Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass, #4)

by Sarah J. Maas

“I know the odds.” “You and I have always relished damning the odds.”

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

WITCH KILLER— THE HUMAN IS STILL INSIDE HIM

SHE CARES FOR HIM

Then she smiled with every last shred of courage, of desperation, of hope for the glimmer of that glorious future. “Let’s go rattle the stars.”

IM NOT CRYING, U ARE 🫵🏻

Aelin and Dorian had gotten away. It was enough. When the pain came, he was not afraid.

“What did you say?” Dorian. The voice was hoarse, broken. The king and Aelin both turned toward the prince. But Dorian’s eyes were on his father, and they were burning like stars. “What did you say. About Chaol.” The king snapped. “Silence.” “Did you kill him.” Not a question. Aelin’s lips began trembling, and she tunneled down, down, down inside herself. “And if I did?” the king said, brows high. “Did you kill Chaol?” The light at Dorian’s hand burned and burned— But the collar remained around his neck. “You,” the king snapped—and Aelin realized he meant her just as a spear of darkness shot for her so fast, too fast— The darkness shattered against a wall of ice.

Dorian. His name was Dorian. Dorian Havilliard, and he was the Crown Prince of Adarlan.

“To a better future,” she said. “You came back,” he said, as if that were an answer. They joined hands. So the world ended. And the next one began.

Infinite—Dorian’s power was infinite.

“Next time we need to save the world, we do it together.” She smiled faintly. “Deal.”

“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.”

She had done it. Aelin had done it. Chaol’s face crumpled. “I didn’t realize I looked that bad,” Dorian said, his voice raw. He knew then—that the demon inside the prince was gone. Chaol wept. Dorian surged from the chair and dropped to his knees beside the bed. He grabbed Chaol’s hand, squeezing it as he pressed his brow against his. “You were dead,” the prince said, his voice breaking. “I thought you were dead.”

im sobbing

“I’m not leaving you. Not again.” Dorian’s mouth tightened. “You never left me, Chaol.” He shook his head once, sending tears slipping down his face. “You never left me.” Chaol squeezed his friend’s hand.

this friendship is going to make me cry every damn time.

“Having Blackbeak blood does not seem like such a horrible thing,” she said quietly. Those gold eyes narrowed. “No,” Manon said. “No, it does not.”

“To a new world,” the Queen of Terrasen said. The King of Adarlan lifted his glass, such endless shadows dancing in his eyes, but—there. A glimmer of life. “To freedom.”

Dorian said, “So here we are.” “The end of the road,” Aelin said with a half smile. “No,” Chaol said, his own smile faint, tentative. “The beginning of the next.”

the og trio im going to cry

We’ll face it together. To whatever end.

As if the world had stopped paying attention for the few moments they’d looked at each other.

Aedion touched her shoulder. “Welcome home, Aelin.” A land of towering mountains—the Staghorns—spread before them, with valleys and rivers and hills; a land of untamed, wild beauty. Terrasen.

And at long last, Aelin Ashryver Galathynius was home.