Lord of Shadows (The Dark Artifices 2)

1

STILL WATERS

Kit had only recently found out what a flail was, and now there was a rack of them hanging over his head, shiny and sharp and deadly.

He had never seen anything like the weapons room at the Los Angeles Institute before. The walls and floors were white-silver granite, and granite islands rose at intervals throughout the room, making the whole place look like the arms and armor exhibit at a museum. There were staves and maces, cleverly designed walking sticks, necklaces, boots and padded jackets that concealed slim, flat blades for stabbing and throwing. Morning stars covered in terrible spikes, and crossbows of all sizes and types.

The granite islands themselves were covered with stacks of gleaming instruments carved out of adamas, the quartz-like substance that Shadowhunters mined from the earth and that they alone knew how to turn into swords and blades and steles. Of more interest to Kit was the shelf that held daggers.

It wasn't that he had any particular desire to learn how to use a dagger--nothing beyond the general interest he figured most teenagers had in deadly weapons, but even then, he'd rather be issued a machine gun or a flamethrower. But the daggers were works of art, their hilts inlaid with gold and silver and precious gems--blue sapphires, cabochon rubies, glimmering patterns of thorns etched in platinum and black diamonds.

He could think of at least three people at the Shadow Market who'd buy them off him for good money, no questions asked.

Maybe four.

Kit stripped off the denim jacket he was wearing--he didn't know which of the Blackthorns it had belonged to originally; he'd woken up the morning after he'd come to the Institute to find a freshly laundered pile of clothes at the foot of his bed--and shrugged on a padded jacket. He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror at the far end of the room. Ragged blond hair, the last of fading bruises on his pale skin. He unzipped the inside pocket of the jacket and began to stuff it with sheathed daggers, picking the ones with the fanciest hilts.

The door to the weapons room swung open. Kit dropped the dagger he was holding back onto the shelf and turned around hastily. He thought he'd slipped out of his bedroom without being noticed, but if there was one thing he'd come to realize during his short time at the Institute, it was that Julian Blackthorn noticed everything, and his siblings weren't far behind.

But it wasn't Julian. It was a young man Kit hadn't ever seen before, though something about him was familiar. He was tall, with tousled blond hair and a Shadowhunter's build--broad shoulders, muscular arms, the black lines of the runic Marks they protected themselves with peeking out from the collar and cuffs of his shirt.

His eyes were an unusual dark gold color. He wore a heavy silver ring on one finger, as many of the Shadowhunters did. He raised an eyebrow at Kit.

"Like weapons, do you?" he said.

"They're all right." Kit backed up a little toward one of the tables, hoping the daggers in his inside pocket didn't rattle.

The man went over to the shelf Kit had been rifling through and picked up the dagger he'd dropped. "You picked a good one here," he said. "See the inscription on the handle?"

Kit didn't.

"It was made by one of the descendants of Wayland the Smith, who made Durendal and Cortana." The man spun the dagger between his fingers before setting it back on its shelf. "Nothing as extraordinary as Cortana, but daggers like that will always return to your hand after you throw them. Convenient."

Kit cleared his throat. "It must be worth a lot," he said.

"I doubt the Blackthorns are looking to sell," said the man dryly. "I'm Jace, by the way. Jace Herondale."

He paused. He seemed to be waiting for a reaction, which Kit was determined not to give him. He knew the name Herondale, all right. It felt like it was the only word anyone had said to him in the past two weeks. But that didn't mean he wanted to give the man--Jace--the satisfaction he was clearly looking for.

Jace looked unmoved by Kit's silence. "And you're Christopher Herondale."

"How do you know that?" Kit said, keeping his voice flat and unenthusiastic. He hated the name Herondale. He hated the word.

"Family resemblance," said Jace. "We look alike. In fact, you look like drawings of a lot of Herondales I've seen." He paused. "Also, Emma sent me a cell phone picture of you."

Emma. Emma Carstairs had saved Kit's life. They hadn't spoken much since, though--in the wake of the death of Malcolm Fade, the High Warlock of Los Angeles, everything had been in chaos. He hadn't been anyone's first priority, and besides, he had a feeling she thought of him as

a little kid. "Fine. I'm Kit Herondale. People keep telling me that, but it doesn't mean anything to me." Kit set his jaw. "I'm a Rook. Kit Rook."

"I know what your father told you. But you're a Herondale. And that does mean something."

"What? What does it mean?" Kit demanded.

Jace leaned back against the wall of the weapons room, just under a display of heavy claymores. Kit hoped one would fall on his head. "I know you're aware of Shadowhunters," he said. "A lot of people are, especially Downworlders and mundanes with the Sight. Which is what you thought you were, correct?"

"I never thought I was a mundane," said Kit. Didn't Shadowhunters understand how it sounded when they used that word?

Jace ignored him, though. "Shadowhunter society and history--those aren't things most people who aren't Nephilim know about. The Shadowhunter world is made up of families, each of which has a name that they cherish. Each family has a history we pass on to each successive generation. We bear the glories and the burdens of our names, the good and the bad our ancestors have done, through all our lives. We try to live up to our names, so that those who come after us will bear lighter burdens." He crossed his arms over his chest. His wrists were covered in Marks; there was one that looked like an open eye on the back of his left hand. Kit had noticed all Shadowhunters seemed to have that one. "Among Shadowhunters, your last name is deeply meaningful. The Herondales have been a family who have shaped the destinies of Shadowhunters for generations. There aren't many of us left--in fact, everyone thought I was the last. Only Jem and Tessa had faith you existed. They looked for you for a long time."

Jem and Tessa. Along with Emma, they had helped Kit escape the demons who had murdered his father. And they had told him a story: the story of a Herondale who had betrayed his friends and fled, starting a new life away from other Nephilim. A new life and a new family line.

"I heard about Tobias Herondale," he said. "So I'm the descendant of a big coward."

"People are flawed," said Jace. "Not every member of your family is going to be awesome. But when you see Tessa again, and you will, she can tell you about Will Herondale. And James Herondale. And me, of course," he added, modestly. "As far as Shadowhunters go, I'm a pretty big deal. Not to intimidate you."

"I don't feel intimidated," said Kit, wondering if this guy was for real. There was a gleam in Jace's eye as he spoke that indicated that he might not take what he was saying all that seriously, but it was hard to be sure. "I feel like I want to be left alone."

"I know it's a lot to digest," Jace said. He reached out to clap Kit on the back. "But Clary and I will be here for as long as you need us to--"

The clap on the back dislodged one of the daggers in Kit's pocket. It clattered to the ground between them, winking up from the granite floor like an accusing eye.

"Right," Jace said into the ensuing silence. "So you're stealing weapons."

Kit, who knew the pointlessness of an obvious denial, said nothing.

"Okay, look, I know your dad was a crook, but you're a Shadowhunter now and--wait, what else is in that jacket?" Jace demanded. He did something complicated with his left boot that kicked the dagger up into the air. He caught it neatly, the rubies in the hilt scattering light. "Take it off."

Silently, Kit shucked off his jacket and threw it down on the table. Jace flipped it over and opened the inside pocket. They both gazed silently at the gleam of blades and precious stones.

"So," Jace said. "You were planning on running away, I take it?"

"Why should I stay?" Kit exploded. He knew he shouldn't, but he couldn't help it--it was too much: the loss of his father, his hatred of the Institute, the smugness of the Nephilim, their demands that he accept a last name he didn't care about and didn't want to care about. "I don't belong here. You can tell me all this stuff about my name, but it doesn't mean anything to me. I'm Johnny Rook's son. I've been training my whole life to be like my dad, not to be like you. I don't need you. I don't need any of you. All I need is some start-up money, and I can set up my own booth at the Shadow Market."

Jace's gold eyes narrowed, and for the first time Kit saw, under the arrogant, joking facade, the gleam of a sharp intelligence. "And sell what? Your dad sold information. It took him years, and a lot of bad magic, to build up those connections. You want to sell your soul like that, so you can scratch out a living on the edges of Downworld? And what about what killed your dad? You saw him die, didn't you?"

"Demons--"

"Yeah, but somebody sent them. The Guardian might be dead, but that doesn't mean no one's looking for you. You're fifteen years old. You might think you want to die, but trust me--you don't."

Kit swallowed. He tried to picture himself standing behind the counter of a booth at the Shadow Market, the way he had for the past few days. But the truth was he'd always been safe at the Market because of his dad. Because people were afraid of Johnny Rook. What would happen to him there without his dad's protection?

"But I'm not a Shadowhunter," Kit said. He glanced around the room, at the millions of weapons, the piles of adamas, the gear and body armor and weapon belts. It was ridiculous. He wasn't a ninja. "I wouldn't even know how to start to be one."

"Give it another week," Jace said. "Another week here at the Institute. Give yourself a chance. Emma told me how you fought off those demons who killed your dad. Only a Shadowhunter could have done that."

Kit barely remembered battling the demons in his father's house, but he knew he'd done it. His body had taken over, and he'd fought, and he'd even, in a small, strange, hidden way, enjoyed it.

"This is what you are," said Jace. "You're a Shadowhunter. You're part angel. You have the blood of angels in your veins. You're a Herondale. Which, by the way, means that not only are you part of a stunningly good-looking family, but you're also part of a family that owns a lot of valuable property, including a London town house and a manor in Idris, which you're probably entitled to part of. You know, if you were interested."

Kit looked at the ring on Jace's left hand. It was silver, heavy, and looked old. And valuable. "I'm listening."

"All I am saying is give it a week. After all"--Jace grinned--"Herondales can't resist a challenge."

*

"A Teuthida demon?" Julian said into the phone, his eyebrows crinkling. "That's basically a squid, right?"

The reply was inaudible: Emma could recognize Ty's voice, but not the words.

"Yeah, we're at the pier," Julian went on. "We haven't seen anything yet, but we just arrived. Too bad they don't have designated parking spots for Shadowhunters here . . . ."

Her mind only half on Julian's voice, Emma glanced around. The sun had just gone down. She'd always loved the Santa Monica Pier, since she was a little girl and her parents had taken her there to play air hockey and ride the old-fashioned merry-go-round. She loved the junk food--burgers and milk shakes, fried clams and giant swirled lollipops--and Pacific Park, the run-down amusement park at the very end of the pier, overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

The mundanes had poured millions of dollars into revamping the pier into a tourist attraction over the years. Pacific Park was full of new, shiny rides; the old churro carts were gone, replaced by artisanal ice cream and lobster platters. But the boards under Emma's feet were still warped and weathered by years of sun and salt. The air still smelled like sugar and seaweed. The merry-go-round still spilled its mechanical music into the air. There were still coin-toss games where you could win a giant stuffed panda. And there were still dark spaces under the pier, where aimless mundanes gathered and sometimes, more sinister things.

That was the thing about being a Shadowhunter, Emma thought, glancing toward the massive Ferris wheel decorated with gleaming LED lights. A line of mundanes eager to get on stretched down the pier; past the railings, she could glimpse the dark blue sea tipped with white where the waves broke. Shadowhunters saw the beauty in the things mundanes created--the lights of the Ferris wheel reflecting off the ocean so brightly that it looked as i

f someone were setting off fireworks underwater: red, blue, green, purple, and gold--but they saw the darkness, too, the danger and the rot.

"What's wrong?" Julian asked. He'd slid his phone into the pocket of his gear jacket. The wind--there was always wind on the pier, the wind that blew ceaselessly off the ocean, smelling of salt and faraway places--lifted the soft waves of his brown hair, made them kiss his cheeks and temples.

Dark thoughts, Emma wanted to say. She couldn't, though. Once Julian had been the person she could tell everything. Now he was the one person she couldn't tell anything.

Instead she avoided his gaze. "Where are Mark and Cristina?"

"Over there." He pointed. "By the ring toss."

Emma followed his gaze to the brightly painted stand where people competed to see who could toss a plastic ring and land it around the neck of one of a dozen lined-up bottles. She tried not to feel superior that this was apparently something mundanes found difficult.

Julian's half brother, Mark, held three plastic rings in his hand. Cristina, her dark hair caught up in a neat bun, stood beside him, eating caramel corn and laughing. Mark threw the rings: all three at once. Each spiraled out in a different direction and landed around the neck of a bottle.

Julian sighed. "So much for being inconspicuous."

A mixture of cheers and noises of disbelief went up from the mundanes at the ring toss. Fortunately, there weren't many of them, and Mark was able to collect his prize--something in a plastic bag--and escape with a minimum of fuss.

He headed back toward them with Cristina at his side. The tips of his pointed ears peeked through the loops of his light hair, but he was glamoured so that mundanes wouldn't see them. Mark was half-faerie, and his Downworlder blood showed itself in the delicacy of his features, the tips of his ears, and the angularity of his eyes and cheekbones.

"So it's a squid demon?" Emma said, mostly just to have something to say to fill the silence between her and Julian. There were a lot of silences between her and Julian these days. It had only been two weeks since everything had changed, but she felt the difference profoundly, in her bones. She felt his distance, though he had never been anything but scrupulously polite and kind ever since she had told him about her and Mark.

"Apparently," Julian said. Mark and Cristina had come into earshot; Cristina was finishing her caramel corn and looking sadly into the bag as if hoping more would appear. Emma could relate. Mark, meanwhile, was gazing down at his prize. "It climbs up the side of the pier and snatches people--mostly kids, anyone leaning over the side taking a picture at night. It's been getting braver, though. Apparently someone spotted it inside the game area near the table hockey--is that a goldfish?"