He didn’t know why the hell he cared. Why he’d bothered. Even from the start. Even after she’d kneed him in the balls that one afternoon at her father’s house. Even as she said, “I’ve made my thoughts clear enough on what I want from you.” He’d never met someone able to imply so much in so few words, in placing so much emphasis on you as to make it an outright insult.
You want to know what I did? I gave him one minute. I gave up one minute of my escape to him. Do you understand what can happen in one minute? Because I gave one to Dorian when he attacked Aedion and me today – to capture us. I gave him a minute, in which the fate of my entire kingdom could have changed forever. I chose the son of my enemy.
Sartaq whispered in Nesryn’s ear, “I was praying to the Eternal Sky and all thirty-six gods that you’d say yes.” She smiled, even if he couldn’t see it. “So was I,” Nesryn breathed, and they leaped into the skies.
A pause. “More are coming,” she repeated. “Worse than any of the criminal factions here. More powerful – and with a deadlier agenda. Keep your eyes open.” “Why warn me?” he demanded. That stillness settled over her again. “Because this city won’t survive them.” “And that’s not what you want?” She looked him over. Or he thought she did. “There are good people in Gotham. Protect them.
I might crave peace, but never a cage of comfort.
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, Dawn, Day, and Night,” it mused, as if I hadn’t even answered. “The seven Courts of Prythian, each ruled by a High Lord, all of them deadly in their own way.
Empty. Save for the tapestry I’d hung on one wall, the black of the Void mesmerizing. And a reminder. As much of a reminder as the impossible iridescence of Hope, glittering throughout. To work through loss, no matter how overwhelming. To create.
You collect scars because you want proof that you are paying for whatever sins you’ve committed.
I have no regrets in my life, but this. That we did not have time.
Though a bolt of fear went through her at the thought, though standing against the king was the one thing Celaena had thought she’d never be brave enough to do, she couldn’t forget the three scars on her back, or the slaves she’d left in Endovier, or the five hundred butchered Eyllwe rebels. Celaena took the staff from Nehemia’s hands. The princess gave her a fierce grin.
My chest was too tight, too small to fit the ache building in it.
And since then we have privately adapted the Nephelle Philosophy with our own armies.” I raised a brow. Azriel shrugged. “We – Rhys, Cass, and I – will occasionally remind each other that what we think to be our greatest weakness can sometimes be our biggest strength. And that the most unlikely person can alter the course of history.” “The Nephelle Philosophy.
So Aedion Ashryver let himself be led into the darkness. He did not bother with prayers, for himself or for the captain. The gods had not helped him these past ten years, and they would not save him now. He did not mind dying. Though he still wished he’d gotten a chance to see her – just once.
It is a soul-wound Yrene. And letting it fester these years... I cannot blame you. But I will hold you accountable if you let it turn into something worse. And I will mourn you.
Only you decide what breaks you.
Lysandra groaned, the reverberations running up his knees and straight into his gut, and Aedion whirled back to the shifter. Aelin left without further good-bye. The Lion lingered in the brush, keeping out of sight and sound as the Wolf watched over the dragon still sprawled across the beach. For.
Manon Blackbeak awoke to the sighing of leaves, the distant call of wary birds, and the reek of loam and ancient wood. She.
I would have rather spent another night with a hungry belly than found myself satisfying the appetite of a wolf. Or a faerie. Not.
She would not go quietly. She was not afraid.
And he’d returned to Celaena with chocolates, since he claimed to be insulted that she considered his absence a proper birthday present. She tried to embrace him, but he would have none of that, and told her as much. Still, the next time she used the bathing room, she’d snuck behind his chair at the worktable and planted a great, smacking kiss on his cheek. He’d waved her off and wiped his face with a snarl, but she had the suspicion that he’d let her get past his defenses.