A Dark Heart - Rhysand's Sister Fanfic AU

S I X

decisions

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❝The most dangerous woman of all 

is the one who refuses 

to rely on your sword to save her 

because she carries her own.❞

🌌

+eralyn

The walk toward Aelin's office was surprisingly fast. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. On one side, I didn't have much time to think about the millions of things on my mind, but at the same time, I didn't have much time to prepare for Aelin and her possible questions either.

After the war, much of the castle had to be refurbished as Aelin wanted it clean from bottom to top before she resided in it. In a way, I understood. After all, whatever was left of the castle had already been through so much bloodshed and loss. As Aelin does not do anything halfway, the new and improved castle of Terrasen was truly a sight to behold. The gilded halls especially were full of heirlooms that had been saved as evidence that all was not lost. Many earth greens and flashing ambers decorated the majority of the castle. The throne room and dining rooms held precious gems that were likely worth more than me. Needless to say, only after all of this was finished did an official coronation for Aelin happen.

Darrow was not so eager to wait.

The two Fae males who stood outside Aelin's door and guarded her office gripped the golden handles of the large redwood doors which revealed the entire court, including Lorcan and Vaughan, which meant Fenrys somehow winnowed them back despite having great difficulty doing so before. I sighed exasperatedly. Here we go.

Before the guards closed the door, I nodded to them, letting them know a private conversation was being held behind these doors and no one, even them, needed to hear it. They nodded back, showing they understood, and I closed my eyes as the door shut behind me, my head still turned to the side as if they were still there.

The room was dead silent as I kept my eyes closed and faced away from them. They were waiting for me to face this new chance because all of them knew better than to force me to answer, even Aelin.

When I finally faced them, my eyes open and staring dead into Aelin's, Lorcan spoke first in his usual snarl. Obviously, he was pissed he wasn't informed. He was my self-proclaimed closest friend after all if he could ever be considered such to anyone. "Mind explaining why you didn't let us know your cadre would be giving our world a visit?"

"Shut up," I snapped back, looking at Lorcan now with a scowl scrawled on my face, "Only until today did two of them even know I was alive."

Lysandra hissed, the shifter now in her late sixties but still just as beautiful and beastly, and said, "I suppose they didn't take it well?"

"You haven't seen the half of it," I sighed out as I tried to carelessly waltz over to the couches on the far side of Aelin's office. I plopped down on the plush earth green sofas and nearly felt my knees sighing out in relief. They were beginning to wobble due to the sheer emotional pressure on my mental and physical state.

After I did, everyone else did as well, finding seats all throughout the office―as the office itself was grand enough for everyone to do so. They all knew this was going to be a very deep and perhaps long conversation.

"Where are they now?" Rowan asked roughly, voice coated with some emotion I didn't care to decipher at the moment.

"They're at the townhouse on that cliff overlooking the city I had bought a while back. All of them will not be a threat. The males, my brothers and the ones who didn't know I was alive, will behave. Partly because they're in shock and in a foreign world, but also because the tiny one, Amren, who most likely purposefully brought them here, scares the shit out of them. At least she used to based on what I had last heard." I furrowed my brows as I focused on a spot on the ground. It felt weird to say that about the birth land. Used to.