After the Empire (Complete)

6 - Rowan

I can smell her. It's faint, muffled more than it should be this close, but I can smell her. That alone is almost enough to make me rip through the guards by the door and run inside, and consequences be damned.

But this may be our only shot. We have to do this right.

Gavriel is to my left, Lorcan to my right. Both of them have set their keen eyes on the guard station, analyzing the battlefield; counting rotations, picking easy marks, watching for weak spots.

I can see what Gavriel meant. There aren't enough soldiers here to make up a royal guards. To be honest, there's barely more soldiers than I would expect at any border guard post. Far, far less than I would have thought for Maeve to leave guarding a prisoner.

Something in my gut tightens. There's too many missing pieces. Too many things that don't make sense. There's something off about this entire thing.

But it's Aelin. I don't care if we're walking into the biggest trap on the face of the planet. It's Aelin.

I shift my gaze between Gavriel and Lorcan, getting both of their attention. I flick my eyebrows up, and tilt my head. Gavriel dips his chin slightly, Lorcan merely blinks, slowly.

After centuries of fighting side by side, that's all the communication we need.

We rush the door, blades flashing like quicksilver. The two males standing guard fall instantly, throats slit before they even thought to sound the alarm. Two more guards on the wall above us shout and fumble for their crossbows. I throw my hand up, a hard wall of air slamming them over the wall and onto the ground before us. Gavriel's blades whip the air again, and it's done.

I go to the guards fallen before the door and search their clothes, finding the key tied to the first man's belt. A moment more and the door is swinging open, taking me into the keep.

Closer to that tortuous scent.

I follow it, vaguely aware of Lorcan and Gavriel following me, their footsteps muffled in the narrow halls.

I work my way through the keep, past closed wooden doors and tight, winding hallways. Always following that scent, the one clinging to the air.

I encounter more guards as I go. Many more. But still, not as many as there should be.I run them through, the fights short and easy. No one here is a seasoned warrior.

Finally, finally, I reach a door at the end of a long corridor. Aelin's scent is now no longer clinging to the air, it is the air. It is all there is. And yet it is still somehow muffled.

I put that out of my mind at throw myself against the solid wood of the door. Behind it, I can hear something. Something that sounds almost like screaming.

I push harder, throwing my magic, my weight, my everything against the barrier before me. The one keeping me from her.

My mate, my queen, my Aelin.

And the door gives way.

I find myself in a large, empty, stone room. Empty, that is, except for one thing.

A box.

A large,

Iron,

Box.

And from it, a voice.

I nearly cry at the sound, at the voice, thin from screaming, that whispers

"Rowan?"

I threw myself down beside the box. "Yes. Aelin. Yes."

I scramble at the box, desperately looking for some way inside. Some way to get to the girl I can now hear crying within.

A cough from the doorway. My head flies up, and I find myself looking at Lorcan. Who is holding a large, iron key.

"Think this will help?"

I don't even respond, I just hold up my hand. Lorcan tosses the key, and I feel it draining my magic the moment it hits my palm. But I don't care. I don't need magic for this.

I fumble with the lock, my hands shaking in a way that they haven't for centuries.

Then the lock click.

Then the door falls open.

Then I see her.

The inside of the box is clean, in such contrast to the girl it holds.

She's dirty, bloody, bruised. Her long, beautiful hair is in tangled knots, grime matted all the way through. Her lip is split and bleeding sluggishly, as are several other wounds. The thin dress she's wearing is torn and stained. But she's alive. She's alive.

I can't move. Can't make myself move.

Then she turns her head up, and I see her eyes.

Her huge, beautiful turquoise eyes.

In one move I have her in my arms, careful of her injuries, but holding her to me. Her heart beating in time with mine.

I bury my face in that filthy hair, and I hear her words in my ear, just my name over and over again.

"Rowan, Rowan, Rowan"

I take a deep, shaking breath,

and I freeze.

Because there's still something wrong.

There's something wrong with her scent, it's still muffled, as if from a distance.

There's something wrong with the way she holds me, the angles, the touch, the everything.

There's something wrong with this place. Too few guards, and far too remote.

There's something wrong with this room, too pristine, to neat to have been used for torture.

There's something wrong with this box, too clean to have been inhabited for a long time with no toilet.

There's something wrong with the words she whispered in my ear. The inflection, the tone, the way they rolled off her tongue.

I pull away, and stare into her face, her beautiful face. Stare into the teary smile that's a fraction too wide, into the beautiful eyes that are a fraction too bright.

Maybe I'm imagining it. Maybe it's just stupid paranoia.

But I can't help it. I have to check. I have to make sure.

I look at her, at the face I love, now beginning to crease with concern.

"I have to be sure this isn't a trick Aelin."

I barely murmur the words.

"So, you have three words to convince me. Convince me that you are Aelin Ashryver Galathynius."

Her eyebrows pull together in confusion. She opens her mouth as though to question, then closes it again. Then she gives me a small smile. I almost stop her. Because I know then. Know for sure. I know that whatever words are about to come out of her mouth, they won't be the right ones.

"I love you"

I can feel myself shaking, my heart shattering itself to pieces around me.

She's still smiling at me, eyes shimmering,

when I plunge the dagger through her heart.

And she melts before my eyes, becoming nothing more than gray sludge.

Hey all. 

Please don't hate me. 

Please.

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