The Fire in the Shadow

Scars

Celaena POV

She had taken a bath, her hair was wet and she was standing in front of the mirror looking at herself. She had been reading in the book and she had found something. Some of the pages were about wyrdmarks and one of them had the wyrdmarks she would need to make a portal. The nightgown she was wearing was beautiful, it was black and it glimmered in the light. When she turned around her back was on display and the nightgown went halfway to her knees. She was standing there until she heard the quiet sound of her door opening and when she looked up Azriel was standing there but he wasn't looking at her face, he was looking at her back, he was looking at her scars that she had from getting whipped. And when he looked up at her face, he said "Dinner's ready, you should get dressed." And then he just left.

Azriel POV

She had been whipped, and she was so young. Didn't she have anyone to protect her against that kind of stuff. He was furious. Azriel knew that all of Celaena's scars weren't just from accidents while working but this, this was something way beyond what he had imagined. 

Azriel was sitting in his chair in the dining room. Everyone were there, except Celaena. Just as he had thought that she stepped into the room, she didn't look at him in fact she sat herself down the farthest away from him as possible. 

Celaena POV

Azriel had seen her scars. Should she tell him about why she had them. No, not yet. She had to see if she could trust him first. Which is why she was going to train tonight and she hoped that he would show up. Because if he didn't she didn't know how she could get to know him enough to trust him. And maybe when she had told him he would tell her what exactly happened in that cell with his brothers, what exactly had happened to his hands. 

When she was done eating she left the table, she hadn't really talked that much she had just made some basic conversation with Nesta. Other than that she had just listened to what the others were talking about. She could of course join the different conversations if she wanted to, but she didn't really feel like it. She had to spare her energy till tonight. One conversation she had been actually interested in was when they talked about the illyrians and how exactly they could help the women even more, but even that didn't get Celaena to speak, she didn't actually know that much about the illyrians anyway.

When she was back at her room, she sat there reading for a while. The clock had struck ten and she thought that now would probably be a good time to get ready. She couldn't be in the training room to late or to early, she had to time it as perfectly as she possibly could. When she had finally been able to wriggle herself into the training leathers she started her walk towards the training room. Her hair in a braid behind her. 

Celaena had come at the perfect time. Azriel was already inside, training. And it seemed that he had been there for a little while. He was shirtless and his abs were on display, they were glistening with tiny droplets of sweat running down his body. Celaena had to get a grip on herself, she was used to seeing shirtless men, but there was just something about Azriel that made her slightly unfocused. She had to concentrate, she couldn't be drooling over his chest while talking to him. That would just be weird and very awkward.

When she had finally calmed down she grabbed the handle of the door and stepped into the room.