Kingdom of Ash (Throne of Glass, #7)

by Sarah J. Maas

I took his name, Erawan spat, writhing as the words flowed from his tongue under Damaris’s power. I wiped it away from existence. Yet he only remembered it once. Only once. The first time he beheld you.

Yet over and over, Aelin blinked to Fenrys, to those half-vacant eyes. I am here, I am with you.

Aelin flung out a wall of flame that pushed Maeve back another step. “But him—oh, he has a score to settle with you.” Maeve’s eyes went wide, and she made to turn. But not fast enough. Not fast enough at all as Fenrys vanished from where he knelt, and reappeared—right behind Maeve. Goldryn burned bright as he plunged it through her back. Into the dark heart within.

She lifted it high to the night sky, to the stars, and let her cry of victory fill the world. Let the name she shouted ring out, the soldiers on the field, in the city, taking up the call until all of Orynth was singing with it. Until it reached the shining stars of the Lord of the North gleaming above them, no longer needed to guide her way home. Yrene. Yrene. Yrene.

Manon said quietly, “You will not find them. In this sky, or any other.”

Aelin gazed down the long aisle. As if weighing every step she would take to the dais. To her throne. The entire world seemed to pause with her, lingering on that threshold. Shining brighter than the snow outside, Aelin lifted her chin and began her final walk home.

The only thing she would ever kneel before. Her crown. Her throne. Her kingdom.

And when Aelin lifted her head to survey the cheering crowd, when she smiled, Queen of Terrasen and the Faerie Queen of the West, she burned bright as a star.

“Together,” Dorian breathed, shaking. “We’ll rebuild this world together.”

Rowan twined his fingers in hers and whispered, awe in every word, “For you, Fireheart. All of it is for you.” Aelin wept then. Wept in joy that lit her heart, brighter than any magic could ever be. For across every mountain, spread beneath the green canopy of Oakwald, carpeting the entire Plain of Theralis, the kingsflame was blooming.