Shadowsinger

Chapter 30

Feyre's face was ashen, the dark smudges under her eyes from stress more pronounced, her movements slower than usual, almost, she looked almost human. Still, her face brightened when Gwyn knocked gently on the door,

"How is he?"

"Alive." Feyre murmured, "And getting stronger by the minute, he was up for a couple of hours earlier, but he'll need a little more time to recover fully, much to his annoyance." Gwyn took the seat across from her High Lady, her friend, her sister, and squeezed both of her hands, 

"Is there anything that Madja could do?"

"Not now, the pain medicine she left is working, and it's just because of the ash, two days isn't long, he'll be fighting fit in another two no doubt." Gwyn wished she had something, anything to offer, any kernel of magic that might help, although if Feyre's own was useless, Gwyn doubted that she would be able to do anything meaningful. "You have done enough," Feyre murmured, as if aware of the direction her thoughts had taken, and Gwyn looked up suddenly, checking automatically to find her mental shields intact, "I don't need to hear your thoughts to understand how you feel," 

"Is it worth speaking to the High Lord of Dawn?" Gwyn asked, and Feyre laughed, a soft, light chuckle, her immortal glow returning at the sound,

"No, it'd just make it look like we were weak, all he needs is time, for now, we can give him that, but I appreciate your concern," Gwyn still wasn't convinced, but Feyre was certain, "Did you think about my offer?" Yes, and no, she'd thought about it, and put if off, 

"Yes, but I still haven't come to a conclusion, I love having wings, the potential to learn to fly, but it's not mine, it's such a big change to my body, I'm not ready for anything like that permanently, I've only just learned to make my body my own again."

"Then I'll vanish them, but you know, you can always ask, any time, and I'll summon them again should you want me to," Gwyn nodded her thanks as she stood so that Feyre could see to guide her magic, and braced herself, stumbling forwards as she re-balanced herself after the weight of the wings vanished from her back, she hadn't realized quite how differently she'd been standing with them there. Still, it was good to have returned to normal, even if a part of her sighed in resignation at the loss of her wings, a part of her still longed to fly with the wind, to answer the call in her blood, but not like this, this was not her, if she was destined to fly, she would do it through herself, not through a friend's magic.

The hour she had free passed in a blink, the clock chiming out the hour before Gwyn was ready to leave, reluctantly handing Nyx back to his mother from where he'd crawled into her lap a while ago. She shot one last look across at Rhys' sleeping form before bidding goodbye to Feyre and practically sprinting to make it to the training room on time.

Thankfully, she was only a few moments late, and no-one seemed to notice, no-one except Emerie, who nodded a greeting from where she was leaning against the wall, watching Nesta explaining the tests to the trainee medics.

"No wings?"

"It wasn't me, I couldn't change my body like that permanently," Emerie nodded her understanding and allowed them to fall into a comforting silence, her gaze running over the room, the series of tests that they'd spent the past week planning, much to Cassian's delight. Now, fully taking in the first test, Gwyn thought he may have been right in accusing them of being worse than him and Azriel, well, not Azriel. Cauldron knew that Gwyn had fully expected to collapse from exhaustion at almost every one of Azriel's tests, but she hadn't, she'd completed them all, had proved to him, but more to herself, that she could do it. 

Unconsciously, Gwyn's gaze flicked around the room, seeking out the familiar swirl of shadows that betrayed where Azriel was hiding, but when Gwyn's gaze fell on Azriel, he wasn't hiding in the shadows anymore, not the true shadows anyway, his own were darting around, feeling out the area, but he was there, smiling. Gwyn glanced away before he could catch her staring, but she smiled to herself, the past couple of days' training had been a nightmare to say the least, Azriel had been loathe to step out of the darkness of the room's corners, seeming to blend into it, his way of hiding from Rhys' absence. Nothing Gwyn had said had made him change that habit, while he'd been better away from training, when he couldn't stare aimlessly at the neat row of spears lining the wall he'd seemed to relax. But today he wasn't hiding any more, wasn't brooding over his misplaced guilt. She didn't have time to wonder why.