Made in His Image
Aemond Targaryen x Sister!reader (OFC)
Word count: 9.4k
Minor: Aegon II Targaryen x sister! Reader, one sided Jacaerys x reader
Summary:
They were born in the same hour, under the same banners, two halves of one soul.
Aela was the bright one â laughing, adored, always turning toward someone else.
Aemond was the other. Quiet. Watching. Waiting.
He spent years shaping her into his perfect reflection: the same colors, the same tongue, the same careful obedience. He took her laughter, her friendships, her future, and finally her body. She told herself there was nothing left for him to destroy.
She was wrong.
WARNINGS DEAD DOVE: Dark oneshot. Aemond Targaryen / Original Female Character (his twin). This is a heavy, possessive, obsessive story that follows the twins from childhood into young adulthood. It contains long-term grooming, emotional manipulation, blackmail, severe power imbalance, twincest, verbal degradation, physical control, non-con/dub-con, rough sex, virginity taking, and a major character death. Aemond is controlling, jealous, and increasingly extreme in his claim over his twin. The tone is bleak and there is no comfort or redemption. Please read the tags carefully and do not interact if any of this is triggering or if you are under 18.!!!!!!!!!
MINORS DNI 18+ only
⌠ââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââââ âŚ
They were born in the same hour, under the same red-and-gold banners, in the same chamber that still smelled of blood and milk and the sharp green of the queenâs fear. The maesters said Aemond came first by the width of a hand. Aela followed with a soft, indignant cry, as if the world had already disappointed her.
Alicent held them both once, briefly, then handed them to wet nurses and never quite learned the difference in their cries.
By the time they could walk, the court had already decided who they were.
Aela was the bright one. The charming one. The one who laughed too loudly in the corridors and made the Kingsguard smile despite themselves. Her silver-gold hair grew thick and heavy, falling past her waist in waves that caught every torchlight. Her eyes were pale lilac, almost washed out in certain light, and her mouth was soft and full even as a child. She was tall for a girl, elegant in the way young fillies are elegant before they learn to be careful. When she claimed Silverwing at eight, the old queenâs dragon settling under her small hands with a low, thrumming acceptance, the court sighed as if something inevitable had finally happened.
Aemond was the other one.
Serious. Quiet. Always a half-step behind. He studied longer, trained harder, spoke less. He watched everything with those sharp, pale eyes and never seemed to find the joke. When the other children ran shrieking through the godswood, Aemond walked the edges with a book under his arm or a wooden sword over his shoulder. He wanted, with a desperate, unspoken intensity, to be wanted back.
He believed twins were supposed to be the same soul split in two.
Aela did not.
***
The first time he said it out loud, they were six.
They sat on the low wall above the training yard, legs swinging.
Below them Aegon was failing spectacularly at hitting a target while Ser Criston pretended not to notice.
âWhen we are grown,â Aemond said, voice careful, âwe will marry. Like the old kings. Like Aegon and his sisters.â
Aela turned her head and looked at him the way she looked at boring lessons.
âI want to marry Aegon,â she said simply.
Aemondâs face did something small and tight. âHe is our brother.â
âSo are you.â
âWe are twins.â
âSo?â
He had no answer for that. He only sat there, jaw working, while Aela swung her legs harder and started humming under her breath.
He tried again every few months. Sometimes with gifts,a smooth black stone from the shore, a feather from a rare bird, a page of High Valyrian he had copied himself Sometimes with silence that he expected her to fill. She never did. She would take the gift, say thank you in the bright, careless way she said everything, and then wander off to find Aegon or Helaena or whichever nephew or cousin. was in the Red Keep that week.
He began to trail after her more often. Not close enough to be invited. Just close enough to hear her laugh.
***
She was adored.
It was impossible not to notice. Courtiers paused when she passed. Ladies of the court brushed her long hair with their fingers and called her âlittle silver queenâ even though the title belonged to someone else. Silverwingâs presence only sharpened it. The dragon was old, vast, and strangely gentle with her; when Aela walked the yard with the silver beast shadowing her, people stepped aside without being told.
Aegon loved her best of all the siblings. He would let her climb into his lap when they were small, would steal lemon cakes for her, would let her braid his hair into ridiculous shapes and only complain a little. When she announced, at ten, that she intended to marry him when they were grown, Aegon only grinned that lazy, golden grin and said, âOf course you will. Who else would have me?â
Aemond heard it. He was standing in the doorway of the solar, forgotten as usual. Something cold and precise settled behind his remaining hope.
He began to watch her more carefully after that.
***
The Pink Dread happened when they were nine.
Aegon had the idea. Jace and Luke helped paint the thing in the stables, giggling so hard they nearly dropped the brushes. They smeared white and gold across its bristled back until it looked like a grotesque, snorting parody of a dragon.
Then they waited until Aemond was alone in the dragonpit, staring up at the high ledges where the real dragons slept, and called him.
âAemond! Come see! We found you one!â
Aela was with them. She had been walking with Luke, telling him some story about Silverwing that made the younger boyâs eyes go wide. When Aegon hissed the plan, she only raised one eyebrow and followed.
She did not paint the pig.
She did not stop them either.
Aemond heard the call and felt the familiar twist of apprehension in his stomach. They always wanted to bully him. The jokes, the names, the way Aegonâs laughter always came at his expense. He almost stayed where he was, staring up at the empty ledges. But the hope of a dragonâany dragonâwas stronger than the fear. He came running, hope already bright and terrible on his face.
He saw the creature in the torchlight, saw the clumsy wings they had tied to its sides, and for one perfect second he believed them. His whole body leaned forward.
Then the pig squealed.
Aegon howled with laughter. âLook at him! Look at the little dragonless bookworm! He thought it was real!â
Jace doubled over. Luke tried to look solemn and failed.
âDragonless!â Aegon crowed, pointing. âSoft little mouse! Did you really think weâd found you a dragon, crybaby? Youâre never getting one. Youâll be the only Targaryen left walking while the rest of us fly!â
And AelaâAela put her hand over her mouth and laughed too. Soft, almost reluctant, but still a laugh.
Aemondâs face emptied.
He did not cry. He never cried where they could see. He only turned and walked out of the pit with his shoulders locked, wooden practice sword still in his hand. Behind him the Pink Dread kept screaming and Aegonâs voice followed him, still calling namesââDragonless! Mouse! Soft boy!ââwhile the others laughed, and Aelaâs laughter faded into something quieter, almost uncomfortable.
She did not go after him.
Later that night she found him in the library, hunched over a history of the Conquest as if the words could burn the humiliation out of him.
âIt was only a joke,â she said.
He did not look up. âYou laughed.â
âEveryone laughed.â
âYou are my twin.â
She had no answer for that either. She only stood there a moment longer, then left him to the books.
***
The night everything changed, they were 12.
Laena Velaryon was dead. The court had traveled to Driftmark for the funeral. Vhagar waited on the beach like a mountain that breathe. Aemond went to her in the dark.
Aela learned of it only when the shouting started.
She was in the hall, Jace, Rhaena, Luke, and Baela came running, faces white, voices high with panic. Aemond had claimed Vhagar. There had been a fight.
Blood. An eye.
She ran.
She found him in a side chamber, Alicentâs hands already bloody, maesters moving around him like crows. Half his face was a ruin of red. The socket where his right eye had been was a dark, wet hole. He was shaking, but his remaining eye was bright with something that was not pain.
When he saw Aela he tried to straighten.
âI have a dragon,â he said, voice cracked and triumphant. âThe largest. Larger than Silverwing. Larger than anyoneâs.â
Aela stared at the empty socket and felt something cold open in her chest.
âYour eye,â she whispered.
âA fair exchange.â
She wanted to touch him. She also wanted to run. The smell of blood and the raw meat of his face made her stomach turn. Behind her she could hear Luke crying, Jaceâs voice rising in defense, Rhaenyraâs fury already gathering like a storm.
Aela stayed only long enough to see the last thread being stitched into his flesh. Then she left the chamber and went looking for Jace and Luke, because their faces were still the ones she knew how to look at without flinching.
Aemond noticed.
He always noticed.
***
The boy who returned to Kingâs Landing was not the same one who had left.
He wore the sapphire like a challenge. He wore black more often. He trained until his hands bled and then trained longer. Vhagarâs presence changed the air around him; people stepped aside now the way they once had for Aela alone. The dragon was ancient and vast and half-mad with age, and Aemond rode her as if he had been born for it.
He began to look at Aela differently.
Not like a sister who had never quite chosen him.
Like something that belonged to him by right of blood and birth and the twinship he still refused to release.
The first time he ordered matching clothes, she thought it was a joke.
They were twelve. A tourney day. Alicent had commissioned new garments in the green of her house. Aemond arrived at Aelaâs chambers with a seamstress and a bolt of deep forest silk.
âWe will wear the same,â he said.
Aela laughed. âAbsolutely not.â
He did not laugh with her. He only looked at her with that single pale eye until the laughter died in her throat.
âWe are twins,â he said, quiet. âWe should match.â
She refused. He waited. The next morning her usual gown was gone from her wardrobe. In its place hung a new one cut in soft, feminine linesâfull skirts, a fitted bodice, the same deep forest silk as the doublet and cloak Aemond now wore. The embroidery along the neckline and cuffs was identical to his. Same color. Same material. Same fine silver-and-green threadwork.
When she tried to wear something else, the servants would not meet her eyes. Alicent, when Aela complained, only pressed her lips together and said, âYour brother has been through enough.â
The matching became a quiet, ongoing campaign after that.
Sometimes it was only the same dark embroidery along the edges of her sleeves and the cuffs of his tunic. Sometimes full sets of riding clothes cut from the same bolt of fabricâher in a tailored riding gown with a split skirt, him in leather and woolâalways the same color, the same weight of cloth, the same subtle patterns stitched at the hems.
Aela fought it less each year. Fighting only made the servants nervous and Alicentâs mouth thinner. Easier to wear the clothes. Easier to let Aemond walk half a step behind her in the corridors and pretend the court did not notice the way his remaining eye tracked every movement of her hands, her mouth, the long fall of her hair, or the way the two of them now looked like deliberate counterparts whenever they appeared together.
***
By the time they were fifteen the betrothal was announced.
Aegon to Helaena. Unity of blood. The future of the realm.
Aela stood in the gallery and did not clap. Aemond stood beside her in the same black-and-green silk she wore, and watched the way her lilac eyes stayed fixed on their brotherâs golden head. He catalogued the exact moment her jaw tightened. He said nothing.
He waited.
The night he finally saw it for himself the Keep was thick with late-summer heat. Aegon had been drinking since the midday meal. Helaena had retired early with one of her soft, strange headaches. Most of the royal apartments were quiet.
Aemond had gone looking for Aela under the thin excuse of returning a Valyrian grammar she had left in the library. He found her instead in the shadowed alcove behind the heavy tapestry of the Field of Fire.
Aegonâs mouth was on hers. One of his hands already under the silk of her bodice, the other tangled in the thick silver-gold of her hair, tilting her head back so he could mouth at the line of her throat. She was laughing softly against his lipsâthe same bright, careless sound she had always made when the world pleased her.
Something cold and precise settled behind Aemondâs remaining eye.
He stood very still in the dark and watched until Aegonâs hand slid lower. The familiar sound of her laughter wrapped around their brother the way it had never once been given to him. Rage moved through him like a blade drawn slowly from its sheath. Jealousy followed, quiet and absolute.
Then he turned and walked away without a sound.
He waited until the following evening.
Aela was alone in her chambers, brushing out the long length of her hair by the open window. The night air smelled of the Blackwater and distant cookfires. She did not hear him enter. He closed the door himself and turned the key with a soft, deliberate click.
She looked up only when the latch settled.
âAemond.â Her voice was light, already half a dismissal. âI was about toââ
He crossed the room in measured strides. There was no wasted motion in the way he caught her by the upper arm and pulled her from the chair. The brush struck the floorboards. He turned her with the same controlled force and drove her back against the carved bedpost, one hand already buried deep in her hair, wrenching her head back until her throat was bared and her lilac eyes had no choice but to meet his.
âDo not speak,â he said, voice low and even.
Her hands came up against his chest. He only tightened his grip until her eyes watered. His other hand closed around her jaw, fingers pressing into the soft hinge with deliberate pressure, forcing her face up to his.
âI saw you last night,â he said quietly. âBehind the Field of Fire tapestry. His hand beneath your bodice. His mouth on your throat. You were laughing for him the way you have always laughed for him. Never for me.â
âAemondââ
He gave her hair a sharp pull. âI told you not to speak.â
He leaned in until the cold sapphire of his eye filled her vision.
âAegon is to marry Helaena. And still you let him put his hands on you in the dark like a common whore.â His thumb rested against the corner of her lip. âTell me, sister. Did you already give him your maidenhead? Did you spread your legs for him and let him take what should have been mine? Or were you still pretending at virtue while you opened your mouth for him?â
Aelaâs breath came fast against his palm. She tried to turn her face; his grip only tightened.
âYou let our brother use you while I stood in the shadows and watched.â His voice remained quiet, almost conversational. âI could go to Otto this hour and tell him every detail. How long it has been happening. How willing you were. Mother would send you to the silent sisters. Helaena would never look at you again without remembering what you gave her future husband.â
âYou cannotââ
He released her jaw only long enough to catch both her wrists and pin them hard above her head against the bedpost. His body pressed fully against hers, controlled and unyielding.
âI can,â he said. âI have Vhagar. I have the truth. And I have you.â He lowered his mouth near her ear. âRefuse me, and I will take you to the dragonpit myself. I will make you stand before her while I tell her exactly what you have done. Vhagar listens to me. I will not command her to burn you. I will only ask her to decide. And you will stand there while she does.â
Her pulse hammered under his fingers.
âAemondââ
âSay you understand.â
When she remained silent he tightened his grip in her hair until a sharp sound broke from her throat.
âSay it.â
âI understand.â
He held her there a moment longer, studying the tears at the corners of her eyes and the way her body had gone still beneath his. Then he released her wrists and stepped back just far enough for her to breathe. His hand remained in her hair a second longer before he let it fall.
âYou will go to him tonight,â he said. âYou will end it cleanly. If he asks why, you will say nothing of me. If I hear you have returned to him, I will not warn you again. I will take you to Vhagar. And then I will go to Grandsire.â
He released her completely. The sudden absence of his hands left her swaying against the bedpost.
âDress yourself,â he said. âYou look as though you have already been ruined.â
He unlocked the door and left without another word
***
She ended it the same night.
Aegon accepted it with the easy, careless shrug he gave most things that no longer amused him. He had looked at her for a long moment, then laughed under his breath and reached for the wine.
âAs you like,â he said. âBut do come back if youâre ever in need of some fun.â
He did not try to stop her when she left.
The wedding came three moons later.
Aela stood in the gallery in a gown of deep forest green silk that matched the embroidery on Aemondâs tunic exactly, and watched her brother take Helaenaâs hand before gods and court. The sept was full of green and gold and the heavy scent of incense. Helaena looked pale and distant, eyes somewhere else entirely. Aegon looked faintly bored until the vows were done, after which he grinned that golden, lazy grin and kissed his new wife with more performance than feeling.
Aela felt something quiet and hollow open beneath her ribs.
She did not cry. She only watched, hands folded tightly in front of her, while Aemond stood half a step behind her left shoulder, close enough that the heat of him reached her through the silk. When the ceremony ended and the court began to move toward the feast, his fingers brushed the small of her backâlight, proprietaryâand steered her forward with him.
***
She was sixteen now.
The change had not come all at once. It had settled over her in layers, each one quieter and heavier than the last, until the girl who had once laughed too loudly in the corridors and stolen lemon cakes with Aegon felt like someone she only half-remembered.
Aemondâs control had grown severe.
The matching colors remained. That much had never changed. But the gowns themselves had begun to shift. Where once the cuts had been properâfull skirts, modest necklines, the dignified lines expected of a princessâthey now clung.
The bodices were cut lower, the fabric drawn tight beneath her breasts so that the weight of them was impossible to ignore. The waists were taken in until the difference between the fullness above and the narrow span below became something the court could not help but notice.
Aemond selected the bolts of silk himself. He stood in her chambers while the seamstresses pinned and measured, watching with that single pale eye as the cloth was fitted to her body. When she protested the first time, he had only looked at her until the words died in her throat.
âYou will wear what I choose,â he said. âWe match. That is the point.â
He touched her more now.
Sometimes the touches were almost carefulâfingers lingering at the nape of her neck when he adjusted a collar, a hand settling at her waist as he guided her through a corridor, the brush of his knuckles along the side of her breast when he reached past her for a book. Suggestive. Claiming. Always just long enough that she could not pretend it had been accidental. Other times, when she hesitated or argued or simply looked at him with too much of the old resistance in her eyes, the touches turned sharp. A grip on her upper arm hard enough to leave fingerprints. A hand fisted in her hair to force her face up to his. Once, when she had tried to leave a lesson early, he had caught her wrist and twisted until the bones ground together and a broken sound escaped her.
âYou will listen,â he had said, very quietly. âOr I will make you listen.â
The High Valyrian lessons lasted hours.
He sat across from her in the library or in his own solar, a text open between them, and required her to recite conjugations, translations, and long passages of history until her voice grew hoarse. If she stumbled, he made her begin again. If her attention driftedâtoward the window, toward the thought of Dragonstone, toward the memory of Lukeâs laugh or Jaceâs steady presenceâhe would reach across the table and catch her chin, forcing her eyes back to the page.
âAgain,â he would say. âProperly this time. You are a Targaryen. You will speak the tongue of our house as though it were the only one you were ever meant to know.â
She learned. She had no choice.
He required her to carry herself like a princess of the blood. Chin lifted. Shoulders back. Steps measured. No more running through the corridors. No more laughing too loudly. No more seeking out the company of servants or lesser cousins for the simple comfort of easy conversation.
When she forgot herself and spoke too freely at table, or smiled too widely at some passing knight, Aemondâs hand would find her knee beneath the cloth and press until the warning was clear.
âYou represent more than yourself now,â he told her one evening as he walked her back to her chambers. âYou represent me. You will behave accordingly.â
The weapons practice began not long after the wedding.
He took her to a private yard in the early mornings, before most of the court was awake, and placed a light training blade in her hands.
The first days left her palms blistered and her shoulders aching. He corrected her stance with impersonal precisionâadjusting her feet with the toe of his boot, gripping her wrists to change the angle of her grip, standing behind her with his chest against her back so he could guide the motion of her arms. When she flagged, he made her continue. When she complained, he only looked at her.
âYou will learn to defend what is yours,â he said. âAnd what is mine. A Targaryen princess does not wait to be rescued. She does not need to.â
The bow came later. He stood behind her again, adjusting her elbow, his breath warm against her temple as he murmured corrections. His hands settled at her waist to steady her. Sometimes they stayed there longer than necessary. Sometimes his thumbs stroked once, deliberately, along the lower curve of her ribs before he stepped away and told her to loose the arrow.
She improved. She hated that she improved.
And always, always, there were the lectures about bastards.
He would begin them without warningâover supper, during a ride, while she was still flushed and breathing hard from blade work. His voice remained calm, almost scholarly, as he spoke of the danger of baseborn blood, of the way it diluted the purity of the dragon, of the chaos that followed when men of uncertain parentage were given power they had not been born to hold. He never named Jace or Luke. He did not have to. Every word was shaped to cut toward Dragonstone, toward the boys she still missed with a quiet, persistent ache, toward the years she had spent laughing with them and treating them as true kin.
âBlood is not a matter of affection,â Aemond said one afternoon as they walked the length of the godswood.
The leaves stirred overhead. His hand rested at the small of her back, possessive and light. âIt is a matter of truth. A bastard may smile and call himself your brother. He may even believe it. But the realm will never forget what he is. And neither should you.â
Aela said nothing. She had learned that silence was safer.
***
He was making her into an extension of himself.
The matching colors. The shared lessons. The way he required her presence at his side during court functions, during meals, during the long evenings when he read and she was expected to sit nearby with her own book open whether she wished to or not. He spoke of their twinship the way other men spoke of destinyâinevitable, sacred, already decided. When she looked at him with something like despair, he only studied her face as though cataloguing the expression for later correction.
âYou were always meant to stand with me,â he told her once, late, when the candles had burned low and the Keep was quiet around them. His fingers traced the edge of her jaw, then lower, following the line of her throat to the place where her pulse beat too quickly. âAegon was a distraction. The Strong boys were a distraction. Thisââ his thumb pressed lightly over the hollow of her throat ââis what remains. You and I. As it should have been from the beginning.â
She did not pull away. There was nowhere left to go.
At night she lay awake and thought of Dragonstone. Of Jaceâs serious eyes and Lukeâs bright, careless grin. By the way the sea air had smelled when they were children and the world had still felt wide enough to run through.
She thought of Aegonâs wedding smile and the hollow place it had left behind. She thought of the girl she had been at twelve, at fourteen, at fifteenâbefore the clothes began to cling, before the lessons stretched into hours, before her twinâs hands had learned the exact pressure that made her still.
Aemond was patient.
He did not need to rush.
He had already taken the pieces of her that mattered and begun arranging them into the shape he wanted. A princess who spoke High Valyrian without accent. Who moved with measured grace. Who could hold a blade and loose an arrow and stand at his side in matching silk that left little of her body to the imagination. Who understoodâbecause he had told her, again and againâthat bastards were a poison in the blood of the realm, and that her place was not among them.
He was grooming her to be his perfect twisted twin bride.
And every day, in a hundred small and deliberate ways, she felt herself becoming it.
***
The ships arrived on a grey morning, the Blackwater the color of old steel beneath a low sky.
Aela stood on the balcony outside her chambers in a gown of deep black silk shot through with emerald, the bodice cut low enough that the heavy curve of her breasts was impossible to ignore, the waist drawn so tight the span of it could be circled by two hands. The skirt fell in clean, severe lines that moved only when she did. Aemond had chosen the fabric himself three days earlier. He had stood in her solar while the seamstresses pinned and adjusted, his single eye tracking every alteration until the dress sat on her body exactly as he wished.
She was eighteen now.
The girl who had once run laughing through the corridors with lemon cakes in her fists no longer existed. In her place stood the perfect mirror of her twin: tall, silver-gold hair worn in the same loose style he favored, lilac eyes trained to remain calm, posture faultless, voice measured.
She could recite the lineages of Old Valyria without pause. She could put an arrow through a moving target at sixty paces. She could hold a blade for an hour without her arm trembling.
Aemond stood beside her on the balcony, close enough that the back of his hand brushed hers.
âYou will remain at my side,â he said quietly. âYou will be gracious. You will not linger with the Strong boys. You will not give Daemon the satisfaction of your attention longer than courtesy demands.â
âYes, Aemond.â
He glanced down at her. The corner of his mouth almost softened. Almost.
âGood.â
Below them the courtyard filled with the green-and-black of the Hightower household and the red-and-black of the arriving party. Rhaenyra came first, heavier than Aela remembered, face drawn with the strain of travel and the knowledge of what waited inside the Red Keep. Daemon walked half a step behind her, silver hair longer, expression already edged with that familiar, lazy menace.
Then the children.
Jacaerys had grown into his shoulders. The softness of boyhood had burned away, leaving a lean, handsome seriousnes. Lucerys was still smaller, still carrying that slightly nervous set to his mouth, but his eyes were sharper. Baela and Rhaena moved like their fatherâs daughtersâproud, watchful, already assessing the court that had never wanted them.
Aemondâs hand settled at the small of Aelaâs back, fingers pressing just hard enough to remind her he was there.
âRemember what you are,â he murmured.
She did.
***
The first hours were all formal distance and carefully measured courtesy.
Otto received them in the throne room with words that said welcome and eyes that calculated every possible threat. Alicent stood at his side in green, smile brittle. Aegon lounged near the wall with a cup already in hand, looking as though the entire reunion were a personal inconvenience. Helaena hovered close to her childrenâJaehaerys and Jaehaera, solemn little twins with their motherâs pale hairâwhile Maelor slept against a nurseâs shoulder.
Aela felt Aemondâs attention like a second skin. When Rhaenyraâs gaze lingered on her a moment too long, taking in the revealing cut of the black-and-green gown, the way she stood half a step behind her twin, Aemondâs fingers tightened at her waist.
Daemon noticed her as well.
She felt the weight of his stare during the formal greetings, the way his eyes moved over the low neckline, the narrow waist, the obedient stillness she had been trained into. A faint, unpleasant smile touched his mouth. Aemond saw it. The muscle in his jaw jumped once, then went still.
Later, in the quieter chaos of the outer yard while servants settled the visitors into their chambers, Aela found herself near Baela and Rhaena. Aemond had been drawn into conversation with Otto and Ser Criston; for a brief span his attention was not directly on her.
Baela looked her over with open curiosity.
âYou look different,â she said. Not unkindly. âOlder.â
âSo do you.â Aela kept her voice light, the practiced princess tone Aemond had drilled into her. âDragonstone agrees with you both.â
Rhaenaâs gaze was softer, more searching. âWe heard you had become quite the court lady. High Valyrian, the blade, the bow. Aemondâs influence, I expect.â
Aelaâs smile did not reach her eyes. âWe are twins. It is only natural we share certain⌠disciplines.â
Baela snorted under her breath. âDisciplines. Is that what theyâre calling it.â
Before Aela could answer, a familiar voice cut in.
âAela.â
Jacaerys had approached with Lucerys half a step behind him. Up close the change in Jace was even more strikingâtaller, the line of his jaw clean, eyes the same dark seriousness she remembered but tempered by something steadier. Lucerys still had the softer face of the boy who had once listened wide-eyed to her stories about Silverwing, though the years had put a careful watchfulness in him.
Aela felt the old ache of missing them rise sharp and sudden.
âJace. Luke.â She inclined her head, every movement measured. âIt is good to see you both well.â
Jaceâs gaze flicked once to the gown, to the way it displayed her, then back to her face. Something complicated moved behind his eyes. âYou look⌠well.â
âI am.â
Lucerys offered a small, tentative smile. âWe used to think youâd come to Dragonstone one day. For a visit, at least.â
âPlans change,â Aela said gently.
From across the yard Aemondâs attention found her again. She felt it like a hand closing around the back of her neck. She took a polite half-step back from the boys.
âI should return to my brother,â she said. âThe day is long yet.â
Jaceâs mouth tightened, but he only nodded. Lucerys looked as though he wanted to say more and thought better of it.
Aemond was already moving toward her. When he reached her side his hand settled at her elbow, fingers pressing into the soft underside of her arm hard enough to promise later correction.
âYou were told not to linger,â he said under his breath, so only she could hear.
âI was courteous. Nothing more.â
His grip tightened until she felt the warning in her bones. âSee that it remains nothing more.â
***
The feast that night began under a weight of old grievances and thinner smiles.
The great hall had been arranged to force proximity. Greens and blacks seated in careful alternation. Aela sat between Aemond and Helaena, the black-and-green silk of her gown a deliberate echo of the tunic her twin wore. Across the table Jace and Lucerys sat with Baela and Rhaena. Daemon lounged like a cat that had already decided which throats it might open. Rhaenyraâs face was composed, but the tension around her eyes never fully eased.
Aegon drank steadily and made no effort to hide his boredom. Once he caught Aelaâs eye and lifted his cup in a private, mocking toast, mouth curving as though they still shared some private joke. She looked away.
Conversation at first was brittle. Polite inquiries about the journey. Careful remarks about the health of the King. Aemond spoke only when directly addressed, his voice cool and precise. Whenever Lucerysâs name entered the air, Aela felt the faint shift in her twinâs posture, the old, cold hatred that had never left him since the night he lost his eye.
Then Viserys was brought in.
The King was a ruin of the man he had beenâwasted, masked, every breath a visible effortâyet when he spoke the hall fell into something like true quiet. His words were labored, but they carried the weight of a man who knew he was dying and still hoped, foolishly, for peace among his blood. He spoke of love. Of legacy. Of the family he still wanted them to be.
Something in the hall loosened after that.
Not fully. Never fully. But enough that the edges of conversation softened. Baela asked Helaena about her children and received a gentle, slightly dreamy answer. Rhaena spoke with Alicent in low tones about the journey. Even Aegon managed a stretch of nearly civil talk with Jace before the wine pulled him sideways again.
Aela found herself drawn into quieter conversation with Baela and Rhaena once more as the courses changed. They spoke of Dragonstone, of the younger children, of the way the sea looked at dusk. For a little while Aela could almost pretend the years of Aemondâs careful remaking had not happenedâthat she was still the girl who had once sat on the low wall above the training yard and spoken of marrying Aegon without understanding what any of it would cost.
She noticed, more than once, the way Jaceâs gaze returned to her. Not hungry the way Daemonâs had been. Something closer to recognition, and regret.
***
The toasts began near the end of the meal.
It was Alicent who first raised her cup in a careful, formal gesture toward the betrothals that had already been arranged between the branches of the family. Jacaerys to Baela. Lucerys to Rhaena. The words were spoken with the brittle brightness of a woman determined to present unity even while the ground beneath it cracked.
Aela felt a genuine, uncomplicated warmth rise in her chest.
She looked across the table at Luke and Jace, at the girls who would stand beside them, and for a moment the old affection she had never quite managed to kill stirred fully. She was happy for them. Truly. Whatever else Aemond had taken from her, he had not yet managed to strip that.
She lifted her own cup when the others did, and when Lucerysâs eyes met hers she allowed herself a real smileâsmall, but real.
Aemond noticed.
His hand found her thigh beneath the cover of the tablecloth and gripped hard enough that her breath caught. The message was clear. She smoothed her expression at once.
Then Helaena stood.
The hall quieted out of something like surprised respect. Helaenaâs voice was soft, slightly dreamy, the way it always was when her mind was half elsewhere, but the words were clear and carried a tragic little humor that made several people shift in their seats.
âTheyâll be married soon,â she said, glancing toward Baela and Rhaena. âIt isnât so bad. Mostly he just ignores you⌠except sometimes when heâs drunk.â
A brief, uncertain ripple of laughter moved through the hall. Cups were raised. Aegon snorted into his wine. Alicentâs smile looked carved from wood.
Aela sat very still.
The words settled over her like a cold hand. Mostly he just ignores you⌠except sometimes when heâs drunk.
She looked at her brotherâher once-beloved Aegonâslouched in his chair with wine on his mouth and a bored, half-lidded gaze, the same man who had once put his hands on her in dark corners and later shrugged her ending of it with the careless remark that there were plenty of whores in the world. She looked at Helaena, gentle and strange and enduring exactly that life.
And then she felt the solid, unyielding presence of Aemond at her sideâthe twin who had spent years reshaping her into his reflection. Who never ignored her. Who watched. Who corrected. Who owned.
A sharp, private jealousy cut through her.
She would have rather kept the whoring, careless husband who mostly ignored her and only reached for her when the wine was in him than the controlling, exacting twin who now owned every hour of her day. The thought was treasonous. Dangerous. She buried it at once, the way she had learned to bury everything Aemond did not permit.
But it remained, quiet and bitter, beneath the perfect composure of her face.
Aemondâs hand was still on her thigh. His thumb moved once, slow and deliberate, in a gesture that was neither comfort nor warning but simple possession.
Across the table Lucerys was smiling at something Baela had said. Jaceâs handsome face was turned toward Rhaenyra in quiet conversation. Daemon watched the greens with the faint, predatory interest of a man already deciding how the board might be cleared.
Aela lifted her cup with the rest of them and drank.
The wine tasted like nothing at all.
***
Viserys was taken from the hall not long after the toasts.
The moment the doors closed behind the Kingâs litter, the fragile warmth he had forced into the room began to thin. Servants moved quietly along the walls. Cups were refilled. The conversation fractured back into smaller, more careful groups.
Aela drank.
She had already had more than she usually allowed herself. The wine sat warm and loose in her blood, softening the edges of everything. For the first time in years the hall did not feel like a place she had to survive. People were smiling. Baela was laughing at something Rhaena had said. Even Aegon looked almost pleasant in the low light. The temporary peace made her reckless.
Aemond was not at ease.
He sat rigid beside her, the untouched wine in his cup catching the candlelight. His single eye was fixed across the table on Lucerys with a focus so absolute it felt like a blade laid against skin. Lucerys noticed. The younger boyâs shoulders drew in; his mouth tightened with a mixture of discomfort and rising annoyance. He tried to keep his attention on Rhaena, but every few moments his gaze flicked back, as if he could feel the weight of that stare.
Aela caught Lucerysâs eye and gave him the smallest, softest look of understanding she could manage. A silent I know. He blinked, surprised, then offered the ghost of a grateful nod before looking away.
Aemond did not miss the exchange. The muscle in his jaw flexed once.
Jacaerys rose from his seat a short while later and came around the table. He stopped a polite distance from Aela and inclined his head.
âWould you dance with me?â he asked. His voice was steady, courteous, but there was something careful in it. âIt has been a long time.â
Aela felt the wine make the decision for her.
âYes,â she said.
Aemondâs hand, which had been resting on the table near her wrist, went very still.
She rose. Jace offered his arm. She took it.
They moved into the open space where a few other pairs had already begun to turn to the musiciansâ slower tune. Jaceâs hand settled lightly at her waist. His other held hers with proper distance. Up close he smelled of clean wool and the faint salt of the sea still clinging to him from the journey.
âYou look lovely,â he said quietly, after a few turns. âDifferent. But lovely.â
Aelaâs mouth curved before she could stop it. âYou have grown dashing.â
âAnd you have grown⌠refined.â He glanced once toward the high table, then back to her face. âI am glad to see you, Aela. Truly.â
The words landed softly. For a moment she let herself simply be the girl who had once sat on walls and told stories to a younger Luke and argued with a serious Jace about nothing that mattered. The years of matching silk and High Valyrian drills and careful silences fell away just far enough that she could breathe.
She did not see Aemond stand.
She only heard the sudden, sharp crack of both his hands striking the table hard enough to make several cups jump and conversation die in ragged pieces.
Every head turned.
Aemond was on his feet, the sapphire of his eye catching the light like a cold star. He lifted his cup with deliberate slowness.
âFinal tribute,â he said, voice carrying cleanly through the hall. âTo the health of my nephews. Jace⌠Luke⌠and Joffrey.â A thin, razor smile. âEach of them handsome, wise⌠Strong. Let us drain our cups to these three⌠Strong boys.â
The silence that followed was absolute.
Then the hall erupted.
Chairs scraped. Voices rose. Lucerys had gone white. Jacaerysâs hand left Aelaâs waist at once, his whole body turning toward the high table. Daemon was already half out of his seat, expression dark with promise. Rhaenyraâs face was a mask of controlled fury. Alicent looked as though she had been struck. Aegon laughed once, short and mean, and kept drinking.
Aelaâs stomach dropped.
âAemond,â she said, low and urgent, already moving back toward him. âAemond, stop. We should leave.â
He did not look at her. His eye was still locked on Lucerys with pure, undiluted hatred.
She reached him and closed her fingers around his forearm. âPlease. Not here.â
For a moment she thought he would ignore her entirely. Then his hand shot out and closed around her upper arm hard enough to bruise. He turned without a word and pulled her with him, away from the rising chaos of the hall, past startled servants and the first shouts of accusation.
***
The corridor outside was dimmer, quieter, the sounds of the feast muffled by heavy doors.
The moment they were alone far enough that no one could see, Aemond stopped.
He turned on her so fast she barely had time to draw breath. One hand tangled brutally in her hair and yanked her head back; the other kept its crushing grip on her arm. He dragged her the remaining distance to his chambers without speaking, the only sounds their footsteps and the sharp, pained breaths she could not quite swallow.
The door slammed hard enough to rattle the frame.
Aemond did not release her hair. He used the grip to shove her forward into the center of the chamber, then spun her to face him. The force of it made her stumble; only his fist in her silver-gold strands kept her upright. Candlelight caught the sapphire of his eye and turned it into something sharp and inhuman.
âYou danced with him.â
The words came out low, almost soft, but there was nothing soft in the way he said them. His breathing was controlled, but the control was visibly cracking at the edges. Rage lived in every line of his body.
âYou smiled at him. You let that bastard put his hands on you in front of the entire court.â He gave her hair a vicious yank, forcing her head further back until her throat was fully exposed. âAfter everything. After what they did. After what he did.â
Aelaâs hands came up instinctively, fingers trying to ease the pull at her scalp. âAemondââ
âDo not speak my name like that.â His free hand shot up and closed around her jaw, fingers digging in hard enough to bruise. âHow dare you. How dare you speak to them. How dare you look at Lucerys with anything but contempt after he took my eye. And then you stand there and let Jacaerys Strong put his hands on my twin as though he had any right.â
He leaned in until his face was inches from hers. The cold fury in his remaining eye was worse than shouting.
âWas it not enough to disgrace yourself with one betrothed man?â His voice dropped into something quieter and far more dangerous. âYou let Aegon use you like a whore while he was promised to Helaena. That was not enough for you? You are so wanton, so desperate to spread your legs, that now you turn to a betrothed bastard? Jacaerys is promised to Baela. Or did that slip your mind while you were smiling up at him like a common cunt in heat?â
âI do not see him that way,â Aela said, the words coming out strained from the pressure of his hand on her jaw. âIt was only a dance. He isââ
âHe is nothing.â Aemondâs grip tightened until she made a small, involuntary sound. âHe is a Strong bastard wearing a name that does not belong to him. And youâmy blood, my twinâstood in his arms and let him tell you that you looked lovely.â
He released her jaw only to shove her backward. The backs of her knees hit the edge of his bed and she sat down hard. Aemond followed, looming over her, both hands now braced on either side of her hips, caging her in.
âYou belong to me,â he said, each word precise and absolute. âNot to Aegon. Not to the Strong boys. Not to anyone who looks at you and thinks they may have a piece of what is mine. You wear my colors. You speak the tongue I taught you. You carry a blade because I decided you would. Every part of you that matters has been shaped by my hand.â
Aemond did not ask permission.
He dragged her the rest of the way onto the bed by the fistful of silver-gold hair, the same hair he had once watched Aegon bury his hands in behind a tapestry, the same hair he had ordered dressed to match his own for years. She landed hard on her back. His mouth claimed hers at onceâruthless, open, more possession than kiss. He bit her lower lip until he tasted copper, then forced his tongue past her teeth as though he meant to erase every laugh she had ever given anyone else.
Aela made a broken sound against him. The wine from the feast still moved warm and useless in her blood. She could still feel the ghost of Jaceâs hand at her waist, the brief, dangerous softness of being looked at like a person instead of a reflection. That softness had cost her this.
âYou were made for this,â Aemond said against her mouth, voice low and precise even as his breathing roughened. âSame hour. Same blood. I waited while you chased Aegon. I waited while you smiled at Strong bastards. I shaped every part of you that mattered, and still you needed the lesson.â
His free hand shoved her skirts up without care for the fine black-and-green silk he himself had chosen. Fabric tore. Cool air touched the insides of her thighs. He settled between them with the full weight of his body, already hard, already certain. She felt the thick heat of him against her bare cunt and tried, too late, to close her legs.
He forced them wider with his knees.
The memory of the blackmail rose sharp and useless: the night he had pinned her to the bedpost and made her end things with Aegon, the threat of Vhagar, the way he had called her whore for the first time. She had thought that was the worst of it. She had been wrong.
âAemondââ
He ignored the protest. One hand kept its merciless grip in her hair; the other guided the blunt head of his cock to her entrance. He did not prepare her. He did not ease the way. He pushed in with one long, unrelenting thrust that tore through her maidenhead in a single burning stroke and buried him to the hilt.
Aelaâs cry was sharp and startled.
The pain was immediate and deepâa raw, splitting stretch that forced tears to the corners of her eyes. Her body clenched helplessly around the intrusion, trying to reject what it could not stop. For a moment all she could feel was the violation of it, the final, physical proof that every year of matching clothes and forced lessons and quiet threats had been leading here. She was no longer only his in name and color and obedience. She was his in the most irreversible way left.
Aemond held himself there, fully seated, hips pressed flush to hers, and watched her face with cold, avid attention while she trembled.
âThere,â he breathed. âNow no one else will ever have you. Not Aegon. Not that Strong bastard you let put his hands on you tonight. This cunt is mine.â
He began to move.
The rhythm was brutal from the first strokeâdeep, punishing thrusts that drove her up the bed and forced the air from her lungs in broken gasps. Each one dragged against the torn place inside her. The pain stayed bright and constant, but beneath it something worse began to build: heat, pressure, a shameful spark of pleasure that grew every time he ground deep. She hated it. She hated that her body, trained for so long to yield to him in every other way, was now yielding in this one too.
She tried to twist away. His fist in her hair yanked her back into place so he could look her in the eye while he fucked the resistance out of her.
âSay it,â he ordered, never slowing. âSay you are mine.â
âIââ The word fractured as he snapped his hips particularly hard. Tears slipped from the corners of her eyes. âI am yours.â
âAgain.â
âI am yours.â
He kissed her once more, filthy and claiming, then put his mouth to her ear. His voice stayed controlled, almost conversational, even as he fucked her with short, vicious strokes that made the bedframe knock against the wall.
âMy twin. My blood. My wife in every way that matters. You will call me husband while I ruin this tight little cunt.â Another deep thrust. âSay it.â
The word was insidious. They were not married, not even betrothed, but in his mind sharing a womb sealed their faith as husband and wife.
The pain had blurred into something darker and hotter. Every time he bottomed out, a spark of reluctant pleasure licked up her spine. Her thighs started to shake. Her hips gave a small, traitorous roll to meet him. The knowledge of what that meantâthat even now, even like this, some part of her was answering himâhurt almost as much as the stretch.
âHusband,â she whispered.
âLouder.â
âHusbandââ
Aemond made a low sound of satisfaction and drove into her harder. One hand left her hair to wrench the bodice of her gown down, freeing her breasts so he could grip one roughly, thumb scraping over the peaked nipple until she whimpered. The same breasts he had ordered the seamstresses to display. The same body he had spent years reshaping into his ideal.
âIf you want a bastard so badly,â he said, voice fraying only slightly at the edges, âI will give you one. I will fill this cunt until it takes. You will swell with my child, not some baseborn pretenderâs. Do you understand me?â
She was past coherent answers. The years of control, the dance with Jace, the toast, the way Lucerys had looked at her with residual kindnessâall of it collapsed into the single, overwhelming fact of Aemond inside her, claiming the last piece she had left to give. Every deep stroke dragged a broken sound from her throat. Her legs had come up around his hips without her permission. The wet, filthy noise of him fucking her open filled the chamber.
âLook at me.â When her dazed lilac eyes met his, he held the gaze and fucked her with short, punishing thrusts meant to break them both. âCome on your husbandâs cock. Now.â
The command, the stretch, the relentless pressureâeverything crested at once. Aelaâs back arched. A raw, startled cry tore from her as the orgasm ripped through her, her cunt clenching and fluttering helplessly around him. The pleasure was sharp and unwanted and complete. It felt like another kind of surrender.
The tight, rhythmic pulses pulled Aemond over the edge with her. He buried himself to the root and came with a low, guttural sound, spilling deep inside her in thick, pulsing waves while he held her pinned and open beneath him.
For several long moments the only sound was their breathing.
Aemond did not pull out. He stayed buried in her, one hand still tangled in her hair, the other braced beside her head, and looked down at her flushed, tear-streaked face with something cold and deeply satisfied.
The pain between her legs throbbed in time with her heartbeat. His seed was already leaking out around him, warm and final. Somewhere under the shock and the shame and the fading sparks of forced pleasure, Aela understood that the girl who had once laughed too loudly in the corridors was gone completely now.
âMy twin,my wife, my reflectionâ he said quietly. âIn every way.â
This time she did not argue.
There was nothing left to argue with.
Aemond stayed inside her until his breathing slowed. When he finally pulled out, seed spilled warm down her thigh. He looked at it with quiet satisfaction, then told her to clean herself and go.
***
In the days that followed, Aela told herself this was the end.
He had taken her name, her voice, her friendships, her body, the last scraps of the girl she had been. There was nothing left for him to break. She was already his in every way that mattered.
She almost believed it.
Three months later the news came at dusk.
Lucerys was dead.
Vhagar had swallowed him and his dragon over the black waters of Shipbreaker Bay. Nothing remained to bury.
Aela stood alone in the corridor outside the council chamber and listened to Aemondâs voiceâcalm, measured, almost boredâanswering questions about the âunfortunate accident.â The same voice that had made her call him husband while he tore through her. The same voice that had spent years teaching her to hate the very boys she had once loved.
Something inside her folded in on itself with a soft, irreversible finality.
She had thought the night in his bed was the worst he could do.
She had thought there was nothing left to take.
She had been wrong.
The last living piece of her childhoodâthe quiet, stubborn tenderness she had still carried for the boy who once listened wide-eyed to her storiesâdied in that corridor without a sound.
Aela turned and walked away, face perfectly smooth, hands empty at her sides.
There was nothing left.
He had made certain of that.
















