Lorcan reached out, grasping her chin and forcing her to look at him. Hopeless, bleak eyes met his. He brushed away a stray tear with his thumb. “I made a promise to protect you. I will not break it, Elide.”

“I will always find you,” he swore to her.

Her throat bobbed.

Lorcan whispered, “I promise.

Because I am from Terrasen and believed my queen dead. And now she is alive, and fighting, so I will fight with her. So that no other girls will be taken from their homes and brought to Morath and forgotten.

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 Wing Leader said from behind her, "Do you believe monsters are born, or made?"
From what she'd seen today, she would say some creatures were very much born evil. But what Manon was asking... "I'm not the one who needs to answer that question." Elide said.

... As Lorcan stared down at Lysandra, his blood-splattered face impassive. "Out of the way, shifter."

Lysandra had held up a slender hand- and Lorcan paused. The shape-shifter pressed her other hand against her stomach, her face blanching. But then she smiled and said, "You forgot to say 'please.' "

Lorcan's dark brows flattened. "I don't have time for this." He made to step around her, shove her aside.

Lysandra vomited black blood all over him.

Rowan didn't know whether to laught or cringe as Lysandra, panting, gaped at Lorcan, and at the blood on his neck and chest. Slowly, too slowly, Lorcan looked down at himself.

She pressed a hand over her mouth. "I am-so sorry-"

Lorcan didn't even step out of the way as Lysandra vomited on him again, black blood and bits of gore now on the warrior and on the marble floor.

I feel like I'm going crazy: seeing you every day but never being able to - to hold you, to touch you when anyone else is around. i just want to take your hand, kiss you, hug you, without having to hide all the time. All those things every other couple takes for granted!