Set Fire to my Atmosphere

Chapter 25

Earlier

The cold air felt like a wrath, whose? Rowan didn't know.

"Welcome back, Your Majesty," The guard, Alina, said as Rowan and his friends walked in the gates of the castle.

Rowan nodded and walked ahead.

"Let's break into the Galathynius wine cellar!" Aedion said from behind them, utterly drunk.

Lysandra just chuckled, leaning on Elide's shoulder. Elide was the only one besides Rowan who remained sober.

Rowan didn't hear Aedion though, he was busy wondering how he got by tonight without Aelin.

They entered the foyer and Alina closed the gates, readying for the change of guard.

"Perhaps we should send for Aelin?" Rowan said.

"Isn't she in a meeting though?" Dorian said clutching his mug of beer in his right hand, draping his right one over Manon.

"I'll ask someone to see where she is," and so he did. He beckoned a lady holding a tray of sweets. "May you go see if the Queen would like to join us?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Rowan would go himself, but he decided to stay and make sure Aelin's family heirlooms weren't destroyed by the drunks.

"Where did you get that sword from?" Gavriel asked.

Ansel smirked, "My fathers." Gavriel opened his mouth to respond-

Just then a high pitched scream sounded off the walls.

Everyone went quiet. Rowan flashed his teeth, hand on his knife.

But before he could run upstairs, the servant peered over the railing and got out two words before she ran back, "The...Queen..."

Rowan sprinted up the stairs, his friends behind him, sobering up the second the scream hit their ears.

He rounded the corner to the room he shared with her.

And what he found brought him to his knees, right in the doorway. His friends crowded around him.

Elide brought a hand to her mouth as the tears started rolling down her face.

"I'll go search the castle for a threat," Aedion gritted out, sheathing his sword.

"I'll help," Lorcan said. And they both ran separate ways to search the castle.

Breathing suddenly felt like a chore to him.

"I can help her," Yrene said, Chaol found a chair at that.

Rowan nodded and crawled towards her. Not minding the pool of blood around her.

He took her head in his lap as he whispered, "You're going to be okay."

Yrene laid her hands on the Queen's stomach.

Rowan's tattooed hand stroked through Aelin's hair.

Yrene's breathing hitched as she realized something. "It's a head laceration, I'll have to get my kit to staunch the bleeding before I can stitch it," she said.

"I can go get it," Dorian said.

"It's in my dresser, left drawer," she said looking at Manon, not Dorian.

"What happened?" Elide cried out.

"A panic attack, her heart rate spiked about twenty minutes ago," Yrene muttered.

Twenty minutes, Rowan thought. Twenty minutes.

Fenrys' eyes darkened, no doubt reliving what may have gone through Aelin's mind as he had been there, not able to save her.

He brought a hand to Rowan's shoulders.

Rowan clenched his teeth.

You're going to be okay, he sent down the mating bond.

He stood up just to kneel down again next to her and pick her up bridal style.

Lysandra hurriedly moved the folders and pens off the bed as Rowan gently put Aelin down on the silk sheets.

"Your Majesty, may I tell you something in private?" Yrene asked.

The King nodded, not taking his eyes off of the sleeping Queen.

Dorian then arrived with the box that the healer required.

Aelin was stitched up in two minutes by the efficiency of the Torre Cesme healer.

"No threat," Lorcan stated, Aedion right next to him.

"Yeah, it was a panic attack," Rowan replied.

Aedion's eyes flickered at that.

"May I request a moment with Yrene? And Chaol," Rowan asked. For Chaol was completely disabled waist down now.

Had Aelin required that much healing that Chaol can't even stand? He thought to himself.

Chaol nodded as everyone left the room, almost as shaken up by what happened as Rowan was.

"What?" Rowan asked the healer. Chaol equally as confused.

Yrene opened her mouth but closed it. Pursing her lips she looked at both her husband and Rowan.

Rowan lifted an eyebrow, still stroking Aelin's bloodied blonde hair, mindful of the stitch on her hairline.

"Rowan," she said, he sat up straight at the mention of his name not "Your Majesty".

The corners of her mouth lifted up the slightest.

"Are you aware that in 8 months, you are to be a father?"