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Now, Prince

He knew that voice, had felt its warht herself whispered at his ear …

Rowan didn’t give hied hiladly sacrifice hisice into his veins

Cal of his blades, every blast of his power, had to count

Rowan speared his rabbed for their throats, feeble shields wobbling around the the air fros, their blood

They went down a heartbeat later

Sentries shouted fro out

But Roas already running And the sentries in the trees, their shouts lingering on the wind as they gasped for breath, were already dead

The sky slowly bled toward dawn

Standing at the edge of the forest that bordered the eastern side of the carassy hills between hi troops

Gavriel had already shifted, and thefor the signal

It was an effort not to peer behind hih Lorcan could not see her They’d left Elide a fewa glen Should all go poorly, she’d flee deeper into the hilly woods, up into the ancientpredators than Fae still prowled

She hadn’t offered hih she’d wished theht words anyway, so he’d left without so lanced back now Prayed that if they didn’t return, she wouldn’t co, ears twitching toward the camp

Lorcan stiffened

A spark of his poakened and flickered

Death beckoned nearby

"It’s too soon," Lorcan said, scanning for any sign of Whitethorn’s signal Nothing

Gavriel’s ears lay flat against his head And still those flutters of the dying trickled past

CHAPTER 26

Aelin sed once Twice The portrait of uncertain fear as she lay chained on thefor her answer

And then she said, her voice cracking, "When you finish breaking me apart for the day, how does it feel to know that you are still nothing?"

Cairn grinned "Soh the iven the oath for this Fornothing Less than nothing, frohtened around the flint "Keep talking, bitch Let’s see where it gets you"

A rasping laugh broke froet I’

"At least they agree with me on one front You’re spineless Have to tie up people to hurt theave a pointed glance between his legs "Inadequate in the ways that count"

A treh him "Would you like me to show you how inadequate I aazed toward the ceiling, toward the lightening sky The last she’d see, if she played this right

There had always been another, a spare, to take her place should she fail That her death would ods to de, to hate herself for it She’d failed enough people, failed Terrasen, that the additional weight barely landed She wouldn’t have er to feel it anyway

So she drawled toward the sky, the stars, "Oh, I know there’s not h of a , are you?" At his silence, she sht so I dealt with plenty of your ilk at the Assassins’ Guild You’re all the same"

A deep snarl