Havenfall (Havenfall #1)(90)

As the delegates gather for dinner, I peek into the dining hall through the back door. Even if I’m not ready to face everyone just yet, it seems prudent to make sure the guests aren’t rioting. Through the open doorway, I see pizza boxes strewn over the grand tables. The familiar smell of melted cheese and grease is a small comfort—one that never fails to make me feel like I’m four again. I imagine Mom cutting up my pizza into little bite-size squares. What would she think if she could see me now?

I can tell her, I realize, a spear of guilt and grief over lost time lancing through me. Ever since I arrived at Havenfall, ever since the sentencing, I’ve thought of her as if she’s already dead. I took her silence as surrender. But that’s not the Mom I remember, or the woman I read about in the Heiress’s files. She was a player in this game, working together with Marcus to save the captive Solarians. I have to tell her I know the truth. I have to tell her that Nate could still be alive.

I understand now that what happened to Mom and Nate wasn’t my fault, but there are so many things I’ve done wrong since then. Writing Mom off as a lost cause. Not looking hard enough for the truth about Nate. But I can’t let myself sink into a morass of shame. If I want them back—my heart races at the possibility—I need to keep moving forward. Starting by winning over the delegates tonight.

The remaining guests cluster near the front of the room, eating halfheartedly while they await my announcement, their eyes constantly flickering to me at the front table. At a table a few yards away, Brekken cuts a piece of pizza into small pieces—just like Mom used to do for me—and puts the plate in front of Sura, the Solarian girl from the antique shop. She’s sitting between Brekken and the Heiress now, wide-eyed and flinching at every noise, even though the hall is quieter than normal.

While the healers tended to me and Brekken after the fight with the Silver Prince, we explained to Graylin, Willow, Sal, and, crucially, the Heiress what we had learned about Solarians and selu and the silver trade. I stayed as calm as I could, careful not to let any anger at the Heiress into my voice. She was horrified at her mistake. It wasn’t her fault—she didn’t know that the silver she was buying held slivered bits of stolen souls—and more pieces of selu are in traders’ hands because of her actions.

After Brekken and I related the truth, the four of them drove straight to the antique shop to free the girl and bring her here. Watching her now, though, her wide blank eyes and careful movements make my heart twist as I think about how she gifted me her magic, her selu.

Can it be restored to her—can all the Solarians who have been harmed by the traders be restored? I hope so, but I’m not sure. I wonder if the legend about Solarians stealing souls is just another way their own history has been twisted against them.

I tear my gaze from her and look over at the other tables. Part of me wants to smile at the sight of these elegant, otherworldly delegates peering discreetly over at the human table to see how to eat a slice of pizza. No such thing in the Adjacent Realms, I guess. But the larger part of me is worried over the fact that there is a human table. That in this atmosphere of uncertainty and suspicion, everyone has separated and is sitting with their kind. The Byrnisian delegation fills an entire table, while the remnants of the Fiordenkill delegation and human staff, sitting apart at different tables, look especially motley in comparison.

They all know what happened with the Silver Prince—from his plot to control the inn to murdering Bram to his attack on Max. I have a new plan. Graylin and Willow were skeptical, but secrets and lies got us here. I couldn’t justify any more. It won’t be long until we hit the two-week mark, where the worlds will align and allow people to come and go through the Fiordenkill and Byrnisian doorways. If the delegates leave, they leave.

And they still might.

But there’s one more thing I have to do before I get up in front of them and make my case.





26

When I slip into Marcus’s room, my heart leaps with joy before I fully process what I’m seeing.

Marcus is sitting up. His eyes are open.

A thousand emotions crash into me at once as I run over to the bedside. Graylin manages to jump out of the way just in time.

He’s been getting steadily better since the Solarian door closed. Still, he looks strange. There is a frantic color buzzing in his cheeks, and his eyes are unnaturally bright and yet slow to focus on me.

But I push the doubts down to make room for the utter joy, dizzying joy and relief that I have my uncle back. Whatever comes next, fighting the Silver Prince, putting Havenfall back together—we will figure it out. I’m not alone anymore.

“Hey there,” he says, his voice smoker-gravelly from lack of use.

I plop down on the side of his bed, looking up at Graylin to make sure I’m not dreaming. He nods at me with a strange, strained smile, but maybe I’m not seeing clearly because my eyes are filling with happy tears. I blink them away and turn back to Marcus.

His hand reaches out and touches my chin, his expression uncertain. “Sylvia?”

“I—” What he’s said takes a second to sink in.

Sylvia. Mom’s name.

“No, I—I’m Maddie.”

The song in my heart hiccups, but I try not to let it show on my face. He’s been out for a week. It’s probably normal to be a bit confused.