Saviour of Ashes

Chapter 17

The warriors had climbed the wall and landed on the balcony in less than a minute. Rowan was clutching her face, whispering her name. Fenrys stood guard over them and Gavriel and Lorcan had gone inside growling at Darrow.

"Aelin," Rowan whispered.

"They-they-they," she hiccupped.

"Breathe, Aelin, breathe," Rowan said as he used his magic to help her catch her breath. He rubbed her arm - the one she had gripped to prevent herself from punching Darrow. She hadn't realised she had hurt herself until she felt Rowan healing it. The rage had consumed her this time. She wasn't on fire. Her fire had been controlled... Why?

A calming wave was sweeping over her. "They want to take our child away," she strangled out.

"That won't happen," Rowan promised her. "They won't touch our child, Fireheart."

Aelin had calmed down enough to not shake as bad as what she had been. "Darrow wants me to make him my heir..."

Rowan lifted her to her feet. He wrapped his arm around her waist.

Lorcan marched outside. "He's lying. Someone is playing with his mind. I can sense the magic."

Aelin's cheeks heated at not sensing it. How did I not see it? She looked at Rowan.

You were emotional-

Aelin shook her head. You didn't sense it either. And neither did Gavriel from the looks of it.

Gavriel frowned at Lorcan. "How do you know?"

"I didn't sense it at first," Lorcan admitted. "But his eyes..." He looked at the other warriors. Darrow had worn the same pleading look in his eyes that they all had when Maeve was controlling them.

Aelin turned to Fenrys. "Can you summon Manon?" Fenrys nodded and disappeared inside. "Gavriel, find out who he's spoken to since the announcement." It was a long shot but the Lion followed his order.

Rowan gripped her hand. "Are you alright?" He glanced at her bump. Aelin nodded.

"Fae pregnancies can be risky," Lorcan said, surprising them all. "It's hard enough to conceive, but... All the stress is dangerous to the child. Two different kinds of magic are inside you, Majesty. Yours and the child's. If you are stressed, so is the child. You may control your magic when...pressured but the child cannot."

Aelin's breathing hitched. One more thing to add to her list of worries. She tasted smoke in her mouth. She swallowed, almost choking on it.

"How do you know so much?" Rowan said.

Did he already know this? Did he hide this from me?

"I read about it. I was trying to see if I killed my mother in childbirth. But the old lady who had fed me as a baby said she had seen my mother the day she dumped me in the slums," Lorcan explained.

Aelin gripped the railing, letting the cool night air calm her down. "I won't do that to my child. I will not give it up for anything." Especially not for some Lord that was being manipulated by magic.

There was cough from behind them. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Darrow's solemn face. Lorcan and Rowan growled at the male.

"Majesty... What I said...I have no idea where that came from..." He wrung his hands. "I only came to help you settle back into your own rooms. When Orlon passed...I couldn't go into his rooms or even my own. The memories were too painful."

"Unlike you, Lord Darrow, I endure grief. I savour the pain. I use it to help me burn. Your advice is useless," she said bitterly.

He took a step forward and both the males guarding her growled louder.

"I understand, Majesty. Just... Just don't feel the remorse-"

Aelin let out a sharp, bitter laugh. "Remorse? What do you know of remorse, Lord Darrow? I feel the guilt every damn day I wake up. For everyone who's life I have taken because of blind, wild rage. For everyone who has died because I loved them...Those who loved me. I carry those deaths with me everywhere I go. It reminds me of why living is so important. What I have to fight for."

"Brave words, Majesty," Darrow whispered, not meeting her eyes. "Remember that when you walk into Rhoe and Evalin's chambers."

Rowan punched the Lord. His lip bleeding instantly.

"Stop," Aelin barked. That's what Darrow wanted. Someone to finish him off. To make his fading end.

Rowan flexed his hand, his knuckles bloody.

"I warn you out of kindness, Majesty," Darrow wheezed. "It will hit you. You will miss them so much it will hurt. Don't let it ruin who you are."

With that, Darrow stormed back into her rooms, slamming her doors as he went.

Aelin let out a shaky breath. She went into the foyer and sat down on the couch. Gavriel handed her a piece of paper. "He's right, you know," Aelin said as she gripped the paper.

Rowan sat down beside her and Lorcan sat in one of the chairs.

"It's like those past twelve years never happened - like I never left," Aelin admitted. "I keep expecting to see my parents...to see Marion Lochan."

Lorcan looked at her carpet. "He's wrong, though. You won't let it ruin you."

She didn't want to discuss it any further. Aelin looked at the paper Gavriel had given her. She frowned at him.

"Darrow didn't do much after we arrived. He travelled with us, then had dinner with us. Whoever used magic on him did it after we left the dinning hall," Gavriel explained.

"One of the Lords," Aelin said.

"Could have been a servant," Gavriel suggested.

Aelin shook her head. "I asked him how many Lords wanted to kill my child before it was born. He said three, not including himself."

Rowan tensed beside her. She could feel him sliding into that killing calm. "We're going to find whoever it is using magic and kill them."

"Quietly," Aelin added. "We kill them quietly. We cannot scare the people. Not with everything else still so new. But warn Aedion, Lysandra, Manon, Elide, Dorian, Chaol, Nesryn, and Yrene. No one else knows. We can't trust anyone in this castle - especially the Lords."