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Certainly not enough to face Erawan and walk away And Maeve

He didn’t care Didn’t give a shit whether she had all the power of the sun, or not an ember

It had never mattered to hi

"Is it always this bad?" Fenrys asked, frowning at the shaking tent walls

"Yes," Elide and Aelin said, then shared a rare smile

A miracle, that smile on Aelin’s mouth

But Elide’s faded as she said, "This storering near the brazier, grunted "Even once the snow stops, there will be that to contend with Soldiers losing toes and fingers to the cold and wet"

Aelin’s smile vanished entirely "I’llherself to the edge of burnout to do it But together, if they linked their powers, the force of Rowan’s h to melt a path To keep the army warm

"We’ll still have an ar his jaw

How aze northward, toward the son who fought in Orynth? Wondering, no doubt, if Aedion still lived

"They’re professionals," Fenrys said drily "They can handle it"

"Going the long way around will only increase the exhaustion," Lorcan said

"The last we heard," Rowan said, "Morath held Perranth" A pained wince fro too close to it Not when it would led in a conflict that would only delay our arrival in Orynth and thin our numbers"

"I’ve looked at the maps a dozen times" Gavriel frowned to where they were laid out on the worktable "There’s no alternative way to Orynth--not without drawing too close to Perranth"

"Perhaps we’ll be lucky," Fenrys said, "and this storm will have hit the entire North Maybe freeze some of Morath’s forces for us"

Rowan doubted they’d be that lucky He had a feeling that any luck they possessed had been spent with the worave and tired He could not iine what it felt like She had yielded all of herself Had given up her huic He kneas the former that left that haunted, bruised look in her eyes That er in her own body

Rowan had taken the tiht to reacquaint her with certain parts of that body And his own Had spent a long while doing so, too Until that haunted look had vanished, until she rithing beneath hi while he , even when they’d turned to steam before they hit her body, and there had been tears on her own face, bright as silver in the fla, when he’d nuzzled her aith kisses to her jaw, her neck, that haunted look had returned And lingered

First her scars Then her h He knew she planned to give more

A rukhin scout called for the queen froave a quiet command to enter But the scout only poked in her head, her eyes wide Snow covered her hood, her eyebrows, her lashes "Your Majesty Majesties," she corrected, glancing at him Rowan didn’t bother to tell her he was sihness "You h for her breath to curl in the chilled air leaking through the tent flaps "All of you"

It took ear, to brace for the snow and wind

But then they were all inching through the drifts, the scout guiding them past half-buried tents Even under the trees, there was little shelter

Yet then they were at the edge of the ca what the scout pointed to as she said, "Look"

At his side, Aelin stu

But she hadn’t been falling She’d been lurching forward--as if to run ahead

Rowan saw at last what she beheld Who eainst the snow, he was nearly invisible with his white fur Would have been invisible were it not for the golden fla antlers

The Lord of the North

And at his feet, all around hi to her lashes, a small sound came out of Aelin as the creature nearest curled its hand, beckoning As if to say, Follow us