Ghosts of the Shadow Market
Page 51
Jem did not know what would come either, but he was sure of one thing. Kit would not run when danger called. Kit would stand and fight. The search for the lost Herondale, Jem refusing the Greater Demon Belial’s temptations, Jem being turned away and then called back by Rosemary Herondale, had all led to this. Rosemary’s child was Jem’s now. It was Jem’s job to teach Kit how to fight as well as he could.
“Think of the people you love,” said Jem, and Kit startled. “It doesn’t matter if they didn’t love you back, or if they did. You keep them here.”
Jem reached out and laid his hand against Kit’s chest, felt it beating too swiftly beneath his palm.
“Do you want to keep them somewhere small and mean, with the walls closing in?”
Kit shook his head silently, lips pressed tight together.
“No,” Jem said softly. “You won’t. You choose to be yourself, your best self. You can be descended from gods and monsters. You can take the light they left you and be a lamp shining out all their light made new. You can battle the darkness. You can choose always to fight and hope. That is what it means to have a great heart. Don’t be afraid of being yourself.”
“But . . .” Kit fumbled for words. “I know that you and Tessa took me in because of Will. And I’m—I’m grateful, I want to—I can be like—”
His shoulders shook and Jem reached out, putting his arms around Kit. He felt Kit’s muscles lock, almost straining away, then felt the moment when Kit chose to lean in and lay his head down on Jem’s shoulder.
“No,” Jem told him fiercely. “Don’t be grateful. Where there is love, Kit,” he murmured into the wild gold of his hair, “there is no need for gratitude. And I love you.”
Kit shook, and nodded, once.
“Okay,” Kit whispered.
Jem felt tears drop hot into the curve of his neck. He held Kit safe in his arms, until his tears were dry and they could both pretend he had not wept. He held Kit until Church growled jealously and tried to squirm in between them.
“Dumb cat,” Kit muttered.
Church hissed and swiped at him. Jem gave Church a disappointed look, then stood and offered Kit a hand.
“Come inside where it’s warm,” Jem said. “Tomorrow, we’ll start you on weights so you can learn the right balance to strike with that sword. For now I can hear Tessa and Mina. Let’s go be with our family.”
The doors were already standing invitingly open. As they came closer Jem could see Tessa, in a gown the same gray as her eyes, gray as the river under the bridge where she had met him year after year after year. She was laughing.
“I couldn’t get Mina to sleep,” she called. “She thinks you might go on an adventure without her.”
Kit said, “Not today.”
He went in ahead of Jem, and Mina wriggled in her mother’s arms, eagerly reaching out toward them.
Jem smiled at the sight of his daughter, and paused long enough to think, Will, my Will. You would be so proud.
Jem went inside to his wife and his baby and his boy, to his long-awaited home. Above the low slate roof, sunset had dyed the clouds a color darker than gold. This evening the whole sky was bronze, as though to summon wicked powers.
Acknowledgments
Thank you to Cathrin Langner for fact checking, Gavin J. Grant and Emily Houk for keeping us organized, and Holly Black and Steve Berman for their cheerleading and support. Thank you also to Melissa Scott for her assistance with “Every Exquisite Thing,” and to Cindy and Margaret Pon for their translation help. Our everlasting love and thanks to our friends and families.
Explore the World of The Dark Artifices
Lady Midnight
Book 1
Lord of Shadows
Book 2
Queen of Air and…
Book 3
Explore the World of The Mortal Instruments
City of Bones
Book 1
City of Ashes
Book 2
City of Glass
Book 3
City of Fallen Angels
Book 4
City of Lost Souls
Book 5
City of Heavenly Fire
Book 6
Explore the World of The Infernal Devices
Clockwork Angel
Book 1
Clockwork Prince
Book 2
Clockwork Princess
Book 3
More Books to Enjoy
The Red Scrolls of Magic
Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy
The Bane Chronicles
The Shadowhunter's Codex
The Infernal Devices
Cassandra Clare: The Mortal Instruments Series (5 books)
Cassandra Clare: The Mortal Instrument Series (4 books)
Cassandra Clare: The Mortal Instrument Series (3 books)
About the Authors
CASSANDRA CLARE was born to American parents in Tehran, Iran, and spent much of her childhood traveling the world with her family. She lived in France, England, and Switzerland before she was ten years old. Since her family moved around so much, she found familiarity in books and went everywhere with a book under her arm. She spent her high school years in Los Angeles, where she used to write stories to amuse her classmates, including an epic novel called The Beautiful Cassandra based on the eponymous Jane Austen short story (and from which she later took her current pen name).
After college, Cassie lived in Los Angeles and New York, where she worked at various entertainment magazines and even some rather suspect tabloids. She started working on her YA novel City of Bones in 2004, inspired by the urban landscape of Manhattan, her favorite city.
In 2007, the first book in the Mortal Instruments series, City of Bones, introduced the world to Shadowhunters. The Mortal Instruments concluded in 2014 and includes City of Ashes, City of Glass, City of Fallen Angels, City of Lost Souls, and City of Heavenly Fire. She also created a prequel series, inspired by A Tale of Two Cities and set in Victorian London. This series, the Infernal Devices, follows bookworm Tessa Gray as she discovers the London Institute in Clockwork Angel, Clockwork Prince, and Clockwork Princess.
The sequel series to the Mortal Instruments, the Dark Artifices, where the Shadowhunters take on Los Angeles, began with Lady Midnight, continues with Lord of Shadows, and concludes with Queen of Air and Darkness.
Other books in the Shadowhunters series include The Bane Chronicles, Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy, The Red Scrolls of Magic, and The Shadowhunter’s Codex.
Her books have more than fifty million copies in print worldwide and have been translated into more than thirty-five languages. Visit her at CassandraClare.com.
SARAH REES BRENNAN was born and raised in Ireland by the sea, where her teachers valiantly tried to make her fluent in Irish (she wants you to know it’s not called Gaelic) but she chose to read books under her desk in class instead. The books most often found under her desk were Jane Austen, Margaret Mahy, Anthony Trollope, Robin McKinley, and Diana Wynne Jones, and she still loves them all today. After college she lived briefly in New York and somehow survived in spite of her habit of hitching lifts in fire engines. She began working on The Demon’s Lexicon while doing a creative writing MA and library work in Surrey, England. Since then she has returned to Ireland to write and use as a home base for future adventures. Her Irish is still woeful, but she feels the books under the desk were worth it. Sarah is also the author of the Lynburn Legacy series and the novels Tell the Wind and Fire and In Other Lands. Follow her on Twitter at @sarahreesbrenna or visit her at sarahreesbrennan.com.
MAUREEN JOHNSON is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of several YA novels, including 13 Little Blue Envelopes, Suite Scarlett, and The Name of the Star. She has also done collaborative works, such as Let It Snow (with John Green and Lauren Myracle), and The Bane Chronicles (with Cassandra Clare and Sarah Rees Brennan). Maureen has an MFA in writing from
Columbia University. She has been nominated for an Edgar Award and the Andre Norton Award, and her books appear frequently on YALSA and state awards lists. Time magazine has named her one of the top 140 people to follow on Twitter (@maureenjohnson). Maureen lives in New York, and online on Twitter (or at maureenjohnsonbooks.com).
KELLY LINK is the author of the collections Stranger Things Happen, Magic for Beginners, Pretty Monsters, and Pulitzer Prize finalist Get in Trouble. Her short stories have been published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, The Best American Short Stories, and The O. Henry Prize Stories. She has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. She and Gavin J. Grant have coedited a number of anthologies, including multiple volumes of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror and, for young adults, Steampunk! and Monstrous Affections. She is the cofounder of Small Beer Press and coedits the occasional zine Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet.
Link (kellylink.net/@haszombiesinit) was born in Miami, Florida. She currently lives with her husband and daughter in Northampton, Massachusetts.
ROBIN WASSERMAN is a graduate of Harvard University and the author of several successful novels for young adults including the Seven Deadly Sins series, Hacking Harvard, the Skinned trilogy, and The Book of Blood and Shadow, as well as Girls on Fire, her first novel for adults. A recent recipient of a MacDowell fellowship, she lives in Los Angeles.
Visit us at simonandschuster.com/teen
Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Cassandra-Clare
Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Sarah-Rees-Brennan
Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Maureen-Johnson
Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Kelly-Link
Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Robin-Wasserman
Margaret K. McElderry Books
Simon & Schuster, New York
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
Lord of Shadows
Queen of Air and Darkness
THE ELDEST CURSES
With Wesley Chu
The Red Scrolls of Magic
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
We hope you enjoyed reading this Simon & Schuster ebook.
* * *
Get a FREE ebook when you join our mailing list. Plus, get updates on new releases, deals, recommended reads, and more from Simon & Schuster. Click below to sign up and see terms and conditions.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP
Already a subscriber? Provide your email again so we can register this ebook and send you more of what you like to read. You will continue to receive exclusive offers in your inbox.
MARGARET K. McELDERRY BOOKS
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Compilation copyright © 2019 by Cassandra Clare, LLC
“Cast Long Shadows,” “Every Exquisite Thing,” “Learn About Loss,” “A Deeper Love,” “The Wicked Ones,” “Son of the Dawn,” “The Land I Lost,” and “Through Blood, Through Fire” were previously published in other media.
Jacket photo-illustration copyright © 2019 by Cliff Nielsen
Interior illustrations by Davood Diba
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
MARGARET K. McELDERRY BOOKS is a trademark of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or business@simonandschuster.com.
The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event, contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.
Interior design by Mike Rosamilia and Nick Sciacca
Jacket design by Russell Gordon and Nick Sciacca
The text for this book was set in Dolly.
The illustrations for this book were rendered digitally.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Clare, Cassandra, author. | Brennan, Sarah Rees, author. | Johnson,
Maureen, 1973– author. | Link, Kelly, author. | Wasserman, Robin, author.
Title: Ghosts of the shadow market / Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan,
Maureen Johnson, Kelly Link, Robin Wasserman.
Description: First edition. | New York : Margaret K. McElderry Books, [2019] | Summary: A collection of ten short stories, some of which were previously available online, that follow Jem Carstairs as he travels through the many Shadow Markets around the world, searching for a relic from his past.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019003456 (print) | LCCN 2019005894 (eBook) |
ISBN 9781534433625 (hardback) | ISBN 9781534433649 (eBook) |
Subjects: | CYAC: Supernatural—Fiction. | Magic—Fiction. | Demonology—Fiction. |
Vampires—Fiction. | Fantasy.
Classification: LCC PZ7.C5265 (eBook) | LCC PZ7.C5265 Gh 2019 (print) | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019003456