Chapter Text
He held her small, delicate, damp hand in his own, eyes trained on her wan and waxen face. "Promise me," she managed between erratic gulps of breath, sucking air in as if she could never get enough. "Promise me, Rhaegar." Her grey gaze had been softened by ware and fever.
His lips moved of their own accord. Anything. Had he actually said it or only imagined it? Her fingers curled around his hand. Tightly. "Breathe, just breathe," he begged her. "Just keep breathing."
Her eyes glazed over. Her chest heaved. A small shuddering breath came trembling past her lips.
A nursemaid on her other side shook her head gently. "She's gone, Your Grace," she said, accented voice curling around his mind slowly.
Rhaegar looked at her with luminous eyes, his head automatically moving through the motion of a denial.
A shrill cry pierced the deathly silence. "Your daughter, Your Grace."
Rhaegar looked towards the child. Gods, she looked just like Lyanna. Horror filled him at the sight of her.