Rowaelin au

Chapter 17

I'm not very good at making fight scenes, so sorry if it's absolutely terrible.

They met up a few blocks away from Maeve's house. "I've already set up all the explosive devices in Maeve's office." Connall whispered, "No one saw me. I was in and out."  

Aelin nodded, "Everything ready?" She looked up and found Fenrys nod. 

"Then let's do this." Rowan unscrewed the lid of the sewer and Aelin started down the ladder. Lysandra went down with her. They landed in the dirty sewer water. Aelin gagged, "This is disgusting." 

"Yes, it is," she said in-between breaths. Aelin unlocked her phone and turned on the flashlight feature. They continued walking in silence until they were underneath the marked sewer of Maeve's house. They climbed up the ladder and pushed open the heavy lid of the sewer drain. 

They were in the basement of Maeve's house. Vaughan had explained that there was a sewer drain in the basement because this was where Maeve takes all of her enemies. Aelin turned off her flashlight, but not after she had seen all of the bloodstains that were permanently stained into the ground. 

Thye walked up the stairs and carefully opened the door. She heard Fenrys, Connall, and Maeve talking in her office upstairs. Great, they were distracting her just according to plan. Lysandra handed Aelin the gallons of gasoline and she uncorked it. They split up pouring the gasoline everywhere. 

Aelin started making her way up the stairs when she heard a creak behind her. She reached for the gun that was tucked into her belt at her waist. She turned around, but before she could shoot the person shot her with his handgun. 

"I wish it hadn't come to this, my darling Celaena." She dropped her silver handgun, as her hand rushed to her thigh, where she had been shot. She knew that voice anywhere. It was in her nightmares. It was Arobynn Hamel. 

"What are you doing here?" She saw Lysandra peak from around the corner. Aelin sent her a warning glare. Lys nodded and walked to the front door, where she opened it and walked out.

"I heard about your little plan. Really Celaena, I thought I taught you better than that." he teased, fingering his gun. "Come with me now Celaena, and we'll pretend this never happened." Aelin could see right through him. 

She put her hand on the wall and hoisted herself up. "Why would I ever go anywhere with you?" 

"Well, my little niece, it seems that Arobynn has turned on me. He was supposed to bring you to me, but apparently, he wanted to keep you to himself." Maeve said from behind her. She walked down the stairs and dragged Aelin by her arm. She was thrown into her office where Fenrys and Connall were tied up in a chair. 

Aelin landed on the floor with a thump, right in front of a big metal safe. Maeve pointed a gun at Aelin's head, "Now, you're going to open this safe for me." 

"How would I know the code to this safe? It isn't even mine." She spat at her. 

"This is Miss Nehemia Ytger's safe. I think you might know the code." she made a serpentine smile at Aelin. It was one of the scariest things she had ever seen. 

"Why would I help you? I would rather you shoot a bullet right through my head than help you," she growled at her. Of course, she didn't want to die. It wasn't that she was afraid of death, oh no, she and death had been friends for as long as she could remember. But, she loved her family and they were counting on her. 

"You always did over-exaggerate." she sighed, "And to answer your question, you're going to help me, or your little friend dies." She pointed the gun at the door where Arobynn was holding Evangeline. 

She was crying her little swollen eyes out, "P-please, don't l-l-let them kill me, Aunty!" she stuttered out in-between sobs. Aelin's heart ached for her. How could they bring a child into this? She was just a child. How could someone be so black-hearted?

"So what's it going to be Aelin? The child or the safe?" Maeve asked, still smiling. How the fuck could someone smile while attempting to murder a child. 

Aelin saw Lysandra sneak up behind Arobynn. She was holding her silver shotgun. Time. She had to buy time. She looked at the window. Where was that surprise Rowan was telling her about? 

Rowan walked into the room from the secret door on the other side of the room, calm and composed, with a huge hawk on his wrist. Where the fuck did he get that hawk. It had a hood covering its eyes and there was something strapped to its back. Rowan purred, "Hey Maeve," And that's when all hell broke loose. 

Three things happened at that moment, one being Rowan talking off the hood. Aelin found out what was on the hawk's back. Somehow Rowan had strapped a miny flame thrower on its back and when it started flapping its wings it was activated. The room started catching fire. 

The second thing that happened was Lysandra bringing the gun to Arobynn's head and firing. She had finally killed the King of Assassins. The one person who made her feel so much pain and suffering in her life. Aelin was glad she had taught Lys to use a gun. Lysandra grabbed Evangeline and ran out of the house, just as instructed. 

The last thing that happened was Aedion and Gavriel crashing into the room, by the window. They had used a rope to zipline into her office. They grabbed Connall and Fenrys and rushed out back out the window. Maybe Connall was right. Maybe this was the most reckless plan that was ever heard of. With almost everyone out of the house, Aelin rushed to Rowan and grabbed his hand. 

They ran to the window and grabbed the rope. She saw a remote in Rowan's hand. It was the self-destruct remote to the mini flame thrower on the hawk's back. "Wait! You're going to kill the Hawk!" she shouted at him. 

"I'm not going to kill Rowan junior! I've trained him for this!" he shouted right back at her. With that, he hit the only button on the remote. Nothing happened at first, but then the hawk flew out from the window and the house exploded. Aelin rolled to the ground, Rowan doing the same. 

"Well, we did it." Rowan rasped. 

"Yeah, after almost dying." she paused and faced Rowan, "Rowan junior? Really? You couldn't come up with a better name than Rowan junior?" she laughed. 

"I don't know what you're talking about. Rowan junior is a great name," he said, even though a smile started blooming on his face. 

"Whatever you say, Rowan senior." she started cackling like a hyena. She was alive! And so was Rowan. Honestly, she thought someone would have died by now. 

She heard the crunching of grass, "Is aunty a witch?" Evangeline asked, from behind Lysandra. 

Aelin turned to them and opened her arms. Evangeline came running and collapsed in a heap, in Aelin's arms. From behind Aedion pulled her into a bear hug. Lysandra wrapped her arms around Evangeline and Elide joined the hug too. 

Gavriel stood to the side watching them. Aelin reached out and grabbed his hand. She tugged him into the circle of hugs. They pulled apart and they thought everything was good until...

"Aelin? Did you do that to the house?"