The Wolf and The Lion || Jaime Lannister

Forty

Rayna

We run through the icy rivers and the snow. Never stopping. Never daring to stop as we hear his dogs chasing us.
"Hide", Theon says.
"Not without you", I say grabbing his arm tightly but he pushes me off.
"Now", he orders "Please"
I run and hide nearby just before the Bolton men come in on horseback with the mutts.
"Where is Lady Bolton?" One of the men asks and disgust consumes me at being called Lady Bolton. At being his.
"I left her to die in the woods", Theon says without missing a beat.
"We'll see about that"
When the dogs get whiff of my scent I know that's it. The mutt growls in my face as it finds me but I do not flinch. A wolf does not cower to a dog. I unsheathe my dagger and bury it in the mutts head without hesitation and guards violently grab me and drag me out into the open.
"I can't wait to see what part of you Ramsay takes this time", a guard laughs at Theon.
"And what Ramsay will let us do to you", a guard says grabbing me by the throat but before he can assault me I hear a sharp gasp "It's a fucking woman"
The man is cut down in front of me and I see her. Brienne.
Another guard goes to grab me as the others fight Brienne, I will not have another Bolton man touch me. I rip my dagger from the dead mutts head and fight along side Brienne. Slashing and stabbing until there are no more, becoming truly as savage as a wolf.
"Lady Rayna", Brienne gapes as she looks at me, beaten and bruised.
"Brienne", I breathe, my lungs feeling frozen from the cold, from walking through that damn river. Theon was tall enough so he got through easily but I was far too deep in that water.
"What did they do to you", she asks as I stand there trembling. That's when I remember that I might have the wolfsblood but I am not a wolf. He wouldn't have been able to harm a wolf as he harmed me.
I just shake my head and let the tears fall, I look to Theon who risked everything to save me and wrap my arms around him. He holds me tightly as we cling to each other as our tears freeze on our cheeks.
"Who's this?" Brienne asks, confused by my affection to him.
I pull away and look up at him he swallows hard and says "Theon Greyjoy, I was her fathers ward"
Theon Greyjoy. Not reek.
He is Theon Greyjoy.
"My brother", I add proudly and tears fall from his cheeks. I grasp his face in my hands and smile tearfully "We made it"
Brienne looks at the scene we've left behind.
"We need to keep moving", she says and we mount the horses and ride until nightfall, until it's safe enough away to make camp for the night.

I sit by Theons side by the fire and I look at Brienne who I haven't said much to. She saved my life.
"Brienne I want to apologise, for treating you how I did when we were with the Bolton's", I say, not remembering if I did the day after the Red Wedding. I suspect not considering how fucked up I was. How I treated her over Jaime has nagged at me for some time now.
"Thank you Lady Rayna", she says genuinely.
"You saved my life, without you I'd be dead or worse"
"What did Ramsay do to you?" she asks again.
I have never been the type to suffer silently, to hide the pain that someone has caused me. Yet I can't bring to words to my tongue.
My silence is enough of an answer for Brienne.
"He will suffer", she promises me and with her by my side I am sure of it.
"Where is Sansa?" I ask, she's not with them.
"With your uncle the Blackfish in Riverrun"
I nod slightly glad that he somehow survived the Red Wedding "Is she alright, we need to go south and get her"
"She is safe, you aren't", she reminds me "Are you sure that you will be safe at the wall"
"Jon is the Lord Commander and my brother, he will protect me", I say but I'm not sure anyone can truly protect anyone anymore.
"When I last spoke to Ser Jaime he sent me to find Arya. He also said he was going to speak to his Father so you could marry him, he loved you more than anyone", she says at a loss for an explanation of how I ended up here "What happened?"
Theon looks at me somewhat surprised but since he was there my wedding night with Ramsay he heard it all.
"Littlefinger enabled me to send letters to Jaime and I received one back, it was definitely Jaimes but the next one said that his father had denied our marriage and that he was done waiting, I was too heartbroken to question it", I tell her "I thought Cersei had manipulated Jaime but it was Littlefinger that manipulated me, he forged that letter and I only realised before the wedding, it was too late then"
"He loves you, Ser Jaime would do anything for you", she reminds me "Write to him when you get to the wall"
"It's been so long since I sent that letter Brienne, he's probably gone back to Cersei"
"Who told you that?" she asks "Littlefinger?"
I scoff a bit at myself "He did but Jaime is still in the Kingsguard last I heard"
"He is", she confirms and that doesn't help anything.
"I don't know what his Tywin agreed or didn't agree to, but for Littlefinger to forge a new letter there must have been something Jaime said that would get me to go to him"
She squints her eyes at me trying to figure something out "You don't know do you?"
"Know what?"
"Tywin Lannister is dead, Tyrion killed him when he escaped the caption before his execution"
My hand covers my mouth as I process this. Tywin is dead, that means Jaime answers to no one, if Jaime were to leave the Kingsguard he would be the Lord of House Lannister, Warden of the West. He wouldn't need his Fathers approval and Tommen is King. He is just a boy and if Jaime asked for a pardon there is a good chance I could get it. But Tyrion. By the Gods he killed his Father. Jaime must be beside himself. If Tyrion escaped, Jaime likely had something to do with it.
"Myrcella Baratheon, I heard in an inn a few days ago she was poisoned in the way back from Dorne"
"By the Gods", I whisper. Myrcella was the best of his children. Now she's gone and he would have been with her as it happened.
He's lost his son, his daughter, his father and his brother in a year.
"He's lost so much", I say quietly but then I remember the witches prophecy. He would return to me when the snake killed the stag. I thought they meant Stannis but Myrcella is still a Baratheon by name.
"He has", Brienne says "You are the only one who can come back to him"
A bitter memory comes to me and I swallow hard "Ramsay said he would make sure Jaime knew what he was doing to me, they told me Jaime was in Dorne so I knew he couldn't come save me, Jaime must be in Kings Landing by now if news of Myrcella's death has spread"
"If he knew, he would have shown up at the gates with an army", Brienne assures me and I laugh a little as I know it's true.
"The things he would do for love"
We all fall silent as I press the ring on my finger against my lips. There is still hope.
"What will you do?" she asks.
"Go to the wall, send a raven to Jaime and pray he gets it"
"Rayna", Theon says finally speaking up "Can I take one of the horses"
"Where will you go?" I ask
"Home", he says and I realise he doesn't mean Winterfell, he means the Iron Islands.
"No", I say "I can't lose you"
"You'll never lose me", he promises taking my hand in his "I'm sorry for everything I've done"
"You've paid for your sins a thousand times over", I say embracing him tightly.
"I was your brother and I betrayed you, I betrayed my only real family"
Tears blur my vision as I tell him "You are still my family Theon"
"Jon would kill me if he saw me", he says and I know that Jon would. He loved Bran and Rickon dearly.
"So you'll return to the Iron Islands?"
He nods and I reach forward and press a kiss to his forehead "I pray that you can heal from Ramsay has done to you, your body may not but I know that you can, that your mind can heal"
He holds me tightly as he says "And so can yours"
As much as I want him to come with me I know he needs to get out of the North. I know that he needs to go somewhere safe just as I do.
"Thank you for everything, you are a good man Theon"