SNEAK PEAK OF CHAPTER XV OF THE RED QUEEN ━━
"Come," he urged, quiet and calm. "Let them tend to him. I will stay. I will not leave Aegon's side, you have my word." Alicent's lips parted as though to protest, but his gaze held hers—cold, assured, promising. After a long, trembling breath, she allowed him to take her hand. Only then did Aemond's body turn, though his eye stayed. Cutting toward Robert. He held Robert there with his stare, unblinking, as though measuring every ounce of him, every hidden flaw. A son guarding his mother.
Before he turned, fully ahead. Handing alicent off to Ser Criston. "Take my mother to her bedchambers," Aemond said, voice low, brooking no refusal. His eye shifted, catching on a serving girl lingering too near the threshold, wide-eyed and nosey. His lips curved in something that was not quite a smile.
"And you—" he drawled, each syllable deliberate, "be of use. Fetch ale, and salt, to calm the dowager queen's nerves. Go."
The girl startled into a hurried curtsy before fleeing down the corridor.
Only when the door closed behind Alicent did Aemond return to the bed. His steps were slow, fancy. The stench of burned flesh pressed heavy in the air, enough to make grown men avert their faces, yet he did not flinch. He came to stand at the foot of the bed where Aegon lay half-naked, his skin raw and sticky, weeping with red and black scars. Aemond set both hands on the carved footboard, leaning forward until the wood creaked beneath his grip.
His gaze never left his brother.