Their Fireheart

Chapter Eleven

Rowan

The weight of missing her crashed into me alongside her scent of jasmine, lemon verbena and embers. As one, we stalked forward, drinking in the sight of her slight frame - completely ignoring her human and demi-fae companions.

She was here, she was here, she was really here.

Her hood still covered her hair, its shadow hiding the majority of her face except for those full, mesmerizing lips. Lips that were parted in horror as she whispered, "How did you get here? How did you find me?"

Despite the panic coating her words, the sound of her voice was a balm to my savaged soul.

Azriel chuckled, dark and low, beside me. "You didn't think we'd let you get away that easily, did you Princess?"

She was so still, all but frozen where she stood, but I swore I could feel the caress of her gaze as it traced over us, drinking us in. The path of her eyes was a live wire against my skin.

Rhysand's hands were casually tucked into his front pockets in a deliberately nonchalant manner. But I could see the faint trembles that lined them, like he had to physically hold himself back from reaching for her.

"You have a lot to answer for, darling," he purred to her in a dark promise.

"No. No, you can't be here," Aelin muttered under her breath, and I nearly snarled at the faint hint of fear in her scent.

I understood her reaction. I hated it, but I did. It didn't change the fact that she had to accept that we weren't going anywhere.

"I didn't let you leave me the first time you tried it, did you really think I'd allow you to escape a second?" I asked, tilting my head in a predatory manner, even as I basked in the glow of her presence.

Likely scenting her fear himself, the demi-fae male stepped in front of Aelin, blocking her from our sight in a move that was met with low growls and snarls of warning. The stupid male flexed his hands in easy reach of his weapons, and it was an effort not to rip them from him, to tear him away from my mate, to show him just how easily I could destroy him.

But I'd made the mistake of endeavoring to protect Aelin once before, and I wouldn't dare risk pissing her off now. Not when I just found her again. It was hard enough to ignore my primal beast urging me to pin her against the nearest wall, to take her here and now.

I'd never even get close to her if she was angry with me.

Then the foolish man spoke. "I don't know who you are, but clearly she doesn't want you here, so why don't you leave before I make you?"

The reminder that Aelin hadn't wanted us with her was enough to ignite a billowing cloud of rage, but then Aelin grabbed onto the male's shoulder and all I saw was red.

My blood was roaring through my ears so loudly I didn't even hear her whispered words to him. And it was that touch - that casual, familiar touch, that made Cassian finally lose it.

With a roar of pure, unfettered wrath, Cassian launched himself between them, clutching Aelin possessively to his back while he dug one of his blades into the male's neck.

"I would suggest," he snarled, venom dripping from every word, "that you don't. Touch. My. Mate."

Aelin recovered from her shock at Cassian's sudden charge, slipping between them and knocking his blade away from the male's throat with ease. Cassian growled, eyeing her like he was determining the best way to get her behind him again when Aelin spoke.

"Stop it, Cassian," she snapped. "He's my cousin, you idiot, not a fucking threat. Do. Not. Hurt. Him."

I scented the air again, sensing the truth of her words. I'd been so preoccupied with Aelin's scent that I hadn't taken the time to examine the male's - something Cassian clearly hadn't done either. The demi-fae, whose hands had lifted in surrender the moment he heard the word 'mate', backed off - rightly sensing this was not something he should be involved in.