“Thomas,” said Christopher, with uncharacteristic firmness. “Tell us what happened.”
Thomas made a sort of dry gasping noise. His hands were ice-cold. “You’ll think I’m mad. Or a secret killer—”
“I should remind you,” said James, “that yesterday, I thought I was a secret killer, and you told me that was ludicrous. And now I’m telling you that you, out of all of us, are least likely to be a secret killer.”
“I, on the other hand, am the most likely to be a secret killer,” said Matthew, throwing himself into one of the chairs. “I wear peculiar clothes. I come and go as I please and do mysterious, illicit things in the night. None of the rest of you are like that at all. Well, Christopher might kill someone, but he wouldn’t mean to. It would be an accident resulting from an experiment gone horribly wrong.”
Thomas let out a shuddering breath. “I know,” he said, “with crystal clarity, that I did not harm Lilian Highsmith. But Bridgestock and his cronies are acting as though they believe I did—they believed it immediately. Nothing I said made any difference. And these are people I’ve known my whole life.”
James chafed Thomas’s hands between his, getting the blood flowing. “Tom, what did happen?”
“I—I was walking through Golden Square when I heard someone scream. I ran toward the sound and saw the body lying there, and I turned her over so I could see her face and… and it was Lilian, barely alive. There was no sign of the murderer. I tried…” Thomas put his hands over his face. “I tried to heal her but I couldn’t; she was too close to death. And then the next thing I knew, I heard shouting and then the Inquisitor and some others were standing over me. I was covered in Lilian’s blood by then…”
“Did you see anything?” said James, sitting back on his heels. “Anyone else, someone running away?”
Thomas shook his head.
“Did Lilian see her killer?”
“I asked her who attacked her.” Thomas’s hazel eyes burned with frustration. “She said something like ‘He did it. He was dead in his prime. His wife wept for him.’ None of which makes sense.”
“You think she recognized her killer as someone who was already dead?” echoed Matthew, looking puzzled.
“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.