The Assassin and the Underworld (Throne of Glass, #0.4)

by Sarah J. Maas

“My price was his oath that he’d never lay a hand on you again. I told him I’d forgive him in exchange for that.”

“You look beautiful. Though I bet you already know that.” She most certainly did.

The music broke her apart and put her back together, only to rend her asunder again and again.

“I hate to admit it, Sam Cortland, but I missed your sorry ass, too.”

“My name is Wind,” she whispered. “And Rain. And Bone and Dust. My name is a snippet of a half-remembered song.” He chuckled, a low, delightful sound. She was drunk, and silly, and so full of the glory of being young and alive and in the capital of the world that she could hardly contain herself. “I have no name,” she purred. “I am whoever the keepers of my fate tell me to be.”

“I love you,” he repeated, shaking her again. “I have for years. And he hurt you and made me watch because he’s always known how I felt, too. But if I asked you to pick, you’d choose Arobynn, and I. Can’t. Take. It.”

“You’re a damned idiot,” she breathed, grabbing the front of his tunic. “You’re a moron and an ass and a damned idiot.” He looked like she had hit him. But she went on, and grasped both sides of his face, “Because I’d pick you.” And then she kissed him.

She’d never kissed anyone. And as her lips met his and he wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her close against him, she honestly had no idea why she’d waited so long.

In the silence of her bedroom, she swore an oath to the moonlight that if Sam were hurt, no force in the world would hold her back from slaughtering everyone responsible.

He brushed his lips against hers. “I love you,” he breathed against her mouth. “And from today onward, I want to never be separated from you. Wherever you go, I go. Even if that means going to hell itself, wherever you are, that’s where I want to be. Forever.”