63 pages 2 hours read

Cassandra Clare

City of Ashes

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2008

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Part 2, Chapters 8-10Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 2: “The Gates of Hell”

Part 2, Chapter 8 Summary: “The Seelie Court”

Back at Luke’s place, an exhausted Clary falls asleep. She has a dream in which she is a child again. She sees her mother Jocelyn on a beach. Jocelyn draws a protective rune on Clary’s arm. Behind Jocelyn, Clary can see the waves rise, and in them, monstrous demonic shapes. Clary awakens in a panic. She and Simon head to Magnus’s to check up on Jace, where Alec joins them. It is clear that Alec may be secretly dating Magnus, since he has a key to Magnus’s apartment. However, Alec is not ready to share this information with anyone.

Jace is recovering, thanks to Magnus’s magical powers. Magnus tells the group he has been dreaming of blood lately, and he feels this is an omen. He also believes that Valentine is using a demon to kill and exsanguinate certain creatures, since he needs their blood to perform a ceremony known as the Ritual of Infernal Conversion. If the Soul-Sword is heated and cooled four times in the blood of a Downworld child, its allegiance can be reversed from angelic to demonic. Once the Sword switches, Valentine can use it to command all the demons he wants, without a summoning ritual.