Lord of Shadows (The Dark Artifices #2)(209)

"She knows," Diana said. "She didn't know at the time. In Thailand, I lived as the woman I am. I dressed as myself. Aria introduced me as her sister. I was happy. For the first time I felt free, and I chose a name for myself that embraced that freedom. My father's weapons shop had always been called Diana's Arrow, after the goddess of the hunt, who was proud and free. I named myself Diana. I am Diana." She took a ragged breath. "And then my sister and I went out to explore an island where it was rumored there were Thotsakan demons. It turned out not to be demons at all, but revenants-hungry ghosts. Dozens of them. We fought them, but we were both injured. Catarina rescued us. Rescued me. When I woke up in a small house not far away, Catarina was caring for us. I knew she had seen my injuries-that she had seen my body. I knew she knew . . ."

"Diana," said Gwyn in his deep voice, and stretched out a hand. But Diana shook her head.

"Don't," she said. "Or I won't be able to get through it." Her eyes were burning with unshed tears. "I pulled the rags of my clothes around my body. I screamed for my sister. But she was dead, had died while Catarina ministered to her. I broke down completely then. I had lost everything. My life was destroyed. That's what I thought." A tear slipped down her face. "Catarina nursed me back to health and sanity. I was in that cottage with her for weeks. And she talked to me. She gave me words, which I'd never had, as a gift. It was the first time I heard the word 'transgender.' I broke into tears. I had never realized before how much you can take from someone by not allowing them the words they need to describe themselves. How can you know there are other people like you, when you've never had a name to call yourself? I know there must have been other transgender Shadowhunters, that they must have existed in the past and exist now. But I have no way to search for them and it would be dangerous to ask." A flicker of anger at the old injustice sharpened her voice. "Then Catarina told me of transitioning. That I could live as myself, the way I needed to and be acknowledged as who I am. I knew it was what I wanted. 

"I went with Catarina to Bangkok. But not as David. I went as Diana. And I did not go as a Shadowhunter. I lived with Catarina in a small apartment. I told my parents of Aria's death and that I was Diana now: They replied that they had told the Council that David was the one who had died. That they loved me and understood, but that I must live in the mundane world now, for I was seeing mundane doctors and that was against the law.

"It was too late for me to stop them. The Clave was told that David had died out on the island, fighting revenants. They gave David my sister's death, a death with honor. I wished they had not lied, but if they had to wear white for the boy who was gone, even if he'd never really existed, I couldn't deny them that.

"Catarina had worked as a nurse for years. She knew mundane medicine. She brought me to a clinic in Bangkok. I met others like myself there. I wasn't alone any longer. I was there for three years. I never planned to be a Shadowhunter again. What I was gaining was too precious. I couldn't risk being discovered, having my secrets flayed open, being called by a man's name, having who I was denied.

"Through the years, Catarina guided me through the mundane medical procedure that gave me the body in whose skin I felt comfortable. She hid my unusual test results from the doctors so they would never be puzzled by my Shadowhunter blood."

"Mundane medicine," Gwyn echoed. "It is forbidden, is it not, for a Shadowhunter to seek out mundane medical treatment? Why did Catarina not simply use magic to aid you?"

Diana shook her head. "I wouldn't have wanted that," she said. "A magic spell can always be undone by another spell. I will not have the truth of myself be something that can be dissolved by a stray enchantment or passing through the wrong magical gate. My body is my body-the body I have grown into as a woman, as all women grow into their bodies."

Gwyn nodded, though Diana couldn't tell if he understood. "So that is what you fear," was all he said.

"I'm not afraid for myself," said Diana. "I'm afraid for the children. As long as I'm their tutor, I feel like I can protect them in some way. If the Clave knew what I'd done, that I'd sought out mundane doctors, I'd wind up in prison under the Silent City. Or in the Basilias, if they were being kind."

"And your parents?" Gwyn's face was unreadable. Diana wished he would give her some kind of sign. Was he angry? Would he mock her? His calmness was making her pulse race. "Did they come to you? You must have missed them."

"I feared to expose them to the Clave." Diana's voice hitched. "Each time they spoke of a clandestine visit to Bangkok, I put them off. And then the news came that they had died, slain in a demon attack. Catarina was the one who told me. I wept all night. I could not tell my mundane friends of my parents' deaths because they would not understand why I didn't return home for a funeral.