Three Shattered Souls (The Broken Blades, #3)

by Mai Corland

We’re really fucked. I mean, not right now. We’re safe at an inn on Gaya, but I’ve thought about it since dawn, and overall, we’re screwed.

We got the Golden Ring and made it out of Khitan, which should’ve meant that we won. Instead, we lost Prince Euyn, found out that Mikail is the last Gayan royal, stole a relic from Wei—an empire that routinely slaughters Yusanians—drowned a bunch of people, and discovered Aeri was lying this whole time. All of that was yesterday.

Mikail turns and blinks his teal eyes like he’s surprised they’re here. Gambria frowns as she folds her arms. “He wasn’t listening at all.” I clench my jaw. They should give him a fucking break. He’s doing okay for a guy who found out his

So everything they said was a lie. I wait for Mikail’s reaction, but he just nods. He’s taking all of this pretty well. Too well, if you ask me. But maybe lies aren’t a big deal when you trade in them.

“You think I don’t understand suffering and the way it scratches and gnaws at your mind? It is a weight that constantly pulls at your neck, and it can drown you on dry land if you’re not careful.”

We continue into the cave for bells, our two oil lamps burning a small path through the dark. I tell myself I’m fine, that I’m not back in a dungeon as Hana checks markings on the walls, but I’m not fine. I keep seeing wet blood on the ground, and when I look again, it’s gone.

“You don’t believe I love her,” I say. Hana hesitates. She pulls out a dinner pot and runs her hands over the metal. “At first I thought you just fell for her beauty, and that’s surely a part of it, but the more I think about it, the more I believe you love the concept of her.” She’s wrong, but it’s pointless to argue about my own feelings. I love Sora from the arch of her foot to the depths of her soul. I love all the ways she’s strong and every weakness. I’d know her in a hundred lifetimes, and I’ll love her through all of them.

Scars old and newer crisscross his back—marks of all he’s endured. Some people think scars are ugly. I think they’re badges of being a survivor.

Why am I mad about a bunch of books? It ain’t bread or ale. Not blood or bone. I shake my head. I need to get it together. So what if they burned a Temple of Knowledge? Books are the least of anybody’s worries when men are dying. Still, it’s a kind of violence to erase the history of a realm. It feels like something was pulled away from all of us, even though I’m not Gayan.

“I don’t understand,” Aeri says, moving around in a circle. “What happened? Whose house was this?” “My father’s,” Mikail says on a ragged breath. Oh fuck. My stomach twists, and a cold dread like I’ve never felt before hits me. His father didn’t survive this. I just know it. Everything Mikail did to save him, everything we all did, and his father is still gone. Ten Hells. What if all the people we’re trying to save are already dead?

My whole life has been a long game, and I’m so tired of holding still while everything gets stripped away, but I remind myself that impatience results in disaster.

“Mikail, I’m so… I’m so sorry,” she says. “I know.” I do. I know if Sora could take this pain away, even if it meant her own suffering, she would. She understands loss and useless rage better than anyone.

Daysum is dead. May the gods guide her soul. May Lord Yama have mercy on her. May her deeds weigh lighter than a feather. I sigh as I make my way through the standard death prayers while sitting aboard the skiff. I think something is wrong with me. Daysum, the girl I’ve lived my whole life for, is dead, and I feel nothing. I’ve barely shed a tear. I think I’m broken.

Aeri looks over at me again, scanning with her golden eyes. She lays her hand on mine. She cares, and she doesn’t have to. She wants to help, and that’s something. There is a great deal of unkindness layered with indifference in the world, and her compassion is a gift. So I open my fist and weave my fingers with hers. I brace myself for questions, but she sits quietly. She’s kind enough to recognize that I don’t want to talk, and that isn’t easy for her. We silently hold on together as the world blurs by.

People lie. We are frail, flawed creatures. It seems silly to hold being human against someone.

Hurt remains whether you intended to do it or not. If you stab someone, they still bleed. It doesn’t matter if it was a jab or an accident.

Hana shifts in her seat, staring at me. She eyes me for so long, I begin to worry that I have food on my face or that I do, in fact, smell. “I will admit,” she says, “I’ve misjudged you.” “Join the club. They have swords.” I finish my last bite.

Euyn would’ve gotten a kick out of me turning paranoid. He finally would’ve had a rapt listener for all of his traps and scanning techniques. Tears prick my eyes, and I’m not sure why. Why now? My first instinct is to dismiss the feeling. But what is the point of that? Does our love not deserve mourning? Or is it that I don’t want to cry in front of the others? I’m safer among these three people than I am in the rest of the world.

I let my tears fall as my nose runs and my headache worsens. I cry for Euyn and my father—the men who chose me, who loved me, and who paid the price for it. They’re gone. And yet I remain. Deep sobs rack my chest, and I reach deeper. I cry for what happened here when I was a boy. The family I knew and lost, and the family I didn’t. I cry for the victims until I’m wailing on the forest floor.

As I stare at the fog, I can’t see any of the night stars. But maybe that’s not a bad thing. The stars tell our future. Maybe together with a starless sky, the four of us can write our own destiny.

We spent days on this. Now, we have a four-million-gold-mun bounty on us. Or…they got a million on each of them. It’s kinda insulting to be left out, but whatever.

I knew exactly where the road would be because I used to study maps of Gaya when I would get homesick as a boy. “You don’t mind that I look?” I asked Ailor as I pored over his war maps. “It is your home,” he said. “One day, you’ll return again, Mikail—you should know it.” He rested a warm hand on my shoulder. “But you’re my home as well,” I said. He smiled, true joy shining in his brown eyes. “Then you will always have two.”

“We’re with you,” Aeri says, looking over at me. “To the bloody end,” Sora adds. Royo nods, too. Then I remember that this is home. Right where I am now, wherever the three of them are.

Ten fucking Hells, we’re stealing shit again? This never goes well, but I guess we have to get it right once? I pinch the bridge of my nose. My scar hurts.

There comes a time when everyone just needs to go the fuck to bed. We hit that point bells ago, and it’s been nothing but nonsense since.

“Mikail of Yusan, Naerium of Yusan, and Sora of Yusan, throw down your arms and surrender by order of King Seok,” the aide says. I laugh to myself at Seok calling himself a king. Obviously, none of us drop our weapons. Ridiculous suggestion.

Mortals are fickle instruments. I sigh. Really? Not now, voice. I have a lot of shit to handle as is.

“Thank you, Aeri.” I say it and I mean it. Euyn would call me a demon when I was angry like that, and she went toe to toe with me for what was right. She gives me a kind smile. “I’m worried about her, too, but we need loyalty now, not fear.” Aeri continues to be the biggest surprise, born to rule as a queen but raised outside of all the excess and corruption.

Euyn used to say that last moments make you want to live, and now that I’m ready to die, I think he’s correct. And if I’m right, maybe I’ll see him again.

Men seeking atonement are odd. They’ll do anything except forgive themselves.