50
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“Killian!” I cried out as I pushed away from Rory, arriving at the base of the stairs just as those familiar dark eyes appeared in the room.
“Olivia,” he wailed as relief washed over his face. The sight of me restored a ferocity to him, ripping himself completely free of the Rachainn who held him so firmly. He was moving towards me, earnest and desperate as his arms reached out and I flung myself into them.
We twirled and twirled, his hand on the back of my head holding me steady as I sobbed into his neck, my whole body vibrating against the firm strength of his arms that contained me.
Somewhere along the way Urram had let out a screech and fluttered farther into the cellar, leaving Killian and I to wrap ourselves around one another.
It was through muffled cries that I finally pulled away from him and truly looked at his face. He took one hand and pushed my freed, tear-soaked hair from my eyes.
“You… You shouldn’t be here, Killian.”
“I had to,” he groaned as he ushered us away from prying eyes, moving towards the shadows as if it would help in that cellar.
“I came across Raegan. He’s… He was… Well he said you were gone and I feared that he may have–” he cut himself short as he shook his head a few times, finally letting out a deep breath. “But you’re alright?”
“More or less,” I sighed as I ran a forearm across my nose, wincing at the snot that came away. “But you shouldn’t be here, Killian. They… They’re Rachainn.”
He didn’t look around, but he nodded. “I know.”
“Go, before Raegan has noted your leaving.”
“No,” he breathed, pulling my forehead to his.
“I wish I didn’t have to admit it, but I have had my doubts the last few months.
I have doubted that which we have held dear, that which our entire world is built on.
It did not make sense to me, that I had found you on that hill and I had fallen in love with you.
Why would the gods make it so? Why would they allow me to love you if I was supposed to follow the ways of my kin and their kin before them?
” Killian shook his head slowly, his brows abrasive against mine.
“And then you returned, and I knew that there was merit to my doubts. Now… Now I see that you have chosen a side, too. And I trust you, Olivia. I trust this–” He paused to place a hand over my heart.
“You know right and wrong, and I trust that your decision is the right one.”
I whimpered as I desired nothing more than to collapse into his arms. “Don’t do that – please don’t put me on this moral pedestal. I will not survive the fall from it.”
He chuckled, his breath warm against my nose. “I would have ended up in this room one way or another. I am only glad that it is at your side.”
I finally pulled away from him, both of us ignoring the swelling of my eyes or the redness of my face.
“Y-you saw Raegan? Is he–”
“Yes,” he said quietly, his eyes darting to the strangers in the room. “He is alright. But I must ask… what happened? He will not speak to anyone.”
The second time in a short period where I was asked that question, the second time that I felt something shrivel up within me and start to rot.
“I… I think I… I think I broke him,” I sobbed, turning my attention to Killian’s chest where I buried my face. He remained still for a long while, until he at last took a deep breath and wrapped himself around me.
His face deep in my hair, he whispered, “Raegan cannot be broken. He will rise, time and time again. Whatever happened, I can promise you that our King will survive it.”
I shook my head rapidly.
“He is like you in that way.”
“He needs you,” I said as I pulled away again. “He will have no one, now. How can we leave him all alone? How can we let him sit in the darkness that he has chosen for himself?”
Killian bunched his lips as he distracted himself by pushing my hair away from my face again. “I do not know what side of him you got to see, Olivia, but he has, and will, endure far worse than losing us.”
I didn’t believe that for a moment. But Killian saw what everyone else saw, the King of Talamh and nothing more.
If only they could all stop for a damn minute and consider that there was a person inside of that title, that there was a heart that has shattered so many times no one knows what pieces fit together.
We had garnered an audience, a spread of pixies all around us that were in their human sizes as opposed to their true heights. They watched our reunion, curious and somewhat rude, and waited for us to stop. It was Killian who bade me one more small smile and turned to them all.
“Raegan has the Prince of Uisge,” Killian declared, though he refused to look any of them directly in the eye. “He prepares to make the Prince take an oath, to surrender himself entirely to Raegan, so that he might restore the peace between Uisge and his kingdom once and for all.”
I wasn’t thrilled about the whole forcing Tadgh to do anything, but Raegan’s plan didn’t sound… that bad.
Was I just becoming accustomed to his ways? Or did that genuinely sound like the right plan of action?
Even Rory, who I hated more than I could ever imagine I would possibly hate another, seemed to contemplate the same question as he pouted his lips.
No one else seemed to understand that, though.
Certainly not Brian, who was of Uisge, who would defend whomever sat on its throne. “Then we must stop him,” he declared.
As much as I wanted to stay quiet, the question burst from me anyway, “How?”
All eyes moved to me. All, except for Killian. Because he – just as I had been – was blind to it all.
“The King barters peace with the Prince? We will barter with you.”
Killian’s spine straightened as he finally found the ability to look at Rory.
“You are all wasting your time,” I sighed.
Though for a moment I might have thought otherwise, I now knew the truth – Raegan would not surrender his kingdom.
Not for anyone or anything, and certainly not for the meek prize of me.
He had warned me of such, and had chased me away from him because deep down, he knew he would always need to pick a side.
“He let you walk free, Olivia,” Rory said, his eyes alight with hope. “He would not dare hurt you.”
“Our spies have watched you. Both of you. What has formed between the two of you, it is something more than what any of us could have expected. More than love itself. I do not know how much you know about us, about our kind, but understand one thing, Olivia: None of this matters to him if you are the price he must pay,” Brian added.
There was an agony within Killian as his eyes fell from me and he stared at nothing on the ground as he sifted through what had been said.
I felt nothing but agony for him as I realized that, contrary to our conversation, Killian had held on to some hope.
Some hope that I would find my way back to him.
I offered the words to the room, yet again. “You are all wrong. He was eager and willing to send me away.”
“He’s complicated…” Killian muttered to no one in particular, still lost in his thoughts.
“But he cares for you?” Rory grimaced as he asked.
I wanted to shrug, but Killian answered for me, “Like none other.”
That was the dozenth knife in my already damaged heart.
“Then you will have to do,” Rory declared, narrowing his eyes at everyone. “The King will do no harm if he thinks she will fall victim to it.”
I wanted to explain to them that they had it wrong, that all this time of knowing Raegan had cemented one thing, and one thing only — nothing mattered more than his people. Not himself, not his friends, and certainly not me. But there was no point in trying to explain that to them.
Killian knew, though. That’s why he looked at me with creased brows and doubt in his eyes. All I did was sigh as I ran a hand over the scar of two fang-marks on my neck.