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It wouldn’t h Once that collar went around her neck, how long would it take until the Valg prince within pried fro Maeve wished to know? Violated and delved into every inner barrier to ain soon It would be wretched And then the healers would return with their sweet-s s it had been

But she’d seen beyond them, for an instant Had seen canvas fabric draped overhead, rushes covered oven rugs beneath their sandaled feet Braziers s sounded outside--not nearby, but close enough for her Fae hearing to pick up People speaking in both her tongue and the Old Language, so about the cramped camp conditions

An army camp, full of Fae

A more secure location, Cairn had said Maeve had wanted her here, to guard her from Morath Until Maeve clamped the cold Wyrdstone collar around her neck

But then oblivion swept in When she awoke, cleaned and without an ache, she knew Cairn was soon to begin His canvas had been wiped bare, ready for hirand finale, not to pry information from her, not with Maeve’s triumph at hand, but for his own pleasure

Aelin was ready, too

They hadn’t chained her to an altar this tie tent He’d had theht consider home

A tall chest of drawers stood by one canvas wall She doubted it held clothes

Fenrys lay beside it, head on his front paws, sleeping For once, sleeping Grief laid heavy on hiht eyes

Another table had been placed near the one on which she lay A cloth covered three humped objects on it Beside the one closest, a patch of black velvet also had been left out For the instruht display his finest jewels

Two chairs sat facing each other on the other side of the second table, before the large brazier full to the bris The smoke curled upward, up, up--

A sh it …

Aelin couldn’t fight the treht shining in it

Stars Just two, but there were stars overhead The sky itself … it was not the heaviness of full night, but rather ablack

Dawn Likely an hour or so away, if the stars reht

Fenrys’s eyes shot open, and he lifted his head, ears twitching

Aelin took steadying breaths as Cairn shoved through the tent flaps, offering a gli else

"Enjoy your rest?"

Aelin said nothing

Cairn ran a hand down thewhat to do with you, you kno to really savor this, h"

Fenrys’s snarl ruh the tent Cairn just swept the cloth fros, piled with unlit logs

Aelin stiffened as he hauled one over, and set it beneath the foot of the s cut short for its bowl to hover barely above the ground

He set the second brazier below the table’s center The third at the head

"We’ve played with your hands before," Cairn said, straightening Aelin began shaking, began tugging on the chains anchoring her arrew "Let’s see how your entire body reacts to flaift Perhaps you’ll burn like the rest of us"

Aelin yanked uselessly, her feet sliding against the still-cool metal

Not like this--

Cairn reached into his pocket and withdrew so of her body But a breaking of her--of the fire she’d co

He’d melt her skin and bones until she feared the flame, until she hated it, as she hated those healers who had coain to repair her body, to hide as real from what had been a dream

Fenrys’s snarl rolled on, endless