Chain of Iron (the Last Hours, #2)

The second installment of The Last Hours trilogy, set in Edwardian London, opens with a mysterious killer stalking the East End. He murders a mundane man with an adamas knife, a blade forged from the sacred metal of the Nephilim, the angel-blooded warriors who protect humanity from demons. The killer absorbs death energy and whispers the names of his true enemies: James Herondale and Cordelia Carstairs, two young Shadowhunters about to be married.

Their marriage is a sham. In the previous book, Cordelia lied to the Clave, the Shadowhunters' governing body, claiming she and James spent the night together to shield him from criminal charges. The resulting scandal requires them to wed for one year before divorcing. Only their closest friends, a group called the Merry Thieves, know the truth: James, his parabatai (bonded warrior-partner) Matthew Fairchild, Thomas Lightwood, and Christopher Lightwood. None of them know that Cordelia is secretly in love with James, who believes himself in love with Grace Blackthorn, the adopted daughter of the villainous Tatiana Blackthorn.

The wedding is complicated by Cordelia's father, Elias Carstairs, who arrives after being treated for an alcohol addiction at the Basilias, the Shadowhunter hospital. Elias drinks heavily at the reception and causes a scene. James and Alastair Carstairs, Cordelia's brother, quietly remove him. That evening, James reveals their new home on Curzon Street, decorated with extraordinary care to reflect Cordelia's Persian heritage. He has arranged separate bedrooms, leaving Cordelia both touched and privately crushed.

The newlyweds settle into a comfortable routine of chess, reading, and training. Their happiness is disrupted when Shadowhunters begin turning up dead, stabbed with a sharp blade. James reveals he has been having nightmares corresponding to the murders, experiencing each killing through the murderer's eyes. The group discovers that each victim is missing a rune, one of the magical marks Shadowhunters inscribe on their bodies for power.

Cordelia faces a separate crisis when her legendary sword Cortana burns her hands during battle and refuses to be wielded. A faerie woman had told Cordelia that Wayland the Smith, Cortana's mythical forger, still lives beneath a barrow in the Berkshire Downs. Cordelia persuades Matthew to drive her there. A figure appearing to be Wayland heals Cortana and asks Cordelia to swear fealty as his paladin, or champion warrior. She accepts, unaware the figure is actually Lilith, the Mother of Demons, in disguise.

Meanwhile, James's sister Lucie Herondale has been secretly working with Grace to raise Grace's brother Jesse from the dead. Jesse died at 17 when his first Shadowhunter rune reacted catastrophically with his body, but he has been magically preserved in a glass coffin, and his ghost appears only at night. Lucie, who possesses the hidden ability to command the dead, has fallen in love with him. She and Grace enlist Malcolm Fade, the High Warlock of London, who agrees to attempt necromancy in exchange for news of Annabel Blackthorn, a Shadowhunter he loved a century ago. Grace discovers that Annabel was murdered by her family rather than becoming an Iron Sister, a member of a cloistered Shadowhunter order, as Malcolm had believed, and she delivers this devastating truth to him.

Elias visits Curzon Street drunk and demands money from James, threatening to undermine the Herondales' standing. James refuses and sends him away. That night, Elias is murdered, and James dreams the killing. At the Silent City, the Shadowhunters' underground necropolis, Cordelia notices her father's Voyance rune, a mark all Shadowhunters bear on their hand, has vanished, confirming the pattern of stolen runes.

Thomas is arrested after discovering a victim's body on unauthorized patrol. Alastair comes forward as a witness, having secretly followed Thomas to keep him safe, and testifies to his innocence. During their confinement, they share their first kiss.

While Cordelia is away visiting the barrow, Grace arrives uninvited at Curzon Street and asks James to kiss her. He complies, then punches a bookcase in fury, cracking the silver bracelet he has worn since age 14. When Cordelia learns of the kiss, she demands one of her own, and their intense encounter damages the bracelet further.

At the Shadow Market, a bazaar for Downworlders—supernatural beings such as vampires, warlocks, and werewolves—someone the group believes is the warlock Magnus Bane examines a demonic stele—a corrupted runic writing tool—found at a murder scene. He identifies it as capable of transferring runes between Shadowhunters and proposes that James use his shadow powers to spy on Belial, a Prince of Hell and James's maternal grandfather. James enters the shadow realm—a demon dimension accessible to him through his infernal heritage—and confronts Belial on a vast chessboard. Belial denies sending the murder visions and urges James to surrender his body for possession. Cordelia uses Cortana to cut through the shadows and pull James back. Afterward, they share a passionate encounter, and the bracelet breaks apart entirely. James collapses as memories flood back: The bracelet was forged by Belial to make James forget his love for Cordelia and believe he loved Grace.

The truth about the murders emerges at Mount Street Gardens. James has a waking vision of another attack and races there with Cordelia and Matthew to find Charles Fairchild, Matthew's brother, wounded but alive. Belial appears, possessing Jesse's preserved body, which he has been walking at dawn to commit the murders, using the demonic stele to steal victims' runes. The murder locations form a sigil to summon Leviathan, a fellow Prince of Hell, to attack the London Institute.

Cordelia fights Belial with paladin power, but Lilith then reveals herself: The faerie woman, Wayland the Smith, and Magnus Bane were all her in disguise. Lilith commands Cordelia to kill Belial, and the compulsion nearly causes Cordelia to strike Lucie, who has thrown herself before Jesse's body. James fires his revolver at Lilith; the weapon works because Christopher unknowingly built into it a spell invoking three angels who are Lilith's ancient enemies. Lilith flees but warns Cordelia she remains her paladin. Lucie commands Jesse to expel Belial, and his soul tears the demon free. James pulls Cordelia into the shadow realm, where she drives Cortana into Belial's chest. He is swept into the void. Leviathan's simultaneous attack on the Institute fails because the summoning sigil was never completed.

In the aftermath, Cordelia reveals she is Lilith's paladin, unable to draw a weapon without risking the demon queen's control, and realizes she cannot become Lucie's parabatai while bound to Lilith. James confronts Grace, who confesses that Belial gave her the power to control men's minds as a child and that the bracelet was forged to overcome James's resistance. James resolves to tell Cordelia the truth, but she has already seen Grace in his arms and misinterpreted their conversation as proof of his love for Grace. Devastated, Cordelia flees to Matthew's flat, where he confesses his own love and proposes they escape to Paris as friends. She agrees on the condition that he limit his drinking, and they depart that night.

James tracks them to Waterloo Station but arrives as the train pulls away. His father, Will Herondale, intercepts with urgent news: Lucie has disappeared with Malcolm Fade and Jesse's body. In the Institute's Sanctuary, a secure chamber, Lucie had placed her hands on Jesse's chest and commanded him to live, and he drew breath. Malcolm carried them to Cornwall. Unable to follow Cordelia, James departs with Will and the real Magnus Bane to find Lucie.

In the epilogue, Tatiana escapes the Adamant Citadel, the fortress where she was being held, carrying a stolen key to the Iron Tombs, the vaults where the preserved bodies of deceased Silent Brothers, a monastic Shadowhunter order, and Iron Sisters are kept. She meets the translucent, twice-wounded Belial, and he carries her away, setting the stage for the final volume.