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“But she kept her distance as she looked out the window, to the dazzling day beyond. The world was wide open—and hers for the taking. She could step over that white line.”

This quotation occurs near the end of Chapter 53, when Celaena and Dorian are alone in her room a few days after the duel. She is healing from her wounds and is at last able to see her future—her freedom—for the first time. Although Dorian is in love with her, and she thinks she could love him too, Celaena realizes at this moment that to attach herself to Dorian through a romantic relationship isn’t what she truly wants. The symbolism is magnified by the fact that he belongs to the Havilliard family, the ruling group that was the direct cause of her enslavement and the deaths of her family and friends. Celaena is staying true to her character by refusing to give up more of what matters to her to the Havilliard family. The “white line” recalls the duel in which she was nearly killed in an event sponsored by Dorian’s father, the king; her ability to now see beyond it acknowledges a life free from enslavement, forced labor, and ownership. It is what Celaena has always wanted.

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