The Lost Book of the White (The Eldest Curses #2) - Cassandra Clare Page 0,13

he asked.

Isabelle raised her eyebrows. “First—does that happen with Max a lot?”

Magnus shrugged. “Not a lot. Warlock babies do some magic sometimes. By accident.”

“It’s not so bad,” Alec said. “You just keep more extra clothes around, and you keep a fire extinguisher close by.”

Jace hopped up to sit on the window ledge, somehow managing not to spill any of his coffee. “I thought you were changing.”

“I did change,” Magnus said, puzzled.

“You’re still wearing a robe,” Jace said.

“I was wearing a yukata,” said Magnus. “Now I’m wearing a dressing gown.”

“Well, they both look like robes,” said Jace.

“Let’s talk about last night,” Magnus said. “What did Alec tell you?”

“Can we see the glowing fissure in your chest?” Simon asked.

“Simon, it’s rude to bring up glowing fissures in other people’s chests,” said Clary. “What do you think they want with the Book of the White, Magnus?”

Magnus turned to look at Alec. “So, you told them everything? Did you say the S-word? The R-word?”

Alec rolled his eyes. “If you’re asking if I told them about Shinyun and Ragnor, I did.”

“So you knew Ragnor wasn’t dead, that day I came to his house in Idris?” Clary said. “When I was with—with Sebastian? You lied to us?”

“I had to,” said Magnus. “I couldn’t risk anyone tracking Ragnor down and hurting him.” He looked at the ceiling. “But then he dropped out of contact and I thought he was dead anyway.”

“How do you feel now?” said Clary. She looked concerned, more so than Magnus would have expected.

“I feel fine,” he said, and realized he was telling the truth. He felt good, even, as if he’d had a full night’s sleep and a proper breakfast instead of barely any sleep and Jace’s too-strong black coffee. “That’s not me putting on a brave face,” he felt obligated to add. “I really do feel good. I’m not happy to have a magical glowing chest wound, but it doesn’t seem to be doing me any harm. Other than the aesthetics, of course.”

Simon looked up from where he had gotten down on the floor with Max. “It’s kind of working for you, actually. Adds to your overall mystique.”

“What Alec told us,” said Isabelle, “is that Ragnor Fell is alive, he’s working with that warlock you dealt with in Europe a few years ago, and they took the Book of the White to do something that will be good for whatever Greater Demon they’re working with.”

“And therefore bad for us,” put in Simon.

“Bad for the earth,” said Magnus.

“That’s bad for us,” Simon confirmed. “We live here.”

“Did you tell them which demon it is?” Magnus demanded of Alec. To the others he went on, “What does the name Sammael mean to you?”

There was a silence. “Oh,” said Jace. “That’s why you called,” he added to Alec, who nodded.

“He’s a Prince of Hell, right?” said Clary.

“A long-dead Prince of Hell,” said Jace. “He was the consort of Lilith. Pity they missed each other by a few years.” Lilith’s power was much diminished since the Dark War, shattered by the Mark of Cain while Simon bore it. Little had been seen of her since.

“He’s more than that,” said Simon quietly. He was looking at the floor, very unlike himself, and Magnus figured he was recalling his ordeal with Lilith. “Remember, I only got out of the Academy a few months ago. I’ve studied this stuff more recently than any of you.” He rose to his feet and leaned against the wall, as if he needed bracing for what he was about to say. “Sammael is the oldest of the Princes of Hell, other than Lucifer himself. He is supposed to have been the Serpent in the Garden of Eden. He’s known as the Father of Demons, just like Lilith is called the Mother.”

“Everyone’s got father issues,” said Jace. “Even demons.”

Simon ignored him. “Shadowhunter history teaches that for thousands of years before the Shadowhunters, demons would make their way to our world, but only occasionally, and in tiny numbers. Sammael changed that. He did something—we don’t know what—that weakened the barriers between our world and the demon worlds. Sammael opened the path for demons to invade Earth. And when he came himself, devastation followed him.

“He couldn’t be defeated by any human being, no matter how powerful. So the story says the angels themselves intervened, and the Archangel Michael came down and defeated Sammael—”

Jace was nodding and picked up the narrative. “And Raziel came down and created us. But nobody could undo what Sammael had done, so the