Title: Quicksilver
Series: Fae & Alchemy #1
Author: Callie Hart
Genre: Fantasy Romance, Adult
Published: June 4, 2024 by Grand Central Publishing
Kindle Page Count: 615 pages
Audio Length: 20 hours and 41 minutes (Podium Audio)
Goodreads: 4.34 (out of 5)
My Rating: 4.5 (out of 5)
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In the land of the unforgiving desert, there isn't much a girl wouldn't do for a glass of water.
Twenty-four-year-old Saeris Fane is good at keeping secrets. No one knows about the strange powers she possesses, or the fact that she has been picking pockets and stealing from the Undying Queen's reservoirs for as long as she can remember.
But a secret is like a knot. Sooner or later, it is bound to come undone.
When Saeris comes face-to-face with Death himself, she inadvertently re-opens a gateway between realms and is transported to a land of ice and snow. The Fae have always been the stuff of myth, of legend, of nightmares... but it turns out they're real, and Saeris has landed herself in the middle of a centuries-long conflict that might just get her killed.
The first of her kind to tread the frozen mountains of Yvelia in over a thousand years, Saeris mistakenly binds herself to Kingfisher, a handsome Fae warrior, who has secrets and nefarious agendas of his own. He will use her Alchemist's magic to protect his people, no matter what it costs him . . . or her.
Death has a name. It is Kingfisher of the Ajun Gate. His past is murky. His attitude stinks. And he's the only way Saeris is going to make it home.
Be careful of the deals you make, dear child. The devil is in the details . . .
TROPE GUIDE: Enemies to Lovers | Different Worlds | Forced Proximity | Slow Burn | Touch Her and Die
QUICK LINKS: Quicksilver Recap by Chapter 12–19 | 20–26 | 27–35 | 36–41 | 42–45 // Fae & Alchemy Book 2 Summary
Disclaimer: This is a Quicksilver summary. The original work is the property of Callie Hart and Grand Central Publishing.
Quicksilver Book Summary
This Callie Hart Quicksilver chapter summary contains spoilers.
Quicksilver Chapter 1: The Climb
Saeris Fane sneaks into the forbidden Hub of Zilvaren City and runs into a royal guardian, the same kind of soldier who murdered Saeris’s mother and her neighbor. She lies about her name but admits that she comes from the plague-ridden Third Ward. The guardian panics, and when Saeris fakes the symptoms, he retreats in disgust and hurls his golden gauntlet at her.
She catches the gauntlet and scales the wall dividing the wards. That much gold could free Saeris and her brother Hayden from Zilvaren forever. At the top, she feels a strange pulse inside the gauntlet. She pushes the sensation aside and resolves to melt the gold so she and Hayden can escape.
Quicksilver Chapter 2: Glassmaker
Saeris brings the gauntlet to Elroy, but Elroy wants no part of it. He warns her that stealing from the queen’s guard is a death sentence. When Elroy mentions Saeris’s mother’s execution and her ability to manipulate metal, she shuts him down and walks out.
Outside The House of Kala, Saeris finds Hayden beaten and broke. She hands Hayden the satchel and goes inside to confront Carrion Swift, the smuggler responsible. Carrion claims Hayden threw the punch first, then reveals that he already knows about the gauntlet and warns that the entire Third Ward will suffer if the guardians trace it back to Saeris. Carrion offers to hide the gauntlet in his warehouse, and Saeris agrees.
Saeris steps back outside. Hayden is gone, and so is the satchel.
Quicksilver Chapter 3: The Kindest Purpose
Saeris races to The Mirage and stops cold. Thirty guardians surround Hayden.
When Hayden claims responsibility for the theft to protect Saeris, she steps forward and confesses herself. The situation unravels quickly. Saeris kills two guardians and maims a third before the skirmish ends. Her sentence is death.
With no other options, Saeris turns on Hayden to keep him safe. She calls Hayden a burden, using a tone cruel enough to make him believe the lie, and drives him away.
Quicksilver Chapter 4: The Price
Six hours in a cell pull Saeris back to childhood dreams of the palace, dreams that ended with Saeris’s mother’s execution and hardened into a desire to kill Queen Madra.
Harron returns, questions Saeris’s fighting skills, and drags her out with a warning to behave. Barely able to stand from thirst, Saeris drinks the water Harron offers, then tells him that Madra is poisoning the Third Ward and turning its people into weapons. Harron orders Saeris to keep moving.
He leads her into a locked hall with a raised platform at the center, once a hall of mirrors. Madra appears, striking in a way that unsettles Saeris more than it impresses her. Madra calls Saeris a liar and accuses her of being a Fae assassin.
Saeris is shocked. The Fae are only myths.
Madra tells Saeris that the hall keeps the Fae banished, then commands Harron to kill her. Madra promises to destroy everyone Saeris loves and wipe out the Third Ward as a warning to anyone who dares to rebel.
Quicksilver Chapter 5: Heretic
As Queen Madra leaves, she orders Harron to make Saeris sing.
Harron stabs Saeris, and something breaks open inside her. Power surges out, freezing Harron’s dagger mid-air. Saeris melts the blade, the molten metal moving toward Harron on its own. Gravely wounded, Saeris pulls a sword from the platform, cuts through her bonds, and strikes him.
The platform collapses into a pool of silver, and a figure rises from it. Death, clad in black armor. The armored figure kills Harron, then places a silver chain around Saeris’s neck and lifts her into his arms. The pool closes over them both, and the world goes dark.
Quicksilver Chapter 6: Everlayne
Saeris wakes in Yvelia, her wounds healed and tended to by a Fae woman named Everlayne. When Renfis, a Fae general, enters demanding the silver chain, Saeris barely registers his presence. Learning that she has been unconscious for ten days sends Saeris into a panic over Hayden, but Everlayne tells her returning is impossible. Drawing the ancient sword changed everything in the eyes of the Fae, and King Belikon De Barra has summoned Saeris.
For Saeris, the bath feels like guilt. All that water, freely given, while Hayden and Elroy are likely parched back home.
Despite Saeris’s objections, Everlayne dresses her for the king, explaining that to appear in human clothes would be an insult. When Saeris sees herself in the mirror, she freezes. The reflection staring back looks nothing like Saeris.
Quicksilver Chapter 7: The Dog
Saeris walks through the Winter Palace with Everlayne, learning about the Fae gods and their connection to Zilvaren’s twin suns.
Before King Belikon, Saeris receives devastating news, Queen Madra has massacred the Third Ward, including Hayden. King Belikon declares a life debt, orders Saeris to reopen the portals, and calls for “the dog” who saved her life.
The court stirs at the name Kingfisher, and as Belikon moves to execute Kingfisher, the oracle Malwae intervenes. Malwae declares that the gods forbid such a death and demands the return of the pendant.
General Renfis arrives, claiming Kingfisher for the front lines. Belikon agrees but commands Kingfisher to help Saeris first.
With the pendant restored, Kingfisher’s clarity returns. Outside, Saeris gets her first real look at him and feels unsettled. The reunion between Kingfisher, Renfis, and Everlayne is cold.
As Saeris and Everlayne walk away, Everlayne warns her that the Fae hide treachery behind friendly faces.
Quicksilver Chapter 8: Alchemist
The next morning, Everlayne brings Saeris to the palace’s grand library, a stark contrast to the crumbling archive in Zilvaren. Everlayne and Saeris are joined by the librarian Rusarius, then by Kingfisher and General Renfis.
When Everlayne begins the lesson, Saeris pushes back. Saeris wants to go home and find Hayden, not sit through history. Kingfisher offers a thread of hope, suggesting that Queen Madra may have conscripted the people of the Third Ward rather than killed them. The conversation darkens as the group acknowledges that the Fae are already losing their war against Sanasroth.
Kingfisher then asks about Saeris’s abilities. Saeris explains that she can draw on the energy within metal and that she has experience working in a forge.
Quicksilver Chapter 9: Righteous Purpose
Kingfisher ignores Everlayne and General Renfis and takes Saeris to a Fae forge. On the way, Kingfisher reveals that the Fae once suffered a blood curse that turned them into vampires, and that he’s Everlayne’s brother. Whatever Kingfisher says next drives Everlayne to tears, and she runs. Renfis rounds on Kingfisher, but Saeris follows him. Kingfisher is her fastest way home.
At the forge, Kingfisher breaks in without hesitation, explaining that Belikon’s archivist never mastered the Alchemists’ methods and left the place to gather dust. Saeris begins cleaning while Kingfisher refuses to help, insisting that magic is sacred.
Kingfisher explains that the pendant keeps the madness of quicksilver at bay, the same quicksilver the Alchemists shaped into weapons. Quicksilver pools are passages between realms, and because Saeris activated one, she’s the key to reopening them. That’s why Kingfisher saved her.
When Renfis arrives hours later, Kingfisher cleans the forge instantly with magic. Saeris is furious, but Kingfisher shows no remorse, claiming he only wanted to see how she handled hard work.
Quicksilver Chapter 10: Crumbs
The next day, Saeris apologizes to Everlayne and joins her at the library, where Rusarius is furious with Renfis and Kingfisher for eating at the clerk’s table. Everlayne and Kingfisher argue, and Kingfisher storms out, telling Saeris to meet him at the forge later. Once Kingfisher is gone, Renfis and Everlayne grieve over how broken he has become. Everlayne admits she’s not sure the brother she once knew is still in him.
Saeris’s lessons in Alchemy begin. When Saeris realizes she can read Fae script, Everlayne ties the ability to Madra’s influence, and the conversation shifts to Madra’s unnaturally long reign and her use of an Alchimeran sword to still the quicksilver. Saeris also learns that Everlayne is 1,486 years old and that Kingfisher is even older. Kingfisher has been listening nearby the entire time and slips in to correct his sister before taking Saeris away.
At the forge, Saeris asks Kingfisher directly why he destroyed a city. Kingfisher admits it without flinching but says only that hell was his punishment. He then forces Saeris to hold the quicksilver through the freezing, burning pain. Saeris endures his taunting until something shifts. She speaks the words “Annorath mor,” the pain stops, and the metal liquefies. Saeris learns to command the quicksilver at will.
Kingfisher concedes that he expected it to be harder for her. Saeris punches him in the mouth.
Quicksilver Chapter 11: Swallow
While helping Saeris dress, Everlayne snaps at Saeris for striking Kingfisher, then lets the matter drop and begins telling her about Kingfisher instead. Kingfisher is Everlayne’s older half‑brother, born of their mother’s first husband, a disgraced lord. The king married their mother for wealth and has resented Kingfisher ever since.
Alone, Saeris turns the strange phrase she spoke to the quicksilver over in her mind. When Kingfisher arrives with food, his teasing unsettles her until Everlayne storms in, furious, and accuses him of whoring. To shield Saeris, Kingfisher accepts the blame and leaves, warning her to be ready for more quicksilver practice.
At the library, Saeris steers her lesson toward quicksilver pathways. Rusarius explains that an Alchemist traveling through quicksilver must hold the destination clearly in mind, then confirms that a massive pool lies beneath the Winter Palace.
Saeris listens, but she’s already plotting. She knows she must finish one last task before she can use that pool to return home.