Dynasty of Flames//Aemond Targaryen X Reader

Chapter Nine

Aemond won duel after duel, the crowd going absolutely ballistic after every single one of his victories and Y/N couldn't be prouder of him. She remembered him as a child going on and on about how he would someday win tourneys, how those hopes came crashing down when he lost his eye. He'd written to her, telling her of how the maesters had informed him that he would never be able to fight after the incident.

Yet here he was, in all his glory, standing victorious of yet another round of a duel.

Daemon, nor Jace and Luke, seemed as thrilled about this as Y/N was. Rhaenyra too was a bit surprised to see her half-brother here and when she asked Alicent, she too seemed just as surprised as the rest.

As Aemond walked away from his opponent, about to sheath his sword, the supposedly defeated lord stood up, ready to attack from behind. Y/N barely had enough time to process what was happening and yell for Aemond but luckily for the princess, her prince was quite sharp.

He heard the sound of the heavy footsteps trudging through the muck. But even though he did manage to somewhat dodge the direct hit of the sword, he didn't manage to avoid it completely. The sound of the metal of the sword screeching against Aemond's armoured hand was teeth gritting and Aemond flinched away, clutching his arm as pain surged up.

"That's foul play" Y/N leaned in to mutter to her father "Aemond already won that-"

"Let us applaud the victor, Dalton Greyjoy!" Daemon announced as he clapped causing his daughter's jaw to drop with disbelief.

"Kepa, Aemond had already won that round!" Y/N stood up, her tone stern as she repeated herself. It was the final round of the duel and she did not wish to be promised to Dalton out of all people. She barely even knew him.

Jace and Luke were applauding and whistling rather joyously and Y/N was getting irritated by the minute.

"Perhaps the both of you should like to marry him, hm?" She snapped, catching the both of them by surprise at how harshly she spoke "one more sound and I will have you both thrown out of here"

"Y/N.." Rhaenyra tried to calm her down "I'm sure your father won't do something that upsets you-"

"Lord Greyjoy, I give you my permission to court my daughter" Daemon smiled at the same time that Rhaenyra winced.

Aemond stood frozen with rage. It was clear that Daemon was only doing this out of pure spite.

"I do not wish to court him!" Y/N quickly snapped, rather loudly too because Dalton seemed to frown at this the same time as Aemond smirked.

"So much for being named victor" Aemond sneered aloud "by the looks of it, the princess would rather stay a spinster than court you"

This caused a few snickers to arise from the crowd and Dalton retaliated by attempting to throw a punch at Aemond, which he managed to dodge effortlessly before whacking him on his back that made him stumble and fall face first into the mud.

"Prince Daemon" Aemond chuckled mockingly "you would have your daughter court and then, perhaps, marry this man? He can barely defend himself, let alone protect the princess"

Alicent winced. She didn't wish for Aemond to incite some more chaos like how he did at the dinner.

"At least I am a complete man" Dalton smirked up at him through gritted teeth and Aemond reacted by kicking some of that wet mud straight into his face.

"That is enough!" Rhaenyra stood up, tired of having to deal with these kinds of fights over and over "I think we are done for the day"

And with that the crowd dispersed, groaning with annoyance. They were only just enjoying this newfound entertainment. Aemond too sheathed his sword and stormed off toward the castle, where the other members of the royal family were headed. After such a dismal day, he needed a nice warm bath to wash off the stench of mud, sweat and disappointment.