A/N

Hello my loves!

I'm so sorry that this chapter was late. I've been a busy little bee! 🐝

Oh, and in case you forgot...

You're all amazing and I love you. *smooches*

Enjoy the chapter!

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A week had passed since we'd traveled to the sub-levels of the Aviary. A week since Warrick had been horribly injured. His injuries were so severe that even his magical blood could not speed his healing. He'd been recovering very slowly, one day at a time.

But his wing was not. Sure, the wounds had closed... But the webbing between the framing was, so far, not growing back.

I hadn't seen him since it happened... I'd tried. But every time I stopped outside the infirmary doors, I found myself scurrying away. I just couldn't face him... Not yet. Not after what he'd sacrificed because of me...

I'd hardly left the training rooms this past week. The only time I was not there was when I was eating, sleeping, or bathing. Dristan was beginning to worry about me. Every time he would try to get me to come

home, or take a day off, I would lash out at him.

I knew that he meant well. He could see the guilt eating away at me each day. He could feel the anger, the regret, the sorrow that tortured me. The bond between us made sure of that. And even though I knew that he was only looking after me, I snapped at him every time he tried to get me out of the training rooms.

I couldn't help it.

I was tired of having no control over my magic. I was tired of other people getting hurt because of me. I was determined to train as hard as I could, every day, every moment that I could spare, to ensure that no one else would be at risk due to my lack of experience.

Each day, I grew a little bit stronger. Each day, I could feel the pool of magic within me growing deeper, and wider. I trained both with my magic, and with my body. Marrok sparred with me nearly everyday, and when he wasn't there, I trained with Torryn or Andi.

When I practiced my magic skills, either Ronan or Dristan would train with me. Usually it was my mate, but he wasn't always available to me. He had people to look after, issues to resolve within the Aviary. He worked nearly nonstop.

At first, when I'd mentioned training with Ronan, he'd furiously refused to allow it. But, after his overprotective instincts simmered down, and we'd had a long conversation about the pros and the cons, he'd finally agreed to let me train with Ronan. After all, who else was going to teach me about runes if not Ronan?

Ronan had been perfectly appropriate with me. He was polite, comfortable, and very instructive when we trained. It was a huge relief for me. If he had behaved in a way that made me uncomfortable, Dristan would not only have no longer allowed me to train with him, but he would probably have kicked him off the council, and maybe even out of the Aviary.

I think that Ronan knew this. He was not a dim witted man. He had no intention of pissing Dristan off. He had no intention of being removed from the high council, or leaving his people here without him. He was on his best behavior, and I was grateful.

Over the last seven days, I'd read nearly the entire Rune Book of Shadows. I spent hours memorizing the Rune alphabet, and now, I could easily recognize words without having to look in the book, as long as they were short. Longer words were harder.

I'd successfully made several rune charms. Each one was as small as my thumbnail. I had carved them into whale bone fragments that Ronan had given me.

One gave me better balance. Another made my reflexes faster. The third boosted my dexterity. I wore each of them on a small charm bracelet that I made out of braided leather.

I had quite a knack for making runes. At first, Ronan called it "beginner's luck", but by the third successful rune that I'd made, he stopped commenting on it.

Sometimes, I caught him staring at me. His eyes held admiration, and sometimes even disbelief, but those emotions would instantly leave his eyes once he realized I was looking at him.

I had also spent a lot of time reading and memorizing spells from my Elemental Book of Shadows. Seeing as I was the only Elemental left, I had no one to help me train with them. Ronan tried, but the magic on the pages of my books was foreign to him. He had no idea how they worked, and was not of much help. But he did supervise, and made sure that when I practiced, it was safely.

So far, I could only preform the spells from the book that had to do with fire. When I'd tried to use the other elemental spells, it hadn't worked out very well. I did not have enough control over the other elements yet to do much with them.

But fire...

Somehow, when I'd touched the flame rune in the sub-levels, it had locked my power over fire into place. Before, I had to concentrate very hard in order to manipulate the fire. But now, I hardly even had to try. It felt as if it was a part of me, like an invisible appendage.

And I was not limited to only being able to manipulate pre-existing flame. My powers had evolved a step beyond that. I could now create fire in the palm of my hand, out of thin air. That had been a very interesting development...

As well as the discovery that I could no longer be burned by fire. Not even my hair. It was strange, to say the least, but it was also empowering in a way that I'd never known before.

Along with rune magic, and practicing my control of fire, I'd also been studying and practicing with general magic. I was now able to easily levitate objects and move them without much effort. I could paralyze people for long periods of time, even while not being in the same room, and on top of doing other spells at the same time.

I was improving quickly.

Dristan and I were currently working on teleportation. I hadn't been successful so far. He'd explained to me that not everyone was able to do it. And those who could do it had worked at it for a long time. It was not a skill that was learned in a week. And even those would were able to teleport could only travel short distances. Long distances used too much magic, and could quickly drain you if you weren't careful.

I envied him for his ability to teleport, though he rarely used that ability. In spite of how much I'd improved in the past week, I still felt rather useless.

In what little spare time I allowed myself, I studied the flame rune and the scroll of paper that had been with it. When I'd broken the glass ball, I'd found a small scroll encased in it, along with the flame rune.

It was another riddle.

Dristan, Andi, Torryn, Ronan, and myself had all taken turns studying the riddle, trying to make sense of it. So far, none of us had any idea what it meant. It was even more cryptic than the last one.

"In plain sight, yet out of reach.

None may see, though all beseech.

Only those to gain our speech,

are those who practice what we preach."

The sketch of the rune had been easier to decipher. I'd figured it out in five minutes. It was the riddle that was the problem.

I had spent hours upon hours staring at the riddle. I'd studied it until my eyes had gone crossed. Until the words all melted together, turning to mush in my mind, and losing all sense of meaning. And still, I couldn't figure it out.

Useless. I felt so damned useless...

Which was why I'd been secretly working on creating a spell to help Warrick recover faster. It was something productive. Something to keep me from losing my mind...

The idea had come to be a few days ago, when I was refilling my coffee cup one morning. I remembered when Dristan had bitten into an apple, waved his hand, and somehow replenished the bite he had taken, making the apple whole again.

After the idea came to me, I had immediately begun reading about similar spells. Although, none of them said anything about replenishing the flesh of a dragon's wing. But I was determined to figure something out. How different could an apple's flesh be from a person's, anyway?

The Rune Book of Shadows was filled with runes, and instructions on how to create them. But none of the runes in the book had healing power, or replenishment power.

Ronan had vaguely explained to me that original runes could be created, as long as the user's magic was powerful enough. However, creating original runes was risky. If the spells were not fused with the runes correctly, it could be dangerous.

Dristan had forbidden me from creating original runes until I'd mastered the runes that were already in the book. Even with my improvements, he still wanted me to proceed with caution.

I'd already worked my way through half of the book, but he wouldn't budge until I was done with the entire thing.

Which was why I was working on it in secrecy. Waiting until my powers were more developed would take too long.

If we were going to face more danger in searching for the other runes, we would need Warrick's help. But if he couldn't fly... How could he help? Warrick's healing couldn't wait. He needed help, now.

Ronan said that only very powerful Rume Fae could make original runes. Well, power wasn't the problem. I was the daughter of a Rune Queen. I knew I had enough power to create an original rune.

The problem was figuring out how to successfully apply a spell to a rune without harming myself in the process. And so, the past three days, after training, I had been sneaking away to the library to study.

"I'm famished. I'm going to grab some food. You probably should do the same, Brenya." Marrok said, snapping me out of my day dreaming.

I glanced over my shoulder at him briefly, and then turned away and kept swinging my weapon. I'd been beating a straw filled dummy senseless with my sword for the last twenty minutes.

Strike. Duck. Twirl. Slash.

Strike. Duck. Twirl. Slash.

I'd been in the training rooms for over half of the day, sparring on and off with Marrok. He was the only one who never gave me grief for training so much. But even he had to make sure that I was eating and getting enough sleep.

"Brenya... You've been here for six hours straight. You need to go eat something." He pressed.

I didn't want to leave, but he was right.

My stomach was beginning to growl and grow painful with hunger. I needed to take a break from training. I also silently reminded myself that I needed to go to the library and continue researching replenishment spells.

Sighing, I hung my sword back on the wall and made my way toward the door.

"Fine...."

"Will you be back today?" Marrok asked, slipping through the doorway.

I followed behind him. "No, I need to...Er- I have plans."

He gave me a quizzical look. "Okay..."

"How is your sister? I haven't seen her in awhile." I asked, feeling guilty for not mentioning it sooner.

His eyes softened as he stopped and turned toward me. "She's doing better... Thanks to you."

I smiled gently up at him. "And you. She's lucky to have such a caring older brother."

He shrugged, still smiling. "Thanks. See you tomorrow, then?"

"Tomorrow." I answered, waving a hand at him.

He nodded, one of his ears twitching with the motion, and then he turned and disappeared around the corner.

Slowly, my legs aching from the long run I'd done this morning, I made my way to my rooms. I wondered if Dristan would be finished with his work for the day. I missed him. We'd both been so busy lately, I had hardly seen him.

My heart sank with disappointment when I entered the rooms.

He wasn't here.

I sighed and trudged toward the kitchen. I didn't care what I ate, as long as it didn't take too long. But a cup of lavender tea sounded nice.

As I sat at the kitchen island, a familiar popping noise briefly interrupted the silence. I looked down at the space in front of me and found a large bowl of pumpkin squash soup, a hot butter roll, and a steaming mug of lavender tea.

Perfect.

I ate quickly in the still silence. I hardly even tasted the sweet flavor of the soup. I didn't care how it tasted, as long as it filled me quickly. I needed to get to the library.

After I ate, I swiftly showered and changed into a thick sweater and leggings. I was just about to rush out the door when I noticed a note lying on the table in the foyer.

I felt a small smile spread over my lips. I hadn't smiled all day. I reached for the note, and gingerly opened it.

~~~~

"Brenya,

I will be working late tonight. Andromeda, Torryn and I are in the council room if you need anything. We are working on assigning permanent quarters for all of the wolves, and recruiting qualifying soldiers from their pack. I have a surprise for you, later. Be home at sunset.

Missing you and your smart mouth,

-Your beloved mate"

~~~~

His penmanship was wispy and masculine. So different from my own, messy handwriting. I read the note twice, running my fingers over the deep, angry indentations that his pen had made. Even from a note, I could tell that he'd been irritated while writing this. He'd been so stressed out with his responsibilities lately. I smiled at the note before setting it down.

I didn't like surprises... Detested them, really.

But surprises from Dristan weren't so awful.

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After being in the library for three hours, I could hardly keep my eyes open.

I'd searched book, after book, after book, and still found nothing on replenishing flesh. There were plenty of books with healing spells, but those wouldn't work.

Warrick's body was mostly healed. And the wounds on his wing were getting better. But the fleshy webbing of his wings had not regrown. There had to be a way...

I felt my throat thickening and hot tears pricked the back of my eyes as I slammed another book shut. I had to find something... soon.

If Warrick never flew again... Because of me....

"Gods damnit!" I stood angrily from the table, swiping my hands across the desk as I did. Stacks of books and papers went flying, scattering noisily across the marble floor.

I buried my face in my hands, desperately trying to keep the tears at bay. I was so sick of crying. So damned sick of it...

"That wasn't very lady like." A familiar, male voice said, slicing through the silence like a blade.

I snapped my head to the right, my eyes wide with alarm.

"Ronan!" I gasped, running my hands over my hair. I tried to compose myself as I blinked the tears away. "W-What are you doing here so late?"

Slowly, he walked toward me, his hands tucked into his pockets. "I was going to ask you the same thing."

His eyes drifted the floor, and as he read the titles of the various books lying around, his brow furrowed. His gaze slid back to mine. As his eyes narrowed, I tried to keep my face as blank and unreadable as possible.

"Just reading. I've been trying to familiarize myself with as much material as possible. Nothing in particular, really... Just working my way through different subjects." I lied.

He stared at me a moment, unmoving. I stared back, wearing a mask of calm indifference.

Eventually, his lips curled up into a sneer. "You couldn't lie your way out of a paper bag, Princess."

He stooped down and picked up several of the abused books. He began listing the titles, throwing each one at me as he did.

"Novice Healers..." I barely reacted in time to catch the book before it hit me in the nose.

"Incantations for the Ill..." I fumbled with the next one as it hit me in the chest.

"Elijah's Elixirs... Replenish and Restore... Healthy Hexes..."

"Oof!" I grunted as the last book hit me in the gut, knocking the wind out of me momentarily. "Ronan! Knock it off!"

He set the last of the stack onto the desk. "Tell me what you're up to, and I will."

I glared at him, wishing my eyes could shoot arrows. "I told you. I'm reading."

"I'm not a fool. You're trying to find a way to heal Warrick's wing. And with the way you've been sneaking into the library every night, I'd wager that you've got something naughty up your sleeve."

I planted my hands on my hips. "Have you been spying on me?"

He shrugged. "Yes."

"Why, you slimy, two-faced-"

"Calm down, before you get your tiara all crooked, princess." He interrupted, crossing his arms and leaning against the desk.

I scoffed. "Why should I calm down? You're a stalker!"

His eyes grew serious. "Because... Whatever it is that you're doing, whatever you're planning... I want in."

I blinked at him. "What?"

He stared at me, his face like stone. "I... want... in." He repeated slowly, as if speaking to someone who wan't all there in the head.

My eyes narrowed. "Why?"

He smirked. "Because... Unlike everyone else in this hunk of rock, I know that you can handle your power. You are being held back, treated like a child, and I don't like it. You are capable of so much more. You've already been making runes. When I turned 18, I had to train for five full years before I was able to make one. You're special... I want to see what you can really do."