The Four Protectors

Forty Eight

3rd Person POV

Cassius couldn't sit still. Azriel sat next to him, crouched over the cup of tea in his hands. Desmond paced the room like he always did when he was anxious.

And it was painful, beyond painful to feel her absence yet again.

Rafia entered the room with a cup of coffee and Talia trailing behind her. Annabelle had returned to Catherine's apartment on Rafia's request. They didn't need any more trouble than what they'd dug themselves into.

"What are we going to do to get them out," Talia asked.

"We need to figure out how the operation is going to retaliate first," Rafia replied firmly.

She couldn't really be saying this. The four of them glanced up at her with identical scowls. She didn't look intimidated, not even slightly.

Granted she could probably knock them all out with a flick of her wrist.

"My sister's in jail again, along with Catherine, who's the only reason we could even have made a move against the operation in the first place. We need to get them out," Talia argued.

"They are not the priority right now," Rafia retorted.

She moved to stand before making a surprised sound. Bands of blue and green had wrapped around her, extending to Azriel's glowing fingertips. The warlock looked outraged, violet eyes burning with an ire that Cassius had never seen before. In that moment, all he could think of was that if Catherine were here, the two of them would exchange a small knowing smile over how devastatingly hot an angry Azriel was.

He missed her, god he missed her.

"Don't dismiss her like that. She has suffered enough to help this world when all it did was push her away. Don't you dare do that to her to," Azriel intoned.

His voice was dark, precise and deadly, as tightly coiled with tension as the bands of magic that held Rafia in place. She could have broken out of them easily but she knew that if she did, if she didn't at least address their concerns over Catherine and Maia, they'd all walk out of here. The rigid tension slumped out of her shoulders.

"Their trial isn't for another week. I promise I'll do everything I can to get them out," she vowed.

Azriel didn't so much as a blink, eyes still glowing with rage.

"Her last words to you were to finish this. She'd want you to honor that," Rafia warned.

Azriel's magic slowly withdrew. The tension still lingered, and it would until Rafia came through with that promise and hopefully brought Catherine home. For now, they needed to focus on something they could fix.

Even if every other one of Cassius' thoughts were about her

"They can retaliate by trying to secure another meeting to reverse the motion. They've got enough allies amongst the supernatural world," Talia suggested.

"That's a hard way to win. The riot made sure of that," Rafia said.

There was silence for a minute, tension thick in the air as Desmond resumed his pacing.

"We need to think about what they want. Why they did all of this in the first place," Desmond suggested.

"They were afraid," Azriel replied.