Hi! Thanks for reading and please review if you can. Should I follow every scene from ACOMAF or only write the major ones? Thanks!

I listened to her soft footsteps as she followed after me.

I had trained many high Fae soldiers to fight and even taught some Illyrian children how to fly, but apart from helping Cassian with his lessons when we were learning together, I had never helped anyone learn to read or write. I figured we'd start at the beginning then.

"I know my alphabet," She said sharply as I laid a piece of paper in front of her. "I'm not that stupid."

As if I could call a woman who found a way to trap the Middengard Wyrm with the bones of it's own victims stupid.

"I didn't say you were stupid," I told her. "I'm just trying to determine where we should begin—since you've refused to tell me a thing about how much you know."

"Can't you hire a tutor?"

I lifted a brow. Did her reluctance only stem from her hatred of me?

"Is it that hard for you to even try in front of me?"

"You're a High Lord—don't you have better things to do?"

There's nothing more important than you.

"Of course. But none as enjoyable as seeing you squirm."

"You're a real bastard, you know that?"

I laughed, truly pleased that my mate swore like an Illyrian soldier

"I've been called worse. In fact, I think you've called me worse," I said, still chuckling.

I pointed to a the sentence I had written—unable to resist getting under her skin as she so often got under mine. "Read that."

She squinted at the print. "I can't."

"Try."

Hesitating, she said, "What, exactly, is your stake in all this? You said you'd tell me if I worked with you."

"I didn't specify when I'd tell you...maybe I resent the idea of you letting those sycophants and war-mongering fools in the Spring Court make you feel inadequate. Maybe I indeed enjoy seeing you squirm. Or maybe—"

"I get it."

I snorted. "Try to read it, Feyre."

Prick.

She snatched the paper towards her, nearly ripping it in half in the process and furrowed her brow in concentration. "Y-you … Look … "

"Good," I murmured, pleased that she was proving to be a much faster learner than Cassian had been.

"I didn't ask for your approval."

I chuckled. Then she would most definitely enjoy the sentence I wrote to her.

"Ab … Absolutely..De … Del … "

She glanced at me, brows raised.

"Delicious," I purred, anticipating her exasperation.

She squinted again, creating a little crease between her brows that my hands were itching to smooth away. The urge surprised me. I wasn't the unfeeling Male I often pretended to be, but my parents—or what I remembered of them—had never been physically affectionate with each other. I suspected it was more my father than my mother. My mother was a loving, colorful female while my father…

Feyre read the next two words, pulling me out of my reverie, then whipped her face toward me.

"You look absolutely delicious today, Feyre?! That's what you wrote?"

I felt for her mind. It seemed easier to slip through the unprotected borders of her consciousness—as if her mind was subconsciously welcoming me.

it's true, isn't it?

She jolted back, her chair groaning. "Stop that!"

I dug my talons in further—latching on to her very being.

The fashion of the Night Court suits you.

"This is what happens when you leave your mental shields down. Someone with my sort of powers could slip inside, see what they want, and take your mind for themselves."

The thought of it terrified me. Suddenly needing her to know how serious it was, I continued.

"Or they could shatter it. I'm currently standing on the threshold of your mind … but if I were to go deeper, all it would take would be half a thought from me and who you are, your very self, would be wiped away".

I pushed away a shudder as the memories of the many fae minds I had shattered for Amarantha threatened to resurface.

I could scent the fear rolling off of her.

Good.

"You should be afraid," I told her gravely. "You should be afraid of this, and you should be thanking the gods-damned Cauldron that in the past three months, no one with my sorts of gifts has run into you. Now shove me out."

I felt her mind cautiously graze the talons. I pushed a little harder.

Shove. Me. Out.

I felt her feeble attempt to slam herself into me, into those claws I had hooked in everywhere.

I laughed softly, still in her consciousness, and lit a path inside her mind to lead her out.

That way Feyre.

I felt her hesitate for a moment. When I was almost sure she had given up trying, a wave of her conscious crashed against me. Not hard enough to truly remove me but—I loosened the claws reluctantly. "Good."

She slumped in her seat, understandably exhausted, but I wasn't done with her yet.

"Shield. Block me out so I can't get back in."

Sensing her fatigue, I stroked the outer layer of her mind.

A wall of shimmering black adamant snapped down, black as night and a foot thick, slicing my talons in two.

I grinned. If there was any doubt we were mates before…

"Very nice. Blunt, but nice."

"You're a pig," she snarled, ripping the paper in two.

"Oh, most definitely. But look at you—you read that whole sentence, kicked me out of your mind, and shielded. Excellent work."

"Don't condescend to me."

"I'm not. You're reading at a level far higher than I anticipated," I told her truthfully.

She blushed furiously. "But mostly illiterate."

I wished I could tell her what I was thinking—that she had learned to hunt, to trap, to swim all on her own as a young child with nothing—that she of all people had nothing to be embarrassed about— but I couldn't. Not until I knew she wouldn't use the truth of my nature against me and my court. She was my mate, but she still shared a bed with my rival.

"At this point, it's about practice, spelling, and more practice. You could be reading novels by Nynsar. And if you keep adding to those shields, you might very well keep me out entirely by then, too."

"Is it even possible—to truly keep you out?"

"Not likely, but who knows how deep that power goes? Keep practicing and we'll see what happens." I had a feeling that as my equal, she could do the impossible.

"And will I still be bound by this bargain at Nynsar, too?"

Silence.

She went on. "After—after what happened—I think we can agree that I owe you nothing, and you owe me nothing."

"I'm not your enemy Feyre" I replied, frustration flaring up again.

"Everyone else says you are."

Of course they did. I wanted them to—let them all hate me if it kept my loved ones safe.

"And what do you think?" I prodded, leaning back in my chair.

"You're doing a damned good job of making me agree with them."

"Liar," I purred. She'd forgotten that I had been in her mind. I had seen her reluctant draw to me—my actions at her last trial conflicted with that mask of coldness and it confused her. Her subconscious was aware of our bond, even if she wasn't.

"Did you even tell your friends about what I did to you Under the Mountain?"

"I don't want to talk about anything related to that. With you or them."

"No, because it's so much easier to pretend it never happened and let them coddle you," I said, the anger from this morning resurfacing.

"I don't let them coddle me—"

"They had you wrapped up like a present yesterday. Like you were his reward."

"So?"

"So?" A flicker of rage before I buried it under ice.

"I'm ready to be taken home," she merely said.

"Where you'll be cloistered for the rest of your life, especially once you start punching out heirs. I can't wait to see what Ianthe does when she gets her hands on them."

"You don't seem to have a particularly high opinion of her."

I fought a snarl. "No, I can't say that I do." He pointed to a blank piece of paper. "Start copying the alphabet. Until your letters are perfect. And every time you get through a round, lower and raise your shield. Until that is second nature. I'll be back in an hour."

"What?"

"Copy. The. Alphabet. Until—"

"I heard what you said."

Prick. Prick, prick, prick.

"Then get to work." I stood, unsure whether to laugh at or call out her curses. Lingering anger had me chose the second.

"And at least have the decency to only call me a prick when your shields are back up."

I vanished into darkness before she could reply.