Queen of Shadows (Throne of Glass, #4)

by Sarah J. Maas

She was the heir of fire. She was fire, and light, and ash, and embers.

Aedion grinned at his queen as the entire world went to hell.

“Hello, Aedion.”

“You’re exactly the way I dreamed you’d be.”

“A minute of pleasant conversation, and then the territorial Fae bullshit comes raging out.” “I waited an extra thirty seconds.”

that this was his family, this was his queen, this was Aelin.

“Whatever you had to do to survive, whatever you did from spite or rage or selfishness … I don’t give a damn. You’re here—and you’re perfect. You always were, and you always will be.”

She would find that love again—one day. And it would be deep and unrelenting and unexpected, the beginning and the end and eternity, the kind that could change history, change the world.

“How can I take away somebody who means the world to someone else? Even if she’s my enemy.”

“You make me proud to serve you.”

“We do not look back, Chaol. It helps no one and nothing to look back. We can only go on.”

She said softly, “You make me want to live, Rowan. Not survive; not exist. Live.”

“Let’s go rattle the stars.”

“I save the world,” Aelin said, her voice like gravel, “and yet I wake up to you being pissy.”

“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.”

“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.”

he looked at her the way she deserved to be looked at.

“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.

it was the most powerful thing I’ve ever felt,

We’ll face it together. To whatever end.