A Court in Flames

Chapter 7

Aelin's POV

The baby. Coming now. Here. With him. No. I said I would escape before this happened. But I suppose it's suiting that my baby is coming on Beltane.

We were in the last moments of the birth and I already knew what I would call the baby if she was a girl I would call her Elentiya, the name I had been called once because she would be a fighter I already knew that.

And her spirit would never be broken. The healer who was beside me making sure we both survived knew who I was. And I knew he would take her memory of this. She wouldn't remember coming here or leaving.

I felt a surge of my power at the same time I heard he screams. My child, born at midday on Beltane.

"Here we are. A beautiful baby girl or female considering that she's fae."

"Elentiya." My perfect child. I could already feel the immense power that was curled beneath her skin. Strength and force. "I'm your mother. Aelin. And you are Elentiya Ashryver Whitethorn Galathynius. You, a spirit that cannot be broken. And I love you. So much. I always will, I promise." 

I knew I had to escape now but I could only focus on Elentiya.

She was suckling when the man came in. He checked the chains and left again.

Escape. While he thinks you're trapped save her. 

So I sat up. "Do you have something sharp?" I asked the healer. She furrowed her brow but hand me her pen. I frowned at it before using it to cut my hand.

She started to rise before I cut my shirt and used the blood to write a message on the strip I had torn off before wrapping it around her arm. "Just in case," I told Elentiya. 

Then I realized that the cut was starting to close so I used the pen again to make it bigger.

"Can you distract him? Please." She seemed to realize that I was planning something because she nodded and left the room.

I worked quickly. Not knowing how long I had to escape.

I drew the wyrdmarks for a portal. I didn't care where so long as it was far from here. I was finishing the last mark. The destination. Mountains with stars for Terrasen. It started to form when the door flew open.

The man saw what I was doing and as the portal finished forming he grabbed me. No. Not me. Elentiya. "No!" But I was too weak and the portal sucked me in and closed. So many things happened in those two seconds.

Elentiya, gone. Trapped with him. The mating bond that kept me tethered to Rowan snapped. And I realized I had messed up one of the symbols. No. I was no longer in my world. I was in a completely different one.

"No! Elentiya! My baby! My dearest one!" I banged on the wall that I had come through. "Rutting portal! Come back!"

I was so focused on getting Elentiya back that I didn't even realize that someone had entered my head and brought about unconsciousness.

Rowan's POV

I was soaring over Rifthold when I felt pain. Intense pain, not mine. But Aelin's and as I steered towards the direction the bond had tugged me in I felt the bond suddenly working again. She'd escaped. I was so shocked that I didn't even realize that Aelin had practically been shouting down the bond. And then I felt it fray and snap entirely.

No! I was too late. She's gone.

I let myself plummet to the ground, not even trying to break my fall. As the ground came closer and closer I realized death didn't scare me so long as I could be with her.

Aelin wouldn't want this. I didn't think I could face her if I left her kingdom like this. She'd want me to take care of her kingdom like I should've done in the first place.

I started to head towards Terrasen when another hawk joined me. I sent a gust of wind towards it, but instead of blowing it off course, my wind blew around a shield.

I blinked my eyes in surprise and landed as I shifted.

The other hawk also shifted in front of me, revealing Dorian. "Rowan? What are you doing here?"

"Heading back to Orynth," I stated flatly. I could hardly contain my guilt and grief. I'd lost my mate.

"Where's Aelin?" I looked into his eyes before averting my gaze. My guilt building up. "Rowan... Tell me she's alright." I looked in the direction I had felt the mating bond pull me in.

"I was too late." And I had been. It was my fault that she was... gone.

"She can't be. She's Aelin. She's-" I looked at him and saw the devastation written on his face. An exact replica of how I felt. Devastated. No, my grief didn't even fit a single word. 

"We were supposed to have a thousand years. Now, all can do is look after her kingdom," I told him while looking North towards the mountains I call home. But, it was never the place that I called home. It was wherever she was. That was my home. With her.

Fenrys's POV

I felt something inside of me go taut and then snap.

The blood oath. It had snapped once. When I had to save Aelin from Maeve. But that time it had been my choice and then Aelin had saved my life then after I had saved hers.

If I hadn't been sitting down I surely would've fallen to my knees. My Queen, dead.

I shared a glance with Aedion and Lorcan. Both had a blood connection to her.

Lysandra and Elide were looking at Aedion as a single tear made its way down his face. I felt tears running down my face too. The only other time I remembered that happening was when Connall had been killed by Maeve.

Even Lorcan looked somewhat devastated. I hadn't thought he had really cared about Aelin.

"Lorcan? What is it?" Elide asked him while brushing a hand against his cheek. Lorcan just looked towards Aedion and I realized it should be Aedion who told them. He was her cousin after all.

Aedion looked up from his hands, "She's dead."

"No. No. You're wrong. Or you're talking about someone else." Lysandra stuttered as her eyes became glassy with tears.

"Aelin's dead. The blood oath snapped," Aedion told them as his voice broke and he buried his head in his hands again.

"Lorcan?" Elide's voice broke. And I saw tears building up in her eyes. He just nodded.

They both looked towards me and I just nodded.

Aelin was gone. And she was never coming back.