The Lost Book of the White (The Eldest Curses #2) - Cassandra Clare Page 0,118
know about Downworld.” Magnus knew that coming from Ragnor, this was effusive praise. “Pity about the Shadowhunter influence, though.”
“Hey,” said Magnus. “I was taught by the Silent Brothers, you know.”
“Yes, and look how that turned out,” said Ragnor.
Magnus was silent for a time and they walked. Even here in Hell, there was something companionable about walking alongside Ragnor, as he had done so many times before. Even with the thorn burning in his chest, even with no clear way back home.
“I’m going to marry Alec, you know,” he said after a while.
Ragnor raised his eyebrows. “When?”
“I don’t know. Not yet. The Shadowhunters wouldn’t acknowledge it, but we’re hoping that will change.”
“How would it change?” said Ragnor in a dismissive tone.
“Because we’ll change it,” said Magnus.
Ragnor shook his head. He looked weary. Magnus suspected that at some point, the full horror of what he had done would strike Ragnor. Right now he seemed insulated by shock. “Where you got your hopefulness, I have no idea. I certainly didn’t teach that to you.”
“When we can get married and have it recognized, then we’ll do it,” said Magnus. “Only then. When it’s legal for me to marry Alec. For Tian to marry Jinfeng.”
“For Shinyun to marry Sammael,” Ragnor said dryly, and Magnus choked a laugh, until they turned the next corner and the laugh was cut off.
Ahead of them stood St. Ignatius. It was blowing away.
Here, the hot wind they’d felt before was stronger. It danced around their heads, and, whipped into a frenzy, tore pieces of the cathedral loose and hurled them up into the empty sky. Huge chunks of marble and brick tore free, making a racket of grinding, crashing, and scraping noises. One of the two spires was gone, disappeared into the whirlwind. But what really worried Magnus was the roof.
The roof was missing—no, not missing. The roof was now in pieces, free-floating, huge boulders of tile and stone, as though some great creature had come and torn the church open, like a child unwrapping a present. The chunks of roof hung in the wind, suspended and drifting. It was hard to tell for sure, but if Magnus squinted, he thought he could see a human figure flying around the rocks, swooping and climbing.
Ragnor called, “Alec!” and Magnus looked back at the ground, where Alec, his Alec, was running full tilt toward them, soot on his face. He was yelling something, but Magnus couldn’t make it out.
Only as he got closer could he be understood. “The swords!” he was yelling. “We need the swords!”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Avici
ALEC DIDN’T KNOW WHAT HAD become of his friends. He had been awoken by a tremendous sound, like an earthquake, and by the time he had made it up the stairs, the roof had been torn off the cathedral. Above him, against the inky black curtain of Diyu’s sky, two figures cavorted. One of them was Shinyun, who in addition to her elongated limbs had now sprouted a pair of broad insectile wings, iridescent and veined, like a dragonfly’s. She looped around the floating pieces of the cathedral’s roof, clearly enjoying herself.
The other figure was Sammael. He was hard to miss, as he was now easily three times the size he’d been on the iron bridge, floating above Shinyun and looking perfectly at home suspended in the air. He peered into the cathedral from above, occasionally pushing away rocks that drifted into his vision.
Alec had thought it would be unwise to run across the entire length of the cathedral, directly in view of Sammael, to reach his friends. He had to hope that they were seeking some kind of safety. But where was Magnus? He had departed voluntarily: his clothes and shoes were gone. But why had he taken Alec’s sword as well as his own?
The wind, though it was not too strong for him to resist, seemed to be harming the church, which was beginning to come apart in pieces. Alec had known he had to get out of the building, skirting around to avoid being seen until he’d found a low enough opening in the rapidly decaying walls. He hurled himself through it in a forward roll, curled up to protect his head. He’d felt the hot, corrosive wind on him, and then he was clear.
The Alliance rune had burned on his arm, and he had felt Magnus’s presence, not far away. He could see Magnus’s glow in his mind, even through the dark and the wind. He ran toward that glow.