Kingdom of Ash (Throne of Glass, #7)

by Sarah J. Maas

And she made herself say to him, to her prince who smelled of home, “Is he alive?” Cold rage flickered across Rowan’s eyes. “No.” Dead. Cairn was dead.

PRAISE JESUS! 🙌🏻

“You once told me at Mistward that if I ever took a whip to you, then you’d skin me alive.” His eyes didn’t stray from hers as he said with lethal quiet, “I took it upon myself to bestow that fate on Cairn on your behalf. And when I was done, I took the liberty of removing his head from his body, then burning what remained.” A pause, a ripple of doubt. “I’m sorry I didn’t give you the chance to do it yourself.”

Wow… that is… wow… 😳

A shudder went through Rowan, and his head dipped slightly. “Are you …” He seemed to grapple with the right word. “Can I hold you?”

MY HEART

That lake water had never seen sunlight, had flowed from the dark, cold heart of the mountains themselves. It would kill even the most hardened of Fae warriors within minutes. Yet there was Aelin, swimming as if it were a sun-warmed forest pool.

lol she’s Aelin: of course the cold never bothered her anyway 😂

Then she asked softly, “How long?” It took the entirety of his three centuries of training to keep the devastation, the agony for her, from his face. “Two months, three days, and seven hours.” Her mouth tightened, either at the length of time, or the fact that he’d counted every single one of those hours apart.

HE TRACKED EVERY HOUR 😭

Fenrys and Elide both sat as seemingly far from Lorcan as they could get, Gavriel a golden, long-suffering buffer between them.

Aww Daddy Gavriel has to keep the kids in line

“You want to know why?” Gavriel softly asked Lorcan as Aelin strode for the rock. Nothing but solemn reverence on her face. “Because she is not only Brannon’s Heir, but Mab’s, too.”

She’s the queen of two kingdoms then!

She knew that had been true—that it had been her mother’s voice who had spoken and none other. So she would not yield to this. What had been done. What remained. For the companions around her, to lift their despair, their fear, she wouldn’t yield. She’d fight for it, claw her way back to it, who she’d been before. Remember to swagger and grin and wink. She’d fight against that lingering stain on her soul, fight to ignore it. Would use this journey into the dark to piece herself back together—just enough to make it convincing. Even if this fractured darkness now dwelled within her, even if speech was difficult, she would show them what they wished to see. An unbroken Fire-Bringer. Aelin of the Wildfire. She would show the world that lie as well. Make them believe it. Maybe she’d one day believe it, too.

She’s gonna fake it til she makes it… I respect it!

“Stop the boat,” Aelin said. Silence at the order, even from Rowan. Aelin pointed to the lip of shore by the cave mouth. “Stop the boat,” she repeated.

Why are we stopping the boat Aelin???

On that beach, my only thought was to get Maeve to forget about you, to let you go—” “I don’t care about me! I didn’t care about me on that beach!” “Well, I do.” His growled words echoed across the water and stone, and he lowered his voice. Worse things than wights might come sniffing down here. “I cared about you on that beach. And your queen did, too.”

Wow Lorcan’s finally revealing some feelings!

Why Aelin had needed to stop, what she’d needed to see, he could only guess as the passage opened into a small cavern, and gold gleamed.

Yeah same Rowan 😂

“I’m not looking for a way out,” she said in that calm, unmoved voice. She stooped, swiping up a fistful of gold coins stamped with a forgotten king’s face. “We’re going to need to fund our travels. And the gods know what else.”

Always thinking one step ahead 🤓

A flash ruptured from where Fenrys had been sniffing at a trunk of jewels, and then a male was standing there. His gray clothes worn, but intact—in better shape than the hollowed-out look in his eyes.

Fenrys transformed! 🥹

She blinked at Fenrys—three times. Fenrys blinked once in answer. A code. They’d made up some silent code to communicate when he’d been ordered to remain in his wolf form. Aelin’s smile remained, just barely, as she walked to the golden-haired male, his bronze skin ashen. She opened her arms in silent offer. To let him decide if he wished for contact. If he could endure it. Just as Rowan would let her decide if she wished to touch him. A small sigh broke from Fenrys before he folded Aelin into his arms, a shudder rippling through him. Rowan couldn’t see her face, perhaps didn’t need to, as her hands gripped Fenrys’s jacket, so tightly they were white-knuckled.

MY HEART 😭

They pulled away, and Fenrys cupped her cheek. “When you are ready, we can talk.” About what they’d endured. To unravel all that had happened. Aelin nodded, blowing out a breath. “Likewise.”

I want this healing for them so badly!!

Fenrys’s dark eyes flickered. “She killed Connall. Made him stab himself in the heart.” A pearl-and-ruby necklace scattered from Gavriel’s fingers. The temperature in the tomb spiked, but there was no flash of flame, no swirl of embers. As if Aelin’s magic had surged, only to be leashed again. Yet Aelin continued shoving gold and jewels into her pockets. She’d witnessed it, too. That slaughter. But it was Gavriel, approaching on silent feet even with the jewels and gold on the floor, who clasped Fenrys’s other shoulder. “We will make sure that debt is paid before the end.” The Lion had never uttered such words—not toward their former queen. But fury burned in Gavriel’s tawny gaze. Sorrow and fury.

Oh shit Fenrys told them!! I wonder if they’ll just slowly reveal more and more about what happened to them or if it’ll all just come out at once? But I’m so glad Gavriel and Rowan have Fenrys’s back 💗

Two golden rings lay there. “I don’t know the Fae customs,” she said. The thicker ring held an elegantly cut ruby within the band itself, while the smaller one bore a sparkling rectangular emerald mounted atop, the stone as large as her fingernail. “But when humans wed, rings are exchanged.”

SHE PICKED OUT WEDDING RINGS FOR THEM 😭

Silently, Rowan grasped her own hand and eased on the emerald ring. “To whatever end,” he whispered. Silver lined her eyes. “To whatever end.” A reminder—and a vow, more sacred than the wedding oaths they’d sworn on that ship.

palm. “I’ll need to retrain.” Not a single callus marked her hands. Aelin frowned at her too-thin body. “And pack on some muscle again.” A slight quiver graced her words, but she curled her hands into fists at her sides and smirked at her clothes—the Mistward clothes. “It’ll be just like old times.” Trying. She was dredging up that swagger and trying. So he would, too. Until she didn’t need to any more. Rowan gave her a crooked grin. “Just like old times,” he said, following her out of the barrow and back toward the ebony river, “but with far less sleep.” He could have sworn the passageway heated. But Aelin kept going. Later. That conversation, this unfinished business between them, would come later.

I think these kids are gonna be okay 🥹

Fenrys stilled where he crouched before his bag, the gold in his hands shimmering like his hair. There was nothing remotely warm in his dark eyes. “We’re only in this position because of you.” Elide tensed as Lorcan stiffened. Gavriel halted his packing, a hand drifting to the dagger at his side. But the dark-haired warrior inclined his head. “So I have been reminded,” he said, but didn’t glance to Elide. Fenrys bared his teeth. “When we’re out of this,” he hissed, “you and I will settle things.” Lorcan’s smile was a brutal slash of white. “It shall be my pleasure.”

Uh oh… Fenrys is still mad at Lorcan 😬

Gavriel let out a sigh, his tawny eyes meeting Elide’s. Nothing could be said or done to convince them otherwise.

lol Daddy Gavriel just letting the kids fight bc he know they won’t listen to him anyway 😂

Rattle the stars. She’d promised to do that. Had done so much toward it, yet more remained. They had to hurry. How many suffered at Morath’s claws? Beauty remained—and she would fight for it. Needed to fight. It was a constant thrum in her blood, her bones. Right alongside the power that she shoved down deep and dismissed with each breath. Fight—one last time.

The emerald on her marriage band glistened with its own fire. Selfish of her, to enforce that bond when her very blood destined her for a sacrificial altar, and yet she had gotten out of the boat to find them. The rings. Raiding the trove had been an afterthought. But if she was to have no scars on her, no reminder of where she’d been and who she was and what she’d promised, then she’d needed this one scrap of proof.

OMG she went to search for those rings intentionally! The first thought in her head wasn’t about the war; it was about reminding herself that Rowan and her belong to each other 🥹

“Your mother left,” the man said at last. Chaol didn’t hide his shock. His father gripped the stone parapet. “She took Terrin and left. I don’t know where they fled. As soon as we realized we’d been surrounded by enemies, she took her ladies-in-waiting, their families. Departed in the dead of night. Only your brother bothered to leave a note.”

Oh shit… that’s something I didn’t expect…

His father looked at him at last, his face grave. “Your wife is pregnant.” The shock roiled through Chaol like a physical blow. Yrene—Yrene— “A skilled healer she might be, but a deft liar, she is not. Or have you not noticed her hand frequently resting on her stomach, or how green she turns at mealtime?” Such mild, casual words. As if his father weren’t ripping the ground out from beneath him.

I KNEW IT!!! I EFFING KNEW IT!!!

“I did not think the Ironteeth bothered to care for human lives.” She didn’t know the half of it. Manon only said, “My grandmother informed me that I am no longer an Ironteeth witch, so it seems who they do or do not care for no longer bears any weight with me.”

Yes forget about your grandmother and her teachings she was a bitch anyway

“I’m not going to Morath.” Manon slid her frozen hand into her pocket. “I’m going to the Ferian Gap. To whatever of the host remains there under Petrah Blueblood’s command. To ask them to join us.”

Ohhh she was always nice (well as nice as an Ironteeth Witch can be…)

“I care,” she hissed. “I care if we lose this war. I care if I fail to rally the Crochans. I care if you go into Morath and do not return, not as something worth living.” He only blinked. Manon spat on the mossy ground. “Now do you wish to tell me that caring is not such a bad thing? Well, this is what comes of it.” “This is why I didn’t say anything,” he breathed.

I love his Manon implies that she cares about Adrian while still kinda tiptoeing around it lol

From the truth that Aelin might have glimpsed that day in Maeve’s throne room, the dark blood that had turned to red. She hadn’t told the others. Didn’t know if that moment had been real, or a trick of the light. If it had been another dreamscape, or some fragment that had blended into the very real memory of Connall’s death. She’d deal with it later, Aelin decided

So she remembers that!!

In the dim lantern light, they stared at each other. She’d endured Maeve and Cairn; she’d endured Endovier and countless other horrors and losses. She could have this conversation with him. The first step toward rebuilding herself.

Yeah I think u can handle taking to Rowan about your relationship, Aelin!

“The male I fell in love with was you. It was you, who knew pain as I did, and who walked with me through it, back to the light. Maeve didn’t understand that. That even if she could create that perfect world, it wouldn’t be you with me. And I’d never trade that, trade this. Not for anything.”

“Even if I had my choice of any dream-realities, any perfect illusions, I would still choose you, too.”

She frowned. “Why aren’t you kissing me?” “I thought you might want to be asked first.” “That never stopped you before.” “This first time, I wanted to make sure you were … ready.” After Cairn and Maeve. After months of having no choices whatsoever. She smiled despite that truth. “I’m ready to be kissed again, Prince.” He let out a dark chuckle and muttered, “Thank the gods,” before he lowered his mouth to hers.

Our favorite couple is back baby!! 🥹

Mate. He was her mate, and she was finally allowed to call him such, to let him be such— The thought snapped something. Aelin nipped at his bottom lip, scraping a canine against it. The gesture snapped something in him, too.

Is it steamy time?!?!? 🔥🔥🔥😍😍😍

And just when it broke, Aelin sank her teeth into Rowan’s neck, claiming him as he’d claimed her.

They finally claimed each other 😭

Aelin went on. “So I’ll make you an offer, Lorcan Salvaterre.” She tapped her bare forearm. “Swear the blood oath to me, and I’ll let you roam wherever you wish.”

I mean… he has to say yes!

Where you choose to live within Terrasen’s borders will not be my decision.” Not her decision, or his. But that of the dark-haired female gawking at them.

She’s gonna let Elide decide if she wants him back or not #girlpower

“I don’t have another choice,” Aelin said quietly, so the others might not hear. “I can’t risk Terrasen.” She still held her arm toward him. “But I would not take something as precious away from you.” “What you don’t realize is that is no longer a possibility.” Again, that hint of a smile and glance over her shoulder toward Elide. “It is.” Her turquoise eyes were bright as she looked back at him, and there was wisdom on Aelin’s face that he had perhaps never noticed before. A queen’s face. “Believe me, Lorcan, it is.”

Aelin telling Lorcan that Elise and him have a shot is EVERYTHING

Fenrys just turned to the queen. “If I tell you he’s a prick and a miserable bastard to be around, will it change your mind?” Lorcan snarled, but Aelin snorted. “Isn’t that why we love Lorcan, though?” She gave him a smile that told Lorcan she remembered every detail of their initial encounters in Rifthold—when he’d shoved her face-first into a brick wall. Aelin said to Fenrys, “We’ll only invite him to Orynth on holidays.” “So he can ruin the festivities?” Fenrys scowled. “I, for one, cherish my holidays. I don’t need a misanthrope raining on them.”

THIS BANTER IS EVERYTHING 😂

Dorian left Narene with a soothing pat to her neck, and went to see what the Ferian Gap might reveal.

Wow he actually made it in!

“You are my people. Whether my grandmother decrees it so or not, you are my people, and always will be. But I will fly against you, if need be, to ensure that there is a future for those who cannot fight for it themselves. Too long have we preyed on the weak, relished doing so. It is time that we became better than our foremothers.” The words she had given the Thirteen months ago. “There is a better world out there,” she said again. “And I will fight for it.” She turned Abraxos away, toward the plunge behind them. “Will you?”

Well said Manon! Spoken like a true queen 👏🏻

He just turned to her and blinked three times. Are you all right? A gull’s cry pierced the gray world, and Aelin blinked back twice. No. It was as much as she’d admit. She blinked again, thrice now. Are you all right? Two blinks from him, too. No, they were not all right. They might never be. If the others knew, if they saw past the swagger and temper, they didn’t let on. None of them commented that Fenrys hadn’t once used his magic to leap between places. Not that there was anywhere to go in the middle of the sea. But even when they sparred, he didn’t wield it. Perhaps it had died with Connall. Perhaps it had been a gift they had both shared, and touching it was unbearable.

They’re both broken and avoiding using their powers 🥺

Rowan dove from the skies, a full-out plunge. He shifted a few feet from the ground, landing with a predator’s grace as he ran the last steps toward them. Goldryn sang as she unsheathed it. “What?” Her mate just pointed to the skies. To what flew there.

What!? What’s flying their way??

Rock roared against rock, and Yrene braced a hand on the shuddering stones of Westfall Keep as the tower swayed.

Oh shit I forgot about Anielle being attacked 😬😂

Yrene swallowed. “I haven’t told Chaol.” “I’d think if there were ever a time to do so,” the healer said, gesturing to the shuddering keep around them, “it would be now.”

Ummm yeah I think it’s probably a good idea to tell your husband that you’re pregnant before he tries to do something heroic in a war and get himself killed!!

His wife was in the keep behind him. Pregnant with their child. He would not fail her.

Yes Chaol! U fight for your family! 👊🏼

She didn’t see if the shot landed. Not as a horn cut through the din. A cry rose from the rukhin, all glancing eastward. Toward the sea. To where the Darghan cavalry and foot soldiers charged for the unprotected eastern flank of Morath’s army, Hasar atop her Muniqi horse, leading the khagan’s host herself.

Does that mean the rest of the army has arrived??!!

But when they reached Princess Hasar’s battle tent, when they had all gathered around a map of Anielle, they had only a few minutes of discussion before they were interrupted. By the person Chaol least expected to walk through the flaps.

Who is it?! WHAT IS WITH THESE MYSTERY PEOPLE SHOWING UP AT THE END OF THESE CHAPTERS SJM?!?

No one was coming to save them. There had been no word from Rolfe, Galan’s forces were depleted, his ships spread thin on the coast, and no whisper of the remainder of Ansel of Briarcliff’s soldiers. Aedion kept that knowledge from his face as he rode his stallion down the front lines, inspecting the soldiers.

I really want Aelin to show up and just BAM! blast all the soldiers from Morath in one go and help Aedion’s forces (and hers) reconvene and figure out a plan

Rhoe’s shield. Aedion had never told Aelin. Had wanted to wait until they returned to Orynth to reveal that the shield he’d carried, had never lost, had belonged to her father. And so many others before that. It had no name. Even Rhoe had not known its age. And when Aedion had spirited it away from Rhoe’s room, the only thing he grabbed when the news came that his family had been butchered, he had let the others forget about it, too. Even Darrow had not recognized it. Worn and simple, the shield had gone unnoticed at Aedion’s side, a reminder of what he’d lost. What he’d defend to his final breath.

I feel like it’s kind of fitting that Aedion’s prized possession isn’t a sword or a weapon, but a shield. It fits his character so well since all he has ever wanted is to protect Aelin and protect Terrasen. And what better way to do it than with her father’s shield.