Throne of Glass & A Court of Thorns and Roses: Two Worlds Collide

Chapter 28-Aelin

When Rowan and I woke, we quickly dressed and headed to the foyer where the others were already waiting. I was dreading getting out of the room and facing Aedion after last night, but when we reached the foyer all my worries flew out of my head just by looking at my comrades grim faces.

"I guess it's time to leave," I tried to sound lighthearted, but I could feel my nerves in the pit of my stomach. I looked around at each of their faces and noticed something off.

"I think you should tell her," I heard Feyre whisper to Lysandra. I turned toward them and furrowed my brows. I looked around at the faces that contained nervous expressions. I knew this mission would be hard, but I'd never think they'd be this nervous.

Lysandra put up her hands and placed one on my shoulder, with a sweet smile on her face. This couldn't be good. She started, "Aelin, all agreed that it would be best if you didn't ride with us today." Ah, this must be what they were nervous about, and had good sense to be.

"What?" I burst. "You think I'm going to stay here while you all go risk your lives?"

"Oh no, no. That's not what I meant," Lysandra said, trying to calm me down.

"Yeah, this is worse," I heard Dorian chuckle to Aedion; I saw the grins on their face.

"What is going on?" I demanded, opening my hands at my side. Lysandra looked to the others, they only nodded and raised their eyebrows expectantly.

"We think that you should ride in a carriage and not on horseback," she said quickly. She bit down on her bottom lip and looked at me like I was a bomb about to go off.

My face dropped, I took a deep breath and blinked a few times. I looked at Rowan and said, "Did you know about this?"

"No, but it's in your best interest. It's just a carriage, you'll still be with us," he said, shrugging his shoulders.

"Listen Aelin," Mor said, making her way to me, "we made sure you wouldn't be bored, someone will be with you the whole time," she leaned close to my ear and continued, "mostly the one with fangs and silver hair." When she backed away, I could see her smirk before I looked at Rowan and saw his face go bright red. Mor winked and walked out the door, probably going mount her horse. I tried to calm myself, it was just a carriage, but my gods damned mood wings took control of my body. At Least I was aware of them, and I could use them to my advantage.

I took another deep breath and closed my eyes silently counting to ten. I opened my eyes to find everyone staring at me as if I were going to combust. I resisted the urge to smirk. When training with Rowan, he would expect a tantrum every time something went wrong, and I would prove him otherwise. I would do the same right now. I smiled sweetly at them and nodded. I almost burst out laughing at the confused expressions crossing their faces. I started to calmly stroll towards the door, reaching for the handle. Everyone was following close behind, glancing at each other as if I couldn't see from the reflection of the glass walls. I opened the door, just enough for me to slip outside and closed it shut as soon as I could. Before anyone could comprehend what I was doing, I sprinted as fast as my fae legs could towards the first horse that came in sight and mounted it.

I grabbed the reins and made my horse turn in its place to throw a triumphant grin and a quite vulgar gesture towards the others. They all tried to look stern but they had hints of smiles on their faces. I was surprised to see that Rowan was angry. I could see it, feel it coming off of him. He stalked towards me and tried to forcibly remove me from the horse.

"Rowan! Rowan I'm fine! Let go!" I struggled against his grasp. I clenched my knees against the horse and held onto the reins.

"Aelin the baby-" Rowan growled. Ah, here comes the protective territorial male behavior.