The Princess of Terrasen

Ch. 12

Aella couldn't help but laugh once she saw her mate. 

"I figured it out," she sang, waltzing up to him, wrapping her arms around him 

He glared at her but she ignored it

"We can destroy this shit-hole and the Valg with one, pretty arrow." She held out her hand, willing her fire to form an arrow. She smiled up at him but he only glared.

"What? Are you alright?" she asked, cupping his face as she examined him head-to-toe.

"You left." was all he said

"So?"

"You could've gotten hurt."

"In my own home?"

"You went to Terrasen?" he pulled back, mouth agape 

"Yes!" she laughed 

"Are you utterly insane?" he growled "Terrasen is not your home anymore, you're the General of a kingdom powerful enough to topple them like twigs. You're a threat to them"

Aella took a step away from him, making her face blank.

"I will never be a threat. Not to them."

"Do they know that? Did they greet you with open arms?"

"They greeted me just as I would expect them to." she growled

"Don't lie to me." he laughed humourlessly "let me guess. The Queen was sitting on her throne ready to slice your throat if you so much as breathed wrong, the King barely said a word, glared at you the entire time. Lady Ashryver was prowling somewhere around you, Fenrys was behind you and General Ashryver was snarling at you the entire time, right?"

"What does that-"

"It showed that they don't know you're Aiyra and that you had even stepped a toe out of line they would have killed you."

"I can take care of myself."

Sebastian snarled

"And what if Deanna moves her sights beyond the Khaganate? Decides she wants Terrasen?"

Aella curled her hands into fists

"I will make sure she doesn't. You've forgotten that I am her General, not you."

"Because that worked so well when you tried to warn Rosk didn't it?" he crossed his arms, as close to a direct challenge he had ever gotten.

Aella's blood chilled.

"I am done talking about this."

"No, we're not."

"Yes. We. Are." she hissed, turning and walking away

In a second, he was in front of her, snarling softly

"Why? Because you're scared you'll have to choose? Between your true family and your newfound one?"

"You all are not my family. You are all the members of my coven." she said, her voice deadly soft as she gritted her teeth hard enough that they hurt. He recoiled but grabbed her arm in a vice-like grip.

"Tell me, Aella, when you saw Aelin, did you think of her as your mother or a queen or somewhere in between? Hm? What did you see her as, World-Breaker?"

Aella yanked her arm out of his grip and bared her teeth in warning as she stormed away, head spinning. She could feel the clock ticking, each second a herald of the choice she would have to make. 

To turn her back on Terrasen and stay Aella Astern forever. Or to take her place as the heir of Terrasen, Aiyra Ashryver Whitethorn Galathynius.

She didn't want to think about it.