Unless you counted the starring role he played in her daydreams, Céline hadn’t seen Stephen since he’d graduated from the Academy four years before. Back then, he’d barely noticed her. He was too busy with his training, his girlfriend, and his friends in the Circle to give much thought to the slip of a girl whose eyes tracked his every move. But now, Céline thought, her cheeks burning again, they were practically equals. Yes, she was seventeen, still a student, while he was twenty-two, not just a full-fledged adult but Valentine Morgenstern’s most trusted lieutenant in the Circle—the elite group of young Shadowhunters sworn to reform the Clave and return it to its pure and ancient glory. But Céline was finally a member of the Circle too, handpicked by Valentine himself.

Valentine had been a student at the Academy alongside Stephen and the other founding members of the Circle—but unlike the rest of them, he’d never seemed quite young. Most of the students and teachers at the Academy had thought of Valentine’s crowd as nothing but a harmless clique, odd only in that it preferred late-night policy debates to partying. Even then, Céline understood that this was exactly how Valentine wanted to appear: harmless. Those who paid attention knew better. He was a fierce warrior, with an even fiercer mind—once he fixed his inky black gaze on a goal, nothing would stop him from achieving it. He’d composed his Circle of young Shadowhunters he knew to be as capable as they were loyal. Only the best of them, he’d told her that day he’d approached her at a particularly boring lecture on Downworlder history. “Every member of the Circle is exceptional,” he’d said. “Including, if you accept my offer, you.” No one had ever called her exceptional before.

Ever since then, she’d felt different. Strong. Special. And it must have been true, because even though she still had one more year at the Academy, here she was, spending her summer vacation on an official mission with Stephen Herondale. Stephen was one of the greatest fighters of his generation, and now—owing to Lucian Graymark’s unfortunate werewolf situation—Valentine’s most trusted deputy. But Céline was the one who knew Paris, its streets and its secrets. It was the perfect moment to show Stephen that she’d changed, that she was exceptional. That he couldn’t do this without her.

Those had, in fact, been his exact words. I couldn’t do this without you, Céline.