Celaena stood on her balcony, looking out over Rifthold.

Chaol had arranged for her to leave for Wendlyn. She knew he believed it was for her own good, but with everything that was going on, she didn't want to go.

She had stood over Nehemia's grave and made a vow.

"Coward," Nehemia had called her and she was right.

Celaena was a coward. She had hid behind her daggers for this long. Hid behind her sass and her banter, all the time hiding her past, her demons. But no longer. It was time she took a stand against the king. Against the man who had stolen everything from her. He had set her on this path in the first place. Now, it would be his undoing.

There was a creak from inside. She turned, surveying her room. Fleetfloot was on the bed, her foot bandaged. Dorian stood just inside the door, looking hesitant.

"Come on then, I'm not going to bite," she said, turning back to the sunset.

He came up beside her, leaning his forearms against the balcony.

There was still a great welt on his head from where she hit him.

"I don't want you to go," he said. "With all that's happened, you shouldn't go."

"I don't have a choice any more," she said.

"There's always a choice," Dorian said.

Again, she had no response.

"I don't know what happened down there," he said, "But I know it was something big. Chaol is afraid of you now and he's sending you away. Why?"

"I can't tell you that," she whispered, not looking at him. After all she had done to hurt him, he still cared for her. It tore at her soul.

"That's okay," Dorian said, "I don't need you to. I figured it out on my own."

She raised a thin brow. "Did you now?"

She said it sarcastically, but inside, she was as frightened as a startled deer. Had he truly figured it out?

"'You will always be my enemy'. That's what you said. Very wide spectrum there given how many people my kingdom, my father, has hurt and destroyed. But then I remembered the date that you snapped in Endovier. The same day you disappeared this year. The same date that the royal family of Terrassen were assassinated. But they never found the princess's body. She was thrown into a river, right? And you said that Arobynn had found you half-dead on a river-bank."

He looked straight at her.

"And you have the Ashryver eyes. You are the lost princess of Terrassen, Aelin Galathynius."

Celaena swallowed but managed to keep her face emotionless.

"Congratulations, you're the first to figure it out. What are you going to do with this information?"

"Absolutely nothing," he said, staring right back, "I don't care about what your name is. You're still the same person that I know. That I fell in love with."

She gasped to hear him say those words, though she should have known that that's what they would be.

'Thank you," she whispered.

Looking at him right then, looking into his beautiful, sapphire eyes, she felt her feelings for him rise to the surface. The feelings she had buried because she thought they weren't right. Because she thought she wasn't good for him. Because she thought that she loved Chaol. And she did. She still loved him. But it was nowhere near the love she felt for Dorian.

With Chaol, she felt safe. She felt secure. But it was boring. When had Celaena Sardothien, Adarlan's Assassin, ever wanted to be safe?

Her love for Dorian was like a whirlwind of passion and fire. When she unlocked it, it consumed her.

His eyes were churning with something, but she didn't know what.

Suddenly, he closed the distance between them. He held her face in palms, cupping her cheeks. He brought his lips to hers.

She stood startled for a moment before responding. Her fingers tangled in his silky black hair.

The fire rose up and consumed her.

A moment later, it was over. He pulled away and stared at her.

She was breathing heavily. She knew her cheeks were flushed and her lips were beginning to swell.

"I can't do this," Dorian said, "Not without knowing what you want. Chaol or me? Because you cant have both of us."

"I choose you, Dorian," she gasped, "I made a mistake being with Chaol. But from now till I am no longer, it will always be you."

The next kiss was slow and sweet. It was a kiss to make up for all the time that they had missed because she was being stupid.

"I love you," he said.

"I love you, too," she replied.

And she meant it.

She loved him to the ends of the earth.