I will consider it. – Endymion, Princess Sellene.
All I wanted was to return to – to the people around me. I wanted it badly enough I didn’t have room for fear. The worst had happened, and the darkness was calm and quiet. It did not seem like a bad thing to fade into. But I wanted to go home.
Aedion – every breath she took seemed to echo his name. Aedion, Aedion, Aedion.
All those years, what I did for them... And they didn’t try to stop you from taking me.” There it was, the giant pain that cracked me in two if I thought about it too long.
I’ve never taken a woman on a beach,” – Rowan Whitethorn.
She stopped as a map of Erilea appeared. Maps had always interested her; there was something bewitching in knowing one’s precise location in relation to others on earth.
I smiled at the thought – at how handsome they would be together. If the warrior ever stopped loving Mor. I doubted it. Azriel would likely love More until he was a whisper of darkness between the stars.
You were born on the longest night of the year.” His fingers again stroked down my back. Lower. “You were meant to be at my side from the very beginning.
Tomorrow will be better. It might be only a foot more than today, but it will be a foot longer that you can run.
I wished him peace and happiness, but I did not wish to see him. Speak with him. Deal with him. Not for a good long while. Perhaps forever.
Will it ever stop?” he mused, more to himself than me as another finger joined the one sliding in and out of me with taunting, indolent strokes. “Wanting you – every hour, every breath. I don’t think I can stand a thousand years of this.” My hips moved with him, driving him deeper. “Think of how my productivity will plummet.
Vengeance incarnate. Wrath’s bruised heart. She would bow for no one. Hunt’s lightning sang at the sight of that beautiful, brutal face.
She had never contemplated what it would be like – to yield control. And not have it be a weakness, but a freedom.
Cadre, yet more than that. Brothers – the warriors fighting at his side were his brothers. Had stayed with him through all of it. And would continue to do so now.
My name is Wind,” she whispered. “And Rain. And Bone and Dust. My name is a snippet of a half-remembered song.
Adarlan could take their freedom, it could destroy their lives and beat and whip them, it could force them into ridiculous contests, but, criminal or not, they were stil human. Dying – rather than playing in the king’s game – was the only choice left to him.
And from far away, Aelin heard another woman’s voice. Make sure that they’re punished someday. Every last one of them. They will be, she’d sworn to Kaltain. They had lied. Had betrayed Elena and Erilea, as they had believed themselves betrayed. Their green sun-drenched world rippled away ahead. Groaning, Aelin climbed to her feet. She was no lamb to slaughter. No sacrifice on an altar of the greater good. And she was not done yet.
So Chaol brushed away her tears, lifted her chin, and kissed her.
Given all that had been done to her and all.
For the first time in a long while, she heard the song of a northern wind, calling her home. And she was not afraid.