Five Broken Blades (The Broken Blades, #1)

by Mai Corland

Hope pieces together dreams out of broken glass only for reality to come and smash them all over again. Hope is the cruelest punishment of them all. Because without hope, I know: it’s not her, you fool. It can’t be. It can never be. Because I killed her.

Childhood is short, and delights are scarce for the poor in Yusan.

I suppose he’s thought of as attractive, but money and status enhance people’s opinion of powerful men.

no one gets the jump on me.

Kaz?

The world will grab and pull at your humanity, try to strip you bare, but ultimately you decide whether to hang on or let go.

“You’re more of a Euyn than a Donal. Even with the beard,” he adds, brushing dust off his pants leg. Never mind. I hate him.

Okay. I thibk i love him... Am i toxic?

The first and foremost being that Joon is known as a god king for a reason. He’s not divine, but he might as well be, since he has the crown of Yusan. The crown is a relic of the Dragon Lord, and it makes the wearer immortal.

It’s the most secure place in all of Yusan, maybe second to Idle Prison. Hard to say.

Ice court. Is that you?

And my mother used to say a good smile can break through the ice of the North Sea.

I mean, yeah, he’s a violent killer, but no one’s perfect.

Our hands fit together like a lock and key, but it’s more than that. He feels like home.

I wrinkle my nose and then shove my hands under my thighs. Great. I made this weird.

Is this me?

Is it wrong that it’s kind of hot?

Ahahah you are unhinged and i love it

The legend is that the Dragon Lord gave his crown to the first Baejkin king, but his ring, scepter, sword, and amulet fell into the other realms as he ascended to the Heavens.

On some level, people love watching others suffer and die. Mikail more than most. But it’s understandable. A taste of death makes us savor our mortality.

“But I would have nothing to live for, either,” I continue. “You are everything that matters to me in this life and the next.”

I’m just not sure what good he expected to come out of both of us being dead. Sometimes revenge is a long game and, as much as you want a small win now, the larger victory needs time to manifest.

But love has a funny way of sneaking up on you.

don’t have real friends, Sora. Friendship requires trust.”

I’ve already seen the cost of war. It’s too great a price borne by the people who benefit the least.

Life is timing, and timing is luck.

I’ve always had to save myself.

“Power corrupts everyone,” I say. “The more you have, the faster the slide.

And if your family doesn’t love you, how can you ever really have a place in this world?

I’ve murdered and mutilated, and she’s swiftly becoming the worst job I’ve ever had.

You only become a sharpened blade by having the soft parts of you stripped away.

Mortality makes people careful, makes them care, makes them reasonable. Gods are not reasonable.

Loving somebody is needing two hearts to live instead of just the one. You’re better off alone.

A thief, a strongman, a spy, an assassin, a nobleman, and an exiled prince add up to a ring of liars. Trust is a surefire way to wind up with a blade in your back.

Men who have freedom and power want more than that. At this level of nobility, they want the country. They want to be gods.

And I’d rather live a life caring and getting hurt than a life in fear.