Last Breaths
TW: Major Character Death BUT I just want to add it’s not in-the-middle-of-the-war stabby death, its relaxed emotional post-KOA death.
Notes: yes, so anyways, I made myself cry writing this. It’s short and fluffy but also very angsty. Also if you read my other stories, Immortals and Liberty, I know I haven’t updated in a while, life has been super crazy but new chapters should start writing themselves soon!
They knew it was coming. They had known for a while. Rowan and Aelin were as old as she always teased him about being.
Physically, they were the same. The sun still shined on her golden hair, and his skin still tanned in the summer. But you could see the weight of their years weighing on them. The years of life and death and knowledge hanging in their eyes.
All the remainders of their first court had passed, the court that had changed the world. The court that had rattled the stars. The court that had lit up the darkness. All of them were gone, some recently, some long ago. Most were but legends now.
Rowan and Aelin had lived as richly as they’d been allowed. After everything they’d been through, they’d had that a thousand years together. And now they were to go to the Afterlife together. They’d seen courts come and go, empires rise and fall, wars be lost and won.
Around five hundred years ago, they’d had three wonderful children. Lyssa, their oldest, had taken over as Queen ten years ago, when Aelin had retired. Their middle child, Oryn, was off exploring the world with his mate, a boy he’d met on a diplomatic trip to Adarlan. Their youngest, Asteria, was aiding Lyssa in Orynth.
Rowan and Aelin had wanted some time to themselves before leaving for the Afterlife, so Aelin had abdicated. Aelin had crowned Lyssa herself, and Rowan and Aelin left three weeks later, after thorough goodbyes and many tears shed.
The mated pair had moved out of the palace in Orynth, and into a manor in the mountains, with nobody to disturb them. They’d spent lazy days in the sun, training, swimming. Rowan had taught Aelin how to make chocolate hazelnut cake.
That morning though, they knew it was finally coming. The Fading. They’d never spoken of it, not even that day, never needed to, it was a mutual sort of agreement, that when they went, they went together. After all, there was no Rowan without Aelin, and there was no Aelin without Rowan.
As usual, they woke up wrapped in each other, and went and stood on their balcony overlooking the Staghorns, as they had for the last thousand years. They spent a lazy morning in the tall grasses, laying together and searching for funny cloud shapes in the sky. Rowan had cooked Aelin a delicious lunch, made with all her favourite foods, and together they baked chocolate hazelnut cake. When afternoon had crept into evening, they lay by the fire, Rowan reading out loud to Aelin as she lay on his chest, eyes closed, simply listening to the low baritone of his voice. After a while, Aelin had taken the book from his hands and kissed him. Kissed him until both their clothes were gone, and they made love, slowly, lovingly. It wasn’t anything like their younger years, when it had been full of urgency and fire and the desperate hope that they’d make it through the night. The fire was still there, but it was a different sort, the sort that warmed you, looked after you, loved you.
It was both alike and unlike to the night before the Lock, when they thought it was their last night together. No tears were shed, but there was that undercurrent of emotion, that love that could have consumed the world if they’d let it.
After, Aelin slipped into a gold nightgown, and they lay between the sheets of their bed, foreheads pressed together, whispering softly to each other declarations of love. They were content, there was no desperation or clinging to life. They were ready. Ready to see their old friends again.
Aelin lay her head on Rowan’s chest, and his arms wrapped around her, holding her close. And although they’d never spoken of it, Aelin finally did, breaking the status quo as she loved to do.
“I’ll see you in the Afterlife, Rowan.”
“To whatever end, Fireheart.”
“To whatever end, buzzard.”
And together, the King and Queen took their last breaths. Together, to the end.
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