Always Her
TemporalTempest
Jon Snow might be a living, walking man again, since the Red Woman had pulled him from the darkness, but there was no life in his dark eyes. Cold as the northern winds, all who met his gaze shivered with an inexplicable feeling of horror.
It wasn't until the gentle hand of Sansa Stark caressed his cheek that light returned.
From that point on, his gaze never left the girl. Wherever she went within Castle Black, so to did her dark shadow follow. Alive in a way that was beyond any man, the once Lord Commander moved with the grace of a predator. It was not inaccurate to say he stalked behind the Lady Stark as his ever-watchful eyes measured every move of anyone who came close to her.
No sound passed his lips beyond a low, rumbling growl, a warning to any who approached. Not a word had he spoken since his rising from the arms of the Stranger.
The Red Woman appeared in front of him on the one occasion that he allowed Sansa from his sights. While she bathed, he stood before her door, an unmoving sentry guarding the only thing that mattered to him any longer.
Arrogant and overconfident since her success in returning Jon Snow to life, she offered him a picture of the future. He as the prince who was promised with power beyond his imagining, power enough to stop the Others. All that was required was a sacrifice, his kin in exchange for the ability to save people of the world. If he would but stand aside, she would lead Sansa Stark to the flames and her sacrifice to the Lord of Light would give him victory.
Her for the world.
Jon Snow regarded the woman before him with eyes colder than the Night King himself. The Red Woman had scarcely the chance to feel a chill race down her spine before her breath was taken from her.
He moved so fast that those watching would swear that he hadn't moved at all. He had simply appeared at the edge of the railing, holding the Red Woman aloft, gripped by the throat with feet dangling high above the training yard.
The only word that any of them had heard Jon Snow speak since his raising, clear and ringing in the silence around them.
"Her."
With a strength beyond that which was human, Jon jerked his captive sharply with an ever-tightening fist and the snap of bone that echoed was as though the Wall itself had cracked.
Jon opened his hand and watched the crimson clad body drop to the yard below dispassionately. His eyes lifted and swept across the silent audience, a clear warning that burnt with an icy fire. Even the wildlings could not meet his gaze.
Turning his back on them as though they were of no more consequence than the snow falling around him, Jon Snow resumed his place, a shield between his light and the dark world.
