Kel is an orphan, stolen from the life he knew to become the
Sword-Catcher - the body-double of a royal heir, Prince
Conor Aurelian. He has been raised alongside the prince,
trained in every aspect of combat and statecraft. He and
Conor are close as brothers, but Kel knows he has one
destiny: to die for Conor. No other future is possible.
Lin Caster is one of the Ashkar, a small community who still
possess magical abilities. By law, they must live behind walls
in the city, but Lin, a physician, ventures out to tend to the
sick and dying of Castellane. Despite her skills, she cannot
heal her best friend Mariam without access to forbidden
knowledge.
After a failed assassination attempt brings Lin and Kel
together, they are drawn into the web of the mysterious
Ragpicker King, the criminal ruler of Castellane's underworld.
He offers them each what they want most; but as they
descend into his world of intrigue and shadow, they discover
a conspiracy of corruption that reaches from the darkest
gutters of Castellane to the highest tower of its palaces. As
long-kept secrets begin to unravel, they must ask
themselves: is knowledge worth the price of betrayal?
Can forbidden love bring down a kingdom? And will Lin and
Kel's discoveries plunge their nation into war - and the world
into chaos?


Cassandra Clare is the author of the No. 1 New York Times, USA TODAY, Wall Street Journal and Publishers Weekly bestselling Mortal Instruments series and the Infernal Devices trilogy, and co-author of the Bane Chronicles with Sarah Rees Brennan and Maureen Johnson. She also wrote The Shadowhunter’s Codex with her husband, Joshua Lewis. Her books have more than 36 million copies in print worldwide and have been translated into more than thirty-five languages. Cassandra lives in western Massachusetts.