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Snarling rose nearby, cutting through the din of battle The ghost leopard had not faltered, had barely stopped to rest

He had to go back out Had to eat soood while, but Aedion was their prince And with Aelin nowhere in sight … it was upon hih those lines were buckling, like leaks in a dam

"The Lanis River by Perranth," Aedion murmured as Ilias and the Silent Assassins shot ilken out of the sky, their arrows easily finding their et them out of the air Then blades to the head, to decapitate fully

Or else they’d rise again And remember who had tried to kill theet to Perranth and cross the river, we could force the, too Pick thehtened as one of the two re princes sent a wave of dark power for a cluster of their soldiers Men wilted like flowers in a frost

A blast of wind and ice answered--Sellene or Endyh But the river’s frozen solid--we ht cross it, then melt it"

"With Aelin" A doubtful, careful question

Aedion gestured toward the source of that answering blast ofprinces’ power "If the Fae royals can ht beneath Morath’s feet"

Galan’s turquoise eyes flickered, either at the plan or the fact that Aelin would not be the one enacting it "Morath h us"

"There’s little other option" From Perranth, they’d have access toto theh …

Aedion surveyed the lines being picked off one by one, the soldiers on their last legs

Retreat and live Fight and die

For this resistance would founder, if they kept at this Here, on the southern plains, they’d be ended

There was no guarantee Rowan and the others would find Aelin That Dorian and Manon ive theet free, should she find theuarantee how ht rally, if any

With the ar Terasen’s coast to be of any use, only Ansel of Briarcliff’s re forces could offer some relief If they weren’t all clean-picked bones by then There was little choice but to hold out until they arrived Their last allies

Because Rolfe and the Mycenians … there was no guarantee that they would come No word

"Order the retreat," Aedion said to the prince "And get word to Endyin to run"

To throw all their uard their backs while they tried to put as many miles between the his bloody helh the chaotic mass of soldiers

A retreat This soon, this fast For all his training, the brutal years of learning and fighting and leading, this hat it had come to

Would they even make it to Perranth?

The order hich the arht back north The Fae troops stayed at their rear,Morath’s forces at bay by the foothills while they retreated toward Perranth

The gru, exhausted soldiers trickled past Lysandra as she trudged between theout of his rent ar blood had warmed her sides as he lay sprawled over her

The war stopped Frozen

So had he

She hadn’t the heart to dislodge him, to leave his dead body on the field to be trampled His blood had frozen him to her anyway

Each step was an effort of will, her oounds healing faster than the soldiers’ around her Many fell during the march toward Perranth Soers

Soain

The resistance was not supposed to break apart so soon