Lord of Shadows (the Dark Artifices, #2)

The second book in Cassandra Clare's Dark Artifices trilogy picks up shortly after Lady Midnight. Shadowhunters are half-angel warriors, called Nephilim, who protect the mundane (ordinary human) world from demons. The Blackthorn family lives at the Los Angeles Institute, their Shadowhunter headquarters. They reel from the death of Malcolm Fade, the High Warlock of Los Angeles, a centuries-old serial killer. Emma Carstairs, the parabatai (sworn warrior partner) of Julian Blackthorn, carries a secret: Jem Carstairs, a Shadowhunter holy man and distant relative, told her that parabatai who fall in love are driven mad by an ancient curse and destroy everyone around them. Since Emma and Julian are deeply in love, she has orchestrated a fake relationship with Julian's half-faerie brother Mark Blackthorn to extinguish Julian's feelings. Mark, who spent years as a captive of the Wild Hunt, a band of faeries who ride the skies, agreed reluctantly.

Kit Herondale, the recently discovered heir to the Herondale Shadowhunter line, adjusts reluctantly to Institute life after Jace Herondale, head of the New York Institute and a renowned Shadowhunter, persuades him to give it a chance. Kit gradually bonds with Julian's younger siblings, the twins Tiberius (Ty) and Livia (Livvy) Blackthorn.

A team of Centurions, elite Shadowhunters, arrives to search for Malcolm's body and the Black Volume of the Dead, a powerful necromantic text. Their presence threatens Julian's secret: His Uncle Arthur Blackthorn, the nominal Institute head, has a mental health condition caused by faerie torture, and Julian has been running the Institute since age 12. Among the Centurions is Zara Dearborn, who reveals herself as the fiancée of Diego Rosales, devastating Cristina, a close friend of Emma's who had reconciled with Diego. Zara and her allies advocate for a registry to track all Downworlders (werewolves, vampires, warlocks, and faeries). Kit, Ty, and Livvy spy on the Centurions and discover Zara belongs to a faction called the Cohort, which plans to seize the Institute by exposing Arthur's condition.

Gwyn ap Nudd, leader of the Wild Hunt, announces that Kieran Hunter, Mark's former lover and a prince of the Unseelie Court (one of Faerie's two rival royal courts), has been sentenced to death. Indebted to Kieran for protecting him in the Wild Hunt, Mark secretly departs for Faerie. Julian, Emma, and Cristina follow along the moon's road, a path of solidified moonlight, using Cristina's pendant to prevent time from passing too quickly. In the Unseelie Lands, territory ruled by the Unseelie King, all Shadowhunter magic has been cancelled: Runes—the inscribed symbols drawn on Shadowhunters' skin that grant them special abilities—fade, seraph blades (swords activated by speaking an angel's name) refuse to ignite, and witchlight (a magical light-stone used by Shadowhunters) is dead. Patches of blight, circles of dead earth, scar the landscape.

At the Unseelie Court, Julian bluffs that the Clave, the Shadowhunters' ruling government, sent him, delivering the lie so confidently that even the King hesitates. The King forces Emma to fight in trial by combat against a masked knight who proves to be an illusion of her dead father. Cristina exposes the deception by offering cold iron, which harms faeries but not Shadowhunters, and Emma kills the real faerie knight. Julian seizes Prince Erec, one of the Unseelie King's sons, as a hostage while Mark frees the wounded Kieran, and the group escapes.

They take refuge in the Seelie Court, the rival faerie court. The Seelie Queen shows Julian a devastating vision: Arthur Blackthorn sacrificed himself to Malcolm, offering his own blood to protect the children. The blood raised Annabel Blackthorn, Malcolm's centuries-dead lover, but Annabel killed Malcolm and fled with the Black Volume. The Queen proposes a bargain: If the Blackthorns retrieve the Black Volume, she will ally with the Shadowhunters against the Unseelie King and help end the Cold Peace, the punitive treaty that exiled Helen Blackthorn, Julian's half-faerie sister. Kieran agrees to testify before the Shadowhunter Council. Privately, the Queen tells Julian she knows how to break the parabatai bond, but doing so would destroy every parabatai bond in existence.

Back at the LA Institute, Malcolm returns as a reanimated corpse with an army of sea demons. Diana Wrayburn, the family's tutor, sends the younger Blackthorns to the London Institute. Arthur refuses to leave, staying behind to face Malcolm.

At the London Institute, run by Evelyn Highsmith, the group reconvenes. Alec Lightwood, a prominent Shadowhunter, and his partner, the warlock Magnus Bane, arrive later, and Alec takes temporary charge. Julian and Emma travel to Malcolm's cottage in Cornwall, discovering his diaries and the history of his doomed love for Annabel. At Blackthorn Hall, the family's ancestral manor, Ty finds an aletheia crystal, a memory-storage device. It reveals that Annabel was tortured by an Inquisitor named Dearborn and that Shadowhunter families covered up her murder. At the London Shadow Market, a hidden supernatural bazaar, Livvy is wounded during a hostile confrontation, and Magnus saves them.

The Unseelie King dispatches the Riders of Mannan, his immortal warriors, to hunt the Blackthorns. Emma kills one Rider with Cortana, her family sword, an unprecedented feat. In London, Gwyn and Diana rescue Kit, Ty, and Livvy from other Riders. Afterward, Ty has a meltdown from cumulative stress, and Kit holds him until he calms, a moment that crystallizes Kit's commitment to staying.

The King sends a magical apparition that restores memories he had previously stripped from Kieran, including the truth of Mark's deception. Kieran is devastated to learn the Blackthorns manipulated him. Diana, meanwhile, reveals to Gwyn that she is transgender and transitioned with the help of mundane medicine, which Shadowhunter law forbids. This prevents her from taking the Institute head position, since the investiture ceremony requires answering questions under the Mortal Sword, a truth-compelling blade.

Julian and Emma confess their forbidden love to Inquisitor Robert Lightwood, requesting exile for Emma to deaden the bond's power. Robert agrees to consider terms. Annabel arrives at the London Institute clutching the Black Volume just as the Riders of Mannan besiege the courtyard. Emma goes out alone to fight, and Annabel forces the Riders' retreat by threatening to reveal the Unseelie King's true name. Julian persuades Annabel to testify before the Council that she, not Zara, killed Malcolm, promising her reinstatement.

At the Council meeting in Alicante, the Shadowhunter capital, Helen and her partner, Aline Penhallow, reunite with the family after their exile. The Cohort fills the hall with hateful placards. Magnus collapses from exhaustion and cannot accompany Annabel as Julian promised. Annabel takes the Mortal Sword, the truth-compelling blade, and confirms she killed Malcolm. The Cohort responds by hurling objects and screaming insults. Panicked, Annabel drives the Mortal Sword into Robert Lightwood's chest, killing him. Emma raises Cortana, and the clash shatters the Mortal Sword. Annabel, feral with terror, leaps past Julian and drives the broken blade into Livvy Blackthorn's heart. Livvy dies almost instantly, whispering Ty's name. The Unseelie King's symbol, a broken crown, appears in dark smoke, and Annabel vanishes with the Black Volume.

Julian cradles Livvy's body, drawing healing rune after healing rune that vanish as fast as he traces them. Helen arrives, and together they prepare Livvy to be carried to the Silent City, the Shadowhunters' city of the dead. The Consul demands Emma surrender Cortana in exchange for being allowed to go to Julian's side. Mark and Helen tell Tavvy, Julian's seven-year-old youngest brother, that his sister is dead. Cristina finds Emma on the bloodstained dais and leads her away; Emma knows "nothing at all would ever be the same again" (705).