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Chaos reigned. Aedion roared from somewhere, from the heart of hell, “Re-form the lines!” The order went ignored. The Bane tried and failed to hold the line. Ansel of Briarcliff bellowed to her fleeing men to get back to the front, Galan Ashryver echoing her commands to his own soldiers. Ren shouted to his archers to remain, but they too abandoned their posts.
Why is everyone running!! You’re soldiers! Fight!!
Dread settled into his heart, fear deeper than any he’d known. The queen is at the front line—at the right flank. Lysandra. Lysandra had taken on Aelin’s skin.
I KNEW IT! If Lysandra sacrifices herself to make the soldiers stay, then I’m gonna cry
Just as the golden-haired queen in borrowed armor faced two ilken, a sword and shield in her hands. No. The word was a punch through his body, greater than any blow he’d felt.
Oh *NOW* you decide to care about Lysandra, huh Aedion?!? 😤
He took it back. He took back everything he had said to her, every moment of anger in his heart. Aedion shoved through his own men, unable to breathe, to think. He took it back; he hadn’t meant a word of it, not really.
Yeah we know you’re a dumb fuck
Lysandra held her sword steady, kept it pointed at the ilken in defiance and rage. Ready for the death soon to come. She had been willing to give it up from the start. Had agreed to Aelin’s plans, knowing it might come to this. One shift, one change into a wyvern’s form, and she’d destroy the ilken. But she remained in Aelin’s body. Held that sword, her only weapon, upraised. Terrasen was her home. And Aelin her queen. She’d die to keep this army together. To keep the lines from breaking. To rally their soldiers one last time.
Yeah no duh Aedion! All this time u were thinking she lied to you for a foolish plan but she did it for what is her new home and her queen who is also her friend!
Aedion halted. Beheld what broke over the horizon. Ironteeth witches. Several dozen mounted on wyverns. But not airborne. The wyverns walked on land. Heaving a mammoth, mobile stone tower behind them. No ordinary siege tower. A witch tower.
Ummmm I hope those are Manon’s friends… 😬
A black light began glowing around the figure—the witch. She lifted her hands above her head, the power rallying. The Yielding.
I KNEW A YIELDING WOULD HAPPEN AT SOME POINT!
A moment later, Chaol was glad he was sitting down. Nesryn breathed, “Holy gods.” Chaol was inclined to agree as Aelin Galathynius, Rowan Whitethorn, and several others entered the tent.
OH MY GOD THEY FOUND CHAOL!!!! 😱
No one spoke as tears began sliding down her face. Not at his being here, Chaol realized as he took up his cane and limped toward Aelin. But at him. Standing. Walking. The young queen let out a broken laugh of joy and flung her arms around his neck. Pain lanced down his spine at the impact, but Chaol held her right back, every question fading from his tongue. Aelin was shaking as she pulled away. “I knew you would,” she breathed, gazing down his body, to his feet, then up again. “I knew you’d do it.”
SHE’S SO HAPPY FOR HIM 😭
“Not alone,” he said thickly. Chaol swallowed, releasing Aelin to extend an arm behind him. To the woman he knew stood there, a hand over the locket at her neck.
OMG THIS IS THE REUNION I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR!!! 🤩
“Thank you,” Yrene whispered. Chaol supposed it was all that really needed to be said. Aelin unfolded the paper, reading the note she’d written, seeing the lines from the hundreds of foldings and rereadings these past few years. “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
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“Now it is my turn to thank you.” But Aelin’s gaze fell upon the wedding band on Yrene’s finger, and when she glanced to Chaol, he grinned. “No longer Yrene Towers,” Chaol said softly, “but Yrene Westfall.” Aelin let out one of those choked, joyous laughs, and Rowan stepped up to her side. Yrene’s head tilted back to take in the warrior’s full height, her eyes widening—not only at Rowan’s size, but at the pointed ears, the slightly elongated canines and tattoo. Aelin said, “Then let me introduce you, Lady Westfall, to my own husband, Prince Rowan Whitethorn Galathynius.”
I LOVE THIS SO MUCH I CANT EVEN STAND IT
“My uncle, of sorts,” Aelin added with a smirk at Gavriel. At Chaol’s narrowed brows, she explained, “He’s Aedion’s father.” “Well, that explains a few things,” Nesryn muttered.
Should I stop calling him Daddy Gabriel and switch it to Uncle?? Nah Daddy is a better fit I think 🤣
“Fenrys … You know, I don’t actually know your family name.” Fenrys threw a roguish wink at the queen. “Moonbeam.” “It is not,” Aelin hissed, choking on a laugh. Fenrys laid a hand on his heart. “I am blood-sworn to you. Would I lie?”
HAHHA I LOVE THAT! That’s as bad as Peeta from Panem 😂
Aelin wiped her hands. “Well, that’s over and done with,” she announced, and strode to the desk and map. “Shall we discuss where you all plan to march once we beat the living shit out of this army?”
Alexa? Play “Make a Man Out of You” from Mulan…. 🎶 LET’S GET DOWN TO BUSINESSS…🎶
Rowan had been speaking to the captain of their ship when the ruk had flown past.
Ohhh so *that’s* what was flying towards them…
But the young man had turned toward Aelin, eyes narrowing. As if trying to place her. Then he said, “The assassin from the market in Xandria.” Aelin arched a brow. “Hopefully, the horse I stole didn’t belong to you.”
How everything is coming together 😧
Borte blurted to Nesryn, “One minute, we were eating dinner at the campfire, then the next, Falkan clutched his stomach like he was going to puke up his guts all over everyone”—a glare from Falkan at Borte—“and then his face was young. He’s young.” “I was always young,” Falkan muttered. “I just didn’t look it.” His gray eyes again found Aelin’s. “I gave you a piece of Spidersilk.” For a heartbeat, the then and the now blended and wobbled. “The merchant,” Aelin murmured. She’d last seen him in the Red Desert—looking twenty years older. “You sold your youth to a stygian spider.”
Now that the spider is dead, he got his youth back!?!
Before Falkan could figure it out, Fenrys stepped forward. “Shifter?” But Nesryn said, “And Lysandra’s uncle.” Aelin slumped into the chair beside Chaol’s. Rowan laid a hand on her shoulder, and when she looked up, she found him near laughter. “What’s so funny, exactly?” she hissed. Rowan smirked. “That for once, you are the one who gets knocked on your ass by a surprise.”
Hahaha good one Rowan! 🤣
Aelin whispered conspiratorially to the girl, “Make them roll over before you offer them a treat.” Lorcan glared, but Fenrys shifted in a flash, the enormous white wolf filling the space.
I love how Fenrys is getting his sense of humor back 🥹
“They do not answer to Erawan,” Nesryn said quietly, and Aelin knew. Knew from the look Chaol gave her, the sympathy and fear, knew in her bones before Nesryn even finished. “The stygian spiders, the kharankui, answer to their Valg queen. The only Valg queen. To Maeve.”
And more pieces start to connect together for everyone
Chaol met Aelin’s stare, his gaze questioning. Aelin said quietly, “I was Maeve’s prisoner for two months.” Utter silence in the tent. Then she explained—all of it. Why she was not in Terrasen, who now fought there, where Dorian and Manon had gone.
I wonder if anyone else will find out that she was actually gone?
“I don’t know what to do,” she whispered. “You fight,” he said simply. “We fight. Until we can’t anymore. We fight.”
Gavriel settled a hand on Rowan’s shoulder. “It changes nothing, in some ways.” “How.” “We served her. She was … not what Aelin is. What a queen should be. We knew that long before we knew the truth. If Maeve wants to use what she is against us, to ally with Morath, then it changes things. But the past is over. Done with, Rowan. Knowing Maeve is Valg or just a wretched person doesn’t change what happened.” “Knowing a Valg queen wants to enslave my mate, and nearly did so, changes a great deal.” “But we know what Maeve fears, why she fears it,” Gavriel countered, his tawny eyes bright. “Fire,
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Daddy Gavriel coming at us with some wisdom
Gavriel asked after a moment, “Why didn’t Aelin offer me the blood oath?” The male hadn’t asked these weeks. And Rowan wasn’t sure why Gavriel inquired now, but he gave him the truth. “Because she won’t do it until Aedion has taken the oath first. To offer it to you before him … she wants Aedion to take it first.” “In case he doesn’t wish me to be near his kingdom.” “So that Aedion knows she placed his needs before her own.” Gavriel bowed his head. “I would say yes, if she offered.”
Of course Aelin wants Aedion to feel wanted and appreciated. And of course Gavriel would say yes 🥹
He’d thought his darkness, Hellas’s gifts, had been drawn to her, that they’d been matched. Perhaps the dark god had wanted him not to swear fealty to Maeve, but to kill her. To get close enough to do so.
“Because I’m trying to understand. How you could come to love a monster.” “Why?” He pushed into her space. She didn’t balk one step. Indeed, her eyes were blazing as she hissed, “Because it will help me understand how I did the same.”
OMG she just admitted she loved him 🫢
“I have never heard Lorcan apologize for anything. Even when Maeve whipped him for a mistake, he did not apologize to her.” “And that means he earns my forgiveness?” “No. But you have to realize that he swore the blood oath to Aelin for you. For no one else. So he could remain near you. Even knowing well enough that you will have a mortal lifespan.”
Daddy Gavriel with his #wisdom again
“And a day of death has made me want to hold you,” the prince said, giving her that disarming grin she had no defenses against. Especially as he added, “And do other things with you.”
Ah nothing like war to make people horny 😂
Lysandra cracked open her eyes, a low groan working its way up her parched throat. “Easy,” a deep voice rumbled.
Yay! She’s alive!!
“We yielded Perranth,” Aedion said hoarsely. “We’ve been on the run for two days now. Another three days, and we’ll reach Orynth.”
Aelin and crew better haul ass to Terrasen and help these people out
Her own hands. Her own arm. “You … shifted,” Aedion said, noting her widened eyes. “While the healer was sewing up your leg. I think the pain … You shifted back into this body.” Horror, roaring and nauseating, roiled through her. “How many saw?” Her first words, each as rough and dry as sandpaper. “Don’t worry about it.” She gulped down the water. “They all know?” A solemn nod.
Uh oh 🫢
“I have been degraded and humiliated in so many ways, for so many years,” she said, voice shaking. Not from fear, but from the tidal wave that swept up everything inside her, burning alongside the wound in her leg. “But I have never felt as humiliated as I did when you threw me into the snow. When you called me a lying bitch in front of our friends and allies. Never.” She hated the angry tears that stung her eyes. “I was once forced to crawl before men. And gods above, I nearly crawled for you these months. And yet it takes me nearly dying for you to realize that you’ve been an ass? It takes
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I mean… she’s not wrong! 🤷🏻♀️ I think Aedion’s going to have to do a bit more for groveling than this lol
Darrow’s thin lips curved in a cruel smile. “For your acts of reckless rebellion, for your failure to heed our command and take your troops where they were ordered, for your utter defeat at the border and the loss of Perranth, you are stripped of your rank.”
Darrow’s another one that needs to get his head out of his ass and start realizing this war is more than just him wanting to be king and showing Aelin that she’s not meant to be queen. Does kicking Aedion to the side seem like the best idea just because he didn’t listen to you??
Aedion just said, “The Sword of Orynth is only a piece of metal and bone. It always has been. It’s what the sword inspires in the bearer that matters. The true heart of Terrasen.”
They would not have time to consider making a run for the northern entrance to Orynth. And with the Florine mere miles ahead, too wide and deep to cross, too frigid to dare swim, and Morath closing in from behind, they were utterly trapped.
Well that’s not good…
As well as Yrene’s conversation with Chaol had gone, that’s how badly things went between Aelin Galathynius and his father.
Yeah that checks out lol 😬😂
Yrene and Aelin were no longer the girls they’d been in Innish, yes, but that wildfire still remained in the queen’s spirit. Wildfire touched with insanity.
Aelin sketched a mocking bow to the Lord of Anielle. “On that lovely parting note, we’re going to finish up our dinners. Enjoy your evening, we’ll see you on the battlements tomorrow, and please do rot in hell.”
That is how I’m going to say goodbye to every person I can’t stand from now on 😂
Rowan snorted. “You were in rare form tonight.” Aelin saluted him with her hunk of hearty oaten bread. “Anyone who interrupts my dinner risks paying the price.”
If that’s not a mood idk what is
“I was wondering,” Elide said to none of them in particular after a moment. “Since Maeve is an imposter, who would rule Doranelle if she was banished with all the other Valg?” “Or burned to a crisp,” Fenrys muttered. Aelin might have smiled grimly, but Elide’s question settled into her. Gavriel slowly set down the chicken. Rowan’s arm dropped from Aelin’s shoulders. His pine-green eyes were wide. “You.” Aelin blinked. “There are others from Mab’s line. Galan, or Aedion—” “The throne passes through the maternal line—to a female only. Or it should have,” Rowan said. “You’re the sole female with
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So Aelin would truly be Queen x 2!
Gavriel murmured, “The Faerie Queen of the West.” Silence. Aelin blurted, “Is that an actual title?” “It is now,” Fenrys muttered. Aelin shot him a look. “With Sellene as the Fae Queen of the East,” Rowan mused. No one spoke for a good minute. Aelin sighed up at the ceiling. “What’s another fancy title, I suppose?”
I love how Aelin’s just like “lol whatever” but is probably very freaking out inside
Being in a female form wasn’t entirely what Dorian had expected.
Oh my god Dorian why are you shifting into a woman?? 🤣
He’d thought he’d known everything about the female body. How to make a woman purr with pleasure. He was half-tempted to find a tent and learn firsthand what certain things felt like.
OH MY GOD DORIAN GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME AND OUT OF YOUR PANTIES
Dorian leaned in close, tipping his head back to stare into her eyes as he purred, “Because while you might be older, might be deadly in a thousand different ways, deep down, you’re afraid. You don’t know how to ask me to stay, because you’re afraid of admitting to yourself that you want it. You’re afraid. Of yourself more than anyone else in the world. You’re afraid.”
They’re so toxic and idk why I still kinda love them together
Then her white brows narrowed. Her nostrils flared. Manon leapt to her feet. “Run,” Glennis breathed. “Run now.” Manon drew Wind-Cleaver and did no such thing. “What is it.” “They’re here.” How Glennis had scented them on the wind, Manon didn’t care.
Who?!? Who is here?!?
The Matrons of the Ironteeth Witch-Clans had found them. And come to finish what Manon had started that day in Morath.
Oh shit that’s who’s here 🫢
It was on the Yellowlegs Matron, hunched and hateful between them. On the crown of stars atop the crone’s thinned white hair. Glennis’s sword shook slightly. And just as Manon realized what the Matron had worn here, Bronwen appeared at Glennis’s side and breathed, “Rhiannon’s crown.” Worn by the Yellowlegs Matron to mock these witches. To spit on them.
Well that’s’ just rude
Manon kept her feet under her. Saw where one Matron moved and the other left a dangerous gap exposed. She was not a broken-spirited Wing Leader unsure of her place in the world. She was not ashamed of the truth before her. She was not afraid.
A callback to Aelin’s mantra!!
Dorian could have sworn the sacred flame burning to their left flared brighter. Could have sworn Glennis sucked in a breath. That every Crochan watching did the same.
Is this her lighting the touch or whatever it was she has to do to prove herself?
