Claimed By Fire And Crown

Chapter 9

The air didn’t stay still for long.

It shifted first—subtle at the edges, a change in the way the night pressed in around us. I felt it before I saw anything, that same cold awareness sliding back in, sharper now, closer. My shoulders tightened instinctively as my gaze moved down the road, searching the shadows that stretched just beyond the reach of the nearest light.

Nothing moved.

But it was there.

I could feel it.

Rhaegar didn’t turn.

He didn’t need to. His posture had already changed, the stillness in him settling into something heavier, more deliberate, like he’d stepped into a space he understood completely.

“You’re sure?” I asked, my voice quieter than I meant it to be as I shifted my weight, my feet adjusting without thinking.

He didn’t look at me.

“Yes.”

The answer came without hesitation.

That didn’t help.

I exhaled slowly, my fingers curling at my sides as I forced myself to stay where I was instead of stepping back again. Running hadn’t worked. He’d said that already. I didn’t want him to be right—but right now, I didn’t have a better option.

A shape detached itself from the darkness ahead.

Slow.

Unhurried.

The man from the alley stepped into the faint light, his shoulders rolling slightly as he came to a stop a few feet away, his gaze flicking between us before settling on me again.

“You don’t listen very well,” he said.

His tone wasn’t annoyed.

If anything, it sounded almost amused.

I didn’t answer, my jaw tightening as I held my ground. My pulse had picked up again, steady and heavy, but I forced myself not to move, not to give him the reaction he was probably expecting.

“You should’ve stayed where I left you,” he went on, his attention shifting briefly to Rhaegar. “Would’ve been easier.”

“For you,” I said before I could stop myself.

His mouth tilted slightly, that same almost-smile pulling at the corner. “Exactly.”

Rhaegar stepped forward then, just enough to put himself fully between us. The movement was smooth, controlled, but it changed the space immediately, blocking the line of sight the other man had been using to study me.

“She’s not going with you,” Rhaegar said.

The words didn’t carry force.

They didn’t need to.

The man’s gaze lifted to meet his, the faint amusement fading into something flatter. “You’re still here,” he said, like he hadn’t expected that.

“I told you to leave.”

“You don’t give orders here.”

Rhaegar didn’t respond to that right away. He just held his ground, his attention fixed, unshaken, like the statement hadn’t changed anything.

“Last chance,” he said.

The quiet certainty in his voice made something in my chest tighten.

The man huffed out a short breath, shaking his head slightly as he shifted his stance. “You’re either very confident,” he said, his tone lowering, “or you have no idea what you’re interfering with.”

“I do.”

That again.

The repetition wasn’t reassuring.

The man’s gaze narrowed slightly, his attention flicking past Rhaegar toward me for a brief second before returning. “Then you know she doesn’t belong to you.”

The words landed wrong.

Sharp.

Immediate.

My fingers curled tighter, something twisting low in my chest that had nothing to do with fear.

Rhaegar didn’t move.

Didn’t even glance back at me.

“She doesn’t belong to anyone,” he said.

The man let out a quiet laugh, the sound dry and humorless. “That’s not how this works.”

“It is tonight.”

Something in the air shifted again.

Not just tension.

Something deeper.

The man’s expression flattened, whatever ease had been there slipping away completely. He stepped forward, slow and deliberate, closing some of the distance between them.

“You’re out of your depth,” he said.

Rhaegar didn’t step back.

“Leave,” he replied.

The repetition hit harder this time.

Final.

For a second, neither of them moved.

Then the man lunged.

It wasn’t wild. It wasn’t messy. It was fast, controlled, his hand coming out in a straight line toward Rhaegar like he’d already calculated exactly how it would land.

I barely had time to react.

Rhaegar caught his wrist mid-motion.

The impact stopped short, the force of it traveling through both of them as their arms locked in place. For a second, everything held—the movement, the air, the sound.

Then pressure built.

I could see it in the way their stances shifted, the ground under their feet taking the strain as neither gave an inch. The man’s expression tightened, something sharper breaking through as he pushed forward.

Rhaegar didn’t.

He held.

Still.

Unmoving.

Like the force against him didn’t matter.

The difference between them hit all at once.

The man’s jaw clenched as he tried to push through, his other hand coming up—

Rhaegar moved.

Not fast enough to blur.

Just fast enough to matter.

He twisted, redirecting the force instead of meeting it, stepping in closer as he broke the man’s balance. The motion was clean, controlled, his grip shifting as he forced the other man’s arm down and away.

The man staggered half a step, catching himself quickly, but the moment had already changed.

He knew it.

So did I.

He stepped back this time, not out of fear, but out of calculation, his eyes narrowing as he reassessed the distance between them.

“You’re not wolf,” he said.

The words came out low.

Certain.

Rhaegar didn’t answer.

He didn’t need to.

The man’s gaze flicked to me again, sharper now, more focused. “And neither is she,” he added.

My stomach dropped.

Rhaegar stepped forward again before I could react, cutting off the line of sight completely, his presence shifting just enough to block whatever the man thought he’d seen.

“You’re done here,” he said.

The man held his gaze for another second, something unreadable passing through his expression before he exhaled slowly, stepping back again.

“This isn’t over,” he said.

It wasn’t a threat.

It was a fact.

Then he turned.

This time when he walked away, he didn’t look back.

I didn’t breathe properly until the darkness swallowed him completely.

The silence that followed felt heavier than before.

Not empty.

Waiting.

My shoulders eased slowly, the tension that had been holding me in place starting to unravel as I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. My hands were still clenched, my fingers stiff as I forced them to relax.

I looked up.

Rhaegar hadn’t moved.

His attention was still fixed on the space where the man had disappeared, his posture unchanged, like he was waiting for something else to happen.

“Is he gone?” I asked, my voice quieter now.

“For now.”

That didn’t help.

I shifted my weight, glancing down the road before looking back at him. “He said—” I stopped, my throat tightening slightly. “He said I’m not wolf.”

Rhaegar didn’t answer right away.

When he finally looked at me, his expression hadn’t changed.

But something in his eyes had.

“I know,” he said.

The words settled in my chest, heavy and impossible to ignore.

My fingers curled slightly at my sides, my pulse picking up again for a completely different reason this time. “Then what am I?”

The question came out before I could stop it.

For a second, he didn’t respond.

Then—

“You’re not ready for that answer.”

My jaw tightened. “That’s not your decision.”

“No,” he said.

A beat.

“But it is my responsibility.”

That didn’t make sense.

None of this did.

I let out a slow breath, shaking my head once as I stepped back, putting a little distance between us again. “I don’t even know you,” I said.

Rhaegar’s gaze didn’t waver.

“That won’t matter.”

The certainty in his voice should have irritated me.

It didn’t.

That was worse.