The Familiar

by Leigh Bardugo

“Why would God choose me?” “Because God loves the wretched,” he snapped.

“There,” said Luzia. “One must never expect miracles, but one can hope for them all the same.”

“Fear men, Luzia,” he said. “Fear their ambition and the crimes they commit in its service. But don’t fear magic or what you may do with it.”

“I was wrong when I told you to fear men and their ambition,” he murmured in her ear. “Fear nothing, Luzia Cotado, and you will become greater than them all. Now sing for me.”

You remind my heart to beat.” “A heart cannot forget to beat,” she scoffed.

He should say no. He should rise and go, spend his desire in his hand.

For the sake of his heart and her life he should do these things. But in the end, after so many lifetimes, he was only a man.

“Then kiss me again, Santángel,” she said. “It was too late for us before we ever met.”

Faith could be won. Curses could be broken.

“But let it be my ambition and not my fear that seals my fate.”

she didn’t want to think more on children or lost futures that were never meant to be.

“Fate can be changed,” Luzia said. “Curses can be broken.”

Mostly she was sorry that when midnight came and the fires burned, Luzia would be gone, and the world would be lonelier

Without Luzia at his side, he had no wish to see more of it.

He kisses her fingers, and combs her hair, and he treasures her, as only a man who has lost his luck and found it once more ever can.