A Coin Has Two Sides (Season Three) || Kaz Brekker x OC

5. Again

"Again."

Winnie was convinced that was Zoya's favourite word.

The shadow summoner had been training relentlessly since first light.

She understood why. There was no room for error. Especially for her.

Her darkness didn't rest, so neither could she.

For the last year, Zoya had made that perfectly clear to her.

Every single day she was present in the training room.

Control, control, control.

Every time she so much as thought of summoning, the threat of a nichevo'ya forming would occur, as did the threat of her losing that control.

Of course, at the start, there had been plans to help Winnie.

The first being to get each of the shadow monsters out of her and kill them once and for all.

But Winnie was quick to shut that idea down, remembering the painful process she had to go through each time even one of them was removed from her system.

There was now a total of eight nichevo'ya within herself from the day she fought against her father.

And with the possibility of there being more out there, not to mention without Alina's powers intact to destroy them and the Neshyenyer returned to Shu Han, Winnie needed to be prepared for that number to grow.

She was the defence against the darkness now.

A vault that kept it all safely contained.

And the key to unlock it rested with her strength.

Control, control, control.

Zoya had her practicing her basic summoning.

The skills she had learned when she was much younger and had first come into her powers.

Hence Zoya's favourite word.

Each time Winnie would destroy a wooden dummy with a ball of whirring shadows or the famed 'cut', Zoya would have her repeat it over and over until the shadow summoner managed to do it without any effort at all.

It was almost as easy as breathing.

Once that was accomplished, it became easier for her to silence her darkness and remain calm.

No longer relying on it to come forth and save her like she had done before when trapped alone in the Fold.

She could control it now.

And with the help of everyone around her, her friends, her newfound family, her environment, she could control her emotions and her heart.

That was what her father had warned her about with his dying breath.

That was what used to be her weakness when she was in Ketterdam.

Her past, her trauma, her complicated feelings. It all fed her darkness like a three-course meal.

But now Winnie was happy. She was comfortable. She was relaxed.

Sure, it wasn't freedom.

It wasn't what she dreamed her life might look like if she had her way.

It wasn't without the struggle of letting those dreams fade along with her darkness.

But it was just what she needed.

Hence the reason she had decided to stay in Ravka in the first place.

Eventually, Zoya felt she was in control enough to practice the creation of the nichevo'ya. Just like her father had done.