Empire of Storms (Throne of Glass, #5)

by Sarah J. Maas

“I thought the danger would be drowning,” Elena whispered. “I didn’t realize being out in the cold for so long …” Her lips had gone blue. Aelin watched her own small chest rise, fall, rise … Then stop moving all together. “You died,” Elena whispered. “Right there, you died. You had fought so hard, and I failed you. And in that moment, I didn’t care that I’d again failed the gods, or my promise to make it right, or any of it. All I could think …” Tears ran down Elena’s face. “All I could think was how unfair it was. You had not even lived, you had not even been given a chance … And all those people, who had wished and waited for a better world … You would not be there to give it to them.” Oh gods. “Elena,” Aelin breathed. The Queen of Adarlan sobbed into her hands, even as her former self shook Aelin, over and over. Trying to wake her, trying to revive the small body that had given out. Elena’s voice broke. “I could not allow it. I could not endure it. Not for the gods’ sake, but—but for your own.” Light flared at Elena’s hand, then down her arm, then along her whole body. Fire. She wrapped herself around Aelin, the heat melting the snow around them, drying her ice-crusted hair. Lips that were blue turned pink. And a chest that had stopped breathing now lifted. Darkness faded to the gray light of dawn. “And then I defied them.”