“A message,” Tatiana said at last. “From Annabel Blackthorn. Grace, she’s been dead for nearly a century.” She smiled; there was real delight in her eyes. “The Blackthorns killed her. Her own family. The story that she had become an Iron Sister was only a lie to beguile Malcolm. They didn’t care what he did—a warlock can always be useful. But Annabel was their daughter. They were an old Nephilim family. They ran the Cornwall Institute. She had shamed them, so she had to die.” She looked gleeful. “I told you the Nephilim were savages.”

Grace’s stomach dropped. “Are you sure?”

“The proof is in the crystal,” said Tatiana. “Watch it, if you like; you know where it is. I never showed you all of it before, but since you’ve managed to stir up this trouble, you might as well know everything.”

“But we need Malcolm’s help, Mama. He can show us how to raise Jesse—”

“Well, you should have thought ahead, then, shouldn’t you,” said Tatiana dryly. “All these years the truth has been concealed from Fade, by the Clave, by other warlocks—who knows what the Spiral Labyrinth could have told him, if they’d wished? He won’t thank you for being the one who tells him. I can promise you that.”

Why don’t you care more? Grace thought. Don’t you want Jesse back?

But all she said was, “I’m sorry, Mama.”

A slow smile spread across Tatiana’s face. “Now, now. I had begun to worry that you had given up on your brother. On your family. That you had forgotten us in your rush to become the Consul’s daughter-in-law.”

“I could never forget you,” said Grace. It was the truth. “Mama—where is the crystal?”

Tatiana’s eyes gleamed. “I can tell you exactly where to find it,” she said. “In exchange, I ask only that you pay a visit to James Herondale at his new house on Curzon Street. I am ever so curious about his life with his new bride. Satisfy an old woman’s curiosity, won’t you, my dear?”

When James finally returned to Curzon Street, it was nearing sunset: the sky was sapphire shot through with amber. He found Effie waiting for him, looking put out: she told him that the Merry Thieves had all been in the drawing room for hours, demanding innumerable cups of tea. At last the Consul had arrived, bearing flowers and condolences, and demanded that the boys return home, as curfew was coming. Matthew (for whom Effie seemed to have a slight fancy) had left a note, which was waiting for James in his room. Risa had gone to Kensington with a packed valise, and also without explaining herself, which Effie thought was very rude, and she didn’t mind saying so.