City of Fallen Angels

Washington Square Park in the early morning was mostly deserted. The air was crisp and morning-clean, the leaves already thickly covering the pavement in sheets of red, gold, and dark green. Simon kicked them aside as he made his way under the stone archway at the south end of the park.

There were few other people around—a couple of homeless men sleeping on benches, wrapped in sleeping bags or threadbare blankets, and some guys in green sanitation uniforms emptying the trash cans. There was a guy pushing a cart through the park, selling doughnuts and coffee and pre-sliced bagels. And in the center of the park, by the big circular stone fountain, was Luke. He was wearing a green zip-up Windbreaker and waved when he saw Simon.

Simon waved back, a little tentatively. He still wasn’t sure he wasn’t in some kind of trouble. Luke’s expression, as Simon drew closer, only intensified Simon’s foreboding. Luke looked tired and more than a little stressed out. His gaze, as it fell on Simon, was full of concern.

“Simon,” he said. “Thanks for coming.”

“Sure.” Simon wasn’t cold, but he stuck his hands into the pockets of his jacket anyway, just to give them something to do. “What’s wrong?”

“I didn’t say anything was wrong.”

“You wouldn’t drag me out here at the crack of dawn if nothing was wrong,” Simon pointed out. “If it isn’t about Clary, then …?”

“Yesterday, in the bridal shop,” Luke said. “You asked me about someone. Camille.”

A flock of birds rose, cawing, from the nearby trees. Simon remembered a rhyme his mother used to recite to him, about magpies. You were supposed to count them and say: One for sorrow, two for mirth, three for a wedding, four for a birth; five for silver, six for gold, seven for a secret that’s never been told.

“Right,” Simon said. He had already lost count of the number of birds there were. Seven, he guessed. A secret that’s never been told. Whatever that was.

“You know about the Shadowhunters who have been found murdered around the city this past week or so,” Luke said. “Don’t you?”

Simon nodded slowly. He had a bad feeling about where this was going.

“It seems Camille may be responsible,” said Luke. “I couldn’t help but remember you had asked about her. Hearing her name twice, in a single day, after years of never hearing it at all—it seemed like quite a coincidence.”

“Coincidences happen.”

“On occasion,” said Luke, “but they are rarely the most likely answer. Tonight Maryse will be summoning Raphael to interrogate him about Camille’s role in these murders. If it comes out that you knew something about Camille—that you’ve had contact with her—I don’t want you to be blind-sided, Simon.”

“That makes two of us.” Simon’s head had started pounding again. Were vampires even supposed to get headaches? He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had one, before the events of these past few days. “I met Camille,” he said. “About four days ago. I thought I was being summoned by Raphael, but it turned out to be her. She offered to make me a deal. If I came to work for her, she’d make me the second most important vampire in the city.”

“Why did she want you to work for her?” Luke’s tone was neutral.

“She knows about my Mark,” Simon said. “She said Raphael betrayed her and she could use me to get back control of the clan. I got the feeling she wasn’t enormously fond of Raphael.”

“That’s very curious,” said Luke. “The story as I’ve heard it is that Camille took an indefinite leave of absence from heading up the clan about a year ago and made Raphael her temporary successor. If she chose him to lead in her place, why would she move against him?”

Simon shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m just telling you what she said.”

“Why didn’t you tell us about her, Simon?” Luke said very quietly.

“She told me not to.” Simon realized how stupid this sounded. “I’ve never met a vampire like her before,” he added. “Just Raphael, and the others at the Dumont. It’s hard to explain what she was like. Everything she said, you wanted to believe. Everything she asked you to do, you wanted to do. I wanted to please her even though I knew she was just messing around with me.”

The man with the coffee and doughnut cart was passing by again. Luke bought coffee and a bagel and sat down on the edge of the fountain. After a moment Simon joined him.

“The man who gave me Camille’s name called her ‘the ancient one,’” Luke said. “She is, I think, one of the very, very old vampires of this world. I imagine she would make most people feel fairly small.”

“She made me feel like a bug,” Simon said. “She did promise that if in five days I didn’t want to work for her, she’d never bother me again. So I told her I’d think about it.”

“And have you? Thought about it?”

“If she’s killing Shadowhunters, I don’t want anything to do with her,” said Simon. “I can tell you that much.”

“I’m sure Maryse will be relieved to hear it.”