Chapter 24
The two thrones in the Seelie Court had been removed, replaced with an enormous monstrosity the colour of blood. Suffering human faces were carved into the wood of the Faerie Queen's throne, with writhing bodies heaped upon each other. The Queen herself merrily sat down. Fey from both Courts bowed in fear and reverence for the newly arisen monarch. Even the Seelie Queen and Unseelie King bowed their heads. Lady Midnight and the Prince of Shadows stood at her shoulders, faces impassive.
"My people!" the Queen cried. "No longer will we be leashed by the Nephilim filth! Their Institutes will crumble under our feet, their blood will water the streets of their precious Glass City! Only then we will be free!"
Many cheered. They were tired. Oh so tired of the Nephilim dictating how they could live. What right did they have? Because some angel happened to give them some blood in a cup? The faeries themselves carried the blood of heaven in their veins.
"Now," Mab said with a blood red smile. "Let us have our justice."
….
The Shadowhunters argued and argued in the Glass City. Little did they know that Midnight appeared at the foot of the Los Angeles Institute. She pushed the door open, the door creaking loudly through the empty halls. She withdrew a stele and began to write on the walls.
The Prince of Shadows willed his shadows to take him to the London Institute. He too entered, writing runes on the walls. The two of them left their respective Institutes and crossed their steles through the seething black rune inked on their palms.
They watched as the Institutes burst into blue-green flames. The Shadow Prince smiled. They were just getting started.
…..
Emma shook her head. This was ridiculous. Ailia's warning was clear. War would come for them, whether they liked it or not. So they had to be ready.
Since the gathering of the Clave, no decision had been reached. Most of their meetings had been unproductive, to put it mildly. It mostly composed of Shadowhunters screaming in each other's faces until they were purple.
More Cold Peace favouring Nephilim wanted to wipe out all of the faeries. Some agreed that they needed to track down at risk mundanes of lost Shadowhunter lines, to prevent the fey from amassing more power. Some didn't want to fight at all, and reach some kind of new agreement with the Courts, to renegotiate the Cold Peace.
Only now, that their lives were jeopardy, they considered renegotiating the Cold Peace.
So while the talks were still going on, the Blackthorns did their research, with the help of Jem and Tessa. They managed to find some of the old Shadowhunter lines, ones where they had decided to live as normal mortals or others that had been stripped of their marks and made mundane. It didn't matter if they were Nephilim or not. What mattered was that they were descendants of ones.
While the Blackthorns found old family names, Jem tried to track their descendants. It was quite a feat, as some hadn't been active Shadowhunters since Ailia's time.
Jem had just managed to find one descendant when Clary raced into the house. Green eyes bright, she gave them the news.
"The Institutes. They're under attack."