It took Isabella a couple of minutes to fully understand what were happening, who was standing in front of her. Remelle had appeared only once in the books, well, not really in the books but rather as a new character in a bonus chapter from Empire of Storms. Apparently, she had been Rowan's lover before he met Aelin but he'd regretted dating her. Especially after she decided to get touchy with him when he didn't want to. So Aelin had then set her on fire. Classic.

Isabella looked back at the males in the tent, trying to look for answers, but only found resignation. Rowan had an annoyed grimace in his face, as if he would rather be anywhere but here with the new female. Fenrys was serious, more than she had ever seen him and it was Gavriel the only one that walked to Remelle and greeted her properly. She immediately directed her gaze to Rowan, and said something to him, even though they were standing in opposite sides of the room. He snorted in response but, then, grew serious after throwing a glance at Isabella. Remelle turned to look, for the first time since she had entered the tent, at her. She studied her from head to toe. The result must have not impressed her because she simply shrugged and took off her coat, practically throwing it at Gavriel for him to hang it.

Remelle walked towards Isabella, slightly shaking her hips, before seating in the chair across from her. Isabella's hands had been turned into fists, she knew her knuckles were white due to the force of her own grip. She forced herself to maintain a steady rhythm of breaths and to relax her body. She had grown tense. All three males took a closer step to Remelle, facing Isabella. A couple of seconds went by before Lorcan appeared and took his place next to Rowan. Isabella was finding it harder and harder to breath, her heart was beating fast and she had begun to hear a thrum in her ears. Adrenaline and fear. She glanced distractedly to the tent's door and counted in her head how many steps it would take her to reach the door and run away in case she had to. The soldiers were still positioned outside but maybe if she was fast enough, she could take them by surprise and use those extra seconds to escape. She had no idea where she was or where she could possibly go but she had walked stray for a long time now.

Remelle asked the males a question but only Gavriel answered her. She glanced at him and turned to look straight into Isabella's eyes when he fell silent. She proceeded to say something to Isabella, a command, she realized. For what? She didn't know but she was wary of Remelle's presence. She had never liked her in the books and she had never liked to follow the rules, even less if they were coming from a female who looked at her as if she were nothing more than a bag of potatoes. Despite the fact that Isabella loved potatoes.

Isabella remained silent, her back straight and her chin high, but the fast beating of her heart was unmistakably clear for one thing: fear. She hated that feeling, it never seemed to truly leave her. Even when she let herself relax a bit, her fear was always following like her own shadow, ready to trap her in a hug and choke her if she wasn't careful.

Isabella looked at Gavriel, who had come to stand closer to her and was giving her a reassuring smile, she just glared at him. Gentleman or not, she would not allow herself to be used as a toy, doing what they wanted her to do when they wanted to just because they had been nice with her. No. He was wrong if he thought she would do as they wanted just because he had given her some food. She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back on her chair. She prayed she looked like she thought she did: unbothered and not intimidated. It might have worked because Gavriel took several steps back to his former place next to Remelle.

They were all staring at her, studying her posture and attitude, all males ready to jump and fight in case they had to. But she was ready, too. These last few days eating three full meals per day had done a wonderful job to her. She was still underweight and not even close to having a healthy body but she had a lot of energy and that allowed her to be on her full senses. And maybe her current weight would help her to run faster and, maybe, be able to lose track of whoever followed her if she tried to escape.

Isabella had to swallow the bitter laugh that threatened to escape her lips. She had run away from her former captors only to walk right into the waiting arms of more of them. No matter that they had been decent with her, they were all the same in the end. Fate seemed to love to play with her. Torturing her for three years only to finally give her hope, an exit to the hell place where she used to be forced to stay; and throwing her with people who shouldn't exist, people who were not even people but mythical creatures, beings who showed her more kindness in a couple of hours than she had been shown in the last years of her existence. All to end with her being blindfolded to their true intentions and only seeing clear when it was too late.

Fate, just please give me a break, she prayed in her head. Not that it would be of any use.

Remelle said something to her again and Isabella remained the same: utterly silent. The female clenched her jaw, probably unused to others not doing what she wanted and spoke again, this time directed to the four males standing close behind her. Rowan answered her and Gavriel added more information to whatever they were speaking about. Lorcan nodded and muttered a couple of sentences. Only Fenrys stood still and silent. Remelle rolled her eyes at something Lorcan said and uttered the same words .that she had said twice already- towards Isabella. She could hear the slight tone of exasperation in her short words. She had to stop herself from flashing a satisfying smile in her face.

It went the same for a long time. Maybe an hour. Maybe two. And with each passing second, Remelle managed to lose more and more of her patience. By the time three hours had gone by –Isabella had been counting the minutes in her head- Remelle was practically screaming at her, her hands sprayed on the table while she was standing. The males didn't as much as flinch at her shouts. Neither did Isabella.

She turned her gaze towards Rowan, who hadn't spoken at all in the last hour, and found him standing as he always did: like a soldier, a general. He returned her gaze, his face expressionless; but his eyes gave him away. She could see he was trying to communicate with her, to tell her something but she had no idea what that could be. Maybe to do as Remelle said –even if she had no idea what Remelle was telling her to do-, maybe he was telling her to act as she always did when only the usual four males were around –because she had kept the same posture and attitude since the female had spoken for the first time. Whatever he wanted, it was clear he was clouded with thoughts and emotions. She could have sworn that there was a hint of pride, admiration, shining in his eyes while looking at her but she could not be sure. She shook her head slightly, trying to erase those ideas from her mind. Why would he be proud of her? She knew he did not like Remelle but she didn't think his dislike for her was enough for him to feel real pride in someone for making the female lose her patience. Isabella had no doubt that that was not a difficult task.

She wanted to look away from him but she couldn't. Ever since he had found her in the woods she'd had trouble to look away. It wasn't just that he was painfully handsome or that he was one of her biggest crushes –standing in front of her in whole blood and flesh-. It was more than that and she could not explain what that was. She had found herself eager to make him smile, even if it was just the faintest of smiles, to make him laugh and for him to look at her. She blamed Sarah. J. Maas for making him such a perfect male and for making her fall in love with him when she had read the books. Whatever obsession she had with him, it terrified her. It was weakness and carelessness, all of those feelings closing on her and threatening to make her loose her mind. Maybe it was a good thing that she was now contemplating the idea of running away, nothing good could come out of her having a crush on someone that she still wasn't completely sure was not a product of her imagination.

He didn't turn his gaze away but she saw something flashing in his eyes, realization. He turned so that he was not facing her and started to look for something inside the tent. He walked from one side of the tent to the other, drawing everyone's attention to him. He didn't care, he kept looking for his thing. He found what he was looking buried in some of the books in the tent that were not on the table but rather in one of the tent's corners. It was a sheet of paper with something drawn in it. Isabella recognized it immediately. It was the draw of Lorcan she had done only the night before. He showed it to her, his eyes on hers, and left it on the table in front of her. She looked away from his green eyes and directed his gaze towards her drawing. What was he planning to do with that? She shrugged and went back to looking at him. Everyone in the room was throwing quizzical looks at him but they knew better than to question his actions. He was, after all, one of the most powerful fae of their time.

He pointed to the draw and then at her, she was more than just confused. She must have shown it in her face because he pointed back at it and then at her, more fervently this time. It was, honestly, very exasperating. He kept on doing the same thing until she could not hold it anymore.

"What?" she screamed at him. He flashed a wide, satisfied smile at her that would have made her legs go weak if it hadn't been for a distraction: Remelle had thrown her arms up in the air and let out a sigh of pure finalization. Gavriel asked her something and she smiled sweetly at him before answering. Gavriel seemed unimpressed by her smile but he nodded politely. Lorcan patted Rowan's back, as if he were congratulating him. Isabella felt puzzled. She also hated that feeling.

"You finally spoke," Remelle said to her while she gracefully sat back down on her chair. Isabella was about to answer her when she realized that she had been able to understand what she had said. Because she had spoken her language.

Realization shook her inner thoughts. She remembered why Remelle had been so important to Maeve, then. Because she had a gift that nobody else possessed. She could speak any tongue. She probably only needed to hear that language before her magic could allow her to speak it too. Isabella understood that they had all been trying to get her to speak and her stubbornness and fear had made them all waste three hours of their time. Not that she regretted it, though. The satisfaction still flowing through her for managing to make Remelle lose her patience was reward enough.

Remelle nodded at her, she probably could guess that she had put two and two together. "Do you have any idea how long I've been waiting for you to speak?"

Of course, Isabella knew that the female was not really expecting an answer but she gave her one anyway. "Three hours and six minutes, to be precise".

The female snorted "Just keep talking" and Isabella did, because she had not been able to speak with anyone in days and her sanity demanded her to speak with someone, anyone.

She talked about how she had counted the minutes and how she had drawn Lorcan the night before until Remelle stopped her by saying "Enough, my job here is done" then she turned to look at Rowan and battled her eyelashes at him, "Would you show me where my tent is?" The male shook his head and ordered a soldier to show her to where she would be staying instead.

It only took Isabella a couple f minutes to realize that they had not spoken her tongue but rather theirs. And that she had understood everything.