Page 325 of Kingdom of Ash

To open the gate, she mustbecomethe gate.

Erawan had begun the process of turning Kaltain Rompier into that gate—had put the stone within her arm not for safekeeping, but to prepare her body for the other stones. To turn her into a living Wyrdgate that he might control.

Just one sliver in her body had destroyed Kaltain. To put all three in her own …

My name is Aelin Ashryver Galathynius, and I will not be afraid.

I will not be afraid.

I will not be afraid.

“Ready?” Aelin breathed.

Dorian nodded.

With a final look at the stars, one final look at the Lord of the North standing guard over Terrasen mere miles away, Aelin took the shards from Dorian’s outstretched palm.

And as she and Dorian joined bloodied hands, as their magic roared through them and wove together, blinding and eternal, Aelin slammed the three Wyrdkeys into the open wound of her arm.

Rowan sealed the Wyrdmarks with a swipe of his foot through the icy earth.

Just as Aelin clapped her palm upon her arm, sealing the three Wyrdkeys into her body while her other hand gripped Dorian’s.

It had to work. It had to have been why their paths had crossed, why Aelin and Dorian had found each other twice now, in this exact place. He could accept no other alternative. He couldn’t have let her go otherwise.

Rowan didn’t breathe. Beside him, he wasn’t sure if Chaol did, either.

But while Aelin and Dorian still stood there, heads high despite the fear he scented coursing through them, their faces had gone vacant. Empty.

No flash of light.

No flare of power.

Aelin and Dorian simply stood, hands united, and stared ahead.

Blank. Unseeing. Frozen.

Gone.

Here, but gone. As if their bodies were shells.

“What happened?” Chaol breathed.

Aelin’s hand fell from where it had been clapped onto her arm and dangled limply at her side. Revealing that open wound. The black slivers of rock shoved inside it.

Something in Rowan’s chest, intricate and essential, began to strain. Began to go taut.

The mating bond.

Rowan lurched forward a step, a hand on his chest.

No. The mating bond writhed, as if in agony, as if in terror. He halted, Aelin’s name on his lips.

Rowan fell to his knees as the three Wyrdkeys within Aelin’s arm dissolved into her blood.

Like dew in the sun.

CHAPTER 94

---