So I actually did it. I posted this. Please give me a review so I know what to improve to the coming chapters.

(A/N from future TildaL) Omg, I was a fetus when I posted this! This chapter has been updated and A LOT of spelling and grammar corrections has been made, at least it's better than before. During the upcoming weeks I'll go back and give these early chapters a needed make-over.

A few things that you might need to know:

English isn't my first language, so my writing is far from perfect. BUT the English in the upcoming chapters will improve as my writing skill does.

There will not be as much perspective changing in the following chapters. I'll stick to two perspectives, most of the time.

One last thing. Thank you so much for being here and I hope you'll enjoy

Chapter 1. The return

The night had fallen when the ship reached Rifchold harbor. Before it docked, a black shadow leaped over the railing, down into the cold water. Later that night, when the city guards searched the ship, no one could account for where the last passenger, a young woman with golden hair, was.

Aelin's perspective

Aelin hated being cold, she hated being wet, but the thing she hated the most were wet shoes; how her feet splashed with every step she took. There were a lot more guards in the city than usually, a fact that didn't improve her already lousy mood and it took her an hour longer than normal to reach her destination.

She could see the warehouse from a far through the darkness, because light shone out of the windows of her old apartment. The journey had been long and she was too tired to bother about who it might be that camped inside her space. Aelin made sure that she wasn't followed before she slipped into the building and continued up the familiar stairs.

Whoever it was in her apartment better not try to stand between her and a hot bath. She was freezing and smelled discussing. Like fish, urgh fish. She hated fish even more than she hated wet shoes.

She was at the top of the stairs now and stared at the door she hadn't seen in two years. Two years, it felt like an eternity. Suddenly she wasn't sure why she had wanted to come back here, the place where she had been while Sam had been tortured to death.

Aelin took a deep breath and opened the unlocked door.

Chaol's perspective

It had been a long night. Chaol had been meeting with the rebels, they had been discussing how to save Aedion before it was too late. On the way there, he had encountered a group of guards, some of his old men. Luckily they hadn't recognized him, because they had their hands full at the moment, fighting him.

Chaol had fled, he wasn't sure if it was because he though he wouldn't win or the fact that he didn't want to hurt them. He might be with the rebels, but they were still the men he had fought alongside for years.

The meeting had been long and they weren't any closer to a plan than they had been before. It had been with a sigh of relieve he had gone back to the apartment and sat down in the armchair.

He stared into the fireplace, thinking about the fire he hadn't bothered to lit. Above the fireplace, there where decorations. Every single item told a story about her, but something where missing, there was an empty spot. Celaena wouldn't had arranged it like that.

His thoughts where interrupted by footsteps in the stair outside the door and it was opened a moment later. Chaol stood and drew his dagger in one movement, ready to defend himself.

A black hooded figure walked in, accompanied by a splashing sound with every step it took. Still, it's every movement filled with grace.

They stared at each other for a few seconds before the figure removed the hood. She was soaking wet and had to be cold, it was freezing outside. But however cold it was outside, nothing could compare from the coldness in her stare when her gaze met his. Celaena stood before him, no Aelin. She was different now. The months they had been separated had changed her.

Not only was her face now it of a woman and her hair shoulder length, but she was filled with a new kind of confidence. It wasn't a scarred girl who stood before him. It was a queen.

Aelin's perspective

Chaol sat in Sam's chair when she opened the door. The oversized velvet armchair had been Sam's favorite spot in the apartment and it felt wrong to see anyone else then him there.

But Chaol didn't stay for long, he stood the second later with a dagger drawn.

Aelin stared at him for the cover of her hood. His facial expression was grim and it took her a few seconds to realize that he had no idea who she was. So she removed her hood and her gaze met his.

Chaol, the man she had loved. The man who had pieced her heart together, just to shatter it into smaller pieces. The man who had betrayed her. The man whose fault it was Nehemia was dead.

When she looked at him, all she felt was disgust. He opened his mouth but Aelin was quicker.

"We'll talk after I've taken a bath." She left him without waiting for an answer, only leaving the puddle of water that had dripped from her soaked clothes and unsaid words behind.

Aelin walked through her old bedroom and tried not to get overwhelmed by all the emotions and memories from the past. First she was going to take a long bath, then she was going to think. She continued through her bedroom to the attached bathroom where she filled the tub with the hottest water possible and left her clothes in a messy pile on the floor before slipping into the hot water.

When she rubbed herself in her favorite lavender soap and the fish smell was overpowered by flower scent, she finally felt better, not good, but damn close.

But when she closed her eyes, she couldn't get rid of the picture of the tall male that was attached on the inside of her eyelids. The male she knew was waiting for her on the other side of the great sea. It made her heart ache, but at least she knew that nothing could stop them from seeing each other again. Not even death, because they were both going to hell and together they were going to rattle it. That thought made her smile for the first time since she had left him and Wendlyn behind.

Chaol's perspective

She was here, in Rifchold, only a wall separating them. But she shouldn't be here, it wasn't safe. Especially if she was The Lost Heir of Terrasen.

Chaol paced back and forth as his thoughts cluttered his mind. Hungry, she must be hungry and thirsty as well. At least he was. He stopped his pacing and headed to the kitchen instead, where he heated some water and made some food.

The bedroom door opened and he turned around to face her.

"Celaena…" she was just as beautiful as he remembered.

She cut him short. "Aelin, my name is Aelin."

"Aelin, what are you doing here?" Chaol voice was hoarse and her piercing gaze made him feel uneased.

Aelin smelled in the air, there was something primal over the gesture. Something that made Cahol even more uncomfortable

"Let's discuss that while we are eating." When they both sat by the oak table with a plate of steaming hot food each, she started to talk.

"I'm here to get the third Wyrd key. I know where it is, but I'll need some help to retrieve it. So I'm going to departure for The Red Desert in a few days. There are some people owing me a favor."

Chaol remembered that she had told him once that she had been sent to The Red Desert to train with The Silent Assassins.

It hurt knowing that she wouldn't stay for long, but a part of him felt relived. Something about her was so different now. Changed by the land of the beasts.

"What happened in Wendlyn? The rumor says that The Lost heir of Terrasen fought against The King's men. That she burnt them to ash. Is it true?" Chaol could hear his own accusation in his voice.

"I did burn them to ash, but don't worry Chaol, my powers are gone. Well, I can't reach them at the moment." She might be The Heir of Fire, but to him she was colder than The Frozen Wastes.

For the second time during the night someone opened the door, he really should remember to lock it. Ren walked into the apartment.

"Chaol we need to talk…" his words died out when he saw Aelin by the table and he drew his sword. "You!"

Chaol was about to open his mouth but Aelin was quicker.

"Do you want another round?" Aelin stood and put a hand on the hilt of the ancient blade that hung by her side. She slowly walked towards Ren and looked at him like a predator looks at its pray. "Chaol, tell my why he is in my apartment."

"Her apartment?" The blade in Ren's hand where shaking slightly. Chaol couldn't blame him, he would be petrified as well if Aelin would be looking at him like that.

"Ren Allsbrook, may I present The Lost Heir of Terrasen, Aelin Ashryver Galathynius."

Aelin's perspective

Aelin's heart dropped, it couldn't be Ren, Ren was dead. But some part of her knew that it was true, that the man standing in front of her, who was staring at her with his gray-blue eyes and shock written all over his face, actually was Ren Allsbrook, who was the son to one of Terrasen's formal lords. He bowed to her.

"My queen," he breathed.

Aelin had forgotten how it was, people bowing for her. She didn't like it, at least not anymore.

"Raise." She had a feeling that he would had stayed like that forever if she hadn't said anything.

Ren's perspective

The assassin was the queen. He couldn't comprehend that information. When Chaol said that he had met her before, Ren hadn't in his wildest dreams imagined that it would be she who was the queen.

But when he stared at the woman in front of him, he could see that it was true. She was the female version of Aedion with the turquoise eyes ringed with gold and her golden hair.

"But you are The King's Champion?" He still couldn't wrap his head around it. Why would the heir of a fallen nation work for the man that had crushed it?

"What can I say? Things gets boring if you don't have anything to do." With those words she left him, picking up her plate from the table as she walked to the kitchen. Ren was still staring when she came back a few moments later and passed him on the way to her bedroom.

"I'm going to sleep now. I will kill whoever dares to bother me." Ren had a feeling that it wasn't an empty threat.

"But what about Aedion?" Ren had to ask. Aelin turned around faster than Ren thought was possible.

"What about him?" Her voice was filled with a mixture of emotions.

"He is to be executed in four days." Ren turned to Chaol. "Didn't you tell her?"

The captain ran a hand through his chestnut hair.

"What!" The queens voice was now filled with fiery rage.

Aelin's perspective

Aedion, it couldn't be true. She had to save him. Aelin took a deep breath and cleared her foggy thoughts, tried to get her tired mind to work correctly.

"Four days. That's Dorian's birthday, isn't it? So the king plans a public execution?"

"Yes." Chaol's voice was weak and he didn't meet her stare.

"What more didn't you tell me?"

"Dorian, they… The king put a collar on him and Sorcha, he beheaded Sorcha. Then he imprisoned Aedion. I was the only one who managed to escape."

"Let's get things straight. Dorian was possessed with a Walg prince. Whoever this Sorcha person was, she was beheaded. Aedion was captured. But you, you escaped." Chaol nodded and Aelin shook her head.

She turned around and walked into the closet in her bedroom and in the far back she found what she was looking for.

Dressed in her Tinker's construct suit she left the apartment, two staring men and her tiredness behind and walked straight to The Vaults, the new crime lords headquarter and entered without hesitation. When she left a few minutes later, she was followed by the three men that had been watching her from the moment she entered.

"My dear, are you lost?" One of them said, stepping closer and let a hand stroke her hip.

"It's dangerous for a pretty woman like you to be out during nights like this. You don't know what's lurking in the shadow." One of the other men said, cutting of her way out of the alley. Oh, she knew, but they had no idea.

It was her pleasure to show them just how dangerous things that hid in the cover of the dark could be. She painted the alley with their blood.