40. Chapter 40
40
Chapter 40
Violet
“Where are we?” I asked as I overlooked the land far below us. We were standing on a large, vacant cliff that must’ve been hundreds of meters up. The ground was a black stone with large rocks scattered around. Some seemed like they were broken, as there were scattered pieces all around. The land below looked like a forest of some sorts, but it was so far down that I couldn’t tell exactly. On the other side of the forest stood an identical cliff to the one we were standing on.
Bash had woken me up long before anyone else was awake and transferred me to a secluded spot to begin my training.
I wasn’t exactly sure what it entailed, especially when he started to call it training . Did training mean fighting? All I told him was I wanted to learn how to use my gifts, but I guess my gifts were a form of defense so in a way, it was fighting.
“Miles away from civilization. I wanted to be sure we were somewhere so no one would know what was happening.”
“So this part of your realm is just . . . vacant?”
“I didn’t say that,” he said as he came to my side and pointed somewhere for me to look. “Do you see all of the caves scattered throughout the sides of the cliffs?” I nodded. “Some of the worst monsters in the Night Realm are tucked away in those right now.”
A chill went down my spine. “Then maybe we shouldn’t be here disturbing them.”
“They won’t come out while the sun is out. They may watch you, but they won’t leave the darkness of their cave.”
My eyes widened, and I took a step back. “So what you’re telling me is . . . we need to make sure that you don’t get mad?”
He raised an eyebrow at me before he realized what I meant. “I guess so,” he mumbled.
I looked back at the caves, still nervous about what might be lurking inside.
“I like your training attire.”
I looked at Bash to see him smiling down at me. A ploy to obviously take my mind off the monsters in the caves.
“I couldn’t very well wear a dress to train,” I said, rolling my eyes. I had put on a fitted, long-sleeved top, leather pants, and a pair of black boots. An outfit I deemed suitable to do anything Bash had planned for today.
“Well, it suits you, love.” Bash reached and brushed a strand of hair off my shoulder before resting his hand there. A small tingling sensation came over my body as Bash removed the glamour that had been hiding what I looked like now.
“My god, you’re beautiful,” Bash said as he dragged his hand slowly down my arm. He removed the glamour any time we were alone in my room, and he always said the same thing. Even though I’d heard it so many times from him now, it still sent butterflies through my stomach every time.
“No. None of that right now,” I said, taking a step back. “I want to learn.”
“Oh, I have plenty of things I can teach you,” he mumbled as his eyes drifted down my body.
My cheeks reddened, but I quickly turned away to try to keep his focus off of the reaction my body had given him.
“There’s no need to hide what you’re feeling. We are mated now. I can sense anything I need to know.”
I knew he was right, but I couldn’t help my instinct, which was to mask my emotions.
“Can we please just start? I’d like to get out of monster land before nightfall.”
He chuckled. “ I’m not training you.”
“What do you mean you’re not training me?” I asked.
“Well, for one, training can be difficult and I do not wish to have a phoenix pissed off at me, and two, all I can think about is ripping those clothes off of you so I don’t think much training would go on.”
I rolled my eyes before throwing my hands up and saying, “Who’s training me?”
“I am.”
I whipped my head around to see Adar walking towards us.
Oh, fuck me.
He must’ve been hiding behind the pile of broken rocks behind us, waiting for Bash to break the news to me. Adar didn’t hide the way he felt about me. He didn’t like me. He probably had no interest in helping me and was just obeying the order of his Sovereign. Why would Bash choose him to train me?
“You’re joking, right?” I said, looking back at Bash.
“No. He is the best one to help you.”
“I’ve changed my mind. I don’t want to learn how to use my gift,” I said, crossing my arms.
“I’ll be back to get you later.”
“Bash, n—” he was gone before I could finish.
I stayed facing the other direction away from Adar. If I had known he would be the one to help me, I would’ve refused to come. That’s probably why Bash didn’t tell me.
“You can ignore me. I’ll sit right here until he comes back.”
“Why did you even agree to help?” I asked, keeping my back to him.
“I do as my Sovereign commands.”
Of course that’s his response. I expected nothing else from him. I turned around to see he had propped himself up on a rock and had his arms crossed. He had the same disinterested and annoyed look on his face that he always did.
All I wanted was to leave, but considering my only way out of here had abandoned me, I might as well take the time to figure out what exactly I could do.
I was half phoenix, half royal, meaning I could have every ability of my parents or only a few. I knew I could wield fire, but I hadn’t tried to summon it since the night I burnt Bash’s room. And frankly, I had no idea how to bring the fire forth again. Even if I hated to admit it, I needed help.
We stood in silence, staring at each other, waiting for the other to speak. But the way he looked at me—the way he always looked at me—just pissed me off. I knew he would have no problem wasting the day and telling Bash I wouldn’t do anything, so I knew I would have to initiate this if I wanted anything to happen.
Adar could be hundreds, maybe thousands, of years older than me, I wasn’t really sure exactly, but I was going to be the more mature one today. I had no problem with him, but his attitude had always made me steer clear of him.
“I’m not sure where to start,” I said, dropping my arms.
He let out a sigh before standing up and walking towards me. “Well, we know you can burn things down, so let’s start with that.”
I narrowed my eyes at him.
“Close your eyes and go into your mind. Since you don’t have control of it yet, it will be connected to your emotions. Think of something that angers you. A moment where you felt weak and all you wanted to do was find the strength to fight back.”
I thought about those weeks of torture. I thought about what happened to Astrid and about Celine and the anger she brought me. And everything I wanted to do to her. But no matter how angry I got—how hot I could feel my body becoming—I couldn’t turn it into fire.
I opened my eyes to see Adar staring at me. “Your mother was a phoenix. They didn’t have the ability to wield power in fae form, only when they were in bird form so maybe the same applies to you. Your incident may have been a fluke. A one time thing since you had so much energy built up inside of you and it just released.”
“So what? I should close my eyes and imagine being a bird, having wings and a beak, and then I will just turn into one?”
“Pretty much,” he replied.
“I don’t know why I need your help then,” I said under my breath as I closed my eyes.
I did precisely what I had said. I pictured myself as a bird, a phoenix, just like the drawings I had seen in the books. Golden feathers, large wings covered in flames that spanned double the size of my body. Long, majestic tail feathers and a small yellow beak.
No matter how hard I tried to concentrate on becoming the bird I was imagining, all I could think of was Adar standing there, staring at me.
This would be so much easier if I was alone.
“It’s not working,” I said as I opened my eyes.
“Well, I have another idea that could work,” he said, taking another step closer to me.
“What is it?” I started to back away from him. I didn’t like him being so close to me, but he continued to inch closer. I had a gut feeling that I wasn’t going to like this other idea.
Before I could react, Adar picked me up and threw me off the fucking cliff . I was falling, and fast. I knew that if I didn’t do something, anything, I would hit the ground soon and Bash wouldn’t be here in time to save me if I tried to call out for him.
I had no other option but to bring forth whatever was inside of me. I closed my eyes and forced the thought of wings into a reality, like my life depended on it, because it did. When I opened my eyes again, instead of falling to the ground, I was rising back up, but I wasn’t a bird. I had the wings of a phoenix, but I was still in my body. I didn’t care how I did it or if I only did it halfway, but I did it. And now I was fucking pissed.
“What the fuck was that?” I yelled as I brought myself back to the top of the cliff.
“What?” Adar asked innocently. He was back propped up on the rock, smiling at what he had done.
“You . . . you pushed me off the cliff!”
“Technically, I threw you off a cliff,” he said, pushing himself up off the rock and crossing his arms. “Trying to get you to shape-shift wasn’t working so I couldn’t think of a better way to force you to do it.”
“I could’ve died! What if I didn’t inherit that gift from my mother? What if I couldn’t turn into a phoenix, and instead I was impaled by one of those trees down there?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “Then I would hope you inherited her reincarnation abilities.”
I could feel the rage building at his response. He had no regard for me or my safety. He was willing to risk my death to see what I could do.
I wanted to kill him.
I could feel my temperature rising. The rage inside of me was begging for a release. I summoned the flames and instead of bursting into a ball of fire, I channeled it to my hands. My newly golden hair began flowing as if the wind was moving it, but I could see out of the corner of my eye that it was also covered in flames. I began stalking toward Adar, using my wings instead of my legs and he watched me while he ripped his sparring gloves off and threw them on the ground.
“What are you going to do? Burn me?” he said as he quickly came towards me.
I had my arms out, ready to grab him by the throat and burn him from existence, but he beat me to it. He grabbed my hands in his and said with a wide-eyed look of crazy in his eyes, “Sorry, Tinker Bell . I won’t burn.”
Oh. That’s why Bash sent Adar to train with me.
He kept his hands tightly gripped on mine and I looked down to see the flames covering his hands, but not one mark of burn showed.
I ripped my hands from him and said, “I could’ve died.” The wings I had summoned disappeared, and my feet hit the ground beneath me.
“Well, you didn’t,” he said as he continued to stare at me.
“What would Bash do if you killed me?” I asked.
“He’d probably kill me. But that is a better fate than having to watch his demise because he is being blinded by love.”
“I wouldn’t let anything happen to him. You can trust me, Adar.”
“You make him weak. No matter what you do, he will always be weaker when his first thought is to ensure your safety and not his own.”
I took a step back. I wasn’t as angry as I was hurt by what he had just said to me. He would never trust me. We would never be able to get along even if we spent the rest of our existence together due to our ties to Bash.
I needed to leave. I never wanted to see Adar again, even though I knew that would be impossible. But for right now, I needed to get away from him. I didn’t want him to see that what he said really had hurt me, because that is probably exactly what he wanted. I wanted to go back to my room and to forget what he said to me, even though I knew he was right.
My room. I just wanted to be in my room.
And a moment later, that’s exactly where I was standing.
I . . . I transferred. All of the trouble I just went through to figure out my gifts but transferring . . . something so rare that only the Sovereigns can do. I could just think of where I wanted to be and it was that easy.
“Violet.”
I turned around to Bash looking at me very confused. He must’ve known the moment I was back within the castle walls.
“I’m done training with Adar,” I said as I walked past him toward the bathroom to clean myself up.
“Are you okay?” he asked as he followed closely behind me.
“Yes,” I said. I pulled my shirt off over my head and threw it on the floor before taking my pants off and doing the same with them. I just wanted to forget about today.
“I-I need to go get Adar, but I’ll be right back.” I turned around to see him staring at my body. I knew exactly what he was thinking. He wanted to clean me himself. I walked up to him and ran my hand down his chest.
“You should leave him there,” I said as I continued to lower my hand. “Maybe one of those creatures you were talking about will take pity after seeing what he did to me and finish him off since I couldn’t.”
He took a step back, and his eyes darkened. “What did he do?”
“He threw me off the cliff.” As soon as the words left my mouth, Bash was gone. I couldn’t help but smile at what he might be doing to Adar right now.