LYSANDRA'S POV
I don't know what the hell just happened. But when Aedion kissed me, I had felt a surge of rightness, and I had needed more! He must of felt it too. He had to have. Yet I think he just walked out of my life. He had kissed me back with such passion, but pulled away with wide eyes and just decided that we couldn't be together. I thought he had felt the same as me! I forced myself to take deep breaths, hide the ever growing despair threatening to swallow me whole.
Slowly, I strolled towards a rowman and chatted him up (just in case Aedion was looking). He told me that it would be a day till we reached Terresan. Perfect. I would have enough time to sleep. So sleep I did.
~•One day later•~
I woke to find that same rowman from last night tangled in the sheets of my single bed in the cabin down below. He woke me up by tracing tanzalizing circles around my stomach and full –and aching– breasts. His mouth kissed and licked its way up my neck and I arched into the touch, moaning. I grabbed him – he felt like steel wrapped in velvet– causing him to grunt. We would have gone further, again, apparently, if Aedion hadn't come busting in.
"Lysandra, we are here! Home. Terresan!" It was then that he noticed the man in my bed and the fact that we were both stark naked, the thin sheets barely covering our private parts. It was extremely amusing but heart-breaking at the same time.
"I'll be there in a sec," I said silky smoothly. "I just need to finish...something off." To prove my point, I scraped my nail down the rowman's chest. Aedion blushed, with embarrassment or anger, I didn't care and stumbled out of the door. It was his own rutting fault anyways.
I turned back to Asher (I now remember his name from last night) and soon I was moaning loud enough to wake the whole ship up.
I sent Asher out, and the realisation of what Aedion had said sent adrenaline pumping through me. We were home. Terresan! I shifted double quickly into Aelin's form, and donned a deep purple tunic with intricate threadings. Sprinting up the stairs, I found a large crowd gathered on the top deck. There are some advantages of being Queen though. As soon as people noticed me, a path was cleared, and I walked down the passage, smiling and waving, forcing myself not just to run to the edge of the ship to see the place of my dreams.
I forced myself not to look ahead until I reached the bow of the ship –Aedion was already there and flanked my right side, always prepared, as I stared across Terresan. The breath was knocked out of my chest as I stared across the lush forest, and way beyond that I could just make out the starts of Orynth. It was so impossibly beautiful that I fell to my knees, and tears spilled down my cheeks. Then I felt a warm hand on my shoulder, comforting me. I looked up to find Aedion standing beside me. Although his hand was relaxing, his face looked as if it was chiseled of out of stone, and was burning with hatred. Only I could see that though.
"Make a speech for your army, majesty." Aedion spoke with a quiet mocking, but I chose not to hear it. Carefully, I wiped my eyes and nose, then smoothed down my hair. Then I rose and pivoted so that I was facing the gathered, awed crowd with the sun and the rest of Terresan behind me. And so I spoke for Aelin.
"Many of you probably think that I am just a petty, fiery princess – not worth fighting for. But let me tell you this. I am worth fighting for. Fighting for me is fighting for the survival of the world. Fire and darkness make a good finale, don't you think? If you don't support me, you can always join Erawan, the king of darkness, and have a ring put on you that allows a demon to enter your soul. I ask you, I beg you, please fight with me on the battlefield, and support me when I challenge Erawan. Please stand with me."
I got down on my knees with my palms facing upwards. I had spoken from the heart, and now I would see if they supported me truly. One by one, they put a hand over their chests, over their hearts, and it was then that I understood I wasn't the only one who loved Aelin enough to die for her. I smiled slightly. "For Terresan" I whispered. Then Aedion, also with a hand over his heart, stated clearly, baldly, "For Terresan". A chorus of murmers followed, and in that moment, I felt Aelin's presence beside me, cheering me on. A tear slipped down my cheek, but I held my head high, and stood, everyone cheering me on.
"We sail to Orynth!" Aedion yelled, arousing a round of applause. In that moment, everything was perfect. I looked at Aedion, and felt something molten gushing into my core. Lower than that, actually. He looked back at me with a similar gleam in his eye, and i wanted nothing more than to kiss him again.
A moment passed between us, like crackling lightning, and I was almost driven to my knees by the force of it. It was like i could feel all of Aedion's emotions rushing through me. The betrayal was especially prominent and i felt guilty seeing as it was caused by him seeing me fucking another guy. Then a wave of tenderness followed, love. For me! So he did feel the same. Then why did he so obviously reject me? The following ensue of questions in my head made it start throbbing, and i had just enough energy to wrench myself out of Aedion's head.
Lots of dizzying information had passed through me, but it only seemed to create more questions, and to make it worse, Aedion didn't even realise what had happened – he still had that half-wild expression in his eyes. Gathering my courage together, I turned back to the army that my beautiful, cunning Aelin had risked her life to gather.
"Let's sail!" I yelled, arousing a round of applause as the sun rose high above my head. I glanced at Aedion, and he bowed to me along with everyone else, although he maintained eye contact. Even as his skilled tounge licked his delicious lips, I could see the refusal to accept his feelings for me underneath the pride for Aelin.
Shit. I was in so much rutting shit. And I would burn in hell for it.