After the Empire (Complete)

5 -Rowan

Hey guys,

before we get started, just wanted to mention that I have read Tower of Dawn, and I'm not sure what to do about it. I have ideas for this story that could incorporate ToD spoilers, or I could avoid them. Let me know in the comments if you think I should have spoilers or not.

So yeah, on to the story.

I can't breath.

The whole world has narrowed to three things. Me, Gavriel, and the sound of my heartbeat in my ears. It's pounding out a rhythm quite unlike its usual steady beat.

"What did you just say?"

My voice is barely above a whisper. I don't want to move, don't want to do anything that might shatter this illusion, might take me back to reality.

Gavriel's face is white, his breathing heavy, but there is a smile on his lips.

A hopeful smile.

"I found her."

The words rattle around my head. He found her. He knows where she is.

"Where?"

The word sounds fragile, trembling, even to my own ears.

"About three miles west. There's a guard station on the border, so small I had forgotten it even existed. I picked up her scent when I got close, and followed it in. There's soldiers, of course there are, but I don't think Maeve is there, I didn't get any sense of her being near."

That gives me pause. "Why wouldn't she be there? You know important Aelin and the Wyrdstones are to her. Why would she leave her?"

It doesn't seem Maeve's style to capture somebody as important as Aelin, then leave her in an isolated encampment. It doesn't make sense.

Lorcan, his voice flat and quiet, says "Perhaps she has no more use for her."

I tense, nearly snarling at the implication in his statement. At the idea that Aelin, my Aelin, would ever break, would ever give Maeve what she desires.

Lorcan, seeing the expression on my face, raises his hands in a placating gesture. "You asked a question, I have an answer. Don't treat it as though it weren't a possibility. Or have you forgotten what Cairn can do?"

The thought of it, the image of Aelin in that dream, bleeding and burning, flashes before my eyes, but I force it down. She is so close. I am so close. I can save her. I can prevent it. I can get her back.

"Shut up with that bullshit Lorcan." Gavriel's voice, so hopeful a moment before, now has an edge. As though he too is remembering what it is that we face. Who it is that we face.

Lorcan, wisely, keeps his mouth shut. As though he knows that he doesn't have to say anything else. Knows that he's already gotten into our heads.

I take a deep breath. Lorcan is right. We can't discount the possibility that Aelin, strong as she is, might have made a mistake. That Maeve and Cairn might have done something so horrid to her, that our secrets fell from her lips, or were pulled from her mind.

But, as I turn that idea around in my mind, I realise something.

I don't care.

I don't care if she handed them me and Terrasen on a platter. I just don't care.

She is Aelin.

I turn to Gavriel. "Show me where".

Hey all!

I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

And also, there will be another posted right away, just 'cause I feel like it. So you don't have to wait too long for the next part!

Don't forget to vote and comment below!