City of Lost Souls

City of Lost Souls is a 2012 YA fantasy novel by Cassandra Clare. It is the fifth book in her Mortal Instruments series, which began with 2007’s City of Bones. The series centers around a young girl named Clary Fray, who discovers she is a half-nephilim, or angel, and joins forces with a group of nephilim called Shadowhunters who fight evil. In this installment, Clary discovers Lilith, a demon, has magically bound her boyfriend Jace with her evil brother Sebastian. If Clary tries to destroy Sebastian, she will kill Jace as well. She must either find a way to save him or lose him forever. Cassandra Clare made a name for herself with Harry Potter fanfiction before turning to traditional publication with the Mortal Instruments series and a prequel series, Infernal Devices.

The novel opens with Clary’s best friend, Simon, who was once a normal human but is now a “Daylighter” vampire who does not need to fear the sun. He tries to return home, but his religious mother has barricaded the house with various symbols so he can’t enter. She acts as if the “real” Simon is dead.

Clary tells Simon that Jace is missing, and there’s no way to trace him. Clary and friends go to the Seelie Queen to ask for help. In return, they agree to deliver two Faerie rings that allow for telepathic communication between the wearers. Clary researches the rings in a Shadowhunter library and sees Jace enter and speak to Sebastian, her evil half-demonic brother. The two speak as if they are friends, not enemies, which disturbs her. She stays hidden and later reports on the conversation to her companions Alec, Simon, and Izzy.



That night, Clary wakes up and Jace is lying next to her. He asks her to come with him, saying he sensed her in the library and that he’s still in love with her. Then Sebastian enters. Clary asks them to leave. Clary’s mother Jocelyn wakes up and screams when she finds Sebastian is in the house. Luke, Clary’s adoptive father, fights Sebastian but gets injured. Jace and Sebastian disappear, but not before Jace whispers that he’ll be back for Clary.

Jocelyn decides that to protect themselves from Sebastian, she and Clary should move in with Magnus Bane, the High Warlock of Brooklyn, and Magnus agrees. Jocelyn tries to tell Clary that Jace isn’t a good choice of partner for her, and that he may be evil like Clary’s father, Valentine, but Clary won’t hear it. Clary goes to her room and magically transports herself out to meet Simon. After some debate, she decides to join Jace and Sebastian, but as a spy. She’ll use the Faerie rings to communicate telepathically with Simon.

Clary realizes that Jace is acting strangely because Sebastian is possessing him. That’s why they’re friendly, and why Jace is acting as if he’s evil. The trouble is, the demon Lilith, whom they defeated in the previous book, bound them together with her magic before her death. The Shadowhunters need to find a way to kill Sebastian without killing Jace as well.



Izzy and Jocelyn ask the Iron Sisters for help, and learn that the link between Jace and Sebastian can be severed with a blade of Heaven, which only an angel can give them. Simon suggests they summon the angel Reziel. The others say Simon should do it, because he has a Mark of Cain on him, meaning he can’t be killed, and any attempt to kill him inflicts damage back on the attempted killer sevenfold.

Clary continues to spy and starts living with Sebastian and Jace. The rune Sebastian is using to control Jace is damaged, and Jace breaks free of his possession for long enough to tell her what Sebastian is planning: he’s trying to use Lilith’s blood in a Mortal Cup to create an army of evil Shadowhunters. Jace also says he plans to turn himself into the Clave, the Shadowhunters’ governing body. They will kill him, but he believes it’s better than being possessed. He’s about to leave, but Clary calls for Sebastian to stop him because she can’t bear to let the Clave kill Jace. Sebastian heals the damaged rune and repossesses Jace.

Meanwhile, Simon summons Raziel. He agrees to give Simon a blade of Heaven, but in exchange, he wants to strip Simon’s Mark of Cain. Simon agrees. Clary searches Sebastian’s room and speaks to Simon using the ring, telling him what Sebastian is planning. She tells Simon to meet her at the Seventh Sacred Site. Sebastian catches her before she finishes talking to Simon, and she is forced to smash her ring.



The Seelie Queen guessed Clary would keep the Faerie rings, so she told Sebastian that Simon and Clary might have a telepathic connection. They fight, and Sebastian attempts to rape Clary. They go to the Seventh Sacred Site, where Sebastian mixed Lilith’s blood into the Mortal Cup. He forces Luke’s sister, Amatis, to drink from the Cup to demonstrate how it works.

Shadowhunters arrive to fight Sebastian’s dark Shadowhunters. Simon gets the blade of Heaven to Clary, who tries to hunt down Sebastian. She can’t find him, so she chooses to stab Jace instead, hoping he might not be hurt since his heart is not evil. Jace collapses.

Most of the dark Shadowhunters are defeated, and Sebastian flees. Clary finds Jace’s heartbeat, and later, she learns that she has filled him with holy fire by stabbing him. When his adrenaline rises, that fire will burn anything he touches—except Clary.



Magnus breaks up with his boyfriend, Alec, angry that Alec considered the vampire Camille’s offer to take away Magnus’s immortality, even though Alec did reject her offer after considering it. Distraught, Alec goes to kill Camille in revenge but discovers she is already dead. She has been killed by another vampire, Maureen, who wanted to rule the vampire clan instead.

Finally, Maryse, Alec’s mother, shows two Silent Brothers a pair of angel’s wings that mysteriously appeared on the library floor. The wings are accompanied by a note from “Jonathan Christopher Morgenstern,” Sebastian’s birth name. The note simply says Erchomai, or “I am coming.”