Page 45 of Better in Black
Zachary pompously yanked on his lapels with both hands. “Better than that,” he declared. “Now that I’ve acquired some real capital, I’m off to make my fortune.”
The man nodded slowly, in confusion.
“He said shove off!” said someone else. The crowd surged; Thomas felt himself pushed backward. Zachary disappeared into the throng of concerned citizens, and Alastair and Thomas backed up until they had cleared the crowd.
Alastair put his hands on his knees and let out a long breath. He cocked his head over at Thomas. “The next time I tell you watching a small child for a day will be easy,” he said calmly, “I want you to hit me in the head with a brick.”
—
They waited on the pavement until the crowd had disappeared. Thomas felt defeated. Zachary had vanished, and Thomas couldn’t begin to guess where he might have gone.
“If it were you,” he said to Alastair, “where would you go?”
“To change into a new suit, probably,” said Alastair.
“Well, that’s no good,” said Thomas. “I don’t even understand how he got the one he’s wearing.”
There was a sudden bang, making both of them jump. After a second, Thomas caught sight of a scrap of parchment above their hands, wafting back and forth down to them. Alastair plucked it from the air and examined it.
A surge of terror went through Thomas—could it be Sona already back, wondering where they were? No, he told himself sternly, that was nonsense; his mother and Cecily would keep her for hours.
“Henry,” said Alastair, reading. “The mirror is a faerie artifact of some kind. Henry took it from some Shadowhunter who was given it in a deal with a couple of piskies; Henry thought it probably would have some unexpected effect.”
“Henry was right,” Thomas noted.
“He says his belief is that if we can get Zachary to look into the mirror again, the effects will be reversed. Well—he says ‘should’ be reversed, which is rather less inspiring of confidence. He also says,” Alastair went on in an alarmed tone, “that if he doesn’t turn back before sundown, he may be stuck this way.” He looked up at Thomas with huge, frightened eyes that made Thomas’s heart ache. “We have to find him. And fast.”
“Can we Track him?” Thomas said.
But Alastair didn’t appear to have heard him; instead he’d begun pacing back and forth on a small bit of pavement. “No—we can’tTrack a baby, because a baby doesn’t have runes. We learned that with Alex, didn’t we? But then he’s not a baby, he’s a grown man. But still, he doesn’t have runes.”
“Alastair,” said Thomas.
“Unless—he can talk now, and he has a suit and a mustache, so if he’s an adult Shadowhunter maybe he has runes. But could a faerie artifact give him runes? The suit, sure, but runes? Except Zachary is a Shadowhunter so maybe runes are something inherent in him. Even if he doesn’t have runes, maybe if we find him we can rune him and knock him unconscious.”
“Alastair,” Thomas said again. A thought was creeping its way into his mind, very slowly and gingerly.
“No, it’s too risky, he’s technically still a baby, the faerie magic must just affect appearance, it can’t bring him forty years into the future. In any event, we can’t be sure. The possible consequences would be enormous; my mother would never forgive me. I’d never forgive myself. And anyway we’d have to find him first. But who knows how much trouble he could get in by the time we get back to Kensington—”
“Alastair!” Thomas shouted, taking him by the shoulder and shaking him.
Alastair rolled his eyes in Thomas’s direction. “Thomas?”
“I think I know where’s he gone.”
Alastair reached out and grabbed Thomas by the opposite shoulder, as if they were about to be partners in a country dance. “Where?” he demanded.
“The Hell Ruelle,” said Thomas. “He said he has capital and he’s going to make his fortune. He’s going to gamble.”
“The—what?” Alastair said. “How would he even know about the Hell Ruelle?”
Thomas took a very deep breath. “Promise not to be angry.”
Alastair gaped at him. “I definitely do not promise that.”
“Anna and I took him there once.”
“What?!” Alastair shouted. A few passersby looked over at them, and Thomas tried to shift them away; he’d had enough of mundanes interested in their business today.
