Page 48 of Winds of Darkness
“Step behind your foot instead of in front,” Nakoa said, and Briar turned to find him approaching Thia, one of Eliza’s soldiers. “That will allow you to pivot easier.”
Thia nodded, taking in every word and testing out the maneuver while the rest of them looked on.
“Where’s Cyrus?” Sawyer asked, coming up beside them.
Eliza clicked her tongue in annoyance. “Cyrus is never up this early.”
Sawyer huffed a laugh. “He sleeps in while his mate reports for training?”
“Every fucking day,” Eliza grumbled, sheathing her sword down her back and flicking her red-gold braid over her shoulder. “Anyway, is there a particular reason you joined us this morning?”
Sawyer looked at Briar expectantly, because he too had been confused when Briar had suggested a trip to the Fire Court as the sun rose. He hadn’t been planning on bringing Sawyer with, but his brother was getting nosy. Briar knew the moment he suggested joining forces with the Eastern Courts for training, Sawyer would inundate him with questions. Maybe he should have approached Ashtine with this idea first, but he wasn’t sure when he’d be seeing the Wind Princess again after the way he’d left her earlier that morning.
“Is Sorin doing any better?”
Eliza crossed her arms, looking past him and watching the rest of her soldiers going through their morning training routines. Her shoulders tensed. “That is not what you came here to ask me because you already know the answer.”
Fair point.
Briar pushed out a harsh breath, tugging on the band that kept his hair tied back. Nakoa had joined them now, his turquoise eyes narrowing as he studied his prince. “I came to get your thoughts. Both of you actually. We train our Courts together, teaching our armies to work together and use their magic as one. Perhaps, now that we are all under one queen, we should be doing so with the other Courts as well.”
Eliza slowly slid her gaze back to him, and Nakoa blinked, a scowl pulling on his mouth. “Talwyn is only ruling in Eliné’s stead right now,” Sawyer cut in. “Technically, that’s not even her role. It would be Eliné’s Second—”
“Who is too lost to his own inner turmoil to properly do so,” Nakoa interrupted, rubbing at his jaw.
“Which would then fall to her Third, which is you,” Eliza continued, jerking her chin at Briar. “So I suppose the decision is yours.”
“That’s not how this works, and you know it,” Briar retorted. “I came to ask your opinions on the matter.”
“Why now? Eliné has only been gone a little over a year. Even when she was here, the West and East didn’t mingle much,” Sawyer said.
“That was due more to the feud between the Fire and Earth Courts than anything,” Briar argued.
“Question still stands. Why now?”
Definitely should have done this when Sawyer wasn’t around.
“It was merely an idea. It would give our forces new training activities rather than the same old, same old, and it could build relations,” Briar said. “Seems like a grand idea all around.”
Eliza flicked her grey eyes up to Nakoa, who had folded his arms across his chest once more. “It’s not a terrible idea, but with so much animosity between the Earth and Fire Courts, I don’t know that it would work.”
“So we start with the Wind Court,” Briar said with a shrug.
Eliza scoffed. “Luan would see it as a slight against him if we went to the Wind Princess and not him. And the Earth Prince isn’t the only issue here. There is also Talwyn.”
They all fell silent. No one needed to ask what she meant. The growing rift between the Fire Prince and the Fae Queen of the Eastern Courts wasn’t a secret by any means.
“Something to think on then,” Briar finally said.
“Sure,” Eliza replied, her eyes narrowing as Cyrus came sauntering down the path from the Fiera Palace. “Do not distract my soldier,” she yelled at him.
Cyrus merely threw her the middle finger before wrapping his arm around Thia’s waist and bringing his mouth to hers.
“One of these days I am going to set him on fire,” Eliza grumbled.
“Wouldn’t do much seeing as he’s also a Fire Fae,” Sawyer replied.
“Eyebrows take a while to grow back,” she returned with a shrug.
