Day And Night (Throne of Glass high school)

Chapter 42

11 years later...

Third Person

"How did she do it? How could she keep going after all of that?"

"People may say love is a weakness...but it's the opposite. Love is what keeps you fighting, even if everything you love is lost," the younger man replied.

"Did she say that?"

"Always."

Eleven Years Ago

"You, Aelin Ashryver Whitethorn-Galathynius, have been accused of murder on a mass level. How do you plead?" The judge spoke clear.

Aelin closed her eyes. This was it. This was what it was all leading to.

"Guilty," she responded, no hesitation to be heard in her voice. It was strong just like Rowan. Like her.

"In that case, your sentence will be 43 years in prison." The judge slammed down his gavel onto the bench, sealing her future.

This was her choice.

She would stand by it no matter what.

"She was never afraid," the old man stated in realization.

"No, she was always afraid. She just used that fear as fuel to power herself through anything that came at her," the man responded sadly.

"How is that possible?"

"She told herself...I will not be afraid, every morning and night."

"Did you know her name?" asked the old man.

"Yes, I did, but she was known by something else."

Her feet stumbled into her new sleeping quarters.

The iron bars behind her closed and locked. Her new life, though not something new to her.

She just hopes that her friends are home and safe. That they are moving on from her absence without worrying too much. They will have to. After forty-three years when she comes back...she knows that she will not be the same as she is now...as she was before Rowan.

Aelin hoped that her friends would let her go. Just like she would have to do for them. Like she let go of her husband.

One thing that she knew was that no matter what...she would not be afraid.

The old man laid back onto his bunk in the prison cell.

"That worked? Telling herself to not be afraid?" he asked the younger man.

"Every single day."

"You speak so highly of her," the old man commented.

"She saved my life," he replied with a tight smile.

Nine Years Ago

Another guard came over to the cell where the Shadow Girl laid. Her face hidden by the curtain of her long golden hair. Probably to deliver her food, she thought. If that stuff could be even considered as food.

Then she heard something...the guard was opening the main door. Immediately she shot up from her bunk. The guard was standing next to a young teenager.