Chain of Thorns (The Last Hours, #3)

“You’re not leaving because of the baby, are you?” Cordelia said now, mischievously.

“Babies,” Matthew reminded her darkly. “According to the Silent Brothers, it will be twins.” He grinned. “And no, I rather fancy the idea of little sisters or brothers. By the time I return from my voyage, they will be nearly a year old and have begun to have some personality. An excellent time to teach them that their big brother Matthew is the finest and most upstanding person they will ever know.”

“Ah,” said Cordelia. “You intend to suborn them.”

“Entirely.” Matthew looked down at her; the wind off the river blew his fair hair across his eyes. “When you first came to London,” he said, “all I could think was that I disliked your brother, and I expected you would be like him. But you won me over quite quickly—you were kind and brave, and so many other things I aspired to be.” He took her hand, though there was nothing romantic about the gesture; he pressed the smooth river stone into her palm and closed her fingers over it. “I don’t think I realized—until you sent the Merry Thieves to me at my lowest point—how much I would need someone in my life who would see the truth of me and offer me kindness, even though I had not asked for it. Even when I felt I did not deserve it. And when I travel the seas with Oscar, every time I set eyes upon a new land, I will think of you and of that kindness. I will always carry it with me, and the knowledge that it is the gifts we did not have the strength to ask for that matter the most.”

Cordelia sighed. “There is a terrible selfish part of me that wants you to stay here in London, but I suppose we cannot keep you to ourselves when the rest of the world is pining away for you to brighten it up.”

Matthew grinned. “Flattery. As you know, it always works on me.”

And as Cordelia held the smooth little stone tightly in her hand, she realized that the distance she had felt between them seemed to have fallen away. Though he might be on the other side of the world for a year, they would not be far apart in spirit.

There was a rustle; it was James, his dark hair wildly untidy, coming toward them across the grass. He held a stack of charred paper in his hand. “I have just,” he said, by way of greeting, “received a seventh fire-message from my father.” He shuffled through the pages. “In this one, he says they are running late and they are ten minutes away. In this one, they are nine minutes away. In this one, they are eight minutes away. In this one…”

“They are seven minutes away?” Matthew guessed.

James shook his head. “No, in this one he wants to know if we have enough mustard.”

“What would he have done if we didn’t?” Cordelia wondered.

“The Angel only knows,” James said. “He certainly won’t be happy about all these ducks.” He grinned at Matthew, who looked back at him in that way he had that seemed to convey everything about how he loved James: that their friendship was both very silly and terribly serious all at once. One joked during the day and risked one’s life at night; that was the way of being a Shadowhunter, Cordelia thought.

James squinted into the distance. “Math, I think your family’s here.”

And indeed, it seemed, the others were beginning to arrive at long last. Charlotte was coming toward them along a park path, pushing Henry’s Bath chair.

“Duty calls,” Matthew said, and started off toward his parents. Oscar left Thomas and Alastair to join him, running along at his heels and barking a welcome.

James smiled at Cordelia—that lovely, lazy smile that always made her feel as if delightful sparks were running along her spine. She moved closer to him, dropping the stone Matthew had given her into her pocket. For a moment they stood looking at the park together in companionable silence.

“I see the croquet game is going well,” Cordelia noted. In fact, Anna, Ari, and Grace seemed to have created a bizarre tower of hoops and mallets that did not resemble any croquet court she had ever seen. They were all standing back and looking at it: Anna seemed delighted, Ari and Grace puzzled. “I didn’t know Grace was going to bury the bracelet,” she said. “At the manor. Did she speak to you about it?”

James nodded, gold eyes thoughtful. “She asked if it was all right if she buried it, and I said yes. It is, after all, her own regret she is burying.”

“And your sorrow,” said Cordelia softly.

He looked down at her. There was a smudge of dirt on his cheekbone, and a grass stain on his collar. And yet when she looked at him, he seemed more beautiful to her than he ever had when she had thought of him as distant and untouchably perfect. “I have no sorrow,” he said. He took her hand, locking his fingers with hers. “Life is a long chain of events, of decisions and choices,” he said. “When I fell in love with you, I was changed. Belial could not alter that. Nothing could alter that. And everything that happened after, everything he tried to do through the bracelet, only strengthened what I felt for you and brought us closer to one another. It was because of him and his meddling that we married in the first place. I loved you already, but being married to you only made me fall more inescapably in love; I had never been so happy as I was every moment we were together, and it was that love that led me to shatter the bracelet, and realize that indeed I had a will that could contest Belial’s.” He brushed a strand of hair away from her face, his touch gentle, his eyes locked on hers. “So no, I do not feel sorrow, for all I went through brought me to where we are now. To you. We have been in the crucible, and come out as gold.”

Cordelia went up on her toes and kissed him quickly on the lips. He raised an eyebrow. “Is that all?” he said. “I thought that was a very romantic speech. I expected a more passionate response, or perhaps for you to start spelling out my name in daisy chains on the riverbank—”

“It was a romantic speech,” Cordelia said, “and believe me, I will have much to say about it later.” She smiled at him in the particular way that always made his eyes blaze up like fire. “But our families have just arrived, so unless you wish to passionately embrace in front of your parents, we will have to save that for later, when we are home.”