Maeve's Daughter ~ Throne of Glass

Chapter 24- Nightmare

Orynth watched as Morath, halted its fighting, as the army prowled closer. Everyone holding their breath as that dark swirling mass drew further toward them.

Two figures took form at its head. And walked unhindered, towards the city walls.

Erawan. The golden haired young man. It was almost impossible not to know who he was, even if one was blind.
A dark-haired, pale skinned woman stormed at his side, robes billowing around her on a phantom wind.
"Maeve."

The whispers and screams of terror spread throughout the battlements, reaching a female who looked so like her, atop the western walls.

Freya was wondering why Maeve had not called for her, to leash her at her side like she always did.

Maeve and Erawan had come. Finally.
To personally oversee Orynth's fall.
She watched, frozen for the first time in centuries, in dumb shock.

But then Aelin appeared before the sealed southern gate, had appeared before Erawan and Maeve.
Her unbound hair billowed in the wind like a golden banner, a last ray of light with the dying of the day.

Silence fell. The screaming stopped.

Freya sucked in a shuddering breath, her hands were shaking, Aelin could have no magic left, not after sealing the Lock. Yet still she stood there, and she did not balk. Still she raised her sword, flames running down the blade, one flame against the darkness gathered.

Maeve and Erawan halted along with their army.

All she could do was watch. Shivering like a coward. Disgust coated her insides like ice.
Watch as small flame defended against a whirling torrent of darkness.

She felt an odd feeling on the blood oath, not a pulling, but a pushing. A shielding. Maeve did not want her to come closer. She found this was the reason she could not actually move.

Suddenly a bright power emerged like a beacon from the highest tower in Orynth, pulsing throughout the valley. The swirling darkness vanished and she saw Erawan flown up by an ilken towards the source.

The odd sensation on the bond vanished, quickly changing to such a sharp pull she shifted and fell off the battlements immediately.

When she arrived, she could only gape at what she saw, Aelin had risen from her knees, from an illusion Maeve had tried to trick her mind with, and was on the offensive, lashing out at the darkness with sharp plumes of wildfire.

Until she stopped. Panting, eyes filling with horror, as Maeve forced her daughter to stand between them.

Freya's face was cold, devoid of emotion. She looked  the image of Maeve. Stoically stood sword clasped between her hands. A shield, that Aelin would not strike.

Her fire guttered, "You will swear this blood oath to me. And then you and I will fix this mess you've made. You and the King of Adarlan will fix what you have done. You may be Fire-Bringer no longer, but you will have your uses," plumes of shadow shot for her, tightening like lashes wrapped around her.

Darkness, she realised at the warmth of its feel, that did not belong to the Valg Queen, but to her daughter before her. The shadow squeezed and Maeve chuckled, "Did you truly believe you could take her away from me?"

Aelin could vaguely sense the wind kissed with snow brushing past her as  Rowan, Fenrys and Lorcan arrived behind her, pausing at the sight of their friend, stood against them, protecting their greatest enemy.

Maeve continued unperturbed, "My daughter has a deep secret Aelin Galathynius, shall I tell you what she is most ashamed of, in all of this world?"

Still Freya did not react, tightly holding Aelin to the ground with her  power, but she could see, even from here, a single tear that rolled down her smooth face. Fenrys  gaped at the horror of what he saw.

"Her shame..., is that after all these millennia, she still loves me."

A roar erupted from beside her and it was Fenrys who struck first, fangs bared, white fur bristling, he charged at Maeve going right for her pale throat.
Rowan shouted a warning, but he was lost in his vengeance and fury, a whip of darkness lashed for him.

Fenrys's yelp of pain echoed through Freya's bones, and tears rolled down her face in abundance now, openly, as she was forced to watch herself and her mother unleash their power on the people she loved the most, enveloping them in darkness entirely.

Then the screaming started.

She watched Aelim sob, as she too watched her mate kneeling screaming, Fenrys sobbing uncontrollably and Lorcan...Lorcan in utter silence as some unknown horror played out in his mind.

"Do you want to know what your mate is seeing daughter?" The cruel voice whispered in her ear, before she was suddenly plunged into Fenrys's mind.

Connall was there, spitting out vile words of hate and disappointment, but she saw a cruel image of herself too.

"You really though I was your mate? Foolish boy, I tricked you into loving me, for fun. Because I could. You think I could be mated to such a young, weak, pathetic male such as yourself? It's absurd. You're not a true male."

He moaned in pain at the cruel tirades, protesting against them weakly, and her heart broke then and there.

Why are you showing me this?

Because you can never be another's. Only mine.

Distracted by her daughters suffering, Maeve didn't have time to react as Aelin lashed out, not at Maeve, but slamming into Rowan, Fenrys and Lorcan. Burning them, branding them.

Waking from their nightmare, they rose, defiant.

Maeve's face was pale with fury, "Do you know what a Valg queen is? Do you know what I will do to you?" Pausing she glanced at the still figure at her side,  "but I am not selfish, my daughter will aid me in destroying you."

"She can't," Fenry panted out, dark eyes glittering with fury, "she's my mate." He looked at her now.

Freya let out a sob at his words as Maeve chuckled lowly, "You think this is new to us Fenrys Moonbeam? She has known since the day you were born who you were, has watched you all your life knowing."

Bile threatened to rise up in his throat at her words,
"But she could never feel it, the bond was never there was it Fenrys? Even when you met, nothing snapped into place did it? Because I would not allow it. I'll admit Fae mating magic is particularly tricky, but I'd already familiarised myself with it with Whitehorn." Rowan and Aelin snarled, but Fenrys was stuck frozen, staring at his mate, listening to words that stabbed him in the gut.

"That tether, inside of her. I tied it in a knot. She can never bind to you, therefore," the maniacal grin on her face grew wider, "She's going to kill you."

No.

They all heard her then, though her mouth did not move, her voice echoing through their minds in frantic communication.

No.
No.
No.

It repeated like a war drum, hammering so hard it hurt their heads and Maeve's smile dropped.

NO.
NO.
NO.

"NO!"