Page 224 of The Crown’s Temptation

“It was your Maridale who⁠—”

She could not finish the thought let alone the sentence. She felt him get up and walk away.

If she could have spoken, she would have told him that at the time she herself was pregnant and could not risk her father’s wrath any more than she had already risked for Iavis.

She still did not know why she helped him, other than that Teorin had called him a friend and asked her to.

She had never thought to ask why or how Teorin could be friends with Iavis, a man whom everyone knew to be Colsar’s right hand man.

None of it mattered now anyway.

She felt the world go quiet and almost laughed at the irony.

Blood calls to blood, Asharin had said.

Dali thinks she has won.

Nox thinks of Aviaryn. Safe. Protected. Nowhere in Morrath.

She thinks of the day they arrived. The army. The little shitspawns in baskets. The birds in the sky.

She thinks of the determination in Asharin's eyes when she fought her. She thinks of her daughter who had asked about bedtime stories and who had recently had a look of longing Nox could not quite place.

More memories start to come. The Bloodhaven those years ago. The plans made with Sevrin Rathmor, who had proven to be more interesting than she had ever given him credit for.

But she has learned in life that men cannot be relied upon, so she decides her final thoughts will not be about any man or any throne.

She thinks of Ryaran, who had briefly been the only thing like a mother to her.

Darkness breeds darkness. Blood calls to blood.

Asharin. Who had saved her daughter and even fought her, Aviaryn's own mother, to protect her. Who had not died no matter how many times others had tried. The object of everyone's obsession. And yet none of them could have her.

None except the dog. The dog who was supposed to be cold and without a kingdom. Yet had returned to Veynar with golden cheeks and ancient magic and two armies.

Dogs are loyal.

Nox thought of Asharin's eyes when she had said it.

I am Ryaran's daughter.

Nox began to fade. But she did not feel anger. She did not care about the betrayal anymore.

None of it matters, she thought.

Because Aviaryn is safe.

“She will be treated like my own child whenever she is in our care. Even if that care never ends.”

She had meant it, that is why Nox had not killed her.

And not only that.

Dali. Orsin. Tamal. Teorin. Do not get too comfortable.

My sister will come for you all.

The Queen of Umbrelai