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“No longer Yrene Towers,” Chaol said softly, “but Yrene Westfall.” Aelin let out one of those choked, joyous laughs,
KOA - stop this is so cute
“Then let me introduce you, Lady Westfall, to my own husband, Prince Rowan Whitethorn Galathynius.”
KOA - HUSBAND
Yrene bowed, but Aelin snorted. “None of that, please. It’ll go right to his immortal head.”
KOA - the banter is too much
“Did you get my letter?” The letter that Aelin had sent months ago, begging for aid and promising only a better world in return. Hasar picked at her nails. “Perhaps. I get far too many letters from fellow princesses these days to possibly remember or answer all of them.”
KOA - love this exchange but still not a Hasar fan
“Allow me to introduce my friends. Lord Gavriel, of Doranelle.” A nod toward the tawny-eyed and golden-haired warrior who bowed. Tattoos covered his neck, his hands, but his every motion was graceful. “My uncle, of sorts,” Aelin added with a smirk at Gavriel.
KOA - I love it when she calls him Uncle
“Aedion is my pride.”
KOA - I am CHOKING
“Fenrys … You know, I don’t actually know your family name.” Fenrys threw a roguish wink at the queen. “Moonbeam.” “It is not,” Aelin hissed, choking on a laugh. Fenrys laid a hand on his heart. “I am blood-sworn to you. Would I lie?”
KOA - changing my last name immediately
Chaol met Aelin’s stare, his gaze questioning. Aelin said quietly, “I was Maeve’s prisoner for two months.” Utter silence in the tent. Then she explained—all of it. Why she was not in Terrasen, who now fought there, where Dorian and Manon had gone.
KOA - this would be terrible to tell people
Aelin whispered, “I wanted to die by the end, before she ever threatened me with the collar. And even now, I feel like someone has ripped me from myself. Like I’m at the bottom of the sea, and who I am, who I was, is far up at the surface, and I will never get back there again.”
KOA - my heart hurts so bad
Gavriel asked after a moment, “Why didn’t Aelin offer me the blood oath?” The male hadn’t asked these weeks. And Rowan wasn’t sure why Gavriel inquired now, but he gave him the truth. “Because she won’t do it until Aedion has taken the oath first. To offer it to you before him … she wants Aedion to take it first.”
KOA - Gavriel :(
Gavriel bowed his head. “I would say yes, if she offered.” “I know.” Rowan clapped his oldest friend on the back. “She knows, too.”
KOA - sweet boy (super old fae) wants to fight for his SON
“Because I’m trying to understand. How you could come to love a monster.” “Why?” He pushed into her space. She didn’t balk one step. Indeed, her eyes were blazing as she hissed, “Because it will help me understand how I did the same.”
KOA - ELIDE PLEASE
“No. But you have to realize that he swore the blood oath to Aelin for you. For no one else. So he could remain near you. Even knowing well enough that you will have a mortal lifespan.”
KOA - ily Elide but you’re being kind of mean
Yeran leaned in to whisper something in Borte’s ear that made the girl’s eyes widen. And apparently stunned her enough that when Yeran prowled to his ruk, the portrait of swaggering arrogance, Borte blushed furiously and returned to cleaning her ruk.
KOA - tell me what he said
Sartaq chuckled. “At least they’re a little more clear about it now.” Nesryn snorted, brush gliding over Salkhi’s feathers. “I’m as confused as ever.” “The riders whose tents lie on either side of Borte’s aren’t.” Nesryn’s brows rose, but she smiled. “Good. Not about the riders, but—about them.”
KOA - LMAOOO
“You … shifted,” Aedion said, noting her widened eyes. “While the healer was sewing up your leg. I think the pain … You shifted back into this body.” Horror, roaring and nauseating, roiled through her. “How many saw?” Her first words, each as rough and dry as sandpaper. “Don’t worry about it.” She gulped down the water. “They all know?”
KOA - Lysandra deserved a medal tho
“I have been degraded and humiliated in so many ways, for so many years,” she said, voice shaking. Not from fear, but from the tidal wave that swept up everything inside her, burning alongside the wound in her leg. “But I have never felt as humiliated as I did when you threw me into the snow. When you called me a lying bitch in front of our friends and allies. Never.” She hated the angry tears that stung her eyes. “I was once forced to crawl before men. And gods above, I nearly crawled for you these months. And yet it takes me nearly dying for you to realize that you’ve been an ass? It takes
...more
KOA - she deserves to say this to him. I love and understand Aedion but he has treated her so poorly
“I wanted it to be you,” she said. “After Wesley,
KOA - this is so sad
“For your acts of reckless rebellion, for your failure to heed our command and take your troops where they were ordered, for your utter defeat at the border and the loss of Perranth, you are stripped of your rank.”
KOA - gross
Darrow ignored the promise and held out a hand. “The Sword of Orynth, if you will.”
KOA - so harsh
Chaol’s heart thundered. “It’s true, then.” Her golden eyes scanned his. “Do you want it to be?” Chaol slid a hand against her cheek. “More than I ever realized.” Yrene’s smile was wide and lovely enough to fracture his heart.
KOA - my parents!!!
“I assume they met in Wendlyn. After you sent her there.” Yrene tensed at the taunting in the man’s voice. Bastard. Horrible bastard. Aelin clicked her tongue. “Yes, yes, let’s get all that out of the way.
KOA - I swear Chaols dad just wants to be a dick all the time
“Yrene, at least, doesn’t seem like the sort to hog the blankets and snore in one’s ear all night.” Yrene coughed as Prince Rowan only smiled at the queen. “I don’t mind your snoring,” he said mildly.
KOA - I am obsessed with this banter
“I’d rather fight on land,” Fenrys grumbled. “Because no one likes the smell of wet dog?” Aelin asked over her shoulder. Fenrys laughed. “Exactly because of that.” At least he was smiling again.
KOA - stop these 2 cuties are so sweet
Gavriel murmured, “The Faerie Queen of the West.” Silence. Aelin blurted, “Is that an actual title?” “It is now,” Fenrys muttered. Aelin shot him a look.
KOA - sounds stupid
“That is not your crown.”
KOA - YES GIRL
“Rhiannon Crochan held the gates for three days and three nights, and she did not kneel before you, even at the end.” A slash of a smile. “I think I shall do the same.”
KOA - Literal queen
The crown’s light danced over Manon’s face as she lifted it above her head and set it upon her unbound white hair. Even the mountain wind stopped. Yet a phantom breeze shifted the strands of Manon’s hair as the crown glowed bright, the white stars shining with cores of cobalt and ruby and amethyst.
KOA - god Manon is so cool and Dorian is just such a simp
Tears slid down Asterin’s face. Of pride—pride and relief. Manon beckoned to Asterin with an iron-tipped hand. Snow crunched, and Manon whirled, angling to take the brunt of the attack. But her grandmother had not charged. Not at her. No, the Blackbeak Matron sprinted for her wyvern. Fleeing.
KOA - why are you running
I hail thee, Manon Crochan, Queen of Witches.” Manon stood fast against the tremor that threatened to buckle her legs. Stood fast as the other Crochans, Bronwen with them, dropped to a knee. Dorian, standing amongst them, smiled, brighter and freer than she’d ever seen.
KOA - tears running down my face
“Queen of Witches,” Crochan and Blackbeak declared as one voice. As one people.
KOA - yassss
Fenrys said, “He put her in those metal gauntlets. And one time, he heated them over an open brazier. There …” He stumbled for words, and Rowan could barely breathe. “It took the healers two weeks to fix what he did to her hands and wrists. And when she woke up, there was nothing but healed skin. She couldn’t tell what had been done and what was a nightmare.”
KOA - my heart is broken
“We intercepted a group of Morath soldiers toward the end of the battle—trying to bring that dam down.” Rowan swore, and Chaol echoed it. “I’m assuming they didn’t succeed thanks to you,” Aelin said, gazing toward that too-near dam, the raging waters of the upper lake and river it held at bay. “Partially,” Sartaq said, a muscle feathering in his jaw. “But we arrived after much damage had already been done.” “Out with it,” Hasar hissed. Sartaq’s dark eyes flashed. “We need to evacuate our army off the plain. Right now.”
KOA - stress
“Has anyone warned the healers?” Elide pointed to the white banners waving so far out into the plain. “The Healer on High?” Hafiza was down there, Yrene had said.
KOA - literally why is Elide the smartest person here
Elide looked at them again. Looked at all of them. And then asked quietly, “Where is Lorcan?” None of them turned. Elide asked, louder, “Where is Lorcan?”
KOA - WHERE IS HE
He was not dead. He was not dead. I will always find you.
KOA - this is everything but I am so worried
“The power,” Fenrys said quietly to him, gripping the gore-slick wall. “It was the one thing Connall and I shared.” “I know,” Rowan said. He shouldn’t have pushed. “I’m sorry.” Fenrys just nodded. “I haven’t been able to stomach it since then. I—I’m not even certain I can use it again,” he said, and repeated, “I’m sorry.”
KOA - Fenrys deserves better
Princess Hasar said quietly, “The girl is a fool. The bravest I’ve ever seen, but a fool nonetheless.”
KOA - huge compliment from Hasar
“Hellas guards Lorcan,” Fenrys murmured. “And Anneith, his consort, watches over Elide. Perhaps they will find each other.” “Hellas’s horse,” Chaol said. They turned toward him, dragging their eyes from the field. Chaol shook his head and gestured to the field, to the black mare and her rider. “I call Farasha Hellas’s horse. I’ve done so from the moment I met her.”
KOA - not a coincidence
“I promised to always find you. I promised you, and you promised me. I came for you because of it; I am here because of it. I am here for you, do you understand? And if we don’t get onto that horse now, we won’t stand a chance against that dam. We will die.” Lorcan panted for another heartbeat. Then another. And then, gritting his teeth, his hands white-knuckled on the saddle, he lifted his leg enough to slide one foot into the stirrup.
KOA - goodness I am so stressed it hurts
Lorcan slid his other arm around Elide, bringing his mouth close to her ear as he said, “You have to let me go.”
KOA - now is not the time for sacrifices
“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.”
KOA - please I’m sobbing
“Three months,” Rowan breathed. The others stilled. “Three months,” he said again, his knees wobbling. “She’s been making the descent into her power for three months.”
KOA - Rowan gets it
for Maeve’s death blow.
KOA - does Anielle even deserve it
“Would you stay here, if we had this alliance between us?” He heard every word left unspoken. So Dorian brushed his mouth against hers. Manon let out a small sound.
KOA - Manon basically begging him to marry her is soo sad???
She awoke at dawn to a cold bed. Manon took one look at the empty place where the king had been, at the lack of supplies and that ancient sword, and knew. Dorian had gone to Morath. And had taken the two Wyrdkeys with him.
KOA - sorry baby :(
Aedion whirled toward the ship’s helm in time to see Lysandra shift from ghost leopard to woman, naked as the day she was born. Rolfe, to his credit, only looked mildly surprised as she flung her arms around his neck. And to his credit once more, the Pirate Lord wrapped his cloak around her before he gripped her back.
KOA - okay but if I wasn’t a hardcore Lysandra and Aedion Stan I would be a Rolfe and Lysandra Stan
“I have loved you,” she went on, “from the moment you came to fight for me against Vernon and the ilken.” The light in her eyes stole his breath. “And when I heard you were somewhere on that battlefield, the only thing I wanted was to be able to tell you that. It was the only thing that mattered.”
KOA - Elide is the bravest gorl
“Say it,” she whispered, fingers stilling in his hair. Lorcan opened his eyes, finding her gaze. “I love you.”
KOA - she really just tamed Lorcan lmao
Hearth to hearth, the Flame of War went.
KOA - crying over Manon again
