Through Blood, Through Fire is the eighth short story in Ghosts of the Shadow Market, co-written by Cassandra Clare and Robin Wasserman.
Description[]
Jem Carstairs and Tessa Gray are finally united after waiting over a century to be together, but they become aware a dark threat is looming over a child of the Shadow Market: a lost Herondale, from a line of Herondales who have used the Market to hide from their fellow Nephilim. Now is the time for the lost Herondale to be discovered. Jem and Tessa have to find him before his enemies can.[1]
Plot[]
Years before, Jem had given Rosemary Herondale a pendant with which she could call him for help. Now, Jem receives a message requesting his help.
Tessa and Jem arrive at Rosemary's house but they are too late to help defend Rosemary from Fal, a Rider of Mannan. Rosemary is grievously injured, and they are unable to heal mortal wounds. Rosemary's last words are 'please, protect my son.'
Tessa Changes into Rosemary using the necklace and delves into her memories. She learns that Kit had been three years old when Rosemary was found by Fey emissaries; she convinced her husband Jack Crow to take Kit and establish a new identity elsewhere promising him that if she needed help, she would go to 'the place you first told me who you really were.'
Jem and Tessa (Changed into Rosemary) visit the Los Angeles Shadow Market to find Kit. The bartender tells her Jack was 'exactly the same bird he used to be, just a little less of a crook.' Before they could continue their search, Fal the Rider appears; he kills the bartender and deals Tessa a wound that would have been fatal for an ordinary Shadowhunter. Instead of dying, Tessa loses consciousness and involuntarily Changes back and forth between herself and Rosemary.
Jem begs Brother Enoch to save her. After Brother Enoch's many rituals, Jem is relieved to know Tessa's shapeshifting abilities prevented the wound from having the expected fatal effect and terrified to know the potential for Tessa's mind and body to be trapped in the Change unable to find her way back to herself.
In Tessa's unconscious dreams, she watches Jem die—in one dream, his body is decaying; in another, he is eaten by maggots. In another, he is speared in half by a demon; in yet another, he is burned alive. The agony causes her to flee into Rosemary's memories.
Rosemary was sixteen years old when she met Jack Crow. She rebelled against her parents' wishes to keep her away from the Downworld, sneaking around with him at night to Downworlder-owned venues and eventually the Shadow Market. At the Market, they were attacked by three werewolves; she fought them off as she was trained from toddlerhood.
The night her parents tell her they must move again, she ran away refusing to leave Jack. When she returned, her parents had been murdered. She told Jack the truth at the bar by the Shadow Market. They ran around the world, never staying in the same place for too long, taking on new identities with each move. When Kit was born, she decided to have him in secret. When 'it's time', she sent Jack and Kit away. The memory ends when she dies.
Using the bartender's riddle and inquiring at the Shadow Market, Tess and Jem find Jack Crow (Johnny Rook)'s house. They find Jack dead and Emma Carstairs battling Mantid demons. Tessa finds Kit and tells him that he is Christopher Herondale; a Shadowhunter.
Jem and Tessa would soon part—Tessa would go to the Spiral Labyrinth to investigate the recent warlock illness, and Jem would search for Malcolm's body and the Black Volume. Tessa tells Jem she's pregnant, much to his delight.
Characters[]
- Jem Carstairs
- Tessa Gray
- Rosemary Herondale
- Kit Herondale
- Fal
- Johnny Rook (in memory: as corpse)
- Will Herondale (briefly in memory)
- Brother Enoch
- Rosemary's mother (in memory)
- Rosemary's father (in memory)
- Emma Carstairs
- Cassius
Gallery[]
Art[]
Editions[]
International covers[]
Trivia[]
- This story is told from two points of view, namely Tessa and Jem.