Kingdom of Ash (Throne of Glass, #7)

by Sarah J. Maas

A rolling field of steep bumps and hollows lay between them. Lorcan swore. She wouldn’t make it, not over that terrain, not drained like that— But she did. Aelin vanished into the first dip, and Lorcan’s magic flared over and over. To her, to Whitethorn. And then she was up, cresting the hill, and he could see the slowness taking over, the sheer exhaustion from a body at its limit. Arrows twanged from bows, and a wall of them shot into the sky. Aiming for her on those exposed hills. Lorcan sent a wave of his power snapping them away. Still more fired. Single shots this time, from so many directions he couldn’t trace their sources. Trained archers, some of Maeve’s best. Aelin had to— She already was. Aelin began zagging, depriving them of an easy target. Left to right, she darted over the hills, slower with each bump she cleared, each step toward Lorcan as he raced to her, a hundred yards remaining between them. An arrow speared for her back, but Aelin lunged to the side, skidding in grass and dirt. She was up again in a heartbeat, weapons still in hand, charging for the hills and hollows between them. Another arrow aimed for her, and Lorcan made to snap it away. A wall of glittering gold got there first. From the north, leaping over the hollows, charged Gavriel. Aelin disappeared into a dip in the earth, and when she emerged, the Lion ran at her side, a golden shield around her. Not close to her—but in the air around them. Unable to fully touch her with the iron mask, the ...