The Lost Book of the White (The Eldest Curses #2) - Cassandra Clare Page 0,68

spiders, sensing her to be vulnerable, leaped. Isabelle spun and kicked one out of the air, but doing so unbalanced her, and she went tumbling back into the tent, which collapsed around her and the spiders.

Magnus cried out and ran toward her, but he needn’t have worried. The body of one of the spider demons suddenly emerged from the mess, impaled like a kebab on the end of a steel strut, part of the structure of the collapsed tent. Isabelle appeared, wielding the strut like a quarterstaff, and knocked two more spiders away. Now she held it ahead of her, keeping the spiders at bay, and with her free hand plucked her seraph blade from its sheath and yelled, “Nuriel!”

The seraph blade blazed. Isabelle spun and turned the attack on the spiders, pushing them back, when Alec appeared, slicing away with Black Impermanence. Ichor flew.

Shinyun landed amid the demons and produced a massive fireball, which she hurled at Jace, Clary, and Simon, who were fighting back-to-back. Magnus, without thinking, flung himself between the fireball and his friends, and the blazing orb smashed into him, where it disappeared, seeming to sink into his chest. Clary saw and her eyes widened.

“Why are you doing this?” Magnus yelled at Shinyun. “These are Downworlders! They are your people!”

Shinyun turned her impassive gaze upon him. “Witness,” she called out, “the opening of a new, permanent path to Diyu!” She drew her hand down, trailing pink flame, and more of the spider demons sprang from her fingers. “Zhizhu-jing, my sisters! This is your world now! Prepare the way for your new master!”

“No!” Magnus shouted, and threw himself at the spiders. He thrust his hand at one, and it passed with a splurch into the center of the demon’s guts. He opened his fist within the demon, which exploded. He glanced at Shinyun and was surprised to see her nodding with approval. This only drove Magnus to more fury, and he grabbed another one of the spiders in both hands and, bringing his palms together, smashed it like a melon.

He stood there, his hands shaking, shocked at what he’d done. He didn’t even smash the regular spiders he found in his apartment. Though, truth be told, they deserved it far less than a demon did.

“Magnus!” Alec’s voice sounded far away. “Can you close the Portal?”

“Dealing with spiders,” he muttered to himself. One had rolled next to him, and he brought his foot down, crushing it. Clear for the moment, he looked up at the Portal and reached for its border with his magic, hoping he could pull it closed.

Ragnor suddenly appeared above him, descending fast. It was the first time Magnus had seen him, other than in a dream, since that night in their apartment—was that really only a few days ago?—and Ragnor looked changed even since then. His eyes, normally dark and kind, glowed from within, and his horns had grown longer and more curled. Spikes had begun to sprout from the horns, and when Ragnor raised his hands, Magnus saw that they were bigger than usual, and tipped with black claws.

“No chance,” Ragnor taunted him. “You’ll never close it. Not from this side.”

Magnus ignored him, concentrating on the lines tying the Portal to the world. He gritted his teeth, feeling magic run in torrents from the nodule in his heart out through the chains on his arms, to emerge from his palms.

“It’s not a matter of power,” Ragnor said, and he almost sounded like his old self, lecturing Magnus on matters of magical technique and theory. “This is a different magic. An older magic.

“It’s your fault, you know,” he went on, conversationally. “That we opened the Portal here. We could have picked anywhere, but once our master knew you were in the Market, well, we just couldn’t resist.”

“Me?” said Magnus.

“All of you,” Ragnor said, in a gleeful tone that was chillingly wrong coming from him. “The Shadowhunters especially. The Serpent has a particular fondness for them. He wants all of Downworld to know that the Nephilim can’t possibly protect them.”

“They seem to be doing a decent job of it,” said Magnus. “Ragnor—what’s happened to you? Why have you signed on with… not just a demon, but the worst evil in existence? You went into hiding to avoid Sammael, and now he’s your best friend. You don’t have to do this. You don’t have to do anything. You taught me that.”

For the first time, Ragnor appeared to hesitate. Magnus pressed him. “Leave Sammael. Leave Diyu. Come