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highqueenofelfhame · 1 year

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IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME COMING. I didn't mean for this to go a whole year without an update. I'm so sorry. I hope this 4.5k chapter makes up for it somehow <3

masterlist // fafs masterlist // rowaelin

As soon as he took that first deep breath upon waking up, Rowan knew he was being watched. Maybe that was thanks to all his years as an agent for the bureau, or perhaps it had to do with the months he had spent with Aelin that had honed that instinct into a sharp blade. Regardless of what had made him develop the sixth sense, he knew that when he opened his eyes to the soft light filtering through the cracks of the curtains, there would be a golden gaze pinning him to the bed.

Instead of looking at her, he reached across the bed to rest his hand on her thigh. Rowan could tell she was sitting with her legs folded up like a pretzel, her hands in her lap while she watched him. He moved a fraction of an inch closer until he could easily press his lips to the spot just above her knee.

"Rowan?" The tentative sound of her voice had him cracking open an eye to look up at her face. A deep crease was set between her brows while she worried her bottom lip in thought.

"What has you awake so early?" This soon after waking, the lilt of his accent was heavier, his tone deeper and more gravelly than usual.

"It wasn't you, right?"

"Baby–" he started, pushing himself up on his good arm to a sitting position. He shifted so they were sitting knee to knee, one of his legs dangling over the side of the bed so he could move closer to her. Aelin looked away as she licked her lips before shaking her head. "Look at me, love."

"I know. I know you didn't; I just–" Her eyes found his again, and she huffed out a sigh. It sounded like she had been carrying it in her lungs for years. "Somebody found out. They found out, and they told her. But everyone I know is dead except for Elide and Gavriel, and they think I'm dead. Even if Gav put it together, I can't see him spilling everything to Maeve before talking to me to see what the hell happened to me all those years ago."

Digging her palms into her eyes, she took another deep breath and exhaled slowly. Rowan counted the seconds, his thumbs brushing in soothing circles over her tan skin. It was something he had been thinking about non-stop since everything exploded in the bureau lobby. Even as the bullet pierced his shoulder, he tried to make sense of everything that had come to light.

How had Maeve known? It definitely hadn't been Gavriel. At the very least, her uncle would have approached him before going to Maeve. It didn't make any sense for him to find his long-lost and assumed-dead niece and go straight to his boss. Rowan knew firsthand that the deaths of his sister-in-law and her husband had plagued him. He was one of the few people that Gavriel had ever talked about it with, him and Aedion never having fully given up hope that maybe she was out there somewhere. It wasn't something he voiced frequently. Those admissions came after everyone else had left the bar, and it was just the two of them sharing a beer in silence after a difficult case. No, it definitely hadn't been Gavriel.

Who then? Aelin was right. Essentially everyone from her childhood was dead now. All her confessions had happened in places where he knew they weren't being recorded. By that time, he himself had become paranoid enough that he checked all the pens in his pockets, his cufflinks, and the buttons of his shirts, even to ensure nobody had slipped a device somewhere in his clothes. If they had been recorded, it would have been inside his apartment. But he would have known about that, too. He checked regularly and had frequency blockers hidden in every room.

If working for the bureau taught him anything, it was to always be on your guard and that a healthy dose of paranoia kept you from being surveilled.

There was Elide, but Rowan had a strong feeling that any of her suspicions would have ended with Lorcan beating down his door in the dead of night in search of the truth. She wasn't even an option, not really.

Who, then? Had Arobynn Hammel let the truth slip to Maeve before his heart had been ripped from his chest? Did Maeve have eyes and ears everywhere that whispered back to her, even when they were sure no one was listening? It seemed far-fetched, but he knew his boss had her moments of being ruthless. But if she'd known the truth since Arobynn, why did she wait so long to tell Aelin she knew? The window of when she found out and when she spoke with Aelin had to have been a small one. Nothing else quite made sense.

Rowan looked back at the woman he loved, her eyes fixed on his face while he processed every bit of information they knew. All he could do was shake his head and rest his brow against hers.

"I don't know. I wish I could give you more than that, but where it stands right now, I have no fucking idea. We will figure it out– all of it. Who told her, what kind of jeopardy it puts you in, what our next steps are. We will figure it out together."

There was a determination in her eyes that was admirable. And though he could tell she wanted to push back about something that he'd said– he had no idea which part– she nodded slightly and repeated, "Together."

~*~

Hours later, Aelin was sitting on the floor in front of the couch with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. Despite a warmer day outside, a fire flickered in the fireplace. Watching the flames dance and twine around one another was a welcome reprieve from the near-constant headache she'd had for the last few days while trying to make sense of everything.

In the kitchen, Rowan hummed quietly while preparing dinner. The aroma of garlic, basil, and lemon was strong throughout the cabin. It felt bizarre that this felt like the most normal night she had ever experienced in her whole life. The sounds of dinner being prepared, a man she loved making everything with care. The reality was that it was the furthest from normal, considering she was on the run from the FBI. It was only a matter of time before she was found, captured, and dumped into a prison cell for the rest of her life. It made her stomach turn to know that the same thing would happen to Rowan for harboring a fugitive of her caliber and committing treason.

"I don't understand how this has become my life," she said aloud, and Rowan ceased his movements. The water turned on, followed by the sound of him washing and drying his hands before lowering his body to the floor beside her. "I don't mean I don't understand exactly how I ended up here. I understand that part. What I don't understand is how my life got here."

"You mean how you ended up an assassin in the first place." He shifted to drop his arm around her shoulder, and Aelin quickly turned into him, resting her face against his chest. It always surprised her when he understood what she was trying to say, even if the words were twisted and confusing on their way out of her mouth.

"How did I go from living in a mansion surrounded by family and friends, my father gearing up for a presidential run, having tea parties with my very best friends, or running through bonfires on Beltane with flowers in my hair to this?"

"What do you remember about that night?" The night she'd spent so much time running from, one that her brain had blocked out almost entirely. Aelin sucked her bottom lip between her teeth, eyes still locked on the flames as she chewed on it for a moment.

"Not much," she admitted. "I've never talked about it out loud to anyone before, either. But it really isn't much."

"Do you want to go over what you do remember with me? Maybe something will spark, and we can work backward to figure out what is happening now." Only with Rowan would she ever talk about it, the night that ruined her life. Perhaps she had emerged from the ashes like a phoenix, but everything she had wanted to be before died that night. So she had become something else entirely. Something horrible that her friends and family would be ashamed of and would judge. But he wouldn't.

Aelin turned so she was leaning against the couch, her arm propped on the cushion with her fist against her temple. Rowan mirrored her body language, reaching out to lace the fingers of their free hands. A silent reminder that he was there, he understood her, and he would follow this path with her to whatever end it may have. The thought alone made her want to cry, but she swallowed her emotions.

"The night that my parents were murdered, I was sleeping upstairs in my bed. Every night I went to sleep snuggled in a mountain of stuffed animals. Most of them came from when my dad went on business trips. He always brought one back for me. I had to have at least twenty stacked on top of my bed, dozens more littered around my room. I rotated them out frequently so that none of them would feel lonely having to sleep by themselves." Rowan's lips had curved into the smallest of smiles, his thumb making circles on the back of her hand. He was there. He had her. She was not alone, and she would not be afraid.

"I remember having a hard time falling asleep that night. I'd been to my parent's bedroom twice because I thought I heard things. It was a big house; it made a lot of noise. My mom repeatedly promised me that everything was okay, and she and my dad tucked me back into bed. I remember still feeling unsettled and scared. Like something was wrong, but I didn't know what. I couldn't place my tiny finger on it then, but I would hold my breath to see what I could hear in the silence. Once, I heard soft voices, which my mom said I was just hearing the two of them talking downstairs. I heard footsteps, but again, they were still up and getting ready for bed. I was just hearing them."

Aelin paused then, tears already filling her eyes and threatening to slip down her cheeks. Not once had she said any of this out loud. Nobody had ever heard this part. With Rowan, she could do this. She could say it aloud despite her throat burning from trying to suppress her emotions. Maybe it was time she let them out. Had she ever really grieved? Those first few weeks at the keep, maybe. But Arobynn had quickly shut down her wildfire range of emotions some months into her training when he decided she should be over it by now. With a deep breath, she found it in herself to continue.

"I slept a little bit that night, but it was that kind of sleep where you hear everything around you. Somewhere between being awake and dreaming. At first, I thought I was dreaming. But I heard my mother begging someone. Her voice had so much raw fear; I will never forget how it cracked when she said my name. As scared as I was, you think you're invincible as a child, you know? So I snuck downstairs, tip-toeing down the hallway to their bedroom. And then I just… froze. There was enough moonlight to see my dad completely limp on the bed. Something dark was on his skin and the sheets, running down his arm and pooling on the floor. His eyes were staring at nothing.

A man had my mom's hair gathered in his hand; her head pulled back with a gun to her temple while she begged and begged. But she wasn't begging for herself; she was pleading that he let me go. Over and over, she just kept saying let my baby live, please don't hurt her. And then she saw me standing at the door, and the last thing she said was my name before the gun went off. I have never heard anyone's voice sound so panicked and full of terror. My mom slumped against my dad, and then I turned and ran. At some point, I slipped, banged my head on the ground, and I don't know what happened after that."

Aelin only realized she had fully begun to sob when Rowan pulled her into his lap and wrapped his arms around her tightly. While she was talking, she had registered the sounds of gasping, sharp breaths, and broken words, but it hadn't registered that it was coming from her. When she started talking, it all started pouring out. One broken word after another until her shirt was soaked with tears. On the one hand, it felt so good to finally get it out and tell someone what had really happened that night. On the other, it shattered her into a million pieces to recount those events.

The papers had gotten it all wrong. Most of them said it had been a quick assassination. Aelin didn't know how fast it had happened for her father, but the man that killed her mother had stood there and listened to her begging for her daughter's innocent life for long enough that Aelin had made her way downstairs and heard the end of it. That she saw the end of it. That it was burned into her brain no matter how hard she tried to shut those images out.

Aelin still had nightmares about it.

Rowan didn't say anything for a long while, just holding her and stroking her hair while she let out every emotion she had kept locked in an iron cage in the back of her mind. Emotions she had been trained to keep a firm hold on for nearly her entire life. Arobynn used that against her, beating her down until she had become distant and cold. Only when she had met Rowan did any of it start to slip out, and she had spent months hating herself for it. Aelin had always known from the time she started to get to know him that he would be her unraveling one way or another. He would either throw her in prison or make her feel alive again. At the time, she couldn't decide which was worse.

"I know that there were two men. I saw a second one when I turned to run. But after that, I didn't know anything else until I woke up in a bed in the keep. Arobynn never talked about how I fell under his 'care.' For a while, I thought it was just an orphanage. That I had been found and taken there while I was unwell. It didn't click until I was a few years older that it certainly wasn't the case because I would have woken up in a hospital before I got taken anywhere, and then I would have been taken to my aunt and uncle. I just remember seeing all these papers about how I was missing and presumed dead. Arobynn would show me news footage of Aerin and Gavriel begging for someone to just let them know where my body was so they could bring me home."

Her tears felt cool against her flushed cheeks, even as Rowan chased every one of them away with calloused fingertips. The memories of her aunt, uncle, and cousin standing on the porch of their home, desperately asking for her return. They hadn't known if it would be her alive and well, or if it would be her dead body. It had not mattered. Her family just wanted her back. Wanted to keep or safe or lay her to rest next to her parents. The image of Aedion's young, tear-streaked face floated to the front of her mind, followed immediately by his unseeing eyes the day she had shown up at the crime scene to find him dead.

It was all too much. The murder of her parents, her upbringing to become the underworld's most deadly assassin, that she was now everything her parents hated about the world. All of her friends that now lay six feet under simply because they were tied to her in some way.

The guilt had been gnawing at her bones since it all started. Aelin would give absolutely anything to trade places with them. The cost didn't matter. It would have been better if she were the one that was dead because if she had died that night, at least everyone she loved would still be breathing.

Throughout the years, Aelin had kept tabs on each of them, knowing they would do incredible things. They all had done their best to put something good back into the world. Dorian was nothing like his father, doing what he could to speak out and back his words up with actions to pave a better way for the rest of the world. Aedion had spent countless hours working with underprivileged youth in Big Brother programs right up to his death. Even Sam was taking steps to better his life until he was killed for trying to run with her.

Nehemia… gods, the things she could have done if her life hadn't ended so shortly. She had been a beacon of hope to so many, her charity work speaking for itself. It was only about doing everything she could to help people in need, including raising money through the Lotus Foundation, one her parents had helped her create to build housing in underdeveloped parts of their home country, Eyllwe.

Yet she was the one still living. She who had taken countless lives, that had so much blood caked onto her soul she would never be clean. It didn't matter what she did going forward; it didn't matter the circumstances of how it all happened. Aelin was the one that lived, and she had brought so much shame upon everyone in her life.

There were no bright sides to her friends being dead. That she would never have to face them, never have to tell them the truth, though… She was too much of a coward to ever have looked any of them in the eye after the life she had been forced into.

"Do you remember anything about the men that killed your parents? What they looked like?" Rowan's voice stirred her from her thoughts, soft, deep, and lilting. His thumbs still brushed the tears that fell from her cheeks.

"The men Maeve captured and convicted were the ones that did it. I know that for sure. I could never forget Cairn's face. His accomplice is harder for me to piece together, but he confessed after Cairn ratted him out to avoid the death penalty. I only saw him for a brief moment before I fell. If the wrong people had been convicted, I would have hunted them down and killed them myself." And she would have. Those lives would have been two of the few she held no remorse over, and it wouldn't have been quick. It would have lasted long enough until some of the grief had eased in her chest. Until she wasn't so scared to look back on her childhood memories anymore.

"That case got her the appointment for FBI Director." Rowan lifted the bottom of his t-shirt to wipe the snot gathered in her nose and upper lip.

"She deserved it for that. Even though I had just turned nine, I was hyper-aware of what my life was turning into by that point. And seeing justice brought down on them… it brought some relief. Not much, but enough to know they were behind bars. I would have preferred the death penalty for them both, but at least there was a confession." Aelin shrugged her shoulders. It was true. She would have killed them after her arrest if she had been in the same prison. Clearly, the gods had other plans for her, though.

"Is there anything else you can piece together?"

"Right now, no. But if I have any eureka moments, you'll be the first and only one to know."

Aelin had been waiting for Rowan's apology. The one that came from a place of empathy, that made her feel like she was pitied. But it never came. Instead, he leaned forward and pressed his lips to her forehead. The gesture said more than words ever could. That he understood, that he hated the shitty hand life had dealt her, that he stood with her. That he was there.

And that meant more to her than any words ever could.

~*~

Whitethorn had been right. In the days after Sardothien's arrest, he had gone on and on about how it was too convenient. It didn't make sense that she was just a whisper in the wind and suddenly became so sloppy in her work that boxes of evidence had, literally, been dropped on the steps of the FBI headquarters.

Raking through every piece of information that they had on her, he could see that clear as day. For years their department had chased a ghost, someone quick and silent. There had never been a drop of her own blood, a single hair that fell off her head. No fingerprints, no saliva. None of her DNA packed under someone's fingernails from a struggle. They didn't even have proof that it was her at all, actually. They only knew that the legendary assassin was a woman based on one witness account, and the woman had been so old and frail and unsure of her account that it would have been inadmissible in court.

All of her alleged crime scenes had been scoured with a fine-toothed comb. They knew it was murder; that much was clear. But Celaena Sardothien had dozens of aliases, hundreds maybe. He was sure of that. Yet the "proof" they had received in a box full of her fake passports and IDs seemed too good to be true. None of them led them anywhere; it was like she'd never touched them, never used them at any point. Anyone could pay someone to make fake identification, and what they found in those boxes was so blatantly fake that it wouldn't fool anyone.

Her case was a puzzle that he was dying to solve. Usually, he loved cataloging evidence that led to a trial. Sure, they would have to find and capture her again before she saw her day in the courtroom, but he enjoyed this part of the work. Except for right now, when not a single loose thread took him anywhere at all. The woman simply did not exist.

With tired eyes, he pushed away the file he'd been reading and turned to another that kept him up at night. Lorcan wasn't usually so personally invested in the cases they solved, but the look in Gavriel's eyes when he found out his son had been murdered still haunted his nightmares. The sounds of the sobs that broke free from his throat were the sounds of a soul dying. Gavriel had loved his son with everything he had, and Lorcan almost couldn't forgive himself for having to be the person that broke the news.

Flipping open the Ashryver file, he scanned the evidence log and accompanying photos. When he got to the images of Aedion's lifeless body, he started to flip faster, not needing to see the pictures to remember them in vivid detail.

Just as he was about to skip the last one, a close-up shot of his face and neck, Lorcan's fingers froze against the glossy page. In the photo, Aedion's glassy eyes stared at the cloudy sky. Eyes that were a bright turquoise, his pupil rimmed with gold. They were dimmer now than they had been while he was alive, but…

But he knew those eyes. Not just because they were a strong trait of the Ashryver gene pool but because he had looked into them himself. Yes, he had met Aedion several times at various get-togethers and holiday parties. But his eyes were identical to a different pair he'd become all too familiar with for the last several months.

Then there was his face. Gavriel's son favored him strongly, but there was a softness in his features that he had spent months looking at on a different face. A woman's face. The same shade of golden hair, though in these photos, it was sticky with dried blood.

Lorcan pulled his laptop closer to him, quickly opening a tab and sending his fingers flying across the keyboard. It was probably the fastest he had ever typed, and he had never been so impatient for the single second it took to get hundreds of images back from the search result.

He clicked on the third photo down, one of a small family standing on a stage. The man and woman waved to the crowd while the young girl beamed where she stood between them. No older than seven, her little hands clasped her mother and father's tightly.

Rhoe and Evalin Galathynius pictured with their daughter, Aelin, on Vice President Galathynius's presidential campaign trail in Perranth.

A few weeks ago a conversation of Lorcan arguing with Rowan about Celaena's involvement in Elide's attack had him pushing back from his chair. Ice slithered up and down his spine, blood turning cold as he recalled one specific thing that Rowan said to him that he hadn't caught in the moment because he was so upset and worried about his fiancee's life.

Rowan had called her Aelin. Said that Aelin didn't have anything to do with what happened to Elide. He vividly remembered feeling bothered by the conversation afterward, that there was something between the lines that Rowan hadn't been saying plainly with words, but perhaps they were there. Whitethorn had been so fiercely sure that Celaena didn't do it, didn't have it ordered, had clean hands where Elide was concerned. He might be a raging dumbass for dating a woman with multiple charges of murder to her name, but the man was not stupid.

Lorcan's eyes snagged on another image, a group photo of two dozen or so people. Standing in the front were five children. All of them were dressed in their holiday best, standing before a towering Yulemas tree covered in glittering ornaments and twinkling lights. They appeared to be gathered in a great hall of sorts. Everyone in the picture shared wide smiles as they looked at the camera.

In the middle of the group of children was a young girl with long dark hair wearing a red and green plaid dress. A bright red bow gathered some of her soft curls from her face. A face that Lorcan would know anywhere because not only had he seen hundreds of childhood pictures of her, but he woke up to that face every godsdamn morning.

Elide's arms were looped through two other girls, one with long golden hair and fair skin, the other with black hair in carefully woven braids, her skin dark. The three of them wore similar dresses, the color being the only thing different about them. The blonde girl on her right had a silver and dark green dress, while the one on her right had a dress of purple and silver.

Aelin Ashryver Galathynius was on Elide's right. That was factual. Beside Aelin, Aedion Ashryver stood with his arm thrown around her shoulders. Dorian Havilliard and Chaol Westfall were on the other side of Nehemia Ytger. Behind them were their parents and friends of their parents. All of them gathered before one of the famous Galathynius family Yulemas parties.

It wasn't just Aelin standing beside Elide, though. That thought clanged through Lorcan hard. He felt it in every nerve and bone of his body; he had never been so absolutely positive of something in his entire life.

Celaena Sardothien was Aelin Ashryver Galathynius, a girl long since presumed dead to the world and everyone that loved her.

Holy gods.

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codchrist · 7 months

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JD vs Rollins, Rhodes, Sami, and Jey Uso in Chicago at WARGAMES

#WWE RAW #Judgment Day #Cody Rhoes #Sami Zayn #Jey Uso #Seth Rollins #WarGames

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charincharge · 2 years

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IDWTW snippet? If your have one please and thank you

You've been so much more than patient, so here you go. I feel awful that I haven't been able to write and post etc etc. Here's a snippet from the next chapter of IDWTW for anyone out there who is still interested.

IDWTW, 67 (TEASER)

“I walked in on my dad and one of my dance teachers after the senior ski trip,” she blurted out.

Even in the dark, half-lit stairwell, Aelin could see Lysandra’s cheeks bloom with a deep blush as a wry smile appeared on her face. “Like, walked in walked in?

Aelin groaned. “YES.”

Lysandra choked back a laugh… poorly. It bubbled up in her nose, releasing a half-laugh, half-snort that even Aelin couldn’t help but be amused at, despite the circumstances.

“Oh my GOD.” Lys’s nose crinkled, and she fell to her knees completely as her shoulders shook with laughter.

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up,” Aelin said, but secretly she was pleased to see Lysandra’s face light up with such amusement. She hadn’t seen a smile like that from her friend in longer than she could remember.

“Wait, I’m sorry, I will continue [REDACTED] for you in one second, but you have to give me some details,” Lysandra said, falling from her knees to slink onto the floor. Aelin grumbled but sat across from her friend, knees almost touching as they flanked the sides of the stairwell, smiling at each other.

She told Lysandra the whole story — from her own sex high to walking into her home and crashing her dad’s sexcapades to Petrah’s awkward escape — and Lys laughed wildly at every detail until she was gasping for air, unfiltered joy and delight shaking through her shoulders.

“I mean, we all knew Rhoe fucked,” Lys cackled, causing Aelin to smack her friend’s knee.

“EW! That is my dad,” she said, fake heaving.

“He’s a hot, hot firefighter dad, though,” Lys said, her eyebrows wiggling. “Or should I say… daddy.” Lysandra smirked.

“Lysandra Caverre,” Aelin said succinctly. “I swear to god I will vomit straight on you,” she said.

Aelin tried to be serious, but Lysandra’s smile pushed them both over the edge into another fit of giggles. They laughed and laughed, releasing the tension that had been hovering around them like a thick blanket all night, officially removing all traces of formality until tears tracked down the girls’ cheeks.

#idwtw au #idwtw #rowaelin #i swear one day i'll have a full update for you all #rhoe's hoes #god i miss rhoe lol #i miss them all #my happiness my heart #got me through some rough times these kids did #i hope you enjoy them as much as i do #even though it's been a thousand years #tog fic #snippet #teaser

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nymph-of-water · 4 months

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Unpopular opinion: Aelin's parents weren't that good.

#tog fandom #tog #tog series #throne of glass #throne of glass series #aelin ashryver galathynius #aelin galathynius #aelin #evalin ashryver #rhoe Galathynius #terrasen

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tomtenadia · 2 years

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Thicker than blood - 14

I have been dying to post this chapter since I wrote it. It’s an important one It explains some things but it’s also a powerful one. I love this chapter very much and I hope you will too.

MASTERLIST

Aelin woke up at the constant banging at her door.

“What the fuck?” With a groan she left the bed and walked to the living room and opened the front door only to find Aedion on the threshold.

And from his expression she knew he was not happy.

“Hi Aeds, bit early isn’t it?”

“It’s eleven.”

She turned annoyed and walked back into the living room while he trailed behind in silence.

“What do you want?”

His hand slammed a newspaper on the coffee table and Aelin was horrified by the front page image. It was her and Rowan. She was caressing his face in a tender gesture and the paparazzi had caught the moment he kissed her.

“There was a fire last night, an attack on vampires and this is what they care about? Ten young vampires died.”

Aedion pointed at the headline The Galathynius’ heir new romance. Family and tradition swept under the rug for a fling. Read all the details here.

Aelin was raging. How dared they? And why reporters were taking photos of her instead of reporting about the accident? That was a fucking mess, especially because her identity as Celaena was now useless. Damn it, damn it.

“Rhoe saw this.”

Aelin sighed. Her father loved to read all the newspaper first thing in the morning. He loved to have an exact idea of what was happening.

“I don’t care.”

“He was not happy.”

Aelin snorted “of course, the mighty Rhoe Galathynius needs to have an opinion on my love life too.”

“A cop?”

She paced furiously “He is a Whitethorn. He is pureblooded, his clan in Doranelle is ancient and powerful too.”

“He is not from Terrasen.”

“Aedion, I. Do. Not. Give. A. Fuck.” She spelled out for him.

“He will not allow you pursue this.”

A loud and mocking scoff left her lips “He is my mate and we are married. Legally. He can’t do anything against the mating bond. Rhoe is not a god.”

Aedion knew. Lys had told him, but he had to pretend as if he had no idea. He was not betraying his fiancee’s confession.

“That was a stupid thing to do.”

“Says the man who is about to marry a commoner.”

“I am not the heir,” he shouted.

“Well, sure as fuck Rhoe acts as if you are.”

Aedion reeled back as if she punched him “is this why you are doing all of this? You are jealous?”

Aelin groaned hard “My father used me as a guinea pig. Your project? While you were in the lab collecting glory I was strapped in a lab under the mansion. All your initial samples? They were from me.” She blurted out “I almost died and he kept going. I used to wake up screaming in the middle of the night and no one ever came.”

She finally had the courage to look at Aedion and his blue eyes were full of pain.

“Why you never told me?” His voice a whisper.

Aelin shrugged “I couldn’t.”

Aedion walked to her and hugged her and she felt tears trickle down his cheek “Aelin, you are like my sister. I would have done anything for you, even face your father.”

He pulled back and sat in shock. “You were never around. Rhoe had said he sent you away to Rifthold to a private school.”

Aelin sat at his side and grabbed his hand “I was in a room. Three years, Aedion,” talking to him felt good “I was not allowed to leave the room. I had books, my laptop and anything I needed but that was my world. To be honest most days I was too sick to do anything anyway,” her head leaned against his shoulder “That’s when I started studying all things related to anatomy and the body. I wanted to know what was happening to me. Why I could feel my body on fire or why I could not drink blood. Rhoe would come and visit and tell me that I was helping vampire society advance.”

“I should have suspected. All the samples always had the same genetic pattern. Always female. I had no idea it was you.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“I feel so dirty now.”

Aelin turned to him abruptly “No, I might hate synthetic blood but you helped. A lot of vampires can live almost normal life because of you.”

He stood in a powerful move “You were the fucking price for this!” He shouted in desperation.

“It’s in the past.”

“No, it’s not.”

“Aedion, please.”

He hugged her tight “I am sorry.”

“Go back to Lys and let her calm you down, okay?”

He nodded and left and Aelin had a bad feeling about this. Maybe she had gone too far but Aedion needed to know.

She grabbed the newspaper and balled it up angrily, and that’s when Elide arrived back in the living room.

“Sorry, El.”

“Are you okay?”

Aelin sat on the sofa and nested in the woman’s arms “not even remotely.”

Being at the morgue was all she needed to chase away the bad day she had. Before heading to work she had gone to Rowan’s and found him still in a funk over the events of the previous night. She had showed him the paper and he had given her a brief smile, and did his best to reassure that everything would be alright. She then had broken down in his arms after she told him what happened with Aedion. In his arms she had felt safe and the pain had seemed to disappear.

Then Lorcan had called him to his office and she had left him with a kiss and went to work too.

She was analysing some samples from her last autopsy when a scent she hadn’t smelled in a while hit her. Fuck.

She left the office and went to the examining room and there he was: Rhoe Galathynius. Her father was tall with broad shoulders. She used to ride on them when she was little. His long hair was tied in a low ponytail and his blue eyes were staring at her.

“Your highness, what bring you here to such a lowly part of town?”

“Am I not allowed to visit my daughter?”

Aelin snorted loudly “sure if it wasn’t that you had not wanted anything to do with me since I decided not to follow in your footsteps.”

“I only want the best for you,” his voice deep.

Aelin went to close the door. Although the morgue was a quiet place she did not want to share the fight that was about to ensue with possible visitors.

She spread her arms “this is what is best for me. I love my job and you better accept it.”

“I do.”

“No, you fucking don’t. You see me as a failure, a stain in the perfect family line. You are ashamed of me.” She stood in front of him and forgot how tall her father was “And you are probably here to reiterate the fact by telling me that I should not meddle with a mere agent.”

Rhoe’s jaw clenched.

“You are a Galathynius.”

She moved closer and searched his eyes “No, I am a Whitethorn now. Rowan and I are married and mates. I took his surname and did you a favour. Now you can officially remove me from the family lineage. The stain is gone.”

“You do not turn your back on family this way,” he roared.

“Says the man who had me prisoner for three years. Who experimented on me. Who ignored my screams and cries for help. You turned your back on me a long time ago,” she was shouting so loud that her chest was now heaving hard. It had felt good to let it all out.

She was expecting her father to lash back at her, instead she was met by a strange reaction. There was hesitation, fear and worry?

Rhoe sighed gathering his resolve and sat on the stool “I guess it’s time to tell you the truth.”

She paused and stared at the man in front of her.

“Queen Maeve is your aunt.”

Aelin gasped in shock. No way she was related to that woman.

“After the great fire we started to set rules so that we could live alongside humans,” a pause “Maeve hated me for that, saying that vampires were not meant to be nice to humans. We were superior beings after all. She also started rejecting my synthetic blood project, claiming that it would make us the human’s puppets.” Rhoe looked into his daughter’s eyes, so identical to those of the woman he loved “So, in an attempt to bring me down and make me abandon my research, she kidnapped you, thinking that I would abandon my research if she had you. She also hated that your mother and I kept you away from her. We never trusted Maeve, she always had dangerous ideas. We wanted to keep you away from her as much as possible.”

Aelin noticed deep pain in her father’s eyes “while you were her prisoner she fed you spiked blood, constantly and who knows what else.”

She realised her hands were shaking in rage.

“It took us two years to get you back. Maeve had vanished and took you with her. The two longest years of our existences,” he looked down almost ashamed “And when we finally got you back…”

Aelin moved a step closer to him at the pain in his voice.

Her father finally met her eyes “You were so broken. Your mother and I were mad with grief.”

Aelin took another step closer to him.

“At the same time the fire had just passed and Orlon, your great uncle, and leader of our clan had begged me to do something to stop the hatred. Give Terrasen a chance, so while we were rebuilding and while I was trying to find a way to help you I also decided to use as it an opportunity to help the shift in society,” he took her hands “It was not my experiments that made you sick. Aedion had no idea. I would give him your samples to try and figure out a cure for you too,” he explained “Yes, we gave you synthetic blood but as a way to feed you and keep you alive, but you were so sick.”

Aelin let out a sob.

“All the pain was because of what Maeve did to you. For some reason your body never accepted it, that’s why it makes you sick.”

Aelin stared at her father in disbelief. The confession had shaken her. She had no idea. For so long she had thought he was the enemy and now… now she had no idea how to reconcile and accept the truth.

“I pushed you away to protect you. Maeve is still set on bringing us down and knows that you are our weak spot,” he confessed “If we pretended to disown you we thought it might keep you safe. And it worked so far. It pained us greatly.”

Aelin was crying now “Why you never told me.”

“Your hate for us had to look real.”

“Aelin…” he stepped closer.

She pushed him back “the cell… three years…”

“When you came back to us you were on the verge of slipping. She kept you always on the cusp but never pushed. Only enough to keep you wild and desperate for more. It took me a long time to find a way to help you. Apparently real A+ blood was the only thing you could drink. Even with my connections, though, it was not easy to obtain. You were wild, mad with pain and fear. Even after you got better you were not ready for the real world,” he added quietly “You were going through some horrendous withdrawal symptoms, that’s some of the pain you remember…” a ragged breath left his lungs “You would shout at us to kill you. You were in so much pain. The months and the years passed and I could not help you….”

Aelin remembered the day her father had told her she could leave the cell. She had spent the day in her bedroom. Aedion and her mother the only two who visited.

Her hands fisted in anger. If for a brief second she had thought to even agree with Maeve, now it was gone. She would take the woman down herself.

“I am sorry, Aelin. It might take me my whole existence to apologise, but I will.”

A sob left her mouth “I thought you hated me…” another sob “I spent years thinking that my family did not want anything to do with me.” A ragged breath, now it was her turn for confessions “I am a junkie,” she was now crying hard “and the night after the gala I almost slipped,” she looked up at him and it surprised her when she did not see any trace of disappointment in his eyes “I wanted to rebel, to reject all you ever done,” her father surprised her when his strong arms enveloped her in a hug “Rowan found me but instead of arresting me, he helped me. The night of the attack at a human’s house I tried and stopped them and the only reason I am alive is because I am married to him. He saved me in more ways than one.”

Her father’s arms tightened “I love him, dad…” she heard herself confess.

“Good,” he said quietly.

They stood in silence and Aelin tried to sort out all of her emotions. All of a sudden all of her beliefs had been taken down brutally and had no idea how to react. How to cope with the idea that her father really loved her. Where to start to rebuild their relationship?

“I always followed your career in silence. Reading all the articles where miss Celaena Sardothien ME, helped solve a murder.”

She looked at him in utter surprise.

“When you were recovering you used to write a diary. You struggled to express your feelings in words so you’d write to your mum and me in a diary and called yourself Celaena Sardothien.”

The diary… she had forgotten about it. When she started working at the morgue the name had slipped out of her naturally. She had forgotten the connection.

“Even if we will fix things, I am not leaving this job. I really love it.”

Rhoe tilted his head “maybe help us a a consultant from time to time. You are a great geneticist,” his tone had a hint of pride “Aedion is great as biochemist and genetic engineering. We can leave him play with his favourite field.” Aelin chuckled.

“If we reconcile, Maeve might try something again.”

Her father’s smile turned wicked “Then let’s keep up the ruse. I will release a very harsh interview where I declare you have ashamed me for the last time. I will declare that I do not approve of your relation with agent Whitethorn and and so forth.”

“Is mum okay?”

“She misses you so much, fireheart.”

At the nickname, Aelin started crying once more.

“We will fix this. And once it’s all okay we can try be a family once more and finally meet mr Whitethorn.”

Aelin nodded, and a wet chuckle left her lips “yes, I’d really love to.”

TAGS:

@rowaelinismyotp @swankii-art-teacher @whimsicallyreading @elentiyawhitethorn @aelin-bitch-queen @bruiseonthefaceofhumanity @acreativelydifferentlove @mis-lil-red @thegreyj @sailorsassley @leiawritesstories @clairec79 @morganofthewildfire @sv0430 @heartless--aromantic @autumnbabylon @rowanaelinn @backtobl4ck @susumaus98 @gracie-rosee @mybloodrunsblue @tanvee1231 @avenrebekah @whoever-you-choose-to-love @theywillnotsingforme @universallytreepost @black-daisy-water @goddess-aelin @whispers-in-the-darkest-heart

#rowan whitethorn #rowaelin #aelin galathynius #rhoe galathynius #aelin x rowan #rowaelin fanfic #rowaelin fanfiction #rowan x aelin

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leiawritesstories · 2 years

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Glimpse Of Us

Inspired by the song. Alternate canon.

Word count: 628

Warnings: mentions of death, one serving of angst mixed with fluff

Enjoy :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My darling Evalin,

She looks exactly like you. Your hair, your eyes, even your smile. Our Fireheart. Our princess. Our future. The little girl you held for such a short time before leaving us.

Why did you have to go, my heart?

Why could the healers not save both of you?

Why did we not know that you were ill until it was too late?

Why am I left behind to raise our daughter without your gentle wisdom to guide me?

I am so lost, my Evalin. Each time I hold Aelin, reveling in the way she cocoons her tiny self in my arms, a searing lance rips through my broken heart. Each time I look into her bright eyes, I see you. I see my queen smiling back at me. I see a reflection of us, together, and the image brings the brightest joy into my soul. Until she blinks, starts to fuss, and I turn instinctively to where you should be to find myself alone with my daughter.

I miss you so terribly, my queen.

Will this pain ever end? Will I ever have a day where my smile is not forced, where my bearing is not weighed down by the absence at my side? Or am I forever doomed to reach into the empty bed each and every morning, the hollow space yet another jolt that you are no longer with me?

I want to give Aelin the world. I want her to grow up into the queen we knew she would become. I want her to become as strong as you, as wise as you, as fierce as the fire of her ancestors that crackles in her veins. I want our daughter, our Fireheart, to know the truest of love.

But how will she learn all these things without you to guide her?

I fear I cannot teach her everything I want her to learn. Everything we want her to learn. Everything she must know to be the queen of Terrasen.

Oh, how I sometimes cradle our daughter in my arms, staring down into her eyes, your eyes, and I...I see you. I see you staring back at me, your calmness in her placid baby gaze, your fire in her cries. I see us, my beloved queen. I see us.

I miss you so terribly, my Evalin, my heart.

I love you. To whatever end.

Aelin’s eyes blurred with tears as she read the sloping lines of her father’s handwriting, the journal pages he’d penned since she was born ripping right into her heart. All of his hopes and fears and dreams and anxieties written openly on the paper for her to see.

His gift to her on her eighteenth birthday.

“Father,” she choked out, carefully closing the worn leather cover so her tears wouldn’t blot the pages. “Oh, Father.”

Rhoe pulled her into his arms, resting his head atop hers. “I love you, Fireheart.”

She clutched him as tightly as she could. “I love you so much.” Sniffling, she peered up at him, at the salty tears tracked down his cheeks. “You’ve taught me more than everything,” she whispered, her voice cracking.

He sniffed, brushing the back of one hand across his face. “And I still have so much I want to teach you. So much more that your mother wanted you to know.”

She handed him a handkerchief. “She’s smiling down on us from above, I can feel it.”

“We’re both so very, very proud of you,” her father croaked, once again on the verge of tears. “So damned proud.”

Aelin leaned into her father’s warmth, lending him as much strength as he lent her. “Thank you, Father. For giving this to me.”

“Thank you, Fireheart,” he murmured. “For being my daughter.”

#my writing #aelin galathynius #rhoe galathynius #rhoe and aelin #alternate canon #tw: death #AAAAAANGST #angst with fluff

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willothewispaudio · 1 year

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Tell me why I cried when she was talking about her treasure?? 🥹😭 She’s so precious, I want to give her a hug, why did we lie to her she’s so precious, we don’t deserve her!!

Have a wonderful day, your stuff is beautiful as always :)

Awww! 🥹❤️

I am so glad you enjoyed Rhoe and Polaris! That makes me so happy! ❤️

#will o the wisp audio #willothewispaudio #ww: Rhoe

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sopadeleon · 10 months

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This is my girl ...looks at hand....... RHOE

#Rhoe #Ocs #Armor #Sketch #Digital Art

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suppenzeit · 2 years

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fuck you guys im making cb tall (most likely) and kinda hot (maybe)

#:V #im taking the tallest ceebs and mushing them together #and while gesatzki has that cb lil guy energy rhoe on the other hand......................is kinda hot #hmm maybe i should sprinkle in some thierry catboy energy

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lcngliive · 5 months

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marion & rhoe ( @wvsteria )

"rhoe?" marion's brow furrowed at the sight of another fallen friend - she'd already seen evalin, but now seeing rhoe as well? she didn't know what to think of how this place worked. "how?" she supposed it didn't matter how, they were here - and so were aelin and elide.

#marion || interactions #marion || private starters #&& rhoe #death mention tw

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devilsmenu · 5 months

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@wvsteria - Abby & Rhoe

"It's still weird to be back to Washington, though I don't know how I'm back here and it must have a logical explanation to this but I do like being here once again after almost 6 years I left, it's like a second home to me" Abby mused out to the other. "How about you? Are you liking Washington?".

#wvsteria #feat rhoe #ch: abby

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mariaofdoranelle · 3 months

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The Courtship Deception - Part 3: Curtain

Fic Masterlist

Written for @throneofglassmicrofics

Warnings: moderate alcohol intake

Words: 923

“You can’t hide behind the curtains all night, Princess,” Fenrys said, both of them in the kitchen staff area while Aelin peeked at the party from behind the wooden doors that separated them.

Aelin sighed and smoothed her hands down her black silky dress. Her father thought that arranging this huge party was a good way to “rekindle” something with her suitors—she tried to argue that she dated Chaol for a month when she was eighteen, and never even got to call Dorian her boyfriend, but Rhoe was as dense as a rock, completely blinded by the prize that came after the wedding.

Not that Aelin would marry either of them, but her father didn’t know that yet.

She didn’t know most of the people attending this party, though she knew some names or at least remembered seeing them at some point. They were Rhoe’s guests, even if the party was initially planned for Aelin. She scanned the crowd, trying to find a familiar face, until she found a remarkably singular silver head.

Aelin stiffened, her heartbeat faster as she recognized this particular guest. There was no way he could be here.

“Fenrys.” She lightly tapped his arm. “Go get me a drink.”

The second his back was to her, Aelin turned around, that silver hair guiding her. She hated to deceive her friend like this, but as much as he liked to help her schemes, Fenrys was still her father’s employee, and they were currently being watched.

“Aelin.” A gentle hand on her elbow stopped her, and she turned around to meet Dorian’s concerned gaze. “We need to talk.”

She softened at the sight of him. It’d been a while since they last spoke, and a conversation was needed indeed. Dorian was her friend first and foremost, no matter what arrangements their fathers put them through.

“Of course, I…” A peek at her goal just to check that she didn’t lose him in the crowd. “I’m just gonna get a drink first.”

“Let me get it for you,” Dorian said, disappearing before she could stop him.

Well, at least it worked for her. Aelin politely made her way through her father’s business partners, just brief greetings so she wouldn’t lose that loner figure sitting—

“Thank Mala I found you!” Chaol stopped her, one hand on her shoulder. “Look, we—“

“I need a drink!” Aelin interrupted, voice loud and blunt. She hated to ditch three of her friends like this, but a girl gotta do what a girl gotta do.

“Absolutely.” Chaol nodded, and off he went.

Her footsteps were hurried, knowing she had three men in her tow, but the closer she got, the more certain she was that it was really him. They’ve exchanged flirty texts here and there over the phone, but she hadn’t expected to see him tonight.

“Did Fenrys invite you?” Aelin asked as she sat beside him with no invitation.

Rowan cocked his head, eyes glinting. “I can let myself in.”

“I bet you do.” She took the drink from his hand and took a sip, sending him a witchy look from under her lashes while trying to ignore the bourbon burning down her throat at the same time.

Rowan raised an eyebrow at her. “You did dodge my questions about when I could see you, so I thought I’d get my answer in person.”

She smiled, so very busted. Sneaking out to see a boy required some maneuvering Aelin couldn’t afford with her dad’s new plan and him watching her so closely because of it, but she wouldn’t disclose all that to him.

“Just so you know, I was avoiding that question because I still need to find a time I’ll get that friend of yours off my back.”

“But why?” Rowan asked, smirking. “Taking Fenrys out on a date sounds just lovely.”

Aelin had one palm supporting her chin on the table and another holding Rowan’s bourbon, not knowing where to look—to his gorgeous face or the tattoo on his wrist that his sleeve didn’t manage to cover up—when someone cleared his throat next to them.

It was Fenrys, intrigued onyx eyes focused on her, with Chaol and Dorian next to him. “Your drink, Aelin—all three of them.”

“You took so long that Rowan already got me one,” she said with a straight face, twirling his bourbon in her hand.

Chaol huffed and left, Fenrys placed her Manhattan on the table and positioned himself to watch her from a certain distance, and Dorian watched the scene unfold as if its sight held all answers he sought.

He sipped the drink that was meant for her, then raised it in a greeting. “Prince Rowan.”

Prince?

She widened her eyes at Rowan, just to watch him give Dorian a curt nod and say, “Havilliard.”

Weird. No common person just nodded at a crown prince. Aelin tilted her head, trying to make sense of it.

Rowan’s panicked look under her scrutinizing one sparked the realization, her blood racing.

She should’ve known from the unique silver hair and pine-green eyes combo; even from how Fenrys would refuse to talk about him the same way he did with his job with the Doranelle’s royal family. Aelin felt so dumb for taking days to realize it, but the Whitethorns were so many, it was impossible to keep track of all of them—from the youngest generation, Sellene and Enda were the ones the tabloids focused on.

“You wouldn’t have to keep crashing parties if you weren’t so secretive about your identity, Whitethorn.”

You can get notified when I update by either turning notifications on for @mariaofdoranelle-fics or entering my (sometimes glitchy) tag list!!

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I couldn’t tag the people in bold, sorry!

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#rowaelin #throne of glass microfics #rowan whitethorn #aelin galathynius #throne of glass #rowaelin fanfiction #rowan x aelin #aelin x rowan #rowaelin fanfic #throne of glass fanfic #the courtship deception #tcd

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