New World

5 | Manuel and Zara

Lila headed to Livvy and Ty, Kit watching her fluid movements. She stepped between Ty and Livvy, her hand on her weapons belt, over the seraph blade. Two daggers sat beside it, two with her name on. One had gone missing, and she guessed it was all down to Kit. Either that or she'd simply left it lying around.

Lila moved forward first, then Livvy and Ty, and Kit after them. The tunnel opened into a bigger area, of granite and a packed-earth floor, a smell of mold and decay.

In the middle of the room was a table and two chairs. The light came from rune stones on the table.

Lila noticed one chair was occupied by Zara, and instinctively pressed herself against the wall. She shuffled over slightly to the right, so she wasn't pressed against Kit's side.

"Is she alone?" Lila whispered across to her brother and sister.

"She's with Manuel," Livvy replied. She frowned. "Are they having an affair?"

"Manuel," Said Zara then, "You're late."

"Sorry." Lila thought he sounded disarming. He pulled the free chair from beneath the table and sat down. "Don't be cross. I had to wait until Jon and Rayan fell asleep; I didn't want anyone to see me leave the Institute. What have you got there?" He indicated to the papers before Zara.

"Updates from my father," Said Zara. "He was disappointed about the outcome of the last Council, obviously. The decision to let that half-breed Mark Blackthorn remain along decent Shadowhunters would offend anyone."

Lila grabbed her dagger from her weapons belt and Livvy, who caught the glint of it in the light, shook her head at her, though she also looked furious.

Manuel picked up Zara's wine glass, the dark red wine shimmering in the light. "Still, we must look to the future. Getting rid of Mark wasn't the point of our journey here, after all. He's a minor annoyance, like his siblings."

Zara went on to tell Manuel about registries and warlocks, and Lila felt her stomach lurch. What was wrong with those people? Lila wished she could forget what she'd heard. Kit seemed to share her thoughts, the near same expression of disgust on his face.

"The incident with Malcolm sowed considerable doubt in the West Coast's ability to make judgements. And the fact that the High Warlock of Los Angeles and the head of the local vampire clan both turned out to be enmeshed in dark magic—"

"That wasn't our fault," whispered Livvy. "There was no way to possibly know—"

Ty shushed her, but both Lila and Kit missed the end of Zara's sentence.

"Confidence isn't very high," Zara finished.

"And Arthur?" said Manuel. "The putative head of the place? Not that I've laid eyes on him once."

"A lunatic," said Zara. "My father told me he suspected as much. He knew him at the Academy. I talked to Arthur myself. He thought I was someone named Amatis."

Kit glanced at Livvy, who gave a puzzled shrug.

"It will be easy enough to put him up in front of the Council and prove he's a madman," said Zara. "I can't say who's been running the Institute in his stead—Diana, I imagine—but if she'd wanted the head position, she'd have taken it already."

"So your father steps in, the Cohort makes sure he carries the vote, and the Institute is his," said Manuel.

"Ours," Zara corrected. "I will run the Institute by his side. He trusts me. We'll be a team."

—

"All right," Livvy said, pausing in front of a narrow wooden door. It didn't look much like the rest of the Institute, glass and metal and modernity. It seemed like a warning. "Here we go."

She didn't look eager.

They'd decided—with Kit mostly as silent onlooker—to go directly to Arthur Blackthorn's office. Even if it was two in the morning, even if he didn't want to be bothered with Centurion business, he needed to know what Zara was planning.

Zara was after the Institute, Livvy had explained as they scrambled back along the beach and rocks to where they'd started. Surely that's why she'd said what she had about Arthur—clearly she'd tell any lie.

Lila had sped ahead of them all on the way back. They could see her in the far distance as they walked across the beach, her brown locks shining in the moonlight wading just at the edge of the sea, the water rising to her ankles.

Ty looked at the door with troubled eyes. "We're not supposed to bother Uncle Arthur. We promised Jules."

"We have to," Livvy said simply, and pushed the door open.