G.o.ds, that scent. From the moment he’d bitten her neck in Wendlyn, the moment he’d tasted her blood and loathed the beckoning wildfire that crackled in it, he’d been unable to get it out of his system. “Aelin, you deserve better than this—than me.” He’d wanted to say it for a while now.
She didn’t so much as flinch. “Don’t tell me what I do and don’t deserve. Don’t tell me about tomorrow, or the future, or any of it.”
He took her hand; her fingers were cold—shaking slightly. What do you want me to tell you, Fireheart?
She studied their joined hands, and the gold ring encircling her thumb. He squeezed her fingers gently. When she lifted her head, her eyes were blazing bright. “Tell me that we’ll get through tomorrow. Tell me that we’ll survive the war. Tell me—” She swallowed hard. “Tell me that even if I lead us all to ruin, we’ll burn in h.e.l.l together.”
“We’re not going to h.e.l.l, Aelin,” he said. “But wherever we go, we’ll go together.”
Her mouth wobbled slightly, and she released his hand only to brace her own on his chest. “Just once,” she said. “I want to kiss you just once.”
Every thought went out of his head. “That sounds like you’re expecting not to do it again.”
The flicker of fear in her eyes told him enough—told him that her behavior at dinner might have been mostly bravado to keep Aedion calm. “I know the odds.”
“You and I have always relished d.a.m.ning the odds.”
She tried and failed to smile. He leaned in, sliding a hand around her waist, the lace and silk smooth against his fingers, her body warm and firm beneath it, and whispered in her ear, “Even when we’re apart tomorrow, I’ll be with you every step of the way. And every step after—wherever that may be.”
She sucked in a shuddering breath, and he pulled back far enough for them to share breath. Her fingers shook as she brushed them against his mouth, and his control nearly shredded apart right there.
“What are you waiting for?” he said, the words near guttural.
“b.a.s.t.a.r.d,” she murmured, and kissed him.
Her mouth was soft and warm, and he bit back a groan. His body went still—his entire world went still—at that whisper of a kiss, the answer to a question he’d asked for centuries. He realized he was staring only when she withdrew slightly. His fingers tightened at her waist.
“Again,” he breathed.
She slid out of his grip. “If we live through tomorrow, you’ll get the rest.”
He didn’t know whether to laugh or roar. “Are you trying to bribe me into surviving?”
She smiled at last. And d.a.m.n if it didn’t kill him, the quiet joy in her face.
They had walked out of darkness and pain and despair together. They were still walking out of it. So that smile … It struck him stupid every time he saw it and realized it was for him.
Rowan remained rooted to the center of the room as Aelin climbed into bed and blew out the candles. He stared at her through the darkness.
She said softly, “You make me want to live, Rowan. Not survive; not exist. Live.”
He didn’t have the words. Not when what she said hit him harder and deeper than any kiss.
So he climbed into bed and held her tightly all through the night.
66
Aelin ventured out at dawn to snag breakfast from the vendors in the main market of the slums. The sun was already warming the quiet streets, and her cloak and hood quickly turned stuffy. At least it was a clear day; at least that bit had gone right. Despite the crows cackling over the corpses in the execution squares.
The sword at her side was a dead weight. Too soon she’d be swinging it.
Too soon she’d face the man who had murdered her family and enslaved her kingdom. Too soon she would put an end to her friend’s life.
Maybe she wouldn’t even walk out of the castle alive.
Or perhaps she would walk out wearing a black collar of her own, if Lorcan had betrayed them.
Everything was prepared; every possible pitfall had been considered; every weapon had been sharpened.
Lysandra had taken Evangeline to have their tattoos formally stamped off yesterday, and then collected her belongings from the brothel. Now they were staying in an upscale inn across the city, paid for with the small savings Lysandra had squirreled away for years. The courtesan had offered her help again and again, but Aelin ordered her to get the h.e.l.l out of the city and to head for Nesryn’s country home. The courtesan warned her to be careful, kissed both her cheeks, and set off with her ward—both of them beaming, both of them free. Hopefully they were on their way out now.
Aelin bought a bag of pastries and some meat pies, barely listening to the market around her, already abuzz with early revelers out to celebrate the solstice. They were more subdued than most years, but given the executions, she didn’t blame them.
“Miss?”
She stiffened, going for her sword—and realized that the pie vendor was still waiting for his coppers.
He flinched and retreated a few steps behind his wooden cart.
“Sorry,” she mumbled, dumping the coins into his outstretched hand.
The man gave her a wary smile. “Everyone’s a bit jumpy this morning, it seems.”
She half turned. “More executions?”
The vendor jerked his round chin toward a street leading off the market. “You didn’t see the message on your way in?” She gave a sharp shake of the head. He pointed. She’d thought the crowd by the corner was watching some street performer. “Oddest thing. No one can make any sense of it. They say it’s written in what looks like blood, but it’s darker—”
Aelin was already heading toward the street the man had indicated, following the throng of people pressing to see it.
She trailed the crowd, weaving around curious revelers and vendors and common market guards until they all flowed around a corner into a brightly lit dead-end alley.
The crowd had gathered at the pale stone wall at its end, murmuring and milling about.
“What does it mean?” “Who wrote it?” “Sounds like bad news, especially on the solstice.” “There are more, all saying the same thing, right near every major market in the city.”
Aelin pushed through the crowd, an eye on her weapons and purse lest a pickpocket get any bad ideas, and then—
The message had been written in giant black letters, the reek coming off them sure enough that of Valg blood, as if someone with very, very sharp nails had ripped open one of the guards and used him as a paint bucket.
Aelin turned on her heel and ran.
She hurtled through the bustling city streets and the slums, alley after alley, until she reached Chaol’s decrepit house and flung open the door, shouting for him.
The message on the wall had only been one sentence.
Payment for a life debt.
One sentence just for Aelin Galathynius; one sentence that changed everything:
WITCH KILLER—
THE HUMAN IS STILL INSIDE HIM
67
Aelin and Chaol helped Rowan and Aedion carry the two urns of h.e.l.lfire into the sewers, all of them barely breathing, none of them talking.
Now they stood in the cool, reeking dark, not daring a flame with the two vats sitting next to them on the stone walkway. Aedion and Rowan, with their Fae eyesight, wouldn’t need a torch, anyway.
Rowan shook Chaol’s hand, wishing him luck. When the Fae Prince turned to Aelin, she focused instead on a torn corner of his cloak—as if it had snagged on some long-ago obstacle and been ripped off. She kept staring at that ripped-off bit of cloak as she embraced him—quickly, tightly, breathing in his scent perhaps for the last time. His hands lingered on her as if he’d hold her a moment longer, but she turned to Aedion.
Ashryver eyes met her own, and she touched the face that was the other side of her fair coin.
“For Terrasen,” she said to him.
“For our family.”
“For Marion.”
“For us.”
Slowly, Aedion drew his blade and knelt, his head bowed as he lifted the Sword of Orynth. “Ten years of shadows, but no longer. Light up the darkness, Majesty.”
She did not have room in her heart for tears, would not allow or yield to them.
Aelin took her father’s sword from him, its weight a steady, solid rea.s.surance.
Aedion rose, returning to his place beside Rowan.
She looked at them, at the three males who meant everything—more than everything.
Then she smiled with every last shred of courage, of desperation, of hope for the glimmer of that glorious future. “Let’s go rattle the stars.”
68
Lysandra’s carriage meandered through the packed city streets. Every block took thrice as long as usual, thanks to the streaming crowds headed to the markets and squares to celebrate the solstice. None of them were aware of what was to occur, or who was making her way across the city.
Lysandra’s palms turned sweaty within her silk gloves. Evangeline, drowsy with the morning heat, dozed lightly, her head resting on Lysandra’s shoulder.
They should have left last night, but … But she’d had to say good-bye.
Brightly dressed revelers pushed past the carriage, and the driver shouted to clear out of the street. Everyone ignored him.
G.o.ds, if Aelin wanted an audience, she’d picked the perfect day for it.