Acotar and Tog [Discontinued, Will be deleted]

I Hope They All Burn in Hell

The coming weeks that passed were easier. I realized it more day by day as Feyre made me slowly learn to dwell less and less on Tarquin, on what had transpired between our courts. What I might have lost.

Now there was only what I stood to lose still as we waited for the queens to reply from the mortal realms, several letters now having been sent that remained unanswered. I had Cassian send one from me personally, without the others knowing specifically what it contained. Not even Mor. I had a feeling that if it too failed to call the queens to our attention, then no letter would, but it was all I had.

I poured everything into that letter. And watched it go wondering if it would matter.

Amren took the news of the blood rubies well. I brought Mor with me, the least antagonizing of the circle and the most likely one Amren wouldn’t throttle if her temper flared. But when I opened the lid on the box and she spotted the rubies, there was only a brief flash of venom in those silver eyes before she laughed her head off. She picked up a ruby and barely gave it any examination before it fell with a heavy clunk on a stack of paper, and that was that.

“Males are fickle beasts,” was all Amren said before dismissing us. Mor shook her head at me for being so dramatic about the affair, but she still insisted on taking me out for lunch before she kicked my ass in the sparring ring that afternoon.

I was getting along better with the sparring itself, the training. Now that I wasn’t quite so inclined to shy away from it, I found my body craving it again, having gotten a taste of it in Adriata the night we stole the book and now I wanted more.

Cassian had Feyre out for practice most mornings and Azriel was gone every other day trying to infiltrate the palace of the mortal queens. So I waited until night fell, and I was exhausted from training with Feyre all afternoon, to go back up to that rooftop and trade blows with Cassian. He looked exhausted himself sometimes, but no matter how many times I told him beating me up for sport wasn’t necessary, he never turned me down.

“You’re easy game anyway, brother,” he told me once, chucking an Illyrian sword at me that was sharper than the sun and watching closely to see how well I’d catch it. “Besides - you could use the workout. Feyre’s gonna find a new High Lord to cross paths with if you don’t beef up a bit. You’re looking a little,” he stood back, one arm crossed and the other ending at his chin considering, “scrawny.”

He grinned like a hellion when I flashed my teeth at that. “Just fight me, you bastard.”

And he did. With earnest.

It felt... good again.

My muscles ached in all the right places, growing thicker again a little more each day. My agility came back and my foot work wasn’t such a mess anymore, and the few times I had to spar with Azriel when he wasn’t out, I didn’t have to worry about whether or not I could best him. Eventually, I’d get back on pace with Cassian as well, I knew.

Cass knew it too. He told me so everyday in the way he’d clasp my back with a twinkle in his eye after going at it all night, sometimes so long that the sun was coming up over the city by the time we retreated to our respective homes.

Occasionally, we’d find Mor dozing on the couch inside the House, an open doorway letting in a draft from the balcony while she waited for Azriel to get back. Cass would take one long stare at her before shrugging his shoulders at me and dismissing himself to go get cleaned up. I never woke her once.

But it was Feyre who made my blood race, who made me feel alive again. I wondered every time we met to train with our minds and our powers if she and I hadn’t been suffering a bit from the same depressions, the same insecurities. That day I’d gotten the rubies... she hadn’t given up on me. Maybe the teasing and fantasies had all been an illusion to keep me fighting, the same way I’d done to her initially, but as the days passed, it came to us naturally and I didn’t feel that same facade between us anymore.