Empire of Storms (Throne of Glass, #5)

by Sarah J. Maas

those gold eyes. Twin to Manon’s. The eyes of the Valg kings.

A small, ancient voice whispered in her ear that she’d at last found her relentless hunter. And they’d now both become someone else’s prey.

“So you, Granddaughter, will not die for this. But one of your Thirteen will.”

Aelin left her again in falcon form, perched on a rotting beam in the cavernous archives, staring at the enormous rendering of a sea dragon carved into the floor,

I sense a connection coming..

Brannon chuckled again. “We would have had fun together, you and I.”

In the Stone Marshes, there lies a sunken city—the Lock is hidden there.

So Manon descended into the gloom of Morath to kill her cousin.

Then Manon Blackbeak whirled and brought Wind-Cleaver down upon her grandmother.

WHAT 2nd read love seeing my initial reactions^^^^

Manon didn’t finish the command before the Darkness swept in to claim her.

???

And there would be nothing waiting for them in this war, nothing waiting for an escaped slave girl, but a shallow grave.

This was war, though. And he had no intention of losing it.

Honestly, Dorian had no idea how Aelin had survived months of this—let alone fallen in love with the warrior while she did.

LMAO

Aelin Galathynius, her hands laced behind her head, grinned at them all and said, “I like this office far better than your other one, Rolfe.”

“You will find, Rolfe, that one does not deal with Celaena Sardothien. One survives her.”

A queen.

“So, Rolfe,” the queen drawled, tossing the tube from hand to hand, “let’s discuss this little business of you refusing to aid my cause.”

“The world,” Aelin said, “will be saved and remade by the dreamers, Rolfe.”

Lorcan had known, as he’d pinned Rowan into the grass outside Mistward, the prince thrashing and screaming for Aelin Galathynius, that everything was about to change. Knew that the commander he’d valued was altered irrevocably.

Love had broken a perfect killing tool.

“Would you like me to kill him for you?”

“I would have fought for the rest of my life to find a way to return to you again. I knew it the moment you emerged from the Valg’s darkness and smiled at me through your flames.”

They could burn the entire world to ashes with it. He was hers and she was his, and they had found each other across centuries of bloodshed and loss, across oceans and kingdoms and war.

“Do you think Sam would stand for this?” “Sam is dead,” she said, “because men like you and Arobynn have power. But Arobynn’s reign is now over.” She smiled at the darkening horizon. “Seems like yours might end rather soon as well.”

Aelin was insane, Dorian realized. Brilliant and wicked, but insane.

This war would not be won on smiles and manners.

the Lion and the Wolf.

Aelin was going to sail that ship right into the heart of the enemy fleet and blow them all out of the water.

They had not come ten years ago. She wanted them to know she had not forgotten it.

Aelin supposed that together they formed a walking armory.

Her heart strained for a moment as she flashed between now and a time when she’d seen Sam running up those same stairs—not to defend this town, but to wreck it.

And like a feral beast freed of its leash, her magic erupted.

But there was nothing. Only the gaping maw of some immortal, ancient beast. A beast that had opened an eye, a beast that spoke in the tongue of a thousand worlds.

As if it were the fiery heart of Mala herself. Aelin plunged into that power. Bathed in it.

“That’s not Aelin,” Fenrys breathed.

“Deanna,” Rowan whispered. She flicked her eyes to him in question and confirmation.

who had perhaps not protected her but hunted her the entirety of her life,

There was no force in any world that could keep her contained.

Later, she’d contemplate how she’d shred through every world to find Deanna and make her pay.

Only Aelin.

“One day. I am going to marry you. I’ll be generous and let you pick when, even if it’s ten years from now. Or twenty. But one day, you are going to be my wife.”

“I love you. There is no limit to what I can give to you, no time I need. Even when this world is a forgotten whisper of dust between the stars, I will love you.”

“Do your worst, Prince.”

Manon Blackbeak tumbled from her saddle, falling through wind and spindrift, and hit the water.

“But you didn’t tell me the truth, did you, Elide?”

Here’s hoping you discover more creative terms than “bitch” to call me when you find this. With all my love, A.A.G.

“You and me,” she promised him. “From now until the Darkness claims us.”

“Your beloved’s life and the witch’s are entwined. They have been led here, by forces even we cannot understand.”

A pulsing, dark wind demanding their attention. Not the Valg. No, this darkness was born of something else.

Perhaps it was time for Morath to learn to scream.

The Queen of Flame and Shadow, the Heir of Fire, Aelin of the Wildfire, Fireheart …

A court that wouldn’t just change the world. It would start the world over. A court that could conquer this world—and any other it wished.

Aelin was no savior to rally behind, but a cataclysm to be weathered.