Only You

Burning

"We need to make sure invitations are sent to all royal families across the continent. If we send them now we should receive answers in enough time."

Aelin had been sat at the table with her mother, Lysandra and Elide for over four hours. Her mother had requested she join her for tea in the morning room, Aelin had happily agreed, hoping that maybe they could talk over everything; but when she had entered the room she immediately wanted to leave again. Strewn over chairs, tables and any workable surface were swathes of fabrics, utensils, flowers and cakes— you name it and it was probably there. She had known this would be something that had to be done... but Gods above. She had been too slow to march out of the room again; her mother had spotted her too quickly and a smile had lit up her face as she gazed upon Aelin. She had ushered Aelin into a seat and declared that now was the perfect time to organise everything. Lysandra and Elide had joined an hour later, managing to escape the worst of her mothers excitement.

"Perhaps we should send invitations to the Southern Continent too? They are never too bothered with the goings on here, but it would be polite." Her mother was scrambling for the ink and paper, adding to the ever-growing list of people she wished to invite.

"Mamma, is this really necessary?" Aelin picked at the lavender fabric that had been placed on her lap, waiting for her to inspect it and share her opinion.

"I know you would rather go down to the priest in your fighting gear and be done with this all, but you are required to have a wedding fit for a queen, so we shall give you one." Her mother lent over to Elide who was studying a selection of flowers.

Aelin brushed the fabrics from her lap and stood, pouring another cup of herbal tea. "I'm just saying that we don't need to invite everyone for both a mating ceremony and a wedding. Rowan and I would much rather have a mating ceremony just the two of us." She assumed anyway. The two of them hadn't discussed any of it in great detail.

The three women looked up at her.

"I just—" she picked up then dropped a rose. "It's all a bit much, no?"

"I think it's exciting. We haven't had a mating ceremony in years." Elide was clasping a bunch of the flowers in her hands as she spoke.

Lysandra said nothing and instead went to sit in one of the armchairs, her hands playing with the ends of her sleeves, being unusually silent.

Aelin tore her eyes from Lysandra and back to her mother and Elide.

"I'm not sure Rowan is one for big displays of... well anything."

"I'm sure he'll do whatever needs to be done, Aelin. Now sit, I want to see which colours are best."

Aelin was saved when someone cleared their throat at the door. She could've sighed in relief as she eyed Rowan.

"Sorry to interrupt; but I was hoping to steal Aelin away."

Aelin took three steps when her mother stopped her. "We will be finishing this later. Don't think you can get out of it."

She grinned at her mother and hastily exited the room, joining her hand with Rowan's and heading into the crisp winter air.

"Thank you for saving me. I was about to go crazy in there."

"Don't thank me quite yet. I told your father and Orlon we were going to pick a place for the ceremony."

She groaned. "Why would you say that? I was hoping you were going to steal me away so we could hide in my rooms until dinner."

He nudged her side. "I needed an excuse to leave and I don't think they would appreciate me telling them I was going to spend the rest of the day in your rooms with you."