A Court of Stars and Shadow

Chapter 5

I stared at Rhys for a good second before laughing, outright laughing in his face. I laughed so hard tears formed at my eyes and I whipped them away, blinking to clear my blurry eyes and I saw his face. It was drawn, almost annoyed and.... And he was utterly serious; and just as fast as I had begun laughing, I stopped. "You can't be serious" I breathed out; all joy stripped from my face. He leaned back in his chair and ran a hand over his face, "I'm afraid so".

I was silent for a minute before shaking my head "but-how-when-" "I suspected when I saw you in the ditch, there was a sort of power you radiated. But when you woke up, it vanished. I kept it in mind, but I sensed nothing of it at dinner, so I chalked it up to the whole event but then Cassian said he felt it from you today at training" the memory on the ring came to mind. Cassian as he spun me to the wall, as his eyes narrowed and he stared into my eyes, as he was staring past them into me.... Shit. "I don't know anything about it" Rhys just shook his head "Cassian said as much, which is why you'll be training with me. I trained Feyre, and Nesta for some parts of her training" he stopped at my raised brows "Nesta? She still has her power?" he gave a little smirk. "Sort of, we'll talk about it tomorrow at training". "Do you know what type of power?" I asked him. "No, but it felt different, not like any of the other high lords' power. I'll probably consult with my mate about it. Maybe she'll even you train you one of these days; she knows what you're feeling."

I shook my head and looked down, fidgeting with my fingers. "But all this is not what you came in here for" I pursed my lips and shot my eyes to his. "You want to ask me to get you home" I sighed, and my shoulders sagged as I let my head hit the back of the chair, eyes facing the roof. "Rhys, I know when you found me you didn't trust me, you probably still don't" "Do you blame me for it?" I raised my head, my eyes meeting his again. "No, no I don't but I know you trust me enough or at least the others enough to let me stay in your house. I know you don't like that I know so much about you when you know nothing about me, I know that I'm asking for so much especially when you have already given me so much but-" "Your home is your home" he responded and I nodded. He leaned forward and blew out a breath. "I'll be honest, I searched for a way for Amren for over 500 years and only found one thing in the book of breathings" "which is in another world" I commented. He seemed to pause at that, weighing my words "As interesting as that is, unless you can somehow get that back, I think you'll have to meet with Amren with this situation. I'll do what I can to help though to get you home as soon as possible".

I smirked, "Don't sound too excited at the prospect of me getting home so soon Rhys" He laughed at that, a true smile forming on his face. I began to stand, maybe I would take a nap before dinner, or maybe a shower, yes shower sounded nice. "I still think I can teach you a thing or two as you teach me". His brow rose "oh?" "when you read a book, you tend to pick up on small details you may not have noticed otherwise. I have some theories I would like to share with you." His smile was still on his face as he looked at me and then picked up his pen, shuffling his papers towards him again and continuing his work. "Very well, we can have that particular discussion tomorrow as well." My answering smile was genuine, for the first time since I had arrived, I felt good, like a weight was lifted off my shoulders. Did his opinion of me really matter that much to me?

I had just reached the door when I heard his pen drop and his head snapped up to me, like he remembered what he wanted to ask me earlier but had gotten sidetracked with our conversation. "You seem to be handling this all well, considering the recent news" that I had powers. "Honestly" I said as I turned to him, leaning against the door and crossing my legs. "I don't really think I've processed everything yet; it doesn't really seem real. It was just so drastic, and everything has been so crazy, but as each day passes, I'm scared of falling in love with everything and everyone because it all just feels like a cruel-" "Joke?" Rhys said finishing my sentence. If it was anyone who understood what I was feeling it was Rhys and Feyre. Feyre was thrown into this world almost as much as I was and Rhys.... I knew that he still felt like he didn't deserve Feyre, like the world was playing a joke on him. My cheeks heated as I remembered the intimate memory from his head, a memory I shouldn't know. But I gave Rhys a nod all the same and understanding passed between us. He returned to his work after a second and I took that as my cue to leave, heading to my room to take a shower. I was still in my leathers from training and I almost groaned at the thought of having to figure out how exactly I would take this off. 

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Short one, I know but I couldn't really keep you all hanging.

-S