My Mate Can't be a Bird! (I swear I'm not into that kind of stuff)

7: My Aunt Can't be a Spider! (but she is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

Mistward.

An old office.

A fae woman sat at the rotting desk. With hair as black as night, deep violet eyes, and flawless, snow-white skin, she was an ethereal beauty. If only her smile was not so spider-like. 

"Hello, Aelin Galathynius."

On instinct , Calaena jumped backwards, and collided with Rowan's hard chest.

Maeve's smile widened with amusement, pointed canines gleaming.

All was quiet, and then Rowan firmly grabbed her shoulders and pushed her forward.

Calena bowed to Maeve. Then she said, "Aelin Galathynius is dead." She was stupid. So, so stupid. She should've run, or at least made up some excuses. 

Maeve laughed, a cruel sound at somehow grated on Calaena's ears. "You look too much like your mother, I think, to be anyone else."

Maeve looked from her to Rowan once, twice, thrice. Then she finally turned to Rowan, approval shining in her eyes. 

Oh gods. She knew. 

---

Rowan

Rowan had been hoping that Maeve would cast Aelin away after seeing her failure to seduce him. Perhaps she'd punish Rowan too, for not following along with her grand plan. Or forge a more realistic mating bond between Aelin and Lorcan or Gavriel. Or perhaps Fenrys would leave the fae Queen's bed to service a demi-fae Queen. Anything but this! 

Maeve smiled at him, approval shining in her eyes. You've done well, he could almost hear those words  in his mind.

Then she focused her attentions on Aelin, who looked like she was about to faint. 

"What brings you here child?" She asked, her tone patronizing. 

Aelin crossed her arms, raising her chin. "You tell me."

"What have you been up to, my dear?"

He felt Maeve's power uncurl like a newly woken lion. Dark tendrils stretched out and surrounded everyone inside their embrace, brushing the Blood-Oath till it hummed, then moving on until they found the mating bond, which hissed angrily at the intrusion. They travelled along the path of the bond from Rowan to Aelin, prodding at her mind and magic. Aelin's eyes widened, detecting the attack, then flashed with defiance; suddenly the tendrils stopped.

Maeve chuckled, and Rowan had the sense that they'd both passed some sort of test. "You see, niece, I prefer some proof of your power; a demonstration of your talents, if you will."

"Like the rest of the people on my continent, I haven't been able to access them." 

He could practically taste Aelin's panic in the air. 

"You're not on you continent anymore."

"I-I'll do it, but not here, not now--"

"--No, I don't want to see your magic," Maeve cut her off, "I want to see what you can do with it."

"What do you mean?"

"I do not permit half-breeds to enter Doranelle. Those who wish to travel there must prove themselves worthy. Only half-breeds with extraordinary magic and a good knowledge of our culture and language can enter."

Rowan could almost see the mental calculations Aelin made in her mind: wondering if she could pass the test; ticking off the requirements; realizing she'd fall short. Good. This would be the moment Maeve threw her out. 

"Prince Rowan--" Aelin jerked back to look at him--"will be training you in magic and the Old Language."

Rowan nodded to Maeve in affirmation. It seemed Maeve would be giving Aelin a second chance. He hadn't been told about teaching her the language, but then again he hadn't been told about possibly being married off to a foreign princess either. 

Maeve gestured to him, and he went to stand by her right. Fenrys peeked up from under the desk, looking back at him with concern. 

Meanwhile Aelin appeared to be calmer. It seemed she had indeed been given a second chance. 

The rest of the meeting passed in a blur. Maeve mercilessly attacked Aelin with her words, exposing her past as a hired killer, and claiming her true reasons for not coming to Terrasen's aid was Evalin Ashryver's broken promise. By the end, it was so tedious that  Rowan wanted to scream in frustration.

Towards the end of the meeting, Maeve said something strange.

"I do not have much more time to spare," She told Aelin seriously, "so let me be blunt. My sources tell me you have questions, questions about the keys that no mortal has the right to ask."

Keys? Rowan never heard of that; was it a code word for something?

Aelin blinked; the only indication of surprise. "Yes. What can you tell me about them?"

"You will receive answers once you come to Doranelle." Maeve nodded to Rowan. "For one as powerful as her, I expect results within two weeks' time." 

Then she smiled condescendingly and dismissed both of them.  

Rowan immediately went out the door, Aelin following behind. He'd have to lead her to her room before retiring for the night.

Halfway through an empty corridor, she spoke to him for the first time in days. 

"You must be very important to Her Immortal Majesty if she put you on nurse duty."

An insult? It seemed she was finally showing her true colors now. "Given your history," he replied carefully, "she didn't trust anyone but her best to keep you in line."

"Playing nursemaid doesn't seem like the greatest indicator of talent." Another insult, this time sounding more barbed. 

"I fought on killing fields long before you, your parents, or your grand-uncle were even born."

Aelin bristled, something that pleased him immensely. "Who's to fight here except birds and beasts?"

What. An. Idiot. She must have been pampered all her life while her country went up in flames. "The world is a far bigger and more dangerous place than you can imagine, girl. Consider yourself blessed to receive any training—to have the chance to prove yourself."

"I've seen plenty of this big and dangerous world, princeling."

Princeling? Only Lyria and his cousins called him that! But he gave a nasty laugh and replied, "Just wait, Aelin."

That hit her just how he wanted. "Don't call me that."

"It's your name. I'm not going to call you anything different."

Aelin ran and stepped in front him, her face a little too close to his own for comfort. "No one here can know who I am. Do you understand?"

The panic was clear in her eyes, and for that alone Rowan would have shouted her name from her rooftops with glee, but she was also right; exposing her identity would only bring more attention to them. So he only said, "my aunt has given me a harder task than she realizes, I think."

Then Aelin's body shook with rage, and she uttered something so foul there was no comparison. "Fae like you make me understand the King of Adarlan's actions a bit more, I think."

He punched her.

A/N: Certain bits of the conversation towards the end are taken from HoF.

Only a few chapters left! I'm sorry for the lack of an update last week, I needed some time to focus on my mental health. Anyways, you'll be glad to know that I've finally decided on the ending, and the epilogue started writing itself last week before letting me write this chapter or anything else.

Also, THANK YOU SO MUCH! There's 500+ reads  on this book rn, and it's making me so f******* happy(* >ω<)

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