Kingdom of Ash

“The bones of it are still intact,” Aedion
said. “For how much longer that will remain
true, I don’t know.”
Lysandra’s green eyes slid toward him,
dim with exhaustion and sorrow. “Deep
down,” she said quietly, “some part of me
thought I’d live to see her sitting here.” She
pointed to the dais, to where the antler throne
had once been. “Deep down, I thought we
might actually make it somehow. Even with
Morath, and the Lock, and all of it.”
There was no hope in her face.
It was perhaps because of it that she
bothered to speak to him.
“I thought so, too,” Aedion said with equal
quiet, though the words echoed in the vast,
empty chamber. “I thought so, too.”