Nameless ( A Court of Mist and Fury and Throne of Glass Crossover)

Winnow

It was not the ashwood which left Rowan weak and useless or the searing pain of his wounds, but the complete darkness that drove him insane. With nothing to occupy his vision, his buzzing senses began to play games on him. First, it was just Aelin's broken figure, highlighted in shadows, kneeling in a corner. Shadows became moving figures, as he slowly drifted into what he could only hope was sleep. They gained details and colors until he could see the emptiness in those beautiful golden ringed eyes, till he saw the gold drain from her hair as her flame would die. When the last ember would accept darkness, her pupil swallowing the gold rings whole, the strings of those meddling gods, who had dared to decide her fate, were cut. And she would collapse.

That was when all his other senses would give into the game, and Rowan would be hit with a wave of touch, smell, and taste. The embers and jasmine- which he knew paled in comparison to the real thing, nothing, not his dreams, nothing could compare to that scent- would wash over him one last time. And his soul would hollow with the thud of her body on the featureless floor. No words, sounds, or movements existing in the world could communicate the pain spreading like a disease through his blood, flesh, and mind.

The pressure built behind Rowan's eyes and he closed them, were these the dreams his mate woke from screaming every night? Not the snap of the whips or the slicing knives but the flat darkness that could take any form?

The pounding of heavy footsteps cut through his dreams and the Prince's eyes shot open, his mind working quickly to separate the imagined pain from the real. But as he tracked the footsteps he had marked as prey from the day he first heard them, both were pushed away by simmering wrath.

When the door opened, Rowan let out a small hiss and squinted at the blur of figures. Once his eyes were able to stand the blinding light, he noted with satisfaction, that four guards accompanied the Highlord today. Their faces were uncovered, all having marks of the Spring Court's environment, tanned skin and freckles dotted their cheeks. They held long spears, one with a whip coiled at his side. Rowan didn't have time to squirm at the fact that the weapons were all meant for him before the Highlord bent to growl in his face, "Your fire wielding bitch got away. With my fiance."

Rowan's smile for once was not bred of him imagining Tamlin's body being slowly torn apart. Aelin had gotten away, all that was left was for him to escape and find her. And then he would never let her go again.

His grin faltered when his nose caught a whiff of flame hidden behind the Highlord's scent, Rowan inhaled deeply, hoping to catch more. Not because he craved her scent, it enraged him to have Tamlin's and Aelin's scent anywhere close to one another, but to decipher her condition. If- or rather- how injured she was. He smelled her crackling flame, probably what she used to fend off Tamlin, and then, pain, that the embers constantly wove around to conceal. But it was just as strong as the anger the flame was a product of. Pain, pain that the male before him had caused.

-

Rhysand marveled at the soft skin and muscle under his palms, everything about Feyre was new and awe-inspiring, and it was unbelievable that she was his. That she allowed him to hold her to his chest like this, or that she would kiss him with this much passion. If they had been separated a day longer, he would have told his court to fuck off for a few hours- or days. And he would have taken her right here, right now. Even so, Cassian and Azriel landing behind them, both carrying one of the females, was not what prevented him from doing so. It was the skinny girl sitting on a boulder a few meters away, Rowan's mate, Rhys assumed. After Cassian had reported Feyre was untouched and it seemed Aelin had done nothing wrong, he had still wanted to drown her in darkness. But when he had come flying as fast as possible, only looking at Feyre when they were finally in sight, he had still noticed how broken the girl was.