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"Are you flirting or starting a fight?"
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THANKFULLY, THE rain had ceased. Though the clouds still covered the sky, gray and looming, a constant presence reminding us that the pelting water could soon return at any moment. I didn't doubt it would.
A small part of me wondered if I could disband the clouds all together. Take it's very essence and rip it apart with my magic. Create warm, clear skies rather than the tireless gray currently stealing my warmth. I knew I could create, but could I destroy?
I didn't really feel like finding out at the moment. Not when my thoughts began to stray too far away.
Stray to dangerous things. Very dangerous things. Like the way Rhys's breath seemed to caress my neck, or the way his body was warm against my own. His hands on my thigh and my back and the way I seemed to be hyper aware of every small movement he made. Every shift of his fingers or rise and fall of his toned chest.
I needed to get a grip. And fast.
We had trained all day. Trained until my eyes were fluttering with exhaustion and my words were growing quiet and slightly slurred. It was only when I had shut my eyes for a moment and nearly fallen asleep standing that Rhys had finally said, "Now who's the one moping?" I'd grumbled a few obscenities, to which he rolled his eyes before adding, "If you insist on being grumpy, we're stopping for the day." I hadn't objected to the idea.
I'd nearly cheered in relief, actually. Playing with fire had been more exhausting than I had thought.
So now, Rhys holding me tight in his arms as the sun began to set, we flew low over the trees toward...wherever the hell we were going. My head rested on Rhys's shoulder, my eyes threatening to close entirely.
"You look tired." Rhys finally said, his voice cutting through the wind and silence like a carefully honed blade.
I snorted against his shoulder, "Oh, really? I hadn't noticed." I said, sarcasm dripping from my words although my tone was soft.
Rhys chuckled, the rumble of his chest reverberated against my skin. "It wasn't me that insisted we stay." He hummed, and I could sense the smug amusement rolling off him in waves.
"I was trying to be duteous." I grumbled, my head burrowing further into the warmth of his jacket.
Again he practically snickered, "Screaming curse at me every time I tried to give you advice was you being duteous?" he questioned, "I loathe to see what you' be like when you're not."
I pinched his side, though he didn't falter in the slightest. "I was screaming at you because you barely gave me a chance to actually do any magic with all your supposed 'advice.'"
I hadn't even been screaming, the drama queen. I was simply stating my opinion in an aggressive manner as any sane and rational person did in times of irritation. Obviously.
Thunder cracked in the distance and I felt Rhys's head snap in the direction it had come from. If my eyes hadn't been practically sewed shut, I may have looked as well. To see the storm; to watch the lightning strike against the ground just as my own had done so many times now.
I wanted to study it. Watch the way the storm swayed and moved so I could perfect my craft. I'd put it on my long list of things to do.
We sat in silence for a moment, my mind racing and racing just as it always did in seconds like these. When exhaustion was looming and it was all I could do to keep my mind awake by thinking and wondering about past, present, and future. Where my worries ran rampant and the calculation and training that had been drilled into my mind clawed its way free.
"Any news about Hybern?" I asked, voicing the direction my mind had strayed. Wanting to know if their movements at all correlated with that we'd seen from the Flame and whether or not there was any overlap.
The High Lord sighed a soft breath, barely audible over the roaring winds. "Not yet. Not a whisper." he replied, "Though I have no doubt they'll make an appearance soon."
Slowly, I pulled my head from his shoulder, hesitantly. I looked at the side of his face; watching as he studied the green coat of the forest, a cover protecting what lay within. "Any ideas for a contingency? Or defense plan?" I questioned further, if I had learned one thing in my time being sold from war to war, it was always have backups. Backups for everything and anything, even if they felt inconsequential. Imaging the worst case scenario and making a path for each and every hiccup that could happen along the way.
"Do you?" Rhys retorted, his eyes momentarily flickering to mine before reverting back to the harsh terrain.
"I may have a few." I boasted with a small smirk.
"And the queens? Do you have any plans for them as well?" Rhys questioned in a teasing tone.
I opened my mouth—
"Preferably, one that doesn't involve murder."
I closed my mouth.
I huffed a breath as I crossed my arms, sinking into Rhysand's touch as I grumbled, "Murder's easier." Under my breath.
I watched Rhys's brows lift, "Eliminating all the plans that do involve homicide, how many do you have?"
I made a show of counting on my fingers, dramatically struggling as I looked up to the sky in thought. "About, uh," I cleared my throat, "zero."
He thinned his lips, amusement tilting his mouth up. "I gathered as much."
"Alright, smartass," I shoved his shoulder lightly, feeling my own smile drawing across my features. "Got any better ideas?"
"I may have a few." he repeated.
I hummed, nodding absently. His head turned again, studying me as a lazy smirk crossed my features. I saw the warning in his eyes. As though he knew what was coming next.
And so I indulged him. "Huh. Who would have thought? Your tiny brain functions after all. I was beginning to think you couldn't think at all."
"I do believe, Dani Darling, that I have a bit more experience than you when it comes to things like these."
"Your experience does not account for your lunacy, Rhys Darling." I sing-songed, using the name against him. But he only grinned, resulting in a very obvious roll of my eyes.
The High Lord sighed, though a beaming grin adorned his features. "Why do you insist on stoking my irritation?" he asked.
I picked the nonexistent dirt from under my nails, a smirk on my face. "Maybe I just enjoy pushing buttons."
Rhy's grin turned into what could only be described as a purely-male smirk, his eyes flitting away from the ground and to my own before they roamed over me. "Why don't you try unbuttoning them? It's much more enjoyable."
I tsked with a roll of my eyes. My head lulling back as I turned my eyes up to the sky. Maybe to hide the pinkening of my cheeks. Maybe not. It was a mystery that would forever be remembered but never solved. "You're a fool." I said.
His smirk didn't falter in the slightest, "Only for you." he continued to taunt.
I may excel at tearing down Rhysand's ego miles at a time—would probably win a metal if it were a sport, a gold metal to be exact. Would honestly be the best of the best when it came to knocking him down a few pegs. But the damn male, had this innate ability to make me flustered. Flustered, for Cauldron's sake. It. Was. Awful. Torturous, in fact.
I looked back down, a thin-lipped smile on my face, "At least you're self aware." I patted his shoulder.
"Self-awareness is one of my many talents." he purred in my ear and I could practically hear the feline grin in his voice as though it was a tone. Gods, only Rhys could accomplish that.
"Ah," I dawned, "Let me rephrase. You are a self-absorbed fool."
"That too." he hummed at the same moment a large gust of wind blew past. More powerful than the last; more intense. The first sign that the clouds above us would soon shed their tears.
I looked up, finding that the nice light-gray clouds had darkened into an absorbent darkness. A murky gray, snatching up the winds and water and electricity and making it its own. Wielding it.
"We should hurry." I said, "It won't be long until it starts raining again."
Rhys gave a terse nod, noticing the same thing as his eyes scanned the ground below more intensely. Searching for the supposed inn we'd be staying at, no doubt. Though it was not a huge deal, flying in the freezing rain while wind blew us in every direction did not sound entirely appealing at the moment.
My eyes searched the woods along with Rhys's, scanning with an expert sharpness as I watched for any landmarks or puffs of smoke from a chimney. Anything, really.
"Is that it?" I questioned, pointing toward a small blotch of brown within the greenery of the forest. Rhys nodded, angling his wings so that we were en route to land a few yards away.
The wind clawed at my skin as we descended, ripping at my hair and tearing it from the careful coronet I had been wearing all day. The style that had taken me a total of fifteen whole minutes to complete. For an impatient person that was practically fifteen years.
As we fell, I yelled out over the roaring winds, "I swear to the Mother, Rhys, if you mess up my hair I'll slash up all your clothes!"
He simply laughed and started descending faster.
A/N: GUYS GUYS GUYS GUYS GUYS, I'M SO EXCITED
Chapter Countdown: 6