107 Stories of Rowaelin

8. Two Fingers

     And the whip came down again and Aelin screamed and Rowan's heart turned to ash and blood. He would have moved, should have moved, but Maeve held the sword to her throat. A tiny trickle of blood stained the earth. And the whip stopped and Aelin bled. And Maeve looked at Rowan and gave him a smile full of cruelty and hate. And Rowan moved liked the wind, but Maeve was as fast as the light. 

     Maeve moved two fingers. That was all it took. And Rowan saw the blood flow like a river from Aelin's neck. She had sworn he would be the only one she would allow there. And he had failed her and her eyes opened one last time as she choked on her own blood and she saw him and her lips moved and they formed on word. Rowan.

Aedion

     He stood with Lysandra and was frozen. He did not mov, he did not strike. He almost died as her blood fell in waterfalls, the red spray staining the earth. He felt Lysandra give a little gasp next to him. And then Rowan screamed Aelin's name. He'd fallen at Maeve's feet as she looked on coldly. Aedion watched as Rowan cradled Aelin's face and screamed her name, over, and over, and over. And slowly the cold crept over him, and in the cold-calm he saw Maeve lift the sword once more, over Rowan. And this time it was he who moved, he who stepped forward as the world slowed down and he who hurled his sword into Maeve's chest. And Maeve choked and her eyes widened and she crumpled, her gown falling around her like petals and there was more blood staining the earth.

Rowan

     And the universe slowed down and all he saw was Aelin crumpling to the ground and Aelin's blood on the earth and Aelin's lips forming his name. Again and again and again. And he remembered Maeve, crumpling to the ground beside Aelin, Aedion's sword in her chest, their blood merging. And he remembered the pain and how he screamed Aelin's name over and over. He remembered, -- he thought it was Lorcan-- knocking him out, bringing the blessed darkness. 

     And when he woke, he knew where he was, in Torre Cesme, in a white room where a healer named Yrene brought him a bowl of soup which he let slide out of his hands. When she came back she made him eat another. And then there were the days of soothing voices which he did not listen to and he nodded and shook his head and finally he was allowed to go outside where he would sit and stare under a healer's watchful gaze. They did not give him any weapons. He knew they did not mean to be cruel, they just did not understand. All he ever really saw were Maeve's two fingers moving and Aelin trying to say his name, and all he ever really heard was himself screaming her name.

    Then after days, weeks, months, he did not know, of nodding and shaking his head and eating the food they brought him the doctors decided he could go out to the beach by himself. He heard them wondering why he did not speak and he did not care.  The day they let him out he sat on the beach until they went away. Then he stood up and walked into the water. And as the cold welcomed him and he breathed it in welcomingly, and the world went dark.