In Her Shadow (ACOTAR)

Chapter Nine: Common Ground

His fists were close to bleeding and his heart felt as though it was going to leap out of his chest as he pummelled the fighting dummy. It had been five hours since his tense conversation with Isolde and Azriel was no closer to getting his anger out than he had been when he flew into the training ring at the House of Wind. He pulled his shirt off and grabbed a towel, drying his face and down his arms as he turned and surveyed his surroundings. There had been some acolytes practicing here before but he had no doubt scared them away by now and the ring was empty.

Except for her. His eyes widened as he took in Elain standing in the doorway, hands clutching a bag, staring at him as though she had no idea what to say.

He stepped forward tentatively, "What are you doing here?"

"I... um well I... Nesta and Feyre told me you were having some... troubles and I thought I would... well I learned how to make this tonic... to help you sleep,"

She hurried over to him and shoved the small bag into his hands. He opened it to find a small vial of liquid, purple in colour. The same shade of purple that for some reason he had always associated with her.

"It's mainly lavender and look I'm sure it's really only a placebo effect but..."

"Thank you," he murmured, pacing away and putting the bag on the table where the water was.

He could feel Elain's eyes on him, feel her waiting for him to initiate a conversation, maybe even explain why he had left her so abruptly last solstice. As the weather turned colder and another winter solstice dawned on them he cast his mind back to that night very often. How he'd wanted nothing more than to pull her in and press his lips against hers, finally give into that thought that had been plaguing his mind almost since he had set eyes on her.

He turned, "Elain I'm... I'm sorry about that day... last winter,"

She blushed, "I know this all puts you in a precarious position,"

"Elain... you know this can't happen. You have to know,"

Her eyes widened and filled with tears and all he wanted in that moment was to take her in his arms and offer her comfort but she was already hurrying away pushing past both Rhys and Cassian who had appeared in the doorway, staring at him curiously. He put his hands up in defence.

"I did not call her here,"

Cassian laughed and patted Rhys on the shoulder as he turned to leave, "The girls want to go into town, I'll see you in oh about five years,"

Azriel watched Cassian go and then his eyes shifted to Rhys who had crossed his arms and was regarding his brother warily.

"I didn't ask her to come here," Azriel repeated.

"I'm not... I didn't think that at all. That's not why I came to see you. In fact, I'm the one who brought her here to see you,"

Azriel rolled his eyes and stalked to the dummy again, "Would you make up your bloody mind?"

"What does that mean?"

"You told me to stay away from her, did you not?"

Crossing his arms, Rhys leaned against the door frame, "What's going on, Azriel?"

Azriel didn't answer, rather he just started punching again, the dummy starting to buckle under his ferocity, finally letting his anger take over, his vision going red, nothing else mattering in that moment except the dummy and his fist. A few moments went by before he looked up to see Rhys standing behind the dummy, holding it steady as he used to do when they once trained together.