One man shouted, “Where’s our leader?”

“You call that a leader?” Alec shouted back. He looked at the woman in his arms, then held her out so the Shadowhunters of the Buenos Aires Institute could see. “He helped a warlock do this. He crushed a child’s body against a wall. Is that what you want to lead you? Is that what you want to be?”

Several Shadowhunters turned to him in total puzzlement. Lily quickly shouted out a translation.

Joaquín stepped forward.

Lily said quietly, “He told them to stand down.”

The man who’d shouted for his leader hit Joaquín across the mouth. Another Shadowhunter shouted in startled fury and produced a whip, defending Joaquín.

Alec ran his eyes over the crowd. Some of the Shadowhunters looked uncertain, but Shadowhunters were soldiers. Too many of them were intent on following whatever orders they had been given, fighting Joaquín and Alec and whoever else stood in their way, to get to an unworthy leader. They were blocking Jem and Tessa’s way. They were keeping Rafe from help.

The doors of the burning house burst open. The Queen of the Shadow Market stood outlined against the smoke.

“Get to Alec!” Juliette shouted, and a dozen Downworlders sprang.

Juliette cleared a path. Jem and Tessa slipped out the door. Rafe was out of this place of filth and smoke. Alec fought toward Juliette.

“Mon Dieu,” she breathed when she saw the woman in Alec’s arms.

She made a gesture, and a warlock jumped to take the unconscious werewolf out into the night.

“There are more women down there,” Alec said. “I’ll get them. Some of the Shadowhunters are on our side.”

Juliette nodded. “Which ones?”

Alec turned to see Joaquín, fighting two Shadowhunters at once. The man with the whip who’d come to help him was down.

“That one,” said Alec. “And whoever else he tells you.”

Juliette set her jaw and began to transform to her wolf shape, striding across the green-quartz floor to Joaquín’s side. She tapped one of the men fighting him on the shoulder. When he turned, she ripped out his throat with one clawed hand.

“Maybe take them alive!” said Alec. “Not that guy, obviously.”

Joaquín was staring at Juliette with eyes gone enormous. Alec remembered that Joaquín had heard tales of horror about the Queen of the Shadow Market. Juliette, with blood on her hands and firelight in her snarled hair, might not be doing a lot to dispel that image.

“Don’t hurt her!” Alec cried. “She’s with us.”

“Oh good,” said Joaquín.

Juliette squinted at him suspiciously through the smoke. “You’re not evil?”

“Trying not to be,” said Joaquín.

“Bien,” said Juliette. “Show me who to kill. I mean … take alive if possible.”

Alec left them to it. He spun around and raced back down the stairs, Lily at his heels. The smoke was thick in the passage below by now. Alec saw there were Shadowhunters there already, getting Clive Breakspear and his warlock confederate out. Alec’s lip curled. “If your loyalty is to the Clave, put a watch on them. They’re going to stand trial.”