Define 'soulmate': a soulmate is someone who is perfectly fitted for you, someone created for you, and you are meant to be together. Aelin believes that, except it has been 18 years, and the soulmate tattoo that is on her back still lays dull and pale, a murky grey devoid of life.
They say your tattoo would come to life, filling with colours from the bright red of a new sun to the dark indigo pitch of midnight, when you meet your soulmate. Aelin believes that but though she had seen almost everyone in town, every night she checked in the mirror, and the three slashes were still as grey as dirty snow.
So Aelin decides to leave town, to leave Orynth and travel Terrasen, the country. And if that does not suffice, then she can go to Adarlan and Fenharrow and Melisande and Eyllwe. And if she cannot find her soulmate, she will trek through the Frozen Wastes and the Western Waste and the Deserted Land, if that is what it takes. She can go to Hell if that is what it takes.
When Terrasen proves to be unfulfilling, she goes to Rifthold. She falls in and out of love, with Sam and Dorian and Chaol, but still no soulmate. She meets a girl with bright emerald green eyes, a distant internet friend. While Sam decided to pursue his own path, Dorian, Chaol and Lysandra decide to leave with her.
She goes through all the countries, finally reaching the south of her continent, Eyllwe. Chaol finds his soulmate, Nesryn, a girl with brown skin and dark hair who travelled there from the Southern Continent, and it leaves Aelin with a bitter sting. Chaol's tattoos are dark brown bands across his ankles, while Nesryn's is fairly tanned across her wrists and fingers. A miracle they call it, the tattoos symbolising his recovery and her marksmanship in each others' colours. They decide to go back to the Southern Continent to visit her family. The princess there is beautiful, with dark skin and darker hair, but she has no tattoos, so defeated, Aelin left.
She goes to the Deserted Lands, with only Dorian now and meets a girl who looks like a queen with her flaming red hair, but she too does not have a soulmate markings, only a fake tattoo of a wolf on her shoulder. Despite that, the girl agreed to travel with Aelin.
Trekking through the Western Wastes, she meets a group of girls, who named themselves the Thirteen and is helping a pair of soulmate cross the Waste. Elide and Lorcan, they are called, both with onyx eyes and hair, a matching pair. Elide's tattoo are straight, black lines down her front, and across her chest. Similarly, Lorcan has a straight, black line down his back with more lines waving and curling out from the centre. They look like wings of shadows.
Dorian falls in love with the Thirteen's leader, a girl with golden eyes and white hair. Their tattoos, both blue and white like the winter air, curls around their brows like a laurel wreath. While Dorian's curls up and seem to entwine with his black hair, Manon's has a touch of gold as it dips down and swirls around her eyes. Another cruel slap to Aelin's face.
After Dorian decides to leave with Manon, Ansel convinces Aelin to return home and give up the fruitless search as she returns to the Deserted Lands. Resigned, Aelin goes back home with Lysandra, who decided to have one last stop.
A year has passed since she left Terrasen, yet everything looks perfectly old and normal except for the new tattoo shop. Aelin looks to Lysandra and realises they both wanted their tattoo gone. If they truly do not have a soulmate, then the old method of manual painting will have to do.
Entering the tattoo shop, Lysandra's neck begins to glow, shining through her white jacket. There, nestled in folds of Lysandra's clothes is a white and green spotted tail curling around her neck. She looks at Aelin with a wry smile, and Aelin can feel her heart literally break as she stares up at her cousin, Aedion. Aedion, with his matching firestorm eyes and the exact shades of fire glowing on his chest, right above his heart, under his rather thin shirt.
Aelin wants to scream, yet not being able to find a sound. Frustrated, to say the least, she storms into a tattoo counter and grabs the first black paint brush she can see. In an awkward manoeuvre, she raises the brush behind her, dripping cold, wet paint on her back.
The door opens, and a male voice calls out, but the only thing she can feel is a strange light feeling at her back. She must have dropped too much paint, or something. And then she catches herself in the mirror.
Her golden hair is messily held up in her spare hand while the other holds a dark, still dripping paint brush. But her back. Gods, where the black paint touches her tattoos, it sizzles and disappears amidst the orange lava. Her back tattoo is made of literal flames.
She swings around. The tattoo artist. Was hot. He has silver hair and green eyes and the tattoo that covers half his face and hides down his neck was swirling with a milky silver-white, like the wind in a blizzard.
They crash into each other, not sure who ran first, brush and Aelin's shirt long forgotten. Rowan smells like pine and snow.
Rowan smells like home.