Glass of Revenge

~3~

To say that the start of Sam and Lyria's alliance of revenge did not go very well was an understatement of mega proportions.

Both Sam and Lyria were very strong willed people, who expected to get their own way all the time. Needless to say, that led to many disagreements, and when it came right down to it, screaming matches with nothing getting done.

In fact, almost two months after Lyria even set foot on the flipping continent, the pair of them were still stuck in Rifthold, due to their ceaseless arguing. The very fact that they hadn't left the city, that they were still ... living ... in the wrong kingdom, infuriated Lyria. If it were her alone, she would have started travelling north to Terrasen, weeks ago. But she couldn't just go off by herself, because of the idiocy of the young man who was supposed to assisting her with her revenge.

It wasn't that she didn't like Sam, because Lyria had respected him, even if only begrudgingly. To endure his imprisonment for so many years, and to still come out standing, to take revenge on the people who had wronged him, spoke of courage. More courage than a lot of people had. After hearing his story, she was more convinced than ever that he would make a decent ally.

But at the same time, he was the one holding her up. The only way she would be able to get her revenge and get her mate back was with his help, but she hated the way he was constantly arguing with her and questioning her judgement.

In fact, if it weren't for the boy's childish stubbornness, she would have been on the road north by now. But he believed that now that Arobynn Hamel and the other assassins of the Guild were dead, the woman he called Celaena would come running straight back to him. No matter how many times she told him that Celaena went by Aelin now, that she had chosen another man over him, Sam just wouldn't listen. No matter how many times she told him that if they didn't start north soon, they would have to wait until the mountain passes cleared in the spring.

In fact, the child was really getting on her nerves. The only thing that was keeping her in this alliance was the fact that she would need his help when it came to taking down the Terrasen Queen. The more he continued to delay the journey north, the more she wanted Aelin dead.

"Why the hell do you want to stay in this hell hole that you call a city?" Lyria snapped at him one day, several weeks after her arrival in Rifthold. "You must realise by now that she's not coming back to you. You can't live in denial forever."

"You can't continue to live in denial either, Lyria," Sam snapped back. "Your mate left you centuries ago. If he hasn't come back to you by now, what makes you think he ever will? Neither of them are ever coming back to us. I think that it's about time that we accepted it."

"How can you be so blasé about it?" Lyria shouted. "Your woman, in the arms of another man. The thought must make you just about furious."

"It does," Sam said through clenched teeth. "I never knew much about Celaena's past, but if she really is the queen of Terrasen, than I think her duty to her kingdom is more important to her than I am. Her duty to her kingdom is more important than the life I have always wanted to have with her. Duty above all. Certainly duty before love."

"She doesn't see it that way," Lyria snarled. "Neither of them do. Not after the pair of them willingly abandoned us the way they did. And for that, they deserve to be punished."

"But Celaena didn't abandon me. She thought I was dead, remember?" Sam said as calmly as he could. "For her to be able to abandon me, she would have had to know that I was alive, which is highly doubtful, especially considering how despicable Arobynn Hamel was. He would have encouraged the lies, particularly when it came to Celaena. Hamel considered her his personal property."