Julian couldn't remember the last time he had seen his uncle out of the Institute. Arthur had put on a rough jacket and boots, and in his hand was a witchlight, dimly glowing. He had never looked quite so much like a Shadowhunter, not even in the Hall of Accords.
"Malcolm!" Arthur called out. "Malcolm, I demand you come to me! Malcolm Fade! I am here, with Blackthorn blood!"
"But Malcolm's dead," Julian murmured, staring at the bowl. "He died."
"It is a weakness of your kind, to regard death as so final," said the Queen with glee, "especially when it comes to warlocks."
Fear tore through Julian like an arrow. He had been sure when they'd left the Institute that they were leaving his family safe. But if Malcolm was there-still hunting for Blackthorn blood-though, if Arthur was offering it, Malcolm must still not have acquired it-but then, Arthur could hardly be trusted-
"Hush," said the Queen, as if she could hear the clamor of his thoughts. "Watch."
"Malcolm!" Arthur cried, his voice echoing off the mountains.
"I am here. Though you are early." The voice belonged to a shadow-a twisted, misshapen shadow. Julian swallowed hard as Malcolm stepped out into the moonlight and what had been done to him, or what he had done to himself, was clearly revealed.
The water in the bowl blurred. Julian almost reached for the image before checking himself and jerking his hand back. "Where are they?" he said, in a harsh voice. "What are they doing?"
"Patience. There is a place they must go. Malcolm will take your uncle there." The Seelie Queen gloated. She thought she had Julian in the palm of her hand now, he thought, and hated her. She dipped her long fingers into the water, and Julian saw a brief swirl of images-the doors of the New York Institute, Jace and Clary asleep in a green field, Jem and Tessa in a dark, shadowy place-and then the images resolved again.
Arthur and Malcolm were inside a church, an old-fashioned one with stained-glass windows and carved pew-ends. Something covered in a black cloth lay on the altar. Something that moved ever so slightly, restlessly, like an animal waking from sleep.
Malcolm stood watching Arthur, with a smile playing on his ruined face. He looked like something dragged up from some watery Hell dimension. Cracks and runnels in his skin leaked seawater. His eyes were milky and opaque; half his white hair was gone, and his bald skin was patchy and scabbed. He wore a white suit, and the raw fissures in his skin disappeared incongruously under expensive collar and cuffs.
"For any blood ritual, willing blood is better than unwilling," said Arthur. He stood in his usual slumped posture, hands in the pockets of his jeans. "I'll give you mine willingly if you'll swear to leave my family alone."
Malcolm licked his lips; his tongue was bluish. "That's all you want? That promise?"
Arthur nodded.
"You don't want the Black Volume?" Malcolm said in a taunting voice, tapping the book tucked into the waistband of his trousers. "You don't want assurance I'll never harm a single Nephilim?"
"Your revenge only matters to me inasmuch as my family remains unharmed," said Arthur, and relief weakened Julian's knees. "The Blackthorn blood I give you should slake your thirst for it, warlock."
Malcolm smiled. His teeth were twisted and sharp, like a shark's. "Now, if I make this agreement, am I taking advantage of you, given that you are a madman?" he mused aloud. "Has your shaky mind mistaken the situation? Are you confused? Bewildered? Do you know who I am?" Arthur winced, and Julian felt a pang of sympathy for his uncle, and a flash of hate for Malcolm.
Kill him, he thought. Tell me you brought a seraph blade, Uncle, and run him through.
"Your uncle will not be armed," said the Queen. "Fade would have seen to that." She was watching with an almost avaricious delight. "The mad Nephilim and the mad warlock," she said. "It is like a storybook."
"You are Malcolm Fade, betrayer and murderer," said Arthur.
"Quite an ungrateful thing to say to someone who's been providing you with your cures all these years," Malcolm murmured.
"Cures? More like temporary lies. You did what you had to do to continue to deceive Julian," said Arthur, and Julian started to hear his own name. "You gave him medicine for me because it made him trust you. My family loved you. More than they ever did me. You twisted a knife in their hearts."
"Oh," Malcolm murmured. "If only."
"I would rather be mad my way than yours," said Arthur. "You had so much. Love once, and power, and immortal life, and you have thrown it away as if it were trash by the side of the road." He glanced toward the twitching thing on the altar. "I wonder if she will still love you, the way you are now."