Chapter 257

Elain spent the next few hours watching the training taking place. Cassian had instructed the group to move around between himself, Azriel, and Lucien. Each of them were teaching a different skill, and she thought that they all seemed to pick these things up fairly quickly. At least to her unskilled eyes. She had been correct in that they seemed very eager to learn, and they took the constructive criticism and suggestions for improvement well, doing their best to remedy whatever had been incorrect. Elain was rather impressed as they approached the end of the third hour of the session, and she found somewhere comfortable to sit to watch the final minutes.

Cassian had been talking to each one of them after they had demonstrated what they had learned, and he was now telling them that they were to move into the town to where Feyre and Nesta were after they had taken a break for the midday meal. He had pointed her out, letting them know that Elain had all the information they needed if they didn't know where they were meant to be, and to ask her any questions they had and, once he had dismissed them, everyone had filed out of the square, leaving her alone with the two Illyrians and her mate.

Lucien strolled toward Elain, a smirk on his face, and she looked up at him when he came to stand over her. "Did you enjoy the session, Petal?" he asked, the sun shining behind him and casting a bright aura around him as she gazed upward.

"I did." She told him. "You looked magnificent. I found it hard to look away…"

"I could feel you…" he told her, bending to lower himself to the ground beside her. "I could feel you watching me… and I could feel that you liked what you saw." He flashed her a grin, and Elain felt her skin heat up just a little.

"I rather thought you might be able to…" She knew that she was blushing and, when she glanced at his face, she knew that he had noticed because his grin was even wider than it had been before.

"I liked knowing that you liked it…"

"I know…" she smiled then. She had been able to feel his appreciation of her appraisal of him, and it was one of her favourite things about the bond. "Do you think that it will make a difference?" she asked, "What they learned?"

"Let's hope so." He replied, "It can't have hurt… they have skills now that they didn't have yesterday. So, if those pricks come back… they will at least be able to resist them…"

"Surely none of them could take on any of those males we saw yesterday…"

"Not one or two of them." Lucien agreed, "But all of them?" he gave a shrug. "I've seen stranger things happen…"

"Hmm…" Elain leaned her head back against the wall, thinking as she enjoyed the warm sun on her face.

"Really," Lucien said, "they only really need to be enough of a nuisance to make coming here not worth it… Put up enough of a fight and they won't bother."

"No…" Elain agreed, "But they'll likely just go somewhere else…"

"There is that." Lucien muttered.

"Which…" Cassian said, walking toward them with Azriel, "is why we will probably have to sort the problem out a little more permanently."

"How do you mean?" Lucien asked, and Elain could hear the uncertainty in his voice. "You mean to kill them?"

"Not if we can avoid it." Cassian said, and Azriel nodded his agreement. "But… others need to be made aware that this type of thing won't be tolerated. Rhys would agree… and I will check with him before making any decisions…" he glanced at Azriel then, and Elain knew that it would be the Shadowsinger sending the message. "But, if it comes to that, then yes."

"Won't that start a war?" Lucien asked, "What if the other camps have a problem with that…"

"They won't all go up against Rhys." Azriel put in. "And they know that we speak for the High Lord."

Elain slid her hand into her mate's. She was definitely not looking forward to any kind of battle like that. She had seen Illyrians at war. It had been bloody and gruesome, and she could still see Lucien in her memory covered in blood and gore when he had found her after the war. It was not something she wished to see again. As if sensing her thoughts, or maybe she had inadvertently sent the image to him down the bond, Lucien squeezed Elain's hand. "It won't be like that, Petal." He told her, but Elain wasn't so sure about that. War was always bloody and gruesome.

"Let us hope," Cassian said, stretching a little, as if to ease his muscles after the session that had just finished, "that this will be enough of a deterrent to make that unnecessary."