DISCONTINUED A Court Of Blood And Night (Tog & ACOTAR crossover)

10 - Rowan

His chest abruptly began aching again, a reminder that he needed to find Aelin. He began walking to the door, though he stumbled a little. Balance be damned. He had to talk to those warriors and find out if they knew anything. "They're in the throne room," Lysandra called after him.

Nobody stopped him as he half-stumbled to that very room to interrogate the warriors.

By the time he reached the doors of the throne room, he had developed a steadier balance, though he limped slightly, and he forced himself to straighten it out as he prepared himself for chaos.

He opened the doors to see a full-blown argument between them all. They seemed to be on different sides, but he didn't know who, exactly, agreed with who. Whatever they were talking about was lost on him.

"You tried to break the Wall wjth Hybern and Jurian. I could care less about your ideas of escape, Tamlin," a dark-haired male with blue eyes drawled, the corner of his mouth twitching as if he was suppressing a smile. "If I could leave you here to rot, I would enjoy every second of your suffering." Then he grew abruptly serious. "Besides, we don't know who these Fae are, and they could become future allies to Prythian. I say we listen to what they have to say."

The blonde male-- Tamlin, Rowan guessed-- growled, eyes lighting with fury. He fought the bindings around his legs and wrists, looking ready to tear out the other male's throat. "You--"

Upon hearing the doors closing behind Rowan, they all stopped and turned to look at him. One of them-- a different dark-haired male with an arrogant grin-- stared at him as if sizing him up for a fight. Rowan ignored it and continued to survey the others.

The red-haired one had a metal eye to replace the one he lost, he realized, a little surprised. He didn't look like a male that got into fights very often-- not compared to some of the others, at least.

Another one-- a dark-haired female-- had silver eyes that set him on edge for a reason unknown to him, and he felt like prey under the gaze of a predator.

There was another male with dark hair, and shadows wreathed around him. Rowan frowned. He'd never seen that kind of magic before. The male's eyes were observant, analyzing every little thing around him. Not a warrior, but maybe a spy, or something akin to it.

There were four other females. Three looked oddly alike-- they were likely related, he guessed-- with golden-brown hair. Two had pale eyes, but the shyest-looking of the three had dark eyes in contrast.

The fourth was tan, and had fierce dark eyes and golden hair.

Just like Aelin's hair. He quickly looked away from her.

Every single one of them-- minus the shyer of the three females with golden-brown hair-- looked like they could kill someone if they wanted to. At least Erawan had kept his promise of giving him warriors.

The oldest-looking female of the three related ones spoke first. "I barely recognize you without all that black stuff on you." She narrowed her eyes. "I see they missed a spot on your face when they were cleaning you up."

This was not a female looking to make friends. He forced himself to stay silent, but he wanted to snarl at her for belittling his tattoos.

"Ignore Nesta," the blonde said, glaring at the girl. "She's still learning how to keep her mouth shut."

Nesta glowered at the blonde, but didn't reply.

The blonde continued as if she didn't notice the death-glare. "My name is Mor. We're hoping you can help us get home. We all woke up in that jungle, and have no idea where we are."

Rowan blinked. Had Erawan not told them that they belonged to Terrasen, now? With a twisting in his gut, he said, "I made a deal with your King. He gave me you all to help me search for someone and win the coming fight."

They all blinked. "What?" The redhead asked. "We have no King!" Then he paused, metal eye whirring as he thought. "Hybern," he hissed.

"Hybern?" Rowan didn't know the name. "I know only of Erawan."

"Erawan?" They all asked in unison.

The dark-haired male with blue eyes looked around, then shook his head. "We don't know that name." Any amusement on his face had faded. "And we certainly aren't Hybern's warriors, at any rate."

"What?" Rowan asked. "If you don't know who Erawan is, why would he give you to me, then?"

There was silence as he thought, and then he inhaled sharply. "I'll bet anything that Hybern is working with Erawan. And if that's true, then we're automatically his enemies," the male said. "And this is the perfect way to get rid of the biggest opposition."

I feel like the ending is super anti-climatic. Whoops.

Holy fuck when I was writing chapter 11 I was laughing maniacally the whole time. Help me.

But I also feel like it's bad writing and arghhhhhhhhhh.