Kingdom of Ash

To make her see what she wished to
believe: his jealousy and resentment of Aelin;
his desperation; his naive foolishness. He had
let his mind become such things, let it lure her
in. And every time she had come close, falling
for those slips in his power, his magic had
studied her own. Just as it had studied
Cyrene’s stolen kernel of shape-shifting, so
had it learned Maeve’s ability to creep into
the mind, seize it.
It had only been a matter of waiting for her
to make her move, to let her lay the trap she’d
close to seal him to her forever.
“You—” A smile from him, and Maeve
stopped being able to speak.
Dorian said into the dark chasm of her
mind, I was a slave once. You didn’t really
think I’d allow myself to be so once again, did
you?
She thrashed, but he held her firm. You will