* * *
Half an hour.
Half an hour of still silence gave my thoughts the time they needed to swell my fears. Twenty-eight minutes exactly according to the clock sitting on the table. Twenty-eight minutes to stare at the door and expect the worst.
Twenty-eight minutes passed before the door handle rattled and turned again.
My bouncing leg stiffened to a halt as my eyes snapped away from the landscape painting on the wall that I had sought out to give my eyes a break from the dark wood grain. When the door began to push open, I shot up from the sofa I had chosen for its direct line of sight to the door.
Rowan stepped inside his mask in place. It set my heart racing faster.
I should have chosen to wait on the divan against the windows since choosing the three-seated sofa also made me the first thing in his line of sight as well. His eyes found me instantly. When they met mine, I had to clamp my muscles down to keep from flinching when they darkened, revealing the fury that they contained within. It grew, spilling free to contaminate the calm indifference that he so carefully wore.
Rowan shut the door behind him as his brows lowered and a frown began to appear on his lips. My heart leaped into my throat when his gaze turned into a glare as he began to walk- no, stalk towards me. The shift in his expression was small, but it spoke volumes. Gone was the carefully constructed indifference and control he had been holding over his emotions.
He made his way toward me with long strides that allowed him to cover the distance between us at an alarming speed. I tried to maintain some of the space he was shortening, but the backs of my knees hit the sofa behind me and nearly sent me falling. I reached an arm back to steady myself, but once I recovered from the distraction, my heart skipped a beat when I noticed Rowan rounding the low coffee table that held a cold and untouched meal. I was sure it was for me, but I hadn't taken a bite. I couldn't eat with the way my stomach was twisting with anticipation and dread.
It was a good thing given how my insides lurched at Rowan's approach. If I had food in my stomach, it would have been painting the floor by now.
Change directions and turning to escape in the opposite direction from his advance, I kept him in sight as I backed away, my hands raised placatingly. "R-Rowan! W-wait- calm down-"
In hindsight, telling someone who was charging at me with thinly concealed rage to calm down wasn't the brightest plan.
I didn't get to get to say or do much else before long callused fingers wrapped around my neck, crushing my vocal cords and windpipe. I went from struggling to move back fast enough to struggling against his hand as he forced me back even faster. I stumbled over my feet, falling only to be held up by the grip crushing my airway. He continued to force me back until the back of my shoulders hit a hard surface that my head cracked off. The throb of pain was of little concern compared to the burning ache developing in my chest.
My hands rose to claw at his hand as his body pressed mine flat to the door. I tried struggling my way free, the burn in my lungs growing, but that prompted him to slip a knee between my legs and tighten his hand to lift me up until the tips of my toes barely grazed the ground. He still had to pull back and lower his head to meet my wild and frightened gaze with his steely fury.
"You made me look like a fool." His words, though calmly spoken, felt strained and charged. "Incompetent and vacuous. This is how you thank me? I showed you pity and compassion, and you threw it back into the face of my kindness the first chance you got. Again." He laughed dryly, the sound holding no amusement. It cut off abruptly. "You have no idea how truly screwed you are here human, not if you're biting the only hand that will bother to feed you or to hold back instead of delivering a swift correction. I'm what stands between you and the skin-splitting lashing that General Amrod insists I should pay your insult with. I'm the reason strips of flesh won't be torn open on your back and I'm why you're not sitting chained and shivering on a cold dirt floor in diseased and rat-infested cells you wouldn't survive."
