A Court of Ash and Fire

Chapter Ten

"You have got to be rutting kidding me!" Aelin yelled, stomping her foot. "I just spent four days climbing a gods-damned mountain just to end up back with you assholes! This is bullshit!"

Cassian bared his teeth. "No. What's bullshit is that you just completed the Rite-which is for Illyrian males only-quicker than anyone in history."

"Can someone please explain what the hell this Rite is?" She whined, plopping down on her ass and resting her chin on her hand.

Cassian waved a hand, slowly advancing on her. She now noticed that there were perhaps fifty or so winged males around her, looking hungry for carrion. "The Rite is an ancient passage for Illyrian males when they want to become a fully-fledged warrior." He drew a sword. "And you, a wanted criminal, just completed it. And you're a human and a girl, nonetheless."

Aelin got to her feet. "First off, I don't give a damn about your 'Rite'. I just kicked the asses of about twenty of your  so called warriors. Second, don't ever call me a girl. That would be a mistake. And why do you keeping saying 'human' like its an insult? Human women can do just as much as you puffed-up bastards can do."

Cassian barked a laugh, flipping his sword in his hand. At his side, Rhysand and that other woman appeared in a swirl of darkness. "Really?"

"Like you said, I just completed the Rite-the first female human to do so."

Cassian shook his head. "That's it. Your coming with me." He lunged for her, but Aelin expected it. She side-stepped him, and, grabbing the stolen knife, sliced a deep cut into his bicep. He hissed, slapping a hand to his wound to staunch the flow of blood.

Suddenly, the winged males launched themselves at her, drawing weapons of varying shapes and sizes. Aelin waited until the last minute, then used all of her strength to launch herself up and into the air. She flipped once, before landing atop the head of one warrior. Before he gave way under her weight, she was gone, sprinting across their heads. 

They shouted, reaching up to grab her, but she was too quick. Keeping light on her feet, she leapt, keeping balance with her arms. When she reached a small and broken house, she pushed off a head and grasped onto a windowsill. Swinging back and forth, she used her backwards momentum to curl up and over the sill, landing on the window. Then, she grasped onto the roof, and pulled herself up onto it. She stuck her tongue out at the warriors glaring up at her. "What? Too scared to come up here?"

Then, three things happened at once:

One, every single one of the winged males took flight, aiming straight for her.

Two, Rhysand appeared behind her in a swirl of shadows.

Three, a dagger lodged itself deep in her side.

~

She bit her lip to muffle her scream as she ripped the knife from her torso, blood streaming through her fingers. Rhysand grabbed her under arms and winnowed away, bringing her back onto the muddy ground. More than pissed off, she drove the bloody dagger into his hip. He groaned, releasing her as the warriors yelled. Realising that she probably wouldn't make it out of this alive and needing a diversion, she shifted into her Fae form and back too quickly to see. But in that hundredth of a second, she set fire to that rickety house.

It burst into flame, raining ashes and embers down upon the warriors. Their shouting increased, now trying to put out the fire. Slipping between their bodies, she was almost at the edge of the crowd when a large hand latched onto her head, ripping her back by her hair. She struggled, tears pricking her eyes as she glared up into the blonde, green-eyed man from the meeting. "You," he hissed, dragging her through the mud, "are coming back with me to the Spring Court."

"Like hell," she growled, and kicked high into the air and struck her foot into his nose. It broke with a satisfying crunch, and he dropped her with a dark curse.

Leaping up and ignoring her screaming wound, she sprinted as best as she could to the edge of the mountain the training area sat on. Being shorter than all of the warriors assembled, it made it easy for her to cut through unnoticed, using their massive shadows to her advantage. She stumbled to a stop by the mountain edge, hesitating only a fraction of a second before leaping down.

She was still falling through the air when two arms caught her and hauled her back up.