The Lost Book of the White (The Eldest Curses #2) - Cassandra Clare Page 0,28
decision, yelled, “You’ll never take me alive, narcs!” He ran to the window and threw himself out of it before anyone could stop him.
They watched him plummet toward the ground. Before he hit, huge brown bird’s wings sprang from his back, and he flapped them and flew off into the night.
“How about that,” said Alec mildly into the silence.
Magnus was breathing hard. His hand was gripped tightly on his chest. Just over his wound, Alec noticed. He approached Magnus cautiously.
“Okay,” said Clary, “so what was any of that?”
Magnus went to sit down on the chair, seemed to remember there was no chair, and lowered himself slowly to the floor, exhaling. “I’m not sure.”
“Let’s start with the part that wasn’t snake demons,” said Alec. He folded his arms and looked at Magnus. “What was that? That wasn’t like you. You don’t get angry like that.”
“I often get angry like that,” Magnus retorted, “when encountering lying Downworlders who are collaborating with demons.”
“And we assume he’s collaborating with demons,” said Jace, “due to all of the demons that fell out of the ceiling? And the yelling demon face?”
“Yes,” agreed Magnus. Some of the fight seemed to be draining from him. He looked at Alec. “I’m sorry. I’m just frustrated.”
“No kidding,” said Isabelle. She started ticking things off on her fingers. “Where’s Ragnor? Why did the Tracking rune lead us here instead of where he actually is? How did he know we were Tracking him? Did he send those demons? Did Shinyun Jung? Did someone else they’re working with who we don’t even know about?”
Alec thought. “There were a bunch of the snakes, but there definitely weren’t enough to be a real threat to all of us. Which means this was either a warning—”
“Or,” Jace put in, “they didn’t realize you were bringing four other Shadowhunters with you.”
“So where next?” said Simon. He had his hands tucked under his crossed arms and was looking squirrelly.
They all looked at Magnus, who sighed heavily. “What does the Tracking rune say?”
Alec took the scrap of cloth back out of his pocket and tried the rune again. He shrugged. “It says we’re in the right place.”
Simon said, “We could try the Institute. See what they know about this ‘bad warlock’ stuff the faerie mentioned.”
“No,” said Alec sharply, and Simon jerked back. “Let’s not raise any more alarm bells than we have already. We need to try to control the flow of information to the Clave.”
“We are the Clave,” said Isabelle. “This isn’t like a few years ago, when we were too young to have a voice.”
Jace shook his head. “Alec’s right. We’re a very small part of the Clave, and our approach to Downworlder business is far from universal or even normal, by Nephilim standards. We don’t know what we’re getting into.”
“We do, actually,” said Magnus. He seemed to be recovering; he picked himself up off the floor and carefully wiped dust from his jacket. “The Shanghai Institute is run by the Ke family; it has been for years. They’re good people. They’re the family of Jem Carstairs—of Brother Zachariah. But,” he added, as Jace opened his mouth to respond, “we have nothing for them to do right now, it is getting late, and I am not sleeping on a cot in a spare room in an Institute. I am going to make a call, and then we are going to stay at my favorite hotel in the city.” Alec felt a warm rush of relief; this was more the Magnus he knew. “When you travel with me,” Magnus reminded them, “you travel in style.”
CHAPTER FIVE The Chessboard
MAGNUS ALWAYS STAYED AT THE same hotel in Shanghai, mostly out of nostalgia. He had largely found nostalgia to be a dangerous drug well kept away from—otherwise he would spend too much of his time nostalgic for when Manhattan still had farmland, or for the court of the Sun King, or for the days when Coca-Cola had real drugs in it. He indulged himself in this case because he had slept in the hotel a few times before it was ever a hotel, when it was the private residence of the notorious mob boss Du Yuesheng. It was a lavish Western-style villa in the French Concession, all classical white columns, stone wreaths, and pillared balconies curled around with gold. Du had bought it in the 1930s for, Magnus was sure, the main purpose of throwing the city’s most scandalous parties, and Magnus made it to quite a lot of cities’ most