Page 48 of Kingdom of Ash

You must be brave a little while longer, and remember …

Her mother placed a phantom hand over Aelin’s heart.

It is the strength ofthisthat matters. No matter where you are, no matter how far, this will lead you home.

Aelin managed to slide a hand up to her chest, to cover her mother’s fingers. Only thin fabric and iron met her skin.

But Evalin Ashryver held Aelin’s gaze, the softness turning hard and gleaming as fresh steel.It is the strength ofthisthat matters, Aelin.

Aelin’s fingers dug into her chest as she mouthed,The strength of this.

Evalin nodded.

Cairn’s hissed threats danced through the coffin, his knife scraping and scraping.

Evalin’s face didn’t falter.You are my daughter. You were born of two mighty bloodlines. That strength flows through you. Lives in you.

Evalin’s face blazed with the fierceness of the women who had come before them, all the way back to the Faerie Queen whose eyes they both bore.

You do not yield.

Then she was gone, like dew under the morning sun.

But the words lingered.

Blossomed within Aelin, bright as a kindled ember.

You do not yield.

Cairn scraped his dagger over the metal, right above her head. “When I cut you up this time, bitch, I’m going to—”

Aelin slammed her hand into the lid.

Cairn paused.

Aelin pounded her fist into the iron again. Again.

You do not yield.

Again.

You do not yield.

Again. Again.

Until she was alive with it, until her blood was raining onto her face, washing away the tears, until every pound of her fist into the iron was a battle cry.

You do not yield.

You do not yield.

You do not yield.

It rose in her, burning and roaring, and she gave herself wholly to it. Distantly, close by, wood crashed. Like someone had staggered into something. Then shouting.

Aelin hammered her fist into the metal, the song within her pulsing and cresting, a tidal wave racing for the shore.

“Get me that gloriella!”

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