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Aelin glanced to Rowan, seated beside her, but not touching Her fingers curled in her lap A blink into the gloom was the only indication that he are of her every th settle into her a bit deeper

Dorian and Manonwould be a fool’s errand Their paths would ain, or they would not And if he found the final key and then brought it to her, she would pay what the gods demanded What she owed Terrasen, the world

Yet if Dorian chose to end it hie the Lock … her stomach churned He had the power As much as she did, if not more so

It was meant to be her sacrifice Her blood shed to save them all To let him clai himself on Terrasen, with Maeve’s arrief, she could let Dorian do this She trusted hiive herself for it

Her debt, it was supposed to have been her debt to pay Perhaps the punish to live with herself Having to live with all that had been done to her these months, too

The blackness of the subterranean river pressed in, wrapped its arms around her and squeezed

Different from the blackness of the iron box The darkness she’d found inside herself

A place sheAelin sed, refusing to acknowledge it Heed it

She wouldn’t Couldn’t Not yet Until she was ready

She had seen Rowan’s face when she spoke of what his deception with the collar had prompted her to do Had noted the way her companions looked at her, pity and fear in their eyes At what had been done to her, what she’d becoe body, as if she’d been ripped fro between her for into her hu in silence as the boat was pulled through the glooht of those stares Their dread Felt the just how broken she was

You do not yield

She knew that had been true--that it had been her mother’s voice who had spoken and none other

So she would not yield to this What had been done What remained

For the companions around her, to lift their despair, their fear, she wouldn’t yield

She’d fight for it, claw her way back to it, who she’d been before Reainst that lingering stain on her soul, fight to ignore it Would use this journey into the dark to piece herself back together--just enough to

Even if this fractured darkness noelled within her, even if speech was difficult, she would show theer Aelin of the Wildfire

She would show the world that lie as well Make them believe it

Maybe she’d one day believe it, too

CHAPTER 37

Days of near-silent travel passed

Three days, if whatever senses Rowan and Gavriel possessed proved true Perhaps the latter carried a pocket watch Aelin didn’t particularly care