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Dark!Aemond Targaryen x Fem!Reader

Part one here

Your father’s men trembled as they escorted you out of the keep towards Vhagar. Aemond sat proudly on her back, staring down at you. He smiled cruelly when Vhagar moved rather suddenly and the youngest of the men let out an audible cry of surprise.

Your parents had said their goodbyes inside. Deciding it was best that your mother stayed out of Aemond’s line of sight, due to her frequent bouts of sobbing. Your father had feared that it would give you all up immediately. A carriage followed you out. A number of ladies and belongings caused it to ride low on its wheels and they squeaked under the protest. Letting out an anxious sigh through your nose you motioned for everyone to stop at the gate of the keep and approached the great beast before you carefully. Aemond waited a moment before climbing down. Looking at you coldly there was a flash of an insincere smile on his face for a moment. He approached you and you eyed him wearily, doing little more than stiffening up as his hands cupped your face.

“I am relieved that you came to your senses.” Aemond said in his sickly sweet voice. He stepped away and walked past the men, ignoring them as he approached the carriage.

You said nothing and stayed where you were as Aemond inspected the carriage and turned back to you, apparently satisfied there was nothing untoward hidden among the statuesque handmaids within.

“We should return. My mother is worried for you.” Aemond smiled and gestured to the carriage. The men looked at each other nervously refusing to move until you nodded and they hurried back to the safety of the keep. Leaving you alone with Aemond. There was a tense silence between the two of you as he extended his hand to help you into the carriage. As soon as the door closed behind you one girl let out a sob.

You recognised one of the women as the daughter of your father’s close friend. Florence you recalled. She reached forward, seeming to want to declare it nice to see you having been a childhood friend from before you left for King’s Landing, but she thought better of it, hesitating before reaching across the carriage to grasp your hands instead.

The silence seemed to weigh the carriage down even more as it began to move, creaking and swaying as it crossed over the gateway of the keep and out towards the road that would lead to the King’s road. The eldest of your ladies, a woman who had served your mother for years cleared her throat.

“We must be brave. Resilient. We shall persevere.” The old woman said in a fearsome tone. The atmosphere among the frightened coven of women changed from one of fear and misery to a silent determination to survive. Chattering began like soldiers testing no man's land to see if the battle was truly done. Quietly among the elder women and then soon all of you, solidifying an alliance between you all by the time the wheels hit the short bridge that signified that your journey down King’s Roads would soon begin.

By now there was a large distance between the keep and the carriage giving you all a nervous confidence, a buzzing rush that your pounding heart worked to fuel. The feeling was smothered when there was a horrifying sound. It was a rumbling screech that was followed by a roar that flooded the air with a rippling heat. With a cry, you tried to reach for the door but found hands grabbing at you, arms holding you in place. Chaos and fear filled the small space as everyone clung to one another and tried to make sense of the doom they knew would be outside the carriage doors. When the heat finally began to die down they reluctantly let you go allowing you to stumble out into the smoky air. You moved so quickly your skirt caught and you fell with a grunt to your hands and knees. Scrambling to your feet with small fearful noises you found yourself running back up the road. You were blinded by fear and driven forward by the sick, cold sinking feeling as anxiety and smoke strangled you, forcing your breath out in choking gasps. Hours before the same road had been your road to salvation. Now it was a smouldering ruin, a fitting prelude to your family's doom as the keep crumbled and collapsed in on itself. The sound that ripped out of you as you collapsed to the floor was a feral suffering sound. Even Vhagar heard it high above and crooned out a sound that rumbled the air, tipping herself away from you as she passed, miles above in the sky as if to defend Aemond from your sorrow as she looked for a place to ground herself with a heavy rumble, toppling trees as she grumbled and crushed anything that happened to be underfoot. There was no consoling you. The women, having abandoned the safe-haven of the carriage, hurried themselves out into the horror, and tried to stifle your sobbing and shrieking as you looked at the burning ruins of your childhood home. Vhagar circled overhead, taking off from the ground. Through watery tears and the ash that filled the air, you saw Aemond looking at you over his shoulder as he sheathed his sword.

“Get her back inside!” You heard bellowed over your sobs. You were tugged back to the carriage. The rest of the ride back to King’s Landing was silent.

*******************

Alicent smiled at Helaena as she took up a seat beside your bed. You had arrived days after Aemond had left. News of what happened to your family’s keep had reached her long before either of you returned. There was a stiffness to you when you arrived and upon being taken back to your rooms you collapsed on the bed and had sobbed yourself to sleep. Try as she might, there was little more that she could do than fetch a Maester to slip you something to help you sleep.

Aemond gave little details to Alicent who found herself shut out of the council room. No one could or would tell her what had happened or why what she knew had happened had even occurred. It wasn’t until one evening she was summoned nervously by one of your younger ladies, who had no idea how to sooth your fitful bout of madness. Alicent sent everyone away and managed to have you back in bed, mumbling nonsense to her. When she finally understood what had been done. She diligently brushed your hair, pushing you back into bed when you worked yourself up so badly that your eyes widened and you spat out madness she couldn’t understand. She pressed a cold cloth, damp with water from a bowl on your bedside table, against your forehead and soothed you as best she could. It was early morning when an exhausted Alicent had sent for the Maester insisting that you needed something to let you sleep. He had hesitated until you began ranting and raving. You spoke to no one in particular, eyes unfocused and body trembling. Among the words, you spat out what had happened, all of it. Alicent felt sick to her stomach. Worsened by the guilt of helping the Maester hold you down as he forced the medicine to your mouth. She soothed you when he was done. Your head against her shoulder as she lay you back into the bed. One arm remained wrapped around you as she pulled the blankets up and rocked you as you sobbed a slowly found rest as the medicine stole your lucidity from you.

There was a part of Alicent that wanted to defend Aemond’s actions. He was her son after all. The idea reared its head some days. But whenever she looked at you from her enduring vigil at your bedside, seeing you dead-eyed, miserable, wasting away in bed as you refused to eat, limp and lifeless she was reminded of herself. She had wished for anyone to help her when she had been married to the king. To return to The Reach and Oldtown, to her brother. You no longer even had that, a place to dream of fleeing to. Aemond had stolen that from you and it enraged the long-dormant remnants of Alicent’s youth.

There was a light rain that hung in the warm air. It emptied the streets below the Red Keep and made the red stone glisten a deeper red. The prickling of the cool rain relieved Alicent from the stifling humidity as she walked the battlements. She had left your maids to tend to you assuring them, unnecessarily, that she would return momentarily. The dowager queen was rarely found anywhere else. She walked and seethed to herself until she found Aemond looking out over one of the fields to the side of the keep. Vhagar was shifting around among young trees, bending and shaking them as she turned to settle into a lazy sleep. He looked so smug and content. As if he thought nothing of setting Vhagar on your home. Fury made Alicents lip tremble as she glared at him before calming herself and approaching.

“Was it necessary?” Alicent asked as she glanced at Aemond, looking him up and down as he stood tall and proud. He didn’t look at her or ask her what she was referring to. He didn’t need to. Alicent had not allowed him a moment's peace on the matter.

“Of course, we are at war and I was dealing with traitors.” Aemond said casually. Alicent looked at him again, this time her face was twisted with emotion she couldn’t contain.

“They wished to stay out of the fighting. We could have sent your sister with (Y/N) to them. Now you’ve burned her home to the ground.” Alicent scolded angrily. Aemond tutted and shook his head. It was a condescending move and meant to mock his mother.

“They lured (Y/N) away because they had sided with the enemy. I simply had to protect what was mine.” Aemond eyed Alicent as if daring her to question him or say something more. She decided, for the sake of anyone who would receive the brunt of Aemond’s temper, to say nothing more but to let the twist of guilt and horror settle into the pit of her stomach. With nothing more to say to each other Alicent left to go to the sept for the first time since your return.

***************

While Aemond inspected a map that was spread over a table before him, he waved a hand addressing a servant in his room. He didn’t look at them or do anything more than snap that he wanted you to be brought to him. When some time passed and he had finished the jug of wine that had been left for him he stood, stretched and inspected his room. It was ladened with years of an intimate friendship. Ribbons and tourney favours in your house colours lined one wall, one for every tourney he had been in until he’d been bested rather humiliatingly and never competed again. The windowsills were heavily weighed with stones, pebbles and odd things that you had brought to him over the years like some sort of flirtatious magpie. Of course, he knew exactly which one went where and would not have them put back in the wrong order if someone cleaned. In all honesty, he could become so wrapped up in his research and studying that he might not have noticed if you had come into the room. Before the war, he would have coyly complained about you fussing around him while he read from books before playfully relenting.

Alicent had often told him that it was inappropriate to have you squeezed up next to him in some large chair with your head resting on his chest as he read from the large old books and scrolls. When you had both been young it was simply an innocent companionship. But his mother had been right. Though he loathed to admit it. He would lean in close, taking in your smell and resting his head against yours, revelling in the closeness. The way your smile for him was somehow different than when anyone else made you smile. How you would lean into him or his touch almost instinctively. It began to drive him a little mad. Until one evening after you had fallen asleep on one of the bench seats in his room, he had been driven down to the brothels of Flea Bottom. He was always disappointed with what he found. There was no shortage of maidens that looked or sounded, almost, like his sweet girl from the Reach. But nothing was right. He made do. Cole had asked him if he ever felt guilty about it, after catching Aemond on his way back into the keep. Aemond had scoffed. You loved him. Nothing anyone could do would change that.

“My prince.” The nervous voice cut into Aemond's deluded daydream and caused him to start slightly as he turned to glare at the servant. He eyed the door that was held open by the nervous man who hadn't fully entered the room.

“Where is she?” He demanded. He was frankly bored and needed something to entertain him while he mulled over his plans. He was irritated by the delay of your company. It meant he had to put off his planning until he had found you. The servant seemed to understand that he would be blamed for the interruption.

“She will not come.” He muttered. There was a moment where the man flinched and made a noise as if he thought Aemond had moved to strike him. Instead, the prince shoved past and stormed down the corridors to your set of rooms.

Your room was stuffy and uncomfortable. The first thing Aemond did when he entered the room was open the windows that had been left closed at your request. As he moved around the room he inspected it carefully. Your rooms had always been the sort of messy chaos that upset Aemond. No matter what he asked for, assuming you wouldn’t be able to find it, you would find it in some kind of heap strewn over furniture and hand it to him victoriously.

Now, however, the room was spotless. His mother’s work no doubt. At your writing desk was a half-finished letter in his mother’s handwriting and in a comfortable chair to the side of it sat Heleana’s half-finished embroidery. A few toys sat at the foot of the chair as if his sister had hoped the child would encourage you out of bed. Or perhaps they had simply decided to take up life at your bedside. There was a pile of unfinished plates and goblets set to one end of a low table and at the far end of the room shrouded in light white curtains was your bed.

Pushing back the curtains that split the room in half he laid eyes on your bed. The bed was ginormous in size and the most ridiculous thing Aemond had ever seen. It had been a gift from his mother and your own for one of your name-days early on in your extended stay at the Red Keep. The headboard was carved so that landmarks of the Reach sat along the top. The four posts that held up a carved roof above you were carved into thick vines and roses while the roof’s carving was that of your family's keep. The footboard of the bed was a carving of Vhagar sleeping. Installed after Aemond had thrown a fit that there was not an ounce of Targaryen heraldry in the carvings. It had been egregiously big for you then and remained comically large.

The curtains that ran around the bed were pulled shut too. Aemond ignored the evident signs that his mother had been devotedly waiting on you hand and foot since you had returned. The chairs, blankets and books that she favoured rarely left her room but here they were surrounding you. Stepping over the signs of his mother’s dedication to her new cause, Aemond roughly pulled the curtain to the side. He let out a satisfied sigh. The beauty of his maiden was something he had always been rather smug about. He had been cruelly enough to use it to taunt Aegon as well as a few other young men who dared to approach you. It caused all but Aegon to shy away.

“I sent for you.” He was gentle at first. But there was no response. Just the rise and fall of your breath as you lay on your back, hands crossed as they rested on your chest and you stared up at the carving of your home. “(Y/N).” Your name felt unusual in his mouth, being spat out with irritation. It was usually a lovely sound, a contented purring noise. Never the angry crack it had come out as. But still. No response.

It wasn’t until he had leaned his weight on the bed, meaning to make his way to the middle where you lay back on plush green pillows that you moved. It was a quick flinch and a glance at him from the corner of your eye. He frowned and paused for a moment before reaching out. Your arm shot up and smacked him away with surprising speed and you shuffled to the opposite side of the bed.

“Get away from me!” You said and a weak croaky voice. He smiled as if your attempt to get him to leave you alone had been amusing and sweet. A flirtation in his eyes. But when you glared at him with an empty coldness he had never seen before his smile fell.

“Away from you?! After all the effort I have gone to to get you home! All this time I have allowed you to go about brooding and making everyone fuss over you. You owe me.” He seethed out and lunged forward. You darted back, vanishing between the curtains and hurried towards the door out to the corridor. Aemond was quick to follow and due to your frail self starved state caught you quickly in the corridor outside your room. With a vicious noise, he grabbed at you. Doing your best to fight him off you collided with a wall, a statue and as he lifted you up and turned, caught your lip on some cold metal on his clothes. You caught sight of Cole standing not too far away watching the ordeal.

“Help me!” You croaked out. Cole and Aemond shared a look before Cole sighed and turned, walked a few paces away before stepping back until he was against the wall, standing guard. A small desperate noise escaped you as you realised the man who once defended you as he defended Alicent and Helaena had no intention of doing so now.

The door thumped behind Aemond as he furiously released you. The sudden drop to your feet caused your knees to buckle as your body, having been starved and neglected for over a month, was unable to keep you up. Trembling you tried to get to your feet but found yourself barely able to stay sitting as Aemond paced around the room.

“Help you.” He said quietly. His breath was panting and puffing as his temper whipped itself into a burning anger. “Help! Why would you need help? Hmm? What is there to fear from me?” He stopped pacing as if he expected you to answer. You looked up at him and your expression of confusion, anger, and resentment made him frown.

“Murder.” You said quietly. There was a braveness to the tremble of your voice. Something left of the girl who fled. It seemed so long ago that you had been her. The girl able to blind the prince to whatever she wished to hide. Who had escaped. Immediately Aemond changed. His cruelty seemed to melt down into softness. Before you ran this would have deceived you. A naivety you had not been aware you had. Now you could see it was nothing more than a shed skin.

“No. That. was not murder.” He spoke gently, his hands caressing your head as he leaned down, looming over you. “It was justice.”

“Justice.” You repeated with no emotion as you stayed entirely still. Aemond pressed his cheek against yours as he crouched down.

“You understand.” He said and pulled back, smiling as he moved to stroke your cheek. “I had to protect your reputation from being tainted by those traitors. I am your defender. I always have been and always will.” His voice shifted from its honey tone to an unnerving forcefully calm tone that was almost mocking you. You gave him an expressionless look. Did he truly think so little of you? Had you allowed your dispare to make you so weak? He tilted his head and gave you a smile akin to Sunfyre lulling a brave deer into a false belief that the dragon was tame and would not pounce. He really thought you were that fucking stupid. The door opened and Alicent broke the tension that had begun to build.

“Aemond.” She said wearily. Jaehaera spotting you from between her grandmother’s skirts and the open door dropped her mother's hand and hurried forward with a fondness reserved for you. She sat on the floor just short of you and looked up at you with a curious misunderstanding of the situation.

“(Y/N) has decided to get up.” Aemond said with a cheerful attitude. Alicent stared at him. Stepping between you and Aemond and standing as firmly as the Oldtown tower. An immovable force.

“Then it is best you leave. She should use this time to eat and bathe before resting again. Best not to rush recovery.” Alicent spoke with a stiffness that made it seem she was battling Aemond for you. There was a long pause before Aemond crossed his arms behind his back and nodded, relenting to his mother.

“Indeed. Finding out one's family are traitors must be shocking to a young maiden. I will leave you to restore my lifelong companion to full health, Mother. It would be inconvenient to have her collapsing again.” Aemond moved towards the door, a tactical retreat from the prince. Helaena hesitantly entered the room and looked at you with watery eyes. She held your gaze before looking away, seeming to wordlessly burden herself with what should have been her brother’s guilt.

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