Shades of Magic 1
V.E. Schwab
Summary adapted from SuperSummary
ONE: THE TRAVELER
1. Twenty-one-year-old Kell Maresh has the power to travel between worlds. There are four parallel worlds—the magicless world of Grey London, the lost realm of Black London, the desolate world of White London, and the thriving empire of Red London. In October 1819, Kell journeys from his home in Red London to Grey London to bring a message from his queen to King George III. The letter from Queen Emira bears the emblem of the red throne, “a chalice with a rising sun” (14), and is courteous but brief. Kell consoles the ailing king by improvising a longer message. Kell is forbidden to leave anything from his world in Grey London except for the queen’s letters. However, when Kell first met George III, the king requested a coin from Red London as proof of the boy’s story. Whenever Kell pays him a visit, George III claims that the scent of magic has worn off his coin and insists on trading it for another. Although Kell always protests that this is against the rules, he indulges the elderly royal each time. With his message to the king delivered, Kell prepares to visit George III’s son, the Prince Regent, at St. James. To travel between two locations within the same world, Kell must draw a symbol in his blood. He uses a knife marked with the initials K. L. to slice his forearm and draws a bisected circle on a wall. He already painted an identical symbol in St. James’s Palace, and the symbols act like “handles on opposite sides of the same door” (18), allowing Kell to move from one place to the other.
2. The Prince Regent, George IV, has little sympathy for his ill father. Kell can’t leave without George IV’s letter for Queen Emira, and he amuses himself by magically extinguishing the prince’s candles while he’s waiting for the royal to finish the message. George IV tries to make Kell stay longer at St. James. Knowing the prince lusts for power, Kell reminds him that the worlds are kept separate to keep Grey London safe from the power hunger and magic that consumed Black London. Kell’s right eye is completely black, a feature that marks him as one of the blood magicians known as Antari, the only people who can travel between worlds now that the doors between them are sealed.
3. After leaving St. James, Kell walks along the Thames, passes Westminster Abbey, and enters a tavern called the Stone’s Throw. The tavern, like the Thames and Stonehenge, is one of a few fixed points that appear in all of the different worlds, although it has a different name in each London. Kell uses the tavern for business meetings. He smuggles trinkets between worlds, and his customers fall into two main categories: collectors who know little of magic but gather rarities as a hobby, and enthusiasts who wish to practice magic. An enthusiast named Ned asks Kell to bring him some earth from Red London, and Kell agrees to do so if Ned has the patience to wait a month for his return. After Ned leaves, Kell gives a magical children’s game from Red London to a collector in exchange for a music box. By painting his blood on a wall, pressing a coin from Red London to the blood, and speaking magic words, Kell is able to return home.
TWO: RED ROYAL
1. Rhy Maresh is the prince of Red London. One night, a royal guard hears an eerie sound coming from inside the prince’s chambers, “a voice like a shadow in the woods at night. Quiet and dark and cold” (41). The voice belongs to Holland Vosijk, the Antari of White London. Holland gives Rhy an early birthday present that he says will bring the prince strength. When Holland exits the prince’s chambers, he uses magic to erase the guard’s memories of his nocturnal visit.
2. Kell returns to Red London, admires the beautiful crimson river known as the Isle, and muses that red represents healthy and balanced magic while black represents the corruption of dark magic. Kell visits a vibrant, bustling night market, but the crowd’s music and laughter fade to a reverent hush when they realize that the Antari is among them. Wishing that he could disappear, Kell makes his way to the palace. He turns his magical coat inside out so that it no longer shows his shabby brown disguise but rather a handsome jacket in a red that only royals are permitted to wear.
3. Kell finds Queen Emira, King Maxim, and Prince Rhy gathered in the courtyard. The prince will soon turn 20 and wishes to celebrate with lavish festivities and amorous shenanigans. The royals treat Kell like family, but he feels out of place among them. Exhausted from the strain of traveling between worlds, he heads for his chambers, and Rhy follows him. The usually playful prince turns serious and shoves the magician against a wall when Kell denies bringing anything from Grey London back with him. Two years ago, Kell told Rhy about his smuggling and about his gnawing suspicion that he is “more like a possession than a prince” (52). Whenever Kell returns from a journey to another world, Rhy reminds him that his smuggling is a dangerous act of treason and urges him to stop. However, the prince keeps Kell’s crimes a secret from the king and queen. Prince Rhy tells Kell that he is his best friend and that he’ll need him at his side when he becomes king, then retires to bed. Although Kell also craves sleep, he goes to his private library and magically transports himself to a tavern called the Ruby Fields. He has a secret room in the tavern where he stores the treasures he’s gathered from the various Londons. Kell cleans the cuts on his forearm, which will heal by morning thanks to his Antari blood. No one knows for certain how Antari come to be. Their magic is not passed down through bloodlines, and their numbers have dwindled significantly since the doors between worlds closed. As a result, people covet their power. Kell doesn’t know who his birth family is or even which world he’s from. He was brought to the palace when he was five, and the name Kell is taken from the letters K. L. on his knife, the only relic of a past he can’t remember. He suspects the king and queen had a powerful spell cast upon him to erase his memories. Kell allows the recently acquired music box to calm his questioning thoughts and soothe him to sleep.
THREE: GREY THIEF
1. Delilah “Lila” Bard is a 19-year-old thief living in Grey London who loves the thrill of danger. One night, she disguises herself as a man and steals a silver pocket watch from a passerby in a wealthy neighborhood. A constable urges Lila Bard to be on guard and shows her a wanted poster for a masked criminal called the Shadow Thief, not realizing that he is talking to the person it depicts.
2. Lila dreams of becoming a pirate and lives on a derelict ship called the Sea King. The ship’s owner, Powell, allows her to stay on his vessel in exchange for a portion of what she steals. In her cabin below deck, she removes her disguise and her weapons, including a dagger and a revolver. When an intoxicated Powell comes to her door that night, he tells Lila that the money she offers him is insufficient and that the remainder of his payment “[d]oesn’t have to be coin” (68). He throws her onto a cot, and she kills him by stabbing him with her dagger. Lila quickly gathers her things, including an unlabeled map she loves because it could be “a map to anywhere” (66). Then she sets the Sea King ablaze.
3. Lila goes to the Stone’s Throw. The last time she visited the tavern was a year ago, and its owner, Barron, threw her out for stealing from his patrons. However, he allows her to stay after making it clear that she’s not to pick anyone’s pockets on the premises. Lila sees another wanted poster for the Shadow Thief outside the tavern and is cheered by the thought that she’s a living legend.
FOUR: WHITE THRONE
1. Kell helps a reluctant Rhy practice elemental magic. The prince has always struggled with magic, and Kell suspects that something else is bothering Rhy as well, but Rhy brushes off his questions about Holland’s unexpected visit. When Rhy loses control of a fire, Kell is forced to use blood magic to extinguish it, which leaves the magician weary. Just as the apologetic prince suggests that they find a tavern to relax in, the king arrives with a letter for the rulers of White London. Red London feels guilty and responsible for White London because Red London chose to seal itself off centuries ago when Black London fell. This forced White London to fight off the dark magic that consumed Black London by itself, and White London became “a place torn by violence and power” (84). Rhy makes him promises not to bring back anything from other Londons before Kell leaves. Kell says the words, but doesn’t know if he means them.
2. Kell journeys to the grim and chill world of White London. To comfort himself, he chants Red London’s motto, “Power in Balance. Balance in Power” (86). While the people of Red London respect magic, White London sees magic as something to be dominated. However, the more they seek to conquer magic, the more it withdraws from them, leaving their world drained of life and color. The twins Astrid and Athos Dane are the latest in a long line of power-hungry magicians to seize control of White London. On his way into their fortress, Kell passes guards whose minds and bodies are under magical control, as well as a courtyard full of the petrified remains of the Danes’ enemies. Even the powerful Holland is under a binding spell that forces him to obey Athos. Holland leads Kell to Astrid, who is in the throne room, and then informs Athos of Kell’s arrival. Astrid brings Kell to his knees with a painful surge of magic and expresses a desire to keep him in White London. He forces himself not to fight back, knowing he would only be playing into her hands.
3. Athos whips a 16 year-old boy, Beloc, because he did not bow to him. He plans to let the boy keep his mind so it can war with his body when he can’t help but do what Athos tells him to.
4. Athos enters the throne room and invites Kell to stay for a drink, an offer that Kell dares not refuse. Even though he’s an Antari, the Danes make Kell feel like “a mouse in the company of snakes” (102). Athos compels Holland to cut himself and fills a goblet with Holland’s blood. The twins share the blood while they provide Kell with a pale golden beverage.
5. After several drinks, a shaken and intoxicated Kell staggers through the streets of White London, berating himself for his recklessness. He resolves to stop smuggling things between worlds. Moments later, a woman begs Kell to bring a message to her ailing relative in Red London. Although he protests, she gives him the letter and a small cloth-wrapped parcel and hurries away.
FIVE: BLACK STONE
1. On her way back to the Stone’s Throw after a day of picking pockets, Lila sees a boy begging near the tavern and gives him some coins. A proud Barron teases her, “Someone might think you’ve got a heart under all that brass” (114). When a group of “thugs” steal the coins from the boy, Lila ignores Barron’s warning, dons her Shadow Thief disguise, and pursues them.
2. In Red London, Kell goes to the address on the mysterious woman’s letter and spots a shadowy figure lying in wait for him. He tears open the letter and finds it blank. Realizing that he’s been set up and that someone is after the parcel the woman gave him, Kell flees.
3. The “thugs” split up and lead Lila into a trap. They recognize the Shadow Thief from the wanted posters and intend to kill her and claim the reward. Lila realizes she has no choice but to do “the one thing she hate[s] to do” (119), which is to run away.
4. Back in Red London, Kell hides in his secret room in the Ruby Fields tavern. Opening the mysterious parcel, he finds a roughly hewn stone “small enough to nest in a closed fist, and as black as Kell’s right eye” (120). A piece of the stone appears to be missing. The stone is marked with a rune from Black London’s language. The rune, Vitari, means “magic.” All relics of Black London were meant to be destroyed after the city fell to corruption, and Kell feels both curiosity and alarm as he wonders why he’s been used to smuggle something so dangerous into his home city. Two hooded men under compulsion spells find Kell’s hiding place. One of the attackers carries the enchanted sword of Red London’s royal guards, and Kell loses access to his magic when the man slashes him across the chest. In desperation, Kell cries out for the man to stop, and the black stone freezes the attacker in time, something Kell thought impossible. Kell feels dizzy and drained when he lets go of the stone, but he manages to kill the other attacker.
5. Other pursuers take up the hunt, so, with great difficulty, Kell travels to Grey London. He sees a tall person wearing a mask and a broad hat and realizes that she’s a young woman. The disguised woman notices that he’s bleeding, gives him a handkerchief, and walks off. Kell feels as though he and the young woman could be friends under different circumstances, and he’s startled to realize that she stole the black stone.
SIX: THIEVES MEET
1. In Red London, the man whom Kell froze in time with the stone is taken over by dark magic, “the once-red core of life now burning pure and dark” (136). The sinister power turns the man’s eyes solid black and uses the stolen body to enter a nearby building.
2. Meanwhile, in Grey London, Lila examines the stone that she stole from Kell. Although she deems it worthless, she holds onto it. Removing her disguise, she returns to the Stone’s Throw. Barron gives her a concerned look, which she cringes at because they aren’t family. Barron gives the little boy outside some stew. Although Lila is also hungry, she refuses to accept charity and resolves to repay Barron in full once she scores a large haul. Lila recalls the fight she had with Barron a year ago. He’d offered her a job running the tavern with him, but she’d retorted that such a life was not enough for her and stormed out. Lila goes up to her room and finds Kell waiting for her. He tries to take back the stone but collapses in a faint.
3. When he starts to revive, Lila knocks him unconscious with a book. Kell wakes up tied to Lila’s headboard. He is relieved to note that his wound has stopped bleeding and that his magic has returned. He also observes that his captor’s eyes are two different shades of brown. Kell and Lila exchange names, and he explains that he’s from another London, that he used her handkerchief to magically transport himself to her, and that the black stone holds dangerous power. He burns the ropes binding him to ash and tries to seize the stone, but Lila stops him by slashing his palm with a knife. She uses the stone to wish for a sword, and it appears in her hand. Next, she toys with Kell by creating a magical doppelganger of him. The duplicate gains sentience and attacks Lila, and Kell uses blood magic to dispel it. Then, he binds Lila to a wall, gathers the stone and the rest of his belongings, and escapes into the night.
4. Cursing Kell, Lila uses a knife to saw through her bindings. Once free, she picks up the magical black sword and experiences “a strange, bone-deep sense of longing that she [doesn’t] trust” (152). She throws the sword out into the street, where an intoxicated man named Booth finds it. When he draws it, the blade compels him to stab himself, and the dark magic takes over his body.
SEVEN: THE FOLLOWER
1. Lila is furious about losing the black stone to Kell, and she goes to a tavern frequented by criminals to cope with her frustrations. Holland tracks Lila down, uses magic to inflict horrible pain on her, and orders her to call for Kell. Lila protests that Kell won’t come for her, but the agony is so intense that she does as Holland commands. To her astonishment, Kell appears and tells her to run.
2. Kell runs toward Lila’s screams even though he knows he’s walking into a trap. Part of him believes her predicament is her own fault. Holland releases Lila and tells Kell to give him the stone. Kell urges the other Antari to resist the Danes’ hold over him, but Holland shows Kell the mark Athos’s binding spell left on his chest and explains that the spell is unbreakable. Holland uses elemental magic to knock the black stone out of Kell’s grip and then draws on the stone’s dark power to make Kell cough up blood at an alarming rate. Lila knocks Holland out cold while his focus is on Kell, retrieves the stone, and helps a barely conscious Kell to the Stone’s Throw.
3. With Barron’s help, Lila carries Kell up to her room. She tells Barron all about her experiences with the two magicians and is surprised to learn that the innkeeper already knows about Kell and his magic. Lila burns some herbs in the hope that the smell will cover up the scent of Kell’s magic, which smells like flowers and earth, and the stone’s power, which smells like smoke. Unlike the last time Kell was unconscious in her room, Lila doesn’t tie him up or take his knife. She keeps watch over the sleeping magician, determined to defend him if Holland reappears.
EIGHT: AN ARRANGEMENT
1. When he awakens, Kell thinks longingly of his home in Red London’s palace and wonders if his family is worried about him. Lila asks Kell why he came back for her, and he answers that he doesn’t know. Kell explains all he knows about the Antari, the four Londons, and the black stone. He resolves to return the stone to Black London so it can never be used again. To do this, he must first travel through Red London and White London and find a way to unseal the door to Black London. Despite Kell’s protests, Lila insists on accompanying him. He continues pressing her for her reasons until she snaps, “Because I want to see the world, even if it’s not mine. And because I will save your life” (197). Kell decides to accept her help because he feels afraid and physically weak. Additionally, he doesn’t expect to return from Black London and wants someone to tell his family what happened to him. Kell fears death, but Lila would “rather die on an adventure than live standing still” (199). Kell suggests that Lila tell Barron goodbye. When she declines, he doesn’t press the issue because he doesn’t plan to see his family either. Before they exit the Stone’s Throw, Lila leaves all of her money and the silver pocket watch behind as repayment for Barron’s help.
2. Kell doesn’t want to reappear at the Ruby Fields in Red London in case an ambush is waiting for him, so he and Lila walk a few blocks away from the tavern before he marks a wall with his blood. Kell worries that attempting to travel between worlds will prove deadly for Lila, but she confidently declares that the stone will see her through safely and gives Kell a kiss for good luck. The narrative moves to Barron at the Stone’s Throw. He wakes up when Lila leaves with Kell, but he doesn’t try to stop her. Later, he hears someone moving in her room and senses magic and danger. Barron finds Holland with Lila’s silver pocket watch and attempts to shoot him, but Holland wrests the weapon from him. Holland uses magic to compel Barron to answer his questions and slits his throat when he learns that the man doesn’t know where Lila and Kell have gone.
3. Baron wakes up to the sound of someone in Lila’s room, but can tell from the steps that it isn’t her. He senses a wrongness about it. He takes his shotgun off the wall and goes up to her room. When he opens the door, he finds a man with one green eye and one black eye. He recognizes Holland from Lila’s description of him. He immediately fires the gun, but when the smoke clears, he can see the metal beads hanging in the hair in front of Holland. The gun is thrown from Baron’s hand but magic holds him in place to prevent him from retrieving it. Holland asks him where Kell and Lila went. He admits he doesn’t know and Holland slits his throat.
NINE: FESTIVAL AND FIRE
1. The stone allows Lila to travel to Red London, but she and Kell arrive in separate locations. She puts on Kell’s coat. Lila admires the ships on the luminous red Isle River and joins a crowd gathered to celebrate Prince Rhy’s birthday. As the royal family passes in a carriage, Rhy gives Lila a curious look, as if he knew she didn’t belong there. Lila hears a few girls talking about the dark eyed prince and asks them what is going on. They tell her it is the prince’s birthday celebration. She takes off, and Lila visits a market. She attempts to steal a blue-green stone that reminds her of the sea, but the vendor catches her. Kell arrives before the man can summon the guards, and the vendor lets Lila go with a humble apology. Kell scolds Lila for getting herself into trouble so quickly and admits that he’s terrified of the danger the black stone could bring to his world. He tells her English is not common and only used by the elite in Red London. He knows she will not stop talking, but tells her to keep her voice down.
2. A man named Aldus Fletcher owns a pawn shop near Red London’s docks. Criminals often use his store to move rare and dangerous items. Years ago, Fletcher broke the city’s most important rule of magic by using his power to control another person. As punishment, he was branded with marks that cut off his magic, but he eventually found a way to restore his power. Fletcher once lost a high-stakes card game to Kell, and he keeps a white rook that Kell gave him as a reminder that Fletcher has a debt to repay.
3. As Lila and Kell walk through Red London, he can feel the stone calling to him from her pocket and does his best to ignore it. The magician feels guilty about missing Rhy’s birthday, but he reasons that his brother will forgive him when Lila explains that he had to take the stone to Black London. Kell hides from the royal guards, prompting Lila to ask if he’s an outlaw. He reluctantly explains that he’s more like a possession of the royal family rather than a prince. Lila coldly retorts that he should be grateful because, although he lacks the familial love he desires, he has a safe, warm home. Kell realizes that she has “frozen and starved and fought—and almost certainly killed—to hold on to some semblance of a life” (235), and he tells her that she’s right. Kell plans to leave Lila at the Ruby Fields, but the inn—and everyone who was inside—has been incinerated. Kell can tell that the fire was a deliberate act of magic because none of the neighboring buildings were touched by the blaze. Kell needs a token from White London to travel there. With his treasure trove in ashes, he must find a token elsewhere. Holland approaches the inn’s ruins, and Kell uses the stone to conceal himself and Lila. Holland senses his quarries and tries to lure them out by casting the silver pocket watch to the ground and saying that Barron died because of Lila’s cowardice. A weeping Lila struggles against Kell, but he prevents her from leaving their magical concealment. After Holland departs to search elsewhere, Lila picks up the blood-stained watch and tells Kell that she wants to kill Holland.
TEN: ONE WHITE ROOK
1. Booth (the man who picked up the black sword Lila wished into being) is possessed by dark magic that is too powerful to be contained by a person of Grey London. It tries without success to spread to other humans and burns them to death instead. In search of a new host, the magic drags Booth’s rotting body to the Stone’s Throw and transfers itself to Ned, the magic enthusiast who asked Kell for a bag of earth.
2. Back in Red London, Kell uses the stone to make himself and Lila invisible and intangible. He asks Lila about her family. Her mother died when she was 10, and the last time she saw her father, he tried “to sell [her] flesh to pay his tab” (250). Lila was 15 at the time, and she killed the man before he could touch her. This was the first time she took a life, and it granted her a feeling of power. The royal family alerts the city that Kell is missing and offers a reward. Kell and Lila slip inside Fletcher’s shop, which is closed. The veins of Kell’s hand are black with dark power, and it takes a great exertion of will for Kell to release the stone and allow Lila to carry it instead. Lila asks about Prince Rhy, whom Kell describes as “charming and spoiled, generous and fickle and hedonistic” (254). When Kell was 14 and Rhy was 13, Rhy was abducted by a group of extremists who believed the royal family squandered their magic. Rhy wasn’t breathing when Kell found him, and the magician cut his own wrists in his desperation, trying to heal Rhy with his blood magic. When the prince revived, he burst into tears at the sight of the blood Kell had spilled for him. The prince pardoned his abductors, but Kell killed them all.
3. The scene briefly shifts to another part of Red London. The dark magic possessing the man Kell froze in time makes its host look “like a charred piece of wood” (259). The people of Red London can bear the dark power better than the people of Grey London. It spreads to other hosts and slowly makes its way toward the red river.
4. Kell and Lila engage in a futile search for the white rook, the token Kell needs to get back to White London. Years ago, Fletcher suggested that he and Kell do smuggling work together, but Kell snubbed his offer, leaving Fletcher bitter and resentful. Kell says he wants to borrow the item he left him years ago. Fletcher wonders what kind of trouble Kell has gotten himself into that puts his face on the walls. Fletcher has summons the royal guards.
5. The guards question Kell and take them away with them. Lila uses the stone to conceal herself, and the guards, seemingly only concerned with Kell’s well-being, escort Kell out of the shop. After staying behind, one of the guards slits Fletcher’s throat. The guards lead Kell to a royal carriage and render him unconscious once he’s inside. Lila tests that the wards to prevent theft are broken now that Fletcher is dead. She tosses a knife over the threshold. Satisfied she will be safe, she takes the white rook off Fletcher’s corpse and hurries toward the palace to rescue Kell.
6. Rhy gave his two closest guards, Parrish and Gen, a few hours off to enjoy the festivities. Get is laid back, but Parrish feels uneasy about the energy in the air. Parrish sees a black eyed woman across the crowd and goes to point her out to Gen (who is distracted by Lila seeming suspicious), but she is gone. They see a man being a bit too rough in a lover’s embrace and goes to confront him. When they start towards him, he lets go of the girl and she shits down calmly. They follow the man to the riverbank and he turns to them. He has black eyes and black hands. He reaches into Gen’s chest and says, “Dark Heart” and then runs a sword through Parrish from behind and says, “Noble heart.”
ELEVEN: MASQUERADE
1. Lila watches richly clad guests file into the palace for a masquerade and realizes this is her chance to get inside. She steals an invitation and finds a tent selling expensive clothes and masks. The shopkeeper saw Lila with Kell earlier that morning, believes that the two are a couple, and graciously invites the young woman to take whatever she would like. Lila dons an elegant suit of black clothes and a “black half-mask with two horns spiraling up from the temples” (285).
2. Kell awakens handcuffed in Rhy’s bedroom. When the prince questions him about the black stone, the Antari realizes that his brother is under Astrid Dane’s control. Holland gave Rhy a crystal necklace that allows Astrid to possess the wearer. The enchantment allows Astrid to speak with Rhy’s voice and control his movements, and asks him for the stone, but he realizes he never told her the relic from Black London was a stone. She tries to beat information about the stone’s whereabouts out of Kell.
3. Lila enters the masquerade party under the alias Captain Bard of the Sea King and realizes that the king and queen are under compulsion spells. Lila searches the palace for Kell and spots a door guarded by three men in armor.
4. Astrid reveals that the stone has another half. She and her brother intend to use both pieces to conquer Red London and remove the barriers between that world and theirs so that everyone can travel between them. Lila uses the palace’s balconies to reach Rhy’s room. In his desperation to keep Lila safe, Kell manages to unlock his cuffs with blood magic. Astrid holds a knife to Rhy’s heart and demands the black stone. When Lila refuses, the queen tells Kell, “You are mine, Kell, and I will break you. Starting with your heart” (307), and stabs Rhy.
5. In the scuffle, Lila is able to get the crystal necklace with the possession spell off Rys. It goes into the crowd of revelers and claims a new host. Kell works healing spells on Rhy, carries the prince to his private library with Lila’s help, and attempts to transport all three of them to another location in Red London.
TWELVE: SANCTUARY & SACRIFICE
1. Kell magically transports himself, Lila, and Rhy to the Sanctuary, a place where the people of Red London study magic. Despite Lila’s protestations that the prince is dead, Kell takes the stone and orders it to heal Rhy with the words, “My life is his life [...] His life is mine. Bind it to mine and bring him back” (317). As Rhy’s heart begins to beat again, unbearable pain tears through Kell and his left eye turns black for a moment.
2. The black stone brands Kell and Rhy with a matching mark, “a black symbol, made up of concentric circles” over their hearts (319). Rhy will survive as long as Kell lives. The black stone is bound to Kell’s hand now, but this doesn’t trouble him much because he already resigned himself to remaining in Black London with it. He finally admits to Lila that this was always his plan. Lila refuses to stay behind in Red London and argues that Kell will need help retrieving the other half of the stone from Athos. Master Tieren, the Sanctuary’s head priest and Kell’s former tutor, listens to Kell’s account of the dangers at the palace and assures him that Rhy will be safe with him. Tieren notices that Lila has a glass eye and that she has the potential to work magic. The priest urges Lila to kill Kell if he loses himself to the stone’s dark magic. Kell is frightened of the stone’s growing hold over him, but he tries to conceal this fear from Lila.
3. The missing person announcements about Kell change to wanted posters accusing him of treason, murder, and abducting the prince. Drawing strength from Lila’s nonchalant attitude, he opens a door to White London. Just as he’s about to step through, Holland seizes him.
4. Lila arrives in White London. The white rook that Kell used to open the door came through with her, but there’s no sign of the magician. A pair of menacing figures circle Lila. She shoots one, which draws the attention of more unwelcome company.
5. Back in Red London, Holland chides Kell for being too weak to control the stone. The Antari engage in a battle of elemental magic. Holland deliberately hesitates, giving Kell the opening he needs to drive a metal bar through Holland’s chest and sunder Athos’s compulsion seal. Kell feels grief as he holds the dying Holland, but Holland’s expression shows only relief. Kell realizes that Holland is wearing a token from White London.
6. Kell transports himself and Holland to White London, where he finds Lila fighting for her life against a mob starving for blood and magic. Kell collapses a bridge to stop the mob’s pursuit. Lila gives him a sword she took from one of Red London’s royal guards, a blade with the power to temporarily cut off a person’s magic. Together, they advance toward the castle.
THIRTEEN: THE WAITING KING
1. Athos has the other half of the stone and it allows him to watch Kell’s half’s movement. He looks at his sister’s body sitting in her throne and unable to move because her consciousness is in Red London. He decides it is his turn to deal with Kell.
2. Kell leaves Holland in the courtyard and ascends the fortress’s stairs, where he finds Athos waiting for him. Athos blames his sister for Holland’s demise and plans to kill Kell to spite her. Athos’s ruthless bloodlust and his skill at commanding his half of the stone tilt the battle in his favor. Athos creates an enormous silver serpent with the stone’s power. Kell goads the king, “Go ahead and hide behind the stone’s magic. Call it your own” (365). Athos decides to unmake the serpent so that he can kill Kell personally, but the irate serpent disregards Athos’s commands and snaps the king’s neck. Kell destroys the magical snake by stabbing it with the royal guard’s sword. As Kell and Athos fight, Lila makes her way to the throne room. A boy under Athos’s compulsion spell, Beloc, has no choice but to guard the queen, but he willingly lets Lila kill him.
3. KThe rest of the fortress’s guards are under compulsion spells as well, but their vague orders allow them to choose not to interfere with Lila’s plans. When Lila tries to shoot Astrid, a spell sends the bullet ricocheting into her own shoulder.
4. The queen toys with Lila by repeatedly wounding her with magic and refusing to land a killing blow. Astrid pins her under a pile of rubble, uses a spell to make herself look like Lila, and goes to find Kell. The stone compels Kell to hold both halves and speak an incantation that makes it whole again. The healed stone’s power magnifies greatly as does its hold on Kell. Disguised as Lila, Astrid asks Kell to give the stone to her. Realizing who she truly is, Kell avenges Rhy by stabbing Astrid, turning her into a statue, and then shattering her.
5. The true Lila finds Kell. He tells her that he doesn’t want her to go to Black London with him, and she assures him that she’ll be all right in White London and that she will perhaps commandeer a ship. When Kell attempts to open a door to Black London, the stone’s magic immobilizes him. Inside his mind, the darkness assumes a form that is identical to Kell, except that it is “the smooth and glossy black of the recovered stone” (375). The magic, Vitari, tells Kell that he is a perfect vessel because he is an Antari. Distantly, Kell hears Lila urging him to fight and reminding him that, if he dies, Rhy will perish, too. Kell summons up his strength and speaks a dismissal spell.
6. Across Red London, the darkness disappears from the hosts it claimed, some of whom survive.
FOURTEEN: THE FINAL DOOR
1. With Vitari banished, the black stone is merely a rock. Still, Kell wants to dispose of it properly. Holland is nearly dead, but he has enough life in him for Kell to send him to Black London with the stone. Without the stone’s magic, Lila may not be able to travel between worlds, but she and Kell resolve to try. He gives her a kiss for luck and opens a door to Red London.
2. Kell and Lila both reappear in Red London, and the magician is so amazed and ecstatic that he hugs her. The usually prickly thief permits the embrace. The royal guards interrupt the moment by arresting Kell and Lila. At the palace, Kell tells the king and queen all about his smuggling, the Danes’ plot, the black stone, and how he and Lila saved the city and Rhy.
3. Three days later, Kell visits a recuperating Rhy in the prince’s chambers and explains the spell binding their lives together. Through repentant tears, Rhy explains that he accepted the necklace from the Danes because his lack of skill with magic makes him feel weak and he hoped the gift would make him strong. Lila barges into the prince’s room, and Rhy flirts with her before Kell shoos her out.
4. Kell and Lila walk through the streets of Red London together. Although the royal family dropped all charges against Kell, the inhabitants of Red London still look on him with fear and suspicion. Kell offers to try to take Lila home to Grey London, but she fiddles with the silver watch and answers that there’s nothing for her there. Kell gives her a game that will help her tap into her untrained magical abilities, and she thanks him. Kell is reluctant to part from Lila, but he takes comfort from his conviction that their paths will cross again. Lila exults in her newfound freedom, which she likens to the “map to anywhere” (66) she left in Grey London. She resolves to develop her magical potential and to see the worlds. Examining the vessels gathered on the river, she spots a dark ship with black sails and thinks to herself, “That one’ll do” (398).