From Flames to Fury (Part 2)

Chapter 1: Bending the Knee

And now... now she was standing there, throwing those words back at me, and I didn't know what to do with them. I could feel the heat of her gaze, her eyes burning into me, demanding something I wasn't sure I could give. My mouth went dry, the world narrowing down to just the two of us as my thoughts scrambled, searching for something—anything—to say that would make this easier, that would make her stop asking me to leave her behind.

"Ye—yes," I stammered, my voice barely recognizable, cracking under the sheer weight of my fear and the crushing intensity of the moment. It felt as though my heart was clawing its way up my throat, desperate to stop the words from leaving my lips. But I forced them out anyway, swallowing the knot that threatened to choke me. My hands trembled, the weight of the world pressing down on my shoulders as I tried to summon some semblance of strength. I cleared my throat, hoping to steady my voice, and repeated myself, firmer this time, even though it felt like my chest was about to cave in.

"Yes," I whispered. "I love you."

The flicker of emotion in Rhaenyra's eyes hit me harder than I could have ever prepared for. Her regal composure—so carefully maintained, always in control—cracked just slightly, the vulnerability seeping through for the briefest of moments. I could see it: the war inside her, the emotions she fought to keep hidden behind that mask of strength and duty. And then she stepped closer, the air between us growing impossibly thick as her warmth brushed against me, her breath soft against my skin.

Her violet eyes, usually so fierce and commanding, were now filled with a raw desperation that I had never seen in her before. They searched mine, pleading, as though she was grasping at the last vestiges of her resolve, terrified that I might not understand the gravity of what she was asking of me.

"Then you will go back to Dragonstone," she said, her voice barely above a whisper, but it carried the weight of an unbreakable command. There was no room for negotiation in her words, no softness. "You will get my boys. The Cannibal is large enough to carry all of them. Then you will go to the Vale, and you will take Aegon and Viserys. You will take them across the Narrow Sea, far away from this war, far away from what's coming."

Her words sent a wave of panic crashing through me, a cold, hollow dread that spread from my chest and into every fiber of my being.

"Rhaenyra—" I tried.

"If you love me," she interrupted, her voice cracking slightly, and for the first time, I heard the tremor of fear beneath her usual strength. Her eyes bore into mine, filled with the weight of everything unspoken. "If you love me, then you will do this for me. You will protect the things I love—my boys, Freya... and you."

Her words were a blade, slicing through me with a precision that left me breathless.

Rhaenyra loved me back.

The realization slammed into me with the force of a tidal wave, knocking the wind from my lungs. She said it. She said it as plainly as she had ever spoken of anything, her words cutting through the tension with startling clarity. But, of course, she said it while telling me to leave her behind—to abandon her to the madness of war and the possibility of death.

My heart cracked inside my chest, the pain sharp and immediate, like someone driving a dagger into it. My breath hitched as the weight of her words slammed into me, overwhelming, crashing over me like a tidal wave, threatening to drown me in its pull. She loved me, but that love came with a cost, a price that felt impossible to pay.

Her love wasn't a sanctuary; it wasn't something that would protect us from the storm. It was something fragile, hanging in the balance between life and death, survival and sacrifice. And she was asking me to leave her. To save her children, to save myself—at the expense of her life. How was I supposed to do that? How could I even think about running when the woman I loved was asking me to protect her world while she faced the end?