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Chaol reined in his gri a hand over his braided hair "Though theyto sweep down from the Ferian Gap when the army arrives here"

"Let’s pray they don’t," Yrene said, surveying the ruks in the valley below

A thousand ruks It had seee nu theht be swept away in the tide of battle

CHAPTER 20

"Do you know the story of the queen alked through worlds?"

Seated on thewith the small white flowers strewn across it, Aelin shook her head

In the towering oaks that for, small stars blinked and shimmered, as if they’d been snared by the branches theht enough to see by, a fullfloated on the warm summer air

"It is a sad story," her aunt said, one corner of her red-paintedupward as she leaned back on her seat carved into a granite boulder Her usual place, while they had these lessons, these long, peaceful chats deep into the balhts "And an old one"

Aelin lifted an eyebrow "Aren’t I a little old for faerie stories?" She’d indeed just celebrated her twentieth birthday three days ago, in another clearing not too far from here Half of Doranelle had come, it had seemed, and yet her mate had found a way to sneak her from the revelry All the way to a secluded pool in the forest’s heart Her face still warmed to think of that moonlit shat Rowan had made her feel, how he’d worshipped her in the sun-warmed water

Mate The as still a surprise As it had been to arrive here at spring’s end and see him beside her aunt’s throne and si … Aelin indeed blushed at the thought of it What they’d done in that forest pool had been the cul marks on her neck--and on Rowan’s--proved it She would not be returning to Terrasen alone when autumn arrived

"No one is too old for faerie stories," her aunt said, faint s "And as you are part faerie yourself, I would think you’d have so her head "Fair enough, Aunt"

Aunt wasn’t entirely accurate, not with generations andthe queen had suggested Aelin call her

Maeve settled further into her seat "Long ago, when the world was nehen there were no hu queen was born"