Description: Chapter One: The Sleep Thorn CHAPTER ONE The Sleep Thorn September 2010 IT WAS LATE, AND UNTIL a moment ago, all had been quiet. Magnus Bane, High Warlock of Brooklyn, sat in his living room on his favorite chair, open book facedown in his lap, and watched the latch of his top-story window jiggle. For the last week, somebody had been prodding and testing the magical wards protecting his apartment. Now it seemed they had decided to prod more directly. Magnus thought this a foolish decision on their part. Warlocks kept late hours, for one thing. For another, he lived with a Shadowhunter--who was currently out on patrol, true, but Magnus was fully capable of defending himself, even in his pajamas. He cinched the belt of his black silk robe tighter and wiggled his fingers in front of him, feeling magic gather in them. He reflected that years ago he would have been much more casual about this kind of break-in, letting it play out naturally and trusting his instincts to lead him through. Now he sat pointing literal finger-guns at the window. Now his infant son was asleep just down the hall. At just over a year old, Max was sleeping through the night most of the time now. This was a relief, but also an inconvenience, because both of Max''s parents kept nocturnal hours. Max, on the other hand, kept military hours, waking every morning at five thirty with a cheerful shriek that Magnus both adored and dreaded. The window slid upward. Fire woke in both of Magnus''s palms, and magic blazed in the dark, sapphire-blue. A figure pulled its torso through the window and then froze. Framed in the opening was a Shadowhunter in full demon-hunting gear, bow looped over one shoulder. He looked surprised. "Uh, hi," said Alec Lightwood. "I''m home. Please don''t shoot me with magical rays." Magnus waved with both hands, blue lights paling, then winking out, leaving faint traces of smoke curling around his fingers. "You usually use the door." "Sometime I like the change of pace." Alec pulled himself the rest of the way in and closed the window behind him. Magnus gave him a look. "Okay. Truth. A demon ate my keys." "We go through so many keys." Magnus got up to embrace his boyfriend. "Wait, no. I smell." "There''s nothing wrong," proclaimed Magnus, moving his head toward Alec''s neck, "with the smell of the sweat of a hard night''s work--you do smell. What is that?" "That," said Alec, "is the musk of the common subway tunnel smoke demon." "Oh, honey." Magnus kissed Alec''s neck anyway. He breathed through his mouth. "Hang on, it''s mostly on the gear," said Alec. Magnus gave him a little space and he began taking it off: the bow, the quiver, his stele, some seraph blades, his leather jacket, his boots, his shirt. "Let me help you with the rest of that," Magnus murmured as Alec finished unbuttoning the shirt, and Alec gave him a real smile, his blue eyes warm, and Magnus felt a wave of love thrum through him. Three years in, he still felt as strongly as ever for Alec. More so every day. Still. He marveled at it. Alec''s mouth quirked, and he shifted his gaze to the hallway past Magnus. "He''s asleep," Magnus said, and kissed Alec''s mouth. "Been asleep for hours." He moved to pull Alec toward the couch. Only a quick wiggle of his fingers, and the candles on the end table lit and the lamps dimmed. Alec laughed, low in his chest. "We have a perfectly good bed, you know." "Bed''s closer to the kid''s room. Quieter to stay here," Magnus murmured. "Also, we would have to kick Chairman Meow off the bed." "Aw," said Alec, dipping his head to kiss the hollow of Magnus''s throat. Magnus let his head fall back and allowed himself a little pleased moan. "He hates that." "Hang on," said Magnus, stepping back. With a flourish, he divested himself of the robe, letting it fall into a pool of black silk around his feet. Underneath, he wore navy pajamas covered in small white anchors. Alec''s eyes narrowed. "Well, I didn''t know this was happening, obviously," Magnus said. "Or I would have worn something sexier than my fuzzy sailor pajamas." "They are plenty sexy," said Alec, and then both of them froze, because a sudden scream rent the air. Alec closed his eyes and exhaled slowly, and Magnus could tell he was mentally counting to ten. "I''ll go," said Alec. "I''ll go," said Magnus. "You just got home." "No, no, I''ll go. I want to see him anyway." Still only in his trousers, Alec padded toward the hall to Max''s room. He looked over his shoulder at Magnus, shaking his head and smiling. "Never fails, huh." "Kid''s got a sixth sense," Magnus agreed. "Rain check?" "Stay there." Magnus opened a little Portal to Max''s room to watch Alec pick up their son and rock him. Alec looked over at the Portal from his end and said, "Sure, that seems much easier than just walking down the hall." "I was told to stay here." Alec pointed at the Portal and said to Max, "Is that bapak ? Do you see bapak ?" Magnus had wanted to be called something that felt true to his own childhood, but it always felt strange. His own father, the human one, had been bapak , and when he said it to Max, he felt a little twinge, as though he were walking on his father''s grave. Max quickly calmed--these days a scream was more likely to be a nightmare than anything requiring more than soothing--and blinked sleepy eyes at Magnus, who smiled and wiggled little glittery sparks from the ends of his fingers at his child. A smile broke on Max''s face as his eyes drifted shut. He was already almost asleep again, one chubby blue arm flopping out to the side. Max''s skin was deep blue--that was his warlock mark, along with adorable stubs that Magnus suspected would grow into horns. Alec returned him to his crib. Magnus watched, marveling at the strange happiness of his life now, as a beautiful, extremely fit man with no shirt and startlingly blue eyes cared for the baby they had together. He cursed his own sentimentality and tried to think sexy thoughts. Alec looked up at him, and in the dim light Magnus could suddenly see how weary he looked. "I," Alec declared, "am going to go take a shower. Then I will return to you in the living room." "Then probably another shower," said Magnus. "Hurry back." He closed the Portal and returned to his book, a study of Scandinavian mythological artifacts and their owners and locations through history. He planned to begin thinking sexy thoughts again when Alec got back. Two minutes into Alec''s shower, which, based on Alec''s usual showers, was likely to last around twenty minutes, Max gave a sudden cry in his sleep. Magnus was immediately alert, and then, when no further sound came, relaxed again and returned to his reading. A few minutes later, he heard footsteps in the hallway. Magnus turned around fast. He wasn''t crazy; someone had been testing his wards and planning to break in. When he saw who appeared in the doorway, his heart sank. No matter what she was here for, nobody was going to be having any romantic times tonight. "Shinyun Jung," he said, affecting a blas tone. "Are you here to try to kill me again?" Shinyun Jung''s warlock mark was a supernaturally still face, her expression blank and secret no matter what she was feeling. The last time Magnus had seen her, she had been tied to a marble pillar to restrain her, her plot to bring the Prince of Hell Asmodeus to power ruined. Magnus had sympathy for her--she had rage and pain inside her that he could understand all too well. And he had not been upset when she "somehow escaped" Alec''s custody and they had not had to turn her over to the Clave. Now she stood before Magnus, impassive as ever. "It took a great deal of time to break through your wards. They were very impressive." "Not impressive enough," Magnus said. Shinyun shrugged. "I needed to talk to you." "We have a telephone," Magnus said. "You could have just called. It''s not a great time, actually." "I have some very, very good news," Shinyun said, which was not what Magnus had been expecting. "Also, I need the Book of the White. You will give it to me." That was more what he had been expecting. Magnus considered whether to go into an explanation of why, despite his wishing Shinyun all the best in her life, nevertheless he was wary of giving her one of the most powerful spell books in existence, because of everything he knew about her and all the things she had done. Instead he said, "I don''t have it anymore. I gave it to the Spiral Labyrinth. But what is this good news?" Before she could speak, a second figure stepped into the room from the hallway. Magnus gasped. Ragnor. Ragnor, who had disappeared three years ago. Who had reassured Magnus he would be in touch soon. Magnus had waited, and then taken up an active search, and in the end he had concluded that Ragnor had been caught after all, that his ruse had failed, that he was dead in truth. Ragnor, who he had mourned for, and said good-bye to in his head, if not in his heart. Ragnor, holding Max. Magnus was rendered speechless. Under normal circumstances, he would have gone for his seventh-ever hug with Ragnor. But these weren''t normal circumstances. Shinyun was here, and there was something very odd about the way Ragnor was looking at Magnus

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