Lord of Shadows
Page 65
For a moment, Annabel seemed to hesitate. Emma was at the foot of the dais steps; she saw Annabel's grip loosen on the hilt of the Sword--
Jia stood up. Her robes were wet with Robert's blood, her stele limp in her hand. "He's dead," she said.
It was like a key turning in the lock of a cage, freeing the occupants: The guards lunged up the steps, leaping toward Annabel, blades outstretched. She spun with inhuman quickness, striking at them, and the Sword slashed across both their chests. There were screams as they collapsed, and Emma was running up the stairs, drawing Cortana, leaping in front of Julian.
From here, she could see all of the Council Hall. It was a melee. Some were fleeing through the doors. The Blackthorns and Cristina were on their feet, fighting toward the dais, though a line of guards had appeared to hold them back. As Emma watched, Livvy ducked under a guard's arm and began to shove her way toward them. A longsword glimmered in her hand.
Emma looked back at Annabel. It was clear this near to her that something had snapped inside her. She looked blank, her eyes dead and disconnected. Her gaze shifted past Emma. Alec had burst through the doors--he stared up at the dais, his face a mask of grief and shock.
Emma wrenched her eyes away from him as Annabel sprang for Julian like a cat, her sword cutting the air before her. Instead of raising Cortana to meet Annabel's thrust, Emma threw herself to the side, knocking Julian to the polished floor of the dais.
For a moment he was against her; they were together, body to body, and she felt the parabatai strength flow through her. The Mortal Sword came down again and they sprang apart, redoubled in strength, as it sliced through the wood at their feet.
The room was full of screaming. Emma thought she heard Alec calling for Robert: Dad, please, Dad. She thought of the tapestry of him in Robert's room. She thought of Isabelle. She whirled with Cortana in her hand, and the flat of the blade slammed against Maellartach.
Both swords shuddered. Annabel jerked her sword arm back, her eyes suddenly almost feral. Someone was shouting for Julian. It was Livvy, clambering up the side of the dais.
"Livvy!" Julian yelled. "Livvy, get out of here--"
Annabel swung again, and Emma raised Cortana, cutting on the upstroke, pushing closer, slamming her sword against Annabel's with all the force in her body, bringing the blades together with a massive, echoing clang.
And the Mortal Sword shattered.
It cracked jaggedly along the blade, the top half shearing away. Annabel shrieked and stumbled backward, and black fluid spilled from the broken sword like sap from a felled tree.
Emma collapsed to her knees. It was as if the hand that held Cortana had been struck by lightning. Her wrist was humming and a ringing sounded all the way up her bones, making her body shake. She grabbed for Cortana's hilt with her right hand, panicking, desperate not to drop it.
"Emma!" Julian was holding his own arm stiffly, Emma saw, as if he had been hurt too.
The humming was receding. Emma tried to get to her feet and stumbled; her teeth bit down into her lip with frustration. How dare her body betray her. "I'm fine--fine--"
Livvy gasped at the sight of the smashed Mortal Sword. She had reached the top of the dais; Julian reached out, and Livvy tossed him the sword she was holding. He caught it neatly and spun to face Annabel, who was staring down at the broken weapon in her hand. The Consul had seen what had happened too, and was striding toward them.
"It's over, Annabel," Julian said. He didn't look triumphant; he looked weary. "It's done."
Annabel gave a growl low in her throat and lunged. Julian raised his blade. But Annabel whipped past him, her black hair seeming to soar around her. Her feet left the ground, and for a moment she was truly beautiful, a Shadowhunter in full flowering glory, just before she landed lightly on the wooden floor at the dais's edge and drove her jagged, broken half blade into Livvy's heart.
Livvy's eyes shot wide. Her mouth formed an O, as if she were astonished by discovering something small and surprising, like a mouse on the kitchen counter. An overturned vase of flowers, a broken wristwatch. Nothing huge. Nothing terrible.
Annabel stepped back, breathing hard. She no longer looked beautiful. Her dress, her arm, was soaked in red and black.
Livvy raised her hand and wonderingly touched the hilt protruding from her chest. Her cheeks flared red.
"Ty?" she whispered. "Ty, I--"
Her knees went out from under her. She thudded hard to the ground on her back. The blade was like an ugly massive insect fastened to her chest, a metal mosquito sucking the blood that ran from her wound, red mixed with the black of the sword, spilling across the floor.
In the aisle of the Council Hall, Ty looked up, his face turning the color of ashes. Emma had no idea if he could see them through the teeming crowd--see his sister, see what had happened--but his hands flew to his chest, pressing over his heart. He pitched to his knees, soundlessly, just as Livvy had, and crumpled to the ground.
Julian made a noise. It was a noise Emma couldn't have described, not as human a sound as a howl or a scream. It sounded like it was ripped out of the inside of him, like something brutal was tearing through his chest. He dropped the longsword Livvy had risked so much to bring him, fell to his knees, and crawled to her, pulling her into his lap.
"Livvy, Livvy, my Livvy," he whispered, cradling her, feverishly stroking her blood-wet hair away from her face. There was so much blood. He was covered in it in seconds; it had soaked through Livvy's clothes, even her shoes were drenched in it. "Livia." His hands shook; he fumbled out his stele, put it to her arm.
The healing rune vanished as quickly as he drew it.
Emma felt as if someone had punched her in the stomach. There were wounds that were beyond an iratze's power. Healing runes only vanished from skin when occult poison was involved--or when the person was already dead.
"Livia." Julian's voice rose, cracking and tumbling over itself like a wave breaking far out to sea. "Livvy, my baby, please, sweetheart, open your eyes, it's Jules, I'm here for you, I'm always here for you, please, please--"
Blackness exploded behind Emma's eyes. The pain in her arm was gone; she felt nothing at all but rage. Rage that bleached everything else out of the world except the sight of Annabel cringing against the lectern, staring at Julian cradling his sister's dead body. At what she'd done.
Emma whirled and stalked toward Annabel. There was nowhere she could go. The guards had circled the dais. The rest of the room was a seething mass of confusion.
Emma hoped Ty was unconscious. She hoped he was seeing none of this. He would wake up eventually, and the horror of what he would wake up to drove her forward.
Annabel staggered back. Her foot slipped, and she tumbled to the floor. She raised her head as Emma loomed up over her. Her face was a mask of fear.
Emma heard Arthur's voice in her head. Mercy is better than revenge. But it was fainter than Julian's whispers or Dru's sobs.
She brought Cortana down, scything the blade through the air--but as it sliced the air, inky smoke erupted from the window behind Annabel. It had the force of an explosion, the concussive wave knocking Emma backward. As she stumbled to her knees she caught sight of a moving shape inside the smoke--the gleam of gold, the flash of a symbol burned onto her brain: a crown, broken in half.
The smoke vanished, and Annabel vanished with it.
Emma curled her body over Cortana, clutching the blade to herself, her soul corroded with despair. All around her she could hear the rising voices in the room, cries and shrieks. She could see Mark bent over Ty, who was crumpled on the floor. Mark's shoulders were shaking. Helen was struggling through the crowd toward both of them. Dru was on the ground, sobbing into her hands. Alec had slumped back against the doors of the Hall, staring at the devastation.
And there in front of her was Julian, his eyes and ears closed to anything but Livvy, her body cradled against his. She seemed a drift of fragile ash or snow, something impermanent that had blown into his arms
accidentally: the petal of a faerie flower, the white feather of an angel's wing. The dream of a little girl, the memory of a sister reaching up her arms: Julian, Julian, carry me.
But the soul, the spirit that made her Livvy was no longer there: It was something that had gone away to a far and untouchable place, even as Julian ran his hands over her hair again and again and begged her to wake up and look at him just one more time.
High above the Council Hall, the golden clock began to chime the hour.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Rounding up the usual suspects: Holly Black, Maureen Johnson, Leigh Bardugo, Kelly Link, Robin Wasserman, and Sarah Rees Brennan, bringing novelistic and emotional support. Special thanks to Jon Skovron and Anya DeNiro for their guiding light. To Erin, Alyssa, Katie, Manu, Ro & Virna, Julia, Mariane, Thiago, Raissa, Artur, and Laura, for making me smile. Cathrin Langner for remembering everything, and to Viviane Hebel and Gloria Altozano Saiz for assistance with Spanish. And thanks to Karen, on our ten-year anniversary, and to Russ and Danny, special agents. Love and thanks to my parents and especially to Jim Hill. To Emily Houk for going above and beyond. And to Josh, as always, Aimer, ce n'est pas se regarder l'un l'autre, c'est regarder ensemble dans la meme direction.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CASSANDRA CLARE is the author of the #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling Lady Midnight as well as the internationally bestselling Mortal Instruments series and Infernal Devices trilogy. She is the coauthor of The Bane Chronicles with Sarah Rees Brennan and Maureen Johnson and Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy with Sarah Rees Brennan, Maureen Johnson, and Robin Wasserman, as well as The Shadowhunter's Codex, which she cowrote with her husband, Joshua Lewis. Her books have more than fifty million copies in print worldwide and have been translated into more than thirtyfive languages, a feature film, and a TV show, Shadowhunters, currently airing on Freeform. Cassandra lives in western Massachusetts. Visit her at CassandraClare.com. Learn more about the world of the Shadowhunters at Shadowhunters.com.
Margaret K. McElderry Books SIMON & SCHUSTER NEW YORK
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Also by Cassandra Clare
THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS
City of Bones
City of Ashes
City of Glass
City of Fallen Angels City of Lost Souls
City of Heavenly Fire
THE INFERNAL DEVICES
Clockwork Angel
Clockwork Prince
Clockwork Princess
THE DARK ARTIFICES
Lady Midnight
The Shadowhunter's Codex With Joshua Lewis
The Bane Chronicles With Sarah Rees Brennan
and Maureen Johnson
Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy With Sarah Rees Brennan, Maureen Johnson, and Robin Wasserman
Also by Cassandra Clare
City of Bones
* * *
City of Ashes
* * *
City of Glass
* * *
City of Fallen Angels
* * *
City of Lost Souls
* * *
City of Heavenly Fire
* * *
Clockwork Angel
* * *
Clockwork Prince
* * *
Clockwork Princess
* * *
Lady Midnight
* * *
The Bane Chronicles
* * *
Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy
* * *
The Shadowhunter's Codex
* * *
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MARGARET K. McELDERRY BOOKS
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The text for this book was set in Dolly.
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ISBN 978-1-4424-6840-5
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