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When she was ready, she used her bent hairpin to open the door of her room.

Outside, the corridors were dim, the torches along the walls flickering. Shadows seemed to be curled in every corner like lazy black panthers. Dru kept to the walls, her boots silent on the cold floor, noting the tiny landmarks that should bring her back to Ash’s room.

To calm herself, she went over her plan in her mind. If, if, if. She didn’t know what she would discover in Ash’s room, but if she found the stele…Even if it was broken, she could fasten the pieces together with cloth or ribbons, and bring the result to Clary. She would pass it to her through the bars of the cage and Clary could break herself free. If the spells walling off Faerie meant that Clary could not Portal them to the mortal world, she could still use the stele to find the way Janus took to get from Faerie into Idris. They would escape, leaving the Seelie Court behind them.

In which case, Dru would never see Ash again.

She felt a lurch in her chest at the thought. Stop it. You don’t even know what will happen yet.

She found the door beneath the ivy, and quickly picked the lock. She ducked through it, and crept down the empty corridor that led to Ash’s and Janus’s rooms. When she reached Ash’s door, she tried it, expecting it to be locked, but it opened soundlessly. She slipped inside.

There was no moonlight, of course, but a faint glow came from a candle on a shelf where leather-bound books had been lined up with militaristic precision. Everything in the room was so orderly—Dru couldn’t help but wonder if Ash was just orderly in his soul, or if it was something imposed on him in childhood by Janus.

Dru moved toward the fireplace in the corner, the whispering of her cloak brushing the stone floor loud in the silence. She had just knelt down to examine the ashes in the grate when a low voice broke the silence.

“I thought you’d come earlier.”

Dru whirled around, swallowing back a shriek as what she had thought was a darker corner of the room suddenly moved and resolved itself into a human shape.

Ash. He was irritatingly good at blending in with the shadows.

Ash stepped out of the darkness, moving into the glow of the candlelight. His face was intent; he wore plain black clothes with little sheen, dark boots, and gray gloves on his hands. The silver circlet with the star glimmered on his brow and the strap of a sheath crossed his chest; she could see the hilt of Phaesphoros over his shoulder.

Dru inhaled sharply, as if it had been a long time since she’d remembered to breathe. “You said you would be at the banquet.”

“There is no banquet,” he said, and Dru felt a sharp needle of relief, as if it had pierced her skin. “I wanted you to believe I’d be leaving my room unguarded. I knew you’d come for the stele—which, by the way, I never broke or cast into a fire. It is safely in my pocket.” He looked at her more closely. “You do not seem surprised.”

“I wondered,” Dru said, “if you were acting when you came to my room. It didn’t make sense. If you’d really gone to your mother’s side, you wouldn’t come and explain that to me. You wouldn’t think I needed or deserved an explanation. And you know how much I’ve been made to forget in my life. You’d never offer me forgetfulness as a comfort. ‘You cannot miss what you don’t remember.’ You’d never say that to me.”

Something flickered across his face—the same unreadable pain she’d seen in his eyes before and been unable to name. “You think you know me so well?” he said.

“I think you’re smarter than that,” said Dru. “And that you weren’t willing to tell the truth in front of Nene. She loves you, you know. You can trust her—”

“Not everything is a matter of trust. My mother has ways of getting the truth from people whether they want to tell it or not. And regardless, I could not be sure the Queen was not having your room watched in some other way. Whatever I said to you, I had to assume my mother might hear it; therefore I needed to say whatever would reassure her that she could count on me still.” His mouth curled at the corner. “I wondered if you’d guess.”

I guessed. But I couldn’t let myself believe it. It’s one thing to be disappointed in someone. But if you truly hope for the best, the impossible best, you run the risk of being crushed.

“If the Queen can’t count on you,” Dru said, “are you saying I can?”

“I am saying you must,” Ash said, the light from the candle catching the sharp planes of his face. “Janus is close to finalizing his plans. At which point there will be no escape. Not for you, and not for me either.”

Dru could only stare. “You want to escape?” she said. “From the Court? Your mother plans to put you on the throne of Faerie—”

He grinned, a mirthless baring of teeth. “Does it really surprise you that I want nothing to do with my mother’s plans? She would seat me on the united throne as a puppet and through me work her power. I have no interest in being her slave.”

Ash raised his hand to touch the edge of Dru’s hood, pushing it back a little as if he wished to see her face more clearly. She felt the brush of his gloved hand against her cheek and chanced a look at his expression. It was grim, but he was beautiful even so, beautiful in a way she feared would always make her feel clumsy, ungainly. Imperfect. “We are allied now, whether you like it or not, Shadowhunter,” he said. “Perhaps not forever, but we both want the same thing. To escape this place to the mortal world.”

Dru caught her breath. “You really want to go to the mortal world?”

“I have heard stories of a Prince of Hell being defeated for a time, now and then,” said Ash. “But in the mortal world, not in Faerie.”

“They can’t be beaten,” Dru whispered; she felt cold all over at the thought of Ash—or anyone, she told herself—facing them down. “Not by anyone human.”

“I don’t believe I’ve seen you afraid before.”

“I’m not afraid.” Dru stepped back, and he lowered his hand. “It’s just that if Clary isn’t able to Portal us out of here, we’ll be using Janus’s route to escape, and that’ll take you right where he wants you. Idris. I don’t know how safe it will be for you, for us. I can’t promise anything.”

“I require no promises,” Ash said. “Only your help in ridding myself of this place. Clary has powers no one else possesses, and I am confident that she will do whatever she can to help you escape, and me if I am with you. She would not, I think, help only me. Not if it meant leaving you behind.”