Crescent flame of the night

Chaoter ten

   Aedion didn't like these people. Whoever they were they were dangerous and wielded strange weapons. Not to mention they injured his brother, his king, with the strange L that they called a gun. As soon as Rowan was healed and out of danger he would demand answers and tear this whole place down to find aelin. He had lost her and failed to protect her twice before and he would never forgive himself if he let something happen to his cousin.
   They all followed the fae prince, Ruhn, as he lead them to his sisters house. Rowan was heavy, even with lorcan carrying him from the left. "Where almost there" Aedion let out a sigh of relief at the thought of getting his brother healed soon.
   Rowan body went stiff in his arms. "Aelin". They passed by a street and the fae male kept mumbling and groaning the name of his mate. Aedion sniffed the air and could see why his friend was saying her name. He could scent that she had been here. And recently.
   Aedion frantically looked around trying to see if he could spot her. "Aedion, what are you doing?" Lysandra came up beside him.
   "It's aelin. She was here. Her scent is all over the place"
  There was a flash of light as his wife shifted into a ghost leopard and raised her nose to the sky. She let out a low rumble and bounded off ahead of the group.
"Hey! Where is she going! We've almost reached Bryce's apartment!" The fae prince called after Lysandra. The ghost leopard raced ahead and cane to a halt out front of a tall building. A flash of light and Lysandra was human again.
   "She's here! I can scent her"
   "Who's here? This is where Bryce's apartment is." It was the fae male Flynn who spoke.
   Fenrys turned on the fae, witch and angel - malakim as they'd called him - "you said you had no idea why we were here and yet you know and are taking us to the place where our queen is? And dont try to deny she's here," the fae male snarled, "we can all scent her and know that your keeping her here"
   His court and friends were all snarling at their new acquaintances, death gleaming in their eyes. Aedion hadn't seen them all this vicious since Maeve had locked up his cousin and shipped her away covered in iron.
   "I swear we have no idea what you're talking about. We don't know of any queen being in any of these apartments. All I know is that my sister and her boyfriend are up there with a girl who isn't named aelin, who you keep referring to as your queen. Can we all just calm down"

~

   Things were staring to get heated between her friends and these people. Lysandra took in a deep breath, calming herself after the rush of coming close to finding aelin. The shifter walked slowly between the two parties and held up a hand to both sides to stop them from mauling one another.
   "We still need to heal Rowan and we can't do that if you are all half dead on the floor and fighting one another. So if none of you calm down I swear to gods, when we find aelin she will rip you all to shreds for letting her Mate die." Her glare was deadly and made most men run from fear. She only used that gaze when she was in battle fields or defending her court.
   The males all murmured something that her human ears couldn't pick up, but what she took to mean submission. "Right. Let's get the king up stairs before he bleeds out"
   With that everyone walked into the building.

~

   The woman who could turn into a ghost leopard had nerves of steel to do what she just did. Standing in between two groups of lethal and deadly fae warriors who were set on ripping each other apart and giving them orders. The look she gave everyone was deadly in its own rights.
   Ruhn lead the group up the stairs towards Bryce and hunts apartment. Once they reached the door the fae prince gestured for Flynn and Declan to go it first, then for Aedion and lorcan to carry Rowan through. They were then followed by Fenrys, Dorian, Manon, Lysandra and elide, and finally Isaiah, Ithan, hypaxia and himself walked through.
   As Ruhn closed the door to his sisters apartment he heard a small whimpering sound coming from the couch. He looked up in time to see a blond haired, human woman with tears in her eyes lock eyes with the fae king Rowan. Not even a second later did the woman run to the male and collapse in front of him.
   She cupped his face in both hands and cried as she took him in. Rowan groaned as the weight of the lady crushed him. The woman quickly pulled back and examined the fae warrior.
   Her eyes locked onto the bullet wound in his shoulder and nothing but pure rage passed over her face. Ruhn looked at Bryce and hunt to see if they knew what was going on, but they looked completely baffled at what was happening.
   The starborn prince looked back to the woman and male on the floor of his sisters apartment. As he watched them he started to piece two and two together. This must be the fae queen they were talking about. This must be Rowan's mate. The only thing that confused him at this point was that this woman was not fae. She was human.
   Ruhn watched as the woman stood up. There was nothing human in the way she moved. She moved that way only those blessed with immortality could muster. As flames danced in her eyes the starborn prince knew all hell was about to break loose, and he'd been through that far too much for one life time.