Clockwork Prince

The second installment of The Infernal Devices trilogy is set in Victorian London's shadow world of Shadowhunters, angel-blooded warriors who protect humanity from demons. At the London Institute, a Gothic church that serves as the Shadowhunters' base, 16-year-old Tessa Gray, an orphaned shape-changer who can transform into other people by touching their belongings, lives among those who rescued her from the villain Axel Mortmain in the previous book. Mortmain, an industrialist who commands an army of clockwork automatons, seeks Tessa for mysterious purposes and has vowed to destroy Shadowhunter society.

The novel opens with Will Herondale, a sharp-tongued 17-year-old Shadowhunter, secretly buying demon powders for the warlock Magnus Bane while asking a ghost for a potion to stop himself from being in love. Will harbors a devastating secret: At 12, he opened a cursed box and released a demon that told him anyone who loved him would die. His elder sister Ella died that night, and Will fled his family, spending five years alienating everyone around him to protect them.

At a Council meeting beneath Westminster Abbey, Benedict Lightwood formally challenges Charlotte Branwell's leadership of the London Institute. Charlotte, the Institute's fierce director, is given two weeks to locate Mortmain or face removal. The Council also orders Benedict's sons, Gabriel and Gideon, to train Tessa and the Institute's parlor maid, Sophie Collins, in combat.

James Carstairs, known as Jem, is Will's gentle, silver-haired parabatai, or soul-bonded warrior partner. Jem suggests checking the Reparations archives, where Downworlders (nonhuman peoples such as warlocks, vampires, werewolves, and faeries) file grievances against Shadowhunters. Charlotte discovers that Mortmain filed a complaint in 1825 seeking justice for the killing of his adoptive parents, John and Anne Shade, both warlocks executed for practicing necromancy. The filing was processed through the York Institute under Aloysius Starkweather, now an 89-year-old recluse who despises Charlotte's family.

When Starkweather refuses to cooperate, Tessa, Will, and Jem travel to York. To explain the presence of a non-Shadowhunter, Tessa poses as Jem's mundane (ordinary human) fiancée, wearing his family ring. Starkweather is inexplicably shocked at the sight of Tessa and reverses his refusal, producing documents revealing Mortmain once lived at Ravenscar Manor in Yorkshire.

At Ravenscar Manor, the group finds the estate inhabited. A dark-haired girl of about 15 steps from a carriage, and Will identifies her as his younger sister Cecily, whom he left behind five years ago. A mechanical automaton on the ridge delivers Mortmain's warning: Cease all investigation or Will's family will suffer. Will destroys it in fury and, upon returning to London, bolts from the train and vanishes.

Back at the Institute, Tessa uses her shape-changing power to become Starkweather through a button she took from his coat, accessing his fragmenting memories. She glimpses John Shade commanding automatons while declaring his adopted son will rule a clockwork kingdom, and feels Starkweather's inexplicable shock upon seeing her own face, though she cannot understand why.

Throughout this period, Will secretly visits Magnus, who has been summoning demons to identify the one that cursed Will. Charlotte hires the warlock Ragnor Fell to watch over Will's family. Fell reports that Mortmain deliberately housed the destitute Herondales at Ravenscar, where Shadowhunter law forbids the Clave, the governing body of Shadowhunter society, from interfering with families who have left its jurisdiction.

Tensions between Will and Jem peak when Tessa and Jem track Will to a drug den that trades in yin fen, the same silver powder that keeps Jem alive while slowly killing him. Devastated that Will would partake of the substance destroying his life, Jem punches him. Back at the Institute, Jem's anguish boils over and he and Tessa kiss passionately, though the encounter ends abruptly when Tessa shatters Jem's supply of the drug.

Sophie has been observing Jessamine Lovelace, another young Shadowhunter at the Institute, sneaking out dressed as a boy. When Sophie discovers an invitation to a masquerade at Benedict's country estate along with a love note from Tessa's brother Nate, she restrains Jessamine. With no time to wake Charlotte and fearing word might reach Benedict's allies, Tessa Changes into Jessamine and attends the ball with Will.

Dancing with Nate, Tessa learns Jessamine has been spying on the Institute for months, Benedict is Mortmain's ally, and the plan involves seizing the Institute from within while the automaton army attacks from without. Nate reveals he and Jessamine are married. A faerie named Hyacinth sees through Tessa's disguise and tells her she looks just like her mother before vanishing. On a balcony, Will and Tessa share a passionate kiss, but Magnus reveals the lemonade was laced with inhibition-lowering warlock powder. Will spots the blue-skinned demon from his childhood and extracts one of its teeth during a chase.

Charlotte confronts Jessamine with the Mortal Sword, a sacred blade that compels truthful answers from Shadowhunters. Jessamine confesses to espionage, confirms Benedict's alliance with Mortmain, and claims Nate told her Tessa's father was a demon and her mother a Shadowhunter, a combination that should produce only stillborn children. Jessamine is taken to the Silent City, the underground stronghold of the Silent Brothers (an order that serves as archivists and healers), for deeper examination.

Magnus uses the tooth to summon the demon Marbas. Confronted, Marbas admits the curse was a lie: The demon was too weak after imprisonment to cast any real curse, and Ella died from its venomous stinger. Five years of Will's isolation were based on a deception. Will returns to the Institute transformed and joyful. Jem, meanwhile, proposes to Tessa, offering his mother's jade pendant and telling her his love has made him stronger. Tessa accepts, though a part of her remains drawn to Will.

The group lures Nate to a warehouse with Tessa disguised as Jessamine. Nate sees through the deception and reveals he is not Tessa's brother but her cousin. He unleashes a massive automaton that injures Charlotte and knocks Henry Branwell, Charlotte's inventor husband, unconscious. Tessa Changes into Nate and commands the machine to seize him, exploiting its obedience to Nate's voice, while Will activates an anti-clockwork device. The automaton explodes. Will shields Tessa from the blast, and metal shards shred his back. A fragment impales Nate, who dies in Tessa's arms.

During days of recovery, Will visits the semiconscious Tessa one night. She curls against him, believing she is dreaming, and falls asleep in his arms. When Jem and Tessa announce their engagement to the household, Will raises a toast with quiet grace.

Sophie reveals that Gideon Lightwood told her Benedict has demon pox, a disease contracted through relations with demons, and that Mortmain supplies drugs to slow its progress, giving him leverage over Benedict. Will finds Tessa alone and confesses everything: the false curse, years of deliberate cruelty, and his love. Tessa tells him she is engaged to Jem and refuses to break it off, knowing it would destroy Jem. She asks him to keep the truth secret.

Charlotte confronts Benedict with the demon pox evidence, forcing him to endorse her leadership publicly. Gideon renounces his father and joins the Institute, though Gabriel refuses to follow. At the Council meeting, Charlotte is confirmed as director by vote. Mechanical spy-beetles from Mortmain swarm the chamber before vanishing, a reminder that his threat endures.

At a celebratory dinner, Charlotte announces her pregnancy. The evening is interrupted when Cecily Herondale, Will's 15-year-old sister, walks into the Institute and announces she has come to train as a Shadowhunter.