Violet Dreams

Chapter 20

"I'm terrible at this", Arabella grumbled to herself.

"Patience, Arabella, you won't learn it overnight", Feyre said calmly from the opposite chair.

Arabella's life had been swamped by training, she felt as though she barely had time to relax. More than ever, Rhysand threw her into daemati training and winnowing, as well as making Cassian train her every morning. She was pretty certain they were only doing this to distract her from Nyx's absence. It didn't work. No matter how many times she bet Cassian in the training ring or forced a headache upon herself with daemati training, she still thought about Nyx. She hated that she did. He had a mate. She had only made out with him a few times, it was completely irrational to be acting this obsessed.

"Can we go back to winnowing?" Arabella asked.

That was one positive to come out of all this training. She could winnow now, or at least, she could winnow short distances. From one side of the library to the other, or, from the estate to the house of wind. She hadn't harmed herself like she did the first time, in fact, now she was pretty confident with her abilities.

Feyre sighed, "you can't just pick the easy way out. Keep trying to enter my mind".

Arabella resisted the urge to complain. She wasn't as talented as Rhys, Feyre or Nyx. She couldn't enter people's minds as smoothly as they did. In fact, she'd had so little progress, Arabella was beginning to believe she'd made the whole thing up. Maybe she didn't really enter her father's mind, maybe she was just that sleep-deprived and bored that she'd created the scenario in her head.

Arabella sat up straighter on the couch, focusing her energy on Feyre and entering her mind.

"I'm thinking of an image, see if you can pick up any fragments of it", Feyre said softly.

Feyre was Arabella's favourite teacher. Rhysand was far too impatient and Nyx had never really tried that hard to teach her. However, Feyre always spoke in soft, soothing tones, it helped relax Arabella.

Arabella could feel the fuzzy wall in the distance that was Feyre's mind. She knew it was there but she struggled to reach it. Stretching out her invisible arm, Arabella reached towards that fuzzy image until it got clearer. She could make out the silhouette of the image Feyre was sending her, there was a lot of blue, a dark, royal blue.

Suddenly Arabella was pulled back into her own mind with a gasp. She rubbed her temples at the pain that radiated there.

"Arabella are you alright?" Feyre asked, concern in her voice.

"The Sidra", Arabella gasped, "it was a painting of the Sidra".

Feyre's face broke out into a smile, "you saw it?" She asked excitedly.

Arabella nodded weakly, the library lights forcing her to squint, "faintly but yes".

Feyre practically jumped up and down in excitement. Arabella was still cradling her headache, a cool glass of water was the only thing she was excited for.

"That's progress, Arabella!" Feyre said giddily, "you should be thrilled".

"I am", Arabella smiled.

And she was happy, she was so grateful she hadn't dreamt up her daemati abilities. However, she couldn't help but feel that someone else would've liked to of been there.

                                      —————

"Are you...unwell?"

Nyx couldn't help but ask. He'd been training like usual and was about to break for lunch when he found Azriel waiting for him at his cabin doorstep. He had been ready for a lecture, thinking that Azriel's shadows had spied him beating up Illyrian warriors. But Azriel wasn't waiting there to lecture him, no, instead it was something far more ludicrous.

"Do you want me to help sneak in Arabella?" Azriel repeated for the third time.

Nyx shook his head in disbelief, "you must be ill. Did you crash on the way here?"

Azriel rolled his eyes, sighing in frustration, "yes, yes, I can't believe it either but I hate seeing you both like this".

"Both? Arabella is unhappy?"

Nyx spotted the ghost of a smirk on Azriel's features yet he chose to ignore it.

"She seems to have a similar coping mechanism to you", was all Azriel replied.

Nyx resisted the urge to pace. He was all for the idea of sneaking in Arabella, but did she want it? And surely his dad would know something is up.

"Is it possible to sneak her in?" Nyx asked.

"I'm literally the spymaster".

Nyx glared at Azriel's attitude, "and my dad is an overbearing pain in my ass".

Azriel chuckled, "I'll help you sneak her in, but understand that I'm defying an order from your father, and if I have a job to do that will overrule any plans you have with Arabella. Understood?"

Nyx nodded eagerly.

"And one more condition".

"Yes?"

"I don't want to catch you in the middle of something so please put up a barrier or some-"

"-you got it, Uncle Az!" Nyx said smiling.

Azriel ran a hand through his hair, sighing as if he regretted his decision already.

"And please, use protection I don't need another mini Rhysand running around".

Nyx visibly winced, "cauldron Azriel! I've already had this talk with dad and we are not doing that again!"

Azriel nodded once and stepped out of the way so Nyx could enter his cabin.

"I'll see you soon", Azriel said before fading into his shadows as if he were never really there.