She didn’t want to know about the people who had been on the grounds—or in the castle.
She forced herself to walk.
Toward the wall. Toward the panicked city beyond. Toward the new world that beckoned.
Two scents converged, then a third. A strange, wild scent that belonged to everything and nothing.
But Aelin did not look at Aedion, or Rowan, or Lysandra as she descended the hill to the city.
Every step was an effort, every breath a trial to pull herself back from the brink, to hold on to the here and now, and what had to be done.
Aelin approached the towering glass wall that now separated the castle from the city, that separated death from life.
She punched a battering ram of blue flame through it.
More yelling arose as the flame ate away at the glass, forming an archway.
The people beyond, crying and holding one another or gripping their heads or covering their mouths, went quiet as she strode through the door she’d made.
The gallows still stood just beyond the wall. It was the only raised surface that she could see.
Better than nothing.
Aelin ascended the butchering block, her court falling into rank behind her. Rowan was limping, but she didn’t allow herself to examine him, to even ask if he was all right. Not yet.
Aelin kept her shoulders back, her face grave and unyielding as she stopped at the edge of the platform.
“Your king is dead,” she said. The crowd stirred. “Your prince lives.”
“All hail Dorian Havilliard,” someone shouted down the street. No one else echoed it.
“My name is Aelin Ashryver Galathynius,” she said. “And I am the Queen of Terrasen.”
The crowd murmured; some onlookers stepped away from the platform.
“Your prince is in mourning. Until he is ready, this city is mine.”
Absolute silence.
“If you loot, if you riot, if you cause one lick of trouble,” she said, looking a few in the eye, “I will find you, and I will burn you to ash.” She lifted a hand, and flames danced at her fingertips. “If you revolt against your new king, if you try to take his castle, then this wall”—she gestured with her burning hand—“will turn to molten glass and flood your streets, your homes, your throats.”
Aelin lifted her chin, her mouth cutting a hard, unforgiving line as she surveyed the crowd filling the streets, people craning to see her, see the Fae ears and elongated canines, see the flames flickering around her fingers.
“I killed your king. His empire is over. Your slaves are now free people. If I catch you holding on to your slaves, if I hear of any household keeping them captive, you are dead. If I hear of you whipping a slave, or trying to sell one, you are dead. So I suggest that you tell your friends, and families, and neighbors. I suggest that you act like reasonable, intelligent people. And I suggest that you stay on your best behavior until your king is ready to greet you, at which time I swear on my crown that I will yield control of this city to him. If anyone has a problem with it, you can take it up with my court.” She motioned behind her. Rowan, Aedion, and Lysandra—bloodied, battered, filthy—grinned like hellions. “Or,” Aelin said, the flames winking out on her hand, “you can take it up with me.”
Not a word. She wondered whether they were breathing.
But Aelin didn’t care as she strode off the platform, back through the gate she’d made, and all the way up the barren hillside to the stone castle.
She was barely inside the oak doors before she collapsed to her knees and wept.
CHAPTER
80
Elide had been in the dungeon so long that she’d lost track of time.
But she’d felt that ripple in the world, could have sworn she heard the wind singing her name, heard panicked shouts—and then nothing.
No one explained what it was, and no one came. No one was coming for her.
She wondered how long Vernon would wait before he gave her to one of those things. She tried counting meals to track time, but the food they gave her was the same for breakfast and dinner, and her meal times changed around … As if they wanted her to lose track. As if they wanted her to fold herself into the darkness of the dungeon so that when they came for her, she’d be willing, desperate just to see the sun again.
The door to her cell clicked open, and she staggered to her feet as Vernon slipped inside. He left the door ajar behind him, and she blinked at the torchlight as it stung her eyes. The stone hallway beyond was empty. He probably hadn’t brought guards with him. He knew how futile running would be for her.
“I’m glad to see they’ve been feeding you. A shame about the smell, though.”
She refused to be embarrassed by it. Smell was the least of her concerns.
Elide pressed herself against the slick, freezing stone wall. Maybe if she got lucky, she’d find a way to get the chain around his throat.
“I’ll send someone to clean you up tomorrow.” Vernon began to turn, as if his inspection were done.
“For what?” she managed to ask. Her voice was already hoarse with disuse.
He looked over his thin shoulder. “Now that magic has returned …”
Magic. That was what the ripple had been.
“I want to learn what lies dormant in your bloodline—our bloodline. The duke is even more curious what will come of it.”
“Please,” she said. “I’ll disappear. I’ll never bother you. Perranth is yours—it’s all yours. You’ve won. Just let me go.”
Vernon clicked his tongue. “I do like it when you beg.” He glanced into the hall beyond and snapped his fingers. “Cormac.”
A young man stepped into view.
He was a man of unearthly beauty, with a flawless face beneath his red hair, but his green eyes were cold and distant. Horrific.
There was a black collar around his throat.
Darkness leaked from him in tendrils. And as his eyes met with hers …
Memories tugged at her, horrible memories, of a leg that had slowly broken, of years of terror, of—
“Leash it,” Vernon snapped. “Or she’ll be no fun for you tomorrow.”
The red-haired young man sucked the darkness back into himself, and the memories stopped.
Elide vomited her last meal onto the stones.
Vernon chuckled. “Don’t be so dramatic, Elide. A little incision, a few stitches, and you’ll be perfect.”
The demon prince smiled at her.
“You’ll be given into his care afterward, to make sure that everything takes as it should. But with magic so strong in your bloodline, how could it not? Perhaps you’ll outshine those Yellowlegs. After the first time,” Vernon mused, “maybe His Highness will even perform his own experiments with you. The acquaintance that sold him out mentioned in his letter that Cormac enjoyed … playing with young women, when he lived in Rifthold.”
Oh, gods. Oh, gods. “Why?” she begged. “Why?”
Vernon shrugged. “Because I can.”
He walked out of the cell, taking the demon prince—her betrothed—with him.
As soon as the door clicked shut, Elide bolted for it, yanking on the handle, tugging until the metal bit into her hands and rubbed them raw, begging Vernon, begging anyone, to hear her, remember her.
But there was no one.
Manon was more than ready to fall into bed at last. After all that had happened … She hoped that the young queen was lingering around Rifthold, and had understood the message.
The halls of the Keep were in an uproar, bustling with messengers who avoided looking at her. Whatever it was, she didn’t care. She wanted to bathe, and then sleep. For days.
When she awoke, she’d tell Elide what she’d learned about her queen. The final piece of the life debt she owed.
Manon shouldered into her room. Elide’s pallet of hay was tidy, the room spotless. The girl was probably skulking about somewhere, spying on whoever seemed most useful to her.
Manon w
as halfway to the bathing room when she noticed the smell.
Or lack of it.
Elide’s scent was worn—stale. As if she hadn’t been here for days.
Manon looked toward the fire. No embers. She reached a hand over it. Not a hint of warmth.
Manon scanned the room.
No signs of a struggle. But …
Manon was out the door the next moment, headed back downstairs.
She made it three steps before her prowl turned into a full-on sprint. She took the stairs two and three at a time and leaped the last ten feet onto the landing, the impact shuddering through her legs, now strong, so wickedly strong, with magic returned.
If there had been a time for Vernon to get back at her for taking Elide from him, it would have been while she was away. And if magic ran in Elide’s family along with the Ironteeth blood in her veins … Its return might have awakened something.
They want kings, Kaltain had said that day.
Hall after hall, stairwell after stairwell, Manon ran, her iron nails sparking as she gripped corners to swing herself around. Servants and guards darted out of her way.