Lord of Shadows (The Dark Artifices 2)

"You wouldn't. It's a family alliance."

"An arranged marriage? How mundane and medieval." Manuel grabbed for the rune-stones on the table, and for a moment the light in the room seemed to dance, a wild pattern of shine and shadow. "So, are we heading back?"

"We'd better. If anyone sees us, we can say we were checking the wards." Zara crumpled the pages of her father's letter and stuffed them into her pocket. "The Council meets soon. My father will read out my letter to him there, stating Arthur Blackthorn's inability to run an Institute, and then announce his own candidacy."

"They won't know what hit them," said Manuel, sliding his hands into his pockets. "And when it's all over, of course . . ."

"Don't worry," Zara said irritably. "You'll get what you want. Though it would be better if you were more committed to the cause."

She had already turned away; Kit saw Manuel's eyes glint beneath his lashes as he looked after her. There was something in his expression--an unpleasant sort of hunger, though whether it was desire for Zara or something far more arcane, Kit couldn't tell. "Oh, I'm committed," said Manuel. "I'd like to see the world burned clean of Downworlders as much as you, Zara. I just don't believe in doing something for nothing."

Zara glanced back over her shoulder as she moved into the corridor Manuel had used as an entrance. "It won't be nothing, Manu," she said. "I can promise you that."

And they were gone, leaving Kit, Ty, and Livvy to huddle together in the mouth of the tunnel, stunned into silence.

*

The sound that woke Cristina was so faint she thought at first she might have imagined it. She lay, still tired, blinking against the foggy sunlight. She wondered how long it would be until sundown, when they could navigate by the stars again.

The sound came again, a sweet far-calling cry, and she sat up, shaking her hair back. It was wet with dew. She combed her fingers through it, wishing for something to tie it back with. She hardly ever wore her hair down like this, and the weight against her neck was bothersome.

She could see Julian and Emma, both asleep, hunched figures on the ground. But where was Mark? His blanket was discarded, his boots lying beside it. The sight of the boots made her scramble up to her feet: They'd all been sleeping with their shoes on, just in case. Why would he take his off?

She thought about waking up Emma, but likely she was being ridiculous: He'd probably just gone for a walk. She reached to pull her butterfly knife out of her weapons belt and started down the hill, moving past Jules and Emma as she did. She saw with a sort of pang at her heart that their hands, between them, were clasped: Somehow they'd found their way toward each other in sleep. She wondered if she should reach down, gently separate them. But no, she couldn't do that. There was no way to gently separate Jules and Emma. The mere action of separating them at all was like an act of violence, a tear in the fabric of the world.

There was still heavy mist everywhere, and the sun pierced through it dimly in several places, creating a glowing white veil she could see through only in patches. "Mark?" she called softly. "Mark, where are you?"

She caught the sound she had heard before again, and now it was clearer: music. The sound of a pipe, the twang of a harp string. She strained to hear more--and then nearly screamed as something touched her shoulder. She whirled and saw Mark in front of her, holding his hands up as if to ward her off.

"I didn't mean to startle you," he said.

"Mark," she breathed, and then paused. "Are you Mark? Faeries weave illusions, don't they?"

He cocked his head to the side. His blond hair fell across his forehead. She remembered when it had hit his shoulders, as if he were the illustration of a faerie prince in a book. Now it was short, soft and curling. She had given him a modern haircut, and it seemed odd suddenly, out of place in Faerie. "I cannot hear my heart or what it tells me," he said. "I can only hear the wind."

It was one of the first things he had ever said to her.

"It is you," she said, exhaling with relief. "What are you doing? Why aren't you sleeping? We need to rest, if we are to arrive at the Unseelie Court by moon's rise."

"Can't you hear the music?" he said. It was louder now, the very clear sounds of fiddles and woodwinds, and the sound of dancing, too--laughter, and the stamp of feet. "It's a revel."

Cristina's heart skipped a beat. Faerie revels were things out of legend. The Fair Folk danced to enchanted music, and drank enchanted wine, and sometimes they would dance for days. The food they ate made you delirious or love-struck or mad . . . it could pierce your dreams . . . .

"You should go back to sleep," Mark said. "Revels can be dangerous."

"I've always wanted to see one." A surge of rebellion went through her. "I'm going to go closer."

"Cristina, don't." He sounded breathless as she turned and moved down the hill toward the noise. "It's the music--it's making you want to dance--"

She whirled around, a curl of black hair sticking to her damp cheek. "You brought us here," she said, and then she plunged on, toward the music, and it rose up and surrounded her, and she could hear Mark, swearing but following after her.

She reached a field at the foot of the hill and stopped to stare. The field was full of blurred, colorful movement. All around her the music echoed, piercingly sweet.

And everywhere, of course, there were Fair Folk. A troupe of faeries in the center of the dancers, playing their instruments, their heads thrown back, their feet stamping the ground. There were green-skinned wood faeries dancing, with gnarled hands and eyes that glowed yellow as sap. Faeries blue and green and shimmering as water, with hair like transparent netting cascading down to their feet. Beautiful girls with flowers wound through their hair, tied around their waists and throats, whose feet were hooves: pretty boys in ragged clothes with fever-bright eyes who held out their hands as they spun by.

"Come and dance," they called. "Come and dance, beautiful girl, chica bella, come and dance with us."

Cristina began to move toward them, toward the music and the dancing. The field was still clouded with fog, carving its streaks of white across the ground and hiding the blue of the sky. The mist glowed as she moved into it, heavy with strange scents: fruit and wine and incense-like smoke.

She began to dance, moving her body to the music's rhythm. Exhilaration seemed to pour into her with every breath she took in. She was suddenly no longer the girl who had let Diego Rosales fool her not once, but twice, not the girl who followed rules and trusted people until they broke her trust as casually as knocking a glass off a table. No longer the girl who stood back and let her friends be wild and crazy and waited to catch them when they fell. Now she was the one falling.

Hands seized her, spinning her around. Mark. His eyes were flashing. He pulled her up close against him, his arms slipping around her, but his grip was unyielding with anger. "What are you doing, Cristina?" he asked in a low voice. "You know about faeries, you know this is dangerous."

"That's why I'm doing it, Mark." She hadn't seen him look so furious since Kieran had come riding up to the Institute with Iarlath and Gwyn. She felt a small, secret pulse of excitement inside her chest, that she could make him that angry.

"They hate Shadowhunters here, don't you remember?" he said.

"They don't know I'm a Shadowhunter."

"Believe me," said Mark, leaning in close so that she could feel his breath, hot, against her ear. "They know."

"Then they don't care," said Cristina. "It's a revel. I've read about these. Faeries lose themselves in the music, like humans. They dance and they forget, just like us."

Mark's hands curved around her waist. It was a protective gesture, she told herself. It didn't mean anything. But her pulse quickened regardless. When Mark had first arrived at the Institute, he'd been stick-thin, hollow-eyed. Now she could feel muscle over his bones, the hard strength of him against her.

"I never asked you," he said, as they moved among the crowd. They were close to two girls dancing together; both of them

had their black hair bound up in elaborate crowns of berries and acorns. They wore dresses of russet and brown, ribbons around their slim throats, and swished their skirts away from Mark and Cristina, laughing at the couple's clumsiness. Cristina didn't mind. "Why faeries? Why did you make that the thing you studied?"

"Because of you." She tilted her head back to look up at him, saw the surprise that passed across his expressive face. The beginning of the gentle curves of wonder at the corners of his mouth. "Because of you, Mark Blackthorn."

Me? His lips shaped the word.

"I was in my mother's rose garden when I heard what had happened to you," she said. "I was only thirteen. The Dark War was ending, and the Cold Peace had been announced. The whole Shadowhunter world knew of your sister's exile, and that you had been abandoned. My great-uncle came out to tell me about it. My family always used to joke that I was softhearted, that it was easy to make me cry, and he knew I'd been worrying about you--so he told me, he said, 'Your lost boy will never be found now.' "

Mark swallowed. Emotions passed like storm clouds behind his eyes; not for him Julian's guardedness, his shields. "And did you?"

"Did I what?"

"Did you cry?" he said. They were still moving together, in the dance, but it was almost mechanical now: Cristina had forgotten the steps her feet were taking, she was aware only of Mark breathing, her fingers locked behind Mark's neck, Mark in her arms.

"I did not cry," Cristina said. "But I did decide that I would dedicate myself to eradicating the Cold Peace. It was not a fair Law then. It will never be a fair Law."

His lips parted. "Cristina--"

A voice like doves interrupted them. Soft, feathery, and light, it crooned, "Drinks, madam and sir? Something to cool you after dancing?"