Cherish

"Is this all really necessary?" I ask Andrei as he brings me to the basement of their house.

It's been a month since I found out the truth. The guys have spent the entire month teaching me everything they can about their kingdom. I can't bring myself to admit that it's technically mine, too.

They've also been trying to teach me their language, which I've been stumbling through. Hey, at least I know the swear words, thanks to Xander-and much to Andrei's annoyance that I haven't learned the more important words first. I can't help it that I wanted to start with the more interesting and fun words.

I still haven't told Ella what's going on, and I think she's pissed at me for keeping something from her because I haven't told her what I've been doing. Mom and dad have been arguing about if they should include her or not, and it's been all a giant headache.

"We can't be with you here twenty-four seven. I highly doubt you'll enjoy us being around you that much, anyway, when we leave here. It's important that you can at least learn how to defend yourself until one of us can get to you."

"Dude, you are aware that I went to almost every self-defense class available around here, right?"

"That's not enough, you don't have knowledge of different weapons do you?"

I pause, and he smirks at me.

"Exactly."

"You don't need to be smug," I snap.

"Cheer up, buttercup. It'll be fun."

I raise an eyebrow at him as he leads me to a wall. "Fun? I didn't think you really did fun. You're more serious than Xander and Kade."

He places his hand at a spot on the wall, and it opens a doorway leading to a closet-sized room filled with weapons.

He doesn't move, just turns to face me. "Cherish, when you're as old as I am, you see a lot of shit. After so long, it starts to get to you. I pray that you never have to go through some of the things I've had to see or go through, myself."

I want to ask him what he means, to elaborate, but something in his eyes stops me. Instead I give him a brief nod.

He clears his throat and walks into the room. He grabs a large duffle bag and starts filling it with various items. Some of them I don't recognize or even know what the hell they do. The ones I do recognize are the knives, bow and arrow, and a gun. Uh, what? No. Hell no.

"I should tell you, I'm uh, not really comfortable with the gun," I admit, hating my fear of the damn things.

I don't know where that fear came from, but if I've ever been in the same room as one, I avoid it entirely. My dad has a shotgun that he keeps locked up in his closet because it makes me so uneasy.

Andrei glances at me while zipping the bag. "What do you mean?"

I wince. "I'm kind of afraid of them."

He stares at me for a second, his lips twitching.

"Don't you dare," I warn, pointing a finger at him with my eyes narrowed.

A chuckle slips out, and he shakes his head. "You're serious?"

"Deadly."

"You know the guys are going to love giving you shit about that, right?" His expression shows that he's still fighting laughter. Asshole. Even his shoulders are shaking.

"And they'll get my foot shoved up their ass. Just like I'll do to you, grandpa. Don't test me."

He tilts his head back and laughs outright, his shoulders shaking harder. He shakes his head and puts the bag on his shoulder. "Come on. We're going to be doing this outside."

"I'm not touching that gun," I say quietly, looking down at the ground while we walk, pretending to be fascinated by the floor.

Andrei stops walking and tilts my head up to look at him. "We'll work through it. I won't push you to do something you're not comfortable with, but we do need to work through that fear."

I bite the inside of my cheek. "Okay."

His eyes roam across my face before he releases me and steps away. He leads me to the backyard, and I frown when I notice that there's really no coverage from nosy neighbors.

"Should we be doing this outside?"

Andrei nods. "There's a glamour around the house and the yard. Any humans that are around won't be able to hear or see what's happening over here."

"That's nifty. It's like your own little soundproof room."

He shrugs. "I guess it is, though the only reason the glamour has been added to the very edges of the yard is because of your training. You ready to get started?"

"I guess." I mutter, "It's not like I have a choice."

He smirks at me. "You really don't."

Over the next several hours, Andrei explains what each weapon is, what it does, and how it works. After that lesson he had me learn how to use a few of them hands-on for at least an hour each before moving onto the next one. All I have to say, some of these weapons that the elves have made are crazy weird, or powerful. Whichever works, I guess. They look weird and are powerful, so I mean, I guess they both work. Thankfully, I haven't been made to use them in any kind of sparring against him yet since he just wants me to get a feel for the weapons.

"Damn, Andrei," Xander's voice cuts through my concentration, and I look up to see him walking over towards us his hands stuffed in his pockets. "Maybe she should take a break." He meets my eyes. "You look like you're about to collapse, Princess."

I scowl at him. "How many times do I need to tell you, stop calling me that," I huff out between panting breaths.

He grins. "Sorry, Princess. It's not happening. Especially since when we go home, you'll be called that by everyone."

I narrow my eyes. "Don't be a dick, Xander." His shoulders shake with a chuckle.

"I was actually going to call it a day. She's got more to go over on our history and everything yet, anyway," Andrei says before I can snap at Xander for laughing.

I groan. "More learning?"

Andrei smiles. "More learning," he confirms. "You need to know these things, Cherish. We wouldn't be pushing you to learn about it if it wasn't important."

Letting out a sigh, I grab my water bottle and take a drink. "I know, I know. I just do enough learning at school. All this shit does is annoy me. I'm more artist than I am a learner."

Xander laughs. "If I hadn't seen how you acted at school when you need to learn shit, I'd almost be offended on behalf of our entire race."

Scowling at him, I throw my now empty water bottle at him. "Shut up. I just don't retain information well on the best days. Unless I'm the one instigating the learning process or whatever, I just can't keep myself interested. That's what makes learning so annoying for me."

"Why don't you go take a shower, Cherish, then we'll get everything ready for your next lesson," Xander says.

"Do I still have a clean set of clothes here?" I tilt my head in confusion at Xander's shifty expression. "What?"

"Uh, the king sent the royal dress maker here, he sent her here with a bunch of dresses for you, so I mean, you have clothes, but they're not exactly the clothes you brought."

"He what?" I ask, stunned. "But, why?"

"A lot of the women in our court wear dresses, those that don't are usually guards," Andrei explains.

I look between them. "I don't want to wear a dress all the time."

"It's not a requirement, Cherish," he assures me. "I think your father just wanted you to be able to get used to wearing dresses so often."

I blink at him. "These aren't like super flashy are they? I don't do flashy."

Xander snickers, and Andrei shakes his head before answering. "Maybe? I don't know what you consider flashy."

I roll my eyes. "Whatever." I turn to walk back into the house, pausing when Xander speaks.

"The clothes are in your room hanging up."

I wave my hand up in acknowledgement and head to the room the guys dubbed as mine when they took me on a tour of the house. They claim that it's only there to hold my things while I'm here, but I wouldn't be shocked if they tried making me move in here with them, in an attempt to keep me safe.