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“The fear of loss … it can destroy you as much as the loss itself.”

“I think love should make you happy,” Elide said, remembering her mother and father. How often they had smiled and laughed, how they had gazed at each other. “It should make you into the best possible version of yourself.”

“I made a promise to protect you. I will not break it, Elide.” She made to pull away, but he gripped her a little harder, keeping her eyes on him. “I will always find you,” he swore to her. Her throat bobbed. Lorcan whispered, “I promise.”

“I’ll always find a way back to you.”

“I’d walk into the burning heart of hell itself to find you.”

My name is Aelin Ashryver Galathynius … And I will not be afraid.

“I see you. I see every part of you. And I am not afraid.”

There were no words in his eyes; none in hers, either. Words did not do it justice. Not in any language, in any world.

“I love you. There is no limit to what I can give to you, no time I need. Even when this world is a forgotten whisper of dust between the stars, I will love you.”

He wished Chaol were with him. Wished for time to just … stop so he might sort out all these fractured pieces of himself, put them into some kind of order, if not back together entirely.

“Men will not fear the threat of a brother. I would still be unclaimed—still be open for … invitations. I have seen how little respect men have for anything they think they are entitled to. So you are my husband,” she hissed, “until I say otherwise.”

Aelin is my heart.

Destroying a symbol can break the spirits of men as much as bloodshed.

She’d been in love with him for a while now. Longer than she wanted to admit.