Reign of Embers

Chapter 33- All alone

Rowan

Guilt washes through me as I sit, head in hands, next to my mate's sleeping form in the infirmary. I should have gotten to her sooner, put a shield of air up - anything to stop her from being thrown across our bedroom and breaking the furniture she crashed into, her collar bone and five ribs; and bruising more bones. Luckily Yrene could fix everything relatively easily, the bruises slowly fading as Aelin sleeps. The twins are absolutely fine. Fae children, especially if they're powerful, can withstand quite a lot. But that's not a reason to not be cautious or for Aelin to not look after herself.

The others are with their children, as they have been all night, calming them after all the loud noises and screaming coming from all over the city. No one knows what happened, or why the shadows retreated back into the mountains. We know that the shield didn't go up because there was a traitor in league with the shadow lord in our ranks. But we don't know how the traitor got there or what happened- it is currently under investigation. I sent a small unit of soldiers to scout the edge of the mountains - but told them not to enter under any circumstances. It's been hours since the wave of darkness, Dawn now cresting the horizon. No one except Aelin slept though, we all had too much adrenaline.

I look across at my sleeping mate, belly creating a bulge in the thin blanket atop her. I spot a stray lock of hair hanging down across her face, and reach across to brush it behind her ear, kissing her forehead as I do so. As I draw back, she takes a deep breath and her eyes flutter open.

"Hey Buzzard" She murmurs, voice groggy with sleep.

"How are you feeling ?" I reply, instantly relaxing.

"I'm good. Well I've been better but for now I'm good."

"You sure?"

"Yep"

"Good, how are the babies doing?" I say, placing my hand on hers on her stomach.

"I think they are good, Yrene said they're good, and I trust her. I'm annoyed I haven't felt them kick or anything yet. I know they move because I feel a little sick when they do it loads, but I can't feel the little movements yet."

"Don't worry it'll happen soon."

"I know but I'm bored of waiting. Yrene said earlier that we can find out the genders soon. But it's our choice if we find out or not. I don't know if I'd want to know. But then again we'd know how many names we'd need for each gender. And we need to decorate the nursery, rebuild our room, buy baby stuff...."

"Oh yeah we need to think of names. And the rest we can start doing whenever you want, our room is the priority though, and worst case we have some baby stuff in the kids tower. "

"Yeah I guess so. I don't know if I can be trusted to name two humans, it was hard enough choosing Fleetfoot's name."

"I feel like that as well. We don't want to call them something that they will despise when they grow up, and we don't want the names to not suit them."

"I mean we could but that probably wouldn't go down well."

"These are literally royals in your stomach, they have a lot to live up to."

"Well they will have lots of help. And I don't care if they don't want to rule, they can do what they want."

"I don't care either, as long as their happy." I reply grinning.

"I would recommend they not become evil sorcerers or maniacs though. Probably should steer clear of assassins as well - it doesn't look the best in court. But of course it's their life."

"I'll add swearing blood oaths to evil queens. But it's their choice."

"I was thinking, whatever genders we have, we need to check the laws to see the order of succession. I think men before women was abolished long before I was born but I need to double check if Dorian's delightful father did anything. I also want to make it so they can choose to not become rulers."