Heir of Deception

Chapter 39

Fenrys and Della had been sharing a room... a bed really for 2 weeks.

Things had been going well. While the nightmares hadn't stopped she did feel safer when she woke. Della couldn't tell if it was an act or not but Fenrys would expertly soothe her whilst he still was half asleep. She wasn't sure that she would've stayed so long if she woke him each night.

Her sleeping schedule was also starting to return to normal. Again because she felt guilty at the thought of disrupting Fenrys. When he'd been sleeping outside her door it was easy to pretend she wasn't keeping him up all hours of the night. Now though she had no plausible deniability.

If anyone noticed they hadn't said anything. Della had quietly worked with Aelin to get her room rearranged however she didn't really use it, preferring Fenrys's room to her own. She'd go over morning to get dressed but that was the extent that she used her room for, an oversized dressing room.

Della debated asking to have a doorway put in to connect their rooms but that felt too presumptuous.

— — —

Rowan shot another blast of ice daggers at her feet. Her wind shield held firm and she sent her own ice dagger straight for his head. He side stepped rather than shielding, which she had anticipated, sending a second blast to where he was moving to. He put up his own wind shield blocking most of the second ice dagger but not before it just barely nicked his ear.

Della sucked in a hard breath, the blood draining from her face.

"Oh my goodness!" She gasped, immediately dropping her shields, her father following suit. "I am so so sorry!" This was the first time she had ever landed a blow on him. And drawn blood!

She rushed towards him, guilt clanged through her chest. Rowan rushed towards her however instead he swept his legs under her dropping her to the floor.

"Don't drop your guard like that." He said sternly.

Della lay on her back, trying to recover the air back into her lungs. Her father stood over her scowling. "Dropping your shields like that can be deadly Della. Even in training."

She nodded solemnly, trying to not feel ashamed at the correction.

His face then slowly split into a smile, he extended his hand to her helping her up and drawing her into a hug. "With that out of the way, I'm impressed by you Della." He squeezed her tighter, pride filling his voice. "Anticipating your opponents movements is a crucial skill to have."

He released her from the hug, still smiling. "I'm proud of you, that was well done!"

Della flushed at the praise. "Are you alright? I- I didn't think I'd-"

"This is nothing truly. It was a clever maneuver and one I should have been shielding for."

Della looked trying to get a better view at his bleeding ear.

He obliged her, turning his head and leaning down for her. Della was a tall female, clearly the height inherited from her father as he still towered over her. 

She carefully reached up, inspecting it the small cut.

"Did you want to try and heal it?"

"Oh, um sure." She gingerly pushed her magic onto the cut.

She'd healed small cuts for Annore but given her isolation and fae healing it wasn't something she did often.

Really not even her father needed her to heal him. Was he testing her? Just offering to alleviate her guilt?

Regardless she was pleased when the skin knitted back together without any scarring.

"There," she said.

"Thank you, let's go again."

— — —

Della and Rowan had trained together for another hour or so, which was longer than they normally trained for. She was grateful for the time with him. He was busy as prince consort. Clearly training with her was something he enjoyed. Lately he'd been hinting that he was interested in training different offensive and defensive flight patterns whilst in their animal forms but Della was not yet ready to face her fear of heights.

While she'd never expressed outright her fear her father was obviously aware of it and wanted to train the weakness out of her.

Della was still surprised he hadn't noticed her sleeping with Fenrys. She'd thought of bringing up the topic to him but was unsure of how to approach it. The whole thing was just so odd, even if Fenrys swore her father would disagree.

His comments from earlier still confused her. Would her father truly be supportive of a relationship between the two?

Fenrys had made some very convincing points, and he had known her father for nearly a century. Yet he seemed more confident than what she'd expect.

Her father handed her a glass of water, she took it gladly.

"You might be a little more tired than usual." Her father said.

She nodded, still slightly breathless. Rowan raised an eyebrow at her. This variation though was very fatherly, still stern yet softer somehow.

"I'm saying not to push yourself to hard today."

Della resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "I won't, don't worry."

They strode down the hall together, heading towards their rooms.

"I mean it Della."

"I won't," she said again more emphatically. Rowan since the attack didn't fuss quite as much as those first few days but still tended to worry over her.

Fenrys worried more but she suspected that was because he was around her more often. That and Aelin didn't pester Fenrys not to fuss like she pestered Rowan.

While she couldn't see it she could feel her father watching her. She ignored him, just kept walking towards her quickly approaching door.

She had her hand on the doorknob preparing to enter before he said, "Della," she looked up at him, his eyes full of concern, worry even.

"Are you doing alright?"

His intensity made her nervous. She glanced around before nodding yes.  Looking at him again, he nodded his head for them to enter her rooms.

Why was he asking? Why was he asking with that face? Had- had someone said something? Had she done something?

"Della," her father continued, "I know you've been working very hard lately, and I'm proud of you. But I just wanted you to know that you don't have to earn your place here."

He paused. Della was currently stuck, just a few weeks ago she'd sworn she wouldn't burden anyone with this but clearly it wasn't working. More than that it seemed that Fenrys did seem more relaxed now that she was relying on him more. Lysandra had said as much. That people wanted to care for her, that she should let them.

She took a deep breath, bracing herself to be so vulnerable.

"It's just-" her lip quivered, all of bottled up emotion hitting her at once.

He stepped closer to her, gathered her into his arms while tears slipped down her face.

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