Aelin sulked up the mouldy stairs allowing her hand to lazily along the splintering banister. Beside her, Rowan stared blankly straight ahead, listening to the creaking of their feet against the stairs.
"Who was he?" There was a sense of acrimony in his voice, quite uncharacteristic of him. Aelin briefly took a glimpse at him and noticed the way his lips curled at the corners.
"Feeling bitter?" The attempted jest obviously didn't sit well with him as he shot her a lethal glare. She bit down on her bottom lip with the desire to tell him. Looking back down the stairs to where a sluggish walking man with skewed glasses and messy mousy hair was stumbling after them.
Rowan noticed whom she was cautiously looking at and she gave him a slight nod, affirmation she'd tell him in the privacy of their own room.
As they walked the rotten staircase up to the fourth floor in silence, Aelin couldn't help thinking of Sam.
She wondered how.
How was he alive? How hadn't he gone looking for her? How had he stayed hidden? How was he apart of the Rifthold rebels?
How? How? How?
But she also couldn't help but remember the taste of his lips on hers. She thought of the last proper night they'd spent together. She's always fit perfectly against him, snuggled up against the bend of his body and the nave of his neck. Their legs had been intertwined, hers lightly sliding up and down his.
The window above their bed had spilt moonlight across them and as Sam lay beside her. His eyes sparkled the deepest brown that she let herself drown in them. She stared up at the only lover she'd ever known, smiling so bright you couldn't imagine the harrowing past and the tormenting secrets she kept locked away.
"Stop toying with me," he'd whispered, it brushing like a caress across her cheek. Aelin- Celaena- ran her fingertips along his arm, feeling over the dents of hard muscle.
Sam suddenly scooped his arms around her waist, tearing between the distance and kissed her with so much wanting a gasp slipped past her mouth. He rolled on top of her, tongue tailing along her lip. She arched her back against him, feeling the need to touch him in any way possible.
She'd always thought of him as her medicine. His lips against hers healing all things painful and his skin against hers healing all things broken. He'd been the one to ease the fire tearing through her veins, able to cool the heated flames tickling her skin and yet when she was with him she felt a difference kind of heat. A heat that pulls one to another.
They spent their evening trailing kisses over each other and landing themselves in conversation of their future. A future with children running around their grand house in the countryside where no past ghost could haunt them. Where they'd teach their eldest son to ride horses and youngest to fire an arrow. At nights Celaena would have taken their only daughter to their chambers and dress her up in the grandest of gowns. Then, in front of a roaring hearth, their family would huddle together and bathe in the calm.
But the future was not to come; the next day as Sam had been out and Aelin preparing for their leave, he was brutally murdered, slaughtered by their old mentor Arobynn Hamel.
"Aelin," Rowan places a reassuring hand on her shoulder, grounding themselves to a halt.
The inebriated man had vanished to god knows where and they had turned a corner into a corridor where numerous amount of doors were, some barely feet apart.
The walls were a dingy green and the only source of light the smashed window at the end of the hall. Behind Rowan was a squat red door which was easily a head smaller than him and to the right of that, a thin mahogany one with a missing doorknob.
Although the stench of the bar below had vanished, the pungent smell of mould hung in the air.
"What?" She snapped, thrusting her arm out of his reach. To her surprise he jostled slightly.
He arched his eyebrows, obvious irritation in the look. "Well first of all; you were the one to tell all of us to get a good nights rest and yet you were the one who sneaked off to the bar at one o'clock in the morning."
The burst of outrage was sudden and yet expected. He'd taken a step away and as he looked at her she noticed the deep circles under his eyes.
They'd been travelling for only a week but it was long enough to tire them all.
"Second; you sit there for hours knowing I was looking out for you but you still sat and drank."
A young couple stumbled along the corridor towards them, cutting Rowans lecture short to Aelins amusement.
The woman on the left had whispered something into the other girls ear causing them both to burst into laughter. They both wore ragged dresses in a creamy white with brown aprons wrapped around their waists. The first girl was inches taller than the other and had auburn curls tumbling down her back. Just above her eyebrow a small tattoo of a crescent moon was inked into her skin.
The other, with her arms wrapped around her lover, had raven black hair which was twisted into a short braid and ended in a red cloth tying it together. A tattoo of a blazing sun sat above her eyebrow.
"Lucie," The taller one giggled, pointing a shaking finger towards us and then placing it against her lips.
"Sorry," Lucie stumbled over the word as well as her feet and hit the wall loudly. She laughed so loud, Aelin was sure she woke the whole village.
She involuntary cringed at the foolish girl and stuffed her hands into her pockets.
Lucie slid down the wall in complete amusement and curled herself into a ball, howling in laughter, "Sarah," she managed to choke out, reaching her hands out.
The other girl- Sarah- also consumed in laughter helped Lucie to her feet and they tried once again to make their way to their room.
As they came closer, Rowan and Aelin created a gap between themselves and shot the other a look.
"Thank you," Sarah chuckled, tucking a red curl behind her ear. The two continued to giggle all the way to their room.
Rowan waited until they had vanished to step so close to Aelin so she could feel his anger against her face, "What kind of queen are you?"
A rare fury, one of complete protectiveness over her kingdom ripped through Aelin. Suddenly her hand which was in the trouser pocket now soared through the air and collided with a loud slap against Rowans cheek. His head barely moved an inch although his inked cheek flared red. Venom practically soaked from his pores at the words coming from Aelins lips, "You may be something special amongst the Fae, but to me you are a member of my court and if you dare question my loyalty to my kingdom I will personally tear you to shreds."
Rowan released a heavy breath and the chill from it reminded Aelin just how close she'd gotten to his face. At her side she felt a nipping pain from where her hand was balled in a fist so tight her nails dug into her palm.
The Queen stared at her Prince silently for a few extra moments, peering deeply into the green of his eyes. Typically, they reminded her of crisp mornings, beautiful grass glinting as the sun encompassed the sky in her light. But now, all she could see was dark nothingness, his pupils swallowed the pine-green irises.
To her dismay, Aelin took a shuddering breath and her teeth stopped grinding against themselves. The uneven floor creaked beneath Rowans heavy boots and his long hands wrapped around her waist, pushing her back into the wall. Cocking her head to the side she watched as the darkness faded from his eyes and drops of rain seemed to seep from the tips of his hair.
She suddenly became cautious of how cracked her lips were and licked them instinctively.
Not only was rage running through her veins but a sway of lust rippled through, allowing her body to sink into his touch. She cursed herself for being a stumbling fool over him. She'd just seen one of the most important people in her life after he allegedly died and yet all she wanted was to hold Rowan until her body tired to unusable.
Like magnets, theirs eyes never disconnected, even as one of his hands slid from her waist, curving over the shape of her breast until it was tucking a stray hair from her face. She could read that he wanted the same as her in his movements, in the delicate way his fingers grazed her neck, sliding along her jaw.
"Don't," she whispered but with little meaning.
He pulled her lips to his in a whisper of a kiss, and yet, just that light touch, shredded through any restraint she had.
