And Elide sobbed as Manon Blackbeak emerged, smiling faintly.
As Manon Blackbeak saw her and Aelin, knee-to-knee in the grass, and mouthed one word.

Hope.

The queen looked at the nails, the teeth, and grinned.
Honestly–it was a shame that Manon had to kill her.

How can I take away somebody who means the world to someone else? Even if she is my enemy.

Aelin would come back, and when she did . . . With every breath, Aedion felt that lingering scent wrapping tighter around his heart and soul. When she came back, he was never letting her go.

Aedion snorted. “Hurry up with the eggs. I'm going to die of starvation.”
“Make the bacon, or you don't get any.”
Aedion could hardly move fast enough.

Ashryver eyes met her own, and she touched the face that was the other side of her fair coin.
"For Terrasen," she said to him
"For our family."
"For Marion."
"For us."

Slowly Aedion drew his blade and knelt, his head bowed as he lifted the Sword of Orynth. "Ten years of shadows, but no longer. Light up the darkness, Majesty."
She did not have room in her heart for tears, would not allow or yield to them.
Aelin took her father's sword from him, its weight a steady, solid reassurance.
Aedion rose, returning to his place beside Rowan.
She looked at them, at the three males who meant everything—more than everything.
Then she smiled with every last shred of courage, of desperation, of hope for the glimmer of that glorious future. "Let's go rattle the stars.