“But why now?” said Christopher. “Why possess Jesse now?”
“Because I refused him,” said James wearily. “Because his attempt to possess me went disastrously wrong. Not only did he not possess me; he was wounded by Cortana. He has remained in fear of it.”
“Belial wanted to make a warrior,” said Cordelia. “He believed that if he murdered Shadowhunters, took their runes and gave them to Jesse, he could create a warrior capable of defeating Cortana—half Prince of Hell, half Shadowhunter.”
Anna smiled at her. “But it sounds as if you fought and defeated this being. Belial, as it turns out, was no match for our Cordelia.”
Cordelia’s voice was low, and ragged around the edges. “Anna, no. That’s—that’s not what happened.”
Anna did not look surprised. She set her teacup down, her blue eyes fixed on Cordelia. “Daisy,” she said. “Tell us.”
James wanted to jump in, to tell the story, to save Cordelia from having to say the words. He found his fingers digging into the arm of his chair as, steadily and without emotion, she told them the story from the moment the faerie woman had approached her at the Hell Ruelle, to her trip to the White Horse, her vision of the forge, her oath and subsequent discovery that it was not Wayland the Smith she had sworn loyalty to, but the Mother of Demons.
As she spoke, Matthew rose and went to the window. He stood there, hands in his pockets, his shoulders stiff, as Cordelia finished explaining that Lilith had sent the demons in Nelson Square. “She wanted me to understand,” she said, “what it meant to have that power. To be able to wield Cortana as a paladin.”
“I should never have taken you to the barrow,” said Matthew. He faced the window, unmoving.
“Matthew,” Cordelia said gently. “It’s not your fault.”
Thomas rubbed at his arm, where the compass rose tattoo showed through the white of his sleeve. “So all this time, Lilith has been taking different forms to manipulate and trick you—trick us. When you saw Magnus at the Shadow Market, that wasn’t the real Magnus, was it?”
Christopher looked stunned. “But why—？”
“It was never the real Magnus,” said James. “I should have guessed when he came to our home here. His magic was the wrong color.”
Christopher’s brow was furrowed. “But Magnus was rather helpful,” he said. “He helped us solve the question of the pithos.” He tapped his breast pocket, where the adamas object now rested. “Why would Lilith do that?”
James watched Matthew, who was still staring out the window. “She had to earn our trust and make us believe she was Magnus. And remember, she is Belial’s enemy. They hate each other. She would not mind helping us defeat him. What she really wanted was to have me take her back to Edom, and it almost worked.”
“I must tell Magnus about this,” said Anna. “He can be sworn to secrecy, but he must know. Who knows what else Lilith may have done, while pretending to be him?”
There was a murmur of agreement. Thomas, his eyebrows knit together in thought, said, “So if Cordelia is Lilith’s paladin, how were you able to get rid of her?”
James smiled. “Your revolver, Christopher.”
“You shot Lilith?” said Christopher in disbelief.
“Doesn’t seem right, shooting a demon,” said Anna. “Unsportsmanlike. Though, of course, I am glad you did it.”
“I don’t understand,” said Christopher. “There’s no way Lilith could be harmed by ordinary runed weapons. And as unusual as it may be, the revolver is nothing more than a runed weapon.”
“But it worked,” protested Matthew.
“It’s a miracle it worked. It shouldn’t have worked,” Christopher said. He turned back to James. “But you knew it would, didn’t you?”
“I strongly suspected,” James said. “You told me yourself you performed all sorts of enchantments on it, trying to make it work. I remembered you said you had done a sort of modified Nephilim protection spell. And then I thought about the protection spells.”
“Yes,” said Christopher, “but—oh!” His face lit up with understanding.
Thomas smiled a bit. “All right, all right, explain it, one of you. I can see you want to.”
“The protection spell,” Christopher said. “It’s done in the names of three angels.”
“Sanvi, Sansanvi, Semangelaf,” said James. “They are angels of protection. In the old texts, they are angels meant to protect against Lilith specifically.”