Havenfall (Havenfall #1)(79)

Brekken is holding my hands, and his thumb has been absently tracing circles on my palm. But now it stills. His brow is furrowed, his face grave in the dim light. I look at him carefully, thinking of the multitude of silver objects covering every surface in the Heiress’s room. The thought of every single one of those objects passing through a Solarian’s hands makes me shudder. And I can’t tell if it’s because of my old fear of Solarians—or because of Sura in the antique shop. She was clearly held in that basement against her will, monster or no monster. I have to get her out, I think distantly. As soon as it’s safe, as soon as we figure out what’s going on.

Brekken closes his eyes briefly, then opens them again and he looks at me. “You’re right.”

My breath freezes in my lungs. Despite everything I’ve seen, part of me still expected to be wrong. Wanted to be wrong. How badly I want there to be some benign explanation, for him to tell me that Solarians in this world are an anomaly, monsters far away in the night and not right beside us, woven through this nest of secrets.

“Maddie,” Brekken says in a careful, soft-edged voice. His thumb traces down mine as he speaks, a comforting gesture. “I was investigating the black market in Fiordenkill, and … the Solarians—I know you hate them, I know—”

“Brekken,” I cut in. Because I don’t want to be comforted, I don’t want to let my childish fears cloud my judgment now that so much else I thought I knew has been turned upside down. “Just tell me what you know about the Solarians. About all of this. Please.”

He takes a long breath and lets it out again. “They can bind any kind of magic,” he says. “They can capture Fiorden or Byrnisian magic and tie it to an object. Metal usually; silver is best.” He looks down at our entwined hands. “Anyone can use the enchanted object just by touching it and commanding the magic loose. I don’t completely understand how it works, but …”

A poisonous-sweet thrill goes through me, like the ache of sugar in my teeth. I wasn’t going crazy earlier. I did unleash magic from the spoon. I remember the rush of power all over again, the feeling of the world opening to me. But I know, too, it’s not a fairy-tale magic. It has a cost.

“I was supposed to be in Havenfall this whole summer, buying artifacts for the Heiress,” he murmurs. While the hesitancy a moment ago felt like he was trying to cover his words in Bubble Wrap, now it just sounds like he’s choosing them carefully. “Then the Silver Prince caught me in the tunnels the night we kissed.”

I nod, my lips pressed together. “The same night the Solarian door opened.”

Brekken’s eyes fly wide. “The Solarian door—open?” he echoes. His eyes lift up, past me, like he can see through the ceiling to the room above. “And one got through?”

“Right.” I squeeze his hands, trying to keep him on topic. “So you didn’t see it happen? You didn’t … open it?”

Brekken shakes his head slowly. “I had no idea.” His eyes go distant, his brow furrowing like he’s attempting to put something together in his mind.

“I don’t understand …,” I begin, hunting for the right words. If Brekken fled back to Fiordenkill before the door even opened, what went wrong between him and the Silver Prince? “Why did you run?”

A shudder passes over Brekken, a shadow flitting across his face, a tremor in his fingers. “I saw something I shouldn’t have,” he whispers. “Do you remember the Silver Prince’s bodyguard? Bram?”

I nod, another shudder ripping through me. The one who got eaten.

“He was a Solarian,” Brekken says. “Maddie, I saw him shapeshift. The Prince ordered Bram to transform into his beast form, and then he stabbed him. I just froze. I saw everything from Marcus’s office.”

My mind feels blank, wiped clean with shock. Bram. Even though I only met him once, I can see him clearly, as if he’s standing in front of me. Pale and silent, lifeless eyes, like a living shadow.

Taya asked me how there could be nothing left of Bram, not even bones. I didn’t think about it, didn’t listen to her. If Brekken’s story is true … it means that Bram’s body wasn’t eaten. It was lying on the office floor that night, wrapped in a carpet. It’s rotting in the woods now.

Which means …

My brain is slow to process it.

The body—the Solarian body—that was Bram.

“Bram was a Solarian,” I say slowly. I’m reeling now. “And the Silver Prince—killed him?” I whisper. “But why?” At this moment, why feels like the only word I can remember.

“Good question,” Brekken mutters. “I asked him that too, when I snapped out of it and ran over to try and stop him. But he just laughed and turned his sword on me.”

His gaze lifts up and off me; his eyes grow distant. “Maybe it had something to do with opening the Solarian doorway. Some kind of dark magic. I just remember all the blood.”

Blood. I think of the day Graylin, Willow, Enetta, the Prince, and I tested the door with Fiorden magic. How the stone seemed to stir under my bloody fingers.

“He wanted the door open,” I whisper, the pieces of the story shifting in my mind, scraping against each other like tectonic plates. “The Silver Prince wanted chaos at Havenfall. So he could take over the inn. He must have known Bram was Solarian. He knew what it would look like when we found the body.”