Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass, #4)

by Sarah J. Maas

You do not get to pick and choose which parts of her to love, Dorian had once said to him. He’d been right. So painfully right.

She was the heir of fire. She was fire, and light, and ash, and embers. She was Aelin Fireheart, and she bowed for no one and nothing, save the crown that was hers by blood and survival and triumph.

But perhaps the monsters needed to look out for each other every now and then.

She said softly, “You make me want to live, Rowan. Not survive; not exist. Live.”

“You make me want to live, too, Aelin Galathynius,” he said. “Not exist—but live.” He cupped her cheek, and took a steadying breath—as if he’d thought about every word these past three days, over and over again. “I spent centuries wandering the world, from empires to kingdoms to wastelands, never settling, never stopping—not for one moment. I was always looking toward the horizon, always wondering what waited across the next ocean, over the next mountain. But I think … I think that whole time, all those centuries, I was just looking for you.”