“Charming.” Magnus waved a hand in mock alarm. “There’s no need to tell me anything else about that part.”

“It has to be my connection to Belial that’s causing these visions,” James said. “There’s just no other reason I’d have them. They’re like the ones I’ve had in the past, when I was in his realm. My grandfather must be involved somehow.”

“Have you seen his world again?” Magnus asked quietly. “His realm?”

“Not quite.” James hesitated. “I fell into shadow once—the night before my wedding—but the realm didn’t resemble the one Cordelia and I destroyed.” He glanced at her. “It was no place I’d seen before. There was a huge, empty heath, and beyond that—ruins—the remains of towers and canals. There was a dark fortress with a gate—”

Magnus sat forward, his eyes alight. “Edom. The realm you saw is Edom.”

“Edom?” Matthew rubbed the back of his neck. “The name is familiar. Probably a class I largely slept through.”

“‘The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the demons shall cry to each other; Lilith also shall come there, and find for herself a place of rest,’” said Cordelia, recalling the party at the Hell Ruelle the night before her wedding. “It’s a demon world, ruled by Lilith.”

“That’s right,” said Magnus. “I have heard rumors that she was cast out of it, that it had been taken over—but not by whom. It seems it may have been Belial.”

“So Belial has a new realm,” said Christopher. “Could that be making him stronger? Could he be able to walk in our world?”

“Unlike his brethren, Belial cannot walk upon Earth, no matter what realm he controls. It is the curse he is always trying to circumvent.”

“What if he’s possessing mundanes, or Downworlders?” said Matthew. “Using them as tools?”

“A demon as powerful as Belial cannot possess a human body—not even the body of a vampire, or one of the fey. It would be like putting a bonfire in a shoebox. Such power as he possesses would literally tear the body apart.”

“But couldn’t he just possess someone long enough to commit a murder before the body falls apart?” Lucie asked.

“Then we’d be finding two bodies,” Cordelia pointed out. “The murder victim and the body Belial had possessed.”

“Though remember what Lilian Highsmith said when she was dying,” Christopher said. “Thomas told us. He asked her who attacked her and she said someone who was dead in his prime, and that his wife was crying—”

“Corpse possession? Those would fall apart even faster than live bodies,” Magnus said. “It doesn’t make sense.”

Christopher looked glum. “Thomas did say she might have been delirious.”

“Perhaps,” said James thoughtfully. “Elias, too, seemed to recognize his killer, and I don’t think he was raving. He seemed sane enough, which supports the idea that it’s a Shadowhunter.”

“A Shadowhunter who has summoned up a demon to help him? Belial, perhaps?” suggested Lucie.

“No one summons a Prince of Hell and controls him.” Magnus shrugged. “The point is—there are a million possible theories. And every night and dawn bring with them the possibility of another death.” He scrubbed his hands over his face. “Perhaps it is time for you to use your power, James,” he said. “Not just to fear and avoid it.”

James’s face went blank. Cordelia thought of the way he had torn Belial’s realm apart with his power, the way he had seemed to turn the earth inside out, shredding rocks and hills and trees. “He has used it,” she said. “It is not easy to control—though I should not speak for him. James?”

“I suppose it depends what you mean,” James said. “Use it how?”

Magnus rose from his chair and went to a gilded cart on which an array of bottles and decanters was arranged, and selected a bottle of deep gold spirits. “Would anyone care to join me in a bit of port?”

Matthew drew his empty flask from his pocket and held it out. The bandage on his hand seemed to glow whitely in the lamplight. “If you wouldn’t mind, I could use a top-up.”

Magnus gave him a look that said expensive port didn’t belong in pocket flasks, but he complied. He poured himself a measure and sat down again, the glass of rose-gold liquid balanced between the fingers of his left hand. “You know the ways of shadows, James. Did Belial show you his new realm of Edom, or did you somehow force your way into it? Do you remember?”

“Not consciously,” said James. “I was—upset at the time.” I made a promise to Daisy, and I will keep that promise. If you wanted to prevent me from doing the right thing, you should have started the campaign quite a bit earlier than the night before my wedding.

“If you are suggesting he enter the shadow realm of his own will, the last time he did that, he nearly destroyed the Institute ballroom,” said Matthew.

“And I almost shot him with an arrow,” said Christopher sorrowfully.

“Surely you could refrain from doing that again, er, which one are you? Cecily’s son? Try not to shoot arrows at James,” said Magnus. “Look, when he went into the shadow realm from the ballroom, did he disappear, or was his body still present in this world?”

“I can answer that,” said James. “It was the former. I disappeared.”

“But earlier, when you envisioned Edom,” said Magnus. “Did you actually travel there?”

“No,” Matthew said. “He remained in the room with us. Quite present.”

“I have spoken about this with Jem,” said Magnus. “Most of your travels, so to speak, James, have taken place within a dream-realm. Only when you have physically removed yourself to a dimension controlled by Belial has Belial been in a position to hurt you. He is spying on you, in his nasty little way—I say spy on him right back. In dreams.”

“Dream-magic,” said Christopher, pleased. “I told you those oneiromancy books would be helpful.”

“You saw Edom once in a dream,” said Magnus. “You can see it again.”

“But what is the importance of seeing Edom?” said Cordelia. “What will it tell us?”

“Whether Belial is indeed there,” said Magnus. “Even what his plans are. Is he building an army? Hiding and licking his wounds? What demons follow him? What are his vulnerabilities? Think of it as spying on the camp of the enemy.”

James shook his head. “I have never done anything like that before, in practice with Jem or by accident,” he said. “I am not sure I would quite know how.”

“Fortunately, I am an expert at dream-magic,” said Magnus. “I will accompany you—I would do it myself, but I do not have your power. I can pass through with you, but I cannot open the door.”

Cordelia felt a prick of unease. Magnus spoke matter-of-factly, but he had not been with them in Belphegor’s realm, had not made the terrifying journey there and back. “If James is going to do this, I would like to remain in the room with him, with Cortana drawn,” she said. “In case we catch Belial’s attention somehow, or the attention of some other unpleasant individual.”