The book also contains many quotes referring to famous pieces of Victorian literature, for example, Alfred Tennyson's The Palace of Art, Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, and the works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Plot
The book begins with William (Will) Herondale meeting a Ghost – Old Mol – at Cross Bones Graveyard. Will is buying from her spell ingredients for the Warlock Magnus Bane. The next day, at Westminster Abbey, Tessa and James (Jem) are making their way to the Shadowhunters' Council Chamber for a meeting regarding Mortmain, but stop at Poets' corner before proceeding; there they meet up with Will, who joins them in the Council Chamber. During the meeting, the Consul (Chief of the Council) is preparing to give judgement on the actions and failings of Charlotte Branwell, but Benedict Lightwood stops him, and issues a formal challenge for the position as head of the London Institute. The Consul then rules that if Charlotte cannot come up with a good lead as to the location of Mortmain, then Benedict will take over the Institute. The Consul also insists that Benedict Lightwood's two sons – Gideon and Gabriel train Tessa and Sophie, since they may be attacked by Mortmain's automatons.The Institute inhabitants return from the meeting and begin searching for information on Mortmain. Jem decides to look into the Reparations – a petition Downworlders and mundanes used to gain compensation for unjust actions against their person. Later that night, Jem and Tessa are becoming increasingly friendly, this makes Sophie uncomfortable – she has a crush on Jem – and when she sees them coming down the hallway, she ducks into an empty room; before exiting the room, she sees that Jessamine is sneaking out of her own room dressed as a man.
The next day, Sophie and Tessa are dressed in Shadowhunter gear and meet their new servants – Cyril Tanner and Brigit Daly – as well as the Lightwood brothers. That evening, Charlotte rushes into the dining room holding a sheet of parchment from the Reparations Archive; The Institute finds out that in fact, Mortmain's adoptive parents John and Anne Shade were Warlocks, and were dealing in forbidden magic; consequently they were killed by the Clave. Charlotte decides to write to Aloysius Starkweather to find out more, since he was present at the killings of the Shades.
The next day, Aloysius replies a denied request to Charlotte, infuriating her; Tessa, Jem and Will decide to simply go visit Aloysius at the York Institute and see if they can find out something anyway. The next morning, Tess, Jem and Will depart for York; when they arrive at the York Institute, they discover an address of an old house previously occupied and still owned by Mortmain, they decide to check it out. When they arrive outside the home, they hear a carriage coming, and duck into the brush; they observe a young lady get off and enter the house, Will is shocked to realize that the girl is in fact his younger sister – Cecily.
Seeing Cecily, Will runs towards the house, but is tackled by Jem, who informs him and Tessa that they are being followed by an Automaton. Will and Jem chase that automaton, and Tessa chases after Jem and Will. Tessa eventually loses sight of all of them and finds herself lost. Suddenly the automaton appears and attacks her, she fends it off with a stick until Jem and Will come to save her. The automaton warns Will that if he continues to dig into Mortmain's past or tries to warn his family, his family will all be killed.
Will, Jem and Tessa take the train back to London, when they arrive at Kings Cross Station, Will runs straight for the home of Magnus Bane. When Will arrives, he tells Magnus a story about his childhood, that when he was twelve, he found a pyxis among his father's old things. When he opened the pyxis, a demon came forth and attacked him, his elder sister Ella fought it off, and the demon fled, but before that, the demon cast a curse upon Will. The curse was such that anyone who ever loves Will would die. He continues to explain that when Ella died soon after, he ran away to live at the London Institute. And to protect Charlotte and Henry and Jessamine, he told lies and acted rudely so that they would hate him, and not love him. Will finally tells Magnus that he has grown tired of living such a horrid life and demands to be thrown into the demon world, so that he can find the demon that cursed him and have the curse lifted. Magnus thinks the idea will only get Will killed, and refuses him; Will leaves angry.
Jem and Tessa, now back at the Institute tells Charlotte about what they learnt. Charlotte tells them that when Will first arrived at the institute, his parents begged him to return, but eventually gave up. Will begged Charlotte to inform him should his parents ever die, and Charlotte couldn't refuse, thus, she had Ragnor Fell keep tabs on the whereabouts of the Herondales.
The next day, Tessa is at breakfast, and Will is still missing. During her training with Gabriel and Gideon, an argument arises and Gabriel storms out of the Institute. Charlotte calls on Ragnor to ask him to again, keep track of the Herondales. When Tessa returns to her room, she gets a letter from Magnus Bane, telling her that she must go find Will, because he may be in serious trouble. Tessa goes to Jem's room, and together they search Will's room for his family dagger. In Will room, Tessa finds her letters that she wrote to her brother during her stay with the Dark Sisters and becomes angry with Will. Jem finds the receipt for yin fen (the drug Jem relies on) and Will's dagger. Together, they take the carriage, and Jem tracks Will's location to an ifrit den in the East End of London.
Jem and Tessa arrive at the ifrit den and find Will drugged out. Jem is upset with Will and smacks him in the face. When the three of them arrive at the institute, Jem runs from the carriage, into the Institute and disappears. Later that night, Jem violently plays his violin, awakening Tessa. Jem confesses that he's not going to live much longer, and he is angry that Will has taken pleasure in the very drug that is sapping his life. Tessa and Jem grow closer and closer and kiss passionately on Jem's bed. When Tessa leaves (after accidentally kicking the box containing Jem's yin fen during their amorous activities), she sees Jessamine sneaking out again dressed as a man.
The next morning, Will tells the Institute that werewolves are buying yin fen in high quantities, and are working for Mortmain. Charlotte is worried and quickly sends for Woolsey Scott – Leader of London's werewolves. During her training with Gabriel and Gideon, Gabriel calls Charlotte incompetent, uncaring and repulsive, at that comment, Sophie slaps Gabriel, and Gabriel storms out the Institute, ending the training session. Tessa then meets Will in the library and they discuss how inconsiderate Will had been to Jem. Will seems truly sorry and as they share that tender moment, Woolsey and Charlotte walk in. Gideon and Sophie, both of whom are still in the midst of their training session, stop for a break and Gideon asks Sophie out.
Woolsey informs Charlotte that the wolves Will had mentioned are not part of his pack, and suggests that with all the yin fen being bought in high quantities, there may be a shortage. Will realizes and quickly runs out to buy more for Jem.
Returning from his purchase of yin fen, Will dreams about a future with Tessa. Will then hurries to Jem's room, and apologizes for his inconsiderate actions, which Jem forgives. Meanwhile, Tessa cannot sleep, because she is ashamed of how unrestrained she had been, allowing Jem to kiss her so rapturously and fears that he may think less of her for her lack of restraint. Just then, Sophie walks in with an invitation to a masked ball hosted by Benedict Lightwood, addressed to Jessamine, with a handwritten note from Nathaniel Gray asking her to show up. Sophie that tells Tessa that Jessamine has been seeing Nate in secret, and when Jess walked in on Sophie with the note, Sophie knocked her out and tied her up. Tessa and Sophie decide to tell Will about the ball. Will and Tessa decide to go to the ball, with Tessa dressed and Changed into Jessamine to discover how involved Benedict is in the scheme with Mortmain, and to understand Jessamine's relationship with Nate. At the ball, Nate dances with Tessa/Jessamine and calls her his wife. Tessa is shocked and sits down and drinks a lemonade. A note is then sent to Nate, who promptly leaves the party. Will appears next to Tessa and they decide to go the balcony, where they end up kissing passionately and without restraint. Later Magnus shows up on the balcony and the three of them leave the party. On their way to the carriage, Will sees the demon that cursed him, and decides to chase it, leaving Tessa with Magnus.
Tessa comes back to the Institute without Will, and tells Sophie to awaken Charlotte. When Sophie goes to fetch Charlotte, Jessamine awakens and declares that Nate truly loves her, to which Tessa immediately dismisses as lies. Charlotte, a furious ball of wrath, arrives with Brother Enoch and unties Jessamine's hands. Brother Enoch hands Jessamine the Mortal Sword – a sword that forces Nephilim to tell the truth. Charlotte questions Jessamine without mercy and Jessamine reveals that she met Nate a few times, and that they'd married and also that Benedict Lightwood is helping Mortmain because he's being blackmailed. Brother Enoch then takes Jessamine to the Silent City for further interrogation.
While Jessamine was being questioned, Will has returned to London, and arrives at the house of Magnus Bane. He hands Magnus a tooth from the demon (he acquired this when the demon bit him) and asks Magnus to summon the demon from that tooth. He then passes out from the poison in the tooth.
The next morning, the whole Institute learns of Jessamine's betrayal, and they discuss about Benedict and whether they should inform the Clave. Charlotte agrees that it is best to keep quiet for now and investigate further. They come up with a plan to lure Nate out with the help of Jessamine and capture/torture him for more information. Jem and Tessa depart for Silent City to get Jessamine to write to Nate. In the carriage to Silent City, Jem and Tessa end up kissing more due to their deeper relationship that they have built. Upon arrival, they manage to convince Jessamine to write to Nate for a meeting and give her the replica of Jessamine as a baby in a doll form from Jessamine's doll house.
Returning to the institute, everyone is in a twitter with plans for that evening. Nate replies to Jessamine's letter and agrees to meet in a warehouse where they usually meet, at sunset. Tessa Changes into Jessamine, and wears Jessamine's male clothing then walks to the warehouse, with the rest of Institute arriving earlier to set up an ambush. When Tessa/Jessamine arrives, she see Nate, who then calls out that he knows this Jessamine is Tessa in disguise. He then shows her a giant automaton who is holding an unconscious Charlotte. A battle ensues with the automaton, resulting in the death of Nate, a severely wounding of Will, and Tessa losing her consciousness. After this Will goes to Magnus who summons the demon and then realizes the curse is fake. Will goes to tell Tessa how he feels about her and to propose only to find that Jem has proposed to Tessa first and that she has said yes. Afterwards Tessa burns her hand due to stress and is taken back to her room by Sophie; who then wraps her burned hand. The next day Charlotte wins the Institute back from Benedict who says they should keep it because he was blackmailed by them when the Institute learns that he has demon pox. After the Council meeting, a celebration dinner ensues where Jem and Tessa announce their engagement and Charlotte tells them she is pregnant with Henry's child, and as the dinner continues Cyril informs them that a girl is here to see them. When she comes in, they discover that she is Will's younger sister – Cecily Herondale.
Summary
In the magical underworld of Victorian London, Tessa Gray, has at last found safety with the Shadowhunters. But that safety proves fleeting when rogue forces in the Clave plot to see her protector, Charlotte, replaced as head of the Institute. If Charlotte loses her position, Tessa will be out on the street, and easy prey for the mysterious Magister, who wants to use Tessa's powers for his own dark ends. With the help of the handsome, self-destructive Will and the fiercely devoted Jem, Tessa discovers that the Magister’s war on the Shadowhunters is deeply personal. He blames them for a tragedy long-ago that shattered his life.To unravel the secrets of the past, the trio journey from mist-shrouded Yorkshire to a manor house that holds untold horrors, from the slums of London to an enchanted ballroom where Tessa discovers that the truth of her parentage is more sinister than she had imagined. When they encounter a clockwork demon bearing a warning for Will, they realize that the Magister himself knows their every move, and that one of their own has betrayed them.
Tessa finds her heart drawn more and more to Jem, but her longing for Will, despite his dark moods, continues to unsettle her. But something is changing in Will; the wall he has built around himself is crumbling. Could finding the Magister free Will from his secrets, and give Tessa the answers about who she is and what she was born to do?
As their dangerous search for the Magister and the truth leads the friends into peril, Tessa learns that when love and lies are mixed, they can corrupt even the purest heart.
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