City of Bones
Book One of the Mortal Instruments
Cassandra Clare
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Part One
Dark Descent
1 Pandemonium
2 Secrets and Lies
3 Shadowhunter
4 Ravener
5 Clave and Covenant
6 Forsaken
7 The Five-Dimensional Door
8 Weapon of Choice
9 The Circle and the Brotherhood
Part Two
Easy Is the Descent
10 City of Bones
11 Magnus Bane
12 Dead Man’s Party
13 The Memory of Whiteness
14 The Hotel Dumort
15 High and Dry
16 Falling Angels
17 The Midnight Flower
18 The Mortal Cup
19 Abbadon
20 In Rats’ Alley
Part Three
The Descent Beckons
21 The Werewolf’s Tale
22 Renwick’s Ruin
23 Valentine
Epilogue
The Ascent Beckons
For my grandfather
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank my writing group, the Massachusetts All-Stars: Ellen Kushner, Delia Sherman, Kelly Link, Gavin Grant, Holly Black, and Sarah Smith. Also, Tom Holt and Peg Kerr for encouraging me before there ever was a book, and Justine Larbalestier and Eve Sinaiko for giving me their thoughts on it once it was. My mother and father for their dedication, affection, and unswerving belief that I would eventually produce something publishable. Jim Hill and Kate Connor for their encouragement and support. Eric for vampire motorbikes that run on demon energies and Elka for looking better in black than the widows of her enemies. Theo and Val for creating beautiful images to go with my prose. My glamorous agent, Barry Goldblatt, and my talented editor, Karen Wojtyla. Holly for living through this book with me, and Josh for making it all worthwhile.
I have not slept.
Between the acting of a dreadful thing
And the first motion, all the interim is
Like
a phantasma, or a hideous dream:
The Genius and the mortal instruments
Are then in council; and the state of man,
Like to a little kingdom, suffers then
The nature of an insurrection.
– William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
Part One
Dark Descent
I sung of Chaos and eternal Night,
Taught by the heav’nly Muse to venture down
The dark descent, and up to reascend…
– John Milton, Paradise Lost
1
Pandemonium
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” the bouncer said, folding his arms across his massive chest. He stared down at the boy in the red zip-up jacket and shook his shaved head. “You can’t bring that thing in here.”
The fifty or so teenagers in line outside the Pandemonium Club leaned forward to eavesdrop. It was a long wait to get into the all-ages club, especially on a Sunday, and not much generally happened in line. The bouncers were fierce and would come down instantly on anyone who looked like they were going to start trouble. Fifteen-year-old Clary Fray, standing in line with her best friend, Simon, leaned forward along with everyone else, hoping for some excitement.
“Aw, come on.” The kid hoisted the thing up over his head. It looked like a wooden beam, pointed at one end. “It’s part of my costume.”
The bouncer raised an eyebrow. “Which is what?”
The boy grinned. He was normal-enough-looking, Clary thought, for Pandemonium. He had electric blue dyed hair that stuck up around his head like the tendrils of a startled octopus, but no elaborate facial tattoos or big metal bars through his ears or lips. “I’m a vampire hunter.” He pushed down on the wooden thing. It bent as easily as a blade of grass bending sideways. “It’s fake. Foam rubber. See?”