Wil scowled. “Get us out of here.”
Magnus’s cat eyes gleamed. He snapped his fingers, and a shower of blue sparks fel around them in a sudden, startling rain. Tessa tensed, expecting them to burn her skin, but she felt only wind rushing past her face. Her hair lifted as a strange energy crackled through her nerves. She heard Wil gasp—and then they were standing on one of the stone paths in the garden, near the ornamental pond, the great Lightwood manor rising, silent and dark, above them.
“There,” said Magnus in a bored tone. “That wasn’t so difficult, was it?”
Wil looked at him with no gratitude. “Magic,” he muttered.
Magnus threw his hands up. They stil crackled with blue energy, like heat lightning. “And just what do you think your precious runes are? Not magic?”
“Shush,” Tessa said. She was bone-weary suddenly. She ached where the corset crushed her ribs, and her feet, in Jessamine’s too-smal shoes, were in agony. “Stop spouting off, the both of you. I think someone’s coming.”
They al paused, just as a chattering group rounded the corner of the house. Tessa froze. Even in the cloudy moonlight, she could see they were not human. They were not Downworlders, either. It was a group of demons—one a shambling corpse-like figure with black holes for eyes; another half again the size of a man, blue-skinned and dressed in a waistcoat and trousers, but with a barbed tail, lizard’s features, and a flat snakelike snout; and another that seemed to be a spinning wheel covered in wet red mouths.
Several things happened at once.
Tessa jammed the back of her hand against her mouth before she could scream. There was no point in running. The demons had already seen them and had come to a dead stop on the path. The smel of rot wafted from them, blotting out the scent of the trees.
Magnus raised his hand, blue fire circling his fingers. He was muttering words under his breath. He looked as discomposed as Tessa had ever seen him.
And Wil —Wil , whom Tessa had expected to reach for his seraph blades—did something entirely unexpected. He raised a trembling finger, pointed at the blue-skinned demon, and breathed, “You.”
The blue-skinned demon blinked. Al the demons stood stock-stil , looking at one another. There must have been some agreement in place, Tessa thought, to keep them from attacking the humans at the party, but she did not like the way the wet red mouths were licking their lips. “Er,” the demon Wil had addressed said, in a surprisingly ordinary voice. “I don’t recal —That is, I don’t think I’ve had the pleasure of your acquaintance?”
“Liar!” Wil staggered forward and charged; as Tessa watched in amazement, he barreled past the other demons and threw himself onto the blue demon. It let out a high-pitched shriek. Magnus was watching what was going on with his mouth open. Tessa cried, “Wil ! Will!” but he was rol ing over and over on the grass with the blue-skinned creature, which was surprisingly nimble. He had it by the back of its waistcoat, but it tore free and dashed away, streaking across the gardens, Wil in hot pursuit.
Tessa took a few steps after them, but her feet were a white-hot agony. Kicking off Jessamine’s shoes, she was about to race after Wil when she realized the remaining demons were making an angry buzzing noise. They seemed to be addressing Magnus.
“Ah, wel , you know,” he said, having regained his composure, and he gestured in the direction Wil had disappeared in. “Disagreement. Over a woman. It happens.”
The buzzing noise increased. It was clear the demons did not believe him.
“Gambling debt?” Magnus suggested. He snapped his fingers, and flame burst up from his palm, bathing the garden in a stark glow. “I suggest you not concern yourselves over-much with it, gentlemen. Festivities and merriment await you inside.” He gestured toward the narrow door that led to the bal room. “Much more pleasant than what wil await you out here if you continue to linger.”
That seemed to convince them. The demons moved off, buzzing and muttering, taking their stench of garbage with them.
Tessa spun around. “Quickly, we have to go after them—”
Magnus reached down and scooped her shoes up off the path. Holding them by their satin ribbons, he said, “Not so quickly, Cinderel a. Wil ’s a Shadowhunter. He runs fast. You’l never catch him.”
“But you—there must be some magic—”
“Magic,” Magnus said, mimicking Wil ’s disgusted tone. “Wil ’s where he has to be, doing what he has to do. His purpose is kil ing demons, Tessa.”