Kingdom of Ash
She studied the tattoo snaking down the side of his face and neck, vanishing into his dark clothes.
I am your mate.
She had wanted to believe him, but this dream, this illusion she’d been spun …
Not an illusion.
He had come for her.
Rowan.
Rowan Whitethorn. Now Rowan Whitethorn Galathynius, her husband and king-consort. Her mate.
She mouthed his name.
He had come for her.
Rowan.
Silently, so smoothly that not even the white wolf awoke, she sat up, a hand clutching the cloak that smelled of pine and snow. His cloak, his scent woven through the fibers.
She rose to her feet, legs sturdier than they’d been. A thought had the bubble of flame expanding as she crossed the few feet toward the sleeping prince.
She peered down at his face, handsome and yet unyielding.
His eyes opened, meeting hers as if he’d known where to find her even in sleep.
An unspoken question arose in those green eyes. Aelin?
She ignored the silent inquiry, unable to bear opening that silent channel between them again, and surveyed the powerful lines of his body, the sheer size of him. A gentle wind kissed with ice and lightning brushed against her wall of flame, an echo of his silent inquiry.
Her magic flared in answer, a ripple of power dancing through her.
As if it had found a mirror of itself in the world, as if it had found the countermelody to its own song.
Not once in those illusions or dreams had it done that. Had her own flame leaped in joy at his nearness, his power.
He was here. It was him, and he’d come for her.
The flame melted into nothing but cool cave air. Not melted, but rather sucked inside herself, coiling, a great beast straining at the leash.
Rowan. Prince Rowan.
He sat up slowly, a stillness settling over him.
He knew. He’d said it to her earlier, before she’d let oblivion claim her. I am your mate.
They must have told him, then. Their companions. Elide and Lorcan and Gavriel. They’d all been on that beach where everything had gone to hell.
Her magic surged, and she rolled her shoulders, willing it to sleep, to wait—just a while longer.
She was here. They were both here.
What could she ever say to him, to explain it, to make it right? That he’d been used so foully, had suffered so greatly, because of her?
There was blood on him. So much blood, soaking into his dark clothes. From the smears on his neck, the arcs under his fingernails, it seemed he’d tried to wash some off. But the scent remained.
She knew that smell—who it belonged to.
Her spine tightened, her limbs tensing. Working past her clenched jaw, she inhaled sharply. Forced a long breath out through her teeth. Forced herself to work past the scent of Cairn’s blood. What it did to her. Her magic thrashed, howling.
And she made herself say to him, to her prince who smelled of home, “Is he alive?”
Cold rage flickered across Rowan’s eyes. “No.”
Dead. Cairn was dead. The tautness in her body eased—just slightly. Her flame, too, banked. “How?”
No remorse dimmed his face. “You once told me at Mistward that if I ever took a whip to you, then you’d skin me alive.” His eyes didn’t stray from hers as he said with lethal quiet, “I took it upon myself to bestow that fate on Cairn on your behalf. And when I was done, I took the liberty of removing his head from his body, then burning what remained.” A pause, a ripple of doubt. “I’m sorry I didn’t give you the chance to do it yourself.”
She didn’t have it in her to feel a spark of surprise, to marvel at the brutality of the vengeance he’d exacted. Not as the words sank in. Not as her lungs opened up once again.
“I couldn’t risk bringing him here for you to kill,” Rowan went on, scanning her face. “Or risk leaving him alive, either.”
She lifted her palms, studying the unmarked, empty skin.
Cairn had done that. Had shredded her apart so badly they needed to put her back together again. Had wiped away all traces of who and what she’d been, what she’d seen and endured.
She lowered her hands to her sides. “I’m glad,” she said, and the words were true.
A shudder went through Rowan, and his head dipped slightly. “Are you …” He seemed to grapple with the right word. “Can I hold you?”
The stark need in his voice ripped at her, but she stepped back. “I …” She scanned the cave, blocking out the way his eyes guttered at her retreat. Across the chamber, the great lake flowed, smooth and flat as a black mirror. “I need to bathe,” she said, her voice low and raw. Even if there wasn’t a mark on her beyond dirty feet. “I need to wash it away,” she tried again.
Understanding softened his eyes. He pointed with a tattooed hand to the trough nearby. “There are a few extra cloths for you to wash with.” Dragging a hand through his silver hair, longer than she’d last seen it—in this world, this truth, at least—he added, “I don’t know how, but they also found some of your old clothes from Mistward and brought them here.”
But words were becoming distant again, dissolving on her tongue.
Her magic rumbled, pressing against her blood, squeezing her bones. Out, it howled. Out.
Soon, she promised.
Now. It thrashed. Her hands trembled, curling, as if she could keep it in.
So she turned away, aiming not toward the trough but the lake beyond.
The air stirred behind her, and she felt him following. When Rowan gleaned where she intended to bathe, he warned, “That water is barely above freezing, Aelin.”
She just dropped the cloak onto the black stones and stepped into the water.
Steam hissed, wafting around her in billowing clouds. She kept going, embracing the water’s bite with each step, even if it failed to pierce the heat of her.
The water was clear, though the gloom veiled the bottom that sloped away as she dove under the frigid surface.
The water was silent. Cool, and welcome, and calm.
So Aelin loosened the leash—only a fraction.
Flame leapt out, devoured by the frigid water. Consumed by it.
It pulled away that pressure, that endless fog of heat. Soothed and chilled until thoughts took form.
With each stroke beneath the surface, out into the darkness, she could feel it again. Herself. Or whatever was left of it.
Aelin. She was Aelin Ashryver Whitethorn Galathynius, and she was Queen of Terrasen.
More magic rippled out, but she held her grip. Not all—not yet.
She had been captured by Maeve, tortured by her. Tortured by Cairn, her sentinel. But she had escaped, and her mate had come for her. Had found her, just as they had found each other despite centuries of bloodshed and loss and war.
Aelin. She was Aelin, and this was not some illusion, but the real world.
Aelin.
She swam out into the lake, and Rowan followed the jutting lip of stone along the shore’s edge.
She dropped beneath the surface, letting herself sink and sink and sink, toes grasping only open, cool water, straining for a bottom that did not arrive.
Down into the dark, the cold.
The ancient, icy water pulled away the flame and heat and strain. Pulled and sucked and waved it off.
Cooled that burning core of her until she took form, a blade red-hot from the fire plunged into water.
Aelin. That’s who she was.