“Hmm,” said Magnus. “And who are you?”

“Leon Verlac,” said the boy.

“Well, Leon Verlac,” Magnus drawled. “Keep dreaming.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

* * *

The Quality of Mercy

LEANING AGAINST A PILLAR OF cracked stone, Alec watched his friends. Helen and Aline were spreading out across the villa grounds, securing the cultists they came across. Their weapons were out, ready to deal with lingering demons, but the force of Asmodeus’s exit seemed to have dispelled them entirely. Not that there wasn’t plenty to handle—cultists half-buried under rubble, small fires to smother, Rome Shadowhunters to direct to relevant locations.

Magnus was healing the cultists who had been eager to watch him get sacrificed. He went from person to person calmly, as Catarina had done at the party. Alec could always find him by the flowering of blue sparks at his fingertips. As far as Alec was concerned, Magnus’s actions weren’t just kind, they were practically saintly.

He turned to look at Shinyun. My dark mirror, Magnus had said, but as far as Alec was concerned, they had nothing in common. She was still tied to the marble pillar, still staring out into the darkness. With a start, Alec realized tears were streaming silently down her face.

“Hoping to gloat?” she said bitterly when she saw Alec watching her. “I was a fool. I thought Asmodeus was my father. I thought the Crimson Hand was my family. I was wrong. I was always alone, and I’m going to die alone. Satisfied?”

Alec shook his head. “I was just wondering what you would be like if you found someone who didn’t betray you.”

“Are you suggesting I should date Magnus?” Shinyun sneered.

Even she, who had imprisoned Magnus and dragged him to an ugly public death, saw who Magnus was. Anyone could see. Uneasiness stirred in Alec at the reminder that surely a vast number of people wanted to be with Magnus. He didn’t want to think about it. Maybe he would never have to think about it.

“You tried to stab him,” said Alec. “So obviously not.”

Shinyun only scoffed. Alec tried not to think of her blade, hurtling down toward Magnus’s heart.

“I’m sorry I tried to kill him,” Shinyun muttered, her eyes on the dirt. “Tell him that.”

Alec remembered Magnus, in the moment when the barriers of the pentagram had fallen. Magnus had turned, and the elements seemed to turn with him. His hand was uplifted, magic wrapping around his smooth brown skin, magic lucent white against his corona of black hair, fire and wind in the light of his brilliant eyes. He was incandescent with power, impossibly beautiful, and dangerous.

And he had hurt none of the people who had hurt him.

Magnus had trusted Shinyun, and she’d betrayed him, but he would keep trusting people, Alec knew. Alec had trusted Aline and Helen and even the New York vampires, and it had worked out. Maybe it was the only thing that worked, taking the risk of trust.

He didn’t want Shinyun to get away with this. It was only right that she be punished for her crimes, but Alec knew that if the Clave got hold of her, her punishment would be death.

So be it, he told himself. The Law is hard, but it is the Law.

His father had always told him to be careful, not to make mistakes, not to strike out on his own, to obey the spirit and the letter of the Law. He thought of Helen and how she was trying to be the perfect Shadowhunter for her family. Alec, uneasily aware that he was different, that he was sure to disappoint his father, had always tried to follow the rules.

Magnus could have struck Shinyun down when he broke the pentagram, or at any moment since then. Instead he clearly and desperately wanted to spare her. When he had a choice, the Magnus he knew always chose to be kind.

Alec leaned down and cut Shinyun’s cords with the edge of his seraph blade, its angelic power carving even through the magical binding.

“What are you doing?” Shinyun breathed.

Alec was hardly sure himself.

“Go,” he said roughly. When all Shinyun did was sit and stare, Alec repeated himself. “Go. Or do you want to stay and throw yourself on the mercy of the Clave?”

Shinyun scrambled to her feet, wiping her tears with the back of her hand. Her eyes flashed with a bitter hurt. “You think you know Magnus Bane. But you have no idea of the depth and darkness of the secrets he is keeping from you. There is so much he hasn’t told you.”

“I don’t want to know,” Alec said.

Her smile was twisted. “One day you will.”

Alec turned on her with sudden fury. Shinyun gulped and ran, as fast as she could, into the smoke.

The Rome Shadowhunters were already on the villa grounds. She might be caught, but Alec had given her the best chance he could. Nobody could blame Magnus, or Aline, or Helen. Alec had done this himself.

He looked out at the swirling dust, and the lights turning the sky deep purple and brilliant red. One day he would follow the rules again. When the rules were changed.

He started when two figures emerged from the smoke, tense and ready to answer a barrage of questions from Italian Shadowhunters, but it was only Aline and Helen. Magnus was following after them, some distance behind. Aline was in front, and her mouth fell open as she saw Alec standing alone by the ruins, discarded ropes at his feet.

“By the Angel,” Aline breathed. “Shinyun got away?”