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!
My drawing for the prompt ‘Royal’. I started with the pose and it kinda just screamed Aelin, so I thought ‘why not, she’s royal’. So here’s mermaid Aelin!
Rereading Heir of Fire and read the first time Manon says “from now until darkness claims us” let’s just say I’m in tears. Had to close the book and put it down, I need a moment.
This is a little project I’ve been working on as an acotar/tog crossover. I thought I’d give you guys a sneak peek for if I ever decide to post the full thing. Anyway, you’ll never guess who Fenrys’ lover is. (Don’t tell me I’m weird if you figure it out)
*****
Whimpering, Fenrys put a shield around himself that he knew would do no good, his body shivering as the house shivered. His ears rung with every crash, the grumble bouncing around in his head.
The bedroom door opened. He should have locked it. Should have left before this city of light was torn apart, cast into eternal darkness along with all the people within it.
“Fenrys?”
Fenrys squeezed his eyes shut as thunder sent the windows rattling.
Someone was in front of him. Kneeling there. She was using his lover’s voice, coaxing him out only to go for the throat in the next. He knew it. She’d done it before.
“Hey, what’s going on? Fenrys. Look at me.”
No. Because when he opened his eyes, it would be real. She’d take him, thrust him back into a nightmare of her own making.
“Puppy.Look at me.”
The pure command in that voice called to him, a shout in the dark. And that name. She didn’t know that name. Only those here, those in the City of Starlight, had ever called that name and only to one would he listen for it.
Quaking, he peeled open his eyes to find a man before him, hands hovering over his body. No. Not hovering. The faint glimmer of gold in the air told Fenrys his shield had worked.
“There you are,” his lover breathed and the shadows around Fenrys tightened. “Can you put down this shield for me?”
*****
Anyway, let me know if you’re interested and if you have any guesses to who Fenrys’ lover is.
If she hadn’t known better, she might have thought he was fussing. Worried, even.
Yet when he’d seen [Aelin’s back], his heart had clean stopped — and for a moment, there had been an overwhelming silence in his mind. He felt his magic and his warrior’s instincts honing into a lethal combination the longer he stared — howling to rip apart the people who had done that with his bare hands.
And when she awoke before dawn, warm and safe and rested, Rowan was still holding her hand, clasped to his chest. Something molten rushed through her, pouring over every crack and fracture still gaping and open. Not to hurt or mar — but to weld. To forge.
Emrys and Luca visited once to see if she was alive, took one look at Rowan’s stone-cold face, heard the ripple of a growl, and took off, saying she was in more than competent habds and promising to come back when she was feeling better.
She didn’t open her eyes, but she breathed in the smell of him, the pine and snow, and her pain settled a bit.
And while she knew Rowan was aware of her early morning practicing, he never lightened her training, though she could have sworn she occasionally felt their magic … playing together, her flame taunting his ice, his wind dancing amongst her embers.
Rowan made her feel … better. As if she could finally breathe after months of suffocating.
She was not a queen. She had no plans to be one, and even if she had a kingdom to give him if he were free … Telling him all that was useless. So she left Rowan in the hall. But it did not stop her from wishing she could keep him.
And when she grasped the dagger, its weight lighter than she remembered, Rowan looked into her eyes, into the very core of her, and said, “Fireheart.”
And though she knew he could read the words on her face, she said, “To whatever end?” He nodded, and she joined hands with him, blood to blood and soul to soul, his other arm coming around to grip her tightly. Their hands clasped between them, he whispered into her ear, “I claim you, too, Aelin Galathynius.”
He was helping. And he was willing to meet a horrible fate in order to keep her alive. He hadn’t left her alone. She hadn’t been alone.
this is literally the moment their dynamic changes because aelin realises that he — though having seen her worst sides and unbearable manners — has stayed and hasn’t left her to fend for herself like all this girl ever needed was for someone to simply stay
