She didn’t want to know what Chaol had been doing these months, or what he now thought of her. If he’d sold the information about her past to the king, maybe the king had sent one of those things ­here, to hunt her. And Dorian—­gods, she’d been so lost in her own misery that she’d hardly wondered about him, whether he’d managed to keep his magic secret. She prayed he was safe.

   She suffered with her own thoughts until Rowan finished with his weapons, then took out their skin of water and rinsed his hands, neck, and chest. She watched him sidelong, the way the water gleamed on his skin in the starlight. It was a damn good thing Rowan had no interest in her, either, because she knew she was stupid and reckless enough to consider whether moving on in the physical sense might solve the problem of Chaol.

   There was still such a mighty hole in her chest. A hole that grew bigger, not smaller, and that no one could fix, not even if she took Rowan to bed. There ­were some days when the amethyst ring was her most precious belonging—­others when it was all she could do not to melt it down in a flame of her own making. Maybe she had been a fool to love a man who served the king, but Chaol had been what she needed after losing Sam, after surviving the mines.

   But these days . . . she didn’t know what she needed. What she wanted. If she felt like admitting it, she actually didn’t have the faintest clue who the hell she was anymore. All she knew was that what­ever and whoever climbed out of that abyss of despair and grief would not be the same person who had plummeted in. And maybe that was a good thing.

   Rowan put his clothes back on and settled against the trunk, his body warm and solid against hers. They sat in the dark for a little until she said quietly, “You once told me that when you find your mate, you can’t stomach the idea of hurting them physically. Once you’re mated, you’d sooner harm yourself.”

   “Yes; why?”

   “I tried to kill him. I mauled his face, then held a dagger over his heart because I thought he was responsible for Nehemia’s death. I would have done it if someone hadn’t stopped me. If Chaol—­if he’d truly been my mate, I ­wouldn’t have been able to do that, would I?”

   He was silent for a long while. “You hadn’t been in your Fae form for ten years, so perhaps your instincts ­weren’t even able to take hold. Sometimes, mates can be together intimately before the actual bond snaps into place.”

   “It’s a useless hope to cling to, anyway.”

   “Do you want the truth?”

   She tucked her chin into her tunic and closed her eyes. “Not to­night.”

   46

   Shielding her eyes from the glare, Celaena scanned the cliffs and the spit of beach far below. It was scorching, with hardly a breeze, but Rowan remained in his heavy pale-gray jacket and wide belt, vambraces strapped to his forearms. He’d deigned to give her a few of his weapons that morning—­as a precaution.

   They’d returned to the latest site at dawn to retrace their steps—­and that was where Celaena had picked up a trail. Well, she’d spied a droplet of dark blood on a nearby rock, and then Rowan had followed the scent back toward the cliffs. She looked down the beach, at the natural-­cut arches of the many caves along its curving length. But there was nothing ­here—­and the trail, thanks to the sea and wind and elements, had gone cold. They’d been ­here for the past half hour, looking for any other signs, but there was nothing. Nothing, except—

   There. A sagging curve in the cliff edge, as if many pairs of feet had worn the lip down as they slid carefully over the edge. Rowan gripped her arm as she leaned to view the crumbled, hidden stair. She glared at him, but he didn’t let go. “I’m trying not to be insulted,” she said. “Look.”

   They ­were hardly steps now—­just lumps of rock and sand peppered with shrubs. The water beyond the beach was so clear and calm that a slight break could be seen in the barrier reef that guarded these shores. It was one of the few ways to make a safe landing ­here without shattering your boat, only wide enough for a small craft to pass through. No warships or merchant vessels would fit, undoubtedly one reason this area had never been developed. It was the perfect place, however, if you wanted to surreptitiously enter the country—­and stay hidden.

   She began sketching in the sandy earth, a long, hard line, then drew dot after dot after dot.

   “The bodies ­were dumped in streams and rivers,” she said.

   “The sea was never far off,” he said, kneeling beside her. “They could have dumped the bodies there. But—”

   “But then those bodies probably would drift right back to shore, and prompt people to look along the beach. Look ­here,” she said, pointing to the stretch of coastline she’d sketched—­and where they ­were currently sitting, smack dab in the middle of it.

   “There are countless caves along this section of the shore.”

   She indicated where the waves broke on the reef and the small, calm space between them. “It’s an easy access point from—” She swore. She ­couldn’t say it. There ­were no ships along ­here, but that didn’t mean that one or two or more ­couldn’t have come from Adarlan, sneaking in at night, and slipped in their violent, vicious cargo using smaller boats.

   Rowan stood. “We’re leaving. Now.”

   “Don’t you think they would already have attacked if they’d seen us?”

   Rowan pointed to the sun. If he was about to tell her it ­wasn’t safe for a queen to be throwing herself into danger, then he could— “If ­we’re going to explore, then ­we’re going to do it under cover of darkness. So ­we’re going back to the stream, and ­we’re going to find something to eat. And then, Princess,” he said with a wild grin, “we are going to have some fun.”

   •

   Some god must have decided to take pity on them, because the rain started right after sunset, thundering clouds rolling in with a vengeance to conceal any sound they made as they returned to the beach and began a thorough search of the caves.

   But that was about where their favor from the gods ended, because what they found, while lying on their bellies on a narrow cliff overhanging a barren beach, was worse than anything they’d anticipated. It ­wasn’t only monsters of the king’s making.

   It was a host of soldiers.

   A few men came out of the massive cave mouth, which was camouflaged among the rocks and sand. They might have missed them had it not been for Rowan’s keen sense of smell. He did not have the words, he said, to describe what that smell was like. But she knew it.

   Celaena’s mouth had gone dry, her stomach a knot as the dark figures slipped in and out of the cave with disciplined, economic movements that suggested they ­were highly trained. They ­weren’t rabid, half-­feral monsters like the one in the library, or cold, flawless creatures like what she’d seen in the barrows, but mortal soldiers. All of them aware, disciplined, ruthless.