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Theia felt a headache form between her eyes as Cassian ran past, waving a brown tube that was leftover from the wrapping paper. It was bent and flopped over, but he still waved it around, wacking it against the brown tubes that Rhys and Azriel held. All three of them eager to continue training, the High Lord of the Night Court was not impressed with his heir and his two little friends beating each other up with flimsy leftover wrapping paper. Theia wasn’t impressed either, but she was used to this behavior from them.
“Cassian!” Theia shouted as the young Illyrian ran through the kitchen past her. The two wraiths in the kitchen barely had enough time to hold the silver platters higher, saving the meats and potatoes and greens and cookies that were for the feast later from the current assault from her three boys.
“Sorry!” Cassian winced, stopping in his tracks. It was almost comical how quickly Cassian stopped, Rhys running right into his back and Azriel, wings slightly flared trying his best not to run into Rhys. If Theia wasn’t upset and frustrated with them, she would’ve been laughing at the scene in front of her. It wasn’t their fault, they’ve been cooped up in the house for days now. The High Lord was too busy with his duties to take the young males down to the city, she herself too busy with Solstice preparations to take them and as much as she’d love to set them loose on Velaris, that wasn’t an option. Not after last time anyway.
“Cassian was the one who started it!” Rhys pipped up, Cassian turned ready to throw a punch to the future High Lord, only Azriel and Theia shared a look, both of them shaking their heads slightly.
“Enough.” Theia said, Rhys and Cassian stopped arguing. Frankly she didn’t care who started what. She had a headache and she knew, from the annoyance shooting down the bond, that the High Lord was close to unleashing his wrath on the three Illyrians if she didn’t do something quick. It was Solstice, she wasn’t going to let Solstice get ruined. “Outside, all three of you. Now.”
“Mother, it’s snowing.” Rhys made a face, looking over his shoulder to glare at the snowflakes blowing in the wind.
“Well good thing I made you three hats and scarves and gloves and coats.” Theia said as all the other two made a face, matching the one Rhys was wearing.
“Where are we supposed to go? We can’t go to Velaris.” Rhys turned back to his mother.
“Figure it out.” She said, crossing her arms as she gave each of them a look, softening her voice so that her mate wouldn’t hear her next comment. “Go outside, please, don’t upset your father. It’s Solstice Rhysand. For me?”
“But what are we supposed to do outside?”
“I don’t know, have a snowball fight? Build a snowmale? Just entertain yourselves, please?”
The three young Illyrians pouted as they pulled on their snow gear, making faces at Theia with her back turned as they made their way outside. They raced to the bottom of the House, finding a clearing in the wooded area surrounding the house.
“Snowball fight?” Rhys looked to his two brothers, Azriel and Cassian nodding in agreement.
“Should we make any ground rules?” Cassian asked, Rhys and Azriel just snorted.
“No.”
—-------
“Okay, time out.” Cassian shouted, after watching a snowball he threw at Rhys disappearing in a cloud of red mist. He jumped up, hands raised. “We need a rule, no misting.”
“Why not?” Rhys asked, jumping up. “It’s my defensive strategy.”
“Find a new strategy.” Cassian said, arms crossed. “You can mist every single one of our snowballs, it’s not fair.”
“I don’t see Az complaining!” Rhys said, glancing at Azriel who slowly stood up from behind his fort.
“Actually, it’s not a bad idea. It does give you an advantage, Rhys.” Azriel shrugged. Rhys gaped at his brother before narrowing his eyes at the both of them.
“Fine, no misting.” Rhys said, sending a little tendril of darkness to both Cassian’s and Azriel’s forts, knocking some snow off the sides.
“Okay, no powers; no misting, darkness, winnowing, looking into our minds, whatever else you have none!”
“Fine!” Rhys said, “Can we start back up again?”
“Give me and Az a second, you destroyed our forts!” Rhys tilted his head back, sighing softly before getting hit with two snowballs directly in the chest.
“Okay I deserved that, sorry about the forts.”
—-------
“No, this is unfair, if I can’t use my powers, Az definitely can’t use his shadows!” Rhys complained, jumping up from behind his fort after seeing a shadow slither its way around Rhys’s fort to check out how many snowballs Rhys had left exactly before slithering towards Cassian’s fort.
“You were misting the snowballs! My shadows aren’t taking your snowballs or destroying them!” Azriel shot back, arms crossed. “This is totally different.”
“How is it different?” Rhys shot back. “It’s not!”
“Yes it is!” Azriel said.
“How about no powers and no shadows?” Cassian grumbled. “It’s only fair, I’m working with nothing here.” Both the arguments in Rhys and Azriel died down after seeing the look of jealousy on their brother’s face as Cassian watched the shadow that had been scoping out Rhys’s and Cassian’s fort.
“Yeah, I won’t use my shadows.” Azriel nodded, the corners of his lips quirked up. “I can still beat the both of you without them.”
“I highly doubt that.” Rhys said, rolling his eyes.
“Please, you two had to resort to cheating because I was clearly winning.” Cassian grinned, grabbing two snowballs, hitting his two brothers in the chest.
“Cassian!” Cassian threw his head back laughing, quickly crouching down as two snowballs flew over his head. They would’ve hit his chest if he didn’t crouch down. “You’re so going down!”
Cassian peeked around the side of his fort, the other two Illyrians safely behind their own forts. Cassian reached for two more snowballs, waiting for one of his brothers to pop up or sneak around. He was determined to win. He was going to win.
—-------
Theia made a face when her three boys came back into the house, a nice pile of melted snow around them, and their discarded hats and gloves in the puddle. She threw a dish towel at each of the males. “Have fun?”
“I did.” Cassian smirked, pulling off his red hat. “I won-”
“On a technicality.” Rhys grumbled, snapping his fingers, cleaning only himself and Azriel.
“It was fair and square.” Cassian, unbothered by Rhys’s refusal to magically clean him, knelt down to mop up the puddle around his feet with the dish towel. “It was the last snowball, I had it because Rhys wasted a good few on Azriel’s shadows-”
“He was snooping even though we all agreed to not use our powers or shadows.” Rhys turned to throw a look at Azriel, half a mind to snap his fingers again to make the melted snow around Azriel appear again. Azriel just shrugged, unbothered by his brother.
“A shadow went rogue, I apologized-”
“You cheated.”
“Anyway,” Cassian said, Theia’s attention turned back on the young Illyrian, still on the ground cleaning the floor around him. “Az was disqualified for using his shadows, and he was out of them anyway. I threw a snowball at Rhys and he misted it-”
“It was aimed right at my face. I think headshots should be disqualified.” Rhys grumbled, turning to his mother for support. “If I can’t use my powers and Az can’t use his shadows then Cass definitely can’t aim at our heads.”
“How else am I supposed to compete with misting and shadows?” Cassian also turned to Theia, all three of her boys had their eyebrows raised, waiting to see what she thought about the whole thing.
“How about no powers, shadows or headshots?” She said, giving each of them a look. She ran a hand through Rhys’s damp hair. Each of them looked ready to complain and argue as to why they should be allowed to use whatever they pleased. She quieted them with a look.
“You’re going to be late to the feast, go clean up.” She said, nodding her head towards the stairs. The three of them huffed, Cassian dropped his towel in the sink on his way towards his room.
Theia shook her head fondly, she could hear them arguing all the way to their rooms. All three of them demanded a rematch next year. If it kept them out of the way and the house, she was happy, even if they did make a mess on their way back inside.