The Assassin and the Princess Exclusive Scene (Throne of Glass Novella) - Part 11

So, as you may remember... I have been posting the last few weeks about the second book in the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas - Crown of Midnight. Today I get to post something super exciting. I have part of an exclusive scene from the Throne of Glass novella The Assassin and the Princess!

There are ten blogs ahead of me that have posted the first parts to this scene earlier this week. Check those out first and get back to me:

Fiction in Fiction in Fiction (Part 1)
Serendipity Reviews (Part 2)
Novel Sounds (Part 3)
Shiirleyy's Bookshelf (Part 4)
Dark Readers (Part 5)
Vivalabooks (Part 6)
Yolanda Sfetsos (Part 7)
Narratively Speaking (Part 8)
My Guilty Obsession (Part 9)
So Many Books, So Little Time (Part 10)

And now... Part 11:
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 The carriage wasn’t much warmer than the outside. Celaena and Nehemia huddled together, cursing violently and rather creatively at the endless winter.

Nehemia’s latest vulgar concoction sent Celaena into a fit of howling laughter, so loud that one of the guards riding atop the carriage thumped twice to ask if all was right. Nehemia thumped thrice to assure him all was fine, but Celaena kept laughing until her stomach hurt.

When silence fell again, she looked at her friend and wiped the tears of laughter from her eyes. “I’d pay good money to see you say that to Queen Georgina.”

Nehemia chuckled, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Thank you, Elentiya, for helping me today. I—I needed the dresses. And to get out of the castle for a bit.”

Celaena sobered, and nodded. They passed through wealthiest district, a blur of alabaster houses and emerald roofs, now iced over and gleaming in the lamplight. “Thank you for pretending. For one day, at least.”

She felt Nehemia’s eyes on her, but kept staring out at the wet streets, slick from a day of melting snow now turning to ice. After a while, Celaena asked, “Do you ever wonder what it’d be like if we truly were ordinary people?”

The princess chewed on her lip. “Sometimes.”

“Do you ever wish you were? Ordinary, I mean.”

Nehemia was quiet for a long moment, her eyes distant, as if she beheld some far-off land, warm and vibrant, its grasslands undulating under a hot summer sun. “It is my most selfish wish and daydream—to be normal, to be ordinary, to be free of my burdens.”

She hadn’t realized she’d been holding her breath, hadn’t realized just how important Nehemia’s answer was to her until she’d heard it. Celaena sighed. “And yet you and I couldn’t even pretend for a single day to be free of those burdens.”

Finish reading this scene today at 4:00pm at Fall Into Books!