"La Bella Durmiente," said Cristina. Sleeping Beauty. "But I did not remember it being so sad, or the prince so defeated." She glanced at Emma. "Is he a sorrowful boy, Julian?"
"No," Emma said, only half paying attention. She hadn't come into Jules's room since he'd gone. It looked like he hadn't cleaned up before he left, and there were clothes on the floor, half-done sketches scattered over the desk, even a mug on the nightstand that probably held coffee that had long since molded. "Not depressed or anything like that."
"Depressed is not the same as sad," Cristina observed.
But Emma didn't want to think about Julian being sad, not now, not when he was so close to coming home. Now that it was past midnight, he was technically coming home tomorrow. She felt a shiver of excitement and relief.
"Come on." She went out of the room and across the hall, Cristina following. Emma put her hand against a closed door. It was wood, like the others, the surface chipped as if no one had cleaned or sanded it in a long time.
"This was Mark's room," she said.
Every Shadowhunter knew Mark Blackthorn's name. The half-faerie, half-Shadowhunter boy who had been taken during the Dark War and made a part of the Wild Hunt, the most vicious of the fey. The ones who rode through the sky once a month, preying on humans, visiting the scenes of battle, feeding on fear and death like murderous hawks.
Mark had always been gentle. Emma wondered whether he still was anymore.
"Mark Blackthorn was part of the reason I came here," Cristina said, a little shyly. "It has always been my hope that one day I might be part of brokering a better treaty than the Cold Peace. Something more fair to Downworlders and those Shadowhunters who might love them."
Emma felt her eyes widen. "I didn't know. You never told me that."
Cristina gestured around them. "You have shared something with me," she said. "You have shared the Blackthorns. I thought I should share something with you."
"I'm glad you came here," Emma said impulsively, and Cristina blushed. "Even if it was partly for Mark. And even if you won't tell me anything else about why."
Cristina shrugged. "I like Los Angeles." She gave Emma a sly sideways smile. "Are you absolutely sure you don't want bad movies and ice cream?"
Emma took a deep breath. She remembered Julian telling her once that when things got to be too much, he imagined locking certain situations and emotions away in a box. Shut them away, he'd said, and they won't bother you. They're gone.
She imagined, now, taking her memories of the body in the alley, of Sebastian Morgenstern and the Clave, her breakup with Cameron, her need for answers, her anger at the world over her parents' deaths, and her eagerness to see Julian and the others tomorrow, and locking them up in a box. She imagined placing the box somewhere she could get to it easily, somewhere she could find it and open it again.
"Emma?" Cristina said anxiously. "Are you all right? You look a little as if you might throw up."
Click went the lock on the box. In her mind, Emma set it aside; back in the world, she smiled at Cristina. "Ice cream and bad movies sounds great," she said. "Let's go."
The sky above the ocean was streaked with the pink and rose of sunset. Emma slowed from a run to a jog, gasping, her heart pounding in her chest.
Usually Emma trained in the afternoon and evening and ran in the early morning, but she'd woken up late after staying up nearly all night with Cristina. She'd spent the day feverishly rearranging her evidence, calling Johnny Rook to cajole further details about the murders out of him, writing up notes for her wall, and waiting impatiently for Diana to turn up.
Unlike most tutors, Diana didn't live in the Institute with the Blackthorns--she had her own house in Santa Monica. Technically, Diana didn't need to be at the Institute at all today, but Emma'd sent her at least six texts. Maybe seven. Cristina had stopped her from sending eight, and suggested she go for a run to get rid of her anxiety.
She leaned forward, hands on her bent knees, trying to catch her breath. The beach was nearly deserted except for a few mundane couples finishing their romantic sunset walks, heading back up to the cars they'd left parked along the highway.
She wondered how many miles she'd run up and down this stretch of beach in the years she'd lived in the Institute. Five miles a day, every day. And that was after three hours at least in the training room. Half the scars Emma had on her body she'd put there herself, teaching herself to fall from the highest rafters, training herself to fight through pain by practicing barefoot--on broken glass.
The most brutal scar she had was on her forearm, and she'd given herself that, too, in a sense. It had come from Cortana, the day her parents had died. Julian had placed the blade in her arms, and she'd cradled it through the blood and the pain, weeping as it cut her skin. It had left a long white line along her arm, one that sometimes made her feel shy about wearing sleeveless dresses or tank tops. She wondered if even other Shadowhunters would stare at the scar, wonder where it came from.
Though Julian never stared.
She straightened up. From the waterline, she could see the Institute, all glass and stone, up on the hill above the beach. She could see the bump of Arthur's attic, even the dark window of her own bedroom. She'd slept restlessly there today, dreaming about the dead mundane man, the marks on his body, the marks on her parents. She'd tried to conjure up a vision of what she'd do when she found out who'd killed them. How any amount of physical pain she could inflict could ever even begin to make up for what she'd lost.
Julian had been in the dream too. She didn't know what exactly she'd dreamed, but she'd woken up with a clear picture of him in her mind--tall, slender Jules, with his dark brown curls and startling blue-green eyes. His dark lashes and pale skin, the way he bit his nails when he was under stress, his confident handling of weapons and even more confident handling of brushes and paints.
Julian, who would be home tomorrow. Julian would understand exactly what she was feeling--how long she'd waited for a clue about her parents. How now that she'd found one, the world suddenly seemed full of a terrifyingly imminent possibility. She remembered what Jem, the ex-Silent Brother who'd helped preside over her parabatai ceremony, had said about what Julian was to her, that there was an expression for it in his native Chinese, zhi yin. "The one who understands your music."
Emma couldn't play a note on any instrument, but Julian understood her music. Even the music of revenge.
Dark clouds were rolling in from the ocean. It was about to rain. Trying to put Jules out of her mind, Emma started to run again, darting up the dirt road toward the Institute. Nearing the building, she slowed, staring. There was a man coming down the steps. He was tall and narrow, dressed in a long coat the color of crow feathers. His hair was short and graying. He usually dressed in black; she suspected that was where his last name came from. He wasn't a warlock, Johnny Rook, even if he had a name like one. He was something else.
He saw her and his eyes widened. She broke into a sprint, cutting him off before he could dart around the side of the house, away from her.
She skidded to a stop in front of him, blocking his way. "What are you doing here?"
His odd eyes darted around, seeking an escape route. "Nothing. Stopping by."
"Did you say anything about me coming to the Shadow Market to Diana? Because if you did--"
He drew himself up. There was something odd about his face, as well as his eyes; it had an almost ravaged look, as if something awful had happened to him when he was young, something that had cut lines like knife scars into his skin. "You're not the head of the Institute, Emma Carstairs," he said. "The information I gave you was good."
"You said you'd stay quiet!"
"Emma." Emma's name, spoken firmly and with precision. Emma turned with slow dread to see Diana watching her from the top of the steps, the evening wind blowing her curly hair. She was wearing another long, elegant dress that made her look tall and imposing. She also looked absolutely furious.
"I guess you go
t my texts," Emma said. Diana didn't react.
"Leave Mr. Rook alone. We need to talk. I want to see you in my office in precisely ten minutes," she said.
Diana turned and went back into the Institute. Emma shot Rook a venomous glare. "Deals with you are supposed to be secret," she said, stabbing her index finger into his chest. "Maybe you didn't promise you'd keep your mouth shut, but we both know that's what people want from you. What they expect."
A small smile played around his mouth. "You don't scare me, Emma."
"Maybe I should."
"That's what's funny about you Nephilim," said Rook. "You know about Downworld, but you don't live in it." He put his lips to her ear, uncomfortably close. His breath raised the hairs on her neck when he spoke. "There are far more frightening things than you in this world, Emma Carstairs."
Emma wrenched herself away from him, turned, and ran up the Institute steps.
Ten minutes later Emma was standing in front of Diana's desk, her hair, still wet from her shower, dripping onto the polished tile floor.
Though Diana didn't live at the Institute, she had an office there, a comfortable corner room overlooking the highway and the sea. Emma could see the grass stretching out in front of the Institute in the twilight, blue-shadowed at the edges with coastal sage scrub. Rain had begun to patter down, streaking the windows.