Amber’s Reviews > A Darker Shade of Magic > Status Update

He would see her again. He knew he would. Magic bent the world. Pulled it into shape. There were fixed points. Most of the time those points were places. But sometimes, rarely, they were people. For someone who never stood still, Lila still felt like a pin in Kell’s world. One he was sure to snag on.

She’d wanted freedom. She’d wanted adventure. And she didn’t think she minded dying for it. She only wished dying didn’t hurt so much.

“His injuries are severe.”
“I know,” said Kell shakily. “I can feel them as if they were my own.”

And for the first time, Kell saw Lila. Not as she wanted to be, but as she was.

Royalty, thought Lila. Of course. It was a different world. A different king and queen. But there was always royalty.

“Death comes for everyone,” she said simply. “I’m not afraid of dying. But I am afraid of dying here.” She swept her hand over the room, the tavern, the city. “I’d rather die on an adventure than live standing still.”

“Some people say magic lives in the mind, others the heart,” said Holland quietly, “but you and I both know it lives in the blood.”

And Lila left feeling empty, hungry, and hollow in a new and terrifying way. Or maybe it was the same kind of hunger she’d always felt, and now the missing thing had a name: magic.

“Sit down before you fall down, magic boy.”