Worlds Of Fire And Darkness

Chapter 3

Aelin was awake by dawn. She put on the clothes that were left by her bed and went out of the room, not bothering to be silent since Mor's bed was empty when she awoke.

She found the stairs and began going up, heading for the roof and as she passed hall after hall, she admired the beautiful decorations layed out across the house along with paintings that were hung on the walls, all of them of the people she'd met, of Rhys' court.

She couldn't really call them his Court when she saw the way they acted together, they were more of a family than anything. She'd be damned if she wasn't envious of their lives here.

Aelin reached the roof after a few minutes of walking and beheld the sinful scene before her.

The three Illyrians were shirtless and their torsos gleamed with sweat in the morning sunlight as they trained. All of them were spectacularly built, huge muscles that strained and shifted with every movement of their bodies covered every inch of them along with tattoos and scars that stood out against their smoothly tanned skin. Rhys and Az's hair was a mess of ruffled black locks while the general had tied his in a half up half down style.

Even then, all three males were nothing compared to her mate's body and hair that she craved touching every day.

Rhys noted her and snapped his fingers, instantly, all of their sweat disappeared and shirts covered all of them.

Aelin tried to hide in her surprise at the power Rhys possessed as she walked forward and asked by way if greeting, “How did you do that?”

All three males were now looking at her, "My magic allows me to do many things," Rhys answered.

She nodded and turned to Cassian who was gazing at her the most intensely. “I was promised a fight.” He said.

Aelin lifted her arms and gestured to herself, “And here I am.” She turned to Rhys again. “But first I want to know if you’ve started searching for a way.”

Rhys nodded and said, “I’ve sent word to my friend who has the biggest library in all of Prythian and he is currently searching. I also have Amren searching our library that has most of the ancient books and spells.”

Aelin nodded slowly and took off her jacket and strode to where Cassian now stood, smirking like a wolf. She rolled up her sleeves and exposed the flesh of her arms, peppered with scars of all sizes and types.

She did not miss Cassian's slight eyes widening at the sight of her scars, but she didn't let his reaction affect her, she was proud of her scars and will always be.

“Ready to get your ass kicked again?” Aelin asked him as she unsheathed Goldryn, its ruby shining in the morning sun and flipped the blade in her hand a few times, warming up her muscles.

Her question had Cassian tearing his gaze from her arms and answering her, “We’ll start our first round without magic, and if I win we’ll do a second round.”

“Sounds good to me.” Aelin said as Cassian picked up his Illyrian blades and took his fighting position.

“Ten gold marks says Cassian wins.” Rhys said as he poured himself a glass of water.

“Fifteen says Aelin.” Azriel answered, fixing his eyes on them as he crossed his arms over a broad chest.

“Shut up, assholes.” Cassian said even as a smile tugged on his lips, but didn’t look away from Aelin.

She knew he was baiting her by waiting and circling, waiting for her to make the first move, so Aelin took the bait and raised Goldryn as she struck.

Cassian blocked the blow and answered with one of his own, she blocked it as well, her arms holding steady and her muscles straining.

“I’m going to enjoy this.” Rhys said as he chuckled.

Aelin refrained from sounding her agreement as she dodge another blow from Cassian. He was good, the general was very well trained, but he was a brute, and she was small and fast. The plan clicked into her mind as Aelin blocked another blow.

She struck and Cassian was too taken by her sword that he didn’t see her as she slammed her foot into the arch of his leg and sent him falling onto one knee, but Cassian had already lifted his blades and couldn’t stop the blow as it hit her bicep and slashed through Aelin’s arm just as the queen landed her sword on Cassian’s throat and stopped.

“What the fuck, Cassian.” Rhys said sharply as he crossed the space between them.

Aelin still had her sword against Cassian’s throat, both of them panting and breathing heavily, as she said, “Looks like we’re not having a round two.”

She lowered Goldryn and offered a hand to Cassian who took it as he stood up. He looked at her arm and his eyes widened, “I’m so sorry.” He breathed.

Aelin looked at her arm and said, “It’s nothing. I'll be fine.”

The gash in her arm was far from nothing, if it had been anymore deep it would have hit bone.

Rhys took her arm in his hands and Aelin winced as the high lord studied the wound.

“I told you to spare not to kill her.” Rhys said as he looked at his general.

"Looks like to me, he couldn’t even come close to killing me.” Aelin said as the smile on her lips turned into a laugh. “Has no one really ever beat him?”

“No one, ever.” Rhys said as he smiled as well.

Aelin’s face turned hard again as she focused and willed her arm to close up, it did, and all that was left was a pink scar.

“Why didn’t you instantly heal it, you risked it getting infected by waiting.” Azriel said as he approached and stood by his High Lord.

“Learned from my mate to wait to see if there was anything in my wound before letting it close up, since he lectured me about it after I nearly got myself killed because of that.” She smiled sadly at the memory of Rowan scolding her after her fight with Dorian.

“How did you get yourself into such a situation?” Rhys asked, now interested in her story.

Aelin took a deep breath and remembered the shattered castle, Dorian’s battle cry, them being hand in hand as they defeated his father, “I was fighting my friend who was possessed by a demon and I was trying to free him, during our fight he stabbed me in my side with a sharp glass piece, I yanked it out but it left some shards. I closed up the wound quickly not wanting to get distracted. And after I helped my friend free himself I fell unconscious and my mate told me they had to cut me open again to get all the shards out.” She smiled again at what they had done after getting lectured.

Azriel swore under his breath and asked, “You didn’t seem to mind the pain though, if it had been Cassian he would’ve been crying and maybe unconscious.”

Cassian flipped off his brother and Rhys chuckled as he turned to Aelin, waiting for her answer.

Her face was hard as she remembered the daily torture in Maeve’s cells, how Cairn had taken her apart piece by piece every day, and did it again and again.

"I've been collecting these scars since I was ten," she said and she heard all of their breaths catch, "I don't feel pain from wounds like these anymore."

She ducked her head as all the memories from these two months became a heavy weight on her again. Rhys put his hand on her shoulder, and said with sympathy in his eyes, “I promise we’ll find you a way to go back Aelin, and you will defeat your enemies and make them regret every bad thing they ever did.”

Aelin smiled a forced smile but Rhys’s eyes went vacant, just like when he’d gone into Feyre’s mind -he’d told Aelin about his ability to mind-talk- and then he shook his head and said lowly, “Helion found something.”

Hello people, you might notice that these messages I'm leaving are a new thing and well, they are and it's because I'd like to get to know who's enjoying the story❤️

Question: If you could change KOA's ending, how would you end it?