Lady Midnight (The Dark Artifices 1)

She had wondered, in the back of her mind, if what had happened on the beach between them had been a fluke born of their shared adrenaline. Surely kisses weren't meant to be like that, so all-encompassing that they ripped through you like lightning, tore down your defenses and decimated your self-control.

Apparently not.

Her hands fisted in the material of Julian's jacket, dragging him toward her, closer, closer. There was sugar and caffeine on his lips. He tasted like energy. Her hands slid up under his shirt, touching the bare skin of his back, and he broke away from her to suck in his breath. His eyes were closed, his lips parted.

"Emma," he breathed, and the desire in his voice tore a scorching path through her. When he reached for her, she almost fell against him. He swiveled her body around, pushing her back against a pillar, his body a strong, hot line against hers--

A sound cut through the fog in her mind.

Emma and Julian tore apart, staring.

Both of them had been in the Hall of Accords in Idris when the Wild Hunt had come, howling around the walls, tearing at the ceiling. Emma remembered the sound of Gwyn's horn, blasting through the air. Vibrating every nerve in her body. A high, hollow, lonesome sound.

It came again now, echoing through the morning.

The sun had risen while Emma had been wrapped up in Julian, and the road that led down to the highway was illuminated by sunlight. There were three figures coming up it, on horseback: one black horse, one white, and one gray.

Emma recognized two of the riders immediately: Kieran, sitting his horse like a dancer, his hair nearly black in the sunlight, and next to him, Iarlath, wrapped in dark robes.

The third rider was familiar to Emma from a hundred illustrations in books. He was a big, broad man, bearded, wearing dark armor that looked like the overlapping bark of a tree. He had tucked his horn under his arm; it was a massive object, etched all over with a pattern of deer.

Gwyn the Hunter, the leader of the Wild Hunt, had come to the Institute. And he did not look pleased.

Mark stood at an upstairs window and looked out at the sun rising over the desert. The mountains seemed cut out of dark paper, sharp and distinct against the sky. For a moment he imagined he could reach out and touch them, that he could fly from this window and reach the top of the highest peak.

The moment passed, and once again he saw the distance between himself and the mountains. Ever since he had returned to the Institute, he had felt as if he were struggling to see everything through a thin layer of glamour. Sometimes he saw the Institute as it was, sometimes it faded from view and instead he saw a bare landscape and the fires of the Wild Hunt burning in small encampments.

Sometimes he turned to say something to Kieran only to discover that he wasn't there. Kieran had been there every morning that Mark had woken up for years of Faerie time.

Kieran had been meant to come and see him the night Mark had watched the children in the kitchen. But he'd never come. There'd been no communication from him, either, and Mark was worried now. He told himself that the faerie prince was probably just being cautious, but he found his hand straying to the arrowhead at his throat more often than usual.

It was a gesture that reminded him of Cristina, the way she touched the medallion at her throat when she was nervous. Cristina. He wondered what had passed between her and Diego.

Mark turned away from the window just as the sound came. His hearing had been sharpened by years in the Hunt; he doubted anyone else in the Institute would have heard it or been awakened.

It was a single note, the sound of Gwyn the Hunter's horn: sharp and harsh, as lonely as mountains. Mark's blood went cold. It was not a greeting or even a call to the Hunt. It was the note Gwyn blew when they were searching out a deserter. It was the sound of betrayal.

Julian had straightened up, raking his hands through his tangled curls, his jaw set. "Emma," he said. "Go back inside."

Emma turned and strode back into the Institute--only long enough to seize up Cortana from where it hung beside the door. She stalked back outside to find that the faerie convoy had dismounted their horses, who remained unnaturally still, as if tied in place. Their eyes were blood red, their manes wound with red flowers. Faerie steeds.

Gwyn had approached the foot of the steps. He had a strange face, slightly alien: wide eyes, broad cheekbones, wicked eyebrows. One black eye, and one that was pale blue.

Beside him came Iarlath, his yellow eyes unblinking. And at his other side, Kieran. He was as beautiful as Emma had remembered him, and looked as cold. His pale face was as severely cut as white marble, his black and silver eyes uncanny in the daylight.

"What's going on?" Emma demanded. "Has something happened?"

Gwyn glanced at her dismissively. "This is none of your affair, Carstairs girl," he said. "This matter concerns Mark Blackthorn. None of the rest of you."

Julian crossed his arms over his chest. "Anything that concerns my brother concerns me. In fact, it concerns all of us."

Kieran's mouth set into a hard, uncompromising line. "We are Gwyn and Kieran of the Wild Hunt, and Iarlath of the Unseelie Court, here on a matter of justice. And you will fetch your brother."

Emma moved to stand in the center of the top step, unsheathing Cortana, which sent bright sparks skittering into the air. "Don't tell him what to do," she said. "Not here. Not on the steps of the Institute."

Gwyn gave an unexpected, rumbling laugh. "Don't be a fool, Carstairs girl," he said. "No single Shadowhunter can hold off three of the Fair Folk, not even armed with one of the Great Swords."

"I wouldn't underestimate Emma," said Julian in a voice like razor wire. "Or you'll find your head lying on the ground next to your still-twitching body."

"How graphic," said Iarlath, amused.

"I'm here," said a breathless voice behind them, and Emma half-closed her eyes, fear going through her like pain.

Mark.

It looked as if he had thrown on jeans and a sweater in a hurry, and jammed his feet into sneakers. His blond hair was ruffled and he looked younger than he usually did, his eyes wide with surprise and undefended astonishment.

"But my time isn't up," Mark said. He was speaking to Gwyn but looking at Kieran. There was an expression on his face--one Emma couldn't interpret or describe, one that seemed to mix pleading and pain and gladness. "We're still trying to find out what's going on. We're nearly there. But the deadline--"

"Deadline?" Kieran echoed. "Listen to you. You sound like one of them."

Mark looked surprised. "But, Kieran--"

"Mark Blackthorn," said Iarlath. "You stand accused of sharing one of the secrets of Faerie with a Shadowhunter, despite being expressly forbidden to do so."

Mark let the door of the Institute fall shut behind him. He took several steps forward, until he was standing beside Julian. He clasped his hands behind his back; they were shaking. "I--I don't know what you mean," he said. "I haven't told my family anything forbidden."

"Not your family," said Kieran, an ugly twist to his voice. "Her."

"Her?" Julian said, looking at Emma, but she shook her head.

"Not me," she said. "He means Cristina."

"You didn't expect us to leave you unobserved, did you, Mark?" Kieran said. His black and silver eyes were like etched daggers. "I was outside the window when I heard you speaking with her. You told her how Gwyn could be deprived of his powers. A secret known only to the Hunt, and forbidden to repeat."

Mark had turned the color of ashes. "I didn't--"

"There is no point lying," said Iarlath. "Kieran is a prince of Faerie and cannot speak untruths. If he says he overheard this, then he did."

Mark shifted his gaze to Kieran. The sunlight no longer seemed beautiful to Emma, but merciless, beating down on Mark's gold hair and skin. Hurt spread across his face like the stain of red from a slap. "It would never mean anything to Cristina. She would never tell anyone. She would never hurt me or the Hunt."

Kieran turned his face

away, his beautiful mouth twisting at the corner. "Enough."

Mark took a step forward. "Kieran," he said. "How can you do this? To me?"

Kieran's face was bleak with pain. "Mine is not the betrayal," he said. "Speak to your Shadowhunter princess of promises broken."

"Gwyn." Mark turned to plead with the Hunt's leader. "What is between myself and Kieran is not a matter for the law of the Courts or the Hunt. Since when did they interfere in matters of the heart?"

Matters of the heart. Emma could see it on both their faces, Mark's and Kieran's, in the way they looked at each other and the way they didn't. She wondered how she had missed it before, in the Sanctuary, that these were two people who loved each other. Two people who had hurt each other the way only two people in love could.

Kieran looked at Mark as if Mark had taken something irreplaceably precious from him. And Mark looked--