Disclaimer - I do not own any of the characters featured here, they belong to the wonderful Sarah J Maas.
A/N - This is just a little something that popped into my head amongst the other things I've been working on. I hope you enjoy it. I'd also like to thank everyone here who read and reviewed my last TOG story because your reviews made me very happy. I'm also working on a request from one anonymous reviewer so look out for that.
Prince Rowan Whitethorn was exhausted as he finally returned to his rooms at Mistward. He'd been out late again hunting for the vile creature that had arrived in these parts recently. He was having no luck however, between babysitting the girl during the day and overseeing the other trivial matters brought to him his only opportunity to catch the creature was late in the day and through the night. He had to be cautious as there were other fell creatures stalking the woods at night.
He slumped into a chair at the rough wooden table in his room and once more studied the map sprawled across its surface. He didn't know how long he was sat there but the moon was beginning its descent when he was broken from his trance by the piercing screams coming from a few levels below in the fortress.
On pure instinct the Fae warrior gabbed his sword and rushed for the door, decending quickly to the source of the sound. A female. A female was screaming and he would be damned if she came to harm while he was there to protect them. He reached the hallway and barely registered where in the fortress he was or whose rooms they were as his blood roared with the fierce need to protect.
He saw two guards at the end of the hallway, just stood as if nothing was wrong. For a moment Rowan doubted himself. Was there really a female screaming or was it his mind playing tricks on him? But the voice didn't sound like Lyria despite the similar feeling of ice that it sent through him.
The guards turned and saw him approaching.
"I heard screaming." The guards shared a look and he glared, his face darkening and fangs bared at them. He resisted the urge to just shoulder past them but every second they wasted here could mean the unknown woman's death.
"She screams almost every night Prince. We tend to just ignore it now." Rowan did not look impressed but the guards held their ground.
"Who is screaming precisely?"
"That new girl you brought in, Etlentiya I think they call her." Rowan tried not to let the surprise show on his face, he kept it hidden behind his carefully carved mask of ice.
"Did it occur to any of you that something could be attacking her while you ignore her?" Rowan didn't particularly care but if something was amiss in the fortress he needed the guards not to ignore it. The guards did look apologetic and muttered their apologies but Rowan was by her door in a flash, blade out in his hand as he listened.
The screaming had stopped but he could still hear her whimpering so he eased the door open and took a quick survey of the room. There were no creatures in the room, no dark presence, just the girl tangled in her sheets. Her face was screwed up in pain and her body twitched and writhed beneath the thin sheets. There was no fire and the room was frozen but she was still sweating profusely. He inhaled, scenting the air for any trace of danger but there was none.
Rowan turned to leave, there was nothing to be done here. He froze at the whisper of her voice in the dark.
"Please…please don't hurt him." Her voice trailed off and she tossed again. He'd never heard her voice like that, she always sounded hard and spoiled and selfish. It had been easy to hate her when she was like that but her voice just then had sounded so soft and pleading.
"Please not him… take me… please…" She was begging for someone else and the sound of that pleading in her voice, the scent of fear made him want to reach out and wake her. To tell her that it was just a dream but he wouldn't do that, couldn't because he knew that it might not have just been a dream but a memory.
So Rowan waited and he watched. He listened to her words and her cries and watched the emotions as they twisted her face. He listened to her broken voice as she called out for a phantom that wouldn't come. He listened as she pleaded not to be put in the dark. When the screaming began again he saw her flinch and curl up beneath the sheets. Her breathing changed and he knew that she would soon awaken so he walked to the window on silent feet and shifted, flying out into the night.
He should of returned to his room but he landed nearby, where he could watch her as she awoke. She sat up ramrod straight and felt under her pillow for a weapon that wasn't there. A weapon he had taken from her like the callous monster he had become over all these centuries. She cast her head about wildly, trying to sense the danger that was no longer there. She scrambled out of the bed and fumbled around for the stub of a candle in front of the empty fireplace. When it was finally alight she sat hunched over it, her whole body shivering from the cold.
It was only then in the light of the tiny flame that he realised how dark that room must be for her human eyes. She rubbed her arms and looked into the flame then whispered to herself in a tiny voice, but one full of steel and determination.
"My name is Celeana Sardothian and I will not be afraid."
He watched as she blew out the candle and climbed back into bed, pulling the thin blankets up around herself. Rowan watched until her breathing evened out and then flew back to his rooms. Once there Rowan undressed and laid back on his bed, covering himself with the warm furs and sending a breeze around the room to douse the candles. As he lay in the dark he tried to ignore the sound of her voice as it echoed in his head pleading not to be left in the dark.
Now he knew why it was so easy to hate her, why he was so hard on her when they trained. She was just like him, broken beyond repair and he hated her for it. He hated that when he looked at her and saw those dead eyes that it was like looking at his own. Every time he saw her it reminded him of what he was and how badly he had failed. She reminded him of the pain he had buried so deep beneath the layers of ice within his soul that he had been numb to everything but his duty to his Queen. Now he could feel the centuries of control slipping away as the ice cracked little by little. While his pain was frozen hers burned just like the flames in her blood. She was wildfire, completely destructive in her misery and torment.
He wondered just what had happened to the princess of Terrasen after the fall of her kingdom. For the first time he allowed himself to contemplate just what had befallen her and what she had been through. He had been there with Maeve when the news arrived that the King and Queen were dead. He remembered the callus way his Queen had asked the fate of the girl and how she had smiled when she was told how the bodies had been found with their daughter asleep between them. His queen had never believed that Aelin Ashryver Galathynus had drowned in that river.
An experience like that was enough to scar anyone but he knew there was more to the story of the lost princess than that. Rowan knew now there was more pain and suffering in her past than just the loss of her parents and kingdom. Her future would be filled with even more now, Maeve would ensure that. The girl would be broken and used for whatever his Queen wished, if Aelin refused to comply even then she would die.
Rowan lay awake until the sun rose and the fortress came alive around him. Even now with the light of dawn pouring into the room he could hear her.
"Please…don't leave me in the dark….please…don't leave me here."