TO LOVE A KING || Maegor II Targaryen [SLOW UPDATES]

015▪️ AGAINST ALL ODDS

The drawing room of Brightwater Tower crackled with tension, the fire in the hearth flickering wildly as if echoing the argument brewing within. Lace curtains fluttered in the breeze from an open window, doing little to cool the heat in the room.

The door creaks open into the antechamber.
Alicent barely takes two steps into the room with Naiomi trailing behind her, before a sharp crack echoes in the air.

Alicent's head jerks to the side, her cheek blazing red. The sting burns through her composure.

Olivia gasps aloud, her hand flying to her lips. “By the Seven—!” she whispered, frozen in shock.

Lady Lynesse Hightower stood tall in her velvet gown, shoulders trembling with rage. “You insolent girl!” she fists, clenching.

Alicent stumbles slightly, her palm pressed against the heat swelling on her cheek. Her green eyes, wide with shock, lift to meet her aunt's burning glare.

“Five suitors,” Lynesse snarled. “Five! Driven away like hounds with their tails tucked! Each handpicked by your uncle and I, with your father’s blessing.”

The silence that followed wasn’t quiet, it was tense, electric, like the breath before a storm.

Alicent’s lips parted, but no words came. Her gaze sharpened, narrowing with defiance.

“Why can’t you be more like your sister, Charlotte?” Lynesse snapped, pacing the marble floor like a lioness in a cage. “Obedient. Polished. Dutiful. That’s why Otto took her to King’s Landing, because she’s worthy. And you? Left behind to rot in our care, and still you act like a wildling girl from the Dornish Marches!”

Alicent said nothing.

Naomi stepped forward, hands raised in appeal. “Aunt, please. It hasn’t come to this. Alicent had her reasons...”

“Silence!” Lynesse cut her off with venom. “Stop coddling your sister, Naomi. Your loyalty to her has made you blind!”

Naomi’s mouth snapped shut. Her eyes, however, did not retreat, they glistened with fury.

Lynesse turned back to Alicent, lips curling. “Do you even know what Lord Mace Tyrell said? Do you? The marriage has been suspended indefinitely! You’ve humiliated us! Tarnished our name, like some milkmaid scandal.”

“I haven’t done anything wrong,” Alicent replied at last, voice steady despite the tremor. “I do not wish to be sold off like a broodmare in heat.”

The silence that followed was deafening.

Lynesse scoffed, a cold, humorless sound. “You think because you read poetry? Sketch landscapes? Bake tarts and ride like a hedge knight, that you are wise? That you’re special?”

Still, Alicent did not flinch. She stood her ground.

“When Olivia feels discontented, she weeps quietly,” Lynesse turned to her youngest daughter. “And Naomi? She does not embarrass me in public, nor in court!”