twin flames | daemon targaryen

forty-three

"What do you mean the doors are locked?"

The three Targaryens crowded at the door, Rhaella and Aemma on either side of Rhaegar as the young prince pulled and pulled at the ornate golden handle only for the door to remain shut.

"The door is locked!" Rhaegar said helplessly, his face growing red with anger as he tried and pulled at the handle. Aemma shoved her brother aside, taking his position in front of the wooden door. She stared at the handle for a moment before reaching out and pulling it with all her might, but even then it did not budge. Rhaegar watched his twin incredulously.

"What did you think that was going to do?!" He exclaimed.

"I thought you were doing it wrong," Aemma said, turning and glaring up at her twin. Rhaegar scoffed, throwing his hands out wide on either side of him in disbelief.

"There is only one way to pull open a door, Aemma!"

"Stop arguing," Rhaella cut in, stepping forward so that she stood between her children. Rhaegar and Aemma stopped talking at her words, continuing to glare at each other over Rhaella's head as their mother pressed her ear flat against the door.

The sounds from outside of her chambers were muffled by the wood. She could faintly hear the sounds of voices speaking and servants and guards walking past in the corridor, and Rhaella felt herself fill with dread. There was no doubt that those outside knew they were locked in, yet she could hear no efforts being made to help them.

"Ser Robert?" Rhaella called through the door, straining to hear the voice of her sworn shield amongst the others. There was no reply, and Rhaella's dread only grew. "Robert? Are you there? ROBERT?"

Still, no response.

"Why is the door locked?" Aemma asked her mother, wringing her hands anxiously in front of her. "What's happened? Where's Ser Robert?"

"Don't worry yet," Rhaella tried to reassure, but her children could see right through her. She still had yet to recover from her prophetic sleep, the bags under her eyes puffy and bruised. Her face was pale, and her amethyst eyes were wide with worry as she stared at the door before them as though willing it to open on its own accord. "I am sure that there is a reasonable explanation—"

Rhaella was cut off by a roar, the sound of it causing the Targaryens' ears to throb and the floor to shake beneath them. The three turned to see Gaelith fly dangerously close to the Red Keep, Rhaella's dragon coming just feet away from the balcony attached to her chambers. The she-dragon's powerful wing beats sent loose bricks and scaffolding tumbling down from the sides of the Red Keep onto the streets below. Further away, Silverwing and Vermithor let out twin bursts of flame into the air, casting everything in King's Landing in a brief orange glow.

"We need to get out of here, muña," Rhaegar said urgently. "They're holding us hostage, they know you have been made heir instead of Aegon—"

"We don't know that," Rhaella said sharply, her hands forming fists at her sides. She thought of Alicent, of her old friend desperate to renew the kinship with Rhaella and Rhaenyra. There was no way that Alicent would turn around and keep Rhaella and her children hostage, not when she had just promised good faith. If Aegon, Helaena, and Aemond knew about this, Rhaella was certain her half-siblings already would have ended this madness. No, Rhaella decided, there had to be a reasonable explanation—

"We could jump onto the saddles from the balcony," Aemma proposed, gesturing to where their dragons flew in the skies above King's Landing. "Vermithor, Silverwing, Gaelith...I'm sure that they can fly close enough and then we just jump off—"

"No one is jumping from balconies!" Rhaella said instantly, her voice raising and filling the chambers. Aemma and Rhaegar froze, watching their mother worriedly as she breathed heavily beside them, near the point of hyperventilating. Her hands shook at her sides, and Rhaella quickly hid them in the folds of her skirts.