Page 391 of Kingdom of Ash

Maeve’s Valg powers, at last revealed. The same hellish power that the Valg princes possessed. The same power she’d endured. Defeated with flame.

But she had no flame to help them. Nothing at all.

“There’s indeed nothing left for you to bargain with,” Maeve said simply. “But yourself.”

Anything but this. Anything but this—

“You are nothing.”

Elide stood before him, the lofty towers of a city Lorcan had never seen, the city that should have been his home, beckoning on the horizon. The wind whipped her dark hair, as cold as the light in her eyes.

“A bastard-born nobody,” she went on. “Did you think I’d sully myself with you?”

“I think you might be my mate,” he rasped.

Elide snickered. “Mate? Why would you ever think you were entitled to such a thing after all you have done?”

It couldn’t be real—it wasn’t real. And yet that coldness in her face, the distance …

He’d earned it. Deserved it.

Maeve surveyed them, the three males who had been her slaves, lost to her dark power as it ripped through their minds, their memories, and laughed. “Pity about Gavriel. At least he fell nobly.”

Gavriel—

Maeve turned to her. “You didn’t know, did you?” A click of her tongue. “The Lion will roar no longer, his life the asking price for defending his cub.”

Gavriel was dead. She felt the truth in Maeve’s words. Let them punch a hole through her heart.

“You could not save him, it seems,” Maeve went on. “But you can save them.”

Fenrys screamed now. Rowan had fallen silent, his green eyes vacant. Whatever he beheld had drawn him past screaming, beyond weeping.

Pain. Unspeakable, unimaginable pain. As she had endured—perhaps worse.

And yet …

Aelin didn’t give Maeve time to react. Time to even turn her head as she grabbed Goldryn where it lay beside her and hurled it at the queen.

It missed Maeve by an inch, the Valg queen twisting aside before the blade buried itself deep in the snow, steaming where it landed. Still burning.

It was all Aelin needed.

She lashed out, flame spearing into the world.

But not for Maeve.

It slammed into Rowan, into Fenrys and Lorcan. Struck their shoulders, hard and deep.

Burning them. Branding them.

Aelin was dead. She was dead, and he had failed her.

“You are a lesser male,” Lyria said, still studying the gate where Aelin’s body swayed. “You deserved this. After what was done to me, you deserved this.”

Aelin was dead.

He did not wish to live in this world. Not for a heartbeat longer.

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