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July 25 - October 15, 2025
“I don’t quite comprehend why you’d force someone to bow when the purpose of the gesture is to display allegiance and respect.”
Princes are not supposed to be handsome! They’re sniveling, stupid, repulsive creatures! This one … this … How unfair of him to be royal and beautiful.
“Your father ordered that I was to be kept alive for as long as possible—to endure the misery that Endovier gives in abundance.”
The leaves dangled like jewels—tiny droplets of ruby, pearl, topaz, amethyst, emerald, and garnet; and a carpet of such riches coated the forest floor around them.
“When I arrived, they cut my hair, gave me rags, and put a pickax in my hand as if I knew what to do with it. They chained me to the others, and I endured my whippings with the rest of them. But the overseers had been instructed to treat me with extra care, and took the liberty of rubbing salt into my wounds—salt I mined—and whipped me often enough so that some of the gashes never really closed. It was through the kindness of a few prisoners from Eyllwe that my wounds didn’t become infected. Every night, one of them stayed up the hours it took to clean my back.”
Magic was dead, the Fae were banished or executed, and she would never again have anything to do with the rise and fall of kingdoms. She wasn’t fated for anything. Not anymore.
Still, the image haunted his dreams throughout the night: a lovely girl gazing at the stars, and the stars who gazed back.
“I am the conqueror of this continent, and soon to be ruler of all Erilea. You will not question me.”
“You’d see something like this before the Gates of Wyrd—not in a garden. How old is it?”
Foreshadowingggggg
Four-legged dragons—not vicious, bipedal wyverns like those on the royal seal.
Libraries were full of ideas—perhaps the most dangerous and powerful of all weapons.
She hated corsets. She hated the king. She hated glass castles.
Swordplay was like dancing—certain steps must be followed or else it would fall apart.
“Pick another—something different. Make it interesting, too. Something that will make me sweat, please.” “You’ll be sweating when I skin you alive and squish your eyeballs beneath my feet,” she muttered,
“When I was twelve, Arobynn Hamel decided I wasn’t nearly as skilled at swordplay with my left hand. So he gave me a choice: either he could break my right hand, or I could do it myself.”
“We each survive in our own way.”
But Sam, like her, had been betrayed—and sometimes the absence of him hit her so hard that she forgot how to breathe.
I can survive well enough on my own—if given proper reading material.”
“Something about him makes me want to beat in his face.”
Then this man was Gavin, the first King of Adarlan. And this was Elena, the first princess of Terrasen, Brannon’s daughter, and Gavin’s wife and queen.
“You must listen to what I tell you. Nothing is a coincidence. Everything has a purpose. You were meant to come to this castle, just as you were meant to be an assassin, to learn the skills necessary for survival.”
She first screamed at the ball, then took the cue in her hands and bit down upon the shaft, still screaming through her clamped teeth.
mood
“I’m not married,” he said softly, “because I can’t stomach the idea of marrying a woman inferior to me in mind and spirit. It would mean the death of my soul.”
The duke was ambitious, but certainly not a threat to the castle or its inhabitants. But even as the Captain of the Guard walked to his rooms, he couldn’t shake the feeling that Duke Perrington had been watching him, too.
I’d like to think that if my country was conquered, I would stop at nothing to win back my people’s freedom, too.”
Chaol they can never make me hate you
“Just don’t open your mouth and no one will notice.” “You and I both know that’s not possible.”
Her heart was big and as red as her teeth. There was good in people—deep down, there was always a shred of good. There had to be.
There was beauty in Chaol’s face—and strength, and honor, and loyalty. She stopped hearing the crowd, and her mouth became dry as he stared at her. How had she missed it for so long?
“Well? Do I need to lecture you about how stupid it was to sneak into the ball, or can I just ask you to dance with me instead?”
“Do I have to remind you who you are?” “No. You remind me every day,” she retorted.
“The Lady Lillian belongs to herself, and no one else.”
“I’m not interested in court ladies,” he said thickly, and kissed her.
She never bothered to look below.
“We all bear scars, Dorian. Mine just happen to be more visible than most.
The black ring on his finger pulsed, and her head gave a throb of pain in response.
Perrington finished with a broad smile that made her instincts tell her to run and run and never look back. But all her mind could see was a crown and throne, and the prince who would sit by her side.
And inside the small chamber, kneeling before a darkness so black that it seemed poised to devour the world, was Cain.
There was a click of claw on stone, and a hiss like an extinguished flame. And then, stepping toward Cain on knees that bent the wrong way—like an animal’s hind legs—the ridderak emerged.
Cain raised his head and stood slowly as the creature knelt before him and lowered its dark eyes. Submission.
The creature sank back onto its haunches, poised to spring, and in that moment, Celaena came up with the most reckless and brave plan she’d ever concocted.
We know thats not true girl
“Before you start lecturing me on my morality, or before you run away and hide behind your bodyguards, just know that there’s not a moment that goes by when I don’t wonder what it will be like to kill for him—the man who destroyed everything that I loved!”
“I give you this name to use with honor, to use when other names grow too heavy. I name you Elentiya, ‘Spirit That Could Not Be Broken.’ ”
There was a darkness in his eyes that felt cold and foreign, like the gaps between the stars. Could one man destroy a world? Was his ambition so consuming?
For a heartbeat, she saw the king with stark clarity. He was just a man—a man with too much power. And in that one heartbeat, she didn’t fear him. I will not be afraid, she vowed, wrapping the familiar words around her heart.
“Let wood from the forests of Eyllwe defeat steel from Adarlan. Let the King’s Champion be someone who understands how the innocents suffer.”
“But it makes no difference if my name’s Celaena or Lillian or Bitch, because I’d still beat you, no matter what you call me.”
Without thinking, without understanding, Chaol leapt between them and plunged his sword through Cain’s heart.
“Do I even want to know how many times you secretly saved me from one of Cain’s creatures?” “Not if you want to sleep tonight.”
“Do not fear for Kaltain, my friend. She won’t remain in the dungeons forever. When the scandal has been forgotten and the assassin is busy with my work, we’ll make Kaltain an offer she can’t refuse. But there are ways of controlling her, if you think she can’t be trusted.”
“I’m saying that in four years, I’m going to be free, and I’ve never been free in my entire life.” Her smile grew. “And I want to know what that feels like.”
