The Exchange

Chapter 8

Once Rhys went outside and Feyre had recovered from laughter, Feyre guided me to the dining room. She introduces me to Amren, a short woman with dark hair that reaches to her jaw. With her eyes, which have a silver color, she looks me up and down. Everyone here seems to do that, it's like everyone have to see for themselves that I'm actually not a threat.
I'm a little bit intimidated by her, but Feyre reassured me that she just needs to get to know me. She'll have to 'warm up' to me, as Feyre said.

Then, Elain walked in the dining room. She has brown hair, just like Feyre's hair. Unlike Feyre's blue eyes, Elain has brown eyes, of which I know look like a pool of pure honey when she looks in the sun. When she sees me, she lookes scared. She freezes and stops walking. Her eyes scan me, and I see her eyes stop when she sees my ears. My ears are not like those of everyone else here. I'm a human.

Feyre walks towards her sister.

'Elain, this is Anna. She woke up in the room, just like the other ones.'

When Elain hears that, she takes her eyes off of me and looks at her sister. 'Another one?' I hear her whisper.
Feyre nods.
Elain looks back at me. She walks towards me and stops right in front of me. She holds out her hand to me and says; 'I'm Elain Archeron, Feyre and Nesta's sister.'
I look at her hand and then back at her face. I take her hand carefully and feel she has a very soft grip. 'Hello Elain, I'm Anna. Nice to meet you.' I put a small smile on.

Elain lets go of my hand and walks to the table.
Feyre walks over to me. 'Have I now met everyone?' I ask her.
'Not yet, you haven't met Nesta yet. She usually comes over at dinner, so I think you'll be meeting her tonight.'
When Feyre says that, the three boys walk in. Rhys in front, he's soaking wet. He leaves a trail of waterdrops where he walks. He looks a bit pissed. Azriel and Cassian behind him look satisfied. They both have their shirts in their hands and a big smile on their face. They're also soaking wet
'Couldn't just get inside normally this time?' Morrigan says.
'Well, my dear Morrigan, this one's on Rhysand himself. He told us lunch was almost ready, we told him we were almost finished. He stood there and watched us and made some mean comments. We couldn't just let that slip. So when he made another mean comment which I will not be repeating here, Azriel and I looked at each other, picked him up and threw him in the lake.'

Morrigan rolls her eyes. Amren sighs.

'But it wasn't enough for our dear Rhys, no. He got out of the lake and pussed Cassian in the lake. I then picked Rhys up and threw him in the lake again, but he grabbed my arm and dragged me along,' Azriel continues.

I hear Feyre giggling behind me. Rhysand hears it too and walks over to her, with an evil smirk on his face.

'Feyre, darling, come give me a hug.'

'NO! You're wet! I'm dry! Stop! Rhysand!' Feyre screams when she runs away from him. Rhys runs after her. He's too fast for her and soon has his hands around her waist. Feyre lets herself fall to the floor, but Rhys doesn't let her go. He just falls right on top of her. I hear Rhys whisper things and Feyre's giggling is unstoppable at this point. Morrigan looks at them and hides her laughs behind her hand. Amren doesn't try to hide her laughs.

Cassian and Azriel look at each other satisfied. 'Guess we've done our good deed for today, Azriel,' Cassian says. I let out a laugh, but quickly put my hand over my mouth. Azriel looks at me with an amused smile and frowned eyebrows.

'Good deed? In what way?' I ask while looking from Cassian to Azriel and back.

'Well,' Azriel begins. He walks over to me and when he's two steps away from me, I take a step back. He tilts his head. 'You're wet too, I'm dry. Just like Feyre said.'
'Look at them,' Azriel says. I look at Feyre and Rhysand. Still on the floor, both laughing. 'He's going to get laid tonight. He just has to bring this up, and boom.' I chuckle. I look at him and say; 'And you consider that a good deed?' 'They're probably going to be in a good mood for the rest of the day and hopefully tomorrow too. So yes, that's a very good deed.'

I look at Azriel. 'Then you must've done a hell of a lot 'good deeds' in your life if you consider that a good deed,' I say jokingly.
'And I'm about to do a good deed again very soon.'
'Really? What's that?'
'Well, you see Amren, Morrigan, Elain and Cassian?'
I nod.
'They're about to have twice as much fun as they're having now.'
I look at him confused. 'What do you mean?'
An evil laugh forms on his face.

Then, he starts running towards me, arms wide open. I have just enough time to dive under his arm and before I know it, I'm looking at his back. I hear Cassian, Amren and Morrigan laugh. Feyre and Rhysand have stopped and now sit straight up on the floor just to see how this ends.
Azriel turns around. 'You're pretty fast, darling.'
'Guess I am,' I say with a big smile on my face. He starts running again and I run away from him. I run around the table a couple times and then run towards Feyre and Rhys. 'Help me,' I mouth when I'm close to them. Feyre and Rhys shake their head and Rhys says; 'This is your battle, show him what you got.' 'He's getting pretty close, though,' Feyre adds.

I think about my next move and look over my shoulder at Azriel. His arms are still spread, but I see he is indeed getting closer and closer.
Since there is no escaping the outcome of this, I decide to stop, turn around and spread my arms. Embrace the outcome.

Azriel, still running when I stop, didn't see this coming and can't stop in time. He bumps into me, full speed, and we both fall to the floor. Azriel is on top of me, his arms around my waist. My arms around his neck. I feel my top already sticking to my body. I start laughing. 'I suprised you, didn't I?'
'Yes, I didn't expect you to stop running that suddenly.'
'Ahaa, the element of surprise. In this battle, it was my best and only element.'
Azriel starts laughing.
'That was a good one. Maybe me and Cassian should train you, so you can get the hang of more elements.'
'I'm fine with that, I don't think it's wrong to at least know how to defend myself.'
'For a first battle, this was a good one. You really caught me by surprise at the end.'
'I know,' I say with a grin.

Azriel gets off me and helps me up. Feyre and Rhys are walking towards the table and Cassian has already taken a seat.
Rhys looks over his shoulder at us.

'Come on you two, lunch time. I'm starving.'

Azriel and I walk to the table, where we sit down on the last chairs. I'm sitting in between Azriel and Morrigan, with Amren across me. Feyre is sitting next to Amren, Rhys is sitting at the head of the table and Elain is sitting across from Morrigan. Cassian is sitting across from Rhys.

Amren starts asking me questions.

'So Anna, how did you get here?'
'I believe you call it 'the room',' I say while making quotation marks with my fingers.
Amren seems startled and looks at Rhys. He looks back at her and nods.

'Anna will tell us all something in a couple of minutes,' he clarifies.
I nod. 'But I think it's wise to first finish our lunch.'
'That's fine, I got some news too,' Rhys says.
'I got a letter from Tarquin, High Lord of the Summer Court, in which he invites us to a meeting between all High Lords and their family.'
Everyone looks up.
'When?' Azriel asks.
'Next week.'