I awaken to a familiar horn of which is a warning that training is about to start, and all the Valkyrie had better be up and ready. I let out a groan as I put on my fighting leathers and braid my hair back. I walk out of the tent to find the other Valkyrie already beginning their morning run, and that Cass was exiting Tanwyn's tent.
In the same clothes from last night.
My mouth must have been open because when he walks over to me, he takes a finger and pushes the bottom of my chin up so my mouth shuts.
"Never doubt my skills again." He gives me a wink and I have to push down last night's dinner that is rising up my throat. "Shouldn't you be training?"
"I was waiting for you." I point out, "The whole point of us being here is trying to convince the Valkyrie that not all Illyrian's are horrible beings!"
"Well I managed to convince at least one of them." He chuckles.
"No, in fact, you did the opposite." Tanwyn's voice behind Cass makes both of us jump.
"What?" Cass practically yells and a smile begins to form on my face.
"Any Illyrian would sleep with me, and you did what I thought you would—just like the other Illyrians." She smirks at him.
"That was a test?" Cass demands.
"One you failed." Tanwyn smiles at him, "Horribly."
Before Cassian can say anything else, she walks away, leaving him with a mouth wide open this time. I let out a howling laugh as I do the same thing he just did and close his mouth.
"Never doubt their skills." I say, and he stares at me with such fury on his face that I cannot help but let out another laugh. I pat him on the back as I motion for him to walk with me towards the training rings. He seems to observe every part of the Valkyrie camps, no doubt comparing them to the Illyrian camps. How the sound of laughter from the women come from every part of the camp.
There was hardly ever laughter in the Illyrian camps—unless it was when women were being tortured and the males found it humorous.
"That was my first time—outside of the Illyrian camps." He mumbles, and I look over to him in surprise at what he just admitted.
"Really?"
"Yes."
It did make sense, he never really got to travel outside of the Illyrian camps so I suppose he would not be able to sleep with anyone.
"All the times we have been in Hewn City—"
"Never."
"Wow." I say, mostly to myself but he shoots me a glare and for a moment I thought I had seen hurt on his face. It seemed he wanted it to mean something, but to Tanwyn it was just a test. I cannot blame her for thinking lowly of him—he was an Illyrian. I just need to convince her—and everyone else—that he was not like the rest of them.
We walk into the training rings and every female seems to stop what they are doing to stare at Cassian—or me—considering I had not been back since my fight with Razira; whom is standing with a group of girls giving me a death stare. She whispers something to the other girls and they laugh—no doubt at me. I take a deep breath and turn the other way.
"For the way you speak so highly of them, they do not seem to believe the same of you." Cass points out as he takes a sword from the rack and observes it.
"Thanks." I mumble, as I find my swords Arktos and Carynth hanging up and sheathe them along my back. Cassian stops and looks at me with something like pity in his eyes. "I cannot blame them, I would not like me either."
My shadows seem to peak out a bit at that, and Cass must have thought it was intentional.
"Your powers are apart of what makes you yourself, do not let others that are not as powerful make you feel bad because of it." He points his sword at me and I raise my eyebrows at him.
"What a great motivational speaker you will make once you are general." I snort and he places his hand on his hip and stupidly grins at the compliment.
"Alright, Illyrian, let us see what you are made of." Tanwyn shouts from one of her sparring rings, everyone turns to look at us again as my eyes widen, but Cassian's grin only grows wider.
Cass begins to walk over to the sparring ring she is in, sword in hand as she smirks at him. Everyone--and I mean everyone—gathers around the ring, I have to shove a few people to get to the front. Tanwyn and Cass stand across from each other, their scents intertwining, I watch as peoples eyes widen as some of the fae and other races with a strong sense of smell are able to smell their scents on each other.
"Do you need a shield, Illyrian?" Tanwyn asks as she lifts her golden one up.
"Not at all." He replies, and then she attacks. They move so quickly that it is hard to even comprehend who is on the defense and who is on the offense. The clanging of sword on sword and shield rings through the air as everyone watching has become completely silent. I watch in awe as Tanwyn is able to grab Cassian's arm and flip him onto the ground. He lands with a huge thud that I can feel even feet away. He lets out a curse as Tanwyn holds her sword to his throat, but he quickly kicks her feet from under her and is quickly over top of her—now holding his sword to her throat. He kneels on her in such a way that is impossible for her to even move from under him. He smirks at her and says something so low that I cannot even here it—whatever he said makes her even more mad and she struggles underneath his grip.
My mind begins racing as ideas begin forming through my head of how to use this to our advantage. Cassian finally gets off of Tanwyn and offers his hand to help her up, she slaps it away and gets up on her own. She brushes off the dirt on her leathers and looks to everyone gathered around the ring—staring at her. Whatever plan she had now went completely down the cauldron. Her face begins turning pink and I quickly jump up into the ring.
"How many of you have actually fought against an opponent that was not another Valkyrie?' I ask, using my power to raise my voice so everyone is able to hear me. Everybody looks around at the two older Valkyrie who have raised their hands—out of about fifty of the Valkyrie that have gathered around the ring. "How many of you want to?"
Everybody stands still for a moment before one raises her hand, then another, and another until every Valkyrie has their hand raised—excitement written on their faces.
"Cassian here can teach you some of his techniques, with your permission." I say, and I watch as he crosses his arms and nods his head, I know he is silently cursing me in his head but he knows what I am doing. "In order to understand the enemy, you must know how they fight."
"So you are saying that the Illyrian's are the enemy?" Razira asks with a smirk on her face.
"To us, no. To the women in their camps, yes." I snarl back at her, I will not allow her to undermine me right now. "To the rest of the world, the Valkyrie are a myth. The stories of you have been washed away by men that do not want women knowing that they can fight back!"
Cass walks up to stand beside me.
"Most of you know why I have returned, not to train, but to try to convince the Valkyrie to fight beside the Illyrian's against Hybern, to free an entire race of people—" Some of the Valkyrie who must not have known look to each other then, in confusion and shock, and I realize Kára must have kept this hidden, "Do you just want to continue to be myths that are told at bedtime stories or do you want to show everyone in this world that you are a badass army that was a key to stopping Hybern in this war?" I shout, and they actually cheer back in response, my eyebrows raise at their reaction.
They begin to line up in front of the sparring ring where Cassian was as he begins speaking to the first Valkyrie. I notice that some of the girls even look at Cassian with admiration—and some with lust. I look to Tanwyn who seems to notice it too as she silently walks away. I take one look at Cassian and the girl laughing with him and decide he will be alright by himself for a few minutes—hopefully.
I walk to Tanwyn's tent and find her shooting arrows at a post in her tent, very angrily.
"Careful or you will make the whole tent collapse." I say as I sit down on her bed, and she shoots me a glare as she lets another arrow loose and it hits its mark. "You seem a bit angry."
"You two are not convincing me he is any different than other Illyrians." She nocks another arrow, "It meant something to me."
Tears gleam in her eyes and my heart drops at the realization that hits me. Of course it meant something to her, it was the first time she had been with an Illyrian since—
"It was not a test, I had thought he was different—"
"He is." I try to assure her.
"The way he was smiling at the other—"
"It was my plan." I admit, "It was a plan I had made up on the spot to get the other Valkyrie to like him. I should have thought it through better. I am sorry."
She looks at me for a moment, tears silently streaming down her face as she bursts out laughing, I widen my eyes in surprise as I allow her to stop her laughing fit to explain what she finds funny, "I am jealous."
"You are jealous?" I ask.
"I have never been jealous before." She admits, "I have only known him for a day and I am jealous."
"You two are the same version of each other, just in different genders, and it is horrifying." I tell her, and she lets out a laugh.
"I thought that if I slept with him, it would help me—" She cuts herself off by shaking her head, not wanting to continue her sentence.
"Did it?"
"It was my choice." Tanwyn explains, "He came to my tent but he gave me a choice, he did not push or try to convince me to do anything I did not want to." She sets down her bow and arrows and looks back at me, "He was the first guy I have never felt uncomfortable with."
I push back that empty feeling inside of me when she mentions choice. I had wanted to explain to Cassian that it most likely meant something to her too because of what she went through but it was not my story to tell. I am the only person, besides Kára, that Tanwyn has told her whole story to. She told me out of hatred, but still trusted me with the information nonetheless. The memory of her telling me comes swarming back.
I had cornered that Auburn hair girl, Tanwyn, and pointed my sword at her.
"Why do you hate me so much? You hardly know me." I pointed out.
"I do not have to explain anything to you, Illyrian." She snarled at me, I pushed her against the wall and held a dagger to her throat.
"Call me that again and you will not have a tongue to speak with anymore." I say lowly, and she spits on me. I wipe her spit off of my face with disgust.
"Your kind are not welcome here."
"I thought all were welcome here."
"Not those who rape and murder!" She shouted at me with such hatred, I had flinched. My stomach drops as I take in her words, and how much they seem to have affected her. "Why do you think I am here? Without a family? With no home?"
"I would not know because you do not speak to me." I said.
"Because your kind took my mother and sisters life, only after they had tortured them and made me watch." Tanwyn's voice broke at the last words, "Then they did the same to me, took advantage of me. They had thought they had killed me, but I was alive, and felt every broken bone throughout my body."
I had not known what to say in that moment, I did not know how to console a girl who had hated me for a very valid reason so I had shared my experience with her.
"I had come here to learn to fight, not because I am a spoiled High Lord's daughter and can do what I want, but because I was taken advantage in my own home and I was so utterly useless that I did not ever want to feel like that again." I had explained to her, and I could practically see the hatred leave her eyes, "I am sorry that my people put you through that, but I promise I am not like them and never will be. My hatred for them runs just as deep as yours. I will gladly help you kill those Illyrians bastards who dared to even lay one hand on you."
And we did.
Tanwyn and I had planned for months as we mapped out where to attack the men who killed her family and took away her choice. I went with her only if she needed backup, and she never did. I had smiled when she slaughtered all six of the Illyrian men that harmed her. We covered our tracks so well that nobody ever figured out who had done it and blamed it on a rival camp. I remember my father had been furious that nobody found out who killed them.
So I understand why she had been so attached to Cassian since the moment she met him, she wanted to have her choice back.
"Just speak with him." I say as I walk over to give her a hug, she places her arms around me and squeezes. I give her a smile before heading out of the tent to go back to the training camps when a light flickers in my eye from somewhere behind the tent. I snap my head and see a quick movement behind the tent. I slowly walk to where I had spotted the movement but I see nothing, I allow my shadows to release but they find nothing here either.
Odd.
I turn back around and find a man standing in front of me, grinning from ear to ear, my shadows hide behind my back. I feel the strange amount of power coming from him. I am about to speak to demand who he is when I recognize him.
From the Night Court.
As another one of my fathers personal spies.
Shit.
I try to turn around to run but a bright light blinds my eyes and then darkness consumes me.