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Kit, sunk into a squishy armchair, rubbed his hands together as if trying to warm them. Really, he just wanted to be doing something. The silence was starting to unnerve him; he could hear the ticking of the grandfather clock out in the hallway. Ty being here felt like a piece of a dream intruding on the real world. Part of Kit wanted to stand up and shout at Ty, You came all the way here, you knew I didn’t want to see you, you said you needed help, and now you won’t talk.

But that was only part of him. The other part wanted to wrap Ty up in blankets, bring him hot chocolate, and rub his hands to get the circulation back.

Tessa bustled into the room, carrying a fuzzy pink blanket and a mug of steaming tea. She set the tea down in front of Ty and gently wrapped the blanket around him. She liked Ty and had always taken a special interest in the Blackthorns since they were descended from her daughter Lucie. “There,” she said. “Get yourself warmed up.”

She glanced over at Jem, who shook his head minutely. We still don’t know what’s going on, the head shake communicated.

“Right,” Tessa said. “Mina’s drawing in her room, but who knows how long that will keep her occupied. Now, Ty, before we contact the Scholomance to tell them you’re here, is there anything we should know?”

Ty looked as if he’d swallowed a frog. “You can’t contact the Scholomance,” he said, burrowing down into the pink blanket.

“Why not?” Tessa asked mildly.

“I don’t want them to know where I am,” Ty said. “They’ll try to bring me back, and I don’t want to go back. I want to look for Dru.”

Tessa perched on the arm of Kit’s chair. “Of course you do,” she said, her voice measured. Gentle. “But maybe it’s early to be so worried? Isn’t she at Shadowhunter Academy? Surely Luke would be keeping her safe, especially after what happened in the spring.”

Ty pushed wet hair out of his gray eyes. “She went to New York to see Simon’s band play at Pandemonium,” he said. “It’s a club, a nightclub, and Downworlders hang out there. For some reason, she and Clary went up to the roof of the building. And—something took them. Someone.”

Jem and Tessa exchanged worried looks as, in a clipped tone, Ty finished the story. How the others, led by Jace, had raced up to the roof, only to find Clary and Dru gone. They had seen only a single faerie steed in the sky, a hooded man on its back, holding Clary in front of him as they vanished into the night. “Jace says Clary was unconscious,” he finished. “The assumption is that they—whoever they were—took Dru as well.”

“But that’s just an assumption,” said Tessa. “Is there a chance Dru might be somewhere else, that she might have escaped or hidden—”

“No,” Ty said, a sharp edge to his voice. “She was taken by the fey. Just like Clary.”

“Who told you all this?” said Jem. He was no longer leaning on the mantel; he was upright, the tension clear in his posture.

Ty plucked at the pink blanket, his eyes fixed on his feet. “I heard from Thais just after it happened. Dru’s roommate.”

No, you didn’t, Kit thought. Ty was lying; he was sure of that. Not about what had happened to Dru, but about how he’d heard of it. Could it have been from Livvy? She wasn’t around now—Kit didn’t sense her presence—but it was the only thing he could think of.

“It’s unbelievable,” Jem said. “Why would the fey be kidnapping Shadowhunters? Breaking the Accords like this? Unless it was the wild fey. They don’t hew to many laws.”

“I’m sure that’s exactly what the Shadowhunters in New York are trying to figure out right now,” said Tessa reassuringly, though Kit could tell that she and Jem, despite being careful in front of Ty, were definitely concerned. Which was unusual for them—they’d seen so much in their lives that was terrifying or unprecedented (or both) that it took a great deal to alarm them. “Trying to figure out who took them, and why.”

“I’m going to call them,” Jem said abruptly. “The Institute. We need to find out more about what’s actually going on.”

“It’s five a.m. there,” Ty said. “In New York. It’s early—”

“They’ll be awake,” Jem said, and there was something in the look he gave Tessa that made Kit wonder if Jem suspected there was more to the story than Ty was willing to tell them.

Jem kissed Tessa’s cheek before departing, leaving Kit and Ty alone with Tessa. She fixed her gaze on Ty, motherly and sympathetic, though Kit knew her well enough to guess that she, like Jem, suspected there was more to the story. “Tiberius,” she said. “Not that you aren’t welcome. You’re always welcome. But why come straight here? Why not Portal to New York?”

“Because of Kit,” Ty said, and Kit felt a small shiver run up his spine. It was the first time he’d heard Ty say his name in years.

Kit said, “What about me?”

For the first time since entering the library, Ty looked in Kit’s direction. “You’re the Heir,” he said, as if that explained everything.

Kit was a little jolted. Only a small group knew he was a descendant of the First Heir, the daughter of the former Unseelie King, Arawn, and the current Seelie Queen. It wasn’t a surprise that Ty knew—the Blackthorns all did—but it felt strange anyway; he’d never expected there would be a day when they’d be talking about it together.

Ty went on. “I know they—Alec and Jace and Isabelle and the rest—have been trying to contact Faerie. To find out why Dru and Clary would be taken. But they haven’t reached anyone. All the usual channels of communication, all the pathways and doorways to Faerie, are closed. No one can pass through them. No one can get in or out. Not Shadowhunters, not faeries—”

“Are you saying you think I could?” Kit demanded. “Have any faeries tried yet?”

Ty nodded. “They’ve tried and—” He broke off. “Thais told me they can’t get through, either.” Ty took something from his pocket—what looked like a small marble made of sea glass beads. Kit remembered that Julian liked to make all Ty’s fidget toys, the objects he used to keep his hands busy when he was anxious or worried. He turned it over in his hand now as he said, “This semester, I’ve been studying Faerie, and its laws. I just don’t believe that the monarchs of Faerie would allow the land to be locked away from them. I believe any of the gates they have shut will open for royal blood.”

He’s not here for me, Kit thought. He’s here for the Heir. There was too much sharpness in his voice when he said, “Okay, once we open the door to Faerie, then what? What’s on the other side?”