Page 47 of Kingdom of Ash

A door groaned open and closed. Stalking footsteps neared.

Then a thump on the lid of the coffin. “How does a few more days in there sound to you?”

She wished she could fold herself into the blackness around her.

Cairn told Fenrys to relieve himself and return. Silence filled the room.

Then a thin scraping. Along the top of the box. As if Cairn were running a dagger over it.

“I’ve been thinking how to repay you when I let you out.”

Aelin blocked out his words. Did nothing but gaze into the dark.

She was so tired. So, so tired.

For Terrasen, she had gladly done this. All of it. For Terrasen, she deserved to pay this price.

She had tried to make it right. Had tried, and failed.

And she was so, so tired.

Fireheart.

The whispered word floated through the eternal night, a glimmer of sound, of light.

Fireheart.

The woman’s voice was soft, loving. Her mother’s voice.

Aelin turned her face away. Even that movement was more than she could bear.

Fireheart, why do you cry?

Aelin could not answer.

Fireheart.

The words were a gentle brush down her cheek.Fireheart, why do you cry?

And from far away, deep within her, Aelin whispered toward that ray of memory,Because I am lost. And I do not know the way.

Cairn was still talking. Still scraping his knife over the coffin’s lid.

But Aelin did not hear him as she found a woman lying beside her. A mirror—or a reflection of the face she’d bear in a few years’ time. Should she live that long.

Borrowed time. Every moment of it had been borrowed time.

Evalin Ashryver ran gentle fingers down Aelin’s cheek. Over the mask.

Aelin could have sworn she felt them against her skin.

You have been very brave, her mother said.You have been very brave, for so very long.

Aelin couldn’t stop the silent sob that worked its way up her throat.

But you must be brave a little while longer, my Fireheart.

She leaned into her mother’s touch.

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