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Screa filled the halls He’d marked where the human servants worked, where they dwelled They would find, as they fled, that their passageways remained stable Until every last one of the to her knees as the toayed again Please

He should let Erawan find her Doom her to the life she’d intended for him For Aelin

Maeve curled over her knees, herwho fortress to collapse around her

He kneould regret it Knew he should kill her But to condemn her to what he’d endured …

He would not wish it upon anyone Even if it cost them this war

He did not think it made him weak Not at all

Beyond the , Ironteeth shot to the skies, wyverns shrieking as Morath’s stones began to give way In the valley below, the arh above theain Levels beneath thee thundered from Erawan--closer now

So Dorian soared into the chaotic night

Maeve’s silent cry of despair followed on his heels All the way to the peaks overlooking Morath and that rocky outcropping--to the two Wyrdkeys buried under the shale

He could barely remember his own name as he slid them into his other pocket As all three of the Wyrdkeys now lay upon him

Then he reached back into the mind still tethered to his

It was simple as an incision To sever the link between their ift that allowed her to jump between places To open those portals

World-walker no longer, he said as his raw est you invest in a good pair of shoes

Then he let go of Maeve’sscreae and vicious, nosupplies to the aerial legion

A king--he could be a king to Adarlan in these last days that remained for him Wipe away the stain and rot of what it had becoht start anew Beco hard and fast

And when he looked behind him, at the mountain and valley that reeked of death, at the place where so ht Morath’s towers crashing down

CHAPTER 79

Yrene hated the Ferian Gap Hated the tight air between the two gargantuan peaks, hated the bones and wyvern refuse littering the rocky floor, hated the reek that slithered fros had been carved into the h they had not yet decided if that was a blessing

The two ar to le of Oakwald That trek would take an age, even with the rukhin carrying the wagons and heavier supplies And then the push northward through the forest, taking the ancient road that lay along the Avery’s northern branch

"Passwith her chin to her supply kit Spread on a blanket on the bottohan soldier lay unconscious, cold sweat beading his brow He hadn’t seen a healer after getting a slice to the thigh at the battle for Anielle, and when he’d fallen clean off his horse this , he’d been hauled in here

Elide’s hands remained steady as she plucked up the thin knife and passed it to Yrene

"Will it wake him?" she asked while Yrene bent over the unconscious warrior and exah to turn led the knife "He’ll stay out until I wake hian to clean out the wound, scraping away the dead, infected bits