Also by Cassandra Clare

he said. “It’s just, I always thought when he got back—when Mark got back—he’d help. That he’d
take over, take care of everything. I never thought he’d be something else I had to deal with.”
Emma was carried back in that moment to all the weeks, the months, after Mark had first been taken
and Helen sent away, when Julian had woken up screaming for the older brother and sister who
weren’t there, who would never be there again. She remembered the panic that sent him stumbling to
the bathroom to throw up, the nights she’d held him on the cold tiled floor while he shook as if he had
a fever.
I can’t, he’d said. I can’t do this alone. I can’t bring them up. I can’t raise four children.
Emma felt the anger uncurl in her stomach again, but this time it was directed at Mark.
“Jules?” Tavvy asked, sounding nervous, and Julian passed a hand over his face. It was a nervous
habit, as if he were wiping an easel free of paint; when he dropped his hand, the fear and emotion had
gone from his eyes.
“I’m here,” he said, and went over to pick up Tavvy. Tavvy put his head down on Jules’s shoulder,
looking sleepy, and getting paint all over Jules’s T-shirt. But Jules didn’t seem to care. He put his chin
down in his younger brother’s curls and smiled at Emma.
“Forget it,” he said. “I’m going to take this one off to bed. You should probably get some sleep
too.”
But Emma’s veins were buzzing with a sharp elixir of anger and protectiveness. No one hurt Julian.
No one. Not even his much-missed, much-loved brother.
“I will,” she said. “I’ve got something to do first.”
Julian looked alarmed. “Emma, don’t try to—”
But she was already gone.
Emma stood in front of Mark’s door, her hands on her hips. “Mark!” She rapped with her knuckles for
the fifth time. “Mark Blackthorn, I know you’re in there. Open the door.”
Silence. Emma’s curiosity and anger warred with her respect for Mark’s privacy, and won.
Opening runes didn’t work on doors inside their Institute, so she drew a thin knife from her belt and
slid it into the gap between the door and the doorjamb. The latch popped, and the door swung wide.
Emma stuck her head in. The lights were on, curtains drawn against the darkness outside. The
bedcovers were rumpled, the bed empty.
In fact, the whole room was empty. Mark wasn’t there.
Emma pulled the door shut and turned around with an exasperated sigh—and almost screamed. Dru
was standing behind her with wide, dark eyes. She was clutching a book to her chest.
“Dru! You know, usually when people sneak up on me from behind, I stab them.” Emma exhaled
shakily.
Dru looked glum. “You’re looking for Mark.”
Emma saw no point in denying it. “True.”
“He’s not in there,” Dru said.
“Also true. This is a big night for stating the obvious, huh?” Emma smiled at Dru, feeling a pang.
The twins were so close, and Tavvy so young and dependent on Jules, it was hard, she thought, for
Dru to find the place she fit. “He’ll be okay, you know.”
“He’s on the roof,” Dru said.
Emma raised an eyebrow. “What makes you say that?”
“He always used to go up there when he was upset,” said Dru. She glanced toward the window at
the far end of the hall. “And up there, he’d be under the sky. He could see the Hunt if they rode by.”