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He’d felt nothing in the bond since that day on the beach Nothing

She wasn’t dead, because the bond still existed, yet … it was silent

He’d puzzled over it during the long hours they’d traveled, during his hours on watch Even the hours when he should have been sleeping

He hadn’t felt pain in the bond that day in Eyllwe He’d felt it when Dorian Havilliard had stabbed her in the glass castle, had felt the bond--what he’d so stupidly thought was the carrana point as she’d come so, so close to death

Yet that day on the beach, when Maeve had attacked her, then had Cairn whip her--

Rowan clenched his jaw hard enough to hurt, even as his sto beside him on the bedroll

Gently, he set the blade before hi into the ruby in the center of its hilt, the stone sht

Aelin had felt the arrow he’d received during the fight with Manon at Teh of a jolt that she’d known, in thatat all that day on the beach

He had a feeling he knew the answer Knew that Maeve was likely the cause of it, the daone into his head to trick hi Lyria was his mate, had fooled the very instincts that made him a Fae male It wouldn’t be beyond her powers to find a way to stifle as between hi that she’d been in such danger, and now to keep hi her

But he should have known About Aelin Shouldn’t have waited to get the wyverns and the others Should have flown right to the beach, and not wasted those precious minutes

Mate His e and grief had turned him into a miserable bastard, he should have knoho she hat she was, from the e to claiue and it had sung to hi for months

Instead, they’d brawled He’d let theing as he, and had spat such a hateful, unspeakable thing that he’d treated her like any of the males and females who had been under his command and h Rowan knew that if he everthey’d done with a lick of shame, Aelin would curse him for a fool

He didn’t knohat to do about the tattoo down his face, his neck and arm The lie it told of his loss, and the truth it revealed of his blindness

He’d couilt of it ate hiht of it, but he could understand now Why Lyria had been so frightened of him for those initial months, why it had been so da bond, its truth unknown to Lyria as well She had been gentle, and quiet, and kind A different sort of strength, yes, but not what heit

Even as the rage consuht, at what had been stolen from him From Lyria, too Aelin had been his, and he had been hers, froht to break theo unpunished Just as he could not forget that Lyria, regardless of what truly existed between the their child when Maeve had sent those eneive that

I will kill you, Aelin had said when she’d heard what Maeve had done How badly Maeve had manipulated him, shattered him--and destroyed Lyria Elide had told him every word of the encounter, over and over I will kill you

Rowan stared into the burning heart of Goldryn’s ruby

He prayed that fire, that rage, had not broken He kne many days it had been, kneho Maeve had proainst her He’d spent teeks strapped on an enemy’s table Still bore the scar on his arm from one of their more creative devices

Hurry They had to hurry

Rowan leaned forward, resting his brow against Goldryn’s hilt The metal arm, as if it still held a whisper of its bearer’s flame

He had not set foot in Akkadia since that last, horrible war Though he’d led Fae and mortal soldiers alike to victory, he’d never had any desire to see it again

But to Akkadia they would go