Also by Cassandra Clare

the children. And it can’t be me. I have to go.”
“Go where?” Emma demanded.
But Diana only shook her head, unforthcoming. It was a familiar wall. Emma had crashed against it
more than once. “It’s important,” was all Diana said. “You’ll have to trust me.”
Julian said nothing. Emma suspected Diana’s aloofness bothered him as much, if not more, than it
bothered her, but he never showed it.
“But this changes things,” Emma said, and she fought down the emotion in her voice, the spark of
relief, even triumph, that she knew she shouldn’t feel. “Because of Mark. Because of Mark, you’re
willing to let us try to find out who did this.”
“Yes.” For the first time since she’d come into the hallway, Diana looked directly at Emma. “You
must be pleased,” she said. “You got exactly what you wanted. We’ve got no choice now. We’ll have
to investigate these killings, and we’ll have to do it without the knowledge of the Clave.”
“I didn’t make this happen,” Emma protested.
“No situation in which you have no choice is a good one, Emma,” Diana said. “Which you will
eventually learn. I only hope it isn’t too late. You might think this is a good thing that’s happened, but I
can assure you it isn’t.” She turned away from Emma, fixing her attention on Julian. “As you well
know, Julian, this is an illegal investigation. The Cold Peace forbids cooperation with the Fair Folk,
and certainly forbids what amounts to working for them, no matter the inducement. It’s to our
advantage to figure this out as quickly and cleanly as we can, so the Clave has as little opportunity as
possible to find out what we’re doing.”
“And when it’s done?” Julian said. “And Mark’s back? How do we explain that?”
Something in Diana’s eyes shifted. “We’ll worry about that when it happens.”
“So we’re racing the Clave and the Courts,” said Julian. “Fantastic. Maybe there’s someone else
we can piss off. The Spiral Labyrinth? The Scholomance? Interpol?”
“No one’s pissed off yet,” said Diana. “Let’s just keep it that way.” She handed the papers to
Emma. “Just to be clear: We can’t cooperate with the Fair Folk and we can’t harbor Mark without
reporting it, except obviously we’re going to, so the upshot is that no one outside the building can
know. And I refuse to lie to the Clave directly, so hopefully we can get this done with before they
start asking questions.” She looked at them each in turn, her expression serious. “We have to work
together. Emma, no more fighting me. Cristina, if you want to be reassigned to another Institute, we’ll
understand. We’d just ask you to keep this to yourself.”
Emma gasped. “No!”
Cristina was already shaking her head. “I don’t need a new assignment,” she said. “I will keep
your secret. I will make it my secret too.”
“Good,” Diana said. “Speaking of keeping things secret, don’t tell Malcolm how we got our hands
on these papers. Don’t mention Mark, don’t mention the faerie delegation. If he says anything, he’ll
have me to deal with.”
“Malcolm’s our friend,” said Julian. “We can trust him.”
“I’m trying to make sure he doesn’t get in trouble if anyone finds out,” she said. “He needs to be
able to deny it.” She zipped up her jacket. “Okay, I’ll be back tomorrow. Good luck.”
“Threatening the High Warlock,” Julian muttered as Diana disappeared down the hall. “Better and
better. Maybe we should head down to vampire clan headquarters and punch Anselm Nightshade in
the face?”
“But think of the consequences,” Emma said. “No more pizza.”
Julian gave her a wry sideways-looking smile.