Innocence// AEMOND TARGARYEN ✔️

Chapter Forty

Even though Eirlys loved both sides of her family dearly, she was in no mood to attend a lavish dinner.

Someone had been murdered before her very eyes and it left her feeling rather queasy.

That was the first time she'd ever seen someone die by the sword, her innocent eyes had never caught site of something so gruesome.

"Do you need help?" Aemond called out from the other side of the room as he put on a different overcoat for the dinner. Still black, but different.

He'd noticed Eirlys fiddling with the strings of her dress, only toying with it and not actually making any effort to lace up the bodice.

"I'm fine" she turned to look at him as she tugged at the strings before proceeding to tie a knot "was just thinking about what happened earlier"

"Are you referring to Vaemond?" The prince asked.

Eirlys simply hummed in response.

"It did take me greatly by surprise" he sighed as he went to look for his eye patch that he'd tossed on the bed earlier "but I can't defend him, he dug his own grave. The man seemed to forget he was barely a mere lord of the sea while the people surrounding him were dragons of royalty"

Eirlys stood up to walk toward him.

"You vouched for Luke" she gingerly smiled as she stood by the edge of the bed, closer to Aemond "indirectly, but you stood for him nonetheless"

She was taken by surprise when he'd done it earlier. She knew how much he hated her brothers, ever since they were all children. In that moment she felt as if Aemond had started to perhaps not care even if they were bastards.

This put her at a little more ease to tell him about herself as well. The truth about herself.

"Well, I knew how much this meant to you, as his older sister" he simply told her, trying to sound as monotonous as possible "I promised myself I'd keep you happy, and I know that in this case, vouching for my nephew would contribute to said happiness"

The princess bit her lip to stop herself from smiling so much as she went to cup his face with her hands, momentarily halting his seach for his eyepatch to kiss him.

Aemond smiled into the kiss bringing his large hand to wrap around her waist, pulling her into him.

"Is that all it takes to get a kiss from you?" He grinned "an occasional, remotely-kind gesture directed at my nephews?"

"If that's what a kiss gets you, imagine what being nice to them all the time would" Eirlys looked up at him and batted her lashes.

"I would be nice" he kissed her nose "if they ever gave me a reason to do so"

"Aemond..."

"Have you seen my eye patch?" He wasted no time in changing the topic "can't seem to find it"

"You don't need it" she gently traced his scar, looking tenderly at the sapphire that replaced his eye "dare I say you look more dashing without it"

"Thankyou" he warmly smiled at her sincerity "though I'm afraid you're the only person who sees me that way. To avoid scaring the people off, I think I'll just stick to wearing it"

After he'd finally found the eye patch and put it on, he and Eirlys both made their way to the dining hall.

They both stopped by their daughter's chamber to kiss her goodnight before heading to dine with the rest of their family.

As always, Aemond pulled a chair for Eirlys at his right before he sat down at his spot by the head of the table.

Helaena and Aegon sat at her right, followed by Jace next to Aegon and Baela next to him.