CELTIGAR - House of The Dragon

Unfit

Rhea jumped, startled and grunted as she felt jolts of pain through her body. Aemond seemed unsettled, unlike his usual self, which Rhea put on the account of her injury at first, but was soon to find out she was wrong. He stood there, aghast. Rhea sat up and grimaced, whimpering. Aemond had an odd look on his face, one Rhea had never seen.

He threw his sword on the floor, ridding himself of his wet clothes and sliding on a pair of dry trousers. His hair was drenched and he looked as if he had seen a ghost, his eye wide and his hands shaking.

"Aemond? Are you alright?" Rhea tried to get up but she was soon reminded of the two wounds in her belly as her legs faltered under her weight and she wobbled back to her bed.

He turned his head towards her slowly and he finally registered the state she was in, concern finally making its way in his brain and he rushed to her, inspecting every one of her wounds. He kept repeating how sorry he was to have left and how he should have stayed with her for the good of everyone. Rhea frowned, something had happened, she was sure of it. This was not Aemond's normal behaviour. Even when he worried, he was never this out of it, he was always grounded. This was not him.

She painfully raised her hand to his face and, as she touched him, he locked his eye in hers, and, in a split second, her Aemond was back. His muscles tensed up as he saw his wife, her hair still stained with her own blood, her tired face and painful expressions. He was angry, very angry.

"Who did this to you?" He asked angrily, his teeth grinding.

His fists were balled up and he began pacing around the room.

"Rhea!" he shouted. "Who did this?" He slammed his fist on a nearby table causing the candle light to flicker. He turned to her again, urging her to answer but she wouldn't.

He softened, realising his anger was not aimed at her, but at the person who put her in this situation.

"I will have their head, Rhea. I will cut their tongues out, shove them up their assholes, and feed them alive to pigs," he promised angrily.

Rhea exhaled through her nose, asking her husband to sit next to her.

"I do not know," she lied again, reaching for his hand.

He sat carefully next to her, his eye landing on all her wounds, his heart breaking. She was his to protect and he had failed her the first time she was out of his sight. He should have taken her with him. She would have been safe and he wouldn't have...He shoved his thoughts further into his brain, focusing on his beautiful, wounded wife.

"I am alive, and well, Aemond, my love," Rhea began softly. "'Tis all that matters, for now."

She reached for his chin and brought him to her, kissing him lightly.

"I will have my revenge, when the time comes, I swear, husband," Rhea promised and Aemond sat next to her, his back straight against the headboard. He lifted his arm and his princess slipped close to him, her side resting on his, her head half on his shoulder, half on his torso. She was sitting up, too, and she could feel her prince's heartbeat as she tried to fall back asleep.

"I am here, now, love, sleep, I will protect you", Aemond swore, kissing the top of her head, his hands resting on each side of her aching body. "My strong, strong wife."

Close to her prince, Rhea felt safe again and she nuzzled against his body, his hair still wet from the storm. Aemond, still fuming, wouldn't stop shuffling, loud exasperated exhales escaping his nose every five seconds.

"This would not have happened, had I been the King," he puffed, anger driving his every thought.

Rhea, in all her drowsiness, looked up at him. He took off his eye-patch angrily and threw it on the floor, he ran a hand on his face to try and calm his nerves but failed, his hands shaking from the fury he felt.

"Aegon is not responsible for this, Aemond," Rhea refuted, her voice hazy. "I was-"

"Aegon is not fit to be King," Aemond cut her off angrily, a weight lifted off his chest as he admitted the grievous thoughts he had kept for himself all this time.

Rhea opened her mouth to speak, astounded, but closed it again as the prince stood off the bed and paced around it. She tried to move her legs and join him, but the pain she felt in her back constricted her to remain abed.

"What you are about to say is treason, Aemond," she simply stated as he walked about the room angrily. The prince scoffed and flipped towards her.

"And who will report me, you?" He laughed scarily, his voice loud. "We all know it, and yet, we are all pretending to support the decision to crown him, pretending that there is no one better suited than him when-"

Rhea called his name, urging him to come back close to her.

"He is your brother, husband."

"Yes, and for that I will always stand by him, but I will not act as though I would not have made a better ruler", Aemond replied strongly. "'Tis I, the younger brother, who should have ascended the throne, not Rhaenyra, not Aegon, me. I have prepared for the role my whole life, and yet-"

Rhea drew a deep breath and gulped.

"Aemond," she whispered.

"Do not act shocked, my love, especially when you are the one to still support my sister's claim. I know you do."

"I have bent the knee to your brother, therefore, what I believe in does not matter any longer. Had you been crowned in his stead, I would have been your fiercest ally, your most loyal supporter. But Aegon is King, and it is our duty to ensure he is a good one. You, of all people, are the most suited to do it."

"I know it is not right for me to wish things would have been different, but I cannot shake the idea I would be the better suited brother for the role," Aemond expressed, sitting back down next to her.

"On that part, we both agree, my love, but, alas, life is not fair in that way," Rhea laid her hand on his arm appeasingly.

Aemond remained silent for a short while, cuddling up to her, gaining his calm back and gently stroking her wounded belly. His heart broke again for her.

"I only meant that I would not have let this happen to you, Rhea. And I am sorry I left, I will not do that again," he promised, kissing her temple lovingly.

As his wife drifted off to sleep against him, Aemond thought about what had happened at Storm's End, and how he would need to own up to his actions there. How he most certainly kickstarted the war everyone tried so hard to avoid. How he would have to tell her what he did there, and how she would hate him for it.