Servant of Earth (The Shards of Magic, #1)

by Sarah Hawley

That was the way of some men. Their tongues wagged in an imitation of love while their fists dealt pain. I stroked the dagger’s outline at my thigh, thinking about what it might be like to live in a world where women didn’t have to depend on people they feared for safety.

Anya had loved my hair.

one of my oc's is nicknamed Anya so this is wild

Tears blurred my eyes at the memory. It felt like her ghost haunted my every step to make sure I never forgot her…or how I’d failed her.

No body = no death

“Earth controls the terrestrial elements, and Fire controls anything in the natural world beyond that. Flame is our favorite, thus the name, but we have some power over air, wind, and weather as well.”

Kinda odd ngl

I remembered the calculated coldness of the black-clad killer who had suggested giving me to Earth House as an insult. He must be from Void House,

He will be the one I call "daddy"

“You don’t know how to use makeup, do you?” “No, my lady.” She bustled over and started collecting boxes and brushes from the untidy heaps I’d made. “I can tell by how terribly you applied your eye shadow.” I flushed. Had I applied it incorrectly?

HAHAHA

“Careful,” Aidan whispered. “They call Kallen the King’s Vengeance. He spies and kills for the king, and they say nothing goes on in Mistei that he doesn’t know about. Some servants say you shouldn’t even think about him or he’ll know it and appear out of thin air.”

“I’m afraid the gossips give me powers I don’t possess,” he said dryly. “You are free to think about me whenever—and however—you wish.”

MMC SPOTTED

“How interesting.” I leapt backwards at the unexpected voice, pressing a hand to my chest as my shoulders slammed against the wall. The shadows in an alcove at the end of the hall seemed to shift, and then a faerie walked out, tendrils of darkness trailing after him. Lord Kallen, whose face was as cold and still as a marble statue’s.

A firm hand caught my elbow. “Dance with me.” The words weren’t a question but a command. I looked up at Lord Kallen and swallowed.

was surprised to realize his eyes weren’t black, after all, but a deep midnight blue.

Yaaaas

“If you give too much of yourself down here,” he continued in an odd tone, looking down at me intently, “you risk losing everything. Because no one will ever return that loyalty. You’ll give and give and end up hollow…or dead. Remember that.”

Life can be so painful. During the worst moments, all you can do is focus on one second at a time. You focus on staying alive. You make it your only goal, and you forget everything before or after.” The choices, not the dreams. The fight, whether hope existed or not. “It’s hard, but that’s the only way I’ve ever been able to get through.”

Gotta keep this mindset with these dark times

Lord Kallen stood a few feet away, as still as a wildcat about to pounce. His dark eyes burned with the promise of violence. “What is the meaning of this?” he asked in the coldest, most terrifying tone I’d heard from him yet.

Kallen’s eyes burned with some intense, unfathomable emotion, but his face was as still as if it had been carved from stone.

“It does. This is the world you live in, and if you want to survive long enough to change it, then you have to play by its rules.” Change it? Kallen had the ear of the king; why would he want to change anything? I scoffed.

His gaze lingered on my mouth before dropping to the hand clenched at my breast. “Are you looking for a fight?” His voice was so soft I wouldn’t have been able to hear him if I’d been standing only a few feet farther away.

“Why did you do it?” I asked, my tone softer than it had been before. A weapon partially sheathed. “Do what?” It didn’t sound like a real question, though. His eyes flicked between mine, then dropped to where my hand still clutched my torn dress together. “Save me. It can’t have just been because I’m useful.” He looked at me for a seemingly endless stretch of time. Midnight-blue eyes, inscrutable expression. Tension in his jaw…and everywhere else, I realized. Like he was perpetually ready for some unknown calamity. Like he was…waiting.

“The power to break all the rules,” he murmured against my skin. “To have anything I want without limits.”

That's... That's a red flag

Again I noticed the faint melancholy on his face, the shadows under his eyes. Something was bothering Kallen, but I knew better than to ask what.

I think I knooow

“That’s no reason to spend time with a servant, much less a human.” He made a humming noise. “ ‘Much less’ isn’t any kind of term for you, Kenna.”

Ooooh

“That you look. That I—” He bit down on the rest of that sentence, then shook his head. “The danger in looking at the wrong people, Kenna, is that sometimes they want to look back.”

Awww

Of the way he looked almost…sad.

Yes, Kenna, he is into you.

I met Kallen’s eyes, silently thanking him for defending me when no one else had.

Beside him, Kallen stared at me, looking shaken.

My whimper was muffled by Talfryn’s velvet tunic. I stared, wondering if my eyes or my memory had failed me. But no, it was definitely her, the same heart-shaped face and hazel eyes I had known almost my entire life.

I fucking knew it

“You’re alive,” Kallen whispered. His controlled mask had fallen away, and there was a strange, intense emotion on his face as he reached a trembling hand to cup my cheek.

Awwwww

That was what love was. Not just romantic love, but any type of love. It was caring so much for another person that you would do anything to see them happy and whole.