City of Lost Souls

“No one’s seen her in two days,” said another voice—soft, female, and slightly apologetic. “She lives alone, so people weren’t sure—but we thought, since you know her brother—”

Without a pause Alec straight-armed the door of the library open. Isabelle ducked past him to see her mother sitting behind the massive mahogany desk in the center of the room. In front of her stood two familiar figures: Aline Penhallow, dressed in gear, and beside her Helen Blackthorn, her curly hair in disarray. Both of them turned, looking surprised, as the door opened. Helen, beneath her freckles, was pale; she was also in gear, which drained the color out of her skin even more.

“Isabelle,” said Maryse, rising to her feet. “Alexander. What’s happened?”

Aline reached for Helen’s hand. Silver rings flashed on both their fingers. The Penhallow ring, with its design of mountains, glinted on Helen’s finger, while the intertwined thorn pattern of the Blackthorn family ring adorned Aline’s. Isabelle felt her eyebrows go up; exchanging family rings was serious business. “If we’re intruding, we can go—” Aline began.

“No, stay,” said Izzy, striding forward. “We might need you.”

Maryse settled back into her chair. “So,” she said. “My children grace me with their presence. Where have you two been?”

“I told you,” Isabelle said. “We were at Magnus’s.”

“Why?” Maryse demanded. “And I’m not asking you, Alexander. I’m asking my daughter.”

“Because the Clave stopped looking for Jace,” said Isabelle. “But we didn’t.”

“And Magnus was willing to help,” Alec added. “He’s been up all these nights, searching through spell books, trying to figure out where Jace might be. He even raised the—”

“No.” Maryse put up a hand to silence him. “Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.” The black phone on her desk started to ring. They all stared at it. A black phone call was a call from Idris. No one moved to answer it, and in a moment it was silent. “Why are you here?” Maryse demanded, turning her attention back to her offspring.

“We were looking for Jace—,” Isabelle began again.

“It’s the Clave’s job to do that,” Maryse snapped. She looked tired, Isabelle noticed, the skin stretched thin under her eyes. Lines at the corners of her mouth drew her lips into a frown. She was thin enough that the bones of her wrists seemed to protrude. “Not yours.”

Alec slammed his hand down on the desk, hard enough to make the drawers rattle. “Would you listen to us? The Clave didn’t find Jace, but we did. And Sebastian right along with him. And now we know what they’re planning, and we have”—he glanced at the clock on the wall—“barely any time to stop them. Are you going to help or not?”

The black phone rang again. Again Maryse didn’t even move to answer it. She was looking at Alec, her face white with shock. “You did what?”

“We know where Jace is, Mom,” said Isabelle. “Or at least, where he’s going to be. And what he’s going to do. We know Sebastian’s plan, and he has to be stopped. Oh, and we know how we can kill Sebastian but not Jace—”

“Stop.” Maryse shook her head. “Alexander, explain. Concisely, and without hysteria. Thank you.”

Alec launched into the story—leaving out, Isabelle thought, all the good parts, which was how he managed to summarize things so neatly. As abbreviated as his rendition was, both Aline and Helen were gaping by the end of it. Maryse stood very still, her features immobile. When Alec was done, she said in a hushed voice:

“Why have you done these things?”

Alec looked taken aback.

“For Jace,” Isabelle said. “To get him back.”

“You realize that by putting me in this position, you give me no choice but to notify the Clave,” said Maryse, her hand resting on the black phone. “I wish you hadn’t come here.”

Isabelle’s mouth went dry. “Are you seriously mad at us for finally telling you what’s going on?”

“If I notify the Clave, they will send all their reinforcements. Jia will have no choice but to give them instructions to kill Jace on sight. Do you have any idea how many Shadowhunters Valentine’s son has following him?

Alec shook his head. “Maybe forty, it sounds like.”

“Say we brought twice as many as that. We could be fairly confident of defeating his forces, but what kind of chance would Jace have? There’s almost no certainty he’d make it through alive. They’ll kill him just to be sure.”

“Then, we can’t tell them,” said Isabelle. “We’ll go ourselves. We’ll do this without the Clave.”

But Maryse, looking at her, was shaking her head. “The Law says we have to tell them.”