Clockwork Angel

Jem takes Tessa to Blackfriars Bridge, where they discuss Will’s mercurial behavior. Jem tells Tessa that he trusts Will even though Will lies constantly and hides the truth about his family. Jem reveals that there are rules for Shadowhunters who leave the Clave: They must sever all ties, they cannot ask for help ever again from the Clave, and the Clave can claim their children at any point. Jem explains that this is why Will never speaks about his family: They left the Clave, and Will left them to become a Shadowhunter. Jem then shares his own history, explaining that a demon, Yanluo, killed his family in Shanghai. Jem was brought to the London Institute because he is both British and Chinese. Tessa and Jem bond over their shared trauma. 

As Tessa and Jem return to the Institute, they are approached by two automatons sent by the Magister. The automatons chase them back to the Institute. Jem seems to have been injured by one of them. Henry meets them outside and destroys the automatons. Jem collapses.

Sophie tends to Tessa’s wounds and asks Thomas whether Jem has his medicine. Thomas tells Sophie and Tessa that Jem is stable, resting with Will. Later, Will tells Tessa that Jem has asked for her. Will seems upset at Tessa and reluctant to follow Jem’s wishes. Jem tells Tessa that his illness is actually an addiction. When he was a child, the demon Yanluo tortured him in front of his parents by injecting him with a demon poison. The Shanghai Enclave failed to realize anything was wrong until both Jem’s parents were dead, and he had become addicted to the demon poison. Abstaining from the poison completely would kill him, so he continues to take small doses, though that means he faces a slow death rather than a very swift one.

Jem reveals that he had not taken any of the demon poison before he left the Institute with Tessa, which is why the automatons were able to overpower them so easily. After Tessa leaves Jem’s bedside, she runs into Sophie and realizes that Sophie is in love with Jem.

The next morning, Sophie wakes up Tessa to tell her that her brother has gone missing. Thomas finds Nate hiding behind curtains, and Tessa must coax him out. Nate claims that he awoke confused and had gone looking for Tessa. Nate questions Tessa about staying with the Shadowhunters, but Tessa argues that they care for her and can be trusted. Nate thinks that he and Tessa can go back to their old lives, but Tessa realizes that she does not belong in the normal world anymore.

Tessa intercepts Will to tell him to be kind to her brother, but Will assumes Tessa wants an apology for their kiss. Tessa and Will argue about hiding secrets from one another, then Jem interrupts them and they all return to the sitting room with Charlotte and Jessamine to talk to Nate. Nate explains his side of the story. He gambled and drank his money away in New York, then found Axel Mortmain’s information while looking through his mother’s things. He decided to blackmail Axel Mortmain with the information about his occult obsession, and Mortmain offered him a job. When Nate arrived in London, Mortmain took him to gamble at the Pandemonium Club, where he met de Quincey. Nate quickly racked up gambling debts to the club, and de Quincey offered to clear his debt in exchange for his sister, Tessa. Initially, Nate declined. When de Quincey threatened his life, he wrote the letter to Tessa, inviting her to London, and gave her over to the Dark Sisters and de Quincey. Nate reveals that de Quincey employed the Dark Sisters to create the binding spell for his automatons, but that the spell cannot be performed until the full moon. The next full moon is that night.