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His mate.
And sometimes, he spoke along the bond between them, sending his soul on the wind to wherever she was held captive, entombed. I will find you.
Only nudges during the long days, as if they were reminders of her presence.
The world was bathed in fire. Fire, not darkness.
How she’d screamed until her voice had failed. It might have been a dream.
Four blinks. I am here, I am with you.
She’d never let them break her.
“Only you can decide if you deserve it, Manon.”
Dorian had no idea what sort of man that made him. Most days, if he was being honest, he felt little. Had felt little for months, save for those stolen, wild moments with Manon.
He didn’t know why he bothered. He hadn’t forgotten her words that day
Even the severed blood oath, still gaping wide within his soul, didn’t come close to the hole in his chest when he looked at her.
It had been a betrayal so great he didn’t know how to fix it.
“I crawled …” His throat bobbed. “I crawled after Aelin.”
“I promise.”
His word was his bond, the only currency he cared to trade in. He’d told her that once, during those weeks on the road. Nothing flickered in her eyes to tell him she remembered.
Prince Rowan Whitethorn Galathynius, consort, husband, and mate of the Queen of Terrasen, knew he was dreaming. He knew it, because he could see her.
But he could hear whispers snaking through it, down far below.
Children. His children. Their children. With another mere weeks from being born. His family. The family he might have, the future he might have. The most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. Aelin.
A dream. That same dream.
Mate. His mate.
It had been his honor. From the very beginning, it had been his honor, the greatest of his immortal life.
Yrene blushed, and elbowed him in the ribs.
Even with time pressing upon them, hurrying them northward, he’d loved learning all her sounds—loved coaxing them from her.
Her clear eyes scanned his. “I love you,” she said softly.
She snorted, but made no move to pull away. Neither did he.
He’d laughed her off. Had said she might walk around the palace naked if she wished. What she wore or didn’t wear wouldn’t bother him in the least. But it was still a ridiculous notion. One the prince seemed to think was the only course for their future. He’d staked his crown on it, had told his father that if being prince meant not being with her, then he’d walk away from the throne.
“Wait.”
“If you want someone to warm your bed who cowers at your every word and obeys every command, look elsewhere.”
She ignored him. Ignored that voice whispering to run, run, run.
Aelin hadn’t realized she’d been holding on to it. That sliver of hope, foolish and pathetic. That sliver of hope that he’d come for her.
Alone. She was alone in this.
Why it made her so unspeakably sad.
From far away, the words echoed, and memory shimmered. She let it pull her back, pull her out of her body.
Only the two of them—as he’d promised. The hour once a week that he set aside for her.
“To defend, Aelin. To protect.”
Silently, he slid his hand into hers. She mouthed the words, even though he likely couldn’t make them out with the slit of the mask’s mouth. I’m sorry.
She began to cry. She couldn’t help it. Couldn’t stop it once it started. Hated every tear and shuddering breath, every jerk of her body that sent lightning through her legs and feet.
He wasn’t coming. He wasn’t coming to get her.
He’d know that voice if he were blind.
My pride is not so easily bruised.” Aedion took a step forward. “And mine is?” “What I did, I did for her,
“Go ahead and punish me for the rest of your life. For a thousand years, if you wind up Settling.”
“We have enough enemies as it is,” Lysandra went on. “But if you truly wish to make me one of them as well, that’s fine. I don’t regret what I did, nor will I ever.”
“It was real, Aedion,” she said. “All of it. I don’t care if you believe me or not. But it was real for me.”
She was a stupid fool. A stupid fool, to have said anything, and to now feel something in her chest crumpling.
At his side, Yrene wrapped her fingers around Chaol’s and squeezed.
Chaol tightened his hand around hers in silent thanks.
Hope stirred in Chaol’s chest.
“I’m coming with you,” his wife said. He squeezed her hand again, as if to say, I’m not at all surprised to hear that. Yrene squeezed right back.
Everything. She had given everything for this, and had been glad to do it.
Because I am lost. And I do not know the way.
