The Red Viper and the Tempest.
An unlikely match from the beginning.
A moment of attraction, fleeting and memorable.
A hint of vulnerability, strong and lasting.
A spark of a flame, inevitable and ruining.
In the midst of storms and poisons, tw...
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Cassandra couldn't recall the last time she had been this happy.
She laughed freely as she chased after Owain and Arianne on the shores of the beach. Their cheerful calls only spurred her on, her feet padding on the white sand.
It was one of the days they spent in the Water Gardens. It was the day before they were due to return to Sunspear.
Before she could catch up to them, arms wrapped around her waist, halting her movements. She turned her head and was faced with the visage of the man she loved most on this earth.
"Oberyn! Let me go!" Cassandra demanded, struggling away from his hold. Despite the smile that remained on her face, an unexplainable sadness spread across her chest.
"Never." Oberyn whispered back, pressing kisses to her nape. "Never, ever for the rest of time."
"You're a sap." She rolled her eyes playfully even though she enjoyed his show of affection.
Slipping from his hold, she laughed as he tried to reach for her and she jumped just an inch out of reach.
Cassandra continued on her chase and just as she reached Arianne, she pulled the little girl back only to fall in shock when the little girl turned to reveal Rhaenys.
"Aunt Cass!" Rhaenys exclaimed in glee, wrapping her small arms around Cassandra's waist.
Tears began to stream from her eyes as memories came back to her in fragments. The bloody bodies covered in Lannister colors. The smell of fire and the taste of death. The feel of the Mad King's hands around her throat.
"Why are you crying, Aunt Cass?" Rhaenys asked, looking up at her curiously, poking at her waist.
Just as she opened her mouth to wave it off as nothing, Cassandra found herself back in the throneroom at King's Landing. Screams began to echo from different sides of the room.
The pleads of Rickard and Brandon Stark rang from beyond while Elia's cries for help reached her ears. Yet no matter where she turned, the room remained empty.
Her knees hit the floor just as the entire room burst into flames.
Cassandra awoke with a start, a gasp trapped in her throat. Her hands clawed up her neck as she struggled to breathe, the air coming in a few moments later.
When her lungs finally took in the necessary amount of air, that was when the emotions of her nightmare hit her. Tears began to stream down her face as she began to sob silently.
She cried for the deaths she failed to prevent, the future she had lost, and for the girl she had been. She was so exhausted from crying but when one lost everything, what else was there to do?
