Queen of Air and Darkness (The Dark Artifices #3)

She took off and Emma started up their own cycle, pulling in the clutch while holding down the start button. The engine revved with a loud noise and they were hurtling after Diana down the deserted street. Diana gunned her cycle toward a hill; Emma crouched down low, and Julian did the same. “Hold on,” Emma shouted into the wind, and their cycle lifted off the ground, angling into the air. The ground fell away below them, and they were soaring, Diana beside them. Julian couldn’t help thinking of the Wild Hunt, of flying through the air above a sleeping England, riding a path of wind and stars.

But this was different. From above, they could see the utter destruction of the city clearly. The sky was filled with wheeling dark figures—other airborne motorcycles, and demons abroad at daylight, protected by the dim sun and the thick cover of clouds. Fires burned at intervals, smoke swirling up from the Miracle Mile. The streets around Beverly Hills had been dammed up and flooded, forming a sort of moat around Bel Air, and as they soared over it, Julian gazed down into the churning water. A massive sea monster, hideous and humped, was pulling its way along the moat by its tentacles. It threw back its head and howled, and Julian glimpsed a black, yawning mouth, studded with teeth like a great white shark’s.

They soared over Wilshire, which had become a boulevard of horrors. Julian glimpsed a human musician dangling from puppet strings made of his own nerves and blood vessels, being forced to play a mandolin even as he screamed in agony. A demon lounged at a covered table where xylophones of human ribs were for sale, another—a massive one-eyed serpent—coiled around a “lemonade” stand where vampires stepped up for a wedge of lemon and a bite of a screaming, terrified human.

Julian closed his eyes.

When he opened them again, they were flying north over the highway by the sea. At least here it was mostly deserted, though they could see down into the ruins of the once-wealthy houses that had lined the shores of Malibu. They were overgrown now, their swimming pools empty or full of black water. Even the ocean looked different. In the dim daylight the water was black and churning, without fish or seaweed to be seen.

He felt Emma tense. Her words were torn away by the wind, but he caught enough of them to understand. “Julian—the Institute.”

He glanced to the east. There it was, their Institute, glass and stone and steel, rising from the scrub grass of the Santa Monica Mountains. His heart lurched with yearning. It seemed so familiar, even under the red-orange hell glow of the dying sun.

But no—two flags flew from the Institute’s roof. One showed the star-in-circle symbol of Sebastian, and the other the family crest of the Ashdowns: an ash tree surrounded by leaves.

He was glad when Emma swung the cycle around and the Institute was no longer in view.

Diana was ahead of them, her cycle descending toward the beach. She landed with a few puffs of sand and turned to watch as Emma and Julian lurched down after her with considerable less grace. They hit the sand with enough force to snap Julian’s teeth sharply together.

“Ouch,” he said.

Emma swung around, her cheeks pink, her hair windblown. “You think you could do better?”

“No,” he said, and kissed her cheek.

Her face turned a darker pink, and Diana made an exasperated noise. “You two are almost as bad as the Endarkened versions of yourselves. Now, come on—we have to hide these cycles.”

As Julian rolled their cycle under a rock overhang, he realized he didn’t mind Diana’s teasing at all. He hadn’t minded Cameron’s teasing about the bed, either. It was all a reminder that here, he and Emma had a completely normal relationship—nothing secret, nothing forbidden. Nothing dangerous.

It was perhaps the only thing in Thule that was ordinary, but in this world without angels, it felt like a blessing.

“Well, here we are,” Diana said, once the cycles were hidden. “Looking for a cat on a beach.”

“Church usually comes to us,” said Julian, glancing around. “It looks—almost ordinary here.”

“I wouldn’t go in the water,” said Diana darkly. “But yeah, Sebastian seems to like the beach. Mostly he leaves it alone and uses it for ceremonies and executions.”

Emma began to make cooing, clicking kitty-come-here noises.

“Don’t blame me if you summon a cat demon,” said Diana. She stretched, the joints in her wrists popping audibly. “A week to get back from Mexico City, and now this, two days after I get home,” she said, half to herself. “I really thought I might get a chance to rest. Silly me.”

Emma whirled around. “Mexico City?” she demanded. “Did you—do you know if Cristina Mendoza Rosales is all right?”

“Cristina Rosales? The Rose of Mexico?” Diana said, looking surprised. “Because of her, Mexico City is one of the few Shadowhunter strongholds left. I mean, there’s no angelic magic, but they patrol, they keep the demons down. The Rosales family are a resistance legend.”

“I knew it,” Emma said. She wiped hastily at her damp face. “I knew it.”

“Are there other pockets? Places people are resisting?” Julian said.

“Livvy’s doing what she can here,” said Diana somewhat pointedly. “There’d be a lot more dead if not for her. We hear things about Jerusalem—Singapore—Sri Lanka. Oh, and Bangkok, which doesn’t surprise me. I know that city pretty well since I transitioned there.”

Emma looked puzzled. “What do you mean, transitioned?”

“I’m transgender,” Diana said, puzzled. “You must know that if you knew me in your world.”

“Right,” Julian said hastily. “We just didn’t know about the Bangkok thing.”

Diana looked even more puzzled. “But when I—” She broke off. “Is that what I think it is?”

She pointed. Sitting on top of a nearby boulder was a cat. Not just any cat—an angry-looking blue Persian cat with an aggressively fluffed-out tail.

“Church!” Emma scooped him up in her arms, and Church did what he usually did. He went limp.

“Is that cat dead?” Diana demanded.

“No, he isn’t,” Emma cooed, and kissed his furry face. Church went limper. “He just hates affection.”

Diana shook her head. She seemed completely unaffected by having told them something that in their world was a secret she had guarded. Guilt and annoyance with himself were rising inside Julian; he tried to shove them down. Now wasn’t the time, nor would it be right to burden this Diana with his feelings.

“I wuv you,” Emma said to Church. “I wuv you very much.”

Church wiggled out of her grasp and meowed. He padded toward Julian, meowed again, and then turned to frisk away along the beach.

“He wants us to follow him,” Julian said, clomping after Church. His enormous boots were a pain when it came to walking on sand. He heard Diana mutter something about how if she’d wanted to run around after deranged animals, she would have volunteered for the zoo patrol, but she headed after them anyway.

They trailed Church along the inner bluffs until they reached a path that led to a hole in the cliff face. Julian knew it well. When you grew up on the beach, you explored every rock, arch, cove, and cave. This one led to an impressive but empty cave, if he recalled correctly. He and Emma had once dragged a table in there and held meetings before they’d gotten bored with having a secret society with only two people in it.

Church scrambled up to the entrance of the cave and meowed loudly. There was a grinding sound like stone moving aside, and a figure stepped out of the shadows.

It was a man with dark hair, in long parchment robes. His cheeks were scarred, his eyes dark, full of wisdom and sorrow.

“Jem!” Emma screamed, and began to run up the path, her face shining with eagerness.

Jem held up his hand. His palms were scarred with runes, and Julian ached to see them—runes, in this runeless place. Insight. Quietude. Courage.

And then Jem began to change. Diana swore and yanked a pistol from her belt as a ripple went over Jem’s features and the parchment robes slid to the ground. His hair lightened and tumbled, long and waving, to the middle of his back; his eyes turned gray and long-lashed, his figure curved and feminine inside a plain gray dress.

Diana cocked the pistol. “Who are you?”

Emma had stopped in the middle of the path. She blinked back tears and said, “This is her. The Last Warlock. This is Tessa Gray.”