Only You

Vows

The morning of her wedding she was awoken by a hoard of people entering her room. The sound of their talking stirred her up and she peeked above the covers to see an entourage of her family and friends gathered. Each was carrying a box of who knows what, Elspeth was clearing space at the dressing table for the hair accessories and the tiara she would wear today.

Her mother was heading over to the wardrobe where she hung her wedding dress up and smoothed the non-existent wrinkles from it. Lysandra was perched on the armchair sewing a repair into her own bridesmaid dress with Fleetfoot curled around her feet.

Aelin sat up in bed and watched the women flutter around the room. It was a few minutes before her mother noticed Aelin awake and smiled broadly.

"You're awake." Her mother came over to kiss her cheek and brush some hair from her face. "Elspeth has drawn a bath for you. It should be ready."

Her mother pulled the covers back and offered Aelin a hand. Aelin said nothing as she followed her mother into the washroom and then watched her go again when she deemed the bath hot enough and left Aelin to undress and bathe herself.

Lysandra cracked the door open. "Don't be too long. We've got to do your hair and you're notorious for never staying still for long."

Aelin stuck her tongue out her friend and dunked herself under the water. She spent a while scrubbing herself clean, rubbing her hair with scented soap and basking in the warmth of the water. She leant her head against the tip of the tub and looked to the ceiling. Then diverted her eyes to the flames in the fireplace. She watched them intently, immersed in the way it moved, the colours and the sound of the crackling of logs. She didn't even notice when her mother came in and exclaimed it was time to get ready.

Aelin hadn't felt nervous before. But when she stepped from the bath and wrapped the towel around herself she suddenly had a flutter in her stomach. She shook her head and cursed at herself for being so ridiculous. She was marrying Rowan... her mate. When she eventually stepped back into the bedroom— which had seemingly been transformed into a seamstress' shop and a beauty parlour in one— she felt the nerves subside ever so slightly, but still lingering at the pit of her stomach. In only a few hours she would be a married woman. And after all the years as a child dreaming of her wedding, of the eventual heartbreaks, the anxiety about being tied down and then the fear of not even getting to this point... it didn't seem real.

She would soon walk out of this room in her wedding dress, she would say vows to Rowan to promise to love him for the rest of their lives, to cherish him, to be with him until they die. She was only twenty and her life was on a path that she would walk for the next thousand years.

"Did you not sleep well? You look ghastly." Lysandra was examining Aelin.

Aelin merely shook her head. "I slept fine."

"Hmph. You look pale."

Her mother swatted Lysandra's arms away. "Lysandra why don't you start on your hair. Orla will help you."

Aelin silently thanked her mother and took a seat at the dressing table. She studied herself in the mirror and noticed the paleness of her face too. She tucked some of her hair behind her ear and smiled at her mother who was watching her.

"What is it, Fireheart?"

"Nothing. Perhaps just pre-wedding nerves?"

Her mother laughed quietly. "It's normal. When I was getting ready to marry your father I was in a state. Shaky hands, sweating. I could barely keep still. Aedion's mother had to give me a couple of shots of whisky to calm me down." Her mother played with the ends of Aelin's now-dry hair, which she had dried with one thought. "I can go and get some if you need it."