, and rose from bed.
I drew each item of clothing – noticeably Cluaineach, that soft and airy material – up my body, scowled, and rocked my weight over one hip.
“Well?”
“I’ve got something… something so magnificent to show you.
” He truly believed it, too. That’s why his eyes were shimmering with some younger, far more innocent and happy version of himself.
And to finish it all off, to permanently knock the breath from my lungs, Raegan extended a hand to me and beamed his excitement in my direction.
“Have you been eating the hallucinogenic mushrooms again?”
Another laugh. Another smile that belonged not to the King, nor the Prince, but to Raegan. “Come on!”
With a roll of my eyes, I reached for his hand. “But I’m tired–” My sentence was cut off as I screeched, Raegan yanking on my arm and hauling us out of the room at a speed that suggested the castle was on fire.
There was absolutely no room for discussion as Raegan pulled us through hallway after hallway, slowing in his speed only when we hit the staircase and he decided he valued the integrity of my ankles.
But once we were on the main level again, no matter how much I protested and tried to slow his stride, Raegan’s grip on my hand tightened and he was moving us faster and farther through his castle.
When we burst out of the castle doors, nearly taking out all four guards who stood at attention there, I saw something that I had not seen in far too long. Or someone.
Rìoghail.
In all of his glory, Raegan’s golden caraid stood proudly only a few paces from the entrance to the Cluaineach castle.
His golden, off-white wings were snapped wide, the morning breeze ruffling at the longest of them and causing the stallion to snort and stomp his hooves over and over.
His pelt, still as molten and as rich as the day I met him, continued to glisten regardless of how much sun sat above us.
Upon seeing me, he let out a short nicker, threw his head several times, and caused the wave that was his nearly snow-white mane to flutter over and over.
“Rìoghail,” I said through a sweet smile, approaching the stallion slowly and with caution. His horn was not out, but only a quick movement from me or a simple command from Raegan could change that.
Even during my last visit to Saoghal, I had not gotten to approach Rìoghail, who seemed to be a sort of royalty himself amongst the herds. I had only been able to admire the magnificent creature from afar, left to see only the shining of his coat and the gleam of power in his eyes.
“Go on,” Raegan coaxed me after he nodded to his guards and took a rough-looking knapsack from them, pushing gently at my spine and directing my path towards his caraid.
I nodded, not to him but to myself, steeling my resolve as I approached. “It’s been too long, Rìoghail.”
The stallion snorted again, his nostrils widening as he blew out breath after breath. His sides were expanding and contracting rapidly, suggesting the speed at which he and Raegan had flown here.
Raegan strode right past me and launched himself up onto his steed, bare of saddle and lacking a bridle, shit-eating-grin on his face.
Rìoghail retorted his quick movement with a snap of his tail, the threads like golden strings whipping Raegan’s shin.
That was where the two of them were far too similar; their boyish, cocky, Prince of the Realm attitude was too well matched between them.
I dared another step towards Rìoghail and he retracted his attention from Raegan and placed it sternly on me. In my previous encounters with him, I had not realized just how large the stallion was, his back a towering height and his muscles a rippling art of strength.
“Are you coming?” Raegan crooned, leaning forward on Rìoghail’s neck just to watch me panic in the presence of his caraid.
“O-on h-him?”
“On him. Unless you’d rather walk, that is.”
Raegan was so far away from the King that it distracted me long enough to brave the last few steps to Rìoghail.
He remained still, too still, his ears pricked forward and his neck rounded into a solid mass.
The noise that came from his nostrils was dragon-like in every sense as he tried to assess my approach.
“Easy, boy,” I whispered, lifting a hand to his snout.
The golden pegasus took my scent at that distance, the whites of his eyes shining just beyond the amber colour.
And then, as if it was as simple as asking, he pressed his muzzle into my fingers and allowed the pad of my hand to rove over the velvet-like texture of his snout.
I only hoped Urram was not around to hear me as I placed both hands on Rìoghail’s muzzle and whispered, “Caraid?”
The stomp of Rìoghail’s hoof threatened an early heart-attack for me, but then he shoved his whole head against my chest and blew hot air from his nostrils.
“Come come come!” Raegan trilled from where he watched, reaching yet another hand towards me.
I was reluctant to take it, even more so than the first time, considering the bones of my fingers were still throbbing from the grip he had placed on them.
But no amount of hopping or jumping was getting me up onto Rìoghail’s back, so I rolled my eyes, warned Raegan with a glare, and took his hand.
The King of Talamh lifted me up by that simple point of contact, causing me to feel like nothing more than a blade of grass, and set me in front of him. I tried not to focus too intently on the way he felt behind me, the strength of him and the promising structure of his chest against my back.
Raegan’s face fell forward, finding the curve of my neck where his chin hovered and his lips teased at the shell of my ear. His words were breathy, his lips intentionally brushing against my skin, as he murmured, “Hold on, my little human.”
I had never been much for rushes of adrenaline, but I would never tire of the way the pegasus’ flew.
Rìoghail was elegant with his movements, even though his powerful, muscular body would suggest he could be heavy and sluggish.
Each tiny adjustment through his body was accounted for, from the angle of his wings to the set of his neck on his shoulders.
Raegan laughed behind me as I threw my arms out to the side.
His chuckle scattered my hair, his breath warm against my neck as I continued to pretend I was flying.
Before long I was laughing, too, my head tilted back where it found a comfortable position against his chest, the two of us lost in the glee of soaring.
As I glided along, allowing the breeze to skip through every finger, Raegan set his arms around my waist, his hands quietly finding my stomach where he knitted his fingers together and allowed me to absorb the entirety of his presence.
I could have stayed up there, pretending that neither of us had a worry in the world, that we were nothing more than two people taking the world by the skies, forever.
But then Rìoghail was descending, Raegan was helping me to prepare for the drop, and the green stretch of meadowland beyond Cluaineach approached faster and faster.
“I love flying,” I admitted as Raegan hopped down, turning to offer me his hand for the third time.
It was strange in that I wasn’t sure we had ever touched this much, or at least in such intimate, kind, and gentle ways.
I smiled at him as I took his soft offering, my hand fitting perfectly in his before I dropped down from Rìoghail’s back.
“Thanks, Rìoghail,” I whispered to the molten creature, who whinnied softly for me before turning a heated glare on Raegan, suggesting that perhaps he should thank him more often.
Whatever it was that Rìoghail said to Raegan through their strange bond of caraid must have been insulting, because Raegan laughed in that derogatory way and rolled his eyes at Rìoghail.
Turning away from Rìoghail, Raegan quickly adapted that childish-excitement once more as he held my hand tighter, the hand that neither of us had let go of when I had dismounted from Rìoghail.
But for a moment, something stole my attention. It was only a flash, only a quick blur of colour against a verdant spread, but it caused my breathing to hitch as I located that hallucination amongst Saoghal.
Hallucination, because there was no way what I was seeing was real. Because Caden, the fairy I plunged a dagger in to, was dead. So there was no way he could truly be in the field, sprinting amongst the blades of grass.
Fear possessed me, causing my hands to shake, my breathing to come in choppy bunches, as I remembered all too clearly what I had done.
I wasn't expecting to come out of that tranced, petrified state, until Raegan stepped towards me and drew my attention to such a sharp, centred focus on him.
With him in my vision, the world, my troubles, and the darkness around me, simply had nothing to combat the way he was a singularly star amongst the world set on drowning me.
“I can promise you, Olivia, that you will never see anything like this again.”
The glistening in his eyes was like the sparkling reflection of the sun, and I wanted to do nothing more than to bask in it for the rest of eternity.
Nodding, the two of us as thick as thieves in our excitement, I squeezed his hand. “What are we waiting for, then?”