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breath brushing her ear.
She opened her eyes to pale light.
Not the ocean, she realized as she sat up,
the others rousing, undoubtedly at Rowan’s
word.
Overhead, clinging to the cavern ceiling as
if they were stars trapped beneath the rock,
small blue lights glowed.
Glowworms, like those in the lantern.
Thousands of them, made infinite by the
reflection in the black water. Stars above and
below.
From the corner of her eye, Aelin glimpsed
Elide press a hand to her chest.
A sea of stars—that’s what the cave had
become.
Beauty. There was still beauty in this
world. Stars could still glow, still burn bright,
even buried under the earth.
Aelin breathed in the cool cave air, the blue