Lady Midnight (The Dark Artifices 1)

A heavy sweet scent hung in the air as people hurried to take their seats in the semicircular space. The seats were upholstered in purple velvet, each with a gold M embroidered across the back. As the ticket girl had promised, their ticket now had their row and seat numbers printed on it. They found them and filed in, Cristina first, then Emma, then Julian. He sat down beside Emma.

"M for Midnight?" she said, pointing at the seat backs.

"Probably," he said, and went back to looking at the stage. The curtains were drawn back and a massive painting of an ocean view covered the back wall. The stage itself was bare, the floor gleaming polished boards.

Emma felt flushed. Julian's voice had been calm, neutral. But the expression on his face only a few minutes ago flashed across her vision anyway: the way he'd looked when he held her on the dance floor, that naked look in his eyes, all pretense stripped away.

That glimpse had shown her an intent and agonized Julian she'd never known. A hidden face she'd never seen, that she didn't think anyone had ever seen.

She felt Cristina shift beside her and turned with quick guilt: She'd been so caught up in her own bewilderment that she'd forgotten to ask Cristina why she'd looked so flustered.

Cristina was glaring across the theater. Her eyes were glued to the man in the herringbone suit. He was seating himself next to an elegant blond woman in a silver dress and high heels.

"Ugh," Cristina said. "I practically had to peel him off me. What a pervert. My mother would just have stabbed him."

"Do you want us to kill him?" Emma suggested, only half-joking. "We could kill him, after the show."

"That would be a waste of our energy," Cristina said dismissively. "I'll tell you what I found out: He is a half werewolf. And he's been a member of the Followers, that's what he called them, for six months now. That's what he meant by being a Blue."

"The fact that he's been a Follower for a long time, or the fact that he's part lycanthrope?" Julian asked.

"Both, I think," Cristina said. "He went to great pains to tell me all about what it meant to be part werewolf. How he's stronger and faster than a human. He says he could kick through a brick wall." She rolled her eyes.

"I don't even get it," said Emma. "How do you wind up being half-werewolf?"

"It means you have the werewolf virus, but it's dormant," said Jules. "You can pass it on, but you can't Turn yourself. You'll never change into a wolf, but you do have increased speed and strength."

"He said they all have increased speed and strength," said Cristina. "Every time they hold a Lottery, he said, the Followers all get stronger."

"Sympathetic magic," Julian said. Suddenly there was a commotion in their row.

"Am I late?" It was Mark, seeming flustered, tumbling into the seat beside Julian. His fair hair looked as if he'd been standing in front of a wind machine. "Sorry, I got distracted."

Julian looked at him for a long moment. "Don't tell me," he said finally. "I don't want to know."

Mark looked surprised. "You don't?" he said. "I would."

"I do," chimed in Emma, but before Mark could say anything, the lights in the theater dimmed. Silence fell instantly--not the slow hushing of voices Emma would have expected, but an abrupt, unnatural cessation of noise.

A shiver passed up the back of her neck just as a single spotlight lit up the stage.

The band had gathered in the orchestra pit. They began to play a quiet melody, almost mournful, as a black-velvet-draped object was wheeled out onto the stage by two uniformed men. The music faded, and there was the tap-tap of high heels; a moment later the woman who had been taking tickets at the door appeared. She had changed and was wearing a gorgeous full-length dress of black and dark blue lace that looked like foam on the ocean. Even at a distance Emma could see the dark kohl liner ringing her eyes.

The woman reached out a hand, the nails painted viper red, and seized hold of the black velvet, tearing it aside and hurling it dramatically to the floor.

Revealed underneath was a machine. A large transparent drum sat atop a metal plinth; inside the glass were hundreds of colored, numbered balls. A metal chute stuck out from the machine, and in front of the chute was a tray.

"Ladies and gentlemen," said the woman onstage. "I'm Belinda Belle."

"'Belinda Belle'?" Julian whispered. "Made-up name."

"You're a genius detective," Emma whispered back. "Genius."

He made a face at her, and Emma felt a wave of relief. This was her and Julian, making faces at each other, making each other laugh. That was normal.

The woman on the stage continued, "Welcome to the Lottery."

The room was silent. Belinda smiled, resting her hand on the device, perfectly still.

"A lottery machine," murmured Julian. "That's literal."

"The Guardian could not be with us tonight," said Belinda. "Security has required tightening. The last hunt was interrupted by Nephilim, and the value of the sacrifice was endangered."

There was a low hum. A jolt went through Emma. Nephilim. The woman had said "Nephilim." These people knew about Shadowhunters. It wasn't a surprise so much as a confirmation of what Emma had suspected all along. There was something going on here, something that reached its threaded tendrils into Downworld and clawed at the roots of everything they knew.

"The sacrifice?" Emma whispered. "Does she mean human sacrifice?"

S-H-H-H, Julian wrote on her arm. She saw with a pang as his fingers touched her skin that his nails were bitten down to the quick.

The music picked up. Onstage, Belinda pressed a button on the side of the machine. The metal arms whirred to life. The balls spun around inside the globe, becoming a blur of color like the inside of a kaleidoscope.

Turn, and turn, and turn. Emma on the beach, her dad's arm around her. Kaleidoscopes are like magic, Emma. No two people who look into them ever see the same thing.

Emma's heart ached with memory. The machine whirred more quickly, then more quickly still, and spit out a red ball. It shot down the chute and fell into the tray.

Belinda picked it up delicately. A tense stillness had fallen over the crowd. It was the stillness of cats poised to spring.

"Blue," she said, her voice ringing in the silence. "Blue 304."

The moment hung, frozen and suspended. It was broken by a man rising to his feet. He moved warily, like a statue brought to sudden and reluctant life.

It was the man Cristina had danced with, the one in the herringbone suit. He was very pale now, and the woman in the silver dress was edging away from him.

"Mr. Sterling," said Belinda, and let the ball fall back into the tray with a clink. "The Lottery has chosen you."

Emma couldn't help but look around, trying not to seem as if she was staring. The audience sat stonily, most expressionless. Some wore looks of relief. The man in the herringbone suit--Sterling--seemed dazed, as if he'd been punched in the solar plexus and was about to gasp in air.

"You know the rules," Belinda said. "Mr. Sterling has two days of freedom before the hunt begins. No one may help him. No one may interfere with the hunt." Her eyes searched the audience. "May Those Who Are Older grant us all good fortune."

The music started up again. Everyone began to rise to their feet, the room filling with the buzz of low conversation. Emma was on her feet like a shot, but Julian's hand closed around her arm before she could bolt out of the room. He was smiling; it looked clearly fake to her but would probably convince anyone who didn't know him.

"They're going to kill him," Emma whispered urgently. "Everything she said--the hunt--"

"We don't know that," Julian said without moving his lips.

"Emma is right," Mark said. They were hurrying forward, pushed toward the exits by the mass of the crowd. The band was playing "As Time Goes By" from Casablanca, the sweet melody completely incongruous with the sense of anxiety whipping through the room. "A hunt means death."

"We have to offer him help," Cristina said. Her tone was flat.

&nb

sp; "Even if he is a pervert," Emma confirmed. "It's what we do--"

"You heard the rules," Jules said. "No interfering."

Emma spun around, stopping dead. Her eyes met Julian's. "Those rules," she said, and took his hand, her fingers moving over his skin. T-H-E-Y D-O-N-T A-P-P-L-Y T-O U-S.

Darkness blossomed in the blue-green irises she knew so well: an admission of defeat. "Go," he said. "Take Cristina." Emma caught Cristina's hand and the two of them were shoving through the crowd, Emma using her elbows and boots--stomping viciously on several feet--to push past the other theatergoers. They reached the central aisle. She was aware of Cristina asking her in a hissed whisper how they were going to find Mark and Julian again.

"At the car," said Emma. She saw Cristina's puzzled look but didn't bother saying that she knew the plan the way she always knew Julian's plans. She knew them because she knew him.

"There he is." Cristina pointed with her free hand. They had made it to the lobby. Emma followed her indication and saw a flash of the red soles of shoes. Mr. Sterling, slipping out the door. The woman he'd come with was nowhere to be seen.

They bolted after him, darting around the crowd. Emma crashed into a girl with rainbow-dyed hair who made a surprised "Oof!" sound.

"Sorry!" Emma yelled just as she and Cristina escaped through the small circle of people standing around the theater entrance.