The two creatures lunged for her, the darkness sweeping in around them.

   Rowan ran all of one step before she flung out her arms, grabbing the creatures by their flawless faces—­her palms over their open mouths as she exhaled sharply.

   As if she’d breathed fire into their cores, flames shot out of their eyes, their ears, their fingers. The two creatures didn’t have a chance to scream as she burned them into cinders.

   She lowered her arms. Her magic was raging so fiercely that the rain turned to steam before it hit her. A weapon bright from the forging.

   He forgot Gavriel and Lorcan as he bolted for her—­the gold and red and blue flames utterly hers, this heir of fire. Spying him at last, she smiled faintly. A queen’s smile.

   But there was exhaustion in that smile, and her bright magic flickered. Behind her, Narrok and the remaining creature—­the one they had faced in the woods—­were spooling the darkness into themselves, as if readying for attack. She turned toward them, swaying slightly, her skin deathly pale. They had fed on her, and she was drained after shredding apart their brethren. A very real, very final burnout was steadily approaching.

   The wall of black swelled, one final hammer blow to squash her, but she stood fast, a golden light in the darkness. That was all Rowan needed to see before he knew what he had to do. Wind and ice ­were of no use ­here, but there ­were other ways.

   Rowan drew his dagger and sliced his palm open as he sprinted through the gate-­stones.

   •

   The darkness built and built, and she knew it would hurt, knew it would likely kill her and Rowan when it came crashing down. But she would not run from it.

   Rowan reached her, panting and bloody. She did not dishonor him by asking him to flee as he extended his bleeding palm, offering his raw power to harness now that she was well and truly emptied. She knew it would work. She had suspected it for some time now. They ­were carranam.

   He had come for her. She held his gaze as she grabbed her own dagger and cut her palm, right over the scar she’d given herself at Nehemia’s grave. And though she knew he could read the words on her face, she said, “To what­ever end?”

   He nodded, and she joined hands with him, blood to blood and soul to soul, his other arm coming around to grip her tightly. Their hands clasped between them, he whispered into her ear, “I claim you, too, Aelin Galathynius.”

   The wave of impenetrable black descended, roaring as it made to devour them.

   Yet this was not the end—­this was not her end. She had survived loss and pain and torture; she had survived slavery and hatred and despair; she would survive this, too. Because hers was not a story of darkness. So she was not afraid of that crushing black, not with the warrior holding her, not with the courage that having one true friend offered—­a friend who made living not so awful after all, not if she ­were with him.

   Rowan’s magic punched into her, old and strange and so vast her knees buckled. He held her with that unrelenting strength, and she harnessed his wild power as he opened his innermost barriers, letting it flow through her.

   The black wave was not halfway fallen when they shattered it apart with golden light, leaving Narrok and his remaining prince gaping.

   She did not give them a moment to spool the darkness back. Drawing power from the endless well within Rowan, she pulled up fire and light, embers and warmth, the glow of a thousand dawns and sunsets. If the Valg craved the sunshine of Erilea, then she would give it to them.

   Narrok and the prince ­were shrieking. The Valg did not want to go back; they did not want to be ended, not after so long spent waiting to return to her world. But she crammed the light down their throats, burning up their black blood.

   She clung to Rowan, gritting her teeth against the sounds. There was a sudden silence, and she looked to Narrok, standing so still, watching, waiting. A spear of black punched into her head—­offering one more vision in a mere heartbeat. Not a memory, but a glimpse of the future. The sounds and smell and look of it ­were so real that only her grip on Rowan kept her anchored in the world. Then it was gone, and the light was still building, enveloping them all.

   The light became unbearable as she willed it into the two Valg who had now dropped to their knees, pouring it into every shadowy corner of them. And she could have sworn that the blackness in Narrok’s eyes faded. Could have sworn that his eyes became a mortal brown, and that gratitude flickered just for a moment. Just for a moment; then she burned both demon and Narrok to ash.

   The remaining Valg prince crawled only two steps before he followed suit, a silent scream on his perfect face as he was incinerated. When the light and flames receded, all that remained of Narrok and the Valg ­were four Wyrdstone collars steaming in the wet grass.

   56

   A few days after the unforgivable, despicable slave massacre, Sorscha was finishing up a letter to her friend when there was a knock on her workroom door. She jumped, scrawling a line of ink down the center of the page.

   Dorian popped his head in, grinning, but the grin faltered when he saw the letter. “I hope I’m not interrupting,” he said, slipping in and shutting the door. As he turned, she balled up the ruined paper and chucked it into the rubbish pail.

   “Not at all,” she said, toes curling as he nuzzled her neck and slipped his arms around her waist. “Someone might walk in,” she protested, squirming out of his grip. He let her go, but his eyes gleamed in a way that told her when they ­were alone again to­night, he might not be so easy to convince. She smiled.

   “Do that again,” he breathed.

   So Sorscha smiled again, laughing. And he looked so baffled by it that she asked, “What?”

   “That’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” he said.

   She had to look away, go find something to do with her hands. They worked together in silence, as they ­were prone to doing now that Dorian knew his way around the workroom. He liked helping her with her tonics for other patients.

   Someone coughed from the doorway, and they straightened, Sor­scha’s heart flying into her throat. She hadn’t even noticed the door opening—­or the Captain of the Guard now standing in it.

   The captain walked right in, and Dorian stiffened beside her.

   “Captain,” she said, “are you in need of my assistance?”

   Dorian said nothing, his face unusually grim—­those beautiful eyes haunted and heavy. He slipped a warm hand around her waist, resting it on her back. The captain quietly shut the door, and seemed to listen to the outside hall for a moment before speaking.

   He looked even graver than her prince—­his broad shoulders seeming to sag under an invisible burden. But his golden-­brown eyes ­were clear as they met Dorian’s. “You ­were right.”