A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab Page A

passed through the heavy doors. Beyond, more guards lined the walls of an arching antechamber, still as stone save for their shifting gazes. Kell crossed the room and into a second corridor, this one empty. It wasn’t until the doors closed behind him that Kell let himself exhale and lower his guard a fraction.
    “I wouldn’t do that just yet,” said a voice from the shadows. A moment later a shape stepped out of them. Torches lined the walls, burning but never burning out, and in their flickering light Kell saw the man.
    Holland.
    The
Antari
’s skin was nearly colorless, and charcoal hair swept across his forehead, ending just above his eyes. One of them was a greyish green, but the other was glossy and black. And when that eye met Kell’s, it felt like two stones sparking against each other.
    “I’ve come with a letter,” said Kell.
    “Have you?” Holland said drily. “I thought you’d come for tea.”
    “Well, I’ll take that, too, I suppose, while I’m here.”
    Holland’s mouth quirked in something that wasn’t a smile.
    “Athos or Astrid?” he asked, as if it were a riddle. But riddles had right answers, and when it came to the Dane twins, there was none. Kell could never decide which one he would rather face. He didn’t trust the siblings, not together, and certainly not apart.
    “Astrid,” he said, wondering if he’d chosen well.
    Holland gave no indication, only nodded, and led the way.
    The castle was built like a church (and maybe it had been one, once), its skeleton vast and hollow. Wind whistled through the halls, and their steps echoed over the stone. Well,
Kell’s
steps did. Holland moved with the terrifying grace of a predator. A white half-cloak draped over one of his shoulders, billowing behind him as he walked. It was held together by a clasp, a silver circular broach, etched with markings that at a distance looked like nothing more than decoration.
    But Kell knew the story of Holland and the silver clasp.
    He hadn’t heard it from the
Antari
’s lips, of course, but had bought the truth off a man at the Scorched Bone, traded the full story for a Red London lin several years before. He couldn’t understand why Holland—arguably the most powerful person in the city, and perhaps the world—would serve a pair of glorified cutthroats like Astrid and Athos. Kell had himself been to the city a handful of times before the last king fell, and he had seen Holland at the ruler’s side, but as an ally, not a servant. He had been different then, younger and more arrogant, yes, but there was also something else, something more, a light in his eyes. A
fire
. And then, between one visit and the next, the fire was gone, and so was the king, replaced by the Danes. Holland was still there, at their side as if nothing had changed. But
he
had changed, gone cold and dark, and Kell wanted to know what had happened—what had
really
happened.
    So he went looking for an answer. And he found it, as he found most things—and most found him—in the tavern that never moved.
    Here it was called the Scorched Bone.
    The storyteller clutched the coin as if for warmth as he hunched on his stool and spun the tale in Maktahn, the guttural native tongue of the harsh city.
    “Ön vejr tök …”
he began under his breath.
The story goes …
    “Our throne is not something you’re born to. It’s not held by blood. But taken by it. Someone cuts their way to the throne and holds it as long as they can—a year, maybe two—until they fall, and someone else rises. Kings come and go. It is a constant cycle. And usually, it is a simple enough matter. The murderer takes the place of the murdered.
    “Seven years ago,” the man continued, “when the last king was killed, several tried to claim his crown, but in the end, it came down to three. Astrid, Athos, and Holland.”
    Kell’s eyes widened. While he knew Holland had served the prior crown, he had not known of his aspirations to be king. Though it made