A Darker Shade of Magic

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.

Kell runs toward Lila’s screams even though he knows he’s walking into “a blunt and obvious trap” because part of him believes her predicament is her own fault (167). 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.