Kingdom of Ash (Throne of Glass, #7)

by Sarah J. Maas

She had come for him. She had found him. The world went quiet. The pain in his body faded into nothing. Into something secondary. 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.” That gentle quiet flowed around him, clearing the fog of pain and battle. “You have to. You have to, Elide. I’m too heavy—and without my weight, you might make it to the keep in time.” “No.” The salt of her tears filled his nose. Lorcan brushed his mouth over her damp cheek, ignoring the roaring pain in his body. The horse galloped and galloped, as if she might outrace death itself. “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.” He was not frightened of what would come for him once he tumbled off the horse. He was not frightened at all, if it meant her reaching the keep. So Lorcan kissed Elide’s cheek again, allowed himself to breathe in her scent one last time. “I love you,” he repeated, and began to withdraw his arms from around her waist. Elide slapped a hand onto his forearm. Dug in her nails, right into his skin, fierce as any ruk. “No.” There were no tears ...