Page 41 of The Malice of Moons and Mages (The Broken Bonds of Magic #1)

Forty- One

Lua

T he inn’s air was thick with inebriated humor. Audra’s laugh was infectious, her thigh pressed against Lua’s beneath the table as Arn’s latest lewd joke had her nearly choking. She slammed her hand on the table. Lua laughed beside her.

It startled him. He couldn’t recall the last time he’d laughed, and the mead that coursed through Audra’s system was beginning to affect him. After they’d sealed and straightened the mortar and settled the foundation to last with or without their lives depending on it, Arn had insisted they stay another night.

They should have shouldered away from Stonetown and headed into the spires after a day, but Lua hadn’t forced it. Audra liked it here. The customs were familiar but different enough to avoid sad recollection. The people were genuinely kind, despite recognizing him as northern. Still, his presence here put everyone in danger.

Being welcomed so warmly roused difficult truths. These were decent people, and Lua had likely killed their families and friends under his father’s orders, not that he remembered much of it. So much of those years were muddled with blood and violence .

Repairing the village had been the right thing to do.

The woman from the clothier shop had given them fresh clothing for mending her chimney so that the smoke didn’t get trapped inside anymore. She’d kept the higher windows open for a dozen winters, because every attempt at fixing it had also threatened its collapse. Her health had suffered for it.

Lua slipped into the moonslight to assess the town’s well that they’d strengthened earlier in the day, while Audra slumbered between fresh sheets. A part of him knew on a deeper level that these acts of contrition were her influence. The Korays weren’t generous with magic or time unless there was an advantage to it. The Rajav taught them nothing should be given without taking something in return.

When Audra threw an arm over his chest while sleeping, the affection slowly rooting inside him bloomed. He’d lain beside her for hours, unsleeping, afraid of ruining that sense of peace she gave him. She quickly pulled away when she woke, and they didn’t discuss it. Even when it happened the second night.

He couldn’t tell her he longed for those quiet moments together, where they wrapped arms around each other and he could think of nothing else. Even if it was only magic tying her to him.

“Another?” Arn smiled with broken teeth and nodded at the empty mug.

“Yes!” Audra lifted the cup high, slurring the word with complete chagrin.

Lua pulled her cup away. “I think we’re done.”

She gave him a bleary-eyed look. “Speak for yourself, Moonie ,” she said and roared at her own joke. Arn, thankfully, laughed and didn’t question it.

As Lua stood, Audra’s inebriation spun through him. He shook his head. “That’s enough. We’ll set out tomorrow.”

Audra’s attempt at rising resulted in her draped across the table. Lua scooped an arm beneath her shoulders before lifting her upright. When her knees buckled, he lifted her completely. She sank into his arms, her head resting against his chest. He was on the second step, carefully navigating them around a wooden beam, when Arn spoke.

“It’s been nice having you here. ”

Lua paused, looking back at him.

Arn’s cheeks flushed as he spoke. “I thought all our mages were gone.”

Lua looked at Audra with her drunk-ruddy cheeks. “Not all of them.”

He laid her on the bed, untying her boots and tugging off her socks before removing her outer shirt. Securing the blanket over her, he turned to leave, hoping the waning moonslight would clear his head. Audra’s hand found his. Her thread tugged seductively at him.

“Don’t go,” she mumbled, peering at him from one half-open eye.

“You’re drunk. Just sleep it off.” He tried to pull away, but she held firm. His desire balanced on a blade’s edge.

“Lay down with me.”

“I need to clear my head.” But his resistance wavered under her pull. She wound her thread around his and drew him down, nuzzling his neck with her lips.

Lua was a mouse trapped beneath her cat’s paw, and yet he didn’t want to escape. She nipped his throat, then the edge of his jaw. His voice lacked conviction. “Audra, you’re drunk.”

“I’m not that drunk.” Her words slurred. She kissed his chin, leaning up on one arm, her mouth moved toward his.

He yearned for her. Their magic entwined. With a force of will, he pushed her away. “Not like this.”

Audra’s eyes widened at the rejection. “What?”

He disentangled her arms from around him, hesitating at the hunger in her eyes. Gently, he brushed the hair from her face and exhaled slowly. “You don’t know what you’re doing. And you’re too drunk to understand how this might go.”

She tugged at his robes to pull him down again. “You could teach me how to light a fire.”

Lua leaned forward. Her mouth was so close to his. Her lips parted slightly. Then he tilted his chin up and brushed a kiss across her brow. It was electric, drawing him toward her despite his hesitance. Her arms wrapped around him again.

“ Shit .” He pulled away and shook his head. “Distance might serve us both better. We can talk about this another time. ”

He turned and left, glancing back to catch her baffled expression before the door closed.

“You asshole!” she yelled.

Lua rushed past the snickering patrons who’d heard Audra’s voice, into the frosty night. He stripped his outer robe and rolled up his sleeves as his breath steamed in the air. The chill quieted the fire that Audra had stoked. Damn if he still wanted to go back. He dragged a hand over his face. He’d have to find another place to sleep.

That he couldn’t touch anyone else only heightened each of their moments together. Her touch was more precious to him than food was to a starving man. He’d been unable to explain it to her; it was embarrassing and strangely intimate.

Maybe he should have given in. He longed to taste her scent of honey and pine, to sear it into his bones while wrapped in her ecstasy, to make her breath hitch with pleasure. But once they started down that path, he couldn’t turn back. The bond was already too strong, nearly choking him occasionally. If they explored the sexual tension between them, he’d lose himself to her.

If he was a fool for resisting what he wanted, it would have been more foolish to give in so recklessly, especially since she didn’t know what would happen. His want for her, his need of her, would become obsessive. It was nearing that already. She was becoming every breath and heartbeat.

It would be different than with Eras or Kristo. His magic had siphoned them a bit with every encounter, until their lives ended too early. Audra’s magic could hold its own against him; he could feel it. But what if she siphoned him instead?

He shook his head. Ridiculous. But doubt pricked at his skin.

He prayed for guidance, but Silence only glowed beside Raia’s thin ring. Song had already moved on. With the image of desire thick on Audra’s face, all his inner arguments were fruitless. He should go back. Maybe she’d sobered a bit. Or maybe she hadn’t. He pressed his fists into his eyes and groaned.

A movement startled him. Silver lit his hands as he whirled, but it dimmed as Arn stepped into view.

“You all right?” Arn asked. His bare arms shone from the rolled sleeves of his layered shirts and dirty apron. Heat rose from his uncovered head. “Didn’t know if you’d be gone before I caught you in the morning.”

“Did you need something?”

“No, just wanted to thank you for helping us. We—myself and the others—are grateful for what you and Audra have done.”

Lua waved his hand dismissively. “It’s nothing. Fair trade for room and food.”

Arn shook his head. “It means more than you know. Before the last incursion, before the Starlings came, we still had a few mages that performed deeds like this. I know you aren’t...”

Lua met his eyes as the man paused.

“One of us.” Arn let the implication hang between them.

Lua kept silent. There was no point in denying it. He’d directly contributed to these people’s hardships, and they both knew it.

“But we’ve seen you helping, and that’s what matters now.” Arn cleared his throat. “May I offer some advice?”

He sighed and nodded. Advice from a poor man at least a hundred years his junior.

“Hurry through the spires.”

Not what he’d been expecting. “What?”

“Audra mentioned you’d be going that way, and I wanted to tell you that just because the spires are quiet doesn’t mean they’re abandoned. Get through them in one day, and you’ll be better for it.”

“Something lives there?”

Arn shrugged. “Don’t know. Everyone avoids it out of respect. Recommend you do the same. No one’s ventured through there in years, even the ligers avoid it. Our last elder swore it was haunted.”

“I thought your people believed one’s death settled back into renewing the land.”

“There are different kinds of death, and not everything settles.”

Lua chilled. “Different kinds of death?”

“Just get through quickly and don’t anger anything.”

Lua lifted his face to the moonlight. “What exactly are the spires?”

“A graveyard,” Arn said. “Dragons and mages buried there dating back thousands of years. ”

“Thousands?”

“Hm. Before we were separated into tribes, when Yueliang and Taiyang were brothers. Back when people and nature were the same and the sisters flew above.”

“The sisters?”

“Tales passed down from our elders.”

“Myths and children’s tales,” Lua said. “There’s no truth to it.” He recalled the childhood fables he’d read, but the Moons had their own historical records. Nothing that spoke of before Yueliang or painted Taiyang as anything other than a fiend, and none had ever discussed it with the seriousness that Arn did now.

“Why would we share the truth with those who seek to destroy us? So many of our people have gone missing. Anyone with a whisper of magic rounded up and taken south, never heard from again.” Arn shook his head with a pained look. “Nothing to be done about it now. Come back for the spring lantern festival. It’s not as grand as it once was, but we do our best.”

Lua gazed at Silence again, noting the alcohol’s effects on his emotional control. A twinge of sadness pierced him. They’d never return here. He didn’t notice Arn raise a friendly hand to pat his arm. The man’s fingers brushed Lua’s exposed skin.

The slight touch jerked Lua to awareness. He knocked Arn away, but it was too late. The man paled, his cheeks suddenly hollow. Silver threads darted from Lua’s hands to claim sustenance so readily offered.

“No!” Lua tried to tether his magic, pulling it from the man’s flesh as it ate at him, but the threads resisted. Arn’s eyes widened, his lips moved with unspoken questions as he flailed. Lua fought, but his magic refused to obey.

Green threads lashed through the darkness to cocoon Arn. It wriggled beneath the silver fibers, insulating him. One by one, each of Lua’s threads withdrew until Arn collapsed on the ground.

Audra’s cheeks were cast in the emerald light that spiraled from her hands. Her face was filled with horror. “You were killing him.”

“No! It’s not like?—”

“You were.” Her voice was hoarse.

“Audra, listen to me,” Lua pleaded .

“I hoped that I’d been wrong about you. Maybe, you weren’t so bad. But you’re worse than I ever imagined.” Her eyes glistened.

Arn twitched on the ground, but Lua couldn’t help him. Audra knelt and lifted the man to a seated position.

“Please listen—” Lua started.

She shook her head. “You’re a vile, horrible?—”

“I can’t stop it!” His voice cracked as his carefully controlled demeanor broke.

“What?”

“I can’t stop it. The magic attacks anyone who gets too close.”

“But we’ve … back in the room …”

He ran a hand down his face. “Only my anchor can touch me. No one else. Nothing that breathes. I take precautions. The gloves, the extra robes, keeping my distance but it still takes effort to restrain.” The piteous dawn of understanding warped her expression. He hated the emotions that swept over him. “Arn surprised me. I would never have hurt him on purpose.”

“But you didn’t stop it,” she said.

“I can’t stop it. I’ve tried countless times. I tried.” He looked at Arn. His eyes were closed but his breathing was steady. At the tower when Lua had rescued Audra, his magic had suddenly withdrawn from the mage. It hadn’t been him at all. “But apparently you can.”

Audra stared at Lua for a long moment before coming to a conclusion. “Get our things. I’ll call for aid once you’re back.”

He wanted to say something to make her understand, but the tumult of emotions that struck him were overwhelming. He strode into the inn and gathered their few items before returning outside. Arn was propped against a wall, his color mildly improved.

She gestured down a side street that led from town. “Go. I’ll meet you there.”

“Audra?”

“Can you do what I’m asking without arguing, please? I’ll take care of this.”

Lua’s shoulders slumped. He hoisted the pack and headed into the darkness. From beneath the shadow of a tall pine, he heard Audra’s shout. Feet scrambled as people surrounded Arn and carried him into the warmth of the inn. It was a short time later when Audra skirted the corner. She didn’t speak, but disappointment trickled toward him as they walked away from Stonetown.