To escape death, she'd become death.

But death was her curse and her gift, and death had been her good friend these long, long years.

The world slowed to the beat of an ancient, ageless drum.

Celaena behold the room.

The blood was everywhere.

Before the bed, Nehemia's bodyguards lay with their throats cut from ear to ear, their internal organs spilling out onto the floor.

And on the bed...

On the bed...

She could hear the shouts growing closer, reaching the room, but their words were somehow muffled, as though she were underwater, the sounds coming from the surface above.

Celaena stood in the center of the freezing bedroom, gazing at the bed, and the princess's broken body atop it.

Nehemia was dead.

And then that voice from behind her said her name again.

"Celaena."

They had done this.

Her bloody fingers slid down Dorian's face, to his neck. He just stared at her, suddenly still.

"Celaena," a familiar voice said. A warning.

They had did this. They had betrayed her. Betrayed Nehemia. They had taken her away. Her nail brushed Dorian's exposed throat.

"Celaena," the voice said.

Celaena slowly turned.

Chaol stared at her, a hand on his sword. The sword she'd brought to the warehouse- the sword she'd left there. Archer had told her that Chaol had known they were going to do this.

He had known.

She shattered completely, and launched herself at him.

She was a wolf. She was death, devourer of the worlds.

One of them has to break,” the queen said to the princess. “Only then can it begin.”

“I know,” the princess said softly. ”But the prince isn't ready. It has to be her.”

“Then you understand what I am asking of you?”

The princess looked up, toward the shaft of moonlight spilling into the tomb. When she looked back at the ancient queen, her eyes were bright. “Yes.”

“Then do what needs to be done.”

The princess nodded and walked out of the tomb. She paused on the threshold, the darkness beyond beckoning to her, and turned back to the queen. “She won't understand. And when she goes over the edge, there will be nothing to pull her back.”

“She will find her way back. She always does.”

Tears formed, but the princess blinked them away. “For all our sakes, I hope you're right.