Page 138 of Lucky In Love

Byron felt a cold shiver go down his spine. “It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have taken the stone. I tried to have it returned. Please forgive me.” He looked at them, his eyes pleading for absolution.

They shook their heads. The first male lifted his clenched fist. “You have stolen from us. You must be punished.”

“Hasn’t he suffered enough, Ruune?” Angela asked softly, appearing to know who the men were. “You have not given him a moment of peace since he took it. He has tried to have it given back. He has asked for your forgiveness. Can you not find it within yourselves to forgive him?”

“No. We cannot overlook such impudence against us,” Ruune growled.

Byron gasped as his companion sprouted thick, luxurious golden wings that wrapped around one side of him, pulling him closer to her. They weren’t delicate translucent wings, but solid feathers filling the appendages sprouting from her back.

Both fairies seemed to lunge toward them simultaneously, not at all startled by her transformation.

Using one of her wings, Angela swatted Ruune away from them.

Angela shoved Byron behind her.

Using her wings and fists, Angela fought off the men who seemed intent on trying to reach Byron. She kicked her feet in one direction while her fist and wings went in another.

The fairies didn’t give up easily.

While Angela dealt with Ruune, the other male gripped her wing, yanking on it.

Angela cried out in pain, immediately trying to tuck it into her body, protecting it from further injury.

Standing, Byron moved towards Angela’s injured wing, trying to ward off the male who would use the injury to his advantage. Byron tackled him around the male's waist. Pulling his arms away after they both landed on the ground, Byron used what advantage he had to pummel the man, striking his face and body with as much force as he could muster, oblivious of the pain shooting through his hands from the assault.

While Byron was dealing with one male fairy, Angela focused on Ruune.

He made a frontal attack, to which she allowed him to get close enough before she sent a powerful punch to his nose, satisfied as she heard the resounding crack. He yelped in pain and backed away, his hands covering his face.

“Goshin, let them go.” Ruune disappeared immediately.

Goshin rolled away from under Byron and immediately evaporated.

When Byron realized he and Angela were alone, he turned to her. “I’m sorry about your wing. Is it bad?”

“It’s pretty damaged,” she said softly.

“Come. Daylight is approaching, and I cannot protect you here any further when the sun rises.”

Chapter Four

Moving to her uninjured side, he slipped his arm around her waist, helping her away from the area. “I don’t know how to thank you. You know, your name is very appropriate. You’ve been my angel, helping me against god knows what. I’m sorry you got hurt.”

“I know. I’ll be okay. Rest and I’ll be as good as new. I’m not an angel, though. Far from it.”

He chuckled. “You’ve been too kind to be a devil.” He helped her sit on a large fallen log nearby.

She was grateful for his kindness, sitting and examining her wing to see the full extent of the damage.

Not sure what he was looking at, he also tried to peer at her injured wing. “It doesn’t look broken, but I’m not a doctor.”

“I don’t think it is. I can still move it, albeit painfully. Tell me, why are the fairies so angry with you? What did you take from them?”

Sitting on the log beside her, he sighed, not caring that the dampness seeped into his jeans. “I didn’t think they were real, so I took a stone from a fairy ring we visited just before I left Ireland.”

“We? Are you married?”

“I was. Divorced. My ex found my best friend a better companion than myself. We were high school sweethearts. A couple of years ago, she developed cancer. I stood by her through all of her treatments, only to have her leave me for my best friend, who also was her doctor. I left Minnesota and came to a suburb outside of Chicago. I decided a trip to Ireland was the respite I needed after such a contentious divorce and the mental anguish that resulted from my best friend and my wife being together without me in their lives.

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