A Court of Light and Fire

Chapter 10

"No, your other left."

"I'll show you my other left," Alina grumbled under her breath, sweat dripping down her brow. She had woken up – been flung out of bed, more accurately, at the crack of dawn by Cassian for their morning training session. This early in the morning, even in springtime, the air was absolutely frigid in the training ring atop the House of Wind.

"Your movements are sloppy and your balance is horrible." They were halfway through a brutal stretch routine and Alina was already struggling.

"Yeah well, I just went to sleep like three hours ago."

"Az keep you up?" Alina rolled her eyes when she saw Cassian's stupid smirk. Could he smell his scent on her? Or did he... hear them? Yikes. He must have seen the horror on her face because he let out a soft chuckle before moving on to the next stretch.

"Hmph." They continued to stretch in peaceful silence for a while, admiring the soft sounds of wind gusts and birds in the distance.

The rest of their session went by achingly slowly, with comfortable conversation and Cassian pushing her buttons just enough to keep her distracted from the pain in her muscles. It was lunchtime before they flew back down to the estate drenched in sweat and absolutely exhausted. Alina thanked the Cauldron that Azriel wasn't around to see how pathetic she looked as she limped up the stairs to her room, wings dragging along the floor.

~

"You'll love Sahar's boutique. He's the most talented designer in Velaris and he can customize basically anything you want!"

Mor, Alina, and Feyre strolled through the streets of Velaris on their way to the dress boutique. Alina had taken the longest, most glorious shower of her life and then had crashed on her bed in a tired heap. She'd napped for almost thirty blissful minutes before Feyre blasted into her room and half dragged her out of bed to go dress shopping. Alina's exhaustion faded away as she walked along the colorful sidewalks bursting with life and fae of all colors, shapes, and sizes. As they walked and chatted she noticed many fae wave and smile at Feyre, some even calling her by name, but none of them bowed or addressed her as High Lady. "We like to keep it less formal. To make sure the fae of this city know we're just normal people like them," Mor had whispered when she noticed Alina's surprise. A little girl with scaled magenta skin and pink hair that flowed over her shoulders like water ran up to the three of them and offered each a flower. The flower had petals of deep magenta just like her skin, and Alina bent down so that she could entwine it in the braid of her hair. When she ran away back to her mother, she wore a smile that was infectious.

They resumed their walk. Alina turned to Feyre and asked, "Do things like that happen a lot when you go out into the city?"

"Somewhat, yes. The war was hard on the people here. Many went to fight and never returned, and many more lost their only family right here on these streets when the city was attacked. I think they remember what we all sacrificed and fought for," Feyre said. Alina could tell from the sadness in her eyes that even these years later Feyre still was filled with guilt and grief.

"Especially what you and Rhys fought for," Mor added as she hugged her friend. "They remember. We all do."

The lump in Alina's throat kept her from asking any more questions. Stories for another time. They resumed their excited chatter about dress styles and jewelry as they finally entered Sahar's boutique. Immediately Alina was taken back by the sheer size of the boutique – if it can even be called that. She'd pictured small and cozy and intimate but this... this was grand. The most beautiful live music, played on a violin and something else she didn't recognize, floated toward them softly from somewhere unseen. The giant room had huge, vaulted ceilings made of glass and decorated with lavish chandeliers that danced the light around the room. Servers carrying around trays of champagne flitted around the busy room, offering drinks to all the different fae that were shopping or trying on dresses or discussing their ideas with their designers. And the most mesmerizing part of it all was the hundreds upon hundreds of dresses of every color imaginable that were spread out on racks throughout the grand room. She'd never seen such amazing dresses with sequins and exotic fabrics.