Chain of Thorns (The Last Hours, #3)

The demon’s mouth opened, and a purple-gray tongue resembling a calf’s liver emerged from between its red teeth. The tongue slurped at the air, as if tasting it. Cordelia held still; she had not realized how revolting this would be. Her urge to lay hands on a blade, to slay the thing in front of her, was primal, bred in her blood. She felt her hands clench.

“You are a paladin,” it said. “Well then, paladin, why have you summoned me up from Hell? What does the Mother of Demons wish?”

“She seeks knowledge of the doings of the Prince of Hell Belial,” Cordelia said, which was true enough.

“I would be a fool to betray Belial,” the demon said. Cordelia was not sure she had ever heard a demon sound hesitant before.

“You would be a fool to cross Lilith,” she said. She folded her arms and stared the demon down. It was all she could do, of course; she didn’t have so much as a knitting needle on her with which to fight the demon if it came to that. But the demon didn’t know that. “And Belial does not know I am asking you this. Lilith does.”

After a moment, the demon said, “Your mistress rages at Belial because he occupies her realm of Edom. ‘There shall Lilith repose, and find for herself a place to rest,’?” it said in a high voice; it was unnerving to hear a demon quote a holy text. “But Edom is not his goal. He is moving, ever moving. He builds an army.”

“They wake,” Cordelia said, and the demon hissed through its scarlet teeth.

“Then you know,” the demon said. “Belial found them, empty vessels. He has filled them with his power. They wake and rise and do his bidding. And the Nephilim will be ended.”

A cold shiver went up Cordelia’s spine. “Empty vessels? What do you mean?”

“The dead,” said the demon, looking amused, “who are not dead. I will not say more.”

“You will answer—” Cordelia cut herself off. She caught up her witchlight rune-stone from her pocket and raised it, light spilling out between her fingers. In its illumination, she saw a score of slinking shadows. Small demons, perhaps twice the size of a typical cat. Each had a hard-shelled body, with sharp, protruding mandibles. They scuttled along on razored claws. One was an annoyance, but a group could de-flesh a human being in less than a minute.

Paimonite demons.

They had blocked the mouth of the street. Cordelia began to regret not having brought any weapons. She very much did not want Lilith to appear, but it was probably a preferable result to being torn apart by Paimonites.

The larger demon laughed. “Did you really think you’d only summoned me?” it purred. “You called out into Hell, and Hell will answer.”

Cordelia held out a hand as if to hold back the Paimonites. “Stop,” she commanded. “I am a paladin of Lilith, Mother of Demons—”

The larger demon spoke. “These are too stupid to understand you,” it said. “Not every demon plays the great Game, you know. Many are simply foot soldiers. Enjoy your battle.”

Its mouth stretched impossibly wider, grinning and grinning as the Paimonites scuttled forward. More were joining them, clambering over the neighboring wall, spilling into the alley like blackbeetles through a filthy hole in the ground.

Cordelia tensed. She would have to run. She had no choice. Either she would outrace the Paimonite demons, or she would die; there were simply too many of them to fight.

A Paimonite broke free of the pack and lunged at her. She darted aside, dealing it an almighty kick. It flew against the wall as the larger demon laughed, and Cordelia began to run, even as the other Paimonites closed in like a dark and moving river—

A gunshot rang out, tremendously loud. A Paimonite blew apart, spattering green and black ichor. A second shot, and this time Cordelia saw the force of it fling one of the smaller demons backward, where it smashed against the window of Ye Grapes and disintegrated.

The other small demons began to panic. Another shot, and another, smashing the Paimonites apart like stepped-on bugs. They began to scatter, chittering in terror, and Cordelia raised her witchlight.

Out of the shadows came James, an avenging angel with pistol in hand. He was coatless, and his gun seemed almost to glow in the clear cold, the inscription on its side shining: LUKE 12:49. She knew the verse by heart. I have come to bring a fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled.

James held the pistol trained now on the tall demon, who moved quickly to put Cordelia between itself and James. James looked past it, at Cordelia, his eyes communicating a silent message.

Cordelia dropped to the ground. She fell as she’d been trained to do, letting her legs drop out from beneath her, catching herself on her feet and hands, twisting, poised to spring. She saw the demon open its red-toothed mouth in surprise, just as James pulled the trigger. The look of surprise remained as a bullet shot straight into the demon’s mouth; it blew apart, vanishing into ashes.

Silence. Not the silence that had descended after Cordelia had spoken the summoning spell; she could hear the sounds of London again. Somewhere in the distance were three mundanes, already quite drunk, calling out in rowdy voices their intention to get “bloody pissed” at Ye Grapes.

But James was utterly silent. When she rose to her feet, he made no move to help her, only stared with blazing eyes. His face was white; his jaw was set in an expression Cordelia recognized as a rare emotion for James: absolute, incandescent rage.





18 ONE FALSE GLASS




But now two mirrors of his princely semblance

Are crack’d in pieces by malignant death,

And I for comfort have but one false glass,

That grieves me when I see my shame in him.

—William Shakespeare, Richard III



James stalked ahead of Cordelia, back through Shepherd Market, down the alley, along Curzon Street to their house—or whoever’s house it might be now. Cordelia hurried after him, feeling annoyed that she had to race behind him, but it was an annoyance that was mixed with guilt. He had saved her life, she had done something incredibly risky. If she could just explain—

James swept up the steps, letting her pass by him into the entryway. When they were inside, he slammed the door behind him, shoving his pistol into a holster on his belt.

“Hello?” Effie’s voice drifted up from downstairs, sounding querulous. Well, that answered that question.

“It’s nothing, Effie!” James shouted. He caught hold of Cordelia’s arm—his grip was firm, but not painful—and half herded her down the hall to the study.

Once inside, he flung the study door shut behind them. There was no other light in the room but the fire Cordelia had noticed earlier, and the shadows in the corners were deep and black. James rounded on Cordelia, his face white with fury. “What,” he said, between gritted teeth, “the bloody hell did you think you were doing?”

Cordelia was stunned. She had never seen James like this. He looked as if he wanted to tear something apart with his bare hands; the pulse at his throat showed the battering of his heartbeat. “I—”

“I heard you,” he said tightly. “It wasn’t as if you just wandered out at nightfall, which would have been foolish enough, and happened to encounter a group of demons. You summoned them.”

“I had to,” Cordelia gasped. She took a step back, nearly knocking into their chess table. “I had to ask them—about Belial—”

“Are you mad? Do you think you’re the first Shadowhunter to think of capturing and questioning demons? They lie. And they’ll attack if they have the slightest opportunity.”

“But I am a paladin,” Cordelia cried. “It’s awful, I loathe it—don’t imagine that I feel anything other than hatred for this thing that binds me to Lilith. But they fear me because of it. They dare not touch me—”

“Oh?” snarled James. “They dare not touch you? That’s not what it bloody looked like.”

“The demon at Chiswick House—it was about to tell me something about Belial, before you shot it.”

“Listen to yourself, Cordelia!” James shouted. “You are without Cortana! You cannot even lift a weapon! Do you know what it means to me, that you cannot protect yourself? Do you understand that I am terrified, every moment of every day and night, for your safety?”

Cordelia stood speechless. She had no idea what to say. She blinked, and felt something hot against her cheek. She put her hand up quickly—surely she was not crying?—and it came away scarlet.

“You’re bleeding,” James said. He closed the distance between them in two strides. He caught her chin and lifted it, his thumb stroking across her cheekbone. “Just a scratch,” he breathed. “Are you hurt anywhere else? Daisy, tell me—”

“No. I’m fine. I promise you,” she said, her voice wavering as his intent golden gaze spilled over her, searching her for signs of injury. “It’s nothing.”

“It’s the furthest thing from nothing,” James rasped. “By the Angel, when I realized you’d gone out, at night, weaponless—”

“What were you even doing at the house? I thought you were staying at the Institute.”