Page 388 of Kingdom of Ash

Yes. He didn’t know why, but it did.

His father had been wiped from the Afterworld, from every realm of existence, but he could still have his name given back to him.

If only to repay the debt. If only so Dorian might grant the man some shred of peace.

Erawan’s power surged for them again. Dorian and Yrene shoved it back.

Now. It had to be now.

“Tell me his name,” Dorian snarled.

Erawan smiled up at him.No.

“Dorian,” Yrene warned. Sweat slid down her face. She couldn’t hold him for much longer. And to risk her—

Dorian sent their power rippling down the blade. Damaris’s hilt glowed.

“Tell me—”

It is your own.

Erawan’s eyes widened as the words came out of him.

As Damaris drew it from him. But Dorian did not marvel at the sword’s power.

His father’s name …

Dorian.

I took his name,Erawan spat, writhing as the words flowed from his tongue under Damaris’s power.I wiped it away from existence. Yet he only remembered it once. Only once. The first time he beheld you.

Tears slid down Dorian’s face at that unbearable truth.

Perhaps his father had unknowingly hidden his name within him, a final kernel of defiance against Erawan. And had named his son for that defiance, a secret marker that the man within still fought. Had never stopped fighting.

Dorian. His father’s name.

Dorian let go of Damaris’s hilt.

Yrene’s breathing turned ragged. Now—it had to be now.

Even with the Valg king before him, something in Dorian’s chest eased. Healed over.

So Dorian said to Erawan, his tears burning away beneath the warmth of their magic. “I brought down your keep.” He smiled savagely. “And now we’ll bring you down as well.”

Then he nodded to Yrene.

Erawan’s eyes flared like hot coals. And Yrene unleashed their power once more.

Erawan could do nothing. Nothing against that raw magic, joining with Yrene’s, weaving into that world-making power.

The entire city, the plain, became blindingly bright. So bright that Elide and Lysandra shielded their eyes. Even Dorian shut his.

But Yrene saw it then. What lay at Erawan’s core.

The twisted, hateful creature inside. Old and seething, pale as death. Pale, from an eternity in darkness so complete it had never seen sunlight.

Had never seenherlight, which now scalded his moon-white, ancient flesh.

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