Asyl Seni is about to turn thirteen and have his Awakening. The backyard is full of people ready to celebrate when his Craft Mark will appear on his forehead, and he would learn his life path. The time for his Craft Mark comes and he is left a Void, a person the Goddess has found tainted. His parents threw him out, thirteen, no clothes but what was on his back, no money and nowhere to live.
Asyl always tried to be a good son listening to his parents doing well in school and now without a Craft Mark he is abandoned. Most of the Voids went into the sex trade selling their bodies on the street which is exactly what Asyl did to stay alive.
Lord Kende Ruvyn is the youngest son of the duke who visits apothecaries checking that their potions and tinctures are safe. His last stop took him to a new place called Enchanted Waters where he found everything to be higher quality then most and their prices exceptionally low.
On his way to return home he suddenly begins to walk, walking into bad neighborhoods with his assistant trying to stop him. He comes upon an abandoned temple and upon entering he finds a young man lying near death and immediately knows that he is his Fated his other half. Carrying him home, cleaning him up and calling a healer to fix him up Kende sleeps on his couch watching his fated.
When Asyl wakes and is told that the man who is with him is his Fated he doesn’t believe him. Once before he was told by a man that he was his Fated only to wind up his prisoner and being used by anyone who wanted to have sex. Now Asyl is untrusting with good reason and so he runs.
Before long Kende locates Asyl at the Enchanted Waters where he is the alchemist responsible for the amazing potions and tinctures. Asyl is determined to help all the other Voids in need of medicine but can’t afford it.
Asyl has to find a way to forgive and forget and accept Kende for what he is, his Fated.
It is a long journey for Asyl to accept a man who doesn’t care about him being a Void and to trust.
This was a heartbreaking story about kids who find themselves homeless and alone. There is violence, rape and a wonderful man who wants to help others like himself. Voids are treated with anger and hate with a belief they are monsters. I didn’t expect to love this book and yet every time I decided to put it down for a while I just had to keep picking it back up, so I read it in one sitting.
A Broken Spirit 
