twin flames | daemon targaryen

twenty-eight

"Do you ever wonder what life after death is like?"

Rhaella turned and looked at Laenor. The Velyaron man stared out at the sea as he spoke, his dark violet eyes focused on the coming waves. The two cousins sat next to each other on the beach of Driftmark under the stars, splayed out on large blankets that Laenor had brought from his chambers.

They had made the plan secretly during dinner. Rhaenyra and her children sat on one half of the table, Rhaella, Daemon, and their children on the other. Corlys and Rhaenyra divided the families on one side, Laenor and Rhaella on the other.

They sat close together as they whispered to each other, ignoring Daemon's curious gaze from where he sat across the table from Rhaella and Laenor. The Rogue Prince knew after all the years he had been married to Rhaella that the sight of her and Laenor whispering together meant that they were up to something, usually nothing good.

But, as he watched the wide smile slip over her lips as she planned with Laenor, he felt nothing but relief. She hadn't smiled like that since the funerals, and when Daemon felt her slip out of their bed hours later, he pretended he was still asleep.

Rhaella and Laenor had snuck out of the castle as the moon rose high in the night sky. They knew the path like the back of their hand after the hundreds of times they had made the same journey in their youth.

Years before, three cousins would whisper and giggle together as they tip-toed through the stone corridors of High Tide, no doubt waking everyone up within the castle. No one said a word the next day, letting the three imagine they had been successful. The children never questioned the warm fires in their chambers and the hot chocolate on their bedside tables when they returned to the keep, unaware of how Rhaenys would have the servants prepare the items for when the children returned from their adventures.

Now, there was only somber silence between Rhaella and Laenor as they journeyed to the beach, the absent member of their trio haunting each step. High Tide felt wrong without Laena there. In fact, the world itself seemed unfamiliar without Laena's bright soul to guide them and delight them.

Once the two cousins had made it outside the keep, Laenor picked her up and carried her on his back as he traipsed over the rolling hills of the island. The Targaryen woman was still too sore and in too much pain to make such an effort. She was still supposed to be on bedrest, and she was certain she would receive an earful from Daemon and the maester the next morning when it was revealed where she had been.

Thoughts of the next day were far from Rhaella's mind, though, as she laid out on the blankets beside Laenor on the beach.

The water was tranquil before them, glistening like diamonds under the pure light of the moon. Waves crashed in the distance, the sound like a soft roar. A gentle breeze swept along the sand they laid on, ruffling their hair and sending sand onto their clothes. There was nothing as beautiful or peaceful as the Driftmark beaches at night.

"Life after death?" Rhaella said, repeating Laenor's question. She pursed her lips in thought, her hands resting against her stomach. "I have thought about it many times these last days."

"And what do you think it is like?" Laenor asked her softly, turning his gaze away from the sea to look at Rhaella. The Velaryon man seemed to have aged ten years since Laena's funeral, the Prince Consort practically falling apart at the seams under the heavy weight of the grief he felt for Laena and Rhaella's sons.

Dark rings constantly circled underneath his eyes. His silver hair, which appeared white under the moonlight, fell haphazardly around his face as the wind pulled it out from the bun he had tied it in earlier.