Aedion grinned at his queen as the entire world went to hell.

Aedion touched her shoulder. “Welcome home, Aelin.

And at long last, Aelin Ashryver Galathynius was home.

Whatever you had to do to survive, whatever you did from spite or rage or selfishness... I don't give a damn. You're here - and you're perfect. You always were and you always will be.

He stared at her; she stared right back.
Unyielding, unbreakable. They'd been cut from the same cloth.
Aedion loosed a breath and looked at their joined hands - then opened his to examine her scarred palm, crisscrossed with the marks of her vow to Nehemia and the cut she'd made the moment she and Rowan became carranam, their magic joining them in an eternal bond.
'It's hard not to think all of your scars are my fault.'
Oh. Oh.

A smile tugged at her lips, and her eyes - their eyes - sparkled. 'Hello, Aedion.