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louiseleblancdiggory · 4 years

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Once Upon a December

Chapter 5: Alive or Dead. Who Knows?

A/N: OHMYGOD I finally posted!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m so happy I’m done with this, it had been plaguing my mind for the past week and now I can sleep well knowing I finished! I’ll try to be quicker with chapter 6. If you want to be tagged or if I forgot you, please send me an ask instead of a comment! Also let me know if you liked it!! Enjoy

Masterlist

Chapter 4 // Chapter 6

Lin felt more than saw Rowan tensing behind her.

She knew some about Lyria and Rowan’s past, and Lyria’s voice was so full of despair at that moment that it was a wonder he hadn’t just gone up to her. If it wasn’t for the arm he kept tightly around her body, maybe Lin would have.

“Please.” She pleaded again as Lin turned quickly to Rowan, catching a flash of his silver hair, and she felt a sharp pain in her brain again.

Just like it had happened in her bedroom moments ago, she felt as if she was being transported to another room. She remembered a woman— a different woman— pleading like Lyria was. She remembered looking down and seeing a torn child’s dress. She remembered turning back quickly and seeing that same flash of silver hair.

The room was the same one she had seen in the mirror, but this time she wasn’t sitting on a pretty vanity. Instead, she was hiding somewhere near the opposite walls of the bedroom. She could feel a slightly bigger hand holding her wrist, but all she could focus was the pretty and small woman standing in the middle of the room, begging for mercy.

Lin wanted to go to her, wanted to help her, but the hand on her wrist was unrelenting.

“Please, leave her alone.” The woman implored, and Lin had the distinction of knowing that voice.

She felt lips that were and weren’t her own forming a single word.

Marion.

The woman’s name had been Marion.

“Fuck.” Rowan whispered, dragging her out of whatever the hell that had been. He turned her in his arms, tilting her head back. “Your nose is bleeding.”

She raised a shaken hand to wipe it away the moment they heard a loud thud coming from where Lyria and the other man were. Both Lin and Rowan turned to where Lyria had been. The men formed a circle around her fallen body, and she raised her head, holding the side of her face. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, shining in the moonlight and against the slap mark, but the rest of her expression showed nothing more than anger and defiance.

“I hope you and your queen burn.” Lyria’s voice held so much hate that when Rowan tensed against her, Lin didn’t know if it was from slight fear or surprise.

The men— most likely Cairn, Cain, Perrignton and one more she couldn’t recognize— remained silent, as if considering what to do with the fallen woman in front of them. They were dangerously near the back door, and Lin was almost trembling from the need to rush to help Lyria. But even with Rowan by her side, they were grossly outnumbered and this could cause the queen’s men to react briskly.

“Fenrys is in this room too.” Rowan bent his head to murmur against Lin’s ear. She didn’t tear her gaze from Lyria, but her attention shifted to Rowan’s words. If Lyria could get up and help, maybe they could fix this. “I need you to go back to the second to last wagon. They keep some coal and explosives there. Scream fire. When they shift their attention, Fen can grab Lyria and we get the hell out of here.”

“That could make them panic and throw Lyria out.” Lin murmured back, but there was no bite or anger to her words. His plan wasn’t bad, it just had too much room for error.

Better than nothing, she supposed.

“You have a better idea?”

“What do we do after? It’s not like they’re just going to give up because we helped her.”

“You have a better idea?” His voice came out harsh, and Lin held her tongue to keep a nasty reply in. This wasn’t the moment for their bantering, even though Lin knew she would bring that up later.

“Very well, Mr. Whitethorn.” She said, taking a small step back. She hadn’t realized how close they had stood, and was thankful for the absolute darkness in their part of the wagon as a soft pink colored her cheeks. She wasn’t used to proximity, to being close to anyone. Sometimes Lys, but that was more of a sisterly embrace— soft and welcoming. Rowan was… imposing. Too intriguing and unreadable at the same time for her liking.

Lin tried her best to keep to the shadows as she tried to exit the room. She could already see the door handle when she made the mistake of looking back. She eyed the alcove where she had been with Rowan, his figure completely hidden. The other one by its side, where she guessed Fenrys was, was just as dark. With her heart strained, she looked at Lyria and the three man.

She turned back to the handle when it hit her, almost making her shake.

Three?

She took in a sharp intake of breath when she felt fingers grabbing her hair, and she immediately knew it wasn’t Rowan. The two times he had grabbed her, it was not with pain as his purpose. Whoever this was, Lin had no doubt he wasn’t like Whitethorn.

The realization didn’t help her at all, the panic rising in her chest as she felt her whole body being pulled back violently. Lin didn’t remember if she had cried out before or after she hit the floor, the fourth man— the one she hadn’t recognized— standing above of her. He stood in front of her, one leg on each side of her body. Despite the fear clawing up her whole soul, Lin hoped neither Rowan nor Fenrys would do something stupid. Hoped they would use the distraction to get Lyria, to help Lyria.

“Who do we have here?” The man’s voice was like a caress, Adarlanian accent mixing beautifully with the Terrasenian one. Lin tried to focus on his face, tried to distinguish any of his features, but her vision was swaying due to the pain and the darkness only made it harder.

“A fucking asshole, if I have judged you correct.” Lin groaned, trying to clear her mind. He was in a compromised position— she wasn’t wearing those big skirts, meaning that she could get a leg through his front, put her other one in the back of his knee and make him fall.

Or a kick in the balls, if she didn’t want to get fancy.

Despite the fact that his face was hidden, Lin knew he was smiling. She saw the silhouette of his head looking up, back at the other three who were terrorizing Lyria. “Any of you know our unexpected guest?”

Lin tried to turn her head slightly, tried to see if Lyria was still ok. The brunette was staring right back at her, fear and anger mixing together. Lin knew the feeling very well. Lin stared at Lyria, hoping she would understand even without words. Silently and almost imperceptibly, Lyria started crawling little by little away from the door as Cain, Cairn and Perrington had their attention on the fourth man. Lin then looked up, realizing that Cairn was also watching her. He gave her a disgusting grin before looking at her assailant. “She was talking to Dunes earlier, Mr. C. The two of them were acting as if friends.”

“Hum, interesting.” The man mused, bending down on Lin. A new sense of panic took over her body, and she felt tears in the back of her eyes. Part of her wanted to start trashing, but the other part was terrified that if she did that, the situation would just get worse for her and Ly.

Some situations forced people to chose between the bad and the terrible, and although Lin hated it, she remained still— body completely tense and one breath away from snapping. Just a few more seconds and maybe Lyria would have crawled away enough to have a fighting chance instead of being thrown out.

“Are you also a traitor then, sweetheart?” He muttered, one hand going down her face.

“Wouldn’t it be boring if I told you that so soon into our interactions, darling?” Lin grunted through clenched teeth, nausea rolling in her stomach.

The guy chuckled, standing up again. Lin released her breath, looking at where Rowan was still hiding. She prayed to the gods a second time in the past ten years that he was staring at her. That, like Lyria, he would understand what she was about to do.

The man in front of her opened his mouth to say something, but he couldn’t get the words out as Lin attacked.

She bent one leg against the back of his knee, bringing her other leg to his front. She half wrapped it around his waist, pulling him backwards as her bent leg pushed him forward. As she had planned, he immediately lost his balance, letting out a yelp as he fell.

But instead of falling to the back as she had wished, Mr. C fell right on top of her. His weight was crushing her down, forcing the breath out of her lungs. Lin’s head started swaying again, vision blurring. He raised himself on his elbows, looking down on her with so much rage that his brown eyes shone.

Her legs and arms were constricted by his body on top of her, so Lin did the only thing she could think of in the moment.

She threw her head forward with as much force as she could. She could feel the blood running down her forehead, and she didn’t know if it was from an injury she caused on herself or the man’s newly broken nose. Behind them, grunting noises and shouts started ringing out, indicating that Fenrys and Rowan— and maybe even Lyria— were trying to deal with Cairn, Cain and Perrignton.

Lin focused back, readying herself to do the same again, hopefully knocking him out, when the man’s body simply disappeared.

Lin closed her eyes forcefully, blinking to get rid of the black dots swimming on her vision. When she could focus again, she realized that the man hadn’t magically disappeared. It had been Rowan.

Rowan pulled the guy back with so much force that he didn’t even get up.

“He was mine, fucker.” Lin grunted when Rowan kneeled by her side.

Despite the darkness, Lin could see him grinning slightly. “Pardon, next time shout dibs.”

She snorted, but any lightheartedness was destroyed by Lyria’s shriek. Lin and Rowan immediately turned their heads to where Lyria and Fenrys were standing, their backs against each other’s. Cain was holding the left side of his face, blood leaking through his fingers. Lyria was holding a small knife with her shaken hand while the other was gripping Fenrys’s pinky and ringer finger. He had one gun pointed at Cairn, but Perrignton had one pointed at Lyria.

Fuck.

Lin nudged Rowan’s arm, and he spared her one more glance before standing up and carefully walking up to them, raising his own gun at Perrignton.

Lin’s heart was beating wildly, her headache and blurry vision making everything worse. She tried getting up, legs weak under her, hands sweating and shaking. She noticed the blood dripping down her chin, either from her earlier nosebleed or the new injury on her forehead. Lin slumped against the wall when she finally got up, breathing in and out a few times before daring to take a step. The wagon was eerily quiet, each person pointing their guns or knives at each other.

This was going to end terribly, Lin knew.

She had to help however, in whatever way she could. Because she was in her nightgown, she couldn’t have brought her daggers with her, and guns were too expensive for her to ever consider buying one. Even empty handed, Lin straightened her back and started walking in Rowan’s direction. She could see if he had a spare weapon, a knife maybe, anything that would give her some advantage.

Before she could even reach them, she felt a hand on her shoulder violently turning her around. Immediately, Lin felt a fist connecting with the right side of her face, and she coughed some blood while looking up. Apparently Rowan hadn’t completely knocked Mr. C out if he was up and ready to give her a beating so fast. She straightened again, raising her fists limply. Her head was pounding, and not in the way it had been minutes ago while she walked to the last wagon on the train.That pounding had been different, more complex than this simple and agonizing pain.

Lin curled her lips at the brown-eyed man, her upper lip stinging.

“Fucking bitch.” He spat.

“My six foot five friend over there knocked you out, not me.” Lin said, forcing a sarcastic smile on her lips. Her face was throbbing, and she probably had a split lip and would get a huge bruise on her right side. “Why don’t you deal with him?”

“Tell your friends to lower their guns.” He almost growled, taking a step on her direction.

“Tell your friends to lower theirs.” She stared right at him. Now that they were standing in the middle of the wagon, the moonlight filtering through the back door allowed her to study his features. He had a soft tan skin, brown hair to match with his brown eyes. Powerfully built, average in height. Absolutely normal, the type of person Lin would never guess was someone dangerous. They remained in silence, the group behind them still closer to the door and barely breathing.

Lin had to think fast, especially because the chance of someone else taking a midnight stroll to the last wagons was almost none. They would have no help, and no one would hear anything either. Behind them there was no other wagon, in front was a storage room with coal and explosives according to Rowan.

An idea— stupid and absolutely reckless— sparkled inside her mind.

She took a small step forward, forcing her head to clear out. She needed all her attention for this, and so much could go wrong that the addition of a headache would only worsen things. Despite trying to remain calm, her heart was galloping, the sound deafening against her ears. She was about to put her life, as well as her other three companions, in danger. She couldn’t care less for the queen’s men.

“Very well.” Lin suddenly said, and although they had their backs to each other, Lin knew Rowan was paying attention to her words. Lyria and Fenrys too, she supposed. “Ro, the gun.”

Lin had to admit, Rowan Whitethorn was a fucking prick, yes, but a godsdamned smart prick.

And absolutely reckless if he was just going on board with whatever Lin was coming up with.

Lin moved at the same time Rowan’s gunshot sounded out. She had hoped he would understand what she meant when she called him Ro— something only the cadre did as far as she was concerned. She barely called him Rowan, and so by calling him Ro he understood that he was supposed to do the absolute contrary of what she had implied.

The man in front of her was shocked by Rowan’s reaction for a second, and Lin used it wisely. She elbowed him on the throat, her fist connecting with his nose as he doubled over. It had been broken when she hit her head against his, so hopefully the pain would be unbearable right now.

Lin didn’t dare to turn around to see how Rowan, Fenrys and Lyria were doing. Eventual gunshots sounded, but there was no indication of a body falling against the ground. Grunts, shouts and curses filled the wagon as Lin grabbed her assailant by the hair and kneed him in the throat again. He felt to the ground, hands gripping his neck as he coughed uncontrollably.

Lin ran to the connecting door, body screaming in pain as she threw it open and rushed to the other wagon.

It was lighter than the other one, windows all around illuminating the piles of coal. There were sheets covering some boxes, and Lin started frantically looking through them.

She found some matchboxes, holding one strongly in her hand as she looked for the last thing she needed. She almost cried in relief when she found a small box with three explosives.

“Oh, thank the fucking gods.” Lin sighed, getting up again. Her steps were unbalanced, both by her bodily soreness and hazy mind. She had to stop for a second, fearing going back to the last wagon. She was to cross the train connection again, and she hadn’t even worried about that when adrenaline was rushing through her veins. But now that it was fading, Lin was very much aware of the gap between the doors, the fast moving train and her inability to even walk straight. She looked forward, vision swaying but not blurry.

Lin held the door’s threshold, taking a big step. Maybe she would start being religious, based on the amount of prayers she sent to the gods in those five seconds that she needed to enter the last wagon again.

She half ran, half limped in Rowan’s direction. He had lost his gun, as had Perrington, and now both were just rolling on the ground, the punches they were throwing reverberating through the room. Lyria still had a grip on her knife, her back against the wall but hand raised to make sure Cain wouldn’t take one more step. Like Rowan, Fenrys and Cairn were brawling, Fenrys’s face sprayed with blood, his knuckles bleeding.

Lin looked around the room, looking for…

She sighed, holding the matches and explosives strongly. “Can’t you fucking stay down?”

Mr. C chuckled, taking a limping step towards her. It didn’t take one second before he tried to connect his fist with her face again, but this time Lin actually managed to dodge. Her clenched left fist hit him in the stomach at the same time he elbowed her right wrist.

The pain shot through her arm and hand, forcing her to drop the matches and explosive. The matches remained still, but the explosive rolled until the back of the wagon, almost falling through the back door.

Shit shit shit shit

She took her mind away from the fact that her only plan was in the back of the room now, focusing on blocking the blows the man in front of her wasted no time delivering.

“Cain!” The man shouted as he tried to hit Lin’s side with a right hook. He jerked his head to the connecting door, and through the corner of her eye Lin saw Cain leaving Lyria alone and rushing to the other wagon.

Lyria ran in Fenrys’s direction, slicing Cairn’s arm open as it was raised to punch Fenrys in the face.

Lin’s attention remained on them for a second too long. A second that caused her to receiver a smack against the throat, her guts constricting and allowing no oxygen in. She blinked the tears away, mouth open to get as much air as she could. She couldn’t stop, not now. She had to get him down, had to get to the fucking explosive.

“Perrington! Cairn!” Mr. C shouted, blocking a kick Lin tried to connect to his side.

They— Lin, Rowan, Lyria and Fenrys— were too busy fighting to realize what was happening. Cairn let go of Fenrys only to push Lyria so forcefully that her back and head slammed against the wall. Fenrys was immediately there, holding her in his arms. Turning his back to Cairn was a stupid move, but Lin knew that Fenrys’s complete attention was focused on the brunette in his arms.

Perrignton elbowed Rowan’s face, and Lin almost cringed at the sound of his silver head against the floor. There was some blood contrasting against the silver, and Lin’s stomach rolled. Just like Cain, Perrignton and Cairn ran to the other wagon.

“No.” Lin breathed.

At that, Mr. C smiled and kneed her in the stomach. Lin fell to her knees as she watched him follow his companions. “It’s a shame you must die. You seem interesting enough.”

Mr. C strolled to the other wagon, whistling. Lin grounded her teeth and got up, following him. He was already reaching the door that would take him back to the rooms compartments when Lin finally managed to leave the last wagon and enter the storage one. Regardless of the distance between them, Lin saw him smiling as he lit a single match.

And let said match drop on coal and the sheets she had thrown around. Almost immediately everything started catching on fire, and Lin didn’t know if she should focus on the flames or on the man slamming the door after him as he left.

“Did he just set fire to the train?” Lyria said from behind her. Lin looked back, seeing the brunette resting against Fenrys’s side on the other side of the train gap. Her eyes were wide, body trembling. “He’s going to kill everyone. He just fucking set fire to the train.”

As if her words had caused it, Lin had to hold herself against the threshold to not fall forward into the flames or backward into the gap. If she had fallen in the gap, it would take seconds for her to fall over the train and… well, die. The train had been completely shook, and Lin understood what had happened seconds later.

She stepped on the gap, cranking her neck to look to the front of the train. Her stomach rolled at her position, but she kept looking until her suspicions were confirmed.

“He detached the last two wagons from the front of the train.” She breathed, the flames now consuming the front wagon making her sweat. “Oh, gods.”

She only noticed how bad the fire had become when the flames licked her fingers. The hand she had against the threshold, holding her up so she wouldn’t fall off the train, felt as if it was burning. And so, stupidly, Lin let go of her grip with a pained shriek.

She only realized her mistake when she felt as if she was starting to fall.

Fucking gods, she was going to die in the most idiotic manner possible.

Lin closed her eyes, praying that dying wasn’t that painful when she felt a big and warm hand against her arm. She was pulled into the back wagon, hitting a man’s chest. His arms wrapped around her, and Lin wasn’t sure who was shaking more. When she looked up, Rowan was staring at her with both disbelief and anger. “Are you out of your fucking mind?”

“If you saved me to be a pain in the ass, you can just throw me back out.” Lin hissed, trying to cross her arms even if Rowan’s chest was pressed against hers. She was in the brink of death, but arguing with Rowan gave her some normalcy.

“Not to interrupt this beautiful moment between the future couple,” Fenrys said. “But can we take care of the imminent death first?”

“Fuck.” Rowan cursed, taking a few steps in the back wagon. Despite not being attached to the train, they were going extremely fast and this would kill them in the first curve.

That is, if the fire didn’t do so first.

Lyria had entered one alcove, coming back with a small hammer and pickax. Rowan immediately picked them up from her, jumping in the gap and starting to use the hammer to detach the pin holding the two wagons together. He barely did the second motion when the hammer broke, forcing him to use the pickax. “Come on! There’s gotta be something better than this in there!”

Fenrys and Lyria entered the other alcove, looking for a stronger tool. Lin, on the other hand, went straight for the explosives near the back door. She ran to Rowan, grabbing the matchbox as she went back. She lit the explosive, handing it to Rowan when the pickax also broke.

He stared at it for a second before shrugging, brows furrowed. “That will work.” He said, putting it in a hole in the gap. He jumped back to the wagon, rushing Lin to the furthest place from the connecting door. They crouched there, Fenrys and Lyria running to their direction and doing the same behind them.

“What the fuck do they teach you in those orphanages?” Rowan turned to Lin, incredulous.

Lin was about to answer when the loud sound reverberated, indicating that it had exploded. They raised their heads, watching as the wagon on fire disconnected from theirs.

Lin sighed in relief, even though they still had one problem to worry about.

“How the fuck are we going to stop?” Lyria asked, resting again against Fenrys. She closed her eyes, and Lin thought that she probably had hit her head pretty bad when Cairn threw her against the wall. Fenrys sat down with her, his arm around her shoulder.

Rowan stared at them for a second before turning away. He went directly to a chain pile resting on the ground. He grabbed it by one of the hooks, leaving it near the back door as he stepped out.

Lin shouted after him, running to the back door as well. She saw Rowan holding himself up by one arm, extending the other one. “Fenrys, give me the chain!” He shouted, and Lin immediately grabbed it and handed it to him. He raised his eyes to her, nose scrunching. “Not you.”

“Fenrys is busy.”

“I don’t trust you near train doors anymore.”

She rolled her eyes. “Just take the fucking chain, asshole!”

Rowan sighed, but he grabbed it. Lin saw him lowering himself, his head inches away from the tracks. He lopped the chain on the under part of the train, pulling it to make sure it was completely attached.

Some small parts of the underside of the train fell, going straight to Rowan’s face. Out of instinct, Lin reached forward, grabbing Rowan’s hand and pulling him inside.

He fell on top of her, panting hard. Lin was panting just as hard, and when she looked up at him, he was staring down on her. She looked at him a second too long before shoving him away.

“Get off of me!”

“I’m trying!” He grunted, sitting down. They both looked outside the back of the wagon, seeing the broken pieces of the train spiked against the wooden trails.

“And to think that could’ve been you.” She mused as they got up.

“If we live through this,” Rowan was saying as Lin turned her back and looked at Lyria’s direction to check on the girl. “Remind me to thank you.”

Lin snorted, kneeling again to push the other side of the chain off of the train. Rowan did the same, and they silently watched as the chain uncurled and uncurled until the anchor at the end of it caught in one of the wooden trails. The thing must have been so old that it completely broke, metal and wood disconnecting from the ground. Lin heard Lyria screaming, as well as Fenrys’s curses.

The wagon spun to the side, tilting slightly. Rowan put his arms around Lin’s body— one covering her back and the other one her head. She burrowed her face on his chest, closing her eyes as the wagon shook violently.

Shook, and shook and shook.

But each time slower.

It must have been the most stressful minute in Lin’s life, and when the wagon finally came to a full stop, she could almost cry of relief.

She kept her head against Rowan’s chest, too exhausted and pained to even move. The adrenaline in her body had ended, and now everything seemed heavy.

“I should have told the six of you to fuck off a week ago.” Lin complained.

She felt Rowan’s chest trembling with small laughter. “Yeah, you should have.”

They remained in silence for a while, each taking their time to recompose themselves.

“You can do it now.” Lin said, sitting up. She looked at Rowan, realizing his furrowed brows.

“Do what?”

“Thank me. You said if we survived you’d thank me.” She crossed her arms, looking around before letting her gaze fall back at him. They were in the middle of fucking nowhere, trees and more trees extending for miles. “So thank me. Also notice that I am incredible.”

Rowan’s jaw fell slightly, but he quickly recovered himself and rolled his eyes. “Thank you for being a decent human being, Ace.”

Lin was going to smile, was going to reply with a snarky comment when she saw two figures coming from the forest. They were all dressed in black from head to toe, impossible to recognize. They walked cautiously in the wagon’s direction, looking around to see if there was anyone else other than the four people inside.

When they both raised their guns, Lin simply sighed, raising her hands. “Here we fucking go again.”

————————

Aedion Ashryver was not a happy person.

He wasn’t unhappy, he just wasn’t happy either. Maybe somewhere in the middle.

In his opinion, happiness was a conjunction of many aspects. One of them was hope, and Aedion had lost that ten years ago when his kingdom was conquered and his cousin murdered.

Aelin had been his best friend, his confident. Despite the age difference, they had been inseparable and Aedion was closer to her than he was to anyone else. They were like brother and sister, always together. Losing Aelin had broken something so fundamental inside of him that he didn’t believe he could ever be truly happy again.

Until he met Lysandra.

Not in the way that Lysandra would substitute Aelin, or in the sense that they would fall madly in love and she would bring the light back to his life. No, Lysandra had changed everything because she possessed the most important information he could ever wish for.

Aelin was alive.

His little cousin, the person he swore to protect had been alive these ten years, living in a piss poor orphanage while he acted brooding in a beautiful palace in Banjali. The day he discovered it, when Lysandra had a photo of Aelin to prove what she was saying, Aedion had vomited his guts out. Vomited as he imagined his eight year old cousin alone, thrown in an orphanage and treated like shit. Vomited as he imagined what she must have gone through, what she had to learn in order to survive. He vomited because for every miserable day in her life that she managed to survive, he had been an ungrateful brat.

Mourning, anger and embarrassment clawed their way into his mind and heart, and Aedion couldn’t stop thinking about it, couldn’t stop wishing he had done something. He had taken too long, but he wouldn’t sit around and do nothing no more.

Aedion Ashryver was going to get his cousin back, and they would make up for the lost time.

He might normally have been an arrogant prick, but even he knew when to ask for help.

And Lysandra was the only person who actually knew Aelin. Knew her ways, her thinking, her tells and how she operated. If Aedion had any chance of finding his cousin in all Erilea, he would need the girl who had become Aelin’s sister during the past ten years. Convincing her hadn’t been that hard; Lys was as eager to find Aelin again as Aedion was. So, the following day when Aedion went back to that terrible bar and paid for Yrene and Lys’s debts, Lysandra didn’t hesitated in agreeing to help him.

Now, a week later, he was sitting in a small office, starring at the two men in front of him. Lysandra and Irene were standing behind him, both of them quiet. Aedion couldn’t let Yrene remain in that terrible place, so he offered her the same thing he had offered Lysandra: help me find my cousin. Yrene had immediately accepted, shocked to discover that the lost princess of Terrasen wasn’t that lost anymore.

“We need a guide.” Aedion said, shrugging. “You’re a famous detective, have travelled all around Erilea. You know people, and you know places. So, tell me, why wouldn’t I want you helping me?”

“It will be expensive.” The one sitting down said, his voice calm and cool. The man standing behind of him hand’t opened his mouth since they had come in, but he eyed Aedion, Irene and Lysandra suspiciously.

“Money is not a problem, I can assure.” Lysandra said for the umpteenth time. Aedion almost turned and thanked her for stepping in. If he had to say those words again, he might attack the man on the other side of the table. “We will pay you half now, half when we find her.”

“And who are we looking for, exactly?”

“Aelin Ashryver Galathynius.” Lys said, as Aedion was resting against the back of his chair. “We have concrete proof she is alive and well, but we do not know where.”

The man sitting down crossed his hands on top of the table, launching forward. He eyed Aedion, and then Yrene and then Lysandra with infinite and new interest. And when Dorian Havilliard smiled, Aedion knew he had gotten what he wanted.

“I never say no to an adventure, milady. And finding the lost princess sounds like a pretty good one for me.”

Aedion smiled at Lysandra, seeing her heart shaped face smiling back at her. She winked at him with her right almond shaped eye, and Aedion’s grin widened further.

This was going to be interesting and, when he got his cousin back, all of this would be happy.

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highqueenofelfhame · 5 years

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Once Upon an Ember - Teaser

The Yulemas party at the castle in Orynth was by far the biggest and best party in all of Erilea. Hundreds of people filled the elaborately decorated ballroom, all laughing and twirling to the music that the orchestra played. There were at least thirty Fraser Fir trees throughout the space, and that was only in the grand ballroom. There were hundreds throughout the castle, something that the royal family and the employees of the estate loved the most about the time of year. Ornaments and tinsels in Terrasen’s silver were wrapped around the trees with ornaments of all colors dangling from the branches. Holly and mistletoe, ribbons and bows were adorning the walls along with long shimmering panels of fabric. Massive ice sculptures sat around the room, carved into a massive stag and landscapes of mountains. Tables upon tables lined the walls, and were stacked full of any food that you could possibly dream of having, while a particular set of small hands were helping themselves to their second slice of chocolate hazelnut cake.

Aelin Ashryver Galathynius, heir to the throne of Terrasen, swiped a fingertip’s worth of icing from the top of her slice of cake. She was giggling as she weaved in and out of the crowd, curls bouncing and the emerald skirts of her dress swishing about her ankles as she ran. The boy that trailed her was considerably larger and the other side to her golden coin, calling her name with a laugh in his tone. Aedion Ashryver was hot on her trail, almost getting his fingers around the tail of her bow when she twisted and disappeared from view entirely.

“Mommy, look what I have!” She exclaimed, working her way into her mother's lap. Aelin looked up at the eyes that so perfectly mirrored her own.

“Are we ever going to get you to bed? At this rate you’ll have eaten so much cake, your father will have to roll you down the halls!” Fingers tickled at her stomach and sides, and Aelin let out such a joyous laugh that it had her father turning to join his wife and their only child. His smile was so bright that his eyes wrinkled at the corners as he dropped kisses to his daughter’s head, then a soft one to his wife’s mouth.

“Prince Rowan,” Rhoe Galathynius called to one of his guards, a young Prince of Doranelle, who immediately approached the Crown Prince of Terrasen. Aelin looked up at him from where she sat on her mother’s lap, unable to tear her eyes away from the bright green of his eyes. He was fifteen and training with the guard of Terrasen’s royal family, as well as assisting in Aelin’s magic training because he had wind and ice magic of his own. Rowan’s gaze shifted to the princess and he gave her a broad smile meant solely for her, one that she returned with just as much enthusiasm. If eight year old Aelin were to tell you a secret, it would be that she had a crush on Aedion’s best friend Rowan, and she loved it when he paid her any kind of attention. “Would you find Aedion and ask him to-“

An Arrow struck King Orlon straight through his heart where he sat at the center of the long table. Bright red blood bloomed across his chest, and screaming arose throughout the ballroom as flame erupted seeimingly from nowhere. It sent a shock through Aelin’s heart as she had the panic that her fire had come out of control - but it wasn’t fire of her own doing. It wasn’t her fire at all.

A deafening scream shook Aelin to her core as she whipped her head toward her mother, for her father was crumpling to his knees where he had been taking a step toward Rowan seconds prior. Blood was pouring from his neck, littering the ivory suit he wore with crimson.

“Your highness, we must-“ Rowan started to speak to Aelin’s mother but was cut off by a blow to his shoulder that had him staggering back. Rowan cursed as he yanked the arrow out, reaching for Evalin by the upper arm and drug her and Aelin back toward the corridor. They were trailed by a few guards, but they were soon knocked to their knees, blood spreading over their backs as they faceplanted onto the marble. The burning castle smelled like ash and burning hair, the sight of a flaming man running into one of the trees the last thing Aelin could make out as the ballroom disappeared from view.

The screams were unbearable, the roar of the fire so hot that Aelin thought it to be burning her skin. Evalin’s fingernails were digging into Aelin’s arm where she held her so tightly but Aelin couldn’t complain as she ran with her mother, only to be swept up by Rowan’s arms. Her mother dropped a necklace around her neck and pressed a kiss to her cheek.

“Get her out, Rowan, get her out, I have to find-“ her words were lost as an arrow shot through her heart, followed by a knife making its mark in her neck. Aelin was screaming, completely unaware when she started. Maybe all the screaming she had heard this whole time had been her own.

“I’ve got you, Aelin,” Rowan whispered into her hair, taking off down the corridor as two massive Fae men trailed behind them. Rowan threw arrows and knives of ice at their assailants, his speed only increasing as he ran. Faster and faster they went until he opened a door and shoved Aelin through it. “Run, Aelin. I’m right behind-“ his words were cut off by the door being slammed shut, the sound of bodies thwacking against the wood too loud. So she did as she was told. She ran.

The snow only made it harder as she sprinted, trying to summon enough of her fire to make a path and failing miserably. It was either too large a flame and she would get found, or too small to do anything significant and she wasn’t able to aim it well enough. She had never been able to control her fire, it was as wild and free as she was.

So she ran, struggling through the heaps and mountains of snow as she ran, and ran, and didn’t stop until she reached a bridge that covered the Avery River. She paused for half a second, her fingers closing around the necklace her mother had dropped around her neck. With a final glance back at the flaming castle; she took off across the bridge.

There was a loud crack, pain up her shins, and then she was free falling through the air until she splashed into the half frozen river. Her small arms and legs kicked against the current but she found it to be too debilitating, the movements of her arms slowing as she was finally swept under.

Nobody heard the Crown Princess scream, for it was drowned out by icy water that dragged her down into its unloving embrace.

@starseternalnighttriumphant @throne-of-ashes-and-beauty @musicmaam @city-of-fae @tacmc @anabelkay idk who else would want to be tagged in this but

#rowaelin #tog retelling #tog #throne of glass #aelin ashryver galathynius #rowan whitethorn #evalin ashryver #rhoe galathynius #terrasen #orynth #aedion ashryver #anastasia #anastasia au #i've been saying i was going to do this for like two months SO #here it is #once upon an ember #ouae

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cloudywriter · 3 years

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the lost princess of terrasen

rowaelin month - september 7th

prompt: fairytale au - (an anastasia au in this case)

important: okay y’all so i went way overboard with this entire au and it got out of hand so now this might just be a full-blown thing. however, with that whole releation and me going crazy with outlining and writing i could really only have this much of the story out and ready for today but i plan on continuing it!! hopefully after rowaelin month. enjoy this little introduction :)

(cw: brief descriptions of violence)

masterlist, AO3

~~~

At freshly 18, Celaena Sardothien was free. She’d aged out of the orphanage and was finally released to go live her own life, no longer held down in the outskirts of Rifthold. Celaena didn’t want to wait a second longer, the need to leave the horrid place she’d lived the last ten years was ingrained in her bones.

The woman who ran the orphanage, Clarisse, was cruel. From a young age, she poked at Celaena, commenting constantly on her weight or how she didn’t act like a proper young lady. Her entire life up until this point was spent at the mercy of Clarisse and her stern ways. All the girls in the orphanage were treated as maids and dolls for Clarisse to manipulate. But, Celaena made it, counting down the days until her birthday.

Now, here she was, stuck out in the cold. She’d imagined her freedom to be more alluring than this instead she was shaking as she wandered through side streets that led to the heart of Rifthold. She carried with her a backpack barely full of her meager belongings and the too-thin coat on her back. Clarisse didn’t even spare her a hat to keep out the cold so she moved her hair to shield her freezing ears the best she could and waddled along the snowy pavement.

She still had her kingsflame necklace around her neck, though, and that’s all that mattered. Where she had gotten it from she hadn’t a clue. The first memory she possessed was waking up in the very orphanage that would become her prison. Clarisse explained to her that she’d hit her head and a nice man named Arobynn had brought Celaena to Clarisse to be cared for. Clarisse questioned her about her family and upbringing relentlessly but Celaena could not recall a thing. Her mind was blank. For many nights as a young girl, she’d sit upright in the creaky, lumpy bed she occupied and willed herself to remember. She’d cry and scream, banging her fists into her head in frustration when nothing ever surfaced.

The only connection she had to whatever life she lived before was her kingsflame necklace. And she’d follow that kingsflame to the ends of the continent if it meant she’d one day solve the mystery of her existence.

Which led her to the first stop on her journey of discovery, Terrasen. Once Celaena had accepted that her memories weren’t coming back and this was the life she’d have to lead she adjusted. She served Clarisse and went to the small, dilapidated school down the street with the other orphans. There she discovered her love of books and the meager library the school offered became her sanctuary. It was there while she read a book on the kingdoms on Erilea, hoping something would strike her familiar she learned that kingsflame flowers only bloomed in one place, the capital of Terrasen, Orynth.

As a child that discovery was a revelation. Terrasen. Maybe she was from Terrasen.

As Celaena walked she felt her toes growing increasingly numb, Adarlan’s winters were bitter and she was not equipped with the proper wear. Her teeth chattered but she pushed forward, she needed to get passage to Terrasen.

She drew the map out of the pocket of her coat once again and checked the status of her journey. Only a little longer until she was at Rifthold’s main dock station.

The city of Rifthold was big and Celaena felt out of her depth as groups of people swarmed the streets walking to and from their different destinations. It was overwhelming, the smells, the tall buildings, the weather, the noise, the sheer number of people, everything.

Eventually, she saw the lights of the station and she blew a sigh of relief, she hadn’t been very confident in her ability to read a map. She approached a man sitting in a booth behind a sheet of glass, smoking a cigarette.

Celaena stepped up to the counter.

“Hello, sir, I’d like to buy a ticket to Orynth,” she gave him a smirk, leaning casually on the box. She’d learned from many years of coexisting with Clarisse and a revolving door of people that to make it through life you needed a mask. Celaena had crafted her mask carefully and had perfected her act after so many years. She exuded arrogance and confidence so that another soul would never see the scared, lost little girl she truly was.

The man grunted, blowing a puff of smoke from between his cracked lips. “Do you have your papers, girl?”

Her brain stalled. Papers? She cleared her throat, “papers?”

“Yes,” his scratchy voice replied, “you need papers to cross the border.”

Celaena’s heart sank but she kept her expression neutral. “Well, I-”

“Listen, girl, I’m not going to sit here and waste your time so don’t sit here and waste mine. If you don’t have the right documents then I can’t sell you a ticket, simple as that,” he held the cigarette between his teeth.

She searched for some way to turn this situation around, chewing on her bottom lip.

From the shadows a little ways into the dark alley adjacent to the docks, she heard a hissed whisper. “You, blondie,” an old woman emerged slightly from the shadows, beckoning Celaena forward with her index finger.

Celaena looked around, the man in the booth was already back to ignoring her, his nose stuck in a newspaper so she decided to approach the woman. She didn’t have much to lose and Celaena thought if it went south she could take her.

Celaena crept closer, tightening her grip on the strap of her backpack.

“You need papers?” Her voice was hoarse as if her throat was made of sandpaper. Celaena nodded her head keeping her guard up, watching her surroundings out of her peripheral.

“I know who can get you some,” her face morphed into a slight smile that unsettled Celaena more than anything. Celaena furrowed her brows, “who?” The woman tsked at her, her hot breath forming a cloud in front of her face.

“That kind of information isn’t free, my dear.” Celaena had to resist the urge to roll her eyes, everything came with a price in this world.

Celaena reached around to the side pocket of her backpack, fishing out a few coins she had to spare. She’d saved just enough from doing odd jobs to pay her fare to Terrasen. She deposited the coins into the palm of the old woman’s hand, her knobby fingers running along their smooth edges.

“Go a few streets north and into the red brick warehouse with the large windows, you can’t miss it. Ask for a Mr. Rowan Whitethorn, he’ll get you the papers,” she instructed, hoarding the scant sum of money she was given as though they were priceless heirlooms. Celaena turned her head in the direction the woman directed as if she could spot the warehouse from here and by the time she rounded back the woman had disappeared once again.

Celaena huffed and shot another glance at the ticket man, he was still paying no attention, tapping his cigarette out with his finger. She didn’t necessarily want to go on a wild goose chase to obtain these papers but she had no other way of getting them so she breathed deeply and shoved her hands into her pockets and twisted north.

The woman was right about not being able to miss the warehouse. It was a large, old, imposing structure, clearly, it had not been in use for some time now. Celaena crept closer peering into the foggy windows as she passed the front of the building. She couldn’t see anything and was unconvinced she’d find the elusive ‘Rowan Whitethorn’ inside.

Nonetheless, she approached a rusting metal door on the side and pushed it open with her gloved hand. The door protested but it miraculously opened revealing a wide area stacked high with boxes along the walls and corners.

She ventured further into the space, dust and broken glass crunching beneath her boots. She didn’t see any signs of life besides maybe some rats. As she neared the opposite corner what could’ve been a makeshift sitting area came into view, blocked from view initially by a stack of boxes. She approached noting the circle of crates, a dusty blanket, and a few books piled on the side.

She peered at the title of the book on the top of the stack.

The Royal Family of Terrasen. Mixed emotions surged through her body.

“Who’s in here?” A male voice boomed nearly rattling the windows. Celaena shuttered, letting her bravo fill her bones as she heard a set of footsteps enter the space.

+++

Rowan Whitethorn’s life since the fall of Terrasen and the reign of the Valg had been a hell-hole, to put it bluntly. His family fell out of status, his parents were slain in the ambush on Orynth’s castle, and Rowan was left in an unfamiliar land at twelve years old.

A sect of the Whitethorn house had been visiting Terrasen’s court for the holidays when Maeve made her move against the continent. Doranelle crumpled first to her rule and Terrasen followed, the army of Valg she’d amassed was too large to stand against. Adarlan only survived because King Dorian bowed down to Maeve.

Even now at twenty-two, he has nightmares about that evening. The terror he felt as Valg poured into the ballroom and slaughtered the royals. The terror he saw in the princess of Terrasen’s eyes as she was shoved into the kitchens by her nursemaid where Rowan had happened to take shelter as well. He was scared too, running as soon as his father screamed at him to as the Valg slit his throat. He regretted it deeply, leaving like a coward when the palace was invaded. He regretted the cowering he did in the kitchens as well but when the young princess had burst in the doors, tears flowing freely down her cheeks something had come over him. He had pushed her out into the snow yelling at her to run and she did, scrambling to find her footing.

The rest was a blur, the Vlag hurried into the kitchens soon after but somehow Rowan made it out with his life. The same could not be said for many people in the castle that night.

Now, Rowan lived in Rifthold as a thief and doer of other’s dirty work. He longed for the day he could get out of this city of nightmares crawling with Valg. One day, he promised himself, one day he’d have to funds to make it back to Wendlyn and witness what had become of his home.

There was an opportunity, though, that’d heard about from whispers on the streets. Aedion Ashryver. One of the few survivors from Terrasen’s downfall. He chosen to stay in Terrasen’s territory afterward, the country had no real structured ruling now. The old King-Consort Darrow was the closest thing there was to a king but from what he’d gathered the man is old and weak, not the same after the death of his husband, King Orlon. Terrasen had virtually crumbled.

Somehow, Aedion had built up the Bane and gained standing for himself. A standing he was using to campaign to find his long-lost cousin. How Maeve hadn’t gotten wind of Aedion and his plotting and squashed him, Rowan wasn’t sure. Nevertheless, Aedion was offering a hefty reward for the return of his dear Aelin, the nation’s true queen, convinced she was still alive.

Rowan thought the operation was useless. Her body was never found, that was true, but he imagined she’d likely fled into the Oakwald forest and perished from hypothermia not long after. If he could make a pretty penny from returning the ‘princess’ to Aedion, though, he wasn’t above doing so.

All Rowan needed was a young, blonde, and blue-eyed woman he could convince to join his cause and he could coach her to be the perfect replacement for Aelin. Truthfully, he wasn’t convinced this could ever be achieved but it was something he’d contemplated.

Rowan was making his way back to the warehouse he liked to operate his more shady business out of, the biting cold seeping into his clothes. The looming, muddy red-brick building came into view and he pushed the frosted metal door open. Immediately, he was aware that someone had invaded his space.

Small footsteps had disrupted the layer of dusk along the floor. His hand flew to the dagger strapped to his chest as he prowled further inside.

“Who’s in here?” he called out, gripping the dagger tightly by its handle. Once he got far enough into the space he could see a young woman was standing near his makeshift seats.

The first thing he noticed was she was beautiful. Long, golden blonde hair flowed down her shoulders, her skin was pale and her lips had a blue tint to them. Rowan pushed aside all those unsavory thoughts, she was an intruder after all. However, he couldn’t help but study her, she was dressed far too light for the dead of winter, not even a hat on her head.

She looked right back at him, accessing him as he was her. She didn’t look scared to have been caught trespassing, no, honestly, she looked annoyed as if he was interrupting her.

“Who the hell are you?”

~~~

let me know if y’all like it so far and would like to see more, xoxo

#rowaelin fanfic #aelin x rowan #rowan x aelin #rowaelin #rowan whitethorn #aelin ashryver galathynius #aedion ashryver #throne of glass #throne of glass fanfiction #rowaelin month #rowaelin au #rowaelin fanfiction

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louiseleblancdiggory · 4 years

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Once Upon a December

Chapter 4: Things My Heart Still Needs to Know

A/N: So instead on doing this only from Rowan and Aelin’s POV I decided to add a little bit of Lysandra so we know whats happening on the other side of the continent! This was so fun especially because I love a little mystery and a certain character we learn more about here. If I forgot to tag you please tell me. Enjoy!

Masterlist

Chapter 3 // Chapter 5

“Who are you?” Lysandra breathed, completely shocked. The man in front of her eyed her curiously, as if he too wanted to know who she was.

Lysandra usually was careful not to call attention to herself, had learned that with Yrene who had been here longer than she had, but she couldn’t help with this man. Whoever he was, he had to be related to Lin somehow.

“Who’s asking?” His voice was deep, a mix of accents making the words sound like a song. The accent from Eyllwe and… Terrasen?

“I— You—“ Lysandra was, for the first time in her life, completely speechless. Growing up in a poor orphanage in Adarlan, Lysandra always knew what to do or say to get out of a situation. Always had something on the tip of her tongue, usually a lie. But right now all she could do was stare at the turquoise and gold eyes that belonged to her best friend.

And to this man, apparently.

“I usually do leave women speechless, don’t worry.” He joked, a small smile on his lips. When she didn’t laugh, didn’t stop staring at him, the smile dropped and his eyes narrowed. “What?”

“Who are you?” She repeated, eyes wide.

“Aed!” Yrene said, coming from the kitchen. She didn’t realize the staring match Lysandra was having with the man. “It’s been a year since you came by!”

“Hello, Yrene.” His eyes softened, and he smiled at the barmaid. “Who’s this?”

“Oh! This is Lys, she’s new. Has been with us for eleven months now.” Yrene said, patting Lysandra’s shoulders before starting to retreat into the kitchen. “I’m on kitchen duty right now, but Lys can get whatever you want.”

“Hello, Lys.” His voice held humor, and Lysandra slowly came out of her stupor enough to narrow his eyes at him. The necklace around her neck was becoming heavier and heavier.

“Who are you?” She said a third time, her voice harder now.

He leaned in, whispering as if to tell her a secret. “Aedion Ahsryver, milady.” He winked at her.

Ashryver. Ashryver. Where had she heard…. Ahsryver.

No.

“As in royal Ashryver?” Her voice came out slowly and calmly, but her mind was racing.

“As in ex royal Ashryver, yes.” He joked, but his voice held some bitterness.

Lysandra stared at Aedion for a few seconds before turning around. She walked until her hand was on the doorknob to the back door. She opened it gently, closing it behind her with nothing more than a click. She breathed in the air, not even caring that it smelled like piss and trash. She needed oxygen, needed to clear her thoughts. With extremely steady hands, she grabbed her necklace.

Lysandra had always joked that it was unfair that Lin had such beautiful necklace— a series of overlapping circles forming the shape of an eye with a blue stone in the middle— and she had none. So on her seventeenth birthday Lin had taken her to the fair and bought her a cheap locket. The real present was when Lin took her to one of the few photographic stations in Erilea, taking a picture of the two of them and putting inside the locket.

“It’s out family heirloom now. The first one.” Lin had said, a smile on her lips. “Because we are sisters. Maybe not by blood, but you are my family, Lys.”

Now, as Lysandra opened her locket and looked at the picture inside, she didn’t see Lin.

No, she saw the man inside. She saw the fallen royal of a kingdom neighbor to the one she had grown up. She saw the defining traits, the eyes, the mouth, nose and jaw.

Lysandra stared at the locket and didn’t see Lin Sirota.

She saw Aelin Ashryver Galathynius.

Lysandra vomited, barely hearing the approaching footsteps.

——————————————————

Lin was finally alone.

It had been five days since they got in the train and started their way to Banjali. They were currently in the middle of gods-know-where, and Lin had spent most of her day with Gav and Vaughan studying the royal family tree.

And exchanging scornful looks with Rowan, but that was besides the point. The man apparently had decided that he hated her guts with all his might, and Lin wasn’t all that sad about having someone to throw her anger at.

Around four, everyone decided to go to their own cabins and relax before dinner. They had been eating dinner in the privacy of their cabins for the past days, not wanting to draw too much attention. Today would be the first night they would go to the dining room.

Connall and Vaughan had been the first to leave. Gavriel and Lorcan were sharing one of the cabins, Fenrys and Rowan were in the other one and, as requested, she had her own. For forty minutes now she was sitting in silence, Fleetfoot asleep on the floor. The only sound was her fingers playing with the pendant on her necklace.

Aelin had asked if Gav had any books she could read. Most had been geography books, and although she didn’t hate geography, reading a whole book about it sounded brutal. Thankfully, he also had some history ones. With the excuse of keeping her studies, Lin grabbed one about the old royals.

The book was interesting, but Lin was so tired that she was dozing off when a knock came from the door. She sighed, having an instinct of who was knocking in such impolite manner.

“You can’t stay away, can you, Mr. Whitethorn?” She said as she opened the door, and there, as expected, was Rowan.

He had a frown on his face, but the sneer wasn’t there so Lin considered him in a good mood. Maybe he had taken a nap and calmed down, like those old cranky men usually did.

She took a step aside, letting him get into her cabin. As much as she had said she didn’t want to be disturbed by any of them whenever they weren’t practicing, Lin had to admit that she was infinitely curious to know what had brought Rowan here. She went back to her seat and plopped down, grabbing the book again. From the corner of her eye she could see him sitting down, giving the cabin a look that left clear all his discontent and how uncomfortable he was.

That was enough to make her smile a little.

“Look, Lin…” He forced out, as if the words physically hurt him. “I think we started off on the wrong foot.”

Oh, this was going to be fun.

“I do, too.” She said, her voice solemn.

“Ok.” He breathed.

“And I appreciate your apology.”

And just like that, the forced calm was gone. “Apology? Who said anything about an apology? I was just—“

“Mr. Whitethorn, don’t say anything else.” She raised her eyes from the book and looked straight at him. “It will only upset me.”

“Are you fucking serious right now?” He asked and Lin almost laughed at the incredulity on his face. “What about you apologize?”

“And what in Hella’s realm would I apologize for?” She dropped the book, her temper rising.

“Would you believe if I told you I made the same question to myself seconds ago?” He mocked, crossing his arms.

Oh.

She crossed her arms too, raising her chin. “You mean to tell me that you haven’t been awfully rude for the past days and—“

“And you have been such a charm, isn’t that right?” He interrupted her.

“And,” she continued as if he hadn’t said a word. “You want me to believe that it wasn’t Gavriel who told you to come here and set things straight?”

The moment his jaw clenched, Lin had her answer. Gav was the peace keeper and he would undoubtedly tell Rowan to stop bothering her at some point. She had to admit that she was surprised it had taken only a week.

“I was trying to be nice.” Rowan said, through clenched teeth.

“It didn’t work.” She replied with a sweet smile. “Actually—“

“Do you ever shut up?”

“You want me to be quiet?” Her jaw dropped. He was in her cabin taking up her time and he had the audacity to tell her to shut up.

“It is my greatest wish.” He slumped on his seat, and Lin wanted to jump on him and strangle his pretty neck.

“Fine!”

“Fine!” She said louder, turning her head to the window. She knew she should kick him out, but her temper still hadn’t calmed down and she was itching to continue their sparring. She tried to soothe her nerves. She breathed in and out, watched the Oakwald trees passing by, tried to count to ten. Maybe if she tried to be civilized she would be able to kick him out faster and without further damage. “Will you miss it?”

“You talking? Hardly.”

And there was her temper rising again. “I meant Orynth, asshole.”

“Why the hell would I miss that piss poor city?” He sounded genuinely confused, and she turned her eyes back to him to see his brows furrowed.

“It was your home.” She said simply.

“It was a place where I lived. End of story.”

“That’s sad.” The words left her mouth before she could consider them, and Rowan’s gaze held so much wrath she had the mind of apologizing. “Sorry, it’s just that living most of your life without a home sounds shit. No wonder you’re like that.”

She knew it was the wrong thing to say the moment his face hardened.

“What’s up with you and homes, huh? Did you have a home, Lin? Did you have nice Yulemas mornings and happy Beltane celebrations? Did you have a beautiful house to go back every night?” His voice was dripping with venom, and that time it actually hurt. He knew she was an orphan, knew she had lived her whole life in an Adarlanian orphanage. And although he was an idiot, he wasn’t dumb. Rowan knew exactly how living in a poor orphanage in Adarlan as an immigrant and a Sirota meant.

He was just trying to hurt her by saying she never had a home either.

And it worked.

“I don’t know, to be honest.” She wanted to hurt him. Wanted to make him feel like the scum of the earth. “Because I have no memories before the age of eight so I wouldn’t know if I ever had a home. I wouldn’t know if I had happy Yulemas mornings or Beltane celebrations, and a house to call home, Rowan. As for later, the orphanage was as shit as you can most likely imagine but I did have family there, so yes, I had a home. It was shabby, shit and depressing but I would give anything to go back to it the way it was a year ago.”

She got up, and his eyes trailed her but he didn’t get up.

“Don’t try to make me be as pathetic as you, Whitethorn. You and I had the same shit, the difference is that I’m not a prick for no fucking reason.” She walked to the door, and even though she knew that this was her cabin and that he should be the one leaving, she couldn’t stay here. “Talk about my home like that again and I will fucking gut you while you sleep.”

“Lin…” He started, but she slammed the door after her, walking down the corridor.

She was fuming. She wanted to go back there and tear Rowan to shreds, but also wanted to walk until she had calmed down every single nerve in her body. Since murdering Rowan wouldn’t make her companions too happy, she opted for the latter.

How dare he speak of her life as he knew anything.

How dare him come to her only to try to hurt her.

How dare he—

Her racing thoughts were interrupted the moment a massive body hit her. She grabbed onto one of the windowsills, trying not to fall, and looked up. The man was almost as tall as Rowan or Lorcan, his brown hair was tied in a bun and deep blue eyes looked at her with so much scorn that he could probably give Rowan a run for his money.

“Watch where you’re going.” His voice was raspy and it send a shiver down her spine. He looked her up and down, giving Lin a disgusting smile before walking away. “Or maybe I’ll have to watch you.”

Lin had survived ten years dealing with shit, with people trying to hurt her everyday. She knew how to fight and definitely knew how to kill someone if the occasion asked for it. She could protect herself.

But in that moment all she wanted was to go to the boys. She didn’t want to ever see that man again, much less be alone with him in a corridor for the rest of her life. Maybe she’d convince Lorcan to kick the man out of the train. While it was moving. It sounded like the type of thing Salvaterre would enjoy.

“He barks more than he bites.” A feminine voice came from behind her, and Lin’s soul left her body as she yelped.

Lin turned around to see Lyria standing there, arms crossed and a small smile on her face. Lin would have snapped at her, but she knew that if it had been anyone else yelping how she had seconds ago, she would have wanted to laugh too.

“Who’s the brute?” Lin gestured to the retreating form that had hit her seconds ago.

“Cairn.” Lyria scrunched her nose in disgust. When she turned to Lin again, her face softened. “I take you were talking to Rowan.”

“Do I look this mad?” She replied, but a small smile also played on her lips.

“I don’t even want to know what he said.” Lyria sighed, putting her hands inside the pockets of her skirt. “Rowan can be brutal, but he’s a really good person when you get past his defenses.”

Lin was taken aback for a moment. This girl standing in front of her had nothing to do with the one in the platforms. This one seemed nice and warm, still holding a little of love for Rowan. The one in the platform had been cold and distant, wanting nothing more than strangle Rowan.

Lin would probably like the girl a lot if she did strangle her ex boyfriend.

“I thought you didn’t like him.” Lin admitted, and Lyria raised a brow, her warm eyes dancing with humor. “Or me, for that matter. In the platforms earlier you weren’t exactly…”

“Pleasant? Yes, I am sorry for that.” She seemed genuinely sorry, even bowing her head a little. “But appearances matter a lot, Lin, don’t forget that.”

Lin didn’t know what to respond to that, so she only tucked that piece of information in the back of her mind to analyze later.

“Would you like to have tea? Or coffee? With food, of course. Dinner isn’t served until eight and I am starving.” Lyria asked, her voice a little hopeful.

Lin knew the girl worked for the queen, and that should have been enough to make her suspicious. But Lyria seemed ok, nice even. If she was here with men like Cairn, her travel must have been brutal for the last couple of days. Lin didn’t need a new sister, she had Lysandra, but maybe having another woman that she could talk and befriend would be… Wouldn’t be terrible.

Lin’s smile was genuine when she answered Lyria’s question. “I’d love to. I have tired of my companions already, anyways.”

Lyria’s laugh at that had been genuine, too.

———————————————

“You are a women’s charmer. No one is at your level. Unparalleled, honestly.” Fenrys was saying and Rowan wanted to punch his teeth in. “In one week, one week, you managed to piss off Lin so much that now she’s chatting with you ex. It’s a record. Isn’t it a record, Gav?”

Gav snickered, as did the rest of them. Around seven, all six of them had decided go to the lounge to drink something and talk.

All of them had been shocked the moment they saw Lin and Lyria sitting at a table, laughing and talking as if they had been friends for years now.

“Can someone please shut Fenrys up?” Rowan grumbled.

“I have been trying for twenty years now.” Connall sighed, and Vaughan laughed at his husband. “Nothing works, unfortunately.”

“Poison, maybe?” Vaughan helped.

“Don’t kill my brother.” Connall turned to Vaughan.

“Yeah, don’t kill me, dickwad.” Fenrys butted in.

“Fenrys is right, though.” Lorcan said, his usual sarcastic smile on his lips. “What did you do to the girl?”

Rowan could feel his cheeks heating, and he looked at Lin again. He had been horrible.

Absolutely and disgustingly horrible.

Lin could get under his skin so fast that he didn’t even realized how pissed he was until they had started arguing. She was too sarcastic and too smart and the fact that she had taken a dislike in him the same way he had taken one in hers annoyed him endlessly. When arguing earlier, she had poked a sensitive part of his life and in that moment he hated her for it.

Now, he realized that there was no way she even knew it was a sore topic, but at the moment his emotions had been screaming so loudly that he didn’t even consider his next words. And they had been mean and low and he was so deeply ashamed that he didn’t know how he would even talk to her from now on. He should apologize for being purposefully mean, for using the little bit of information he knew about her to make her feel like shit.

Even though they only knew each other for about a week now, Rowan could notice that Lin was a secretive person. Whenever talking about her life, her hobbies or anything that would give them insight on who she was, Lin had been vague and superficial. She didn’t want them actually knowing her, and after today Rowan only had himself to blame.

And now she was chatting with Lyria as if nothing had happened.

The sight was strange. He hadn’t seen Lyria so free and talkative since she went to work for Maeve. After that, she had distanced herself, becoming colder and colder. It had broken Rowan’s heart in the beginning. Although she seemed to not think so, he had loved her. Rowan had loved Lyria in whatever way he knew, in whatever way he could. She had been the love of his adolescence, and she would always be a part of his story even though both of them were so different now.

There were things he hadn’t told her, but not because he didn’t trust her, but because he couldn’t voice them. Lyria had been so bright, so pure and lovely that Rowan couldn’t stand smudging all those qualities with his dirty past. Maybe it had also been his fault that they didn’t work out. He used to think it had been all about her working for the woman he hated, about her distancing herself from him, but he realized that he had been doing that for far longer than she had.

Gosh, he was a piece of shit.

“I’m a piece pf shit.” He said as much.

“Yes, you are!” Fenrys replied happily. Rowan turned to scowl at him, and Fenry’s smile immediately dropped. Not because of Rowan, though.

“Oh, fuck.” Gav muttered.

“Well, well, well… If it’s not dumb, dumber and dumbest.” Fenrys scoffed, staring at the doors to the lounge.

Standing there was Cairn, Cain and Perrington. All of his companions, and Rowan included, were familiarized with the three men. Whenever Lyria went to talk to them again, one had been flanking her back. The three were part of Maeve’s inner circle along with Lyria.

Rowan sometimes wondered how Lyria, who had been so sweet, endured working with those three pieces of shit. They reeked of cruelty and violence. Cain was known for doing Maeve’s hands-on dirty work, and Perrington was the one that did the political dirty work. Cairn was just a fucking sadist and Rowan shivered whenever he wondered what dirty work he was in charge of.

Rowan felt, more than saw, all his brothers tensing up when Cairn approached Lin, putting a hand on her shoulder. Despite Lin’s protests and announcements that she had no interest in befriending any of them, the cadre— as she liked to call them— had taken a certain liking and sense of protectiveness of her. Rowan was sure that Lorcan and Fenrys were about to walk up to Cairn when Lin got up, aggressively brushing the hand on her shoulder off and turning to the man with so much hate in her eyes that Rowan was glad he had never pissed her off to that point.

She mouthed something to him and Lyria bit her lower lip, trying not to smile. Lin, however, gave Cairn an ironic smile, turning back to Lyria. She said something, and the brunette only nodded, a smile on her lips.

When Lin noticed the other two men behind Cairn, her brows furrowed. She looked around until her eyes fell on them, and Fenrys gave her a subtle nod and walked a few steps in her direction. Lin turned back to the three man from Maeve’s inner circle, flipping them off as she walked to Fenrys. She looped her arm in his, and by the tightness on her mouth, she knew that Cain, Cairn and Perrington were still watching her.

“It was stupid to think Maeve would let all of us leave Orynth with just a few questions.” Connall said as his twin brother approached, Lin in his arm. “We should have realized when Lyria was in the platform days ago.”

“But the whole inner circle?” Vaughan asked, giving up his stool for Lin to sit down.

“Erawan is still with her.” Lorcan grunted, his eyes on the three man now sitting with Lyria. Where a laughing girl had been just minutes ago, now was a tense, cold woman.

“They are going to Melisande’s capital. Lyria told me.” Lin said, taking a sip from one of their drinks. By the way Fenrys narrowed his eyes, it was his.

Rowan wanted to bet twenty coppers that Lin knew exactly whose drink she was taking and knew that it would have been better if it was Vaughan’s or Gav’s.

“And why would we believe Lyria?” Lorcan asked, turning his head to her.

She merely shrugged. “I didn’t say we believed. I actually didn’t say anyone believed it.” She said calmly, taking another sip. Rowan didn’t fail to notice that she was ignoring him, refusing to let her gaze fall on him as she looked at the other five. “But I do, if you are wondering.”

“And why is that?”

Another shrug. “She’s nice.”

All of them were shocked, Rowan knew. Lin didn’t seem like the type to make friendships so fast, especially with people that could be a threat to her.

“She works with the new queen.” Vaughan said slowly, as if talking normally would scare Lin back into her shell.

“And so I have been told.” Her bored mask slipped, and a small smile played on her lips.

“She would turn you in if she knew what we were doing.” Fenrys said without Vaughan’s gentleness.

“Would she now?” Lin looked extremely amused by this conversation. “I take you guys know her well, then.”

And for the first time since she sat down, her eyes fell directly upon Rowan.

Part of Rowan wanted to ask what they had talked about, and the other part was too scared to even wonder.

“She tried to recruit us for Maeve’s inner circle a few times.” Lorcan’s voice sounded when Rowan didn’t respond to Lin’s silent inquire.

“Always with one of those pieces of shit with her.” Connall grunted, his eyes burning holes on Cain’s back.

“Every time she went to ask you to join she was with one of them?” Lin asked carefully, something shining on her eyes. Rowan tried to grasp what it was, but it wasn’t working.

Gav nodded, also studying Lin.

“Hum… Appearances matter a lot…” She muttered, but somehow Rowan knew she wasn’t talking to them, only thinking out loud. When she raised her eyes, Rowan finally identified what was gleaming on her turquoise and gold eyes.

Understanding.

Lin had understood something in that moment and after their fight today, Rowan knew she wouldn’t be inclined in sharing. She turned her head to Lyria at the same time Lyria turned to her. They shared a barely perceptible nod.

“What was that?” He finally said, his voice a little harsher then he expected.

Lin merely shrugged again, ignoring the cadre’s eyes on her while she sipped Fenrys’s drink.

If Rowan wanted to know what was going on, he would need to get in Lin’s good side.

And for that he would need to apologize.

He would do it that night, he decided, after dinner.

The moment he decided that, Lin’s eyes snapped to his as if she could hear his thought. The gold ore in her eyes looked molten, burning. The tightness of her mouth, the small crease between her eyebrows and her flaming eyes showed Rowan he would need to apologize a lot.

The girl was wildfire and she wanted nothing more than to burn him alive.

———————————————

Lyria was playing a very, very dangerous game if Lin’s assumptions were correct.

And maybe because the girl reminded Lin a little bit of Lysandra, a little bit of herself, she couldn’t help but worry about her safety.

The same way she thought Lyria wasn’t all that loyal to Maeve, she had no doubt her three companions were. And they didn’t look like the merciful type, the I-take-prisoners type. No, those men reeked of violence and sadism and Lin could only imagine what would happen if she was right and Lyria was caught doing something she shouldn’t.

The first moment Lin found Lyria’s situation a little bit strange was when they met in the corridor and the girl said something about how appearances were important. And then, during the hours they sat and talked… Lyria didn’t seem like a cruel fanatic, blind by her queen’s wishes. No, she sounded like a lovely twenty year old. She never once sounded angry or bitter, even when talking about Rowan. The girl was extremely open about her emotions and past, and didn’t seem to hold a grudge.

Nothing screamed mean bitch as it had in the platforms days ago.

And then when Connall said that there was always someone else from Maeve’s inner circle with her… Lin could have been wrong, but an insistent voice in the back of her head kept saying that she was right. That there was more she wasn’t seeing.

She kept the rest of the evening quiet. She ate with the cadre, and if they noticed how serious and voiceless she had become, none commented on it. They talked about what they would do in Perranth in a few days. The train would stop there for a few hours, and there were some things they needed to buy before leaving Terrasen. Lin only wished to buy a few books of her liking and maybe clothes that actually fit her size.

She wanted to talk to Lyria before going to her cabin, but Cain, Perrington and Cairn never left her side, and this wasn’t a conversation to have with people listening. So she only bid farewell to the cadre— pointedly ignoring Rowan— and went to her room.

She was still fucking pissed at Whitethorn, even more so that he hadn’t apologized. But she had to admit that she was also ashamed. She wasn’t innocent in all of this, and she had said some things she regretted.

She had half a mind of going to talk to him, maybe settle things. They could live in silence, never talking to one another instead of bickering all the time. That’s what Gav had sent him to do earlier, wasn’t it? But if she went to talk to him right now, not knowing what to say beforehand, the argument would probably escalate even more.

Better to leave it alone than to make it worse.

She took a quick bath, the water running cold a little bit too quickly for her liking. Fortunately it was already hot, so she wasn’t freezing by the time she stepped onto her silky nightgown and started drying her hair. The long golden waves fell down her back, and although Lin knew that shorter hair would be more practical, she couldn’t bring herself to cut it.

Lin eyed the mirror. She knew she was pretty, it had been a fact that brought her a lot of undesirable attention during the past ten years. She supposed most girls liked being beautiful, and she did too, but she also knew that her life would have been easier of she had common features.

Fenrys kept saying that she had the face of a royal. For the first time, Lin considered his words as she analyzed herself in the mirror. Her skin was flawless and creamy, the pimples from her younger years long gone. The only markings were a small scar above her left eyebrow and an even smaller one on her upper lip. Her nose and cheeks were peppered with freckles, a small mole under her right eye and mostly hidden by her lashes. Small straight nose, pinkish full lips and high cheekbones, Lin supposed she could pretend to be a princess.

“Eyes of a queen, though.” Fenrys would say, giving her a wink. She stared at her eyes then, the turquoise bright under the moonlight and the circle of gold looking molten.

Yes, she could pretend to be royalty just fine.

She felt a sharp pain in the back of her mind, and for a moment her vision swayed and she was in another room, a younger girl staring at the mirror. Same eyes, same hair but the features showed a chid no older than nine. The little girl smiled as two figures walked into her room, a brown haired man and a woman that looked so much like her that it could only be her mother. The girl opened her mouth to say something, and Lin let out a moan of pain as the vision disappeared and a headache formed between her brows.

She was breathing hard, her reflection on the mirror showing her red eyes rimmed with silver. She blinked forcefully and a tear slid down her cheek, the headache worsening.

She really though she had left the whole insanity thing behind.

Sighing, Lin went to her small bed, pulling the covers up to her chin even though it was burning hot now.

The pulse in the back of her head came back full force, a little bit different from the headache. The pulse was exactly like the one she had felt that day in the castle, the one she had felt when she first saw Rowan.

Unable to sleep and starting to sweat under the covers, Lin threw them back, grabbed her silky robe and put it on. She didn’t know where she was going, but as she started walking towards the end of the train, the pulse became stronger, quicker. She didn’t know why she kept going, but when she reached the last wagon, voices fluttered from inside.

Lin took a step in, watching five figures standing by the end of the wagon. She narrowed her eyes trying to see something in the darkness as a hand came around her mouth and one around her waist, pulling her inside a hidden alcove.

She was starting to panic, reading to start trying to scream when her back hit her assailant’s chest. A chest she had hit before. Part of her nerves calmed at that, and when the voice she had known for the past few days whispered in her ear, even the pulse inside her head stopped.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Rowan whispered, his voice barely audible to her. She turned her head slightly, staring at his pine green eyes.

He looked furious.

Good, so was she. He scared the hell out of her.

Lin moved her mouth against his hand, and he understood what she wanted. He took his hand from her mouth, but kept the one on her waist as if to hold her in case she decided to do something very, very stupid.

“I can ask you the same!” She said in the same tone he had, but made sure by the look on her face that she wanted to be screaming at him.

“I—“

Rowan was interrupted when the hushed voices became louder, a particular one making both Lin and Rowan tense up.

“Please.” Lyria’s voice pleaded.

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louiseleblancdiggory · 4 years

Text

Once Upon a December

Chapter 1: A Song Someone Sings

A/N: I can’t believe that there are people that are actually interested in this... I hope it’s not a complete hot garbage. I had to change some aspects to fit all characters and their personalities but I hope you guys like it!

Prologue // chapter 2

---

“Are you fucking shitting me?”

The slap came only a few seconds later, stinging her left cheek and undoubtedly leaving a reddish mark. Shit shit shit.

Clarisse’s rule number one: no fucking swearing, especially at her.

It was one of the rules that mostly got Lin in trouble, causing the orphanage’s master to leave a series of bruises throughout her body during the ten years she lived in that hellhole. Minor swearings usually earned her slaps or pinches, and if she continued to say them afterwards, Lin would probably receive a full beating. It was absolutely miserable.

Until the year before, however, she wouldn’t be receiving those slaps alone. Until a year before, if Lin was swearing from the top of her lungs, Lysandra was definitely there with her, saying things just as filthy. Sometimes they would get caught, but sometimes not even Clarisse could find them when they sneaked off the orphanage to steal alcohol from the market and then went to a rooftop to drink their asses off.

Lysandra. Remembering her name, her existence was the only thing stopping Lin from finally lashing out against the orphanage’s master. She needed help and information that only Clarisse or Arobynn would possess, and she was smart enough to know that Clarisse would always be the better alternative.

Even if being pleasant to the woman who made her life hell for ten years made her blood boil.

“Pardon me, Clarisse. I wasn’t swearing at you, it’s just that you caught me by surprise.” It was an understatement. What Clarisse had said completely shattered her plans and hopes. Her throat tightened and her vision started to unfocus. Shit shit shit. “Could you repeat it? Please.”

“I could not care less why you did so.” She spat out, and one of the kids that was coming down the stairs took one glance at the two women standing by the door, at Clarisse’s tone and wisely went back up. “You are finally eighteen, you are not the orphanage’s problem anymore. Just as Lysandra has not been our problem for almost a year now. I will repeat what I have already said: Lysandra was taken to Inish a year ago, and as we do not keep tabs on the adopted children, we do not know if she is still there.”

Lin had to hold her snort and sarcastic remark. Adopted. Clarisse said adopted as if Lysandra had found a beautiful family to sit by the fire during Yulemas and drink hot cocoa, but both women knew for a fact that what had happened to Lysandra had been more of a buying than an adoption. Her blood only boiled hotter, her hand itching to hit the woman across the face.

“And what I said about the railroads and regular roads is true. Adarlan has cut off relations with Fenharrow and Melisande as a political strategy or something like that, I honestly do not care. They will most likely be opened again in a few weeks or months, but currently you are incapable of traveling straight from Rifthold to Inish. Crossing the border on your own is suicide and you will get caught, girl, so do not do anything stupid.” As Clarisse pronounced the last words, she opened the door and the fresh summer air swept in, causing Lin’s golden braid to whip around a bit. “This is my last warning and piece of advice. Now leave, you are not a child here anymore, Lin Sirota.”

Lin clenched her jaw, grabbing her little sack of belongings and walking right out of the door. She raised her chin as she passed Clarisse, and kept it raised as she crossed the orphanage’s iron gates, and kept it raised as she did not look back at the place that had treated her like shit for the entirety of her teenage years. But even as she felt the relief of finally leaving that place, of not being chained to Clarisse and Arobynn anymore, she could not help but feel the weight of her new life crushing her.

She was homeless. Poor, having only the money that should supposedly be used to buy one ticket to Inish. She had no connections, no family and nowhere to go.

-------------------------------

She went to the docks that same day. She went to the taverns in which she knew the riders would be. She went to the railroad offices. All answers had been the same: we do not want to risk Adarlan’s wrath by crossing the border to Fenharrow or Melisande, even for the money you are offering or because of your pretty face. In all three places, she put an extra effort into masquerading her accent. It was widely known that immigrants were not welcomed in Adarlan, especially in its capital. In all three places she put on smiles and adjusted her braids, hoping to look just like an innocent girl who needed a ride. Nothing worked.

Lin was tempted to start crying when she sat down in a bench just outside the railroad office. She used to do that a lot once she arrived in the orphanage. Lin had been eight, and terrified of her own shadow. She had cried when she realized that she could not remember anything from her past, all memories just a thick black canvas in her mind. She only knew she was from Terrasen due to her extremely heavy accent, which also pointed to the fact that she must have grown up in the northern part of the kingdom. It wasn’t unusual for kids of Terrasen to end up in orphanages after the kingdom was seized during a winter night. The memory loss, however, had been a rarity. The only moments that Lin got close to remembering anything was during her nightmares, but once she woke up all the information that the bad dreams contained just turned into ash. It was like being trapped into an iron box inside your own mind. Sometimes Lin would curse the new Terrasen’s conqueror, as if the new queen herself had put her in that coffin. Lin did not even know her real name, had just been given a commoners name and that had been that.

She could feel the thick tears swelling in her eyes, but she refused to let them drop. She hadn’t cried in a long while, and it would not help her right then. She needed to think and be smart. She needed a new plan, a new route and a way to get to Lysandra and save her the same way her friend had saved Lin ten years ago when she was drowning in fear and despair.

That had been two weeks ago.

Lin was now seated at the rooftop of a shabby old house by the central square in Orynth, taking a swig of cheap vodka. She had decided that since she could not go straight from Adarlan to Melisande, she would need to take the long way. Terrasen’s relations with Adarlan were stable enough that the borders hadn’t been closed, so instead of buying a ticket to Inish, she bough one to Orynth. The city had a series of extensive railroads, a particular one that would take you through the Wastes on the west side of the continent and then straight into Melisande. That’s the train she would need to catch once she gathered the absurd amount of money she would need to buy the ticket and food for the next weeks unless she wanted to starve.

She had gotten two copper coins today and a bottle of Terrasenian vodka, all stolen. She had to admit, it was a new low point even for her.

She watched the people come and go, all of them wearing clothes as shabby as the house she was on top of. Orynth, the City of Learning, had once been booming with life, a beacon to all of those who wished a better life. Its people lived in peace and harmony, and even the slums were better than some Adarlanian cities. Once the kingdom was conquered, however, everything had changed. The new queen had raised taxes so much that even most of the city’s elite became poor, and most of the population had to give up everything they had to not suffer under the queen’s wrath. Access to libraries and theaters was limited only for the new nobility and officials, very few merchants also allowed. There were curfews and censorship, laws prohibiting people from even speaking the name of the old rulers. A city that was once beautiful was now a ghost town, much like the rest of the kingdom.

Not that Lin would be able to know the difference between now and then. She did not remember ever being here, but she had read in books. Part of her wanted to wander around, maybe try to awake old memories in case she did indeed come from Orynth, but she decided against it. It must be an unimaginable pain to remember a beautiful past just to realize it had been ripped away from you.

A silver flash caught her eye. She looked up at one of the cathedral towers at the other side of the central square, narrowing her eyes at one of the windows where she had seen the movement. It was a darker shade of silver, so it couldn’t have been lightning or even a trick of light. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she felt an incessant pulse. She stared at the window for a few more minutes before shaking her head and rubbing her eyes. She was going insane. Running low on food and sleep and then getting drunk, she was probably on the edge of actual insanity and now her mind was playing tricks at her. Sighing, Lin slowly eased from the rooftop and into the colorless streets. She would need a place to stay tonight, especially if the summer rains in Orynth were as strong as people said they were.

Lin wandered around a bit, her eyes always involuntarily going back to the cathedral. She mindlessly walked all the way to the old castle. It seemed like it was once beautiful, all built from marble and quartz, the towers so high that it seemed that you could touch the clouds from there. But once the new queen decided to build her new castle with the money she tore from the people, this castle had been left alone, vacant. It looked more like a mausoleum than anything.

It could have been a crypt if not for the whimpers she heard coming from one of the sealed doors. Against her best judgment, Lin walked closer and closer to the castle, the pulse in the back of her head as strong as it had been when she looked at the cathedral. She should go back, find some alley to spend the night. She was currently drunk, alone and unarmed. She was a fucking walking target and she should know better. Maybe the whimpers weren’t even true, just another sign of her madness just like the silver flash.

Sighing, she stopped in front of the wood panel covering one of the doors. From up close, it looked more like a window that had probably been shattered and then covered with wood.

Lin was about to go back, snorting at herself when the wood panel moved and another whimper sounded. Maybe she was just imagining things again.

Although you are probably a godsdamned idiot, you are not that crazy yet.

Setting the bottle down, she approached the panel until she could glance around it. It was thicker than she imagined, and when she bent down to try to look inside the castle, something moved, brushing her fingers. Lin yelped and fell right on her ass, staring wide eyed at the dirty golden tail waggling. Only the tail was on the outside, as if the animal had been entering the castle the moment the wood panel closed again. She looked around, realizing that there were new screws and a hammer on the floor. Someone had purposefully let the little animal stuck. Had personally closed the wood panel again. Her blood was boiling and she was half tempted to hunt that person down and pin them to a wall with those same screws.

Instead, she grabbed the hammer and carefully opened the wood panel. Lin hoped there weren’t any screws directly into the animal’s— most likely a dog— tail. After what seemed an eternity, the lower part of the panel gave away and the dog sprinted forward, going deeper into the castle.

“Fuck. Wait! Hey puppy, come here. Let me check your tail to see if you’re hurt.” She called after the pup, grabbing the vodka bottle from the floor and half entering the castle in all fours. “Hey, come here!”

She groaned and entered a little bit more.

You are broke, drunk, most likely crazy and in the other side of the continent from your destination. What’s a little breaking and entering into an abandoned castle?

Grunting, Lin fully crawled into the castle.

If it looked like a mausoleum from the outside, it was worse on the inside. It wasn’t only the appearance, but the feeling. Everyone knew what had happened ten years ago, and it seemed as if death and despair decided to make this their home. Lin took a step forward, her boots sounding way too loud in the empty entrance. Tables had been turned, vases had been broken and sofas had been ripped apart. Trash littered the floors, and the only source of light was whatever could enter through the holes in the wood panels covering the windows and doors. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes and, despite the terrible condition of the castle, something eased in her chest.

Lin’s eyes snapped open when she heard the dog’s steps from another room in the palace. She started jogging after it, whistling in the hope that the dog would come in her direction. It led her up and down stairs, through corridors. The palace was a maze, and she navigated it as if she knew the way like she knew the palm of her hand.

She finally caught up with the dog when they entered a ballroom. The destruction in this room had been worse than in any other, and even as Lin bent down to pick up the puppy, her eyes could not leave the dance floor, the destroyed thrones, the blood stains in the walls and floor. No one had bothered to clean up, it seemed.

The pulse in the back of her mind became almost unbearable for a few seconds, until it was transformed into a lullaby that she knew in her heart she had heard before, even if she could not recall where. Her eyes became blurry, colors that were not there a minute ago appearing. It was like watching from inside a glass box splashed with oil paint. The colors were vivid, moving around in the rhythm of the lullaby that was so loud in her mind now that there could have been an orchestra by her side. The oil paint figures were dancing, she realized with awe. They were misty figures sweeping around a destroyed ballroom floor according to a song long forgotten by her.

It was like a real party, one that had happened so long ago that blurry memories were everything she could invoke when thinking of it, but the feeling of being home, the beating of her heart along with the music were reborn that moment.

She took a step forward, as if in a daze. As if she could go to the dance floor and sweep around with her eyes closed to the destruction and her mind providing the music. As if she could join those fake memories, go to a better place where she did not know pain of hunger or despair.

She might have done just that, if she hadn’t caught the movement of three figures from the left side of her eye. Immediately the colors disappeared, the lullaby becoming an incessant pulse once more. Her heart rate picked up, and she held the dog closer to her.

Lin turned to the three figures, all of them unbelievably tall, muscular and with their faces hidden by cloaks and shadows. She took a fighting stance, her eyes narrowing and cocking her head. She could swear one of them smiled.

“So what do we have here?” A male voice straight from Hellas’s realm spoke.

From behind her.

There are more.

Fucking stupid.

Shit shit shit.

I’m going to die.

It was all Lin could think as she hardened her grip on the cheap vodka bottle and swinged back, hitting the male behind her straight across the face. He and his companions-- the three she had first seen and other two flanking his side-- were shocked enough by her reaction that they froze.

Although her stupidity was obviously arguable, she certainly did not have a death wish, so instead of fighting her way out, Lin took their seconds of hesitation and used to her advantage.

She ran as if Hellas was trying to fucking murder her.

It took only seconds for them to recompose themselves before they started running after her. Lin tightened her grip on the dog who was thankfully quiet and obedient. If she got to the wood panel she came from, she could crawl out and they would still be inside. They were too big to follow her through that hole, even though she had the feeling that they could easily knock the wood panel down if they wished.

Please, Lin pleaded to Mala for the first time since she could remember, give me protection. Please, please, please.

The last please sounded inside her mind when she felt a hand around her elbow. She was instantly against a man’s chest, and then before she could blink she felt the cold floor against her back. All the air whooshed out of her, her grip on the bottle and dog faltering. The little pup got up and started growling in the direction of the five men now watching Lin, the one that had stopped her still behind her.

They were going to kill her, and then probably the dog.

At least she could take some comfort in knowing that it couldn’t get worse.

But then a deep male voice chuckled from the shadows behind her.

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@morganofthewildfire @alyx801 @ladywitchling @westofmoon @rolltide7

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louiseleblancdiggory · 4 years

Text

Once Upon a December

Chapter 2: On This Journey to the Past Home

A/N: I had such a hard time coming up with the best way to write this chapter since it’s the introduction of six characters at the same time. I hope it’s not too bad. Also, if you’re gonna ask to be tagged could you please send an ask? It’s easier for me and if I forgot to tag you, just message me. Enjoy!

Chapter 1 // Chapter 3

Despite the fear clawing its way into her mind, the deep chuckle from the cloaked man behind her soothed some of her nerves. His voice was cold and deep, even when he was laughing. And if he was laughing, it meant that they weren’t mad enough to kill her, right?

Or maybe they’re a bunch of murderers and are laughing because they’ll take their sweet time with you.

Lin didn’t raise her head from the marble floor, her body being taken by the pain of slamming against the man and then the floor. Her eyes went from one man to the next. Two of them stood a little bit behind the other three. One of them had a black cloak and the other had a white one. The white one, she realized, had been the one she saw smiling earlier. She wondered if he was smiling now, but the cloak and the shadows didn’t let her see it. The man she had decked across the face stood in front of her, his arms crossed and even with his charcoal grey coat hiding his features, she could sense the sneer on his face.

Not that she was in position to pick, but she would very much prefer dealing with the white cloaked man than this one.

The guy was flanked by two other in brown. Although, differently from their apparent leader, they didn’t bother hiding their faces. Both tan, with harsh features and tawny eyes. One was blonde, appearing to be in his late thirties or maybe even forties. The other one looked more around late twenties, his ebony hair tucked in a low pony. In any other situation, she might have found them somewhat attractive.

She didn’t dare turn around to see the one that had stopped her.

“Shouldn’t someone take that bottle from her?” The man in white asked, stepping into the light. If she hadn’t been laying down, her jaw might have dropped at the sight of his face. He could very well be the most handsome man she had ever laid her eyes upon. Flawless brown skin, dark blonde hair and black eyes, he looked like the warrior-princes in the books she read. “I mean she did manage to deck Lorcan across the face and run a fucking lot. And then there is also the pup ready to bite our ankles.”

Lorcan. The man in charcoal grey was named Lorcan.

She heard the footsteps of the man behind her before she saw him. He unhurriedly walked to her front to join his companions, and Lin finally sat up. As Lorcan, his face was hidden by his light grey cloak. She picked the dog up and stood, taking a step back.

When she fully stood the light filtering from one of the highest windows illuminated her face, and she scowled at the six men.

“Holy fuck.” The pretty one said out loud when he took a look at her face. “Holy fuck. Please tell me everyone is thinking what I am thinking.”

“Shut up, Fen.” The one in black grunted, stepping closer to Fen. Lin then realized that their faces were near identical, even though he looked like the dark side of his brother’s fair coin.

Twins then.

“Look at her face.” He was gaping. Why the hell was he gaping?

“Why the hell are you gaping?” She said before she could consider the words. She almost flinched at her own tone— being rude wouldn’t help her at all right now. But she had already spoken with confidence, so now she must continue with the facade. “And who the hell are you?”

“You’re not really in the position of asking questions right now, lady.” His twin answered before Fen could open his mouth.

“You’re not really in the position of telling me how to act, sir.” Oh she was screwed. She was so, so screwed.

The six men surveyed her, their eyes scanning her head to toe. She felt the urge to shift on her feet, but she wouldn’t give them the satisfaction even though she had a feeling that they all knew how her heart was pounding inside her chest.

The pretty one, Fen, decided that she passed whatever inspection because he decided to answer her earlier question despite the looks he was receiving from the other five. “I’m Fenrys. Lovely meeting you.”

Her eyes narrowed and she took another step back. Fenrys’s wolflike smile only grew wider. “And the others?” She jerked her chin to the other five, still faking confidence. She needed to run and she needed to do it before they decided they didn’t want to toy with her anymore but she knew that without another distraction, she wouldn’t run five steps before they caught her.

Surprisingly, the golden man in brown answered her question too. “Gavriel, lady.” His voice was chill and gentle, and some of her nerves calmed further. Maybe he would convince his friends to kill her quickly as a mercy. He looked at the other four men who remained silent and sighed. His next words, however, caught her by surprise. “We are very sorry for scaring you and your dog. We didn’t expect anyone else to be in the castle.”

A blink was all the surprise she showed.

Maybe they wouldn’t kill her. She almost choked in relief.

Talking to him seemed safer than the others, so she nodded. “I wasn’t planning on coming in, but the dog ran inside and I came after it.” If he was surprised she answer, he didn’t let it show. “I can leave now and I promise I will not tell anyone that I ever saw any of you.”

Fenrys laughed at that. “I have a better plan.”

At that, her entire body went visibly taunt.

“Fenrys.” The man with ebony hair in a pony growled. “Stop trying to scare the girl.”

Fenrys didn’t stop looking at her. “Am I scaring you, lady?”

“The only thing scaring me are your manners. Maybe I should have decked you across the face.” Lin raised her chin. She had survived ten years with men trying to taunt her day and night, and since his companions didn’t seem inclined to kill her, Fenrys was just an asshole trying to get a reaction. “Maybe strong enough to break your jaw. It would certainly save me from your blabbering.”

His twin’s mouth fell open before he howled. The man was almost doubling with laughter, and the other ones seemed to smile. At least the ones she could see the faces. Two of them remained unknown and it bothered her. A lot.

“The idiot laughing Connall,” the man with ebony hair said. “I’m Vaughan.”

She merely nodded to acknowledge she had heard him. Against her best judgment, her eyes went to the guy in the grey coat. Not the one she had hit, the one that seemed to be their leader, Lorcan. No, she was staring at the one who had been the one to reach her and grab her elbow. She could swear his eyes were fixated on hers as she turned to him. His attention unnerved her enough to make her reckless. “And the one watching me like a fucking buzzard would be?”

He seemed to tense, either because of her attention or her harsh tone. Probably the latter.

No one responded as if sensing the shift in the air.

“What? You grabbed me by the elbow and slammed me against the floor, I should at least know your name.”

“What’s yours?” Oh, his voice. Something inside of her jumped when hearing his voice, his accent making the words roll out of his tongue. She would have frowned at herself if she wasn’t completely focused on the man before her. Even the others seemed to be interested in their conversation.

Lin smiled. “I asked first.”

Even under the layers of his cloak, she could feel him smiling in return. “Connall was right. You’re not in the position to ask questions.”

She just stared blankly at him. Neither he or one of his companions seemed interested in breaking the silence or getting involved into their pissing match. Lin ached to remain silent, but she also knew it wouldn’t help her, at least not now.

Pick your battles wisely, Lysandra would say and then add upon seeing the look on her best friend’s face, Not all of them, Lin.

“Why don’t you at least let me see your face? After all you’ve seen mine.”

He considered. He started to slowly circle her, looking her from head to toe several times. She wanted to stay put, but there was something about him that was both alluring and infinitely annoying.

“Why are you circling me?”

He didn’t respond but, surprisingly, took a step into the light and took off his hood.

iknowyouiknowyouiknowyou

The pulsing in the back of her head came back with full strength. Her vision swayed, and she clenched her jaw in order to not pass out. When she felt slightly better, she analyzed his features. Fenrys might have been beautiful but this man was… Alluring. Handsome. Lin wanted to take a step forward and analyze his features more clearly. Wanted to see the exact shade of his green eyes, see if his hair was actually naturally silver. She wanted to clearly see every single harsh and sharp line of his face. If Fen was the fair warrior-prince, this man was the morally grey warrior that you never know if you can really trust.

He was staring at her, eyes narrowing. He took a step forward, head tilting to the side. For some reason, he seemed somewhat confused.

Maybe it was his confusion that made her say, “My name is Lin.”

He nodded, almost disappointed. “Rowan.”

“You look like the old royals.” Fenrys blurted out, making Lin’s attention snap back to him.

“Fenrys.” Vaughan and Rowan grunted at him.

“What? She does. Look at the hair and face shape. Even her eyes look like theirs.” He walked up to her and she tensed, not daring to run with him so close. He bent down, staring right into her face. She really wanted to punch him to see what he would do. “She’ll be just perfect.”

His twin brother and Gavriel groaned.

“Perfect for what?” She snapped.

“To pretend to be the lost princess, of course.”

She gawping at him, she knew. She continued until she felt laughter bubbling up her chest and let out the most dramatic cackle she could manage. Despite being alone in the world, being constantly worried about Lysandra, about money and her plans, Lin couldn’t stop laughing at what the man had suggested. She was almost doubling over, and the dog in her arms jumped to the floor. Lin knew she shouldn’t laugh at the face of six men who could very well kill her, but it was just too damn funny.

“Pretend to be what?” She said, trying to stop laughing. Fenrys scowled at her and the others watched the scene or humorously or bored. “Isn’t this the infraction of about twenty laws, one of them being treason. Which would result in the gallows?”

When he didn’t answer, she let out another chuckle. “I have a neck way too pretty to be tied in a rope, boyo. And there is the fact that I don’t know any of you, much less trust any of you. Find another idiot.”

“You wouldn’t go to the gallows.” Vaughan said, and she was shocked that some of them agreed with Fenrys. Her eyes went to Rowan, but he was just watching everything with a blank expression. Vaughan continued, “People do it all the time. You would study everything about them, about their kingdom, go to the royal family, say you are the lost princess and they decide whether or not you’re lying. Worst case scenario, they kick you to the curb.”

“And the new queen?” Why the fuck was she even entertaining the idea? She didn’t know any of these men, and she already had a mission of her own. Lysandra couldn’t wait while she pretended to be a princess.

“She wouldn’t know.” Connall smiled viciously.

“Fuck no. I have better things to do.” She said, taking a step towards the wood panel she had come from. Despite their sizes and mean demeanors, Lin now doubted they would kill her. “Places to be, people to see. Find. Another. Idiot.”

“Are ‘better things’ sitting on the rooftop of a shabby house and drink vodka?” Fenrys called after her, and her head whipped back. Not to Fenrys, no, but to Rowan. The silver flash earlier… “You.”

He gave her a feral smile.

“You followed me here.” Lin said incredulously. “Didn’t expect anyone in the castle my ass. What the hell is wrong with the six of you?”

“We need a princess.” Vaughan said simply.

“Well I’m not one so leave me alone.” She grunted and turned around again to leave. These people must have been complete lunatics if they honestly had followed her here just to make her accept pretending to be the lost princess. The lost princess that everyone knew was dead. Her coat and shoes had been found by the riverbank in the dead of the winter and no one, especially an eight year old, would survive the Florine during December. Why the Galathynius still accepted people claiming to be Aelin was beyond her.

“We would pay you.” Connall called after her and although she didn’t stop, she started walking just a little bit slower.

You do need money, you know?

Lin was going to start calling the annoying voice in her head Stupid Sense and maybe light a few candles to ask for good, old common sense.

She could get the money somewhere else. They would probably only pay her if she was accepted as the princess, and Lysandra couldn’t wait that long.

“And for your passage to Banjali.” Gavriel added.

That made her stop.

“There’s no train to Banjali. The Adarlanian roads are closed in the southern borders.” She replied quietly, still not turning around. A plan was forming in her head, but she didn’t know if the results would outweigh the dangers.

If she accepted their offer, they could pay for her train ticket to Inish. If the Adarlanian borders were closed, the only way to get to Eyllwe was through the Western Wastes. If she said her condition was to go through a route that had Inish in its way, she could be there in little over a month. But then there was the big problem: she didn’t know these men. They could be the worst kind of scum for all she knew, and traveling with all six of them would require her to be always paying attention, minding her surroundings. She would constantly need to have an escape plan. She did know how to fight, and against one of them she might even had stood a chance but all six? She would be dead before she could even draw her knife. No, with them the wisest would be to run.

Maybe that was what she was going to do once they got to Inish. She would grab Lysandra and they would sneak to the Red Desert in a boat, save some money while in Xandria and then go to the Southern Continent. During the time until Inish, she could pretend she intended in faking being princess to the old royals. The perfect plan but that could go wrong in so many ways.

“There are several routes through the Western Wastes.” Gavriel answered her earlier statement.

Fucking bingo.

She slowly turned around to look at them again. If she was going to accept this, she would need to face the risks daily. Being on her guard all the time was exhaustive and Lin really thought she was past that now that she had left the orphanage. But she also knew that it would take months for her to get all the money she needed in Orynth, and for Lysandra she would risk her life.

“I would have… conditions.”

Fenrys smiled like a wolf.

“No shared rooms. I get to keep my weapons. When we are not studying the Galathynius, neither of you speak to me because we are not friends. Or even colleagues. And, the most important, I pick the train and the route.”She crossed her arms and would have taken a more dominant stance if there wasn’t a dog sitting on her feet. “Oh, and the dog comes.”

“You got it, lady.” Fenrys said immediately.

“No, she fucking doesn’t.” Lorcan spoke for the first time since when he scared her. His voice was just as creepy. When he looked at her, she refrained from giving him a scolding glare. “Stay put. We will discuss your… conditions.” And with that the immediately formed a tight circle and spoke in hushed voices.

She rolled her eyes and knelt to take a look at the dog. Now that she wasn’t running after it or away from the group a few meters away, Lin could realize that the dog’s pelt wasn’t that dark of a golden blond as she had imagined, it was just extremely dirty. The paw had some dried blood, and as well as other spots in the pup’s body. One quick check and… yes, female. She was a lovely thing, no more than six months old and despite the dried blood and dirty, she looked pretty decent. And she also couldn’t be badly hurt considering how fast she could run.

“You and I are going on a funny field trip, Fleetfoot.” Despite her nerves, Lin smiled.

—————————————————

“Is there really anything to debate? That girl could be an Ashryver if we only considered her looks.” Fenrys whispered.

“That girl has the manners of a demon.” Rowan replied, leaving his opinion clear in this expression. She didn’t want to do this, much less travel more than a month with that girl.

She somehow got under his skin way too easily. It was like a more witty and smart version of Fenrys. Terrible

“Not the manners, clearly, but that can be adjusted. Again, she looks like an Ashryver.”

“And have you ever seen an Ashryver to know that?” Rowan’s voice came harsher than he intended, but his temper was slipping. He was the only one completely against this stupidity, his brothers seemed to be way too interested in the money that they could get to think clearly.

“Have you?” Fenrys snapped back, and when Rowan didn’t reply, he just went on. Fen was definitely the most excited about this. Earlier, when they were at the cathedral, he was looking outside of the window when he literally squeaked. Everyone knew of the Galathynius that had survived and now lived in Banjali with the Eyllwen royal family and how they sometimes accepted visits of people claiming to be Aelin. None ever actually was Aelin, and Fen thought that they should try their luck. Find a girl who looked like the dead princess, teach her, convince the Galathynius she was Aelin and then get fucking rich by blackmailing the poor girl.

All of them went to the window to look at the girl drinking her ass off on a roof and even Rowan had to admit that she looked like an Ashryver from afar. He didn’t even know she had also seen him until minutes ago when she looked back at him with enough wrath to make him want to take a step back.

The girl was like fucking wildfire, cursing like a sailor, hitting people with vodka bottles and inserting sarcasm in every single sentence.

“Her demands also are acceptable and expected.” Vaughan sided with Fenrys. He had been pissed earlier because he insisted that there were better ways to approach her. Connall said that it was better to have the element of surprise. Rowan just wanted to hit both of them. “She’s a girl traveling with six men, of course she wants weapons and privacy. And after you guys decided to so delicately approach her, it was obvious she wouldn’t be inclined to sit with us during afternoon tea and make friendship bracelets.”

“I didn’t know we had afternoon tea.”

“Connall, for the love of the gods, be quiet.” Gavriel said, giving one of the twins a slap on the back of his head.

As they kept bickering, Rowan let his gaze fall upon the girl. Lin.

Even though he never revealed to any of his friends, Rowan had seen an Ashryver up close. Two actually. A boy around his age at the time who would sneak off the castle to play with the other street boys and a younger girl who looked like his carbon copy. The boy he had seen far more than the girl, being friends with him for a while. Before Rowan could ever fully befriend the girl too, everything had gone to shit.

He still remembered the day when he woke up in a crappy orphanage and everyone was talking about how Aelin Ashryver Galathynius was dead. The king, Orlon, had died in the attack to the castle but Aelin had disappeared. He remembered the pain in his chest in imagining Aedion, his friend and her cousin, discovering he had lost her. He remembered his own pain in imagining the girl he had seen twice but had been kind to him both times, and how he would never befriend her too.

Lin did look like Aelin. If she had survived, the two girls would probably look very much alike. Sharp jawlines, high cheekbones and a small nose, Lin looked as royal as the new queen sitting on the throne. Even if he and Fenrys were right and her manners were a complete disgrace.

A disgrace because she wasn’t a royal. She wasn’t Aelin.

Suddenly, Rowan was pissed and the sight of her only worsened it. It was cruel to go to the Galathynius and present an impostor as their daughter. It was insensitive as fuck for them to play with people like that only for money, and this girl was so quick to accept that it made his stomach turn.

The first sight of her had made his stomach turn too.

“Why does she want to choose the route, though?” Lorcan finally said something, his voice cold. Rowan couldn’t read his face right now, but he knew Lorcan enough to know that he was raging inside because the girl had decked him.

It had been so unexpected that Rowan just stood there blinking.

“Hey, firedrake,” Fenrys said loudly, and Lin’s head snapped up from the dog she was petting. Her eyes narrowed, her impatience and dislike of them simmering off of her. “Why you want to choose the route?”

Rowan held his sigh but Gavriel didn’t.

“Firedrake?” Was all she replied.

“Yeah, every time you opened your mouth was like spewing fire, so what better nickname than a firedrake?” Fenrys smiled and Rowan was sure that if it wasn’t for the dog licking her fingers, she would have attacked him.

“Fuck you. And I want to choose the route because I didn’t lie earlier.”

They just started at her blankly until she smiled, shrugging.

“I have places to be and people to see, wolfie.”

Fen actually laughed and Connall and Vaughan snorted. Gavriel merely smiled but, as Rowan, Lorcan’s face was serious.

Rowan really thought that he would put an end to this. Side with him that this was stupid and that there was no way in hell this could would pass as Aelin.

When Lorcan opened his mouth, though, Rowan’s world fell.

“Welcome to the group, firedrake. Don’t do anything to make me kill you in your sleep.”

The girl had balls, Rowan had to admit, as she smiled sarcastically and almost in a scary way at Lorcan as if to say Likewise.

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louiseleblancdiggory · 4 years

Text

Once Upon a December

Chapter 3: It’s a Rumor, a Legend, a Mystery!

A/N: This chapter is a little small but has extremely important information, so I didn’t want to write too much and drown out the important parts. Please, if you want to be tagged/I forgot to tag you send me an ask instead of a comment, makes my life so much easier. Hope you all don’t hate this!

Chapter 2 // Chapter 4

Lin couldn’t help but stare at their dynamic.

Despite her initial statement that she had no interest in being close to them, she had to admit that the way they acted around each other gave her a longing feeling. It was the way she had once acted with Lysandra.

Like a family.

Even when discussing what they would do next, if they should leave Orynth immediately or wait a few days, Lin could see how at ease they were around each other. How easy it was for one of them to call the other out, how they kept bickering at each other. Even the ones that looked like complete opposites interacted in the way brothers would.

She was jealous. It was burning hot inside of her and some wretched part of her wanted to scream at them for acting like a loving family when her own family was probably suffering in Inish. She had to bite her tongue several times not to snap at the men.

“I believe that it would be wise to leave as soon as possible, but not tonight.” Gavriel said, always the voice of reason as Lin had quickly realized. He was the oldest one, but his mild behavior was probably what stopped him from being their leader. “It would attract too much attention a group of seven people leaving the capital during the night. You know how the officials are.”

Rowan merely grunted, and that might have been his way of agreement because the matter was settled after it.

“We leave tomorrow, then. Around lunch when it’s not too packed but also not too empty.” Lorcan replied, his arms crossed over his broad shoulders. His midnight black eyes fell upon Lin again and she rolled her eyes when a sneer appeared on his face. “Do you have a passport?”

“Do I look like someone who would have a passport?”

“Your parents never got you one?” His voice was full of suspicion, making Lin roll her eyes again.

“Do I look like someone who has parents?”

“Are you going to answer every single question with another question?”

“Does it bother you?” She asked sweetly, then smiling when Lorcan’s face contorted with anger. She said she would help them, not that she would be pleasant during it. But she also remembered that Lys’s fate depended on these men, so she sighed and added, “I lived my life in an Adarlanian orphanage. They barely bothered giving us names, the idea of an official passport is laughable.”

He nodded, something almost like understanding and empathy shining on his black eyes. “We can get you one. Not an official one, but it will do.” He turned to Gavriel and Rowan. “Go to Faliq and ask for an urgent passport for Lin…”

He looked at her and for the first time, her cheeks heated. “Sirota.”

Most of the kids in the orphanages came knowing their names and surnames. Very rarely an older child needed both a new name and last name, but in those cases they were simply given Sirota as the last name.

An orphan.

In the sense of it all, it was almost being nameless. Kids with the last name Sirota weren’t the kids who had lost everything and went to an orphanage or the ones who had been left there since the beginning. No, these were the kids found when older, the ones who had been abandoned. Problem children, all of them, Clarisse would say. As Lin didn’t remember if her parents had died, she was thrown into that group. Any kid in that piss poor orphanage had a small chance of being adopted, but Sirotas had absolutely zero.

“Moonbeam.” Fenrys said. Lin’s head snapped back to him, and he looked serious for the first time. “Blonde hair and tan skin, we can pass her as our younger sister. No one will believe a girl with the last name Sirota would have a passport, so make her our sister. Lin Moonbeam.”

She was too shocked to form any rational thought, so she only blurted out, “Your last name is fucking Moonbeam?”

Vaughan laughed out loud, and Fenrys gave her a knowing smile. “You weren’t that wrong when you called me wolfie earlier, sis.”

She looked at Connall, but he merely nodded.

And that was that.

———————————

“Which one?”

“What?”

“Which of the cities in the route you need to visit?” Vaughan explained. They were all sitting together in the train station lounging room. No one bothered to approach her, not with six sneering giants hanging around. They all played the role of older brothers just alright— any men or women who looked a little bit too long at Lin was met with the scary stare of her companions.

The cadre, she decided to call them. An easier way to refer to all six at the same time.

When Rowan and Gavriel came back the night before with her new fake passport, they had also brought new clothes for her. Whoever Faliq had been, she was obviously smaller and less curvy than Lin. The linen white shirt was tight around her breasts, and the long and yet simple brown skirt hugged her waist and hips almost uncomfortably. The skirt ended on her ankles, and she tied a thick leather belt around her middle. She was wearing her necklace, but the pendant was hidden inside her blouse.

“What the fuck is the leather thing for?” Fenrys had asked earlier, his brows furrowed.

“It adds form.” Lin answered defensively.

“More?” He replied, faking incredulity. Lin merely flipped him off and went to wait by the castle’s front as the rest of them finished cleaning up. She didn’t tell him that it was also an easy place to store knives and not get caught or hurt. She had two strapped to her right leg and one to her left, but raising the skirt would take too long and putting a knife between her breasts was a stupid idea. Hence the infernal thing around her waist.

“You look like a hot barmaid.” Connall said, being the first one to leave the castle and join her.

She looked him up and down. Grey dress pants, white button down, grey waistcoat and a black coat hanging from his shoulders, Connall looked like…

“You look like the rich brat that would spend hours trying to get the hot barmaid to go home with him.” She replied mildly and he smiled, handing her a leather brown jacket. She shrugged it on, hiding the belt. It was still chilly in Orynth, and the jacket made her feel better. She almost thanked Connall.

Now she was sitting besides Vaughan and Gavriel. The latter was reading a geography book, and Vaughan was just relaxing, asking her questions every now and then. Nothing too personal or invasive, just to kill some time. Lin had the impression that Gav and Vaughan had seated on her side so no one else from the cadre would. It was obvious that the other four didn’t possess Gavriel’s calm or Vaughan’s ability to be civilized.

“Why do you care which city I want to visit?” They had chosen a route with Inish in it, and Lin had almost cried in relief when she saw Lorcan paying for their tickets. There were other several cities in between Orynth and Inish, but Lin couldn’t care less. She was going to see Lysandra in little over a month. That’s all that mattered.

Vaughan shrugged but didn’t stop looking at her. Impulsively, she looked at Fenrys sitting in front of her. “What are you in for?”

“I beg your pardon?”

She rolled her eyes at his tone. “Why are you doing all of this?”

He rested against his seat. His hands rested on top of his stomach and he gave her a lazy smile. “For money, of course.”

She raise an eyebrow at Connall and Lorcan’s direction. Connall was the one who responded while Lorcan nodded. “Same as Fen.”

“Gavriel?” She turned to the older man by her side.

“Money, partially. There’s someone I need to visit in Banjali.” He said calmly, going back to his book.

Lin wisely ignored Rowan, trying to not look at him even though she could feel his gaze burning the left side of her face.

When Aelin turned to Vaughan, he was already watching her. He seemed to hesitate before answering, his eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Because Connall is going.”

Her brows furrowed in confusion, the frown deepening when she felt all six of them watching her. Fenrys was Connall’s brother, not Vaughan. Unless they were brothers of sort or… Her eyes fell upon the simple silver band on his finger. When she looked at Connall’s hand, a twin band lay there.

Lovers then. That explained why Vaughan watched her suspiciously, as if waiting to see her reaction to his marriage to Connall. She knew that that moment would decide how the rest of their interactions went.

“Being Fenrys’s brother-in-law sounds fucking miserable.” She said flatly. “At least you fell for the nicest Moonbeam.”

Vaughan relaxed and Connall grinned. Fenrys was pouting. “He’s the nicest Moonbeam?”

“He called me hot barmaid. You didn’t. That’s a point for him and none for you.”

“If you wanted me to be a basic asshole, all you had to do was ask, princess.”

For the first time since Lysandra had left the orphanage a year ago, Lin genuinely smiled. It was more of a grin, but it was a good feeling nonetheless. Smiling because someone was jokingly bickering with you.

“Time to dispatch the baggage.” Lorcan announced, standing up. As one, all of them stood up after him, even Lin. He looked directly at her, shaking his head. “During this trip, you are to be as unnoticeable as possible. A 5’8 woman lifting baggage with a bunch of enormous men isn’t exactly inconspicuous. Sit you’re ass down. You,” he pointed at Rowan, “stay with her.”

He turned and left before Rowan could complain. And judging by the look on his face, he was gonna complain a lot.

Alone with him, Lin couldn’t help but analyze his profile. Now that they were in an illuminated place, she could see that his skin was tanned, and that he had a long tattoo that sometimes showed up through his sleeve or the collar of his shirt. She could notice the slope of his mouth, the lines that made up his face. His eyes were of a deep pine green and were watching her as intently as she was watching him. She gave him a lazy smile and he clenched his hands.

“Why do I have the feeling you don’t like me very much, Mr. Whitethorn?”

“I don’t particularly care for you, lady Moonbeam.” His voice was cold and hard as he replied. He used her new surname considering that for the next month or so she was legally a Moonbeam. Well, kind of legally.

“And yet your face almost contorts with anger or disgust when you look at me. That doesn’t sound like indifference to me.” Lin didn’t know why she cared. She had said herself she didn’t want friendship with these men, but something about Rowan’s dislike of her bothered her infinitely.

He crossed his arms, eyes never leaving her face. He looked at her as if she was a puzzle he couldn’t understand and hated himself for even trying. “Have you been staring at me to know my expressions, lady?”

“You do certainly have a pretty face, Whitethorn, so I don’t see the harm at staring.” Her words left her mouth before she could even consider them. They were dripping with sarcasm and venom, and she knew he had picked on the tone when his jaw clenched. Although she liked to believe she was above petty fights, she was also glad to see she could get under Rowan’s skin.

“You enjoy hearing yourself talk, don’t you?”

“Do you enjoy hearing me talk?”

He had already opened his mouth to respond when a woman approached them, her heels clinking on the wooden floor. Slowly, Rowan and Lin tore their gazes from each other to look at the woman now standing by them. She was a pretty thing. Small, pale skin and dark brown curls, she looked like a doll. Her chestnut eyes were going back and forth between Rowan and Lin.

“Rowan.” Was all she said, her accent sounding a little like his but washed down by years living in Terrasen. “Who is this?”

“Lyria.” Was all he said.

Lin just stared at the two of them. The silence got so uncomfortable that she shifted on her seat, careful not to wake Fleetfoot sleeping by her feet.

When she realized Rowan wasn’t on the mood for talking, something Lin felt that was his usual mood, the woman turned to her.

“You are?” She asked, her tone rude and impatient.

“Lin.” She answered, laying her hand on her lap. “And you would be?”

“Lyria. Rowan must have mentioned me before.” Lyria raised her chin, looking down at Lin. The gesture was so Clarisse-like that Lin wanted to get up and beat the pretty girl.

“Actually, no.” She didn’t add that she only knew Rowan for a day. Judging by how Rowan relaxed slightly, it was the correct answer.

“In what can we help you, Lyria?” Rowan sighed, crossing one ankle over the other. If with Lin he seemed secretly enraged, with Lyria he only seemed tired.

“Your Majesty heard that you and your troupe would be leaving the city and asked me to come see if it was true. And why. You know how Maeve can be, especially after she has asked you so many times to join her inner circle.”

“We are going on vacations.” Rowan gave her a fake smile. “To celebrate.”

“And what would you be celebrating?”

“My eighteenth birthday.” Lin butted in and Lyria and Rowan’s head snapped back to her. “It was a few weeks ago but I was visiting my aunt Clarisse in Adarlan so unfortunately we couldn’t celebrate together. The boys were kind enough to give me a belated present. Isn’t that right, Ro?”

He seemed amused. “Yes. Lin has been a friend for a while now and we didn’t want such an important date to go unnoticed.”

Lyria stared at the two of them silently. Lin honestly thought she was going to ask for more information, but the girl merely walked to her side and sat down where Gavriel had been. Rowan’s features were washed in confusion as Lyria got close to Lin’s ear.

“He can’t love anyone.” Lyria whispered, her voice now empathetic and lovely. Lin was so shocked by her words that she couldn’t move. “I know, I’ve been there. There is something always holding Rowan back. Don’t break your heart because of him.”

Lin then looked at Lyria, and for a moment the girl smiled sadly. Only for a second before that cool mask slipped on again. She got up, nodding goodbye to Rowan and looking at Lin one more time. “If you choose to ignore what I said, I hope you are luckier.”

“What did she say?” Rowan asked as Lin stared at Lyria leaving the station. Lin had absolutely no feelings or attraction towards Rowan, but she couldn’t help but be intrigued by what Lyria had said. Couldn’t help but wonder if Rowan was actually incapable of loving or if his relationship with Lyria just hadn’t worked out. She looked back at him, his existence becoming an enigma Lin’s body was aching to understand.

“That you are a miserable fuck.”

Rowan opened his mouth to reply, but he was interrupted again by the rest of the cadre coming back. This time, Fenrys plopped down by her side and put an arm behind her. “Ready to go on an adventure, firedrake?”

She snorted, crossing her arms. “Born ready, wolfie.”

———————————

Rowan hated that dog.

He was usually fine around animals, but Fleetfoot seemed to be a little too similar to her owner and had taken a deep dislike on him. They were in one of their cabins inside the train, and he started putting his luggage on the compartment above the seats. However, when he want to sit down on his spot, the dog remained laying there lazily. He motioned to grab her, but she only growled deeply and he wasn’t on the mood to fight with a dog.

He was too busy thinking about Lyria’s appearance to bother anyways. Rowan had dated her for years during his adolescence. She had been funny and lovely and everything Rowan needed at the time. When she said she started working at the palace, Rowan was genuinely happy that she was finally leaving the streets of Orynth to live in the servant’s quarters. In the beginning, everything was fine, but then she started getting more distant, asking more and more of Rowan as she gave him less and less. And then when she was promoted to Maeve’s little inner circle, dating her became impossible. She was always trying to convince Rowan and the others to join Maeve. Every single one of his friends had their reservations about the conqueror queen on the throne, but Lyria should know that he had many reasons not to join that bitch’s reign. Rowan had no interest in helping the woman who had destroyed his life and the lives of the people he loved. Lyria’s blind loyalty to Maeve and Rowan’s complete hate for her was what finally broke the relationship.

Every now and then Lyria would pop up at the apartment he shared with the other five guys, asking them once more if they wanted to join Maeve’s forces. The answer had always been no, but that didn’t stop her from coming back again and again with the same words. Earlier that day when Lyria looked almost curiously at Lin, his stomach had turned.

Lyria’s appearance had unsettled him, and the presence of the woman he was now forced to sit next to unnerved him to no end. She had a mouth too big and a face too pretty and alluring for her own good. For their good.

Lin was splotched against the leather seat, playing with the little pendant from her necklace. It was small enough that Rowan could barely make out what it was, but it looked like a series of overlapping circles. He knew he should just leave her the hell alone, but he found himself saying, “Stop fidgeting with that thing and sit up straight.” Her eyes turned to him and narrowed, making the gold in the center stand out more. “Remember, you’re a princess.”

His last words were filled with sarcasm and there was no way Lin hadn’t picked up on the tone. “And how do you know what princesses do or don’t do?”

He gave her a sarcastic smile. “I make it my business to know.”

“Oh.” She replied, sitting up straighter. She batted her eyelashes at him and Rowan heard Fenrys and Vaughan coughing. “Rowan, do you really think I’m royalty?”

Her voice was filled with mocking, and Rowan clenched his hands as he replied her sarcasm with sarcasm of his own. “You know I do, Aelin.”

“Then stop bossing me around!” She grunted and turned her face to the windows. He heard the others raising a hand to put over their mouths or simply coughing again to mask their laughter. Even Gav reacted at that, marking something on his little journal with a humorous smile on his face.

“She certainly has a mind of her own.” Lorcan murmured, looking at Rowan.

“Yeah,” Rowan said mildly. “Hate that in a woman.”

Lin turned her face back to him to show him her tongue. He had to bite his own so he wouldn’t imitate the gesture. For fuck’s sake, this woman acted like she was five and made him act as if he was five.

“This is going to be a long month.” Vaughan said, looking as if he had found his new source of entertainment. His arm was around Connall’s shoulders and both men were smiling at Rowan like fiends.

“I think I rather like you, firedrake.” Fen said, earning a middle finger from Lin. At least she didn’t dislike only Rowan.

The thought almost made him smile.

——————————————

Lysandra Ennar hated that pub.

She hated the strong smell of cheap ale, the sweat of the bodies of the people mingling around, the terrible music coming from one of the corners of the room.

She had been here for a year and wasn’t even close to paying her debts. Differently from the orphanage where she would have left at eighteen, here Lysandra had to buy her freedom.

And her freedom costed a fucking lot.

Just thinking about it made her throat constrict, and she had to hold her apron a little bit tightly to keep the tears at bay. She wanted to be enjoying the beginning of summer with Lin in Adarlan. Wanted to be with her best friend while they stole alcohol from carts in the market and then drank their asses off.

She missed Lin greatly. Being taken away from her had been like losing a sister, and everyday Lys planned a way of finding her again even if she still didn’t even know how to free herself.

Her mind was wandering to a place where she and Lin lived in peace. A place where maybe both of them would have normal jobs and would find normal loves, maybe even getting married to them in the future. Lys would be Lin’s maid of honor and Lin would be Lys’s. They would be normal girls living perfectly normal lives.

Her daydream was interrupted by a cloaked man sitting on one of the stools by the bar. Differently from everyone else in this hellhole, this one seemed to have money. Tons of it, judging by the fine material of his cloak and the bejeweled dagger by his side. He sat up straight, and Lys felt his shadowed face analyzing her and then the rest of the room. He shrugged to himself and took off his hood.

Lysandra’s jaw literally fell. She took in the golden hair, the sharp jawline and high cheekbones. She took in the nose and the brows and his mouth. And then her gaze landed on the turquoise and golden eyes watching her.

“Holy fucking shit. What the hell?” She breathed at the man who sat in front of her.

The man who looked so much like Lin that they could be twins.

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