'You should have Aerys and Jace fly over to Kings Landing and set it on fire. Hell we should all go Rhaenyra,' Daemon said, staring at the flames, with his back towards the queens cancel.

'No,' Jace said.

'It wouldn't be wise,' The Sea Snake chimes in.

'Tell me what you want me to do and when, until then, I'm going for a walk,' I said, turning my back on them.

I knew I should stay to listen and learn, but part of me was broken, and I still couldn't think straight or sleep properly.

It has been a week since Luke died.

As I went to leave the hall, one of the maestors came running in and passed a letter to mother.

Everyone stood around the table held their breath.

'Alicent is requesting an audience with me, she wants to come here,' Mother held her hand up to her head to think.

Jace and I exchanged a look of concern.

'Of course she does,' father said from the fire place. Still not bothering to turn around.

'I'll accept. Send a letter back immeadiatly.'

'Aerys is going in your place.'

'Daemon!'

'Your not going near that traitorous bitch, and she's scared of Aerys,' he replied.

Everyone turned to look at me, wariness in their eyes like I were a red woman.

'Scared of me?' I asked, trying not to laugh. I always knew she disliked me, was wary of me for some unknown reason. But I never thought she was scared.

'You unnerve her,' This time father turned around to face me whilst he spoke, 'She knows how capable you are in battle, she saw you swordfight with her sons as a child and the bitch didn't like it that you were better than them and a women fighting.'

'I'll go too,' Jacerys said.

'No you will not,' mother snapped. 'Aerys, you will go, and dress like a lady, but make sure you still have weapons on you.'

My normal attire, similar to my mother when she was younger, consisted of a tunic and trousers. The clothes helped when it came to sword fighting, but then again I'd never fought with the intention to kill.

The meeting took place a few days later, on the beach at Dragonstone. It was where Silverwing lay, too big for the dragon pit. I wanted her with me, to be there in case I needed her.

Mother objected at first, but slowly father talked her round to it.

The night before Alicent and her company arrived, mother had come to my room. She hugged me and told me she loved me, 'I never want to lose you Aer, I won't, so you do whatever you need to do.'

Her words stayed with me as I waited on the beach. Two nights from the Queens Guard accompanied me, Ser Cargyll and Ser Darklyn. They stood on either side of me, a few feet in between us.

We watched as the boat approached, and then the small row boat came inland.

The greens outnumbered us.

If I had seen the white hair I would have climbed onto Silverwing and blasted them with fire. But Aemonds cunning, he knew that, and so he kept his hood up until he and his mother approached.

Ser Cole approached with them, and two other guards stayed by the boat.

'Aerys,' Alicent nodded, 'I was expecting your mother,' she shifted uncomfortably under my stare, her eyes flickering up to the castle as though my mother would magically appear before her.

I turned my gaze to Aemond, who removed his hood.

'I've come to apologise,' he said, 'To my sister, to her family, what happened…was a terrible accident.' His voice was like silk, silk that I hadn't heard in years, silk that made me tingle and sent shivers down my spine:

'A mistake!' I shouted at him.

My hands inched for my sword.

'Vhaegar wouldn't listen,' he said calmly.

'Where is that old bitch?' I spat, causing Alicent to gasp.

'It was an accident Aerys.' Aemond tried again to appeal to me, his purple eye seeking my own.

'Was putting your brother on the iron throne an accident too?'

'Viserys wanted Aegon on the throne,' Alicent shouted, 'He is the rightful king!'

'How convenient that he never said this before his death, and that Queen Rhaenyra is his named successor!' I shouted back, my blood boiling in my veins.

Ser Criston unsheathed his sword, 'I could have your head for that.'

The knights beside me copied the action. I didn't honour Ser Criston with so much as a look.

Silverwing grunted behind me, her own way of warning Ser Criston. Aemond pushed his sword down, earning an outraged look from Ser Criston.

I rolled my eyes.

'You will not broker any peace here,' I began, 'You started a war when you killed my brother, and you'll pay.'

Alicent turned and began walking back towards the small rowing boat. Ser Criston followed her.

Aemond didn't move. He continued to stare at me; my words hanging between us.

He took a few steps forward, closing the space between us by a fraction. He was still a metre away when he said, 'I do not want to fight you Aerys, I want peace. The King wants to negotiate terms.'

I scoffed.

He looked me up and down, his eyes roaming my body that had been tied up in the dress. He could clearly see the top of my breasts that were exposed and his eyes lingered a moment to long on them.

'I preferred you in your other clothes,' he said before turned away.

I had to stop myself from screaming.

Later that night, when I was finally alone in my bedchamber after spending the rest of the day going over tactics, what moves we could make, I let myself think of Aemond.

The last time I had seen him had only been a few days before Luke's death, when we were all in Kings Landing to defend Luke's inheritance. How stupid it all seems now.

Jace had asked Helaena to dance, and from where I was sat in between Jace and Aegon, I could see Aemond getting more and more annoyed.

I got up and walked around the table to where he sat next to the Hand. Everyone else was eating or talking, not fully paying attention to what I was doing until Aemond stood up on my approach.

I held out my hand and said, 'Dance with me?' I smiled at him slyly, playfully. It was the best way to approach Aemond, it always had been, to treat him the way he would treat you.

His lips curled and he took my hand, 'You know I would love to,' he whispered in my ear. The voice sent shivers down my spine.

I wanted him. I had always wanted him.

How cruel fate is, now that I think about it, to make me ache for someone who murdered my brother. How cruel fate continues to be.

Aemond and I had always gotten on well, we were the same age, we both enjoyed fighting, and Daemon made sure of it that I were trained. So we spent most of our days together learning. And when mother moved us to Dragonstone, I didn't think of him much. No child would. But then I saw him at the wedding of Helaena and Aegon, and he had matured. His arms were muscular, carved, and he was taller, older, attractive. Aemond had this charisma that sucked me in, and we seemed to fall into a pattern of flirting and charming each other. Nothing happened that evening.

When we were dancing at the family dinner, I caught mothers eye and she smiled at me, her thoughts completely unreadable. I don't know if she approved, if she was contemplating using us for a stronger alliance with her siblings.

Alicent had stopped me marrying one of her sons already, saying to Viserys that I was not capable of being a wife in the way that Aegon needed. My mother hadn't bothered to fight her on it, I think she was glad the arrangement Viserys had made upon my birth wouldn't be realised.

And so we danced and then we ate. A spark had settled itself in Aemonds eye, and everytime he looked over at me I saw it. He was happy.

Everyone took their leaves at different times. I stayed until the last possible moment, leaving when father looked at me and nodded towards the door.

As I was walking down the corridor, away from the room, his silky voice said 'Come with me.'

He led me through a door and up some stairs, and then through a hidden door in one of the wall panels and into his bedchambers.

The walls were painted green, and he had white bedding, making the room seem happier than what I would have imagined for Aemonds space.

I walked into the space and stopped in front of his bed; turning around to look at him. He approached me, smirking. I too couldn't stop myself from smirking at him. There was an electricity pulsing between us, one I hadn't experienced before with a man.

Men had always been predictable creatures to me, until Aemond walked back into my life.

'You surprised me this evening Rys,' I hadn't heard that nickname in years. It was what he had called me, what my brothers and his brother had called me before they could pronounce my name.

The way he said it now, it had lost its childish tinge. It was seductive.

'I surprised you?'

'No one ever asks me to dance,' he pointed to his eye, keeping his voice low as he continued, 'they often find me intimidating.'

'Hmm…' was all I said, remembering that less is more when trying to win the affections of men.

Although I couldn't stop myself from saying, 'Now you have me here, what do you want with me?' I wanted to flirt with him, and I didn't want to prolong the inevitable. We were attracted to each other in a raw, unchecked way. I was desperate to see where it would go.

He started unbuttoning his tunic and threw it off behind him, meaning he was only wearing a white shirt that was a little too big, and his trousers. I realised later that he'd taken the tunic off so it wouldn't restrict him.

He came over to me; still not having replied. And turned me around so that my back was to him.

My breath hitched in the back of my throat at the movement.

His soft hand swiped my hair to side, and began unbuttoning the back of my dress.

The dress fell, leaving me standing before him in a sheer silk undergarment. He turned me back around and ran his fingers over my nipples, flicking them slightly.

Then his hands were in my hair and he was kissing me, roughly, passionately.

I was burning for him.

He lifted me up so that my slip rode up around my waist, and then lay me back on the bed.

He pulled away to stare at me momentarily.

I lifted my hand up to move his eyepatch. I wanted to see him, the real him. He held my hand over it, not allowing it to move. My breath hitched in my throat.

He moved my hand gently away and leaned down to kiss me again.

I tangled my fingers in his hair instead, concentrating on the kiss, on the minty taste of him.

He pulled away again and began to move down, kissing my nipples as he went. I could only watch, enthralled by him.

First, his hand slipped between my thighs, moving in a slow circle, and then his head followed.

I had to cover my mouth to stop myself from moaning too loudly.

No other man had been able to achieve this.

When he was done, he came back up to my face and kissed me. I could taste myself on him. And I know, for him, it was his own way of showing me he held that power over me. That what had just happened was because of him.

I moved my hand down to feel if he was hard. I ran my fingers over what I could feel through his pants. He was long, bigger than I'd ever had before.

Someone knocked on the door, breaking the dream.

Aemond leaped up to answer it.

'Princess Rhaenyra wants an audience with you Prince Aemond, she requests it immediately,' the knight said.

My mother's name brought me back to reality.

I stood up and began to dress. What had I just done?

Aemond grabbed his tunic and left at once without so much as a look in my direction.

It made me feel dirty.

We left the next day, and so I didn't see Aemond again until today.

I had tried to remove him from my mind. I couldn't have him, not now he was engaged to one of Lord Borros' daughters.

Especially not now he had killed my brother.

They say passion is the same thing whether it is sexual or hatred fuelling that passion.

/

AN: This story will be available on A03 in the coming days.