Chain of Iron

“Cordelia.”

She turned, saw Alastair standing at the entrance to the narrow corridor. He was backlit by witchlight; it turned the edges of his hair to light, reminding her of the time he’d dyed it. “Brother Enoch says if you wish to say goodbye, it has to be now.”

Cordelia nodded mechanically. “I’m coming.”

She had to edge past James before she turned to go; as she did, their shoulders brushed. She heard him sigh in frustration before following her. Then they were back out in the square and trailing Alastair into the Ossuarium, where Sona stood by Elias’s body. Brother Enoch was there, too, motionless, his hands folded in front of him like a priest’s.

James had paused by the double doors. Cordelia didn’t look at him; she couldn’t. She took Alastair’s hand and crossed the marble floor to where her father lay. Alastair drew her close against his side. Her mother stood very still, her eyes red and swollen, her head bent.

“Ave atque vale,” Alastair said. “Hail and farewell, Father.”

“Ave atque vale,” Sona echoed. Cordelia knew she should say it too, the traditional farewell, but her throat was too tight for words. Instead she reached out and took her father’s hand, exposed where the sheet was turned back. It was cold and rigid. Not her father’s hand at all. Not the hand that had lifted her up when she was small, or guided her bladework as she trained. Gently, she set it on his chest.

Her body stiffened. Elias’s Voyance rune—the rune every Shadowhunter had on the back of their dominant hand—was missing.

She heard Filomena’s voice again, echoing through the empty sailcloth factory. He took from me. My strength. My life.

Her strength.

Enoch, she thought. Do you know if Filomena di Angelo had a Strength rune?

Silent Brothers couldn’t look surprised. Still, Cordelia sensed a sort of startlement radiating from Enoch. He said, I do not know, but her body is in Idris, with Brother Shadrach. I will ask him to examine her, if this is important.

It is very important, she thought.

Enoch nodded almost imperceptibly. The Consul will be here soon. Do you wish to remain, and to receive her?

Sona passed a hand across her eyes. “Honestly, I cannot bear it,” she said. “All I wish is to go home, and to have my children with me—” She broke off, smiling weakly. “My apologies, of course, Layla. You have your own home.”

“James won’t mind if I stay with you tonight, Mâmân,” said Cordelia. “Will you, James?” She glanced over at James, wondering if the traces of their argument would show in his eyes. But he was expressionless, the Mask firmly in place.

“Of course not. Whatever will make you comfortable, Mrs. Carstairs,” said James. “I will have Risa come to you, as well, and bring any of Cordelia’s things that she wishes.”

“There is only one thing I want,” Cordelia said. “I just want to see Lucie. Please—please let her know.”

 

When James left the Silent City, he did not immediately return home. He had planned to flag down a hansom cab, but something about the idea of returning to Curzon Street without Cordelia was darkly painful. He could not help but feel he had failed her.

He found himself wandering the snowy aisles between the headstones of Highgate Cemetery, recalling the last time he had been here—when he had made his way to Belial’s stolen realm with the help of Matthew and Cordelia. He had nearly died among these mausoleums, these leaning trees and solemn stone angels. Even now he sometimes wondered how he had survived, but one thing he knew without a doubt: Cordelia had saved his life.

He should have told her the truth. He struck savagely at a low branch above his head, showering himself with silvery particles of snow. Snow and ice had obscured the faces of most of the headstones, leaving only the occasional word visible: DEARLY, and CHERISHED, and LOST.

It was bad enough that he and Cordelia had exchanged sharp words. It was far worse that he hadn’t found a way to tell her, somehow: As I dreamed of your father’s death, he looked at me. He seemed to recognize me, my dream-self. He knew who I was.

I fear there was a reason for it. I am afraid these dreams are more than just dreams. More, even, than visions.

She had said she did not want the details, and he had let himself hold back the truth. But now he could think of nothing else. His memory of Elias, his face twisting with surprise and fear, the recognition in his eyes, sent James pacing through the snow, kicking up white clouds with his boots. In his mind, he pleaded with Cordelia:

My nightmares come only on the nights that there are killings. When I awake, my window is open, as if I unlocked it in my sleep and threw it wide. And why? So someone could come in? So I myself could get out?

There were facts that argued against the idea. Was he moving barefoot through the streets of London, in his nightclothes? If so, he would surely have frostbite. Was he washing the blood from his hands when he came home? How was that possible, without his mind being even a little aware of it? And Filomena had not seemed to recognize him as her killer—but they had found that bloody cloak in the factory; if her attacker had been wearing it, his face might have been hidden by the hood.

What if it is me, Daisy? What if Belial is somehow controlling me, making me into a murderer, bloodying my hands?

But Belial is gone, James. Cordelia’s voice, that voice that made him want to tell her everything, that voice that promised no judgment, only kindness. For a century at least, Jem said.

James stopped, leaned against the wall of a marble mausoleum, decorated with carvings of Egyptian sarcophagi. He put his face in his hands. He is a Prince of Hell. Who knows what he can do? I cannot live my life wondering, nor can I let myself be free if I am some kind of threat. I need to know.

I must know.

* * *

Grace gazed out the window of her small room at the Bridgestocks’ town house. She had waited many hours for everyone in the house to be gone. The Inquisitor had gone to the Institute for a meeting; Ariadne and her mother were out paying calls. They had invited Grace to come with them, but she had declined, as she always did. She did not care for company and loathed meals with the Bridgestocks, where the four of them made strained conversation. She could rarely wait to get to her room, where her books waited for her—books on magic, on necromancy and science.

Her room was small but prettily furnished. There was even a little view through the window: the tops of the trees in Cavendish Square, swaying bare and black against the gray sky. She had already made sure the door was locked; she had put on a plain white dress and let her hair down. Best she look as innocent as possible.

From the top drawer of her vanity she drew a witchlight rune-stone. She had asked Charles to give her one, and of course he had had no choice but to do so. She held back from asking him for more, not wanting to raise suspicions.

The adamas felt cool and smooth as water in her hand. She held it up to her lips, watching her reflection in the vanity mirror. The adamas was white, shot with bits of silver: the same color as her hair. Her eyes were wide and frightened. There was nothing she could do about that, and perhaps it was better.

She raised the stone to her lips and spoke. “Mama,” she said, her voice low and clear. “Audite. Listen.”

Her reflection rippled. Her long pale hair turned iron-gray, her eyes darkening to a muddy green. Lines crept across her face. She wanted to shudder, to flinch away, but she held still. It was not her own reflection she was looking at, she told herself. She was gazing through a window, opening a pathway.