“I think she was probably delirious,” said Thomas. “And there’s something else a bit odd. When I reached her, she was clutching her stele. I put it in my pocket without thinking.” He reached into his trouser pocket and extracted something that gleamed in the candlelight. “At least, I thought it was her stele. But it isn’t, is it?”

He handed it to James, who turned it over curiously between his fingers. It was a hard square of whitish-silver material, carved all over with runes. “It’s certainly adamas,” said James. “But you’re right, it’s not a stele. It’s a sort of box, I think.”

“And I don’t recognize the runes,” said Matthew. “Are those, you know, ours? Good runes, I mean.”

“Ah, yes,” said James. “Long ago, the Angel gave unto the Shadowhunters the Book of Good Runes.”

Thomas choked out a laugh. “Glad to know my horrid imprisonment hasn’t depressed you all too badly.”

“We know it’s horrid, Tom,” James said. “But it’s temporary. No one’s going to believe you really did this, and if it comes to that, the Mortal Sword will prove it.”

“But if they try me by the Mortal Sword, they might learn about everything we’ve been doing,” Thomas said. “They might learn about your connection with Belial. I’d end up betraying you all, especially you, Jamie.”

James, already kneeling, laid his head on Thomas’s knee for a moment. He could hear Christopher and Thomas breathing, sense their worry; he felt Thomas’s hand rough against his hair—Thomas was trying to comfort him, James realized, though Thomas was the one in trouble. These are my brothers, he thought, all around me; I would do anything for them.

“Tell them what you need to tell them,” he said, raising his head. “I’d never be angry at you for such a thing, Thomas, and I’ll manage—we all will—”

Voices rose outside suddenly, Eugenia saying very loudly, “WELL, HELLO, INQUISITOR BRIDGESTOCK. MADAME CONSUL. LOVELY TO SEE YOU.”

“They’re here.” James stood up, slipping the adamas box into his pocket. Matthew glanced up as Charlotte entered the room with Inquisitor Bridgestock and Gideon Lightwood. The two men were arguing furiously.

“This is a travesty,” Gideon snapped. “You must release Thomas at once. You’ve got no real evidence against him—”

“What is this?” Bridgestock bellowed when he saw the Merry Thieves. “How did you lot get in here?”

“I live here,” said James dryly. “I have all the keys.”

“Actually, you live on Curzon Street—all right, never mind,” said Christopher. “It was a jolly good answer.”