The doors were already standing invitingly open. As they came closer Jem could see Tessa, in a gown the same gray as her eyes, gray as the river under the bridge where she had met him year after year after year. She was laughing.

“I couldn’t get Mina to sleep,” she called. “She thinks you might go on an adventure without her.”

Kit said, “Not today.”

He went in ahead of Jem, and Mina wriggled in her mother’s arms, eagerly reaching out toward them.

Jem smiled at the sight of his daughter, and paused long enough to think, Will, my Will. You would be so proud.

Jem went inside to his wife and his baby and his boy, to his long-awaited home. Above the low slate roof, sunset had dyed the clouds a color darker than gold. This evening the whole sky was bronze, as though to summon wicked powers.

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Cathrin Langner for fact checking, Gavin J. Grant and Emily Houk for keeping us organized, and Holly Black and Steve Berman for their cheerleading and support. Thank you also to Melissa Scott for her assistance with “Every Exquisite Thing,” and to Cindy and Margaret Pon for their translation help. Our everlasting love and thanks to our friends and families.

About the Authors

CASSANDRA CLARE was born to American parents in Tehran, Iran, and spent much of her childhood traveling the world with her family. She lived in France, England, and Switzerland before she was ten years old. Since her family moved around so much, she found familiarity in books and went everywhere with a book under her arm. She spent her high school years in Los Angeles, where she used to write stories to amuse her classmates, including an epic novel called The Beautiful Cassandra based on the eponymous Jane Austen short story (and from which she later took her current pen name).

After college, Cassie lived in Los Angeles and New York, where she worked at various entertainment magazines and even some rather suspect tabloids. She started working on her YA novel City of Bones in 2004, inspired by the urban landscape of Manhattan, her favorite city.

In 2007, the first book in the Mortal Instruments series, City of Bones, introduced the world to Shadowhunters. The Mortal Instruments concluded in 2014 and includes City of Ashes, City of Glass, City of Fallen Angels, City of Lost Souls, and City of Heavenly Fire. She also created a prequel series, inspired by A Tale of Two Cities and set in Victorian London. This series, the Infernal Devices, follows bookworm Tessa Gray as she discovers the London Institute in Clockwork Angel, Clockwork Prince, and Clockwork Princess.

The sequel series to the Mortal Instruments, the Dark Artifices, where the Shadowhunters take on Los Angeles, began with Lady Midnight, continues with Lord of Shadows, and concludes with Queen of Air and Darkness.