Come Back To Me

Chapter 42

***I have been WAITING for this chapter for so long, y'all do not understand. I hope you guys like where I've taken this story. There's still more to come, but we're getting close to the end. Still a ways to go, and plenty of shocking turns I'm going to take, but we're almost there!!🥺🕺🏼***

Princess Helaena was many things. She was kind, soft spoken, and very polite. But she was odd to most around her, leaving her alone to hide with the dreams that haunted her every day.

But one dream never went away.

She saw a man of dark hair strolling alongside a swarm of silver children, splashing water towards a silver woman whose smile lit up the world around them.

She saw happiness. She saw love. She saw kindness.

She saw Jacerys.

Every day for 12 years until he was forced to leave King's Landing with his family. She remembered Jace being the one to tell her about her sudden betrothal to Aegon. She remembered begging him not to leave her and he had to tell her no, but he vowed to always protect her and to love her even if he couldn't marry her.

And he did.

The night of Helaena and Aegon's wedding two years later, Jacerys flew to King's Landing and snuck in to see her before the ceremony.

The first door he found was their new bed chambers...with her in it, dressed in an emerald gown her mother once wore to Rhaenyra's first wedding.

From that moment forward, Jacerys became his father, Ser Harwin Strong. He would always be Helaena's sworn protector.

When Aegon came to their bed chambers later that night after the ceremony, he passed out drunk on the floor and Helaena managed to get him onto the bed. She propped him up perfectly to look like they had consummated their marriage.

And who would question the already dirtied and bloodied sheets Aegon was lying in currently with his trousers around his knees?

And who would question it when she bore twins by the end of the year? Twins with silver hair and brown eyes like their grandmother, Queen Alicent? Right?

And who would dare question another drunken night he'd wake up in Helaena's bed years later? With another baby of the same build being brought into this world many, many months after?

Who would dare question the sweet, odd princess?

Who would dare question a boy who swore an oath to a girl he fell in love with?

No one.

Not even Rhaenyra knew. Jacerys was very careful each time he saw Helaena, and especially with their children. It wasn't often they could sneak away, but when they could they were the happiest two people in the world.

Jace loved how odd she was. He loved listening to her riddles, trying to puzzle them together each time. He'd tell her his theories, guessing until he'd see the blush that would grow on her face when he was right.

But he wouldn't say he knew. He'd simply stop guessing, waiting to hear another.

He'd tell her all about home and their family, but whenever he'd mention Daena, he'd notice Helaena would wince. After the second time of mentioning her name, he stopped altogether.

Helaena was the purest thing in the world to him. He couldn't harm her like so many others had. He was her protector, in more than beyond a sword.

And the night Jace went back into the war room after Daena left for Storm's End, Daemon proudly announced the death of Prince Jaehaerys Targaryen.