The 'place' turned out to be an empty courtyard behind the palace that looked like it was normally used for weapons practice.
The courtyard was naturally closed off on three sides by the forest growing around the grounds, this provided the area with much needed privacy.
Aelin stopped in the centre of a fighting ring chalked on the ground. "How do you want to do this Feyre?"
Rhys Stepped forward, "Would you like me to go first, my love, show you how it works?"
Feyre nodded.
The High Lord of Night took Aelin's place in the ring and turned to address the waiting ladies . "The first thing you need to do, Feyre, is find where the beast resides within you. Find and open the door keeping it caged. You should feel it the second the magic is free, do not fight it. Relax into it and let the magic surround you like a blanket."
As he was reciting this, a cloud of darkness started to collect at his feet, slowly creeping up Rhys' legs, obscuring them from view.
He gave the girls a small smirk, "You might want to take a few steps back, beast is quite large"
All of a sudden the darkness surged to engulf Rhys completely, then growing larger until it was almost two stories High.
It shrank slowly, the talons came first. Replacing fingers and feet. Then dark scales or perhaps feathers, It was hard to tell, covered his legs, his arms, his chest.
It was a thing of nightmares. Nothing human or Fae in it. It was a creature that lived in black pits and only emerged at night to hunt and feast.
The ladies had to cover their faces as the beast flapped its sail-sized wings to stop leaves and twigs from blinding them.
When the wind settled down they lowered their arms, shocked speechless by what they saw.
Aelin recovered first, "He looks like a wyvern but with the front legs." Lysandra nodded mutely in agreement.
Feyre Shook her head, "I don't know what a wyvern is." Aelin smiled "Show her Lysandra."
A flash of light later, and a much smaller version of the beast was stood before them looking almost identical apart from the missing forelimbs.
Feyre made a noise of understanding as Lysandra shifted back. "Are wyverns common on this continent?"
Aelin tilted her hand in a here or there movement, "You won't come across them in the wild if that's what you mean. They were created by my enemies using black magic, luckily I destroyed said enemies in the war we just finished. The Witch Queen Manon Blackbeak owns all the surviving wyverns now, she is breeding and training an aerial fleet to protect her lands."
Before Feyre could respond, the massive beast they had all but forgotten during their conversation, let out and earth shattering roar before exploding into shadows.
When it finally cleared, Rhys was left standing exactly where they last saw him. Complete with his signature smirk. "I believe it is your turn, Feyre darling."
The High Lady of Night took her place in the ring and returned her mates smirk. "So, I just need to find the beast inside me and open the cage, right?"
Rhys dipped his head once in confirmation.
Feyre closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Her transformation was a lot slower than Rhys' had been.
First, her skin gained a luminescent sheen almost like starlight, the air around her started to ripple as if she were in the middle of a heatwave.
Her breath started fogging the air, a Stray tear froze on her cheek.
Roses of all colours sprouted from the ground at her feet, a breeze blew through the courtyard bringing with it the smell of the sea.
The glow surrounding Feyre transformed into an oval of light, a doorway almost. The High Lady opened her eyes and stepped through the disc of light.
There were gasps and applause from her audience as not a woman, but a beast emerged from the light.
Feyre stopped a few feet away from her grinning friends and turned in a slow circle, allowing them to study her new appearance properly.
She stood about seven foot at the shoulder with the body of a lioness, the same colour as her hair, she also retained her natural blue-grey eyes but had the slit pupils of a cat.
Her flanks were speckled with black and gold patches like shadows and starlight dancing through her fur and she had a ridge of scales running the length of her spine.
Their attention was then drawn to a tail identical to that of a Scorpion, ending in a spiked ball like a Morningstar and giant ram horns curling from the sides of her head.
Rhys cleared his throat and gave Feyre a proud smile. "You are a vision, darling, absolutely breath-taking."
Aelin and Lysandra were grinning like fools next to him. Rhys raised a brow at them "What are you grinning at?"
Lysandra took a few steps to the side before spinning to face them again, still grinning, "Would you like to see what you look like?"
The lioness stalked to her Rhys' side and sat down before nodding once at the shapeshifter.
Lysandra grinned wider before vanishing in a burst of light. When it faded there stood an exact copy of Feyre's beast form.
The high Lady jumped up from her seat and the two beasts circled each other with interest, examining each other closely.
This continued until one of them suddenly crouched and pounced on the other, knocking them both to the ground in a tangle of limbs and roaring.
Aelin fell to the floor laughing while Rhys let out an exasperated sigh, smiling fondly at the two overgrown cats wrestling in the dirt.
When Aelin had calmed down, she settled into a cross legged position and waved for Rhys to join her.
As he moved to do so, he felt a gentle knock on his mental shields. Morrigan was trying to contact him. "Rhys, where are you? Are you under attack? We can hear monsters roaring. Show me where you are so we can come help you!!"
The High Lord took a second to think over his answer before replying, "We are not under attack, Lysandra and Feyre are simple doing some training. You are all welcome to come and observe, it is quite entertaining"
He sent Mor a mental map showing her how to reach them and severed the connection.
Aelin threw him a glance, "Who were you talking to just now?" Rhys scrunched his face in confusion, "No-one, we are the only people here capable of speech right now."
The Queen huffed in amusement, "No I meant in your head, your eyes had that same glassy look as before, when you were talking to your mate during tea."
"Ah sorry, it was Morrigan asking where we are, she said they can hear the roaring and she thought we were under attack. I invited them to witness this spectacle taking place."
By now the two cats had separated and it looked like they were playing copy cat, one of them would slash a paw through the air and the other one would copy it straight after.
One of the cats was mid tail swing when the rest of the inner circle came rushing around the corner of the palace.
It spooked the beasts, causing them to spin towards the noise. In doing so, one of them hit the other with the end of her tail, sending the two shifters into another round of play fighting punctuated with loud yowls and roars.
The inner circle stopped dead and just stared at these huge animals playing in the dirt like kittens.
"What the hell!" This outburst came from Cassian as he tried, and failed, to comprehend what he was seeing.
Mor piped up next. "Rhys, what exactly are we looking at right now? All I see are tangled limbs."
Rhys and Aelin shared a look, Aelin stepped forward. "Don't worry, I got this." She cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted, " Lysandra! I've got chocolate cake!"
The growling mass of limbs froze, two heads shot up to pin the onlookers with twin predatory stares. No one moved while their gazes travelled along the line of watching fae.
Finally, the two beasts turned to each other and nodded. Before anyone could do or say anything, the giant cats were up and bounding towards them.