Also by Cassandra Clare

Cristina nodded and sat down on the overstuffed love seat beside Drusilla. Dru was nearly as tall
as she was, despite being only thirteen. She was one of those girls whose body had grown up quickly:
She had breasts and hips, was soft and curvy. It had led to some awkward moments with boys who
thought she was seventeen or eighteen years old, and a few incidents where Emma had barely stopped
Julian from murdering a mundane teenager.
Malcolm settled himself in a patched armchair. “Well, if we’re waiting,” he said, and began typing
on his phone.
“What are you doing?” Emma asked.
“Ordering pizza from Nightshade’s,” said Malcolm. “There’s an app.”
“A what?” said Dru.
“Nightshade?” Livvy turned around. “The vampire?”
“He owns a pizza place. The sauce is divine,” Malcolm said, kissing his fingers.
“Aren’t you worried what’s in it?” said Livvy.
“You Nephilim are so paranoid,” said Malcolm, returning to his phone.
Ty cleared his throat, spinning his chair back around to face the room. Everyone had settled
themselves on couches or chairs except Tavvy, who was sitting on the floor under the whiteboard.
“I’ve found some stuff,” he said. “There definitely have been bodies that fit Emma’s description.
Fingerprints sanded off, soaked in seawater, skin burned.” He pulled up the front page of a newspaper
on-screen. “Mundanes think it’s satanic cult activity, because of the chalk markings found around the
bodies.”
“Mundanes think everything is satanic cult activity,” said Malcolm. “Most cults are actually in
service of completely different demons than Lucifer. He’s quite famous and very hard to reach. Rarely
does favors for anyone. Really an unrewarding demon to worship.”
Emma and Julian exchanged looks of amusement. Ty clicked the computer mouse, and pictures
flashed up on the screen. Faces—different ages, races, genders. All of them slack in death.
“There are only a few murders that match the profile,” said Ty. He seemed pleased to be using the
word “profile.” “There’s been one every month for the past year. Twelve counting the one Emma
found, like she said.”
Emma said, “But nothing before a year ago?”
Ty shook his head.
“So, there was a gap of four years since my parents were killed. Whoever it was—if it was the
same person—stopped and started up again.”
“Is there anything that links all these people?” Julian asked. “Diana said some of the bodies were
fey.”
“Well, this is all mundane news,” said Livvy. “They wouldn’t know, would they? They’d think the
bodies were human, if they were gentry fey. As for anything linking them, none of them have been
identified.”
“That’s weird,” said Dru. “What about blood? In movies they can identify people using blood and
DTR.”
“DNA,” corrected Ty. “Well, according to the newspapers none of the bodies were identified. It
could have been that whatever spells were done on them altered their blood. Or they could have
decayed fast, like Emma’s parents did. That would have limited what the coroners could have found
out.”
“There is something else, though,” Livvy said. “The stories all reported where the bodies were
found, and we mapped them. They have one thing in common.”