She awoke to rays of sunlight streaming through her window, blinding her. A crack in the black silk curtain revealed that it was late afternoon. Aelin paused and took a second to contemplate the fact that those curtains had not been there that night. Someone must have been in here whilst she was sleeping. A strange sense of violation crept over her, they would have seen her sleeping on the floor. What would they think of her? That she was a coward, who couldn't stand up to her own demons.
She sighed and detangled herself from the blankets, she didn't care what they thought of her. It wasn't her job to make others happy. She couldn't even make herself happy at the moment. She drew back the curtains further, using them to lift her into a standing position and turned to face the desk. The scrap of paper with maeve's hand writing on was sprawled on top of it. Shit. She was supposed to be up at 7! It looked about 2pm. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. What was Maeve going to do? She hurried to the door and grabbed the handle, still locked. She sighed and fell back on the bed. She would just have to wait for the outcome. The anticipation was almost too much to bear but she wouldn't crack.
*
Lorcan knew where he was, knew what Maeve was doing. Aelin was probably down the hall, in the room that Rowan used to occupy. This was her mind games, torturing the mind and the soul. He had tried everything to get to her but it was no use, Maeve had already blocked against everything he had.
He had woken up here yesterday and and almost trashed his old room. It felt as if his heart was bleeding. Where was Elide? Where was Aelin? Where was Rowan? And where was he? The latter didn't take long to figure out, one glance around the room told him enough. He was in his old room in Dorenelle, every detail perfectly preserved as if it was a painting from his old life. Lorcan contemplated where his queen could be, and the only logical answer, well logical in Maeve’s mind, was the empty room down the corridor where Rowan had lived for several hundred years. He suddenly wished that he had no empathy, that would be the only thing that would drive away this crushing feeling that drowned him.
*
Connall cursed, his throbbing head giving a sharp slice of pain as he hurried through the hall. His stupid brother and their stupid friends. They were traitors to Maeve, traitors to him. Why would they choose that fire breathing bitch face with nothing to her name over Maeve, queen of darkness, ruler of Dorenelle and the most powerful fae in the world. They should burn in the hells of wyrd for their crimes. He sighed, cursing himself for losing concentration, the cadre was dangerously lacking and he had been tasked with retrieving the queen from Rowans chambers. He would do his queen proud, even if he had to watch the whole world burn to do so.
The door easily swing open when he turned the handle, not bothering to knock. He was met with the sight of a young girl. Her blonde locks cascading down her pale face, mouth slightly ajar as her pink lips rested in a smile. She looked like a burrito, wrapped in the blanket like that, perfectly peaceful in a chaotic world. But the her eyes opened.
They were like fire and ash, a sapphire or molten rage. The smile was immediately gone, replaced with an animalistic snarl as she stood; letting the blankets fall to the ground.
He hadn't even noticed that she'd been sleeping on the ground.
She looked like a perfect mess, her ripped clothes accentuating her malnourished figure. She was beautifully deadly, a lethal poison in a glass of red wine; he liked that.
"Fenrys?" She asked, her gaze softening.
Connall snarled at her
"Fenrys? You mean my motherfucking traitor or a brother?"
He laughed and stepped towards Aelin.
"I will never be like Fenrys, he's a coward!"
The cold look immediately returned to her face, bringing along with it a spike of fear. He could see the pain in her eyes as she looked at him, probably remembering his dim-witted brother, she was pathetic.
"W-why are you here?" She asked, stepping back and almost falling over the pile of blankets and pillows.
"You were late, and she told you there would be consequences, so I'm here to take you to my queen."
"I'm here to take you to Maeve."
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Realm Of Ashes (Throne of Glass #7)
FanfictionA cold stone settled on her already dying heart. She was going to die here and no one would save her, no one would come offering freedom, just as Chaol and Dorian had, no one would tell her to shut up when she made one of her witty comments, just li...
