TASTE OF FREEDOM - AZRIEL'S MATE (ACOTAR)

Chapter 10: Improvement

Raven repeated the sword exercises, the priestesses did the same, separated from each other for everyone's safety. The females always looked to her for reference when training.

At first, this bothered Raven. She felt shy about being watched, but she understood the reasons. It was sometimes intimidating to see Azriel's demonstrations of each exercise. Oftentimes, it sure was a lot easier to be distracted...

Then she started to not care and help more whenever one of them asked something. It helped Raven get ahead in training, even though she couldn't ignore it. The priestesses were shy like her and little by little, they were getting closer.

"Raray!"

Cassian's voice reached Raven's ears when she was talking after training with the females. She turned to the general, trying to avoid remembering the way he'd flown away from her the one and only time her power had appeared.

"Got good news for you", he said and looked smiling at Azriel, who was watching them from afar. Cassian turned to Raven again. "I was talking with Az yesterday and I really think you're ready to start training harder, with advanced exercises like the Valkyries do."

Raven looked at Azriel, who was now flipping through some papers with notes about their training. Cassian still had a smile on his face.

"So, do you want to train with us?"

"Of course, I do!", she said, feeling something strange in her chest for having to change groups. "But I'm probably far behind them, I don't want to slow them down..."

"That won't be a problem, don't worry."

Simple as that, she had changed training phases. The priestesses were happy for her and proceeded to the Library still talking about it.

Before leaving with them, Raven took advantage of their distracted conversation and walked over to where Azriel was, still reading the papers. He was leaning against the railing, in a casual posture she'd never seen before.

The shadows weren't around, which made her feel weird. She had never seen Azriel without them.

"Do you think it's a good idea?"

Azriel was pretending to read the workout reports he'd started doing since Cassian approached Raven. It had been the only way to disguise the discomfort he felt out of sheer selfishness.

"Sorry?"

He was despicable, he thought to himself. He saw her approaching, heard everything she said, but he had to keep up the cover that her change in training didn't affect him so he wouldn't scare her.

"Cassian invited me to train with the Valkyries..." Raven fiddled with her hands uncomfortably. Shyness was the hardest part of herself to overcome. "I don't want to go bigger than I can take it".

Her blue eyes looked up at him and Azriel warmed to the realization that she wanted his opinion... Probably just because he had been her instructor so far, but still...

"I think you're ready," he said, quickly folding the papers and putting them in his pocket. "You've been working hard since the beginning."

Raven's cheeks turned redder and she smiled at Azriel. His wings gleamed in the sun and wearing the Illyrian leathers, he looked like a painting. She tried not to look too much, but it was difficult.

"If you're not comfortable with this, you don't need to..."

There was something different in his tone that she couldn't identify, but she let it go. She shook her head, denying it.