Empire of Storms (Throne of Glass, #5)

by Sarah J. Maas

“Would you like me to kill him for you?” Her limpid, dark eyes rose to his face. And for a moment, he could see the woman she’d become—was already becoming. Someone who, regardless of where she’d been born, any queen would prize at her side. “Would there be a cost?” Lorcan hid his smile. Smart, cunning little witch. “No,” he said, and meant it. “Why did he lock you in the dungeon?” Marion’s white throat bobbed once. Twice. She seemed to hold his stare through effort of will, through a refusal not to back down from him, but from her own fears. “Because he wished to see if his bloodline could be crossed with the Valg. That was why I was brought to Morath. To be bred like a prize mare.” Every thought emptied out of Lorcan’s head. He had seen and dealt and endured many, many unspeakable things, but this … “Did he succeed?” he managed to ask. “Not with me. There were others before me who … Help came too late for them.” “That explosion was not accidental, was it.” A small shake of the head. “You did it?” He glanced to the bedroll—to whatever she hid beneath. Again that shake of the head. “I will not say who, or how. Not without risking the lives of the people who saved me.”