Divided (Throne of Glass and A Court of Thorns and Roses Crossover)

Chapter 26

Aidan was reading a book at the small wooden table in her suite when a servant appeared in the doorway. Aelin was summoning her to the training room. It had been days since she had arrived to Doranelle, days since she had danced with Azriel on Starfall. At dinner the night after, she felt awkward and kept tightly quiet for entire meal. 

The servant quickly braided her long hair and helped her dress in a dark tunic and pants. Aidan imagined that Aelin had worn similar outfits during her time training and sparring, and she wasn't disappointed. When she entered the training room, her aunt was dressed exactly the same as she was. They could have been twins, save for her aunt's churning green eyes, and Aidan's much lighter shade of blonde. 

In the arena, King Rowan was sparring against the fair-haired Gavriel while Lorcan, Azriel, and some others looked on. 

"Good morning, Aidan!" Aelin called from the other side of the arena. The training room had a peculiar set-up. All of the doors opened to sets of steps that led downwards to a ovular ring where the Fae males were stationed. Spread around the room were different landings, some with different weapons, some with little oddities, and others with nothing at all. 

Aelin was stationed at a platform with a small basin of water, and Aidan made her way across the room and sat down across from her. She felt a pair of eyes on her as she went, and when she glanced back down at the sparring ring, she noticed Azriel looking back up at her. She blushed and looked away. 

"Hmm, it seems someone has an admirer," Aelin said quietly enough that the Fae below could not hear her and winked. Aidan's cheeks flamed a brighter red.

"So, today I thought we could see what exactly you can do with the ice and wind that you possess. I realized that when I watch you do magic that you always fall back on the fire part," Aelin explained and waved at the water in the basin in front of her. 

"It's easier to call on flame," Aidan replied. "It feels like it's crawling under my skin, begging for me let go of it. When I have it in my hand, it feels like it's caressing me, waiting for me to play with it. Does that make sense?" 

The girl focused on the water as she spoke, willing it to freeze or even get a little bit cold. She stuck a finger in it and moved the water around. It remained the same. 

"Of course it makes sense. It's a part of who you are, but the ice is also there, and I think it's imperative that you learn how to use it."

Aidan continued to play with the water, but she couldn't do anything with it other than boil it when she got frustrated. She had taken to watching the males alternate in the ring below. Right then, it was Azriel against Rowan, the cobalt stones that adorned his body glowing fiercely. 

"Hmm, Rowan might be able to explain this type of magic better than I can. Let me just go get him," Aelin said as she took the stairs three steps at a time. 

Aelin stopped the two males and spoke quietly to Rowan, gesturing up to where Aidan sat. He nodded at the Illryian he was fighting and passed his blades to his mate, who stepped into the ring. The kind aunt that she had grown to know fell away as she became the warrior that she had been born to be. 

"How about we make this a little more interesting? If I win, you owe me a favor. If you win, I owe you a favor," Aelin offered the winged male.

Aidan noticed him eyeing up his opponent, and she couldn't help but wonder if Aelin was fighting a losing battle. He had gone up  against three members of the cadre and remained intact. What was one woman, no matter if she was a warrior queen of legend, against him? 

He nodded his consent as Rowan hopped up to the platform she was on, but neither of them said anything, mesmerized by the dance that had begun in the arena below. Apparently, Aelin had not been idle in the years since Erawan's defeat. If anything, she seemed even more deadly than she had been described. Aidan couldn't take her eyes off of her as she flew around the ring. 

So far, Azriel had matched her at every swipe and swing of the blade. Aelin knew that the little stones on his body were Siphons, meant to direct his power to make him a deadly warrior. She had read about them in one of the books in Doranelle's massive library many years before, and she also knew that even the strongest warriors usually only needed one. Azriel had seven. 

Aelin was ready for him when he went on the offensive, and she jumped back at his first slice and rolled away with his second. In the background, she heard the cheers of the males around her. More and more of the warriors in the palace had come in to watch as their queen battled the stranger. 

Left. Right. Parry. Left. Right. Roll. The dance was beautifully endless. There were very few people in Doranelle that held nothing back when they sparred with her, and now Azriel was one of them. 

Aelin went back on the offensive and began advancing on him, pushing his back to the side of the ring. She feigned a blow to his right, but he was expecting it and countered her left sword. What he wasn't expected was her right blade coming down toward his left leg. He parried, but it threw him off balance, and Aelin used it to smack one of the two blades out of his hands. 

A small ounce of shock registered in his eyes but quickly fell away. He threw himself forward, finally moving away from the wall and pushing Aelin back to the center of the ring, but his singular blade was no match for two of Aelin's. 

The blades were extensions of her arms as she whirled around him, a deadly cyclone, and finally she swept him up into it, moving behind him before he could stop her, she slammed one sword-hilt into the back of knee and the other into his opposite ankle.

The Illyrian fell to the ground with a thud, and he looked up at the strange Queen with a look of pure disbelief. She held her hand out to him and heaved him off the dirty ground. Several people had begun clapping and exchanging coins due to lost bets. She held up Azriel's hand and grinned happily at her people. 

"It looks like you owe me a favor." 

"What can I give you that you don't already have, Majesty?" Azriel asked, slightly cautious.

"I want that," Aelin said, pointing to the Siphon on his left shoulder. 

"But only Illyrians can use...," he started, but Aelin held up a hand.

"I have my reasons, and you bartered a favor. I would like to hold onto that one Siphon for a while," Aelin said, holding out her palm expectantly.

Azriel was a man of his word, and he could feel deep down that the queen had no nefarious reasons for wanting the stone, so he pulled the small Siphon that contained a small part of him off of his shoulder and dropped it into Aelin Ashryver Galathynius' waiting hand. 

Hey everyone! So this is going to be the only chapter I post today, but I'm going to be going back and re-editing previous chapters. I've noticed some slight grammar mistakes as well as little things that need tweaking. If you've noticed anything that I've missed, please let me know.

I'm also going to be changing the chapter titles to Chapter 1, Chapter 2, etc because it's hard to come up sometimes with two words that work together to describe the chapter without giving up too much information. I also feel like when I update two chapters in a row, the first chapter gets missed sometimes by the reader. This will make it less confusing. 

Thank you so much for reading, commenting, and voting. I really appreciate it! 

What do you think Aelin wants with Azriel's Siphon? :)