War of Shadows

Information Overload

Chapter 15

Caziel had smugly escorted me back into the castle to my bedroom to shower and freshen up. Had it not been for a sliver of pride left in myself, I would have given in and made him carry me all the way back considering I seemed to have lost the bones in my legs and replaced them with gelatine.

After a hot shower, a generous amount of lavender and mint oil, and an intensive massage to my stiff and aching muscles, my mother knocked on the door and led us across the castle to a private dining room, asking about my first training with Caziel.

“He made me run.”

Cici chuckled under her breath, her flowy pants hissing as we make our way down the polished floors of a sandy marble. “It wasn’t easy for me at first, either.”

“I want to do more than just run, mom. I want to learn how to fight.” To protect myself.

“You will, Stella, you have to be patient with the captain. Believe it or not, the man knows what he’s doing. There’s a reason why he’s put in charge of training the men who defend us.”

“At this point, the only thing I know how to do is run away.”

She tilts her head to the side. “Is that not just as important as learning how to fight? Do you not think you should know when to run away from a fight first? What would happen if you take on someone twice your size with the level of training you have right now?”

“Trust me, I already know.” A sharp phantom pain twists in my gut.

“Stella.” Cici stops walking, but thankfully doesn’t grab me to stop with her.

“I don’t want to talk about it, I’m hungry.”

A heaviness settles in the air between us, and we continue our walk in silence, the echo of our steps bouncing off the walls of the hallway. Finally, Cici veers off to a large black door and pushes it open.

The echo of airy laughter between the twins hits me before the savory smell of the elongated table adorned with various fruits, vegetables, and roasted poultry. Rows of wooden stools sit on either side of the table, but none at the ends. The room isn’t too large, but large enough to comfortably fit the long dining table, a table in the far back stocked with various amber colored decanters and dark green long-necked bottles.

“Stella!”

My wandering gaze falls on the owner of the voice of Daine, a clear glass of wine halted halfway to his lips. Dasia sits across from him, far more relaxed in her low-backed chair than she was when we met in the hallway earlier.

I nod my head in greeting to them both before taking a seat beside Daine. “Good afternoon.” Perfectly on cue, my stomach rumbles deep within my gut.

Cici’s lip tugs at the corner as she gracefully settles in the seat next to Dasia, who’s already started to pile up an assortment of food onto her plate. “Stella started her training early today,” my mother offers as she reaches over to fill her own plate.

Daine gently pulls my plate to himself and begins to pile a small feast onto it for me and I mumble a quiet “thank you” under my breath while Cici and Dasia talk. I find it strange how kind and inviting everyone has been to me so far, but I openly welcome the effort.

Dasia huffs, her mouth full as she speaks. “Let me guess, he pulled the whole ‘thou must learn when to run before he learns how to fight’ lecture.” Dasia rolls her eyes and chuckles at her own distant memory of her first training lessons.

I point my fork at my mother across from me. “Actually, my mother got the honors of delivering that particular lecture. Though, I’m sure there’s plenty more to go around if you’d like to beat them to the next one.”

“How about the one about leaving your left side open?” Daine raises his glass to his lips, wiggling his brow at his sister.

“Oh, stuff it Daine.” Dasia flicks an offensive gesture at her brother, my mother barking out a laugh at their banter. “When I started training,” Dasia explains, tucking a couple of loose braids behind her ear, a stack of golden rings glinting on the arch of her left ear, “I had a bad habit of focussing more on my attack than on what opening I was leaving for my opponent to take advantage of. A beginner’s mistake, sure, but- well you’ll find out yourself later.” She waves a hand to dismiss her side tangent. “Anyway, whenever I had one-on-one with Caziel he would take every opportunity he got to strike his hardest blows on my open side. Brutal form of conditioning, but it worked well enough.”

“From what I remember, you could be heard cursing caziel’s name throughout the castle for hours after every training session. Didn’t they hire extra security to trail you because they were convinced that you would make an attempt on his life?” Cici smiled to herself.

Daine chimed in between bites. “The big bad wolf, afraid of Dainty little Dasia,” he muses.

Looking at Dasia now, the word “dainty” doesn’t fit well with the strong build of the woman across the table from me now. Something clicks in my head then. Caziel didn’t look much older than his mid-to-late twenties and Dasia seemed to be about the same age as myself, yet he was in charge of training her?

“How old were you?” I ask Dasia. “When you started training, I mean.”

Her eyes flick to the ceiling in contemplation before answering. “Perhaps around 30 years old if I remember correctly?”

I stare at her waiting for her to give me a legit answer.

Cici leans forward. “The Fae age a lot slower than you and I.”

It suddenly dawns on me that I don’t know much about anything anymore. So much information has been thrown at me, and I didn’t think to ask more questions. How much fae blood have I inherited, and how will I be affected by it?

I study the crumbs on my plate. “So I’m half fae.” The words come out as a broken and awkward question.

All three of them express agreement in their various ways.

“What exactly does that mean for me? Will I be able to heal people like Daine? Will I live longer than my friends?” Will I outlive my mate? The thought sends a cold twinge in my chest, reigniting the longing for Eli that I’ve been trying to ignore. It’s been so long since I’ve seen him, so long since he’s held me and made me feel safe. Without him here, I feel a kind of nakedness and vulnerability that doesn’t sit well with me.

“The Fae inherit a variety of gifts, or none at all. Unfortunately we don’t know of many half-breeds to compare you to, so it’s hard to say what traits you’ll inherit from-”

“Still just a halfbreed” I mutter under my breath.

“I meant no offense, Stella. I apologize for my lack of a more sensitive vocabulary on the topic, which goes to support the case that this is pretty uncharted territory for us all.” Daine pauses, glancing at my mother is a string of unsaid words. “Atlis was very strong, Stella. If his gifts were passed down to you, it could mean-”

“Daine,” Cici warns in a low tone.

Dasia cuts in, holding my gaze. “What he’s trying to say is that we have absolutely no idea what’s going to happen when or if we unbind you. The only person that can do that is the same witch that bound you to begin with, and things have become a little… stressed.”

Our conversation is interrupted by the groaning of the wooden door to our private room. Caziel slips inside the door, his usual grimace painted on his face.

“Stella,” he jerks his head to gesture into the hallway. “Training, now.”

I narrow my eyes at him, holding back a groan. “We already trained today.”

“No, I recall telling you that we started tonight. You decided to add extra work earlier.”

What I would give to wipe that greasy look off of his stupid face.

Dasia passes a wide-eyed look between the two of us.

“Excuse me,” I say sarcastically to the table, “My keeper is calling.”

Dasia and Daine share a look, shaking their heads and cursing quietly under their breath, my mother dabbing a napkin at her mouth and avoiding eye contact as I push away from the table and follow Caziel into the hallway.

After following him down the hallway for a few quiet and tension-filled moments, it occurs to me that I didn’t get nearly the amount of information that I needed from my mother about everything. How would I be able to get ahold of her in this place?

“Hold on a second, I have a question for Cici, I'll be right back.”

Before Caziel can object, I turn on my heels and rush back down the hallway to our private dining room. The door was closed, the light fanning out from the bottom of the door. Hushed, agitated voices are muffled from inside the room, but it’s obvious that it’s not the same, easy banter we had when I was there. Curiosity getting the better of me, I carefully lean an ear against the door and listen.

“-ing closer by the minute,” Dasia hisses.

“We can't relocate again, she’s more protected here than she is on the run. The High Lord herself promised sanctuary and around-the-clock protection. He won’t get to her.” Cici’s rushed tone is interrupted by Daine.

“Cecilia, if he finds her here then we’re good as dead. Do you understand that? If Elias gets ahold of Stella now, while she’s bound and untrained, then we’re throwing a rabbit into a lion’s den and Adonis will keep slaughtering anyone in his path. We have to keep moving.”

Elias? Surely they don’t mean…

My mother seethes, struggling to keep her tone down. “My daughter is traumatized from whatever hellhole they had her chained in until we got to her. Don’t pretend you haven’t seen the scars. She’s only just had a safe bed and a full meal for a single day, and you’re ready to smuggle her through the wilderness, exposing her to the elves just because you aren’t confident in your high Lord’s ability to protect her own castle? That girl went from a normal, safe life to this disaster in a split second. She hasn’t even had time to learn about everything happening around her and you’re all expecting her to adjust and redirect quicker than is humanly possible.”

Dasia pipes in. “Well, good thing she’s not human. Look. If we can just figure out how Elias and Eren are tracking Stella, then we can figure out how to eradicate that variable and keep him from finding her here.”