(*Drum rolls*... Chapter Four is here! FINALLY! Right?! Haha, apologies. I have to be in a creative/inspired mood to continue my writing and these past few weeks have been pretty stressful and crazy for me, so I haven't been at all in the mood to write. Thanks for your patience! Remember, if you want to talk to me in a way where I will respond more quickly or answer your questions, go t and look up the blog everythingthroneofglass. I would love to have a convo with you or answer any questions you might have! Not to mention, my blog is filled with everything about TOG ;) ))

I stared at Rowan for a few moments, suddenly overcome by something that could only be described as a wave of darkness and anger rise up in my my chest, fuming out of me like a spout of steam. I was on my feet in less than a heartbeat, my hands clenched into fists to keep from hitting away that expression etched upon his features. I hated pity. I hated being looked down upon because of something that happened in my past, or something that would be considered a weakness or a hindrance. I have been through hell and back, and I knew that with everything I have gone through so far, and what was yet to come, pity is an affront to all of my efforts and pains.

As soon as I was on my feet, a snarl ripping from my throat, I watched as Rowan's pity turned to shock, then quickly into a defensive yet confused scowl. He stood up as well, even taking a step back, acting as if that measly old chair was a barrier between me and him. "I don't know what you are trying to accomplish in here, other than getting my side of the story, but I swear to god Rowan..." My words ripped from my throat and I felt a surge of panic rise up in me as it almost felt like a sob was rising up from my lungs.

Before I could finish, he snarled back in response, acting upon instinct and almost... almost out of defense, as if he himself knew that he was on the brink of that impossibility. That fine line between us, we were not friends. Hell, I did not even want to see his face again once I had met with Maeve and received my answers. To put it frankly, to have that Fae male not only see a side of me I never wanted showing, but to feel pity for me because of it, made me want to retch.

"Something wrong, Princess?" I could see the green in his eyes from here turn to a blazing pine, almost glowing with ferocity. "You don't want someone to see that you are vulnerable?" He practically spat at me, I could feel my anger die down into that same wretched tiredness, but I refused to let him see it. I glared back at him, feeling my Fae side suddenly snap into place, the pain was excruciating but I welcomed it with open arms as I bared my fangs at him, shaking in place.

"Go to hell. You do not know me, nor will you ever, so don't get offended when things don't go your way." With that, I gave him a rude gesture and began to head for the door in a huff, desperately craving that pale sunlight and mist outside. I needed to go on a run. A long one. It would be a miracle if I even got the courage to end up coming back.

But before I could even take a step, the chair that was between us was suddenly flying into the wall to my left, smashing into splinters and broken bits of wood with a swipe of Rowan's arm. I did not even have time to flinch out the incredible boom of the impact of the chair with the wall before I suddenly found myself pressed into the soft mattress of Rowan's bed, my hair being gripped by one of his hands while the other held me down by my shoulder, disabling me from even attempting to get up. He was kneeling over me, one of his knees between my legs as he gripped my hair more tightly, pulling my head back to expose my neck, his fangs inches away from my throat.

My instincts immediately kicked into gear, my body already beginning to buck in response to the position that I suddenly found myself in. This was the second time today that I had been immobilized by a Fae male and to be honest, this second time around almost seemed worse than the first time. As if in response to my thoughts, I felt a familiar flame embedded within my chest begin to crackle and rise in response to the threat that was hovering over my exposed neck. I could not help but internally roll my eyes, wishing that my body had responded this way when I had been assaulted the first time today.

My eyes had been squeezed shut at the pain that was radiating from my scalp as Rowan did not hold back by keeping a firm grip on the top part of my hair, he did not even loosen it enough to allow my head to have any kind of movement. As soon as I began to struggle he snarled in such a threatening, low tone that I had to force myself to stop moving. My blood would be staining his sheets within moments if I kept fighting him.

So, I forced myself to shut down my muscles, the only movement coming from me was the heaving of my chest as I tried to calm myself down. Opening my eyes, I glanced down at the male who was hovering over me, his eyes wild with rage and something that I could not fathom. It almost looked like some kind of pain. I have seen it before, in men who I had hurt before killing them. They would turn their pain into anger to keep themselves in check for defense. My eyes quickly averted from his own when they flicked from my exposed throat over to meet my gaze, his pupils dilating in an eerily predatory way as he made eye contact with me. I stared at the ceiling, clenching my teeth for a moment before speaking, attempting to reel in the flames that were mere seconds from erupting beneath my skin.

"Rowan... get off of me. NOW." As soon as the words escaped my mouth, I could feel his grip tighten on the fistful of hair he had, and his other hand curled around my shoulder as he pressed it further into the mattress, making a slash of pain wrap around the joint as it strained against the pressure.

"No. You will listen to me Aelin. You have got to get this damned arrogance in check. I know what you are doing, because I see it in myself every day. It's going to be your downfall. You have to let someone in."

He didn't understand, the reason I needed him to get off of me wasn't so much of the fact that I did not want to let him into that darkest part of me, it was more because of the fact that if I lay here under his grip much longer, the entirety of Mistward was going to catch fire. It happened that day at the library... it happened countless times at the palace before the magic had been taken away and all hell was set loose... if I felt threatened, my body reacted in order to protect me, whether I wanted it to or not. Rowan was going to be set aflame.

"Rowan, just get the hell off!" As soon as I started struggling again, I felt his fangs at my throat, beginning to slowly sink into the skin. As soon as my body felt that first prickle of pain at my exposed neck, my control turned to ash before my eyes. As quickly as he put his mouth to my skin, his entire room leaped into flame and fire. I squeezed my eyes shut, praying that no one would get injured too badly, but as soon as I shut my eyes, the sound of roaring flames silenced.

Suddenly I couldn't breathe. Rowan had cut out the air in the room. My eyes flew open and Rowan had retracted his fangs, his head moved up to my own, his face inches from me. I began to claw at him desperately with one of my arms, pounding on his chest to let me breathe but he just stared at me. As I grew more and more desperate, my fists pounding becoming less and less strong, I watched in horror as little black dots began to fill my vision. That wasn't what horrified me though. It was there, once again, even stronger than before. In his eyes. That gods forsaken pity.

…...

The first thing that assaulted my senses was the sound of rain pattering against a window. Wind was blowing hard outside. What jolted me out of my sleep though, was the feeling of being warm. I was never warm. It was always cold in my room. My hands immediately felt for the thin blanket that I usually became huddled in every night, and instead found a thick, warm quilt made from a soft material. There were no scratchy sheets beneath me, nor a thin pillow barely giving my neck support. Instead it felt as if I had fallen asleep upon a heated cloud, every muscle in my body relaxed and at an ease I had not felt in months.

As the realization hit me of where I was, my eyes flew open and I sat up in Rowan's bed, scanning the room to find him. He wasn't far. In fact, he was sitting at his worn desk, looking over what looked like some sort of map. His shirt was off, and he was only wearing his usual leather trousers. His hair looked a mess, as if he had just gotten up. The thought jolted through me like electricity and my gaze flew to the spot nearest me on the bed, and sure enough, the blankets had been thrown back, revealing an obvious impression in the bed where he had been laying.

What time was it? I looked over at the window, desperate to know how long I had been out, and it looked like early morning. It was hard to tell though, with the clouds covering the sky overhead. The spring rains here were relentless, and the storms were enough to be a menace. As thunder struck over head, I glanced back at Rowan, still in a state of shock that he had probably been laying next to me most of the night as I was... sleeping? Unconscious?

He cut off my air. He... Why didn't I wake up right afterward?

I put my hand to my forehead, brushing away the stray strands of hair in the process, still feeling a tingling pain in my scalp from where he had gripped my hair the day before. I eyed the door at the end of the bed. It would just take a quick crawl across the enormous bed, a leap for the door and I could get away. But would he even stop me if I ran? Where would I go? Hide in my bedroom only to find him at my door by tomorrow at the latest to resume our training? I couldn't do that. Not after the whole situation he had put me through. I could leave for good though...

The ideas began to pour into my brain as the thought hit me. I could leave. I could pack what little things I had, grab some food from the kitchen, and walk out the door back to the kingdom of my mothers kin. Then I - "I have never heard someone snore so loudly in all my life." Rowan's voice was so sudden, breaking the silence that as soon as it cut through my thoughts, I had to keep from letting out a squeak of shock as my gaze snapped towards him. He was turned around in his seat (Seems like he found a new chair at some point) gazing at me with something between a smirk and an annoyed expression. "You kept me up half the damned night. I was half tempted to find something to plug your nose with."

I stared at him in horrified shock for a few moments, feeling as if running for the door was more and more of the better option than sticking around and listening to him insult my sleeping methods on top of everything else that had already transpired.

"You... you ASSHOLE!" I tossed the blankets back, secretly happy that I was at least in the same attire I had been in before he suffocated me.

"You made me black out! Y-you pinned me down and practically tore my throat out, and now I find myself waking up in your gods damned BED?!" He looked at me boredly, turning back to his map, his back facing me, shutting me out. Oh no, I wasn't done. "And here you are, acting as if we are some married couple who just woke up from a spat!" I gripped the pillow next to me in one of my hands and tossed it with a ferocity that even shocked me a bit. He heard it coming and tried to duck it, but it still hit him in the back of his head with a satisfying thump.

"Do you have ANY sense of normality? Did you ever think that after I had been almost raped by three men, that it would be a good fucking idea to knock me out and sleep next to me all night long?" I was standing up on his bed, fuming as he slowly stood up from his desk, back still facing me as the pillow landed on the floor. "I can't BELIEVE that even YOU would think that this would be okay in any way whatsoever. I do not share my bed with men unless they are greatly deserving, and you crossed so many lines that I-" Suddenly the rumpled and twisted blanket that I had been standing upon was pulled out from under me with a snap, and the next thing I knew, I was careening towards the floor, landing on the aged wood with a smack, my knees and elbows screaming in pain.

I began to scramble up off of the floor, fists raised and ready to slam them into Rowan's jaw, but he was already walking out of the room, shoving his hands into his pockets without so much as a glance at me as he mumbled. "There is breakfast on the nightstand if you are hungry. Once you are dressed, we are going out." With that he slammed the door, and I just stood there, slack-jawed, staring at the damned door, feeling as if I had fallen into some strange dream that I could not escape.

After a few moments, I glanced behind me slowly, almost in fear at the nightstand beside the bed, and sure enough, there was a bowl of still steaming porridge, a huge slice of buttered toast, and a hot mug of tea. I wanted to start screaming and ripping my hair out. What the hell was going on here?!

Begrudgingly, I glanced back at the door for a moment, hoping that Rowan would stay out of the room. My pride screamed at me to ignore the food lying on the nightstand, but the smell of the porridge, the honey and sugar and the hot buttered bread had me watering at the mouth. My energy was low from that flare up I had yesterday, and I was more hungry than I realized. I still wanted to know how I slept for so long without waking up. Had Rowan dosed me with something while I was unconscious? The image in and of itself sounded... wrong to me.

Sauntering over to the steaming food and drink, I grumbled as I sat upon the mess of a bed and began to angrily tear into it. Practically burning myself on the oatmeal and tea at least a dozen times, I finished the food quickly, doing my best to keep from shattering the dishes upon the floor when I was done.

I was furious for so many reasons that I did not even know where to begin. It was like looking at a huge mesh of emotions that was so compacted I did not know where to begin to start picking them apart. Growling I began to walk out of the room to head down to my own to find some clothes, but just before I grabbed the doorknob, I spotted a freshly pressed, clean set of clothes folded neatly on the end of Rowan's desk. The same plain tunic and trousers that I worse every day here. It was so hard for me to imagine Rowan bringing them into the room and folding them like that for me.

Shaking my head free of the strange image, I quickly changed out of his too-large shirt, realizing that if someone were to walk in on us sleeping together, seeing my in his clothing it would seem far too obvious to an onlooker that we were most definitely more than just friends. And we were not even that. A could feel a hot blush flame upon my cheeks as I tossed his shirt onto his bed, and walked out of his room, shoving my own hands in my pockets just as he was. I felt embarrassed at the entire situation... I was still angry with him for having pinned me to his bed last night. In fact I was fuming. But this mornings happenings came as such a shock that it knocked me off-kilter.

He said we were going out. Did that mean training? Whenever we were to go train, he never said 'going out' he usually said 'hurry up and get out of bed or I will give you double duties in the kitchen.'

Does that mean we are doing something different today?

I was biting my lip by the time I made it down to the kitchens, not sure if I was still supposed to do my scullery duties before I left with Rowan. As soon as I made it to the bottom of the steps, I spotted Emrys at the sink, Luca at his usual place at the counter chopping onions, and Rowan standing next to Malakai near the table. Right when I entered the room though, whatever conversation that Rowan and him must have been having had immediately ceased. I could tell from Emrys's tensed shoulders, and Luca's unusually tight jaw and pale features that it had been a rather intense conversation. I wondered if Rowan was making sure that those three men had left already. Malakai was in charge of the entire guard after all.

Rowan made eye contact with me for a mere second before turning to walk out the back of the kitchen doors into the rain and wind. I knew that he was expecting me to follow. I threw my cloak over my head, bracing myself for the onslaught of sideways flying droplets, attempting to keep my cheeks from burning red again and ridding myself of that annoying re-occurring knowledge that I had slept beside him last night.

As I crossed the room, I felt someone's eyes upon me and I glanced over at Malakai who gave me what I could only describe as a grin, but his teeth were bared and it almost looked as if he was challenging me. As I felt my eyes widen, he quickly turned away, falling out of my vision as I walked out the door. What the hell was that all about?