Iâm sorry, Iâm sorry, Iâm so sorry! I realize the message I just sent you probably didnât make a lick of sense, so after youâve read it, toss it and read this. I was in kind of a hysterical state when I wrote it â Iâve been wanting to tell you all about what was going on with Mina being kidnapped for days, but I couldnât. Then, when I could, it all just kind of poured out. Again, sorry!
It was awful not being able to say anything to you about what was happening. Iâve always hated politics, as you knowâbut however unusual your (and Markâs) position, the Seelie Court would certainly consider you part of Kieranâs retinue, and we were expressly forbidden from contacting either Court about the fact that Mina was kidnapped right out of her bedroom here at Blackthorn Hall. And we obeyed to the letter.
So, it turned out the person whoâd spearheaded the kidnapping was Mother Hawthorn, the nursemaid to the First Heir, who chose to marry a Shadowhunter. Sheâs had a complicated relationship with Shadowhunters, especially Herondales (who DOESNâT have a complicated relationship with Herondales, I ask you) ever since â and now she was demanding to see Kit if we ever wanted to get Mina back.
Nobody wanted Kit to do it, even though everyone was desperately afraid for Mina. But he was determined. There was no stopping him. So arrangements were made through a bunch of faerie go-betweens for Kit to meet Mother Hawthorn. She had demanded a rendezvous near river water, so we went down to the Promenade in Chiswick. Thereâs an itty bitty park there, and a little bandstand. We all â me and Julian, Tessa and Jem and Kit â walked down there, pretty quietly and somberly. Tessa kept stroking Kitâs back, and it was clear she was trying not to cry. Jem looked like he wanted to kill someone. Kit just looked determined. And Jules â well, Iâll get to Jules.
We stayed some distance away while Kit crossed the dry grass toward the bandstand. As he approached, Mother Hawthorn came out of the trees, holding Mina, and started walking toward him.
Jules and I both tensed up, in case either Jem or Tessa made a break for the baby. We wouldnât have blamed them, but we knew they couldnât be allowed to do it â Kit had to be able to try to get Mina without a violent fight. All I can say is, you can kind of see how much theyâve both been through and endured over all the time they've been alive. They clutched each otherâs hands and neither of them moved, even though you could see how desperately they wanted to run to their children. It was an incredible display of control, and heart-breaking too.
Kit and Mother Hawthorn came together in front of the bandstand. Of course we couldnât hear anything of their conversation, but we could see that Mina immediately put her arms out for Kit. Kit tried to reach for her, but Mother Hawthorn held up a hand. She clearly wouldnât give her back, and they started arguing. I could tell how angry Kit was, even though he was trying to hold onto control. He kept shaking his head no over and over, almost every time Mother Hawthorn spoke.
Anyway, after a couple of minutes of that, Mother Hawthorn started to laugh. She looked over â she clearly saw us and didnât care â and snapped her fingers. Kit was flung to the ground; he rolled over and came up on his feet, but by then black vines were whipping up out of the ground, slashing at him, winding around his legs. Mina was screaming so loudly we could hear her.
âThatâs enough,â Jem snarled, and started across the street. But Julian put a hand on his shoulder.
âWait,â he said, and we all stared at him â you know I have utter faith in Julian, but for a moment even I wondered if heâd gone crazy.
And then. Then there was this huge noise. I thought it was a helicopter at first, or maybe a bunch of helicopters, but then I realized no, the sound was stranger than that â it was hooves, beating against the sky. They passed over us andâit was Gwyn and Diana! I mean, it was the whole Wild Hunt, there were a couple dozen of them, some on horses, some on winged creatures Iâd never seen before. But in front was Gwyn, with Diana on another horse behind him, her hair streaming out behind her.
Diana swooped down and grabbed Mina right out of Mother Hawthornâs arms. Gwyn was right behind her, and seized up Mother Hawthorn in one armâthat guy is, uh, pretty strong I guessâand kind of slung her over the back of his horse. It looked pretty dangerous for Mother Hawthorn but you know, not a lot of sympathy for kidnappers here.
Diana swooped (the Wild Hunt does a lot of swooping, as you may recall) over to us, and gently handed Mina off to Jem and Tessa. Then Diana winked at us and rose back into the sky, and she and Gwyn and the whole rest of the Hunt ascended faster than I would have thought possible. I guess they had to get Mother Hawthorn away from us, which made sense. Anyway, they disappeared into the clouds and were gone.
I have to say, Dianaâs wink was pretty badass. It made me miss doing badass stuff, a little. I think Iâll take Cortana out back tonight and seriously behead some weeds.
So anyway. Kit was running back toward us, and Tessa was crying in relief and Jem was staring at where the Wild Hunt had disappeared. Mina, of course, was fine. She kept saying, âHorsies!â which was hilarious, and then Kit got there and started fussing over her, and Julian and I stepped away to give the four of them space for their reunion.
Julian had one of those Looks on his face, and I had a hunch. âThat was you, right?â I said. âYou contacted the Wild Hunt.â
He shrugged. âMother Hawthorn said not to contact the Seelie and Unseelie Courts, but the Wild Hunt is neither. They donât swear allegiance to anybody.â
âNeither does Mother Hawthorn,â I said. âSo it was like, âWild fey, come get your wild friend, she is getting too wild?ââ
âSomething like that,â he said, and his voice was casual but I could tell he was pleased with himself. And all right, fine, I was pleased with him too, and I told him so.
On the way back to the house we asked Kit what it was Mother Hawthorn even wanted. He said she wanted to tell him he was the descendent of the first you-know-who (I know Kieran has told you something about Kitâs faerie heritage, but not all of it, and most people don't know) and that she had come to take him to live in Faerie where he belongs. He said he tried to make it clear that he didnât want to live in Faerie, that he was satisfied with the life he had (although he kind of looked over at Jem and Tessa while he said it and I think satisfied is maybe less embarrassing to say than how he actually feels, which is much better than that). She just kept telling him it was his destiny and his duty, his fate would come for him soon enough if he didnât bend to it, blah blah faerie stuff, you know how they are. (Uh, no offense if youâre reading this too, Kieran.)
I donât think he was telling the whole truth, though, because Mother Hawthorn went to a lot of trouble just to send a message like that. I mean she could have put that on a postcard. It wasnât anything Kit didnât already know, basically. I am sure there was more she said that Kit didnât want to share â I could tell from his expression. I hope heâll tell Jem and Tessa, when heâs ready. At least we can be pretty sure Gwyn will make sure Mother Hawthorn stays away from him â itâs one less thing to worry about.
Thatâs about all the news from here, and Iâm so relieved to be able to share it with you finally. I guess if Kieran needs more information he should reach out to Gwyn; Iâve told you pretty much all I know.
Take care, and talk to you soon, and love to K and M!
Iâm sure youâve been worried about Mina, like all of us. Well, hereâs the bad news: she isnât back.
There isnât any good news.
Let me start over. Everyone sprang into action once we found the creepy doll and the note, and we started searching the house and the grounds. Although of course nobody really thought she was still here. Maybe thereâd be some sign of the faerie (or faeries) that grabbed her, we thought, but of course there was nothing that we Shadowhunters would recognize. Julian sent a fire-message to Ty to ask if the Sensor could be modified again to search for faeries instead of ghosts, and Ty had some ideas, but that just meant the Sensor started going off continuously. Which I guess makes sense given that this whole house is now jammed full of faerie craftwork. Since we donât think the carved window lintels took MinaâŚnot a help.
Tessa messaged the London Institute, who put the Enclave on high alert and sent a few Shadowhunters to the house to help, which largely has consisted of making tea and also Concerned British Noises (âoh dear, oh dear dear dear,â âI never,â and so on). Jem went to the Shadow Market to make inquiries (which Iâm told are called enquiries here), but he came back a few hours later with nothing. He said it wasnât even like the faeries there were refusing to talkâthey seemed as honestly baffled as Round Tom or any of us. I guess most of the Shadow Market faeries stay as far as possible away from Court business, and everyone agreed that kidnapping a Shadowhunter must be a Court thing because random faeries wouldnât be so stupid as to violate the Accords so brazenly.
Oh, thatâs the other thing. Tessa contacting the London Enclave was an absolute last ditch move because now they know about this huge Accords violation and nobody wants war with Faerie. (Except maybe the kidnapper?) On the other hand I canât imagine Alec Lightwood of all people is about to declare war before we learn more. But still, it ratchets up all the tensions, which isnât great.
If I ever meet Raziel, Iâm going to ask himâwell, okay, I guess if I ever meet Raziel I assume I will be obliterated into atoms by heavenly fire, but if I can get a question out first, itâll be why we canât Track children. I understand that itâs because they donât have runes yet, but arenât they the ones weâre most likely to need to Track? It seems like a design flaw in the whole system. I should talk to Clary about this, maybe she can create some kind of Baby-Finding Rune in the future. Not that that helps us now.
The big question, aside from where Mina is and who took her, is why anybody would want to? It doesnât make any sense. Julian wondered if someone might have a vendetta against Jem or Tessa, but they couldnât think of anyone. Round Tom suggested someone might be trying to frame Faerie for the kidnapping, but again, why? Either way, we havenât contacted Kieran or Adaon yet since we were warned against doing so.
Bruce, I just feel awful. Tessa and Jem only came in the first place to help us with the curse, and now this. It makes me feel sickâmaybe thereâs something more deeply wrong with Blackthorn Hall than even a broken curse can fix. Or maybe Iâm just feeling morbid and worried. Probably that.
Julian calling, back in a sec.
#
Back, and with news. The kidnapper sent a note! I mean, another note. And identified herself!
Your child will be returned to you if, and only if, I am granted a private audience with the one you call Christopher Herondale.
First of all, âthe one you callââI mean, come on. What does she call Kit, The Amazing Whizzo? Second, it was signed âMother Hawthorn,â which didnât mean anything to me or Julian, but Jem and Tessa gave each other a Look, and Kit looked miserable. It turns out she was the nursemaid for the First Heir. I mean the First First Heir, long ago â she isnât officially aligned with the Seelie or Unseelie Courts, as far as anyone knows, but that doesnât mean she isnât going to use all this as leverage with them.
  So this is about Kit, and faerie politics, and itâs a mess, and I feel terrible for Kit, who is as pale and tense as Iâve ever seen him. (And I donât need to remind you, Bruce, that Iâve seen Kit pretty darn pale and tense.)
Kit of course immediately said yes, heâd meet with her, anything to get Mina back. Julian pointed out that it might be a trap, and Kit exploded. âOf course itâs a trap! But I canât let Mina be hurt on my behalf.â
I donât think Iâve ever seen him like that, Bruce. So angry or so determined. Heâs growing up. Grown up, in a way, like Julian had to grow up so fast; itâs heartbreaking. Kit seems to know what heâs facing â not just now, but in general â and that he canât shrink away from it. He has to staring it down.
Round Tom pointed out that Mother Hawthorn is unpredictable but even she would hesitate to break the Accords to the extent of harming Mina. Kit pointed out that she already broke the Accords by kidnapping her in the first place.
Jem, I think realizing that Kit was going to agree to the meeting no matter what anyone said, suggested that at the very least we should do it on our terms, in a location we pick, with plenty of precautions in place. Kit said, âWhatever you need. But Iâm going to meet this Mother Hawthorn and get Mina back.â And I know theyâre, like, sixth cousins or something, but he really sounded like Jace. I guess Herondale stubbornness is bred pretty deep.
Julian was weirdly quiet after Kit yelled at him, and I thought he was hurt, but then I realized he had that look on his face that meant he had an idea but he wasnât ready to share it yet. Everyone was talking about anti-faerie charms and what runes to put on Kit and Julian just kind of sat in the back of it all, thinking â that way he thinks that isnât like the way anyone else does it. Completely consumed by planning thinking.
I wonder what heâs got up his sleeve. I could bug him about it, but Iâve learned itâs better to let him tell me when heâs ready. Seeing that look on his face, though, gave me more hope than anything else in the conversation.
@hxhbb18 So hereâs the piece I did for the HxH Big Bang! I got Killugon 15, and the entire fic was fantastic!! So glad I got to do something for this one!Â
 The piece is a story book page representation for a section of a story Killua is telling at the beginning!Â
I donât know why Iâm writing, I donât know why Iâm writing to you, Iâm just sitting here trying to stay calm but all these thoughts are in my head repeating over and over and I need to put them down and send them somewhere. You said you would always be there if I needed to talk so hi, yes, hello, I need to talk. I canât go to Jem and Tessa, theyâre just as traumatized as I am, maybe more. And Emma and Julian were there and they were having such a good time, enjoying their house that was finally safe and pleasant and comfortable and then suddenly a baby is kidnapped right out of that safe and pleasant house without anybody noticing anything.
The truth isâI havenât wanted to admit it, but the truth is Minaâs always been in danger. Because of me. Because I have some long-past faerie ancestors, so everyone close to me is in danger. Nothing I can do about it, nothing I did to deserve it. And it means Jem and Tessa, because they adopted me, because they love me, got their daughter kidnapped for their troubles. Â
By the way, since you are someone I care about, youâre a member of the group of people Iâve put in danger. Sorry about that. But youâre Jace Herondale! You eat danger for breakfast. You eat danger flakes topped with perilberries. Youâll be fine. But MinaâŚsheâs so little. And sheâs never been away from her family before.
I keep telling myself they wonât hurt her. Itâs not her they want. Itâs something else.
Every indication is that she was grabbed by faeries. Most of Round Tomâs workers have left and we donât know if one of them maybe did it, or helped whoever did it. Round Tom himself says he doesnât know anything and is as confused as everyone elseânever concerns himself with politics. Everyone is suspicious of him anyway, but, well, he canât lie, and the sentence, âI had no knowledge of anything to do with your daughterâs kidnapping,â is hard to interpret any other way.
But it may not matter. If Mina was kidnapped by faeriesâŚespecially faeries under direct orders by one of the CourtsâŚthatâs a violation of the Accords. And that means war with Faerie. Another war with Faerie.
How do you live like this, man? How do you get through the day knowing that you endanger everyone, just by existing?
I guess I can answer that myself. You are who you are because of everything youâve been through. You handle stuff because youâve had to handle stuff. Jem and Tessa adopted me thinking they could keep me safe, but maybe nothing can keep me safe. Iâve been drifting along, playing happy families, but the truth is I have to change. Be harder. Stronger. More powerful. Be someone the bad guys should be afraid of. Not a kid who has to be protected. That has to end.
Iâm not a kid anymore.
Anyway. I just realized that you know the whole situation already, because Iâm sure Alec has filled you in. But it helps to write it down myself, like I said. I donât think thereâs anything you can do, and Iâm not asking for help. I just thought of all people, youâd get it. That you could be someone for me to talk to about this. Hope itâs okay for you to be that for me.
We did it! The curse is broken! Rupert is free! Long live Rupert!
In retrospect, itâs insane how much of this we tried to do by ourselves. We should have known that when we finally succeeded we would do it with a whole team presentâin this case Jem, Tessa, Kit, and Magnus. (Mina assisted by raising morale and drawing all over everything with her toy stele.)
Everyoneâs still here, too, and we can relax a little in a newly uncursed house. (It really is quite homey, now that itâs been cleaned up and, you know, had its demonic aura dispelled.) Everyone except Magnus, who left this afternoon in a great rush to get back to New York.
New paragraph to talk about this, actually, because I have a lot of questions that donât have answers and I can only ask you, Bruce. So Magnus was in a hurry to get back because of a meeting Alec is holding with Luke and some other Downworlders about plans for negotiating with the Cohort. Okay, but I feel like the Cohort doesnât have much leverage, right? The situation is way worse for them than for us. We should be able to wait them outâshouldnât we?
I mean they have a symbolic advantage, I guess. Weâre all Shadowhunters and we all miss Idris and Alicante and Lake Lyn and probably a lot of us left stuff there we canât get back and oh right, also a lot of people lived there who have had to evacuate all over the world and want to get back. I get that. But, likeâŚwhat are the Cohort even eating in there? Idris doesnât really grow food. Are they all homesteading in there? Raising crops? Churning butter? Itâs kind of hard to imagine Zara doing any of that. But you never know. I mean, there arenât even any demons to fight in there. Which is a good reminder that Shadowhunters are definitely not meant to hole up in Idris where thereâs no demons for them to fight. I feel like Raziel was pretty clear on that point.
They must be losing their minds in there. I hope they found some board games or something.
Maybe Zara has declared herself Queen for Life and she doesnât have to farm because she just marches around threatening to kill anybody who doesnât grow her a potato right this instant.
Or maybe we havenât heard anything because they all ate each other in there. Or maybe they mutinied against Zara and someone else gets to threaten to kill people now.
Okay, end of pondering the Cohort. Iâm in a good mood, or was before I started this entry, anyway. Weâve been hanging out with Jem and Tessa and Kit and itâs really great. We ordered in Chinese (delivery couriers are always a bit terrified to come up the driveway, but we tip them like crazy so theyâve started to know us while weâve been here). We lit candlesâfor ambience instead of for dark magic, what an idea!âand ate dumplings until we were too full to move, a thing I havenât done since Magnus and Alecâs wedding. Apparently if I am offered dumplings, I will eat them until I become a dumpling myself. To that I say: I would never reject becoming that which I love most.
Anyway. Even Kit was less broody than usual tonight! He was hanging out with Round Tom and they seemed to be getting on okay. Oh, and I almost forgot! How could I forget! The workers found a coffin buried in the garden. But there was not a horrifying dead body inside, but rather a bunch of old stuff! Using a coffin as a time capsule seemed like a weird choice to me, but Tessa and Jem made some faces and some noises that suggested there was a long-ish story there weâll have to ask about later.
Anyway, in the coffin was A SCABBARD FOR CORTANA. I mean, right? Can you believe it? Tessa said it used to belong to Cordelia Carstairs, who was Cortanaâs wielder generations ago. The scabbard needs a lot of cleaning (a lot of cleaning) but then it can be reunited with Cortana. (After all, I think itâs probably more Cortanaâs possession than anyone elseâs; perhaps theyâll be happy to be reunited.)
There was also a sword for Julianâwhat used to be a Blackthorn family sword, but this one is only a hilt, its blade is totally missing, I have no idea why. Heâs talking about getting it reforged. Big shock, Round Tom knows a guy. Triangular Jerry. No, Iâm kidding on the name, but Round Tom actually does know a blacksmith and he and Julian have started talking about getting that done. (Actually, what Round Tom wants to do is have a forge installed at Chiswick, which is a cool idea, but do we want another building project on top of all the others? I mean, maybe, having a forge here at the house would be pretty cool.)
Oh, you might be wondering about Rupertâs ring, since itâs not like he could take it with him, and he hasnât come back for it in a ghost way. Magnus checked it out and said no magic any more, just an ordinary ring Tatiana must have enchanted to bind Rupert. But none of us is going to wear it, of course. So we put it on the mantelpiece in the drawing room. Where it will remain.
The Gray-Carstairs-Herondaleses are heading back to Cirenworth tomorrow. Itâs been really great having them here, but you know, it will be nice to have them go and have it be just Julian and I here in the house, not feeling creepy all the time. That seems like good times for us.
#
Bruce, good times are canceled. Everythingâs gone wrong. I guess I was a little too smug about how everything was going; the universe had to come and screw it up for me.
Mina is gone.
And by gone I mean kidnapped.
And by kidnapped I mean, the kidnapper left a creepy old-timey porcelain doll (with wide, dead eyes, ugh) in her place, and a note.
I had just finished writing the above stuff when I heard a horrible scream from upstairs and loud footsteps, and came out to find everyone gathered in Minaâs room staring in horror.
I immediately thought oh no, another curse, or the same curse, the curse isnât over, and maybe you did too, but thatâs not what this is. This is something else entirely. Something involving faeries. Something involving Faerie.
Tessa picked up the note, read it, and handed it to Jem with a bad look on her face. Julian was already opening the window to see if anyone could be spotted outside, and I read over Jemâs shoulder:
We did it! The curse is broken! Rupert is free! Long live Rupert!
In retrospect, itâs insane how much of this we tried to do by ourselves. We should have known that when we finally succeeded we would do it with a whole team presentâin this case Jem, Tessa, Kit, and Magnus. (Mina assisted by raising morale and drawing all over everything with her toy stele.)
Everyoneâs still here, too, and we can relax a little in a newly uncursed house. (It really is quite homey, now that itâs been cleaned up and, you know, had its demonic aura dispelled.) Everyone except Magnus, who left this afternoon in a great rush to get back to New York.
New paragraph to talk about this, actually, because I have a lot of questions that donât have answers and I can only ask you, Bruce. So Magnus was in a hurry to get back because of a meeting Alec is holding with Luke and some other Downworlders about plans for negotiating with the Cohort. Okay, but I feel like the Cohort doesnât have much leverage, right? The situation is way worse for them than for us. We should be able to wait them outâshouldnât we?
I mean they have a symbolic advantage, I guess. Weâre all Shadowhunters and we all miss Idris and Alicante and Lake Lyn and probably a lot of us left stuff there we canât get back and oh right, also a lot of people lived there who have had to evacuate all over the world and want to get back. I get that. But, likeâŚwhat are the Cohort even eating in there? Idris doesnât really grow food. Are they all homesteading in there? Raising crops? Churning butter? Itâs kind of hard to imagine Zara doing any of that. But you never know. I mean, there arenât even any demons to fight in there. Which is a good reminder that Shadowhunters are definitely not meant to hole up in Idris where thereâs no demons for them to fight. I feel like Raziel was pretty clear on that point.
They must be losing their minds in there. I hope they found some board games or something.
Maybe Zara has declared herself Queen for Life and she doesnât have to farm because she just marches around threatening to kill anybody who doesnât grow her a potato right this instant.
Or maybe we havenât heard anything because they all ate each other in there. Or maybe they mutinied against Zara and someone else gets to threaten to kill people now.
Okay, end of pondering the Cohort. Iâm in a good mood, or was before I started this entry, anyway. Weâve been hanging out with Jem and Tessa and Kit and itâs really great. We ordered in Chinese (delivery couriers are always a bit terrified to come up the driveway, but we tip them like crazy so theyâve started to know us while weâve been here). We lit candlesâfor ambience instead of for dark magic, what an idea!âand ate dumplings until we were too full to move, a thing I havenât done since Magnus and Alecâs wedding. Apparently if I am offered dumplings, I will eat them until I become a dumpling myself. To that I say: I would never reject becoming that which I love most.
Anyway. Even Kit was less broody than usual tonight! He was hanging out with Round Tom and they seemed to be getting on okay. Oh, and I almost forgot! How could I forget! The workers found a coffin buried in the garden. But there was not a horrifying dead body inside, but rather a bunch of old stuff! Using a coffin as a time capsule seemed like a weird choice to me, but Tessa and Jem made some faces and some noises that suggested there was a long-ish story there weâll have to ask about later.
Anyway, in the coffin was A SCABBARD FOR CORTANA. I mean, right? Can you believe it? Tessa said it used to belong to Cordelia Carstairs, who was Cortanaâs wielder generations ago. The scabbard needs a lot of cleaning (a lot of cleaning) but then it can be reunited with Cortana. (After all, I think itâs probably more Cortanaâs possession than anyone elseâs; perhaps theyâll be happy to be reunited.)
There was also a sword for Julianâwhat used to be a Blackthorn family sword, but this one is only a hilt, its blade is totally missing, I have no idea why. Heâs talking about getting it reforged. Big shock, Round Tom knows a guy. Triangular Jerry. No, Iâm kidding on the name, but Round Tom actually does know a blacksmith and he and Julian have started talking about getting that done. (Actually, what Round Tom wants to do is have a forge installed at Chiswick, which is a cool idea, but do we want another building project on top of all the others? I mean, maybe, having a forge here at the house would be pretty cool.)
Oh, you might be wondering about Rupertâs ring, since itâs not like he could take it with him, and he hasnât come back for it in a ghost way. Magnus checked it out and said no magic any more, just an ordinary ring Tatiana must have enchanted to bind Rupert. But none of us is going to wear it, of course. So we put it on the mantelpiece in the drawing room. Where it will remain.
The Gray-Carstairs-Herondaleses are heading back to Cirenworth tomorrow. Itâs been really great having them here, but you know, it will be nice to have them go and have it be just Julian and I here in the house, not feeling creepy all the time. That seems like good times for us.
#
Bruce, good times are canceled. Everythingâs gone wrong. I guess I was a little too smug about how everything was going; the universe had to come and screw it up for me.
Mina is gone.
And by gone I mean kidnapped.
And by kidnapped I mean, the kidnapper left a creepy old-timey porcelain doll (with wide, dead eyes, ugh) in her place, and a note.
I had just finished writing the above stuff when I heard a horrible scream from upstairs and loud footsteps, and came out to find everyone gathered in Minaâs room staring in horror.
I immediately thought oh no, another curse, or the same curse, the curse isnât over, and maybe you did too, but thatâs not what this is. This is something else entirely. Something involving faeries. Something involving Faerie.
Tessa picked up the note, read it, and handed it to Jem with a bad look on her face. Julian was already opening the window to see if anyone could be spotted outside, and I read over Jemâs shoulder:
I hope this perfumed letter finds you well, and that you and R and M are having an excellent time in your exotic journey toâŚwell, I believe the term you used was âupstate.â I have heard legends of this Upstate[JL1] , but never did I know that my family would see for themselves its mountains, its twee farm markets, its River of the Son of Hud.
More to the point, I hope the kids are enjoying their visit with Grandma, and I hope you are referring to Maryse as âGrandmaâ as often as possible because I enjoy the face she makes when we do. On a less pleasant but more urgent note, I hope youâve had a chance to talk with Luke about the Cohort/Idris stuff.
But do not tire your beautiful hands with a written reply. I will be heading to this âUpstateâ myself to join you later this afternoon, as I am relieved to report that the business with the Blackthorn kidsâ cursed house is more or less resolved. Although it was touch and go, let me tell you.
I donât think I even showed you the note Jem sent, which said, âEmma and Julian are trying not to bother you about their house, and that is very nice of them, but unlike them, I feel absolutely no compunction about bothering you, and so this is me, now, in this note, bothering you. We are in need of a warlock and you are the best one I know for this. We would all really appreciate your help.â
As is often the case, I was both mildly annoyed and mildly impressed with Jem, who managed to be both very kind and also to remind me that I am a sucker when it comes to him and Tessa and will rush to their aid when I can. Because I am a sucker when it comes to him and Tessa, I wrote back quickly saying I would come.
I know what youâre thinking: âHow could Tessa need a warlock when she is a warlock?â But different warlocks have different expertises, as you know, and while Jem was flattering me that I was the best choice, the reality is that I have dealt with a lot more curses than Tessa. Thatâs what comes of spending the past decades hiring your services out to any miscreants who come by, instead of more intelligently living a calm life as a magic researcher in the Spiral Labyrinth. Tessa always was the smartest of us.
Anyway, I must give Emma and Julian credit. I expected to arrive and find them banging the cursed objects against one another or something, but they had set up a decent enough protective circle and even found a spell. It was an old, kind of generic spell that I have found to rarely be of much use with actual curses in the modern day, but still.
Rather stupidly I set up a basic workaday curse-breaking circle of my own, and gave it a try. âStupidlyâ because I had forgotten who did the curse in the first place. Your worst ancestor, Benedict Lightwood, all-around demon enthusiast and dilettante necromancer. How in bed with demons was Benedict? He literally died of demon pox â which if you do not know, because you are beautifully pure, my Alec â is a sexually transmitted demon disease.
But I forgot that in the moment, so I was surprised when the curse put up an impressive resistance. It writhed and thrashed and struck out, like Max being lowered into a bath. The cursed objects were all glowing, kind of neon green, where they were tied to the magic, and eventually I realized I was going to have to carefully unknot each object from the curse, one at a time.
I managed the flask, the dagger, and one of the candlesticks (donât ask me to explain how THAT happens), but after that I was stuck.
Itâs not a great look for a warlock to strike a big magic pose and then nothing happens. I am sure I looked ridiculous, like a mundane magician who couldnât understand why the rabbit wasnât coming out of the hat. Julian and Emma are very polite and only waited patiently but I felt quite silly.
And then I lost all my focus temporarily because the door opened and Kit walked in. He sort of looked around at the scene and finally said, âProfessor Plum in the library with the candlestick, I see.â
âPurple is always an appropriate color for a warlock,â I said. âIt is the decorative color of magic.â
Emma, of course, said, âYour magic is blue,â because she is an inveterate smartass.
âMaybe he meant me,â said Julian. âIâm wearing a purple hoodie. Also because it is the decorative color of magic,â he added with a nod in my direction, which I appreciated.
âMaybe you could put the objects on a purple tablecloth instead of a white one,â Kit said, and while he was talking he walked out to get a closer look.
And when he got close to the circle, Alec, I felt the strangest sensation. A feeling ofâŚpower, I suppose, kind of humming in Kit. You know the way your body kind of vibrates when thereâs a really really low sound? That rumbling feeling? It was like that, but silent. Iâve never had that experience any of the times Iâve seen Kit before. I could also tell that Kit didnât feel anything unusual. Or if he did, he was surprisingly casual about it.
So I suggested he come join us around the circle and add his focus to the magic. âEspecially since Jem and Tessa have snuck off somewhere rather than helping out with this round.â
âTheyâre out in the garden with Mina,â Kit said, a little defensively.
I redirected everyoneâs attention to the objects and established a somewhat souped-up version of my go-to curse breaker. I went for the other candlestick and BANG. No resistance anymore! There was a big burst of blue and all the knots of magic tying the objects to the curse broke into pieces.
Everyone blinked a bunch. Eventually I said something like, âWell, that was more what I was hoping for. I guess four people made the difference.â
I checked. The curse seemedâŚgone. I was actually a little shaken. I havenât mentioned it to Tessa and Jem, because I donât want to make a big deal of it, but I think it worked because of Kit. Not because we needed a fourth person. Something is going on with him, some magic that is totally outside his awareness. I assume it has something to do with being a descendant of the First Heir, but Iâve never been an expert on that kind of faerie enchantment. (And do burn this letter, after you get it â very few of us know about Kit being the First Heir, and itâs best if we keep it that way.)
It makes me sad to think of it. Kit is a good kid who deserves a good, ordinary life. I know thatâs what Jem and Tessa want for him, more than anything, after the chaos that was his growing up. But I am not sure he will have a choice in the matter. Fae may not let him choose.
Julian reached out and took hold of the flask. He held it for a moment, frowning.
âWhat?â said Emma.
âNothing,â Julian said. He looked up at me. âIs that it? No more curse?â
âNo more curse,â I said. âI hope.â
And then down from the ceiling drifted Rupert the Ghost. I never met Rupert Blackthorn when he was alive. I donât know what to think of him. On the one hand, he seems to have been an innocent who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, a spirit trapped in a house he never lived in because of evil he never knew about while he lived. On the other hand, he met Tatiana Lightwood and thought that lady seems like marriage material, so there must have been something weird going on with him.
Rupert had been hovering and he descended until he was right above the table. He was staring at something on it.
âWhat is it, Rupert?â said Emma. âWhat are you looking at?â
Kit followed his gaze and started pushing the objects out of the way. âItâs the ring,â he said.
Emma said, âWhat ring?â
Indeed, what ring? There wasnât a ring among the cursed objects. But there was a ring on the table now. Kit picked it up. It was a silver ring, etched with a design of thorns and set with a black stone.
âBlackthorn family ring?â Kit said.
âItâs not how family rings usually look,â Emma said.
âWedding band?â said Kit.
âShadowhunters donât use wedding rings,â said Emma, but Julian had that thoughtful look he gets.
âI am bound here by a silver band,â he said softly.
âShadowhunters can exchange wedding rings,â I said. âThey just arenât expected to. But they can if they want.â
Whatever it was, it was Rupertâs. He had followed Kitâs hand as it picked up the ring, and now he was reaching out for it with a thin ghostly hand. He wrapped it around the ring, which did absolutely nothing since heâs a ghost â Kit just kind of held it there for him. Then his eyes closed (Rupertâs, I mean) and he got this expression on his face of relief and gratitude and peace, and he justâŚfaded out, right there. Just slowly vanished and was gone. No more Rupert. On to hopefully not being reunited with his wife, since she was also his jailer for over a hundred years.
âHe didnât even say goodbye,â Emma said quietly.
âThatâs for the best,â I said. âHe was never supposed to be here at all.â
âWell, Rupert, if you can hear me,â said Emma, âit was nice being haunted by you.â
âFive stars,â said Kit solemnly, putting the ring back on the table. âWould be haunted again.â
And all the candles went out in the room at once. Which, if it was Rupert, was a nice touch. Though it may have just been a draft.
We all filed out of the room quietly. âItâs different,â Julian said. He was looking around at the hallway. âI can feel it already.â
I could feel it as well. There was a lightness that had not been there. A kind of pleasant hominess that a good house conveys and that had always been absent from Blackthorn Hall in the time Iâve known it. Itâs hard to describe, but all at once it felt like Julian and Emmaâs home, in a way it hadnât before. Iâve always known it as a forbidding place, and then as a hideous ruin, but for the first time I thought, this was a place the Blackthorns could fill with joy.
And Iâm certain they will.
See you very soon, my love. I shall kiss you until a toddler forces us apart to pay attention to him. So plan for a kiss of about 30-60 seconds, based on previous experience. But I wish, as always, that it could be endless.
You can see ghosts but you cannot see me. Not when I come to sit by you while you sleep. Not when I am in the movements of the shadows across the lawn, or the twitch of a curtain. You cannot hear me, even though I am speaking to you because I have things I need to tell you.Â
I want to tell you about Ty.
He was there. We were there.
You donât know we were there.
Kit knows.
Let me start over.
You like surprises, Ty says. Ty doesnât like surprises, but you do.
He is learning Portals, how to open them, how to close them. You need a warlock. But Ty is learning and he is getting better. He wanted to come to see you and Ragnor said he would help.
We wanted to come to see you.
Ty warned Emma, but he told her not to tell you, so it would be a surprise.
So we came through together.
A ghost travels through a Portal just like a Shadowhunter. I didnât know that. Isnât that funny?
Well, I thought it was funny.
The Portal opened in the kitchen.
The kitchen looks nice. I am only a spirit caught between the world and the void but I think you chose an excellent shade for the walls. You have always been so good with color.
Other than the color, which was a surprise but not a bad one, there was another surprise in the kitchen. Kit.
Kit was in the kitchen. Wearing that jacket he likes, with the fuzzy collar. The sun came through the window and lit him up.
Everything in Ty froze. Even I almost froze. Iâve seen Kit, of course. I visit him sometimes. Still because I wasnât expecting him, it hit me how different he looks from the way he did when he lived at the Institute with us. He looks older, and taller. More muscular. He moves like a Shadowhunter now. Graceful.
Heâs beautiful.
I heard Ty take a breath like he never has before. Like he was gasping for air, like heâd been sucker-punched and he was trying to breathe and trying to breathe and he couldnât.
He whispered, âThatâs not how you clean a gun.â
Sorry, I should have said before. Kit was cleaning a gun. Why would there be a gun at your house? Blackthorn Hall is like a rock. You turn it over and so many things are underneath. This time a gun was underneath.
Kit went whiter than any ghost Iâve ever seen. He dropped the gun onto the counter. And he didnât speak. I wonder if he was wondering what I was wondering. I was wondering how Ty knew how to clean a gun. Enough to tell someone they were doing it wrong.
Maybe he just didnât know what to say, so he said that.
After that they looked at each other.
Time is not fast or slow where I am. And yet it was long enough for me to feel like the whole world was disappearing, like there was nothing else in it except Kit and Ty looking at each other.
Kit said, âYou shouldnât be here.â
He has never spoken to me like that. With such a cold voice. He had put his hands in his pockets and his shoulders were thrust forward, like he was being aggressive, but I could see his hands in his pockets, all knotted up. I wonder if Ty saw it too. Kitâs fingers, digging and digging into themselves.
But Ty wasnât looking at Kit. He was looking past him at the window. I could hear birds, and quiet English sounds, and Ty breathing. He said, âHow long do you think it will take you to forgive me?â
Kit looked at me. He looked a little betrayed, as if somehow I had known he would be here, had planned this. But I didnât. âI donât know,â he said.
âBut not now,â Ty said in the smallest voice.
âNo,â Kit said. âNot now.â
There was no more reason to stay then.
Maybe there was a reason. Maybe it was Kitâs hands crushing in on themselves, till I thought the bones would break like hearts.
But Ty couldnât see that. Ty was in pain. I put myself next to him, wrapped myself around him, held him while we went back through the Portal. I was sad. I wanted to see you very much, Jules. But Ty needed me to be there with him.
If you dream this, maybe you will know we were there in your house. I am sorry we didnât stay.
Julian, I donât know what to do. Ty misses Kit more than he thought he could miss someone. He misses him as much now as he did the day he left. He loves him the same. I think he always will and it scares me.
Kit is used to not needing people, but Ty needs people. He is afraid to need people but that is only because he needs them so much. He is not going to stop needing Kit. I donât know if Kit will always need Ty. But Ty will always need him.
I need someone to talk to and I donât want it to be Julian or Emma. Or Jem or Tessa. So itâll have to be you. Which means I canât ever send this and you canât ever read it. Iâll burn it in the garden when Iâm done writing it so Iâm not tempted to send it.
The gardens here are really excellent, by the way. I guess you know that since youâve been here. Thereâs an old Georgian greenhouse, and a little pond with lilies and frogs and benches to watch them, and a walled garden, and itâs just very nice to walk around here with Mina. I never had a sister or brother before, you know that, but being with Mina makes me realize more about how you felt about Livvy. Still feel about Livvy I guess. Iâm not saying I forgive you. Just maybe I understand more.
Blackthorn Hall is still being restored, of course, and there are faeries everywhere doing the restorations. Theyâre brownies, apparently, and even though they arenât doing anything that interestingâweeding and carrying wheelbarrows of dirt and whateverâI canât stop watching them. I have hardly seen any faeries at all sinceâwell, since we were in that battle with them. I guess I didnât realize how strictly I was being kept apart from them. Until now.
I should really stay away from them, because every time I get close enough for them to talk to me, they do something to freak me out. The head builder, this guy Round Tomâ heâs not even that round, honestly â anyway the first time Round Tom saw me he did a little thing where he jumped in a circle and made some odd gestures in the air, and then bowed in my direction. I just turned around on my heel and walked off in the other direction like I had just remembered I forgot something.
And then General Winter, like Kieranâs General Winter, was there helping outâJulian says heâs there to keep all the workers in line since they are scared of General Winter but not Round Tomâand he knew I was the First Heir. Like the Riders did.
The Riders whose horses I made disappear. Or something. I donât know if they ever came back. No one seems to know.
I tried to pretend I didnât hear General Winter either but we were just out in the open and it would have been way too obvious. So when he addressed me as First Heir all I could think of to say was, âThatâs me. Or at least thatâs what Iâve been told.â
âIf youâve been told,â he said, âthen it is true, since we do not lie.â
I wanted to say buddy, I worked at the Los Angeles Shadow Market for years. Faeries do all kinds of sketchy stuff. Instead I just said, âI donât really know what Iâm supposed to do about it.â
 General Winter watched me with this thoughtful look on his face, and said, âYou need do nothing about it, yet. Indeed, at this moment that might be the wisest course of action. For things are strange in Faerie.â
âWhat do you mean?â I said.
âThere are disturbances,â he said slowly. âRumors swirl about the Seelie Court. And Mother Hawthorn walks again.â
BEfore I could ask him what any of that meant, Round Tom came rushing over. âCousins.â (I had forgotten faeries sometimes addressed each other like that, and it gave me a little shiver, like he was saying, you are one of us.) âI have found something. Please come with me.â
He led us around to one of the big plane trees. A little ways away from the trunk was a huge hole, and then on the other side of the tree were two sawhorses across which balanced a coffin.
At least I think it was a coffin. It was really busted up, half-rotted, cracked everywhere, caked in dirt. It was obviously the thing that had come out of the hole.
âA tomb?â said General Winter as we got closer, but Round Tom was shaking his head.
âWe would not have disturbed a tomb,â said Round Tom. âBut none lie buried here. Only magic, of a dark and powerful kind.â He stepped back. âLook inside.â
I came closer. There was indeed a bunch of random stuff inside the coffin. It looked likeâwell, you know how old Egyptian pharaohs were buried with all their belongings? It was like that, I assume for a Shadowhunter, except the belongings were a weird assortment. It was dirty and falling apart and mostly just junkâpapers and little jars and bits of fabric and the hilt of a sword with no blade, that kind of thing.
âHow old is it?â I said, and Round Tom reached it and fished out a liquor bottle. The label was pretty faded and ripped but it was a printed label, in a Victorian style. I wondered if Jem or Tessa would have any guess whose stuff it could be.
âYou said there was magic here?â I said.
âDark magic,â Round Tom said gravely. âWild magic.â
âThe curse?â said General Winter.
Round Tomâs expression cleared and he shrugged. âPerhaps not. Itâs actually much less demonic in nature than the curse on the house. But emanating from the foot of an unremarkable tree it bore exploration. There are two items that might be of further interest.â
He cleared away some of the mess and revealed a scabbard. It was a very nice scabbard. Sorry, that doesnât really capture it. A very very nice scabbard. It needed some cleaning up, but it was obviously beautiful and, Iâm sure, valuable. It was steel but covered in gold inlay all over in the shape of leaves and birds. There were some runes on it, too, so it was definitely a Shadowhunterâs at some point.
âNice,â I said.
âIt is more than ânice,ââ General Winter said. âIt is clearly the work of Lady Melusine herself. See how it has not deteriorated at all?â
Round Tom looked important. âAnd yet it is the less interesting of the two pieces,â he said. With a great dramatic gesture that he had clearly practiced ahead of time, he pushed all of the junk to one side in the coffin, leavingâ
âIs thatâŚa gun?â I said.
âOne of those mundane weapons, yes,â said Round Tom. He picked it up as though it might go off, though it was rusty and covered in dirt. It was a revolver. It didnât look any different than revolvers from a million gangster movies, or WesternsâI guess if I were really sending this to Ty I would have to explain what a Western was.
Anyway the big difference was this gun was covered in etchings and runes and words and was obviously magic af. (Which means . . . oh, never mind what it means.)
âBut Shadowhunters donât use guns,â I said.
âThey never have,â General Winter agreed. He picked up the gun with a surprising amount of familiarity, and sighted along it in the direction of a nearby tree. He tried to fire and it just clicked â the cylinder didnât even turn.
âRusted shut, probably,â said Tom. General Winter handed it to me to look at. Iâm not good enough with runes to know any of the ones that were on it. I pointed it at the same tree, kind of as a joke, kind of just to feel how heavy it was, and pulled the trigger, and there was a huge BANG and a bunch of wood splinters exploded from the tree.
My arm kicked back from the force of the shot. And we all stared. My ears were buzzing, but I thought I heard Round Tom say something to General Winter. Iâm pretty sure the words First Heir were in there.
Certainly when I looked at them again, at Round Tom and General Winter, their expressions were guarded. Closed.
âPerhaps we should take this item inside and see if the other Nephilim recognize anything about it,â General Winter said flatly.
 âIâm sure it just only works for Shadowhunters,â I told General Winter, but he just gave me kind of a troubled look and said nothing. âAnyway. Iâll bring it in.â
I could feel General Winter and Round Tom watching me as I ran across the lawn and into the house. Jem and Tessa were sitting on a couch in the drawing-room, watching Mina coloring with crayons on some butcher paper.
The moment I came in holding the gun both of them looked utterly shocked. Tessa got to her feet and moved between me and Mina. I told myself she was standing between the gun and Mina, but it still felt rotten.
âWhatââ said Jem, standing up, but he didnât finish the sentence. He just stared at me, and the gun.
âRound Tom found it in the garden,â I said. âIs this a gun for Shadowhunters?â I could feel my voice getting tighter. âShadowhunters donât use guns.â
âLong ago, Christopher Lightwood tried to create a gun that Shadowhunters could fire,â said Tessa. She was still staring at the gun.
 âIt was in a coffin,â I said. âWith a bunch of other stuff. A broken sword, and a fancy scabbard.â
âI wondered what he did with it,â said Jem. He? Who was he?
Jem and Tessa exchanged a look. âThe gun belonged to my son James,â she said. I felt kind of sick. Tessa hardly ever talked about her children with Will. âHe was the only one who could use it. It would not fire in anyoneâs hands but his.â
âI fired it,â I said.
They both looked stunned, and not in a good way.Â
âYou are very special, Kit,â Jem said. âYou are the First Heir. We donât yet know the extent of how that power works in you.â
âOr perhaps it is just that he has faerie blood,â said Tessa.
I could have said that it definitely wasnât just faerie blood because General Winter couldnât use the gun and he doesnât only have faerie blood, he has a full faerie body with faerie organs and everything. But I didnât say anything. I just felt a weird feeling in my stomach. I said I would put the gun away and not use it, and Jem and Tessa seemed to feel that was the best thing I could do, and Mina piped up and said âGun!â and then I felt like the worst person on earth.
So now itâs late and Iâm up writing this letter to you that I am going to burn when Iâm done, because I canât sleep. Because I donât want to be the only person in the world who can fire a magic gun. I donât want General Winter to straighten up when Iâm nearby like I outrank him. I donât want any of this. I had five minutes where I got to think, oh neat, I found this cool-looking gun and I bet thereâs a story behind it, I wonder if theyâll let me keep it or if it needs to go to a museum or something. And then I fired it and instantlyâjust another thing thatâs weird about me.
Good night, Ty. Iâll never send this, and youâll never read it.
Bruce, Bruce, Bruce. Will I keep writing to you when all these renovations are done? When things have returned to some form of normalcy? Or is normalcy overâis the crack in the Nephilim world one that canât be healed but will only widen over time, with more and more changes, until finally there is too much change to bear? In which case I guess I will keep writing to you, Bruce, as a kind of silent witness to the strangeness of these times.
Sorry, sorry. I am feeling a little poetic tonight because Jem and Tessa and Kit and Mina arrived today andâŚwell, thatâs just kind of how Jem and Tessa talk. Being, you know. Way old. And because it feels like all this business with the cursed house is in its final chapters and I donât have any idea how things are going to be after that.
In any event we didnât do anything about the curse today, we just ended up visiting with the Carstairs-Herondales, who should definitely pick a shorter name we can use for them. Team Victorian Era? Team Time When Everything Was Very Romantic But It Took Forever To Get Anywhere? Hm. I guess Iâll ask them for ideas, since mine are, uh, bad.
There was some complication right when they arrived. We had picked out a couple of bedrooms for them to use and asked the brownies to make them up with sheets and towels and all that. And then we checked them before the guests arrived and Iâm glad we did because the faeries had made up all the rooms forâŚbirds? Like, for huge, person-sized birds. Big nests of sticks, six feet across, and branches to perch on. And big balls of birdseed hanging from the ceiling. So we had to ask them to redo the rooms and the brownies looked so disappointed. (But we didnât say the guests were birds! I have no idea why they thought that!) The worst part is they did a really nice job, like, if we were being visited by giant birds they would have been very comfortable. They still seemed puzzled when everyone did show up that Mina wasnât a big egg. Faeries, man.
Speaking of Mina, who is not a big egg but rather a small toddler, she is extremely cute. She is walking now, or toddling, I guess, and she says âmamaâ and âdadaâ and also âkishâ which apparently is what she calls Kit. And she has a little wooden toy stele that she is constantly trying to scribble on everyone with. Apparently Kit has been learning runes and Mina wants to learn them too.
We should have just gone straight into curse-breaking but to be honest we were just having a very nice time hanging out. Tessa and Jem are very easy to spend time with, which is nice given how high-strung most of our other friends are. I suppose once youâve gone through all the stuff that has happened to them, it takes a lot to upset you. Just the way Jem talks about the curse makes me feel more reassured that weâll be able to fix it, even though we donât really know what weâre doing or whatâs gone wrong so far.
They seem really impressed by the house, also, which makes Julian look all proud of himself in a highly adorable way. Tessa said the last time either of them were here was after Tatiana was arrested and sent to be an Iron Sister, and they were searching it for demon stuff. (Most of which, she admitted, they clearly didnât find. It seems obvious from the way she talks that they didnât understand how dangerous Tatiana really was until it was too lateâI really want to ask her about that but it seemed a dark topic while we were all having a good time.) Jem said by that time it was already in pretty bad shape, but Tessa said she saw the house once âin its primeâ at a ball, and then she blushed a little. Whatever happened during that ball must have been pretty impressive if sheâs blushing about it 130 years later!
Of course thereâs still that overall shroud of heavy memory that kind of hangs over the place, and no amount of new paint and replaced windows can help that. Thatâd be the curse, of course. Still, it felt cheerier this evening than it ever has before. For the first time I felt a little like it was our house and friends had come to visit and it was surprisingly nice and ordinary. As long as I donât think about whatâs going on with the Clave.
Also a concern: Kit. He was hanging out with us most of the day, but he was really quiet, for him, and a couple of times he excused himself to go take a walk in the garden. Julian said he thinks Kit broke up with his girlfriend and maybe heâs sad about that, but I donât know. He was really jumpy whenever any of the builders were around, and kept a close eye on them anytime they were nearby. Round Tom introduced himself and Kit nodded, but he didnât say his name or much of anything else. I mean, you can hardly blame him. His relationship to faeries, and Faerie itself, is complicated. According to Tessa, Cirenworth is very tightly warded against faerie incursions, and even the town and the roads nearby are protected. Magnus and Catarina made sure of it. So this would be one of the first times heâs been around faeries since the big battle outside Alicante; even though these faeries are safe, it must be weird for him.
But you know Kit. He has this aura about him like he doesnât want to answer any questions about how heâs doing. Today heâs been out front, watching the faeries in the garden â it could be heâs worried about them, or maybe he wants to join them? I donât know. Maybe Julian or I can get him to open up a little while heâs here. Or maybe Iâll get a moment to ask Jem or Tessa if they know whatâs up.
Anyway, thatâs all from me for now, Bruce. Tomorrow we break a curse! I hope!
As promised, the newest updates on the House That Wouldnât Stop Being Cursed. Spoiler alert: I think weâre going to need your help again. (Ask Kit if you donât know what a âspoilerâ is.)
So hereâs where we are: weâve assembled all of the itemsâwe thinkâthat are tied to the curse. We placed them all in the dining room together and lit some candles, but nothing happened. Julian said it was like we were trying to get the objects to have a romantic evening together. I guess it was optimistic to think things would be that simple!
During the past few weeks weâve collected a number of books on curse-breaking. And looked up some stuff about it on the Internet, though I have to say you never know with âonlineâ whether youâre accessing a real magic spell or something tied to some kind of game. Julian, of course, had already read the books, and noted the similarities between most of the curse-breaking spells. They all require cursed objects to be brought together, and for candles made of pure tallow to be lit. Fortunately we were able to grab tallow candles at the Shadow Market, and we arranged them in a circle around the objects. When we lit them, it did look very mysterious and magicy.
We combined several of the Latin spells in the books to try to get something workable. A sort of We call out for the curse laid upon these objects to be broken, in the name of the Angel Raziel. We tried to make ourselves sound very important, like we knew Raziel well and would be having a pint down at the pub with him once the curse breaking was over.
Now, Iâm sure youâre staring in horror that we decided to do this ourselves, and youâre right, we shouldnât have, but we were just so excited to have all the objects that we thought it was worth at least a try. After all, how wrong could it go?
Answer: very wrong! A chill, clammy wind immediately rose up inside the dining room and swirled in circles, blowing out most of the candles. I started shivering, not because it was cold (although it was suddenly very cold) but because my skin was crawling. I had a terrible sense of encroaching darkness, like my vision was beginning to fade at the edges. Julian started paging through the books fast, looking for some kind of cancellation spell.
And then, of course, the music box on the sideboard began playing by itself. And not the tune it usually plays, which is a Strauss waltz. This was some other tune, something dissonant and harsh (as harsh as the tinkly sounds of a music box can be, I suppose). And it was loud, much louder than any music box could be, like the sound was being picked up and whirled around the room.
âNooo.â It was a harshly breathed word, and I felt a presence sweep into the room. Rupert, half-transparent and looking furious. He swept a glowing hand through the candles, snuffing out the flames. Thank the Angel, the wind died down and the chill went out of the air. And I felt like I could breathe again. Julian and I stared at each other.
âNephilim,â Rupert breathed. It was probably the most weâve ever heard him say, in terms of real distinct words and phrases. I donât know if it was because he was angry, or because the curse-breaking spell had had a tiny effect. âNephilim â do not play with magic. Tatiana played with magic. She was . . . destroyed.â He was so upset that the features of his face seemed to be rearranging themselves, his eyes widening to be huge like an anime drawing. His mouth turned down at the sides. âNot worth destroying yourselves,â he whispered. âFind another way. Or leave me prisoned.â
And with that, he disappeared â kind of flew apart in white-silver pieces, like papers blowing on the wind.
A shudder went up my spine. Rupert. I think I liked him better when he could only move things around in the dust.
Anyway, we could use your help. Maybe itâs that we need a warlock to do the right magic, but the more we look at the items weâve collected the more we wonder if one of them is wrong. Weâve followed some sketchy clues to find them, after all. And weâve bothered Hypatia, Magnus, and Ragnor so much that I donât think we could bear to have one of them come and then tell us itâs the objects that are the problem.
SoâŚwould you and Tessa be willing to come visit and check out the situation? Maybe youâll be able to tell something about the objects since you recognized some of them. And between an ex-Silent Brother and a warlock Iâm sure youâd bring enough magical wisdom to work out what we should be doing. Weâd love to see all four of you, in fact, if youâd like to make it a family outing. We can watch Mina for you! There will be scones! And now that the faeries have gotten rid of all the hogweed choking the gardens, theyâre looking very nice. Lovely for walks, or if Kit is in a teenage brooding mood, theyâre great for brooding. Did I mention the scones?
Love,
Emma
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