Instead they told me everything. That their master was Sammael, Father of Demons, that they were working to bring him back to Earth to resume the war that had been delayed a thousand years ago when he was defeated by Michael. And that now I, too, worked for him.

I said no, of course not, I would never. And they said, you will, or we’ll tell your family that you’ve already provided us with intelligence about Shadowhunters, their numbers, their strengths, their weaknesses. You are already a spy for Sammael, they said. You only have yet to admit it to yourself.

* * *

MAGNUS LOOKED AGHAST. “THE FEATHER in Sammael’s hat,” he said. “It’s a phoenix feather, isn’t it? Is it Jinfeng’s?”

Alec didn’t know the finer points of faerie magic, but he knew the feather of a phoenix gave you power over that phoenix. Tian shook his head violently. “No. No. I agreed that I had no choice but to do as they asked. Their next request was the feather of a phoenix—they obviously wanted me to betray Jinfeng, so that I would fall deeper into corruption. Instead I took Jinfeng into my confidence—the only person other than you here who knows the whole story—and she brought me a phoenix feather from the tomb of one of her ancestors. I told Jung and Fell that it was hers.”

He looked around. “You understand, I thought I would take advantage of the situation. I was allowed into Diyu and began to learn its layout, its structure, its rules. I thought, at least this could be useful to me, if I ever find a way out of this trap.”

“It was useful,” said Isabelle. Alec looked at her, and she looked back, her dark eyes clear and shining. Simon, who was leaning his head on her shoulder, smiled up at her. “The Jiangshi took me through to yet another court, and there was an old guy there with kind of a melted face? He yelled at me in Mandarin for a while, and when I didn’t say anything, he opened a panel in the wall and sent me through.”

“Which hell did they send you to?” said Alec.

“The Hell of Silences,” Isabelle said.

“Could be worse,” Jace said. Alec thought of the Hell of Boiling Soup with Human Dumplings.

“It was the top of a tower, a little platform surrounded on all sides by a thousand-foot drop onto metal spikes,” Isabelle said conversationally. “They hung me from a chain and strapped a metal rod around my neck, with spiked forks at both ends. One end poked into my throat, the other into my chest, so if I spoke, or even nodded my head, I would be impaled on both. Demons watched over me and laughed while I struggled.”

“Oh,” said Jace.

Simon drew Isabelle even tighter to him.

When Alec had first met Simon, he would have laughed uproariously at the suggestion that his sister would someday hold on to him tightly, that she and Simon would find affection and reassurance in each other. Of course, at that time he would have laughed at the suggestion that he and Magnus Bane would be raising a child together too. They had all changed so much, in such a short time.

“I was only there for a few minutes,” Isabelle went on. “Tian found me. The demons watching over me let him get close, and then, uh, then a giant tiger showed up and killed them.”

“Once Sammael’s eye was no longer on me, I called upon Hu Shen for assistance freeing Isabelle,” Tian put in.

“That must have been so cool,” murmured Simon.

“I made sure we brought the tiger,” Isabelle said. “I knew you’d be disappointed if you missed it.”

Simon kissed her on the cheek. She blushed a little—very unlike Isabelle, Alec thought with amusement. Very unlike Isabelle most of the time, anyway.

“You know the rest,” Tian said. “Sammael’s probably planning to spend today moping around Diyu, complaining about how terrible it is and ordering his two warlocks around. And now he knows I’m his enemy too.”

“Believe me,” said Simon wearily, “when Sammael decides to be demonic, he has no trouble bringing the evil.”

Alec nodded. He had been startled by his first meeting with Sammael; he had been so friendly, and so unthreatening, but the sight of Sammael’s face as he sliced up Simon’s body had reminded him of who they were dealing with. “He’s still the most dangerous thing here.”

“He also seems to have a strange interest in you, Magnus,” put in Tian. “I suppose it’s because you were thorned by Shinyun, but it seems to me if he wanted more warlock minions, he could probably find willing ones.”

Magnus shrugged. “I guess I’m already here?”

“So Sammael is here preparing,” said Clary, “but what’s he preparing for? What’s his plan exactly?”

“Sammael is prevented from entering Earth by wards put in place by the Archangel Michael long ago,” said Tian. “As near as I can tell, he’s got Jung and Fell working on finding something in the Book of the White that will let him get around the wards.”

“Is that possible?” said Jace. “Is there something in the Book of the White that could do that?”

They all looked at Magnus. “Probably,” Magnus said grimly. “Yes. No wonder the Portals on Earth are all malfunctioning. Sammael’s minions have been fiddling with the walls that keep dimensions separate.”

“So why haven’t they figured it out yet?” said Clary.

Tian looked thoughtful. “It seems to me that Sammael thought Diyu would be a much better source of power. It used to be, under Yanluo, of course; by design it is a dynamo that transforms human suffering into demonic power. But the machinery has been broken for almost a hundred and fifty years. Not only is it difficult for Jung and Fell to draw on its power to fuel their magic, but the demons who used to run Diyu have grown used to freedom and chaos. Sammael can’t whip them into shape by himself.” He shook his head. “Shinyun thinks that with enough power granted by the thorn, she could hold the entire host of Diyu under her magical compulsion, but she isn’t there yet.”

“So we have a little time,” said Alec. “Are we safe here?”

Tian nodded. “Sammael doesn’t think we’re any real threat, and he’s dependent on his underlings to keep Diyu under observation. Demons don’t like coming to churches, even in demon Shanghai.”

“Okay,” said Jace. “So what’s the plan? Rest up and then go after Sammael?”

“Or go after Shinyun and Ragnor,” said Clary. When she saw Magnus’s face, she said, “We can’t let them figure out how to allow Sammael to enter our world. We just can’t.”

“Would getting the Book away from them stop Sammael’s plans, though?” said Simon doubtfully.

Tian shook his head. “It would delay them, but they would find some other solution, I’m sure. There’s a lot of dark magic in the world.”

“We still can’t just leave it with them,” Clary said. “Or leave things the way they are.”

“Okay,” said Alec. “So where do we find the Book? Or Sammael? And Sammael, rather?”

Tian looked uncertain. “He doesn’t really have a home base here. He wanders all over the realm.” He adopted a confidential air. “He’s kind of a micromanager.”

“Then what?” said Jace, frustrated. “Back to the iron bridge? Back to the courts? Demand to be taken to him?”

“We draw him out,” said Magnus. “Use me as bait.”

“No,” said Alec instantly.

“Shinyun has some weird thing about me and the thorn,” Magnus said. “She’s been taunting me since this whole thing started, telling me that in the end I would choose to take a third wound from the Svefnthorn rather than die. If I go somewhere and make a lot of noise, demand to speak to Shinyun, she’ll show up. From there we can get to Sammael. Or he’ll get to us.”

“No,” Alec said again.

“It can work!” Magnus said.

“Magnus,” said Alec, “what happens if she actually thorns you again? You’ll fall under Sammael’s control. And then it’s all over. For… everyone,” he added quietly.

“She won’t,” said Magnus. “She can’t. I have to choose the third wound, and I won’t do that.”

“But you’ll lie to her and say you will,” Alec said.

Magnus actually smiled a little, clearly pleased at how well Alec knew him. “Right. Then she’ll probably want to do some complicated ritual with a bunch of chanting, you know her. She’ll light a million candles. It’ll take forever. Plenty of time for our attack.”

Alec’s heart was beating too fast. “What if she doesn’t? What if it doesn’t?”

“Alec,” Jace said carefully. “I don’t think we have a better idea. Magnus is right. The rest of us, we can just stay in the cathedral until we die of starvation, as far as Sammael or his minions are concerned. They don’t think we can really do anything to disrupt their plan. We can kill some demons, sure, but two thorned warlocks and a Prince of Hell? We’re just some foot soldiers in the faceless infantry of the opposing army.”

“He’ll find out he’s wrong about that soon enough,” said Isabelle.

“I mean, yes,” said Jace. “Fine point from Isabelle. But when Sammael met Magnus, he tried to recruit him. He offered him Shinyun’s job! Magnus is the only one who can get their attention, who might be able to defend himself if one of our three buddies attacked.” He nodded toward Simon. “Sorry, no offense intended.”

“None taken,” Simon said with a weak smile. “I’m not really at a hundred percent right now.”

Alec didn’t know what to say. A terrible thing was going through his mind, an anxiety he had never really felt before, or allowed himself to feel. A conversation with Max, a horrible conversation, about how Magnus wasn’t going to be back, how it was just the two of them now. A risky plan, a long-shot plan, but we thought it would be fine.…