Page 180 (1/2)

Goldryn burned bright as he plunged it through her back

Into the dark heart within

CHAPTER 115

Maeve’s dark blood leaked onto the snow as she fell to her knees, fingers scrabbling at the burning sword stuck through her chest

Fenrys stepped around her, leaving the shere he’d i around her and Rowan, Aelin approached the queen

Baring her teeth, Maeve hissed as she tried and failed to pry free the blade "Take it out"

Aelin only looked to Lorcan "Anything to say?"

Lorcan s havoc on the spiders "Long live the queen" The Faerie Queen of the West

Maeve snarled, and it was not the sound of a Fae or hu

"Well, look who stopped pretending," Aelin said

"I will go anywhere you choose to banish me to," Maeve seethed "Just take it out"

"Anywhere?" Aelin asked, and let go of Rowan’s hand

The lack of hisinto an ice-cold lake

But she had plenty of her own

Not reater, deeper than that

Fireheart, her mother had called her

Not for her power The naain, clawing at the blade

Wreathing her fingers in flame, Aelin offered her hand to Maeve "You came here to escape a husband you did not love A world you did not love"

Maeve paused, studying Aelin’s hand The new calluses on it She winced--winced in pain at the blade shredding her heart but not killing her "Yes," Maeve breathed

"And you love this world You love Erilea"

Maeve’s dark eyes scanned Aelin, then Rowan and Lorcan, before she answered "Yes In the way that I can love anything"

Aelin kept her hand outstretched The unspoken offer in it "And if I choose to banish you, you will go wherever it is we decide And never bother us again, or any other"

"Yes," Maeve snapped, gri her heart The queen bowed her head, panting, and took Aelin’s outstretched hand

Aelin drew close Just as she slid soer

And whispered in Maeve’s ear, "Then go to hell"

Maeve reared back, but too late

Too late, as the golden ring--Silba’s ring, Athril’s ring--shone on her pale hand

Aelin backed to Rowan’s side as Maeve began to screa toward the dark sky, toward the stars

Maeve had wanted the ring not for protection against Valg No, she was Valg She’d wanted it so that no other iven it to Aelin, it had not been to destroy a Valg queen But to keep Aelin safe And Maeve would never know it--that gift and power: friendship

What Aelin knew had kept the queen before her frodoht on her finger

I And poison to theh to shake the world

They only stood a snow, faces unmoved, and watched her

Witnessed this death for all those she had destroyed

Maeve contorted, clawing at herself Her pale skin began to flake away like old paint

Revealing bits of the creature beneath the glamour The skin she’d created for herself

Aelin only looked to Rowan, to Lorcan and Fenrys, a silent question in her eyes

Rowan and Lorcan nodded Fenrys blinked once, his

So Aelin approached the screa queen, the creature beneath Walked behind her and yanked out Goldryn