Lord of Shadows (The Dark Artifices 2)

Julian's mind raced. Malcolm hadn't mentioned the Unseelie King's part in all this when he'd told his version of the story to the Blackthorns. But that was hardly surprising. The King was far more powerful than Malcolm, and the warlock would have been reluctant to invoke his name. "In the Unseelie Lands, our powers are useless," said Julian. "Seraph blades don't work there, or witchlight or runes."

"Malcolm's doing," she said. "As it is in his own Lands, so the King wishes it to be all over the world, and in Idris. Shadowhunters made powerless. He would take Alicante and rule from it. Shadowhunters would become the hunted."

"I need the Black Volume, Annabel," Julian said. "To stop the King. To stop all this."

She only stared at him. "Five years ago," she said, "Malcolm spilled Shadowhunter blood trying to raise me."

Emma's parents, Julian thought.

"It woke my mind but not my body," Annabel said. "The spell had half-worked. I was in agony, you understand, half-alive and trapped beneath the earth. I screamed my pain in silence. Malcolm could not hear me. I could not move. He thought me insensible, unhearing, yet he spoke to me nonetheless."

Five years, Julian thought. For five years she had been trapped in the convergence tomb, conscious but unable to be heard, unable to speak or scream or move.

Julian shuddered.

"His voice filtered down into my tomb. He read me that poem, over and over. 'It was many and many a year ago.' " Her gaze was bleak. "He betrayed me while I lived, and again when I was dead. Death is a gift, you understand. The passing beyond pain and sorrow. He denied me that."

"I'm sorry," Julian said. The moon had started to sink in the sky. He wondered how late it was.

"Sorry," she echoed dismissively, as if the word had no meaning for her. "There will be a war," she said, "between Faerie and Shadowhunters. But that is not my concern. My concern is that you promise to no longer try to obtain the Black Volume. Let it alone, Julian Blackthorn."

He exhaled. He would have lied in a moment and promised, but he suspected a promise to someone like Annabel would hold a terrifying weight. "I can't," he said. "We need the Black Volume. I cannot tell you why, but I swear it will be kept safe and out of the hands of the King."

"I have told you what the book did to me," she said, and for the first time, she seemed animated, her cheeks flushed. "It has no use but evil use. You should not want it."

"I won't use it for evil," Julian said. That much was true, he thought.

"It cannot be used for anything else," she said. "It destroys families, people--"

"My family will be destroyed if I don't have the book."

Annabel paused. "Oh," she said. And then, more gently, "But think of what will be destroyed with this book out there, in the world. So much more. There are higher causes."

"Not to me," said Julian. The world can burn if my family lives, he thought, and was about to say it when the cottage door flew open.

Emma stood in the doorway. She was shoving her feet into unlaced boots, Cortana in her hand. Her hair was rumpled over her shoulders, but her grip on the sword was unwavering.

Her gaze sought out Julian, then found Annabel; she started, stared incredulously. He saw her mouth shape Annabel's name, as Annabel threw her hood up over her head and bolted.

Julian started after her, Emma only a second behind him. But Annabel was shockingly fast. She flew across the grass and heather-strewn slope to the edge of the cliff; with a last glance back, she flung herself into the air.

"Annabel!" Julian raced to the cliff edge, Emma at his side. He stared down into the water, hundreds of feet below, untroubled by even a ripple. Annabel had vanished.

*

They exploded back into the Institute, appearing in the library. It was like being dropped from a great height, and Kit staggered and fell back against the table, clawing at Livvy so he wouldn't drop her.

Ty had fallen to his knees and was righting himself. Kit glanced at Livvy's face--it was gray, with an eerie yellowish tinge.

"Magnus--" he gasped.

The warlock, who had landed with the ease of long practice, spun around, instantly assessing the situation. "Calm down," he said, "everything's fine," and he started to take Livvy from Kit's grasp. Kit let her go with relief--someone was going to take care of this. Magnus Bane was going to take care of this. He wouldn't let Livvy die.

It took Kit a moment to notice that there was already someone standing in the library. Someone he didn't know, who moved toward Magnus just as the warlock eased Livvy down onto the long table. It was a young man about Jace's age, with straight dark hair that looked as if he had slept on it and not bothered to brush it. He wore a washed-out sweater and jeans. He glared at Magnus. "You woke up the kids," he said.

"Alec, we have kind of an emergency here," said Magnus.

So this was Alec Lightwood. Somehow Kit had expected him to look older.

"Small children who are awake are also an emergency," said Alec. "I'm just saying."

"All right, move the furniture back," Magnus said to Ty and Kit. "I need some working space." He glanced sideways at Alec as the two younger boys moved chairs and small bookcases out of the way. "So where are the kids?"

Magnus was stripping off his coat. Alec held out his hand and caught the coat as Magnus tossed it to him, a practiced move that suggested he was used to the gesture. "I left them with a nice girl named Cristina. She said she likes children."

"You just left our children with strangers?"

"Everyone else is asleep," said Alec. "Besides, she knows lullabies. In Spanish. Rafe is in love." He glanced over at Kit again. "By the Angel, it's uncanny," he said in a sudden burst, as if he couldn't help it.

Kit felt unnerved. "What's uncanny?"

"He means you look like Jace," said Magnus. "Jace Herondale."

"My parabatai," said Alec, with love and pride.

"I know Jace," said Kit. He was looking at Ty, who was struggling to move a chair. It wasn't that it was too heavy for him, but that his hands were opening and closing at his sides, making his gestures unusually clumsy and uncoordinated. "He came out to the L.A. Institute after my--after they found out who I was."

"The legendary Lost Herondale," said Magnus. "You know, I was starting to think that was a rumor Catarina made up, like the Loch Ness Monster or the Bermuda Triangle."

"Catarina made up the Bermuda Triangle?" said Alec.

"Don't be ridiculous, Alexander. That was Ragnor." Magnus touched Livvy's arm lightly. She cried out. Ty dropped the chair he'd been struggling with and took a ragged breath.

"You're hurting her," he said. "Don't."

His voice was quiet, but in it Kit could hear steel in it, and see the boy who'd held him at knifepoint in his father's house.

Magnus leaned his hands on the table. "I'll try not to, Tiberius," he said. "But I may have to cause her pain to heal her."

Ty seemed about to answer, just as the door flew open and Mark burst in. He caught sight of Livvy, and blanched. "Livvy. Livia!"

He tried to start forward, but Alec caught at his arm. For all Alec's slenderness, he was deceptively strong. He held Mark back while blue fire sparked from Magnus's hand and he passed it down Livvy's side. The sleeve of her jacket and shirt seemed to melt away, revealing a long, ugly cut seeping yellow fluid.

Mark sucked in a breath. "What's going on?"

"Fight at the Shadow Market," Magnus said briefly. "Livia was cut with a piece of glass with orias root on it. Very poisonous, but curable." He moved his fingers over Livvy's arm; as he did, a bluish light seemed to glow under her skin, as if it were pulsing from the inside out.

"The Shadow Market?" Mark demanded. "What the hell was Livvy doing at the Shadow Market?"

Nobody answered. Kit felt as if he was shrinking inward.

"What's going on?" Ty demanded. His hands were still opening at his sides, as if he were trying to shake something off his skin. His shoulders rolled back. It was as if his worry and agitation were expressing them

selves through a silent music that made his nerves and muscles dance. "Is that blue light normal?"

Mark said something to Alec, and Alec nodded. He released the other boy's arm, and Mark came around the table to put his hand on Ty's shoulder. Ty leaned into him, though he didn't stop moving.

"Magnus is the best there is," Alec said. "Healing magic is his specialty." Alec's voice was gentle. The voice of someone who wasn't quieting his tone to keep someone calm, but who actually empathized. "Magnus cured me, once," he added. "It was demon poison; I shouldn't have lived, but I did. You can trust him."

Livvy gave a sudden gasp and her back jerked; Ty put his hand to his own arm, his fingers clenching. Then her body relaxed. Color began to come back to her face, her cheeks turning from yellowish-gray to pink. Ty, too, relaxed visibly.

"That's the poison gone," said Magnus matter-of-factly. "Now we have to work on the blood loss and the cut."

"There are runes for both those things," said Ty. "I can put them on her."

But Magnus was shaking his head. "Better not to use them--runes draw some of their strength from the bearer," he said. "If she had a parabatai, we could try pulling strength from them, but she doesn't, does she?"

Ty didn't say anything. His face had gone still and completely white.