“Livia.” Julian’s voice rose, cracking and tumbling over itself like a wave breaking far out to sea. “Livvy, my baby, please, sweetheart, open your eyes, it’s Jules, I’m here for you, I’m always here for you, please, please—”
Blackness exploded behind Emma’s eyes. The pain in her arm was gone; she felt nothing at all but rage. Rage that bleached everything else out of the world except the sight of Annabel cringing against the lectern, staring at Julian cradling his sister’s dead body. At what she’d done.
Emma whirled and stalked toward Annabel. There was nowhere she could go. The guards had circled the dais. The rest of the room was a seething mass of confusion.
Emma hoped Ty was unconscious. She hoped he was seeing none of this. He would wake up eventually, and the horror of what he would wake up to drove her forward.
Annabel staggered back. Her foot slipped, and she tumbled to the floor. She raised her head as Emma loomed up over her. Her face was a mask of fear.
Emma heard Arthur’s voice in her head. Mercy is better than revenge. But it was fainter than Julian’s whispers or Dru’s sobs.
She brought Cortana down, scything the blade through the air—but as it sliced the air, inky smoke erupted from the window behind Annabel. It had the force of an explosion, the concussive wave knocking Emma backward. As she stumbled to her knees she caught sight of a moving shape inside the smoke—the gleam of gold, the flash of a symbol burned onto her brain: a crown, broken in half.
The smoke vanished, and Annabel vanished with it.
Emma curled her body over Cortana, clutching the blade to herself, her soul corroded with despair. All around her she could hear the rising voices in the room, cries and shrieks. She could see Mark bent over Ty, who was crumpled on the floor. Mark’s shoulders were shaking. Helen was struggling through the crowd toward both of them. Dru was on the ground, sobbing into her hands. Alec had slumped back against the doors of the Hall, staring at the devastation.
And there in front of her was Julian, his eyes and ears closed to anything but Livvy, her body cradled against his. She seemed a drift of fragile ash or snow, something impermanent that had blown into his arms accidentally: the petal of a faerie flower, the white feather of an angel’s wing. The dream of a little girl, the memory of a sister reaching up her arms: Julian, Julian, carry me.
But the soul, the spirit that made her Livvy was no longer there: It was something that had gone away to a far and untouchable place, even as Julian ran his hands over her hair again and again and begged her to wake up and look at him just one more time.
High above the Council Hall, the golden clock began to chime the hour.
A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
Rounding up the usual suspects: Holly Black, Maureen Johnson, Leigh Bardugo, Kelly Link, Robin Wasserman, and Sarah Rees Brennan, bringing novelistic and emotional support. Special thanks to Jon Skovron and Anya DeNiro for their guiding light. To Erin, Alyssa, Katie, Manu, Rò & Virna, Julia, Mariane, Thiago, Raissa, Artur, and Laura, for making me smile. Cathrin Langner for remembering everything, and to Viviane Hebel and Gloria Altozano Saiz for assistance with Spanish. And thanks to Karen, on our ten-year anniversary, and to Russ and Danny, special agents. Love and thanks to my parents and especially to Jim Hill. To Emily Houk for going above and beyond. And to Josh, as always, Aimer, ce n’est pas se regarder l’un l’autre, c’est regarder ensemble dans la même direction.
A
BOUT THE
A
UTHOR
CASSANDRA CLARE is the author of the #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling Lady Midnight as well as the internationally bestselling Mortal Instruments series and Infernal Devices trilogy. She is the coauthor of The Bane Chronicles with Sarah Rees Brennan and Maureen Johnson and Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy with Sarah Rees Brennan, Maureen Johnson, and Robin Wasserman, as well as The Shadowhunter’s Codex, which she cowrote with her husband, Joshua Lewis. Her books have more than fifty million copies in print worldwide and have been translated into more than thirtyfive languages, a feature film, and a TV show, Shadowhunters, currently airing on Freeform. Cassandra lives in western Massachusetts. Visit her at CassandraClare.com. Learn more about the world of the Shadowhunters at Shadowhunters.com.
Margaret K. McElderry Books
SIMON & SCHUSTER NEW YORK
Visit us at simonandschuster.com/teen
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Also by Cassandra Clare
THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS
City of Bones
City of Ashes
City of Glass
City of Fallen Angels
City of Lost Souls
City of Heavenly Fire
THE INFERNAL DEVICES
Clockwork Angel
Clockwork Prince
Clockwork Princess
THE DARK ARTIFICES
Lady Midnight
The Shadowhunter’s Codex
With Joshua Lewis
The Bane Chronicles
With Sarah Rees Brennan
and Maureen Johnson
Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy
With Sarah Rees Brennan, Maureen Johnson,
and Robin Wasserman
Also by Cassandra Clare
City of Bones
City of Ashes
City of Glass
City of Fallen Angels
City of Lost Souls
City of Heavenly Fire
Clockwork Angel
Clockwork Prince
Clockwork Princess
Lady Midnight
The Bane Chronicles
Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy
The Shadowhunter's Codex
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