Page 273 of Kingdom of Ash

“You—” A smile from him, and Maeve stopped being able to speak.

Dorian said into the dark chasm of her mind,I was a slave once. You didn’t really think I’d allow myself to be so once again, did you?

She thrashed, but he held her firm.You will free me, she hissed, and the voice was not that of a beautiful queen, but something vicious and cold. Starved and hateful.

You’re old as the earth, and yet you thought I would truly fall for your offer.He chuckled, letting a wisp of his fire burn her. Maeve shrieked, silent and endless in their minds.I’m surprised you fell formytrap.

I will kill you for this.

Not if I kill you first.His fire became a living thing, wrapping around her pale throat. In the real world, in the place where their bodies existed.

You hurt my friend,he said with lethal calm.It will not be so very difficult to end you for it.

Is this the king you wish to be? Torturing a helpless female?

He laughed again.You are not helpless. And if I could, I would seal you inan iron box for eternity.Dorian glanced to the windows. To the night beyond. He had to go—quickly. But he still said,The king I wish to be is the opposite of what you are.He gave Maeve a smile.And there is only one witch who will be my queen.

A groan rumbled through the mountain beneath them. Morath shuddered.

Maeve’s eyes widened further.

A crack louder than thunder echoed through the stones. The tower swayed.

Dorian’s mouth curved upward.You didn’t think I spent all those hours merely searching, did you?

He wouldn’t allow it to exist another day—that chamber with the collars. Not one more day.

So he’d bring down the entire damn keep atop it.

It had not been hard. Little bits of magic, of coldest ice, that wormed through the cracks of Morath’s foundation. That ate away at the ancient stone. Bit by bit, a web of instability growing with each hall and room he searched. Until the entire eastern half of the keep was balanced upon his will alone.

Until now. Until half a thought had his magic expanding through those cracks, bearing down upon them.

And so Morath began to crumble.

Smiling at Maeve, Dorian pulled out. Pulled away, even as he held her mind.

The tower shuddered again. Maeve’s breath hitched.You can’t leave me like this. He’ll find me, he’lltakeme—

As you would have taken me?Dorian shifted into a crow, flapping in the air of the chamber.

Morath groaned again, and above it rose a screech of rage, so piercing and unearthly that his bones quailed.

Tell Erawan, Dorian said, halting on the windowsill,that I did it for Adarlan.

For Sorscha and Kaltain and all those destroyed by it. As Adarlan itself had been destroyed.

But from utter ruin, it might be built again. If not by him, then by others.

Perhaps that would be his first and only gift to Adarlan as its king: a clean slate, should they survive this war.

Screaming filled the halls. He’d marked where the human servants worked, where they dwelled. They would find, as they fled, that their passageways remained stable. Until every last one of them was out.

Please, Maeve begged, staggering to her knees as the tower swayed again.Please.

He should let Erawan find her. Doom her to the life she’d intended for him. For Aelin.

Maeve curled over her knees, her mind and power contained. Waiting in despair for the dark king whom she’d tried so hard to escape. Or for the shuddering fortress to collapse around her.

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