Beyond the Curtain

19 | rule 24

RULE 24: DO NOT TRY TO FIND LOOPHOLES TO THE RULES.

✷  C  H  A  P  T  E  R     N  I  N  E  T  E  E  N  ✷

"Rowan," I tried to calm him down after he rushed me into the car. His foot was pressed against the gas pedal, unrelenting. I lurched forward, happy for the protection of my seatbelt. Taking small yet deep breaths, Rowan's attention was set on the road as he sat slightly leaning forward.

It wasn't until I reached out, pressing my fingers lightly into his forearm that his grip on the steering wheel eased, and he sat back, stretching his limbs. He remained silent.

"Rowan," I whispered, retracting my hand. His head, for a brief moment, glanced in my direction before readjusting back on the road. "I don't understand how you can be, well, this mad. It makes no sense."

"It makes no sense?" He laughed to himself, eyes narrowing into tiny, cat-like slits.

"How can you honestly say that after what you said earlier?" He controlled his voice, jaw flexed.

"Rowan," I complained, instinctually clutching my stomach. By now, the persistent ache had begun to subside into a dull thrum. "I don't understand."

He laughed again, shaking his head. "That makes it so much worse."

"Makes what worse?" I asked while in the process of losing my mind.

"Olive," he said, licking his lips. "She still has a hold on you."

Relaxing back into my chair, I bit my lip. He was this upset about Miss Nymphadora's contract—granted, a contract that still affected me. Rowan was working himself up, constantly readjusting his hands over the steering wheel. I leaned forward, and then quickly leaned back in my seat. The speedometer neared one hundred miles per hour. I gripped the edge of my seat as Rowan continued to spiral.

"I guess she really didn't terminate the contract when she left," I thought out loud, tucking a piece of hair behind my ear. "Why are you so angry about this?"

"Because, Olive," he sighed, closing his eyes for a brief moment. "She doesn't get to leave you while still having all these strings attached. I won't let her."

Watching Rowan closely, I tilted my head and narrowed my eyes. Determination coursed through his veins, and my gut dropped. We had left the bar, the Alpha's Den, not too long ago, but we had been in the car far longer than it had taken to drive there in the first place.

I hoped Sage, Mina, Heath, and Memphis were not in a tizzy worrying about me. If the roles were reversed, I know I would have been quite confused. Downing one shot should not have been enough to bring me to my knees, but in a way, it wasn't a normal shot, not when I was still bound to Miss Nymphadora.

In the meantime, to keep my thoughts from spiraling down the same path as Rowan's, I tried my best not to feel disappointed at how the night played out. While I had been reluctant to go out for a night of drinking, I couldn't help but feel like I had missed out on spending time with Sage and her friends.

Our time at the Alpha's Den had been so short, I had not been given the chance to meet some of Sage's friends (besides Memphis), who were from the Borderlands. Instead of having a carefree night with a handful of strangers, I was sat in a speeding car with a brooding Rowan.

Tentatively, I asked, "Rowan, where exactly are you headed?"

"I'm going to find her," he breathed, shrugging his shoulders without even sparing a glance in my direction. "I'm going to fix this, Olive."