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CHAPTER

1

There was a thing waiting in the darkness

It was ancient, and cruel, and paced in the shadows leashing his ht here to fill him with its primordial cold Some invisible barrier still separated the stalked along its length, testing its strength

He could not remember his name

That was the first thing he’d forgotten when the darkness enveloped hiotten the names of the others who had meant so much to him He could recall horror and despair—only because of the solitarythe blackness like the steady beat of a dru and blood and frozen wind There had been people he loved in that roolass; the woman had lost her head—

Lost, as if the beheading were her fault

A lovely woolden doves It was not her fault, even if he could not relass throne, who had ordered that guard’s sword to sever flesh and bone

There was nothing in the darkness beyond the round There was nothing but thatnearby, waiting for him to break, to yield, to let it in A prince

He could not re was the prince, or if he himself had once been a prince Not likely A prince would not have allowed that woman’s head to be cut off A prince would have stopped the blade A prince would have saved her

Yet he had not saved her, and he knew there was no one co to save him

There was still a real world beyond the shadows He was forced to participate in it by the hter of that lovely woman And when he did, no one noticed that he had beco to speak, to act past the shackles on hisThat was one of the emotions he still knew

I was not supposed to love you The woman had said that—and then she died She should not have loved him, and he should not have dared to love her He deserved this darkness, and once the invisible boundary shattered and the waiting thing pounced, infiltrating and filling him … he’d have earned it

So he re the scream and the blood and the ile, knew he had struggled in those final seconds before the collar of black stone had clamped around his neck

But there was a thing waiting in the darkness, and he could not bring hier

CHAPTER

2

Aelin Ashryver Galathynius, heir of fire, beloved of Mala Light-Bringer, and rightful Queen of Terrasen, leaned against the worn oak bar and listened carefully to the sounds of the pleasure hall, sorting through the cheers and h it had chewed up and spat out several owners over the past few years, the subterranean warren of sin known as the Vaults re of stale ale and unwashed bodies, and packed to the rafters with lowlifes and career criminals

More than a few young lords and ered down the steps into the Vaults and never seen daylight again Soold and silver in front of the wrong person; soh to think that they could ju pits and walk out alive Sometimes theythe cavernous space and learned the hard way about which people the owners of the Vaults really valued

Aelin sipped fro barkeep had slid her moments before Watery and cheap, but at least it was cold Above the tang of filthy bodies, the scent of roasting ruh to order food One, the meat was usually courtesy of rats in the alley a level above; tealthier patrons usually found it laced with so in the aforementioned alley, purse empty If they woke up at all

Her clothes were dirty, but fine enough to et So she’d carefully exa it safe She’d still have to find food at some point soon, but not until she learned what she needed to from the Vaults: what the hell had happened in Rifthold in the one

And what client Arobynn Ha here—especially when brutal, black-uniforme

d guards were roa the city like packs of wolves

She’dthe chaos of docking, but not before noting the onyx wyvern e of Adarlan had grown tired of pretending he was anything but a menace and had issued a royal decree to abandon the traditional criold of his empire Black for death; black for his two Wyrdkeys; black for the Valg de to build himself an unstoppable army

A shudder crawled along her spine, and she drained the rest of her ale As she set down the ht-iron chandeliers

She’d hurried from the docks to the riverside Shadow Market—where anyone could find anything they wanted, rare or contraband or commonplace—and purchased a brick of dye She’d paid the merchant an extra piece of silver to use the small rooh to brush just below her collarbones If those guards had beenthe docks and had soolden-haired young wo wo’s Champion had failed in her task to assassinate Wendlyn’s royal family and steal its naval defense plans

She’d sent a warning to the King and Queen of Eyllwe o, and knew they’d take the proper precautions But that still left one person at risk before she could fulfill the first steps of her plan—the sauards by the docks And why the city was noticeably quieter, tenser Hushed

If she were to overhear anything regarding the Captain of the Guard and whether he was safe, it would be here It was only awith the right card partners What a fortunate coincidence, then, that she’d spotted Tern—one of Arobynn’s favored assassins—buying the latest dose of his preferred poison at the Shadow Market

She’d followed him here in ti on the pleasure hall They never did that—not unless theira erous

After Tern and the others had slipped inside the Vaults, she’d waited on the street for a fewin the shadows to see whether Arobynn arrived, but no such luck He must have already been within

So she’d coroup of drunkencourt, and done her best to remain unnoticed and unremarkable while she lurked at the bar—and observed

With her hood and dark clothes, she blended in well enough not to garner h to atteht back She was running low on money

She sighed through her nose If her people could only see her: Aelin of the Wildfire, assassin and pickpocket Her parents and uncle were probably thrashing in their graves

Still Soer at the bald barkeep, signaling for another ale

“I’d irl,” sneered a voice beside her

She glanced sidelong at the average-sized man who had slipped up beside her at the bar She would have known hinized the disarly common face The ruddy skin, the beady eyes and thick brows—all a bland ry killer beneath