Heir of Fire (Throne of Glass, #3)

by Sarah J. Maas

My Keelie, Petrah had said. Had smiled as she said it. Manon told herself it was for an alliance. Told herself it was for show. But all she could see was the unconditional love in that dying wyvern’s eyes as she unbuckled her harness, stood from the saddle, and leapt off Abraxos.

The next day, rumor had it, Petrah would not rise from bed. They said she had been broken in her soul when Keelie died.

“This,” the Crochan said for all to hear, “is a reminder. My death—my murder at your hands, is a reminder. Not to them,” she breathed, pinning Manon with that soil-brown stare. “But to you. A reminder of what they made you to be. They made you this way.

“They have made you into monsters. Made, Manon. And we feel sorry for you.

“I was not supposed to love you. But I did. I do. And there is so much I wish … I wish we could have done together, seen together.”

One blow from that mighty sword. That was all it took to sever Sorscha’s head. The scream that erupted out of Dorian was the worst sound that Chaol had ever heard. Worse even than the wet, heavy thud of her head hitting the red marble.

And then Dorian, still screaming, was scrambling through the blood toward it—toward her head, as if he could put it back. As if he could piece her together.

He did not mind dying. Though he still wished he’d gotten a chance to see her—just once.

But when the arrow had fired at Chaol … that was the death he could not endure. Chaol had drawn his line—and Dorian was on his side of it. Chaol had called him his king. So revealing his power to his father did not frighten him. No, to save his friend, dying did not scare him one bit.

I will call in every favor, every debt owed to Celaena Sardothien, to my parents, to my bloodline. And then …” She looked toward the sea, toward home. “And then I am going to rattle the stars.”

She was Aelin Ashryver Galathynius, heir of two mighty bloodlines, protector of a once-glorious people, and Queen of Terrasen. She was Aelin Ashryver Galathynius—and she would not be afraid.