"He's a prince of Faerie. Everything they hate. And I do not think I realized, until we arrived here, how much they hate. They will not want him to speak, and they will absolutely not want the Council to listen."
"That's why we're here to make them listen," Emma began, but Cristina was looking past her, a startled expression on her face. Emma turned to see Diego, miraculously without Zara, beckoning to Cristina from an empty row of seats.
"I must go and talk to him," Cristina said. She squeezed Emma's shoulder, looking suddenly hopeful. Emma wished her luck and Cristina disappeared into the crowd, leaving Emma looking around for Julian.
She didn't see her parabatai anywhere. But what she did see was a tight group of Shadowhunters, Mark among them, and the sudden silver flash of weapons. Samantha Larkspear had pulled a wicked-looking blade. Emma headed toward the raised voices, her hand already reaching for Cortana's hilt.
* * *
Mark loved all his brothers and sisters, none more than the others. Still, Helen was special. She was like him-half-faerie, drawn to its temptations. Helen even claimed she could remember their mother, Nerissa, though Mark couldn't.
He set Helen down on her feet, ruffling her pale hair. Her face-she looked different, older. Not in lines around her eyes or coarsening skin, just in a certain cast of her features. He wondered if she had named the stars through the years, as he did: Julian, Tiberius, Livia, Drusilla, Octavian. And she would have added another, that he never had: Mark.
"I would speak to you," he said. "Of Nene, our mother's sister."
An echo of faerie formality was in her voice when she replied. "Diana told me you met her in Faerie. I knew of her, but not where she could be found. We should speak of her, and of other matters as pressing." She looked up at him and sighed, touching her hand to his cheek. "Such as when you got so tall."
"I think it happened when I was in the Hunt. Should I apologize?"
"Not at all. I was worried-" She stepped back to look at him quizzically. "I think I may owe Kieran Kingson some thanks for his care of you."
"As I owe Aline, for her care of you."
Helen smiled at that. "She is the light of my days." She glanced up at the large clock over the dais. "We have little time now, Mark. If all goes as we hope, we will have forever to confer with one another. But either way, Aline and I will remain this night in Alicante, and from what Jia says, so will you. It will give us a chance to talk."
"That depends how tonight goes, doesn't it?" A sharp voice interrupted them. It was Samantha Larkspear. Mark vaguely remembered that she had a brother who looked a great deal like her.
She wore Centurion gear and carried a placard that said THE ONLY GOOD FAERIE IS A DEAD FAERIE. There was a blob of what looked like black paint at the bottom of the sign.
"Pithy," Mark said. But Helen had paled with shock, staring at the words on the placard.
"After this afternoon's vote, if scum like you are allowed in Alicante, I'd be very surprised," Samantha said. "Enjoy it while you can."
"You're talking to the wife of the Consul's daughter," said Aline, her nostrils flaring. "Watch your mouth, Samantha Larkspear."
Samantha made an odd, gulping, hissing noise, and reached for her weapons belt, flashing a dagger with a thick knuckle-guard hilt. Mark could see her brother, pale and black-haired as she was, pushing toward them through the crowd. Helen had her hand on the seraph blade in her belt. Moving instinctively, Mark reached for the blade at his own hip, tensed for violence.
* * *
Kit looked up when Julian's hand fell on his shoulder.
He'd been slouching in his chair, mostly looking at Alicante through the big glass window behind the wooden stagelike thing at the front of the room. He'd been deliberately not looking at Livvy and Ty greeting their sister. Something about the tight knot of Blackthorns hugging and exclaiming over each other reminded him exactly how much he wasn't one of them in a way he hadn't been reminded since Los Angeles.
"Your sister's here," he said to Julian. He pointed. "Helen."
Julian glanced over at his siblings briefly; Kit had the feeling he already knew. He looked tense and sparking at the edges, like snapped electrical wire.
"I need you to do something," he said. "Alec's guarding the east doors to the Hall. Go find him and bring him to Magnus. Tell him Magnus is in the Consul's guest quarters; he'll know where that is."
Kit swung his legs off the chair in front of him. "Why?"