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Once upon a time, in a land long since burned to ash, there lived a young princess who loved her kingdom …
“I obey no man,”
a glimmer of sound, of light. Fireheart. The woman’s voice was soft, loving. Her mother’s voice. Aelin turned her face away. Even that movement was more than she could bear. Fireheart, why do you cry? Aelin could not answer. Fireheart. The words were a gentle brush down her cheek. Fireheart, why do you cry? And from far away, deep within her, Aelin whispered toward that ray of memory, Because I am lost. And I do not know the
You have been very brave, her mother said. You have been very brave, for so very long. Aelin couldn’t stop the silent sob that worked its way up her throat. But you must be brave a little while longer, my Fireheart. She leaned into her mother’s touch. You must be brave a little while longer, and remember … Her mother placed a phantom hand over Aelin’s heart. It is the strength of this that matters. No matter where you are, no matter how far, this will lead you home.
It is the strength of this that matters, Aelin.
You do not yield.
You do not yield. Again. You do not yield. Again. Again. Until she was alive with it, until her blood was raining onto her face, washing away the tears, until every pound of her fist into the iron was a battle cry. You do not yield. You do not yield. You do not yield.
You do not yield.
“I went to the Torre,” Yrene said, her voice cracking. “I took the money you gave me, and went to the Torre. And I became the heir apparent to the Healer on High. And now I have come back, to do what I can. I taught every healer I could the lessons you showed me that night, about self-defense. I didn’t waste it—not a coin you gave me, or a moment of the time, the life you bought me.” Tears were rolling and rolling down Yrene’s face. “I didn’t waste any of it.”
Yrene folded the queen’s fingers around the paper. “It is yours, as it always was. A piece of your bravery that helped me find my own.”
“Where is Lorcan?”
Lorcan slid his other arm around Elide, bringing his mouth close to her ear as he said, “You have to let me go.” Each word was gravelly, his voice strained nearly to the point of uselessness. Elide didn’t shift her focus from the keep ahead. “No.”
“I love you,” he whispered in Elide’s ear. “I have loved you from the moment you picked up that axe to slay the ilken.” Her tears flowed past him in the wind. “And I will be with you …” His voice broke, but he made himself say the words, the truth in his heart. “I will be with you always.”
“Of course I’m afraid. Anyone in their right mind would be. But my task is more important than fear, I think.”
So Lorcan said softly, “I meant every word.” His heart thundered, so wildly it was a wonder she couldn’t hear it. “And I will until the day I fade into the Afterworld.”
have loved you,” she went on, “from the moment you came to fight for me against Vernon and the ilken.” The light in her eyes stole his breath. “And when I heard you were somewhere on that battlefield, the only thing I wanted was to be able to tell you that. It was the only thing that mattered.”
Once, he might have scoffed. Declared that far bigger things mattered, in this war especially. And yet the hand grasping his … He’d never known anything more precious.
Lorcan opened his eyes, finding her gaze. “I love you.”
She pulled back. “Rest, Lorcan. I’ll be here again when you wake.” Anything she asked, he’d give her. Anything at all.
Far and wide, through snow and storm and peril, the Crochans flew.
You do not yield.
Chaol only stared at him. Blinked once, as if it would quell the roaring in his head, his heart. His mother had never forgotten him. Never stopped writing to him. Chaol smiled slightly.
Tell Erawan, Dorian said, halting on the windowsill, that I did it for Adarlan.
World-walker no longer, he said as his raw magic shifted her own. Changed its very essence. I suggest you invest in a good pair of shoes.
And when he looked behind him, at the mountain and valley that reeked of death, at the place where so many terrible things had begun, Dorian smiled and brought Morath’s towers crashing down.
Vernon’s face went the color of spoiled milk. “You mean to leave me in their hands, utterly defenseless?” “I was defenseless when you let my leg remain unhealed,” she said, a steady sort of calm settling over her. “I was a child then, and I survived. You’re a grown man.” She let her lips curl in another smile. “We’ll see if you do, too.” She didn’t try to hide her limp as she strode out. As she caught Lorcan’s eye and beheld the pride gleaming there.
“Let’s make this a fight worthy of a song,” Aedion said.
Elide was stunned enough that she indeed let him take the tin from her grip, and watched in silence as Lorcan dipped his fingers into the ointment. Then began rubbing it into her ankle.
These hands had slaughtered their way across kingdoms. Bore the faint scars to prove it. And yet he held her foot as if it were a small bird, as if it were something … holy.
“Have you ever done it? Rebuilt a city?” “No,” he admitted, his thumbs coaxing the pain from her aching bones. “I have only destroyed them.” His eyes lifted to hers, searching and open. “But I should like to try. With you.”
So Lorcan did.
!!!!!!!!!!
She’d gotten out. She’d survived.
Once upon a time, in a land long since burned to ash, there lived a young princess who loved her kingdom …
