21
“His mind is gone,” Paz said, turning away from where Vicénte lay blank-eyed in his bed, apparently noticing nothing of the world around him. “He breathes, his heart beats…but there is nothing left of him.”
“Is it permanent?” Gabriel asked. He noticed how Ava’s fingers had tightened around his as she stood there next to him, how she stared down at the floor and didn’t seem to want to meet his — or the healer’s — eyes. Did she blame herself? He knew she shouldn’t. True, his brother wouldn’t be in this condition if she hadn’t turned her magical gift against him, but then again, it was his own cruelty magnified a thousandfold that had struck him down in the end.
Paz’s plump shoulders lifted. She had been the Escobar clan’s healer ever since he could remember, her once night-black hair n
