Lady Midnight (The Dark Artifices 1)

The other boy froze. Kit looked up to see two other Shadowhunters standing on the cellar steps: a boy with blazing blue-green eyes and the blond girl he had seen at the Shadow Market the week before. They were both staring--not at him, but at the boy gripping his shirt.

The boy winced but held his ground, defiance chasing alarm across his face. Aha, Kit thought with dawning realization. You're not supposed to be down here, are you?

"Tiberius Blackthorn," said the boy with blue-green eyes. "What on earth are you doing?"

Emma stood and gawked at Ty, completely brought up short. It was as if the Institute had suddenly appeared in the middle of Johnny Rook's cellar: The sight of Ty was familiar, and yet totally incongruous.

Ty looked rumpled and more frazzled than she'd seen him in years, though his grip on his dagger was steady. Diana would have been pleased. She would probably not have been pleased that he was pointing it at the throat of a mundane boy--he looked about fifteen, and oddly familiar. She'd seen him before, Emma realized, at the Shadow Market. His hair was a mass of blond tangles; his shirt was clean but ragged, his jeans worn to a faded pallor. And he looked ready to punch Ty in the face, which was unusual for a mundane in his position. Most of them were much more unsettled by a knife to the throat.

"Ty," Julian said again. He looked furious--fury with an edge of panic. "Ty, let go of Johnny Rook's son."

The blond boy's eyes widened. "How did you--how do you know who I am?" he demanded.

Julian shrugged. "Who else would you be?" He tilted his head to the side. "Maybe you know something about the Lottery at the Midnight Theater?"

"Jules," Emma said. "He's just a kid."

"I'm not a kid!" the boy protested. "And my name is Kit."

"We're trying to help," Julian said. The blond boy--Kit--scowled. Julian softened his voice. "We're trying to save lives."

"My father told me that's what Shadowhunters always say."

"Do you believe everything he says?"

"He was right this time, wasn't he?" Kit pointed out. His gaze slid to Emma; she remembered noticing that he had the Sight. She'd thought he was Rook's assistant, though, not his son. They looked nothing alike. "You said it."

"I meant--" Julian began.

"I don't know anything about a lottery," Kit snapped. He glanced at Tiberius. What was odder, perhaps, was that Ty was looking at him. Emma remembered Ty, years ago, saying, Why do people say "look at me" when they mean "look at my eyes"? You could be looking at any part of a person and you're still looking at them. But he was looking curiously at Kit's eyes as if they reminded him of something.

"Kit!" The voice was a roar. Emma heard skidding footsteps on the stairs, and Johnny Rook appeared. One of his sleeves was singed. Emma had never seen him look so furious. "Leave my son alone!"

Ty steadied his grip on the knife, straightening his spine. He faced Johnny Rook without a speck of fear. "Tell us about the Lottery," he said.

Kit winced. Emma could see it, even in the gloom. Ty didn't seem frightening to her, but then, she'd cuddled him when he was three years old. But fear was clear in Johnny Rook's face: As far as he was concerned, Nephilim had snuck a Shadowhunter into his basement to murder his son.

"I'll give you Casper Sterling's address," he said as Kit stared at him, looking bewildered. Clearly he had rarely seen his father so shaken. "I've got it, okay? He's got a bunch of identities, he isn't easy to find, but I know where he lives. All right? Good enough? Let my son go!"

Ty lowered the knife and stepped back. He kept it in his hand, his eyes on Kit as the other boy rubbed ruefully at the dent in his throat. "Dad, I--" Kit started.

"Be quiet, Kit," Johnny Rook snapped. "I've told you. Don't say anything in front of Nephilim."

"We're on the same side," Julian said in his calmest voice.

Johnny Rook whirled on him. His face was red, his throat working. "Don't you dare tell me what side I'm on, you know nothing, nothing--"

"Enough!" Emma shouted. "By the Angel, what are you so frightened of?"

Johnny slammed his mouth shut. "I'm not frightened," he said through his teeth. "Just get out," he said. "Get out, and don't ever come here again. I'll text you the address but after that, don't call, don't ask me for favors. We're done, Nephilim."

"Fine," Emma said, gesturing for Ty to come toward her and Julian. "We'll go. Ty--"

Ty slid the knife he'd been holding into his belt and darted up the steps. Julian turned and went after him. The boy at the bottom of the stairs didn't watch them go; his eyes were fixed on his father.

He wasn't much younger than Emma--maybe by a year or two--but she felt a sudden inexplicable surge of protectiveness toward Johnny Rook's son. If he had the Sight, then all of Downworld was open to him: terrifying and inexplicable. In his own way he was like Tiberius, living in a world he saw differently than everyone else.

"Fine, Johnny," Emma said again, loudly. "But if you change your mind, you have my number in your phone. Under Carstairs."

Johnny Rook glared at her.

"Call me," Emma said again, and this time she looked directly at Kit. "If you ever need anything."

"Get OUT." Rook looked as if he were going to explode or have a heart attack, so with a last look over her shoulder, Emma went.

Emma found Ty out by the car. Clouds had gathered, scudding in quick bursts across the sky. Ty was leaning against the trunk, the wind ruffling his black hair. "Where's Jules?" she asked as she got close.

"Over there." He pointed. "I got into the house with an Open rune. I broke the lock on the basement door. He's fixing it."

Emma glanced over toward Johnny Rook's and saw Jules's lean, long figure outlined by the stuccoed wall. She opened the trunk of the car, unbuckling her weapons belt. "How did you get here, anyway?"

"I hid in the backseat. Under that blanket." Ty pointed. Emma could see the edge of a pair of headphones peeking out from under the quilt's fuzzy edge. "You think Julian's mad at me?" With the knife put away, he looked very young, his gray eyes clear and open, fixed on the clouds overhead.

"Ty." Emma sighed. "He's going to murderate you."

Julian was heading back toward them. Ty said, "That's a neologism."

Emma blinked. "It's a what?"

"A word you made up. Shakespeare made up words all the time."

Emma smiled at him, oddly touched. "Well, 'murderate' isn't exactly Shakespeare."

Ty braced himself as Julian walked directly up to him, not breaking stride, his jaw set, his blue-green eyes as dark as the deep part of the ocean.

He reached Ty and caught hold of him, pulling him into a fierce hug. He pressed his face down into his little brother's black hair as Ty stood, frozen and astonished at Julian's lack of anger.

"Jules?" he said. "Are you all right?"

Julian's shoulders shook. He held his little brother tighter, as if he could crush Ty into himself, into a place where he'd always be safe. He put his cheek against Ty's curls, squeezing his eyes shut, his voice muffled. "I thought something happened to you," he said. "I thought Johnny Rook might--"

He didn't finish his sentence. Ty put his arms carefully around Julian. He patted his back, gently, with his slender hands. It was the first time Emma had seen Ty comfort his older brother--almost the first time she'd ever actually seen Julian let someone else take care of him.

They were silent on the long highway drive back to the Institute; silent as the clouds cleared away, blown inland by the ocean air. The sun was low on the water as they drove up the Pacific Coast Highway. They were silent as they got out of the car and Julian finally really spoke.

"You shouldn't have done that," he said, looking at Tiberius. He'd stopped shaking--thankfully, since he'd been driving--and his voice was steady and soft. "It was too dangerous for you to come with us."

Ty put his hands in his pockets. "I know what you think. But this is my investigation too."

"Mark texted me to tell me you were missing," Julian said, and Emma started; she

should have guessed that was what all the business with Jules's phone had been about. "I almost walked right out of Rook's house. I don't think he would have let us back in."

"I'm sorry you were worried," said Ty. "That's why I hugged you outside Rook's house, because I was sorry you were worried. But I'm not Tavvy. I'm not a child. I don't need to always be there so that you or Mark can find me."

"You shouldn't have come into Rook's house either." Julian's voice rose. "It wasn't safe."

"I wasn't planning to come inside. Just to look at the house. Observe it." Ty's soft mouth hardened. "Then I saw you go in, and I saw someone moving around downstairs. I thought they might come up and attack you when you didn't expect it. I knew you didn't realize anyone was down there."

"Jules," Emma said. "You would have done the same thing."

Jules shot her an exasperated look. "Ty's only fifteen."

"Don't say it's dangerous because I'm fifteen," Ty said. "You did things just as dangerous when you were fifteen. And Rook wouldn't have told you Sterling's address if I hadn't been holding a knife on his son."

"That's true," said Emma. "He got into that protection circle too fast."