Clang. Thunk. Thwap!

I attacked the dummy with my twin swords, slashing at the wooden thing in front of me.

"Who on earth taught you how to fight?" A taunting voice said behind me and I froze, sword stopping merely an inch from the dummy.

I looked to Azriel who sat cross-legged on a tree stump with wings slightly flared out. He was looking behind me, so I turned around to see Cassian standing before me now.

"I taught myself. I had to. I was forced to fight to death in an arena because Amarantha likes to see people die." I gritted out.

He looked me up and down, then said, "You're sloppy. You swing with your arms. You're fast, but if a practiced warrior were to fight you, he could knock the weapon from your hands. May I?" He gestures towards me.

"What are you going to do?" I said defensively.

He let out a laugh. "Teach you how to fight with a better stance, that's what."

"I thought Azriel was in charge of that." I challenged.

Azriel merely shrugged and said, "The Night Court's general wants to teach you how to fight properly and you turn him down?"

I glared back at the Shadowsinger who didn't seem too phased by my anger and just picked at his nail absentmindedly.

"Well?" Cassian asked and grinned down at me.

I scowled and said, "Fine. What do I do?"

"First of all," He said and stepped closer to me and took my hands. I could have sworn Azriel growled but when I looked back at him, he had only moved one foot to the grass.

Cassian cleared his throat and I looked back up at him. "First, you have to strengthen your arm muscles. Being able to swing fast and move fast and dodge you already got down perfectly. I'm impressed with how much you were able to teach yourself. It took me years to master quick movements."

"I was down there for twenty-one years." I said hoarsely.

"You also had no instructor." He said and turned my hands around so they sat palm up in his hands and he gripped my wrists. "But can you fight with your fists? That is what I'm here to find out."

I clenched my fists and went to pull them from his grasp but he merely held on tighter.

I heard Azriel move behind me again, by Cassian didn't look at him and we just kept our eyes locked onto one another.

I stepped in a little closer, turning my hands so they held his wrists and kept my eyes locked into his, then drove my knee between his legs. He immediately released me and collapsed to his knees, groaning with his hands over the wounded area.

"See, Cassian. I just use my looks. All men are the same. Pretty girls touching them never ceases to rattle or stop them." I say with a grin and through a grimace of pain, he laughs a little.

"I do have to say, Adrianna, I'm impressed." He said with a wheeze. "I'll remember to be more careful next time." He said with a grin.

Then, his leg suddenly kicked out and swept my legs out from underneath me and I landed hard on my tailbone and winced.

Azriel was standing now.

"Never let your guard down. You did that with that other Illyrian in the Ring. And look what happened." He gestured to my stomach where I still was bandaged, as he stood then held a hand down to me.

I glared at him and smacked his hand to the side and stood, then said coolly, "You were doing so well until you started talking about the Ring. You weren't there. So don't you dare tell me anything about it like you know what I went through. I doubt anyone other than Rhysand and maybe Azriel would be able to understand what it was like down there."

"You're right. I don't. I understand different traumas. I am still not over them. The challenge, though, Adrianna, is fighting. Standing up and continuing to fight despite everything else that has been happening."

I clenched my fists at my sides and looked at the ground. "And how do you expect me to do that?"

"We don't." Azriel said and appeared at my side. "We don't expect anything from you. We merely wish to help you along this road to recovery- that is, if you'll allow us."

I clenched my jaw, then looked up at him and our eyes locked. His hand came up gently to rest on my cheek once, then it lowered and he whispered, "I'm here for you, too."

I nodded and swallowed hard and smiled a little up at him, then looked over at Cassian. "So. You were going to teach me the proper way to fist fight?"

He grinned. "I thought you'd never ask."

******

My training went on for two more months. Every day, I trained my wings and shadowsinging with Azriel and fought and sparred with Cassian. After the second month ended, I was able to move my wings smoothly without hearing the snapping of joints.

The sun was setting and my muscles were sore and aching. I sat on a chair in front of a mirror untying the now knotted braid in my hair and prodded at my bruised knuckles. The pain distracted me and gave me something to work with.

I stretched my wings out behind me to their full length and held them out, the muscles in my back protesting. I was told to do this several times a day and hold them out straight to stretch out the cramped muscles.

There was a soft knock on my door and I turned to see Mor standing in the doorway.

"May I come in?" She asked.

I nodded. "Of course. This was your home before I came here." I said gently. I felt as though every time we spoke, it was like walking on thin ice. And she had never came to my room, so I decided to be on guard.

"Did you enjoy training?" She asked and leaned against the wall nearby, gazing out at the setting sun.

I shrugged and slowly brought my wings back to fold behind me and stretched them back behind me, keeping them pressed together, then held them like that. "It was training. I got physical therapy techniques from Azriel and we trained with shadows for a while. Then I took my swords to a dummy and Cassian came and taught me how to fight in close quarters without a sword, but with a wooden knife. And now I am bruised and tired. We do basically the same thing every day."

"But did you enjoy it? I didn't ask what you did."

I turned to look at her and scowled. "Do you have a problem with me, Mor? The others don't seem to mind me here. Even Amren seems fine with me here. But not you. Did I do something to you?"

She clenched her jaw. "Just treat them right."

I paused. "Something happened between the three of you...didn't there?"

"You don't deserve to know." She growled.

I just turned back to the mirror, and then she was closer to me and sticking her face in mine. I meet her angry stare evenly. "I don't trust you, Adrianna. Not one bit. There's no such thing as being able to talk through shadows. I don't know what your game is or how you managed to get the others to trust you, but I don't."

I raised an eyebrow. "You can rest easy, Mor, because my only intentions here are to get my wings working again and do what my High Lord wants me to. He seems to trust me and he can read my mind. Don't you think I'd be dead if he didn't trust me? If I had ulterior motives? Honestly, I'd have to be and idiot if I were to try anything here if I was the villain you seem to want me so badly to be."

She wrinkled her nose at me. "Don't act as if you aren't a problem here. Whatever you did Under the Mountain was-"

I stood up and snarled, "You can't comment on what you don't know. If you think I'm going to hurt Azriel, you're crazy because he was the one that kept me from ending it down there. I care about him just as much as you clearly do. I don't get where you all seem to think you have the right to rub my terrors in my face like this. You think I only came out of there with scars? You may have the age and more time on this earth, but that doesn't mean shit to me. You have a problem with me? Say so yourself and stop assuming things. Now. Get out of my room."

She glared at me, then turned on her heel and left, closing the door behind her with a slam.

My wings drooped to the floor.

I clenched my jaw, biting my lip against the tears and turned to go back to the mirror when the shadows to the right of it shifted and Azriel appeared.

I froze and then wiped furiously at my eyes and said, "I-I'm sorry you-"

He stopped me suddenly when he just came forward and pulled me into a tight hug. I wrapped my arms around his waist just as tight and hid my face in his chest. His hand rose to stroke my hair and he kissed my head. I froze.

"I'm sorry about her. I don't know why she came to you like that. She's just...defensive of us. It's...complicated." He said gently.

I looked up at him and said, "I assume you heard all of it, then." A nod was his only reply. "Well, I meant what I said about you."

I looked down and his scarred hand came up to tilt my chin up towards him, his other arm still around my shoulders. "I care about you, too."

I reached up and took his hand and squeezed it tightly and his fingers tightened around mine. "Is it true?" I whispered. "That talking to me through the shadows was a lie? That that isn't possible?"

He paused, then said, "It isn't true."

"Then how were you able to communicate with me? Was it seriously just in my head? You never spoke out loud?" I furrowed my eyebrows.

"It was in your head, yes." He says and clenched his jaw.

"Then how were you able to speak to me all these years?"

He closed his eyes for a second, then looked at me and asked softly, hoarsely, "You mean to tell me you can't feel it?"

"Feel what?" I demanded.

Hurt flashed across his hazel eyes and he said softly, "The mating bond."