AN: Thank you all for being so patient with me as we embark upon this final stretch of IDWTW! I think there will be approx. 15 chapters left until the end (and we’re already over 300k lololol). This signals the beginning of the end, and there’s a lot to unpack in this one. I really enjoyed writing it, and I hope you enjoy reading it. I’ve been waiting for this reveal for LITERAL YEARS. I hope it makes as much sense to you as it did for me. 5k words of getting into it. See you on the other side. Can’t wait to hear what you all think!!!
Based on the prompts:
Person A: “I’m glad you are here.” Person B: “Really? Admitting that you missed me, are we?”
Aelin forced a smile and saw it reflected back on her cousin’s face as he rounded the corner toward her table. Her mind was reeling. What the hell was Aedion doing here? Of all places to be on New Year’s Eve, the tiny diner on the suburban outskirts of Orynth was the last place she thought she’d find him. And that wasn’t even taking into consideration the extremely surprising company he was keeping.
Adion’s blue-gold eyes crinkled at the corners as he scrunched up his face in a carefully constructed expression of surprise and joy as he wrapped her in a giant bear hug, pulling her out of the booth and into his thick embrace.
“What the hell, Aed?” Aelin muttered into his ear as he squeezed her tighter.
He ignored her, simply putting her back onto the floor with an ungraceful thud and ruffling her hair, as if she were a small child. She poked at his side and simultaneously stuck her tongue out in his direction, expressing her annoyance in the only way she knew how, causing a genuine sliver of joy to appear in his turquoise eyes.
I doodled Rowan and Aelin for Christmas last year, and I was surprised by how popular it was, so I decided to do a nicer version. I meant to have this done for Christmas, but…well, here it is now!
Aelin: Because if someone were to break in here in the middle of the night wanting to murder us, they’d attack this bed first. So, I need that bed.
Rowan: So, you’re saying that you want me to get murdered first? In front of you? And then what would you do? Would you just run away and leave me to bleed out on the floor?
Aelin: That was the plan. I was hoping your screams of agony would alert me to the intruder’s presence so I could escape.
The Throne of Glass Miniature Character Collection books feature some amazing quotes on the back covers. What quotes do you think were chosen for the other books?
If Yrene had known she didn’t have to pay for the torre cesme she never would have stayed in innish and she never would have met Aelin and she never would have learned the self defense so she never would have been able to teach the girls at the torre cesme everything Aelin taught her.
this might be long but i thought of it and it has to be done :)
“our secret moments in your crowded room they’ve got no idea about me and you”
okay so literally in QoS they communicate basically entirely in silence, like they’re the only people in a crowded room, especially at arobynn’s party they are basically flirting without anyone knowing because at the time things are basically all platonic to everyone else. no one knows that they’re growing feelings or having secret conversations.
“there is an indentation in the shape of you made your mark on me, a golden tattoo”
this is EoS and KoA energy– the claiming marks, and the tattoos that rowan gives aelin. ALSO the choice of the color golden screams rowaelin because as we know thats the nightgowns color and i feel like it comes up a lot when describing aelin– golden eyes, hair etc.
“all of this silence and patience, pining in anticipation my hands are shaking from holding back from you all of this silence and patience, pining and desperately waiting my hands are shaking from holding back from all this ”
QoS is almost entirely sexual tension so i think this is very self explanatory. they were both holding back the way they felt about each other when they both clearly wanted something more. this gives me vibes of rowan needing to cool down from aelin’s presence and taking forever to fall asleep with her so near yet so far away.
“say my name and everything just stops i don’t want you like a best friend”
um please so several points– 1.) rowan is the first person that starts calling celaena by her real name, aelin ( if i remember correctly i don’t think he really ever calls her celeana?? only aelin and she gets mad, but i may be wrong bc it has been a while since i’ve read HoF) he makes her comfortable with her real identity and helped her come to terms with who she was and her name. 2.) fireheart. that’s it. it’s who she was to her family and its who she is now to rowan. ALSO “i don’t want you like a best friend” their relationship goes from basically entirely platonic in HoF to something more in the late books. in QoS, it took them forever to get together bc they had to break through the past definition of their relationship which was strictly friends, carranam, and fighting partners. but they obviously wanted more, and started feeling more comfortable with their past trauma and relationship baggage to face that.
“only bought this dress so you could take it off take it off carve your name into my bedpost ‘cause I don’t want you like a best friend only bought this dress so you could take it off”
ALRIGHT HERES THE KICKER. so this is obviously referring to the golden nightgown that rowan requests. i KNOW that he technically doesn’t even take it off her and they don’t go there but she literally only bought it for him bc he said he would love that color. in conclusion it still counts and the sexual tension was there so.
“inescapable, I’m not even gonna try and if I get burned, at least we were electrified”
SO i feel like they both know that they are inevitable and i think it kinda ties into the idea of the mating bond being something that you can’t break or avoid. they subconsciously knew that being apart would not work. AND we have a reference to aelin’s fire… she might burn too brightly, but at least she burned.
“i’m spilling wine in the bathtub, you kiss my face and we’re both drunk everyone thinks that they know us, but they know nothing about”
HAHA we have a little reference to aelin bathing rowan and washing his hair in that one scene. tbh this doesn’t really fit that well but it’s not too out of place– i also may not be thinking of anything bc i havent re read them in a while. anyways, we also have another moment where rowan and aelin are kind of keeping what is blooming between them a secret from the rest of aelin’s court.
“flashback when you met me your buzzcut and my hair bleached”
their haircuts at the beginning of QoS… rowan cut his long ass hair and aelin had to dye her hair red to go undercover and not get caught… WHY DOES IT WORK SO WELL I–
“even in my worst times, you could see the best of me”
in HoF aelin was at the lowest point of her life. even though he was closed off was dealing with his own baggage, he saw the power aelin held. the light that had been snuffed out inside of her. he pushed her because he knew what she was capable of. and i forgot who said this, but rowan was never afraid of aelin the way chaol was. he saw every part of her and loved all of it.
“flashback to my mistakes my rebounds, my earthquakes”
rebounds??? *cough cough* CHAOL AND DORIAN *cough* okay but for real these weren’t really mistakes but she had made plenty of other mistakes around that time. he helped set her on a better and clearer path. and i guess we could technically consider chaol a rebound…
“even in my worst lies, you saw the truth of me”
her keeping the mating bond from him? her keeping so many of her plans a secret? her pretending she’s okay and KoA and him seeing right through her? yea <3
“and I woke up just in time now I wake up by your side”
I think around nehemias death she was kind of in a trance where she felt like nothing mattered and her life was useless (the whole “i do not care” scene where she was lashing out is a good example), but he helped her out of that. she has that one quote that im gonna paraphrase about how he held her hand and walked back into the light with her. He essentially woke her up from the nightmare she was living and now she wakes up next to him. this literally also happens in HoF because he starts letting her sleep in his bed, which was a huge step in the right direction for their relationship. he started seeing her as a friend and he literally falls asleep with his hand over her heart bye.
“my one and only, my lifeline”
mates are truly each others one and only and i think it’s beautiful that she says “lifeline” because that’s literally what it is to them. they are stronger together and even the forces of their existence are tied together <3
anyways if you read this whole thing thank u lol i just had to get that out:)
To whatever end? Rowan followed her, as he had his entire life, long before they had ever met, before their souls had sparked into existence.To whatever end, Fireheart.
