City of Broken Hearts #4
Simon looked out the window as they entered Central Park, just in time to see a horse and carriage ride past, with a couple of tourists nestled in it trying to share a romantic moment.
And failing, probably because of the dozens of angry, magical toads hopping all over their carriage.
As Simon watched, one of the toads bit a tourist, who screamed.
Not good, Simon thought. He looked at Izzy, who was wiping away tears, and instead of feeling the way he usually did when he saw her cry, he felt angry.
“This is totally unfair,” Simon said. “What have I ever done to make you think I don’t care about your feelings? And you’ve been mad at me since we left the club—”
“Oh, you mean since you informed me you were moving to the Carpathian Mountains for a year?”
“You made it pretty clear you don’t care whether I go or not!”
“Maybe I don’t,” Izzy snapped. She crossed her arms over her chest. They spent the rest of the ride in silence.
—
Blockhouse No. 1 was a small stone fort at the isolated edge of the park’s North Woods.
It had been built in the nineteenth century, but as Simon had learned from a school trip, its foundations probably dated back to the Revolutionary War.
New York City was full of this kind of thing, weird artifacts from a distant age that most people didn’t even notice.
The remnants of old New York were, in that sense, a little like the Shadow World, Simon sometimes thought.
It was amazing what people could teach themselves not to see.
Ajatara had told them that they’d probably find Krog sulking somewhere near the old fort.
Izzy had suggested Ajatara just go retrieve him herself, being a Greater Demon and all, why not just make Krog forgive her?
But Ajatara refused. All appearances to the contrary, she said, she still had her dignity.
So here they were, in the shadow of a revolutionary fort, talking to a giant demonic toad.
“Ajatara always said she’d love me even if I looked like a toad,” Krog complained.
He waved one of his webbed, warty hands, then flicked his thick tongue at a cluster of lightning bugs.
They were still glowing when he swallowed them.
“But did she ever actually want me to take on my toad form? No, she didn’t.
It was always, Oh, Krog, don’t you think it would be so much more deliciously evil to do your evil deeds in the shape of a handsome man? And what Ajatara wants, Ajatara gets.”
“Sounds rough, bro,” Simon said wearily. They’d been here for what felt like hours. Krog had produced a steady stream of complaints about his relationship with Ajatara. Broken only by the occasional toady sob.
Izzy snorted. Bro? she mouthed.
Simon shrugged. It wasn’t like he had a lot of experience bonding with a demon.
“Fine. You try,” Simon said. The anger he’d started to feel in the cab had only grown, and now he was furious with Izzy.
She was so judgmental. She’d judged him immediately in the club, as soon as he’d told her about the job at the Scholomance.
She hadn’t even asked him any questions about why he was considering taking the job. She hadn’t given him a chance—
“Okay, Krog, what will it take to get you and your demon girlfriend back together,” Izzy demanded. “Will threats work? Because I’m very good at threats.”
Krog sighed miserably. “My Ajatara loves a good threat. No one can put the fear of hell into a heart quite like her.” He turned to Izzy with a reptilian hope in his eye. “Did my mistress send you to apologize for what she’s done?”
“She claimed she didn’t do anything,” Simon said.
Izzy glared at him. “Would it have been so hard to just say yes?”
“She is a liar,” Krog said. “She knows exactly what she did.”
“Well, all right then,” said Simon. “Explain it to us. Slowly.”
Krog growled. The sound came from somewhere deep in his throat and evoked some kind of hungry lion-like predator. Which was particularly unsettling from the throat of a giant toad. “She gave her favors to a mortal,” Krog said.
“She what?” said Simon.
“She hooked up with a mortal,” said Izzy. “Really, Simon, have you read no gothic fiction? Or anything that doesn’t have pictures?”
Simon saw a sort of red mist behind his eyes. “If you feel that strongly about it, maybe you should GIVE ME A READING LIST,” he yelled.
Krog looked alarmed. “Are you guys all right?”
“We’re fine,” said Izzy, with dignity. “Please continue your tale.”
Krog was only too happy to do so. “That’s right.
Ajatara gave her love to another. And not to torture him or destroy his life or conquer your puny little world or anything that would actually be reasonable!
She seems to have done it because the mortal was good,” Krog said.
“Can you imagine anything more disgusting? The things she did with him—my mistress of darkness volunteered at a soup kitchen! She helped old people across the street!”
“Uh, maybe she was trying to push them into traffic?” Simon said hopefully.
“And I’m sure she poisoned the soup,” Izzy offered.
“No!” Krog bellowed. “She did good works, pure and simple. And did I mention, pure?” He sounded nauseated.
“How’d you find out about all of this?” Simon asked. “Were you following her?”
“Not me,” Krog admitted. “But fortunately I have good friends in low places. Iago showed me visions. I watched every single disgustingly good thing she and this mortal did together.”
“You have a friend named…Iago?” Simon said. “Who told you your girlfriend was cheating on you? And you trusted that?”
“Perhaps you are the kind of foul and cold-blooded creature who’s never known the benefits of friendship, but we demons are of a different kind. Iago’s loyalty runs deep.”
“I mean, the name alone—”
Izzy nudged him. “Let it go,” she murmured. “I don’t think demons read Shakespeare.”
“I’m the fool here,” Krog moaned. He was pacing back and forth. “I should have seen this coming. She was always too good for me. Way out of my league.”
“That’s no way to think,” Simon told him. “Love doesn’t have leagues.”
“I take it back,” Krog said. He’d stopped pacing and was glaring at Simon.
“You’re the fool. Ajatara is a beautiful queen of ice and damnation, and I am just a demon who looks like a toad half the time.
I’m a toad guy! I should have known she was just waiting for someone better to come along.
” He glanced back and forth between Simon and Izzy. “Surely you two know how that is.”
Simon flinched, without being able to help himself. Krog was a demon, and not that bright a demon, either. But the words had still hurt.
“That’s enough, Krog!” Izzy snapped, and raised her whip. “You’re coming with us. You’re going to face Ajatara and if you want her to apologize to you, you’re going to say so. And I think it’s probably a good idea if your buddy Iago joins us for this little conversation. Where can we find him?”
“Why do you need to talk to Iago?” Krog said. “He’s a prince.”
“Yeah, I get it, he’s a great guy, blah blah blah. How about some identifying marks?”
“No, he’s a prince—a prince of the Shax demons.”
Simon had that triumphant feeling you sometimes get when you fill in enough of the jigsaw puzzle that the picture finally comes clear. At least, if a jigsaw puzzle had the potential to blow up if you didn’t piece the rest of it together in time.
Simon whipped out his phone and called Jace. “Did you get that Shax demon yet?”
“We’re chasing it now,” Jace said, “or we would be if you hadn’t decided this would be a great time for a chat.”
Through the phone, Simon heard the tinny sounds of the city in the background, and the rhythmic thumps of what were presumably Jace’s feet pounding the pavement. Of course Jace could outrun a demon without even sounding out of breath.
“Find out if its name is Iago,” Simon said.
“We’re Shadowhunters,” Jace said with haughty indignation, as only Jace could. “We kill demons, we don’t ask for their names.”
“Another question,” Simon said. “Are you and Clary fighting?”
Now Jace sounded really puzzled. “We were arguing a little,” he said, “but that’s fine. It just spices things up. You know—”
“Too much information, Jace. Put Clary on.”
There was a groan, and some muffled noises, and then Clary came on the line. “Simon, what’s happening?”
“No time,” he said. “But if that Shax demon’s name is Iago, don’t kill it. Herd it toward the Brooklyn Bridge.”
Clary didn’t ask him to explain the request. That was, he supposed, the beauty of a parabatai—but it was also just Clary. She trusted him implicitly, as he trusted her. If asked, she would do everything in her power to make it so.
There was, though, one follow-up question. “What if its name isn’t Iago?”
Simon grinned, pretty sure the follow-up had come via Jace. “In that case, feel free to kill it.”
—
This time, they took the subway. Simon had spent enough time on New York City subway cars to know that if he boarded one with a giant toad demon, probably no one would look twice. Especially at this time of night. Still, everyone agreed it was probably best for Krog to revert to his human form.
“Not bad,” Izzy admitted, once Krog had reverted to a human form that was surprisingly tall, dark, and handsome. Wearing an elegant gray suit, Krog looked somewhat like a demonic Cary Grant, if Cary Grant had had gleaming red eyes. “For a demon.”
“I am on the rebound,” Krog said. “If Ajatara can lower herself to love a mortal, I suppose I could suppress my repulsion long enough to dally with a Shadowhunter. Especially if it gave Ajatara pain.”
“How tempting,” Izzy said. “I’m going to think hard on it. Over there.” She stalked over to the other side of the car and pretended to study the subway map.
Simon couldn’t blame her for wanting to get away from Krog, but he certainly blamed her for getting away first. Because now it was just the two of them. Man and toad, and twenty more minutes to kill.