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“My people have betrayed me. After all I have done for them, all I have protected them, they rose up against me. The army I had gathered refused to march. My nobles, my servants, refused to kneel. I am Queen of Doranelle no longer.”
Aelin’s letters worked?!? HA HA IM DYING
Erawan’s smile grew. “So you think to ally with me.” “Only together can we ensure Brannon’s bloodline is toppled forever. Never to rise again.”
Well this is an interesting turn…
“Why bother with human hosts for the six remaining princesses when you might create ones far more powerful? And willing.”
They want to spiders to become Valg princesses???? 😬
“Why do you think I have spent so long building this army, preparing this world, if not to greet my brothers once more? If not to impress them with what I have made here?” Erawan would bring the Valg kings back to Erilea, if given the chance.
Oh shit Erawan wants to bring all of his brothers back to life?!? Or to this world??
The Fae Queen smiled down at him. “You are not a very skilled spy, King of Adarlan.”
OH SHIT MAEVE CAUGHT DORIAN
Cyrene. Horror crept through him. Maeve strode deeper into the chamber and took up a seat on the bench before the foot of the bed, as regally as if she sat upon her throne. “How do you think the Matrons knew where to find you?”
MAEVE SENT THE MATRONS TO ATTACK MANON!!????! 😱 How does she have her hand in everything?!
Maeve leaned back, studying him again. “You want what I want. Erawan has it. Does that not make you and I allies of a sort?” “You must be mad, to think I would ever give you the keys.”
Yeah I’m with you Dorian… Maeve is nuts 😳
Damaris held warm. “We are not so different, you and I. And I have nothing to lose now, thanks to your friend.” Truth, truth, truth. And there it was—the opening he’d been waiting for.
Is Dorian going to try and trick Maeve??? 😦
But consider this: Shall you kneel, or shall you rule, Maeve?” He tapped his neck, right over the pale band across it. “I have knelt, and found I have no interest in doing so again. Not for Erawan, or for Aelin, or anyone.” Another shrug. “The woman I love is dead. My kingdom is in pieces. What do I have to lose?” He let some of the old ice, the hollowness in his chest, rise to his face. “I’m willing to play this game. Are you?”
Wow… Dorian is playing a *very* dangerous game 🫢
His cousin, Roland, had wound up here. He knew it, though no one had ever confirmed it. Had he survived the transition to Valg prince, or had he merely been a meal for one of the terrors who prowled this place?
He died right?
A dangerous game. He was playing one hell of a dangerous game.
YEAH DORIAN, YOU ARE!!! 😰
The Valg king surveyed him once, and his mouth tightened. “I thought I’d dismissed you for the night, Vernon.” Dorian bowed his head, willing his breathing steady with each step Erawan made toward him.
DORIAN’S PRETENDING TO BE VERNON! BALLSY MOVE MY FRIEND 😮💨
Erawan again paused. “He was not so faithful a servant as you might believe. And look what it cost him.” “He fought you.” Not quite a question. “He never bowed. Not completely.” Dorian was stunned enough that he opened his mouth.
Small proof that Dorian’s dad wasn’t lying when he said he tried to protect him
Chaol refrained from mentioning that he himself had killed one of their kind almost a year ago. It might as well have been a decade ago, for all that had happened since he’d killed Cain during his duel with Aelin. Yulemas was still weeks away—if they survived long enough to celebrate it.
THIS WHOLE SERIES TAKES PLACE IN THE SPAN OF A YEAR?????? Damnnnnnnn 🤯
The Ferian Gap was empty. The Ironteeth legion gone.
Does that mean that they’re joining Manon’s army??
73 Dorian hunted through Morath in a hundred different skins.
It’s Chapter 73 and I’m still waiting for my Dorian/Chaol Reunion 😭
“Stupid boy,” Maeve hissed. The words were a thunderclap. He panted, the gnat’s body shaking from wingtip to wingtip. One press of her finger and he’d be gone. He braced himself, waiting for it. But Maeve kept her palm open. And as she began to walk down the hall, away from the sealed chamber, she said, “What you felt in there—that is why I left their world.” She gazed ahead, a shadow darkening her face. “Every day, that was what I felt.”
Wow… is that sympathy I feel for Maeve??? Get rid of it ew!
“I usually keep another Fae female with me. One who has powers that work against the Valg. Different from those Aelin Galathynius possesses.” That she didn’t specify what those powers were told Dorian not to waste his breath in asking her. “She swore the blood oath to me long ago, and has rarely left my side since. But I did not dare bring her to Morath. To have her here would not have convinced Erawan that I came in good faith.” She twirled the strand of hair around a finger. “So you see, I am as defenseless against Erawan as you.”
Is she talking about the healer owl person?
He tucked into a crack in the black wall as Maeve said to the Valg posted outside, “You know who I am. What I am. Tell him I have come.” He could have sworn Maeve’s hands trembled slightly.
Is Marc actually showing emotions?? WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON?!?
Would his own father, would Gavriel, have encouraged the rivalry? He supposed it didn’t matter, either. But for a heartbeat, Aedion tried to picture it—Gavriel here, presiding over his training. His father and Rhoe, teaching him together. And he knew that Gavriel would have found some way to calm the competition, much in the way he held the peace in the cadre. What manner of man would he have become, had the Lion been here? Gavriel likely would have been butchered with the rest of the court, but … he would have been here.
Aedion deserves to have a relationship with Gavriel!
“You will find, Your Majesty, that a loyal friend is a rare thing indeed. They are not so easy to sacrifice.”
“Not all Valg are evil.” “Erawan is.” “Yes,” she said, and her eyes darkened. “He and his brothers … they are the worst of our kind. Their rule was through fear and pain. They delight in such things.” “And you do not?” Maeve twirled an inky strand around a finger. And didn’t answer.
What is this weird redemption arc going on here for Maeve?!???
He knew why he had felt the key’s presence throughout the keep. Moving about. Vanishing. It had been walking. Trailing its master. Her enslaver.
Oh snap the Wyrdkey is inside this girl???
Maeve twisted toward him, but too late. Too damn late, as the claws she’d hooked into his mind became mired in it. As flame, white-hot and sizzling, closed upon the piece of her she’d unwittingly laid bare in trying to trap him. A trap within a trap.
OMG did Dorian outwit Maeve?!?
The king I wish to be is the opposite of what you are. He gave Maeve a smile. And there is only one witch who will be my queen.
YES DORIAN 👏🏻
Dorian’s mouth curved upward. You didn’t think I spent all those hours merely searching, did you? He wouldn’t allow it to exist another day—that chamber with the collars. Not one more day. So he’d bring down the entire damn keep atop it.
OMG is he gonna destroy whatever’s left of Morath???
It was simple as an incision. To sever the link between their minds—and to sever another part of her. To tie off the gift that allowed her to jump between places. To open those portals. 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. Then he let go of Maeve’s mind.
Taking Maeve’s gift???? That was the most badass mic drop ever! 😂
Elide was instantly moving, and Yrene watched in silence while the lady prepared the tea. “I could heal your leg, you know.”
OMG imagine her leg gets healed and Yrene accidentally heals something else within Elide and Elide gets magic powers or something
Elide asked, “What’s wrong?” Borte shifted, with impatience or nerves, Yrene couldn’t tell. “They found someone in the mountain. They want you up there—to decide what to do with him.” Elide had gone still. Utterly still. Yrene asked, “Who?” Borte’s mouth tightened. “Her uncle.”
Oh shit Elide’s finally going to confront her uncle?!?
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.”
Good for you Elide! 👏🏻
Aelin threw Vernon a crooked smile over her shoulder. “I said nothing about unchaining you.” Vernon went still. Aelin shrugged. “I said none of us would kill you. It’s not our fault if you can’t get out of those chains, is it?” The blood drained from Vernon’s face. Aelin said quietly, “You chained and locked my friend in a tower for ten years. Let’s see how you enjoy the experience.”
You sly bitch, Aelin 👏🏻
Aelin met Elide’s wide-eyed stare, Lorcan savagely satisfied at her side. “It won’t be quick this way,” Aelin said, extending the key to Elide. The rest of the question hung there. Vernon kept screaming, pleading for them to come back, to unchain him. Elide studied the sealed door. The desperate man behind it. The Lady of Perranth took the outstretched key. Pocketed it. “We should find a better way to seal that room.”
This is some Cask of Amantillado shit here
But just remember that this fear of yours? It means you have something worth fighting for—something you care so greatly for that losing it is the worst thing you can imagine.”
no child should have to watch as her friends are cut down. Keeping her busy, giving her a purpose and some small power will be better than locking her in the north tower, scared out of her wits at every horrible sound and death.” Lysandra did not smile, did not bow her head. “You would do this for the ward of a whore?” Darrow set down the crystal. “It’s the faces of the children that I remember the most from ten years ago. Even more than Orlon’s. And Evangeline’s face yesterday as she looked out at that army—it was the same despair I saw back then. So you may think me a champion bastard, as
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Wow… Maybe Darrow’s not a complete jerk after all?
This siege would not even get the chance to be a siege. It would end today. Within a few hours. Racing feet skidded to a halt, and then Lysandra was there, panting. “Tell me what to do, where to go.” Her emerald eyes were wide with terror—helpless terror and despair. “I can change into a wyvern, try to keep them—” “There are over a thousand Ironteeth,” Aedion said, his voice hollow in his ears. Her fear whetted something sharp and dangerous in him, but he refrained from reaching for her. “There is nothing you or we can do.”
Maybe Manon will come to the rescue? 🫣
But Aedion kept his attention fixed on Lysandra. “Please. I am begging you. I am begging you, Lysandra, to go.” Her chin lifted. “You are not asking our other allies to run.” “Because I am not in love with our other allies.”
Oh NOW he finally admits it!! 🙈
Soldiers still fell back from the city walls as Manon Blackbeak and her Thirteen landed along them, right before Aedion and Lysandra.
YES MANON!!!
“We come to honor a friend.” There was no sign of Dorian amongst the Thirteen, but Aedion was reeling enough that he didn’t have the words to ask. “We came,” Manon said, loud enough that all on the city walls could hear, “to honor a promise made to Aelin Galathynius. To fight for what she promised us.” Darrow said quietly, “And what was that?” Manon smiled then. “A better world.”
“They’ve completely stopped,” breathed the shape-shifter beside Aedion, pointing toward the battlefield. Far out, Morath’s host had halted. Utterly halted. As if in doubt and shock.
Hahaha Morath is shook at all the witches about to kick their asses in! 😂
Evangeline had decided that she no longer wished to be page to Lord Darrow, but rather a Crochan witch.
God bless this adorable little child I love her so much 😂
“Just …” Lysandra pressed her lips together. “Don’t die tomorrow. That’s all I ask.”
What a declaration of love 😂
Dorian met the man’s gaze. King to king. “I wanted to tell you that I attained it—so you might have a chance to say goodbye. To Elena, I mean. Before the Lock is forged.”
Still a gentleman 🥺
They were too desperate, too outnumbered, for him to deny Lysandra the task she’d taken on today.
What form is she taking?? That water serpent thing again?
Where the white sea dragon moved, black blood sprayed.
I KNEW SHE WAS GOING TO BE A SEA DRAGON!
Evangeline staggered to the balcony rail, as if she might see that building amid the sea of chaos by the city walls. She had never had a brother, or a father. She hadn’t yet decided which one she would like Aedion to be. And if he was so injured that it warranted a message to Darrow—
He’ll be whatever you want him to be Evangeline bc he’s not dying on our watch! 🥺
Endovier, the only outpost of civilization they’d seen in a week, would be their first news since leaving the Ferian Gap. She tried not to think of that, either. Of the fact that they would be passing through Endovier tomorrow, or the day after. That she’d see those gray mountains that had housed the salt mines.
How fitting that Aelin has to trek by the first place of trauma for her in this series before finally fighting for her home
A rustle of clothing, and then Lorcan was kneeling before her, Elide’s foot in his hands. Nearly swallowed by his hands, actually. “Let me,” he offered.
GET YOU A MAN TO RUB YOUR BROKEN FEET FOR YOU 👏🏻
Aelin instantly had Goldryn drawn. Rowan armed himself beside her, and the entire army pausing as they scanned the woods, the skies. She heard the warning just as a dark shape shot past, so large it blotted out the sun above the forest canopy. Wyvern.
Just one wyvern? Is it Dorian??
Light flashed again. And then Dorian Havilliard stood there, his jacket and cape stained and worn. Aelin galloped down the road toward him, Rowan and Elide beside her, the others at their backs. Dorian lifted a hand, his face grave as death, even as his eyes widened at the sight of her. But Aelin sensed it then. What Dorian carried. The Wyrdkeys. All three of them.
Yay Dorian made it to Aelin and crew!!!! OMG DOES THIS MEAN WE FINALLY GET OUR DORIAN X CHAOL REUNION?!??!? 🙏🏼😱
In Lysandra sneaking to the river through the tunnels, she’d had the element of surprise. But it had also revealed to Morath that another path existed into the city. One right below their feet.
Oh no that’s not good!
