Page 68 of The Malice of Moons and Mages (The Broken Bonds of Magic #1)

Sixty-Eight

Lua

Fallen Oji

D urin was gentle, though he would have had many reasons to hurt his charge. The old man’s voice was steady and calm as he mended Lua’s bones, even when Lua wordlessly resisted. He hadn’t needed a healer since he’d been a nine star, but this was different than he remembered. No matter how kind the Starling was, his wire-thin magic burned beneath Lua’s skin, raking steely claws that scarred his insides.

Still, he preferred the pain’s distraction to the deeper rending of his heart.

Quin coaxed food and water into his mouth. Occasionally Selene would observe, Bolin staring behind her, as she made barbed statements. She’d frown when Lua didn’t react. All questions went unanswered. Attempts at conversation were unacknowledged. Lua took shelter in silence. Let everyone else fill the air with empty words; he was broken with no hope of ever being whole again.

He was free to indulge in his misery. Memories and sorrow were all he had left of Audra, and he wouldn’t let anyone steal that, not even with good intentions.

It wasn’t until Selene was convinced of his powerlessness that they headed away from the monastery. Lua lay on a pallet with his eyes closed as the wagon rocked beneath him on the road to Uduary. They’d shorn his head to the scalp and dressed him in drab homespun cloth. Selene burned his elegant robes in front of him. No one called him Rajav or Oji unless they were mocking.

A stream of Starling whispered through the wagon’s side and struck his face. He winced, but it didn’t burn. The warmth was pleasant, like an embrace he’d never expected to feel again. He couldn’t recall the last time he’d enjoyed Starling’s light.

Lua’s thoughts were full of the way Audra had been when they first met: butchered hair cut so close to the scalp he swore he saw nicks—like his was now—her cheeks too thin, rich brown eyes that assessed and dismissed him before he ever uttered a word. A smile that managed to be sarcastic, and a warmth that reached into him. He’d underestimated her repeatedly until he’d fallen too deep. He’d assumed he knew her, but even then, he’d been mistaken.

When they arrived in the capital, Selene would do what she wanted with him. There would be no trial, and with his magic gone, he posed little threat.

It should have killed him. From severing the bond to giving his magic away, he should have died. He wished he had. It hurt to think of Audra, and the moons wouldn’t let him be. But he didn’t answer them either.

Edging on the cusp of sleep, he reached out the way he always did, searching for her. As a dream reached up to claim him, a spider’s silk of green glinted in the darkness.