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Aelin had given herself a day at sea to rest and to miss Rowan. With the blood oath now eternally binding her to the Fae Prince—and him to her—his absence was like a phantom limb.
“Why don’t you say whatever it is you’re getting at, Aelin?” He hissed her name barely loud enough for her to hear. “Can you kill
“you and I are nothing but wild beasts wearing human skins. Don’t even try to deny it.”
“When you shatter the chains of this world and forge the next, remember that art is as vital as food to a kingdom. Without it, a kingdom is nothing, and will be forgotten by time. I have amassed enough money in my miserable life to not need any more—so you will understand me clearly when I say that wherever you set your throne, no matter how long it takes, I will come to you, and I will bring music and dancing.”
“Even before I knew who you were, Aelin, I knew that what you were working toward … It was worth it.” “What is?” Her throat tightened. “A world where people like me don’t have to hide.”
“You said you wanted to see me in this dress,” she said a bit hoarsely. “I hadn’t realized the effect would be so …” He shook his head. He took in her face, her hair, the combs. “You look like—” “A queen?” “The fire-breathing bitch-queen those bastards claim you are.”
She lifted a hand to cup Rowan’s face. So smooth, his skin, the bones beneath strong and elegant. She waited for him to pull back, but he just stared at her—stared into her in that way he always did. Friends, but more. So much more, and she’d known it longer than she wanted to admit. Carefully, she stroked her thumb across his cheekbone, his face slick with the rain.
“Because that golden-haired witch, Asterin …,” Aelin said. “She screamed Manon’s name the way I screamed yours.”
“You make me want to live, Rowan. Not survive; not exist. Live.”
WITCH KILLER— THE HUMAN IS STILL INSIDE HIM
“Let’s go rattle the stars.”
To save the queen who held his heart in her scarred hands.
A soft wind, a shudder in the world, a silence.
Abraxos loosed a yelp of his own, but Manon just peered down at the land, where birds were taking flight at the shimmer that seemed to rush past … At the magic that now rippled through the world, free. Darkness embrace her. Magic. Whatever had happened, however it had been freed, Manon didn’t care. That mortal, human weight vanished. Strength coursed through her, coating her bones like armor. Invincible, immortal, unstoppable. Manon tipped her head back to the sky, spread her arms wide, and roared.
And then a great wind, a soft wind, a lovely wind, as if the heart-song of the world were carried on it.
The bridge—this bridge that she and Chaol had selected for this purpose, for this one moment at the apex of the solstice—was smack in the middle of it. The light hit her, and it filled her heart with the force of an exploding star. With a roar, the Valg prince sent a wave of ice for her, spears and lances aimed at her chest. So Aelin flung her hands out toward the prince, toward her friend, and hurled her magic at him with everything she had.
“Next time we need to save the world, we do it together.”
“You make me want to live, too, Aelin Galathynius,” he said. “Not exist—but live.” He cupped her cheek, and took a steadying breath—as if he’d thought about every word these past three days, over and over again. “I spent centuries wandering the world, from empires to kingdoms to wastelands, never settling, never stopping—not for one moment. I was always looking toward the horizon, always wondering what waited across the next ocean, over the next mountain. But I think … I think that whole time, all those centuries, I was just looking for you.”
“It was like dying a little every day. It was like being alive, too. It was joy so complete it was pain. It destroyed me and unmade me and forged me. I hated it, because I knew I couldn’t escape it, and knew it would forever change me.
And at long last, Aelin Ashryver Galathynius was home.
