A Sea Change

A Sea Change
Information
Author(s):	Cassandra Clare
Release date:	Est. September/October 2024
Series:	Careful of Books (Seasons of Shadowhunters)

A Sea Change is an upcoming novella in the compilation book, Careful of Books—a limited edition from Seasons of Shadowhunters—to be released in Fall 2024.

Teasers

Information

• This is the only story in the compilation book that is within the Shadowhunters universe.
• It focuses on Matthew Fairchild after Chain of Thorns and features a love interest for him.
• The story follows Matthew as he journeys on an ocean liner in 1904, where he encounters an infestation of vampires.

Snippets

For possibly more, check the unidentified snippets page.

Teaser #1

“And where did you say you were from, Mr. Worthing?”

Matthew set his wineglass down. He hadn’t drunk any of the wine, of course, but he found that simply twirling the stem between his fingers and occasionally gesturing with the glass was enough to fool most people, which avoided annoying questions about why he was abstaining.

“My family’s estate is in Hampshire,” he said, in as plummy an accent as he could manage. He had decided that for the purposes of this sea voyage, he would adopt the persona of a British upper-class twit of the fox-hunting variety. Hunting poor little helpless foxes all around the grounds of some massive house, he thought. Why not try something actually difficult, like hunting a Feroci demon through the back alleys of London? “I will return there after I visit Constantinople, having completed my Grand Tour.”

Teaser #2

Matthew sat up with a gasp. The afterimage of the dream still burned in his mind: the long grassy meadow without features, the boy in the grass turning slowly into a skeleton. He kicked his covers back, hunching over, his hands pressed against his stomach, which ached as if he’d been kicked.

He felt as if he might be sick, but knew he wouldn’t be. It wasn’t the first time he’d had the dream. Nor the fourth or fifth. He had it nearly every night, and had since Christopher died.

There was a soft whump, and something landed on his bed. A moment later a warm, furry shape was burrowing into him, and he could hear the sound of a worried tail thrashing back and forth.

“Oscar, you twit,” Matthew said, and reached to stroke his dog’s head. Oscar’s tail thumped again, now with pleasure. It didn’t take much to make a dog happy.

Teaser #3

It was a beautiful night.

The promenade deck wended its way around the entirely of the Majestic like a necklace of polished wood and brass fittings. There were few out walking like Matthew, perhaps because it was cool and windy, but Shadowhunters were used to the cold. Besides, the wind blew the clouds away, exposing a sky so full of stars it looked as if a jeweler had hastily stuffed a drawer with handfuls of loose-cut diamonds.

A year ago, Matthew would not have been able to enjoy the path the moonlight made across the water, or the sky afire with white flame. He would have been thinking about his last drink, or where he would find his next one. A frantic circle of pain and shame and longing: one he’d had to trudge invisibly, keeping his secrets from his friends, his family.

Now the weight was off him. He felt light, and sometimes strangely at rest, like a windmill on a windless night. He no longer despised himself, but he did not know his purpose, either. If, he mused, one had to have a purpose at all. Was it not enough to be a Shadowhunter — one among many, but each sworn to protect humanity against demons? To keep peace among mundanes and Downworlders — warlocks, werewolves, the Fair Folk, and vampires?

A year ago, he wasn’t sure he would have so quickly identified Miss Gwendolyn as a vampire, either. But then Matthew spent more time with Downworlders than most Shadowhunters did. Some he was friendly with, but he did not trick himself into thinking that meant they were not dangerous. And a vampire hiding out among humans was cause for concern.

He’d noted the way Gwendolyn hadn’t eaten, and had drunk sparingly of the wine. The translucence of her fingernails. Her pallor, even under a layer of makeup. The veins at her temples — if those were visible, she was hungry. And there had been the odd behavior of Orville Cole. The way he’d stared at her worshipfully. Humans often fell under the spell of vampires, finding them impossible to resist. It was not the same as a thrall relationship, where the vampire fed from the human and in return promised them eternal life, but it was a use of vampire glamour forbidden by the Accords.

Though Gwendolyn had seemed, if anything, annoyed at Cole’s attentions. Perhaps she’d enchanted him without meaning to and wished nothing more than to be rid of him. It was hard to say; Matthew did not get the sense she’d been a vampire very long.

At that moment, lost in thought, Matthew collided with something solid.

“Pardonnez-moi — oh. It’s you.” The young man from dinner, Sylvain Allard, had evolved out of the shadows of the night. He wore a dark summer suit which blended with the night.

Teaser #4

A small line appeared between Sylvain’s eyebrows. “What about you?” he said. “You are the son of the Consul, you and your parabatai are famous. James Herondale and Matthew Fairchild.” He didn’t sound bitter now, just curious. “Everything you and your friends have done — why would you leave after working so hard to make your world safe?”

Art

Matthew and Oscar

Trivia

• The premise for the story—namely Matthew's future after The Last Hours—was initially teased as an entire compilation book such as The Bane Chronicles or Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy.