ᴛʜᴇ ᴅᴀʀᴋ ꜱɪꜱᴛᴇʀ - House of the Dragon

CHAPTER SIX

The bright sunlight woke me up.

At some point during the night, Lucerys had clearly had a nightmare, and turned and turned until half his body was on top of mine.

His dark curls tickled my chin with every movement, and it took me a lot of time to finally stand up, holding my breath as he muttered something I did not catch. The wind, coming in through the open doors of the balcony, sent a shiver down my spine, and all the gods old and new heard my curse as I looked for my robe, stretching my body and lazily rubbing my eyes with the back of my hand.

The wooden doors of my temporal quarters opened with a crack, and I had to blink a few times to focus the blurry spot that was Jacaerys. He was chewing on his bottom lips, his dark eyes shining with the same anxiety glow I had seen many times in our mother.

"I cannot find Luke."

He frowned his brows as a quiet chuckle escaped my lips, and walked to stand so close to me I had to lift my chin. I winked at him before bringing my gaze to the bed, softly smiling as Luke moved again, his dark hair standing out among the white blankets, and his arms hugging the pillow with the same strength he had hugged me through the night.

My older brother couldn't hide the sigh of relief as he got sight of him.

The morn supper was already served in the little table before the fireplace, and I had to contain another curse as I caught sight of the once warmth flames of the fire no longer alive.

Jace let me dragged him, forcing him to sit down on the couch, and made himself comfortable as I left one of my legs atop his. There was a rush of familiarity, in the feeling of his hand caressing the exposed skin of my thigh.

"He is worried about today." I said, cleaning a few crumbs of the chocolate biscuit I had devoured within seconds from my chin.

Jace nodded, briefly looking at our younger brother somehow still asleep, and squeezed my thigh in some sort of comfort that didn't have any succeed. I didn't know if he was trying to comfort me, or himself. But either way it did not work.

"You are worried too."

His brown eyes, so bright with their usual glow, flew to my own violet ones. He was surprised I had noticed it. But how could I not? His bottom lip was mistreated between his fierce teeth, and his brows were so frowned they almost looked as one.

It was not a secret Jacaerys was always worried about the rest of his siblings. As the eldest one, he thought he needed to protect and defend us all. Even when I was about to turn eight-and-ten and was trained to be more deadly than himself. But no one was ever able to change his mind in the matter, not even watching as I trained day and night with our stepfather until the bright red of my blood stained my skin and clothes did it. And now, Lucerys' claim to Driftmark had him, and our mother, at his limit.

My poor brother couldn't even eat at peace, always bringing his gaze to the younger as if he expected him to disappear before him. 

"It is not him I am worried about, I am afraid." He said, briefly smiling as I cocked my head to a side. "What is going to happen to you, my sweet sister, once we both take our positions as rulers of the Seven Kingdoms and Driftmark?"

"My dear brother, I will be right by your side, as I always have been."

That seemed to relax him enough to lean his back on the end of the couch, closing his eyes, and losing himself in whatever thoughts the heir to the Iron Throne could have.

Lucerys was the replica of Ser Harwin, but Jace was the livid image of our mother. If only Rhaenyra was a man, and had brown eyes and hair.

He had broad shoulders, and the same cheeky smile as our future queen. Though Jace had no dimple, and his lips were full there where our mother's were uneven as Luke's. He needed not training, for his genes to be as strong as our blood, and we all knew rather sooner than later he was to be as muscular as our late father.