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"Our worst fears have been confir of one of the Northern Fang’s balconies, peering to the arathered on the Gap floor To where their co the chamber in which Vernon sat chained completed Where they should be headed, too But she had paused here Taken a moment

Rowan laid a hand on her shoulder "We will face theether Maeve and Erawan"

"And the hundred thousand soldiers ether, Fireheart," was all he said

She found only centuries of training and cool calculation within his face That unbreakable will

She rested her head against his shoulder, her teht ar left at all?"

He brushed the hair from her face "We will try That is the best we can do" The words of a co fields for centuries

He joined their hands, and together they gazed at the army below The shred of salvation it offered

Had she been a fool, to expend those three hard-won months of descent into her power on that aran now, it wouldn’t, could never, be the same

"Don’t burden yourself with the what-ifs," Rowan said, reading the words on her face

I don’t knohat to do, she said silently

He kissed the top of her head Together

And as the wind howled through the peaks, Aelin realized that her mate, perhaps, did not have a solution, either

CHAPTER 81

"One hundred thousand," Ren breathed, war fire in the Great Hall They had lost two of the Silent Assassins to Morath archers seeking retaliation for the destruction of the witch towers, but nomeal had been somber No one had really eaten, not when darkness had fallen and the enenited More than they could count

Aedion had lingered here after everyone else had trudged to their own beds Only Ren had reeline up to their chaods knew

Perhaps the gods had abandoned theain, now that their only way to return home had been locked up in an iron box Or focused their efforts entirely on Dorian Havilliard

Ren heaved out a long breath "This is it, isn’t it There’s no one left to come to our aid"

"It won’t be a pretty end," Aedion adet that third tower operational again"

They wouldn’t have another chance to surprise Morath now

He jerked his chin at the young lord "You should get some rest"

"And you?"

Aedion just stared into the flame

"It would have been an honor," Ren said "To serve in this court With you"

Aedion shut his eyes, sing hard "It would have been an honor indeed"

Ren clapped hih the hall

Aedion reht for another few minutes before he ht find

He’d nearly reached the entrance to the eastern tohen he spied her