Red String {EDITING}

Training in the Glade

"Mum..." Thorn blanched.

"What's that look for?!" Lunaria scowled, watching as Lyra freed herself from the Alpha – the stitches having finally disappeared. "Come and give your mother a hug. I haven't seen you since you went off to Blagmoor." She mumbled, looking him up and down. "My, my... What a hulking lout you've become..."

"Mum." Thorn's cheeks reddened, his eyes widening when two fists landed on either side of his head, kneading painfully into his skull. "Oww! That hurts!"

"Why didn't you visit?!" She questioned, her red eyes glowing. "I gave you that key to my palace for a reason! All you had to was stick it into any door, and you would've arrived at my door!"

"I was busy!"

"Too busy to come and see your mother?!"

"Why did you dump me in an orphanage?!" Thorn scowled.

"Because I knew you were meant to become an Alpha!" Lunaria growled, stretching her son across her back in a rather painful position that had him screaming for mercy. "I could sense the Alpha Eyes in you ever since I gave birth to you."

Lyra blinked, holding out both hands, trying, and failing, to placate the two of them.

"You could've just delivered me straight to Blagmoor." Thorn choked out as his mother put him in a headlock.

"Think about what you'd have missed out on." Her eyes fell on Lyra. "I put you there for a reason... After all, I didn't want anything to happen to Rylan's mate."

"Wait..." Lyra blinked. "How the hell did you know about me and Rylan?"

"I can see the lines of Fate, that Flix knits... It shows me the couples destined to be together." Lunaria shrugged, ignoring her son's struggles. "I'm a Goddess, Lyra. Don't forget that."

"And by Flix, I'm guessing you mean the God of Fate." Lyra said.

"Correct."

"Lyra." Thorn muttered, his face bright red. "A little help here..."

"Lunaria." Lyra stared at her, awe written across her face. "Can I ask a favour?"

"What is it?" Her red eyes narrowed. "More power?"

"Train me to beat him." She said, pointing at the guy who was squirming in her grasp. "You seem to be rather good at it."

"No!" Thorn yelled.

Lunaria grinned, mischief gleaming in her eyes. "You've got yourself a deal, Lyra... Just promise me you'll fight him at least once a month... I don't want my son getting soft, and letting someone like that Frost guy beat him again..."

***

"Lyra..." Thorn glanced over her as she emerged from the bathroom of the little house that Lunaria had made for them while they stayed there. All she'd had to do way snap her fingers once, and then there'd been a cottage in the little glade. "When are we going back?" He folded his arms. "Rylan must be out of his mind with worry by now... We've been here for at least three and a half weeks..."

"Your mother said that tomorrow would be my last day of training..." Lyra shrugged.

"What do you actually do in them?" He asked, looking incredibly worried.

All he'd seen were sparks of red lightning, and Lyra's concentrating face as she sat in the middle of the field, gathering a ball of red lightning into her hands. That had been when his mother had caught him spying and tied him upside-down by his ankles in her palace, which was a little way away on top of the cliff from which the waterfall fell.

"Now, now... That would be telling." She grinned. "All I can say, is that by tomorrow you'll be eating dirt."

"Oh God..." He muttered, running a hand through his blonde hair that looked paler than ever as he trudged off to his room, praying that a good night of sleep would help ease his nerves.

It didn't.

When he met Lyra and his mother on the wide expanse of grass his nerves were on edge. His mother's wide devilish grin made it even worse.

"Let's just get this over with." He sighed, his shoulders sinking as his healed wings emerged, bursting out from his back, tearing his shirt to shreds, making the other two give him a wolf whistle.

"Go, Lyra." Lunaria grinned, propelling the girl forwards.

Thorn lifted himself into the air with his wings, watching as bolts of red lightning shot underneath him. "Come, Ly." He sighed. "You must've known I'd-"

Lyra's crackling foot slammed into his shoulder, sending him to the ground. "Don't lose focus, Thorn." She grinned, summoning red lightning down from the sky, smirking as Thorn leapt back, spitting out a mouthful of grass and dirt. Lyra splayed her hand, eagerly watching as red lightning spread out it all directions like the ripples caused by a drop of water in a pond.

Thorn was too busy doing the bridge position to notice the beauty of it, though. "I suppose I'd better get serious..." He sighed, standing back up, his hair glowing white as he caught Lyra's crackling foot inches from his face.

One wing battered her away, sending her skidding backwards, her feet digging into the grass, her eyes widening when a white sparking fist slammed into her chest, sending her to the ground.

Lyra swore, rolling to the side as Thorn's foot slammed down in place she'd just been, throwing up chunks of grass and dirt from the intensity of his kick. "Are you trying to kill me?!"

"This is a serious fight, Ly." He said, his red eyes cold. "So come at me with the intent to kill otherwise you won't stand a chance of winning. His wings flapped, pulling him higher into the sky. "Show me what you've got!"

"Happily." Lyra muttered, gathering plenty of lightning around herself as she launched herself up into the sky on wings of red crackling lightning.

"They aren't as pretty as mine." Thorn grumbled, dodging her aerial assault fairly easily, but failing to evade the sneaky stream of red lightning that shot down from the sky. Lyra had been distracting him with her punches and kicks, after all.

That was how Lyra slipped under his defences and used the move she'd been working on ever since Frost had caught her so easily. Five fingers crackling with red lightning slammed into Thorn's stomach as his guard wavered for an instant. The thin layer of lightning guarding his body dissipated, and then the fight was over.

Thorn fell to the ground, his eyes wide as his body refused to respond to his command. Even his wings refused to obey him, and he probably would've broken them again if his mother hadn't caught him with a cushion of air.

Lunaria clapped eagerly. "Nicely done." She said, undoing Lyra's Lightning Stitches in an instant. "My training has paid off rather nicely..." She grinned. "You're approaching your mother's level with the amount of control you have over your Gift, Ly. I'm impressed..." Her eyes twinkled with glee. "Those Lightning Stitches are a complicated technique, but you mastered it after three weeks of intense training."

"Will you send us back now?" Thorn asked, blinking as his bare chest was covered with a shirt and coat.

"To Stonewall Castle, I'm guessing." She said, smiling when he nodded. "Sure." She said, snapping her fingers, and then the ground beneath Lyra and Thorn disappeared, both of their eyes widening as they began to fall. "Ah." Lunaria grinned. "I love seeing their faces when I do that..."

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ILLENIS HERE

That was a bit of a timeskip, but I didn't really have a choice, unless you wanted to read some horrifying training scene that probably would've been as cheesy or boring as hell. I'm not great at training scenes, so I suppose I've got that to work on in future books, but until then, I think I'll leave it there.

Until the next chapter.

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