#drabblefest

He wasn’t even a useful prince, he had no idea what he was doing in Sellene’s Throne Room.

“The merchants won’t stop complaining ever since Adarlan made these new trade deals,” Uncle Ellys explained, “Terrasen’s goods got into the Adarlanian market like the plague.”

“Enda,” Sellene called from her throne. “send word to our spies.

After every other family member was dismissed with an assignment to do, it was just Rowan and Sellene there.

“C’mere.” She kindly requested him to come closer. “Rowan, we are losing Erliea’s biggest kingdoms. The Fae from Adarlan now have access to Terassen’s Fae liquor, magic hospitals, magic schools, every month is a new thing. And now this.” Sellene took a deep breath and rubbed a hand on her face, letting her shoulders drop for a moment. “I know you don’t talk about Terrasen, but I need you to tell me what you saw.”

“I saw nothing,” he answered with a neutral face, masking his tense body.

It was true. It was supposed to be a trip with Fenrys to visit Galan, and they ended up being guests in the Ashryver party to visit Terrasen.

Rowan’s presence wasn’t political, and the only thing he saw was walls ornate with gold, silk bedsheets and the top of pine trees when he was flying, using his hawk form to sneak in and out of the crown princess’ bedroom.

Rowan’s ground his teeth, his pulse racing. Well, that was before she not only backstabbed him, but his entire country as well.

“Okay, I got it,” Sellene said when she sensed the growing notes of rage in his smell. She bit his lip and fiddled with an envelope in her hand. “This came in for you.”

Rowan snatched it from her hands. “I thought the mail interceptions were over when Maeve died.”

Sel grimaced. “Lorcan gave me this one because he thought it was an exception, sorry. I didn’t open it, though.”

An exception indeed. Rowan opened the seal with one of his blades, wishing he could use it to stab the wedding invitation instead.

The King and Queen of Terrasen request the pleasure of your company—Rowan rolled his eyes—at the marriage of their daughter, Aelin Ashryver Galathynius, to Duke Perrington, blah blah blah.

Rowan was once told it would be his name instead, but those promises were long gone.

I’m yours, she said, her smile lit through the darkness. Tell Sellene to request an official political alliance with a marriage proposal, and I’ll be officially yours.

Rowan was on a boat home the next day.

He shook his head, his heart constricting as he tried to shake off the memories too. Especially the ones of him learning, right before leaving Doranelle again, that Aelin’s hand was already promised to another.

Rowan’s eyes skimmed through the wedding invitation, until he found something that made his heart stop, the world world narrowing down to two little words in the bottom of the invitation, in a familiar handwriting.

Help me

“What?” Sellene said while snatching the invite from his hands. “Gods, I’m never talking about Terrasen with you again. Your smell gets weirder and weirder and— oh, shit.” She looked up, eyes widened and personal scent tinged with alarm. “Have you been in touch with her?”

“No.”

Sellene sent him a cut-the-bullshit look.

He crossed his arms. “She’s been sending me books. Just that.”

“Not a word? Just books?” She got up when Rowan nodded in confirmation. “Where do you keep them?”

They both shifted into their bird forms and flew out the window towards Rowan’s bedroom, where he kept a small collection of books he didn’t want to store in the Royal Library.

If Sellene heard how fast Rowan’s heart was beating, she didn’t show. His insides were quivering as he scrambled his mind for answers, but nothing came.

Sellene shifted back and frowned at the bookshelf, both hands on her hips. “Just the books, no letters attached?”

“Yes. These ones.” Rowan pointed at the books with one hand, fingers tangled in his hair with the other. “They’re in the order she sent, it stopped a couple of months ago.”

His cousin barely heard him, completely focused on the books. “Havelok the Dane, Erec and Enide, Laxdæla Saga and Piers Plowman.” Sellene’s index finger ran across these four book’s spines. “Side by side like this, as if they were in a box set, it kinda looks like they spell ‘help’.”

“What?” With his heart beating out of his chest, Rowan grabbed a piece of paper and scrabbled the titles there, in the order Aelin sent him.

Havelok the Dane

Erec and Enide

Laxdæla Saga

Piers Plowman

The Divine Comedy

Amadís de Gaula

The Decameron

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

The Owl and the Nightingale

Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart

Doon de Mayence

Le Morte d’Arthur

Egil’s Saga

His entire world halted when he put them all together, four words tearing down his walls of hurt and resentment.

Help, dad sold me.

Rowan felt dizzy, barely breathing as everything clicked together.

All the trade agreements, scholar exchange, diplomatic alliances between Terrasen and Adarlan he heard of. It was all because Rhoe sold his daughter to the highest bidder.

Over his dead body.

He ran to his room, grabbed his sword and a pouch with enough gold for three intercontinental trips—one to go, two to come back—and tucked his wedding invitation into his jacket’s pocket.

Sellene’s eyes were firm as she clutched his forearm, putting all her Fae strength into her crushing grip. “Do not. Cause. An international disaster.”

Rowan just shifted into his hawk form and flew to the nearest port.

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They did nothing but exchange glances across the room and take turns on gym equipment every now and then. She wouldn’t feed into a fruitless crush like this in any other situation, but having something exciting about the gym and wearing all the fancy, tight clothes she could was worth it.

Besides, the headphones helped to make the gym more bearable, but having a nice view as well was a nice bonus. A very muscled bonus, one might say. So big and spicy, he looked like a whole damn mean. Yes, Aelin liked that bonus very much.

She was doing barbell squats in the free weights area, and Mysterious Gym Bro was lifting weights not far from her. Being in front of the mirror made it easy to shamelessly ogle him without being caught.

The top, frontal part of his silver hair was dripping with sweat, and the entire length of his muscles looked shiny from it. Even fully clothed, he looked borderline indecent like this, or at least enough to make Aelin’s blood seethe.

And he was wearing glasses. She had no idea if those were new or if he was wearing contacts every other day, but Short-sighted Gym Crush looked absolutely delicious with thick, black glasses rounding his pine green eyes.

It was like he could read a book as much as he could tear it in half when he was done with it.

Aelin went down for another squat, but her eyes wouldn’t leave Oblivious Gym Crush. She knew she was supposed to watch herself doing the exercise, but he was so mouth-watering hot her knees got weak, and—

Aelin fell on the floor like a cartoon, but at least she dropped the barbell before it fell on top of her. She felt the ache of her hip and the rapid heartbeat due to crippling mortification.

As if this wasn’t enough, Hot Gym Crush kneeled on her side. “Are you alright?” he asked with widened eyes.

Was he asking about her aching ankle, or her complete humiliation after falling with her weight like a beginner? Aelin felt her whole face heating, but at least she could blame this flush on the exercise.

“Perfect,” her face was somewhere between a grin and a grimace. “you don’t need to worry about me.”

“Are you sure? Because I’m a doctor—“

“OW!” Aelin moved to get up, then threw herself on the floor. “It hurts so bad.”

He frowned, taking her state in. “Your ankle doesn’t look good, but…” Dr. Gym Bro hauled her up, settled her on the floor, and placed her arm around him so she could use him as a crutch. He offered to drive her to the hospital, then they both agreed that it wasn’t needed, so Hot Gym Crush was driving her home instead.

“Thanks,” Aelin said with a genuine—if not a little embarrassed—smile.

He squeezed her waist in acknowledgement. “You can ask me to spot you next time.”

“Really?” This was peak romance for every gym rat.

“Of course.” He twisted his car keys in his hands. “Can I get your name before I give you a ride home?”

“Aelin.”

“Aelin.” He looked down, and were his cheeks a little pink? He continued, “I’m Rowan.”

Her eyes lit up with the new information. Rowan. How fitting. Very moanable.

“Well, Rowan, I think you have to stay for dinner as thanks. I’m amazing at ordering takeout.”

Yep, his cheeks were definitely red. “That sounds nice, but I can cook if you’d like.”

She bit back a smile, but Rowan’s response made her vibrate inside. No need to go to the hospital, but Aelin wanted a deep, vigorous examination from her doctor. And if he asked her to stay in bed, how could she say no?

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It was the princess’s birthday today, and a trip that would take one morning easily became an entire day of looking for something that’d light up her face. It had been easier than he anticipated since the merchants of the town she charmed were more than happy to see him, showing him all their goods before he could ask.

Still, Rowan felt an unusual twitch in his stomach every time he tried to anticipate what Aelin would look like when she first saw it.

Entering the kitchen, it was as full as usual.

“Price Rowan.” Malakai got up from a stool. “Any news on the murder?”

At the same time, Emrys said, “Want some porridge, Prince?”

“No,” he answered Malakai, then turned to Emrys to say the same, but stopped.

It was mid-afternoon, and Aelin almost burned out days ago.

He grabbed some porridge to take upstairs. Rowan found her lying in bed, reading a book she lent from another demi-Fae from the fortress.

The princess whipped her head towards him, the afternoon sun streaking into the room making her golden hair look like a halo. “How was it?”

“Predictable.” He opened his sack and grabbed one of the two packages. “Happy birthday.”

“You didn’t!” Aelin jumped off the bed. “I thought your gift was leaving me alone.”

“That’s insulting,” With Fae speed, he whisked the package away from her when she reached for it. “but I don’t think I could grant you such a gift, Princess.”

“Good.” Aelin gave him an adorable coy smile and extended her hands towards him, clenching them. “Now I want to see the gift you can give me.” She opened the package with a loud gasp, a thrilled gleam in her eyes. “Chocolate!”

Aelin sat up on the bed, tossing one into her full lips. And she moaned, the sound so unintentionally lascivious Rowan had to glance away in order to calm down the roaring in his blood.

“God, I missed those. Thank you.” She smiled at him, her eyes so content she looked intoxicated by the chocolate truffle.

“And…” he turned to grab the—

“You bought me a sword!?” When he handed it to her, Aelin’s jaw fell slack. “It’s so pretty!”

Rowan frowned at the overjoyed princess. Really, that was what she was thinking about? How the sword looked, not the first-rate steel or the easy grip of the hilt?

She was flailing the sword award, posing with it. “I’m going to be so dangerous now!”

“You like it?”

She bent her knees, side-thrusting the sword. “Fuck yes, I do!”

“Good.” As quick as his heartbeat, he took it from her hands. “I’ll keep it with your other blades.”

Her shoulders dropped. “Oh, come on!”

Rowan barely heard her protests, he was just swallowing his conflicted feelings down, repeating one thing to himself until he believed it.

Rowan was not, under any circumstance, physically attracted to that childish display of swordsmanship. Absolutely not.

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Fen: on his way

Fen: just so you know

Fen: i picked him for his height and hotness

Fen: not his personality

Aelin: you’ll owe me one if he’s boring

Fen: i’m literally saving your ass

“Hey,” a highly familiar voice said when Aelin was texting a snarky response. “it’s been forever.”

“Hi,” Aelin gave him a taut smile. “what a coincidence.”

And by that, she meant what a coincidence that after stalking every college bar you go to on Instagram, checking which posts with daily plans you and your friends liked, and narrowing it down to two options, we ended up in the same place at the same time.

“So…” Chaol cleared his throat. “you wanna get a drink? Like, together.”

When Aelin opened her mouth to say no, a guy she recognized from the football team—Ronan? Roman?—put his arm around her shoulder and looked down at Chaol.

“Babe.” He cocked his head, looking down at Chaol. “Is he bothering you?”

Still sitting on her stool, Aelin leaned her head against Ronan’s torso, sent Chaol a fake apologetic look and said, “I’m kinda busy, but thanks.”

“Sure.” Chaol gave them a stiff nod. His jaw was tight, his movements unnaturally smooth as he walked away with clenched hands on his sides.

Dear Mala, it looked a lot like Aelin was about to win the breakup.

Ronan’s eyes were squinted at Chaol as her ex walked out. “The way Fenrys begged me to come here to make him jealous made me think he’d at least be hot.”

Aelin opened her mouth with a retort ready, but closed it again when something clicked “What do you mean Fenrys begged you to come?”

“I only came when he made it clear he was asking for a favor, not playing matchmaker.”

Aelin sipped her Moscow Mule, trying to figure Ronan out. “You won’t have a date with a girl unless it’s to make her ex jealous?”

He snorted. “Not a date Fenrys finds me, no.”

After brief introductions and a round of drinks, Aelin found out his name was actually Rowan, not her other guesses. She was so close, but the roll her tongue did while pronouncing his actual name made it much sexier.

Also, she made a mental note to thank Fenrys later. She asked for a usual hot guy, and her friend sent her the gods’ favorite soldier, built like an ancient warrior.

“Tell me how this short man broke your heart.”

Aelin wrinkled her nose. What a way to burst her horny bubble.

“He told me a month ago that he was bored in our relationship, and—“

“And?” Rowan’s tone was surprised, his eyebrows raised. “He insulted your charity work, and there’s more?”

Aelin groaned with her head in her hands, then focused back on Rowan. “We decided to take a break, and two days later Chaol’s ex told me he’d been hitting on her for a week.”

“Guilty of attempted cheating. He’s a piece of shit.” Rowan leaned closer to her. “And if you want, I can, you know…” he sneaked a look at Chaol's way and cracked his knuckles.

“No need, but thanks.” Aelin squeezed his forearm, a laugh almost bursting out of her. “I’m flattered, though.”

Rowan’s eyes widened. “I wasn’t being serious.”

“I doubt that.” She gave him a mischievous smile. “But you can be serious about dancing with me.”

Rowan’s face was starting to twist into a grimace when he stopped and looked at where her hand touched his skin. When he looked back up, something in his eyes had shifted.

He turned his palm up, held her wrist, pulled her close and whispered to her ear, “His friends are watching us, wanna give them something to look at?”

“We should make out.” Aelin licked her lips, taking his ravenous eyes in. “In the name of torturing exes, that is.”

Before she knew it, Rowan took her mouth as if he owned it.

He held her face and neck with both hands, and their languorous kiss turned into something much more fervent when he got up and pressed her against the bar counter.

She burned from the inside out with every flick of his tongue, Rowan luring her into a passionate haze where there was nothing but restless hands, his pine-scented cologne and broad shoulders blocking her from the outside world.

Someone cleared their throat behind Aelin, making them break their kiss. On the other side of the counter, the bartender was watching them with a bored look.

“Do you mind moving over to another place? This area is for ordering drinks.”

They gave him a quick apology and Rowan led her to another part of the bar.

“I can’t see your ex anymore,” he said, looking around while they explored the place. “but his friends are still here.”

Aelin smiled. She hoped she’d pissed Chaol off enough to leave.

“You know what’ll make him go berserk?” Rowan asked, a playful glint in his eyes.

She wiggled her eyebrows. “I’ll do it.”

“If we get out of here together,” he whispered in her ear.

“Fuck, yeah.” Aelin said in a husky tone, her breath heavy as she wrapped her arms around him. “And we should go to my place. My front-door neighbor’s girlfriend’s best friend babysits his little brother.”

Rowan’s parted lips slowly morphed into a smirk. “We can’t lose that opportunity, right?”

“Absolutely not.” Aelin ran her fingers through his hair. “And I think we could do that some other time too. Just for reinforcement.”

Aelin would say she won the breakup, but she barely remembered it as Rowan pulled her face to his again.

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Rowan Whitethorn was close enough to fit a blue whale between them, trying to catch her eye. Aelin looked away. Just to look back at him again, watching him scan the crowd with his deep green tail and his electric eels, one at each side. His eyes found hers again, so she had to look away once more.

He chose this.

And when Rowan first came to her, wearing that cute grumpy look in his pine-green eyes as he complained his rock home was filled with seaweed, she should’ve known this is how their relationship would end.

The hotter the client, the bigger is the betrayal.

She totally forgot Rowan worked as a security merman in those kinds of events making sure the dolphins won’t be disturbed, looking very hot intimidating between his electric eels.

The crowd dispersed after the dolphins stopped this week’s show, and Aelin swam away from there to avoid awkward interactions. However, Rowan didn’t try to mask his intentions like she did, so he swam faster and gently grabbed her arm.

“Aelin, hi.” He gave her a shy, close-lipped smile. “I sent you a flounder, but you didn’t answer my message asking for the crabs.”

“I didn’t feel like I needed to.” She squinted her eyes at him. “I passed by your house recently. It looked awfully clean.”

Rowan’s face fell, his lips parting as he sensed the ugly truth being revealed between them.

Aelin worked organizing crabs’ schedules. Homes made of rocks tended to get dirty and filled with seaweed, so merpeople came to her to request some crabs to eat it off.

So imagine her surprise when Rowan, one of her regulars, disappeared for a while, and when she passed by his house, it was as clean as a cleaner shrimp’s anemone.

Rowan’s mouth opened and closed before he blurted, “I can explain.”

She crossed her arms, silently nudging him in.

He continued, “My friend told me about this hermit crab service—“

"Ah yes, betrayal. I'm familiar with that." Aelin’s voice was bitter, her stomach hardening with the knowledge that her favorite client was nothing more than a traitor.

“I’m so sorry,” he said, his eyes seeming truly apologetic at least. “If I knew Remelle—“

“Remelle?” Aelin shrieked. Her biggest rival of all people?

The end of her tail flailed, but Rowan stopped her from swimming away.

“It was a one-time thing, and I really regret it because she mistreats her crabs and…” he trailed, grimacing. “Her work ethic is a little fishy.” The ends of Rowan’s mouth twitched, but he was too smart to smile now. “Please don’t fire me from being your client.”

“I’ll think about it.”

Truth was, she couldn’t dismiss Rowan just because he looked for another crab service. He didn’t look happy about it either, but this doesn’t mean she wouldn’t give him a hard time.

“What if I make it up to you over dinner tomorrow?”

That piqued her interest. Aelin stood a little taller, eyeing him carefully. “Seaweed doesn’t fix shark bites, Whitethorn.”

Rowan crossed his arms, a playful gleam in his eyes as his posture stayed firm and strong, looking too confident for his own good. “What about Pirarucu?”

The air rushed out of Aelin’s lungs. Dear Mala, that fish was bigger than some whales. She snapped her parted lips shut, but still took a swift glance at his toned body. “That’s a hard one to hunt.”

Rowan sent her a poorly concealed smug look. “Anything for your forgiveness.”

“Good.” Aelin bit her lip in an attempt to hide her smile. “But you’re not forgiven yet.”

“Don’t worry, princess.” He cocked his head, an indecipherable look in his eyes. “I’ll work for it.”

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I couldn’t tag the people in bold, sorry!

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