When Darkness Meets Fire

Chapter 14 - Rhysand

Aelin screamed as flames of varying colours filled the shield that I had put around everything.

"She hasn't done this in a while." Dorian whispered; I think more to himself than anyone.

"She hasn't done this since Maeve trapped her in iron for two months." Amren replied.

Dorian stared at his friend. She was still screaming, her fires still raging. Despite her pain her flames were beautiful, they ranged from a deep orange to a pale yellow then throughout the normal colours of flame there was wisps of blue.

"I haven't seen her burn blue in a while, she used to make crowns of blue flames for her and Rowan but when her well was depleted and almost non-existent her flames became less varied in colour."

The fire died out and she fell to the side, her body limp.

"Shit, not again." He muttered under his breath as I let my own shield drop and he ran to her side.

He gently placed the back of his hand on her cheek and swore again, this time with a little more colour. Her body was once again covered in ice, but it quickly turned to steam, he froze her again, it turned to steam a little slower. He froze her over and over until it didn't melt due to her body temperature.

"She is going to be out of a while, if she emptied her entire well."

"She didn't." Amren replied.

"And how do you know that?" Beron asked.

"Because if she had emptied her entire well, she would have burnt for a whole lot longer." Amren snapped at him, clearly annoyed by his persistence.

"Would you all shut up, my head hurts." Aelin grumbled from where she was resting against Dorian.

"You're awake." Dorian sounded shocked.

"Yeah, I just took the edge off, I'm going to need to let it all out soon though, does the offer to train still stand?" she was grinning at Cassian.

"I'm not fighting you; you were unconscious a minute ago." He was frowning down at her.

"I'll fight you." Beron told her and she grinned, I knew this wasn't going to end well.

I winnowed them all up to the House of Wind, just above the no winnowing barrier. We all fell into the training ring.

"I think Dorian should fight Rhys." Amren announced.

"I don't think so." I replied.

"Why not High Lord, worried you will lose?" he grinned at me.

"You are letting a human talk to you like this Rhysand, your standards are really slipping." Beron mocked.

"Dorian isn't an ordinary human Beron." Amren smoothly replied.

"All humans are ordinary!" he snapped at her.

In a flash of light Beron was no longer facing Dorian, in his place was a massive black scaled beast who let out a snarl.

"Ok, fine, you aren't ordinary." He told the beast, or Dorian, I guess.

In another flash of light Dorian was back to his old self and grinning.

"You've been pretending to be Abraxos again haven't you?" Aelin teased.

"What, it pisses Manon off." Dorian gave her a sly smile.

"A pissed of Manon is never fun to deal with." Aelin sighed.

"Yeah, but it gets me out of the boring meetings, she scares everyone off, I'm surprised I still have citizens if I'm being honest." He was obviously trying to hold back laughter.

"Can you send Manon over to mine some time when Darrow is over, give him a good scare, he still doesn't like me." Aelin chuckled.

"I don't think she would take to kindly to that somehow, so unless you want to be gutted, I suggest keeping that comment in this world." Dorian's eyes were sparkling.

"You forget that I once fort Manon, and won, in my human form might I add." Aelin was properly laughing now.

"Ok, stop it you too, I want to see Aelin beat Beron." Amren was grinning.

"She won't beat me, I'm a High Lord." Beron snapped.

"Are you sure, I still have a whole lot of power left and I could probably end the fight in half a minute." Aelin was looking at Beron like her was her next meal.

We all walked to the outside edge of the ring and they both got ready. On the count of three they started.

Beron attacked her with everything he had but she didn't seem to care, they circled each other for about a minute, powers flaring before Aelin ran to the side of the ring, caging Beron in fire and dropping to her knees.

Dorian ran to her side and she let the fire cage drop.