The Mortal Instuments

The Mortal Instruments series consists of 6 books.

City of Bones[]

Published 27th March, 2007

Clary Fray and Simon Lewis are at a club where Clary witnesses a murder by a group of teens. She is shocked that Simon and the club's security guard cannot see the killer—a boy called Jace, who claims that the boy he murdered was a demon. The next day, Jace offers to take Clary to meet his tutor, but before she can do so, she receives a distressing phone call from her mother, Jocelyn. She returns home to find her mother missing, the apartment trashed, and a monstrous creature, a Ravener demon, lying in wait for her. She defeats the creature by shoving Jace’s Sensor down its throat, but is injured in the process, and Jace takes her to his home. His home is called "The Institute", an old gothic cathedral in New York that humans, or mundanes, can't see, because it is concealed magically by glamour. Here, she recuperates. She also meets Hodge Starkweather, Jace's tutor, as well as his adoptive-siblings Isabelle and Alec Lightwood.

Hodge then acquires the help of a monk with magical powers, called a "Silent Brother", Jeremiah, to discover how Clary is able to see Shadowhunters and why she was attacked. Jeremiah discovers a block on Clary's mind, and takes her and Jace to the City of Bones, where the Silent Brothers attempt to break it. Although the attempt fails, Clary discovers flashes of information, particularly the name Magnus Bane. With Isabelle's help, Clary traces Magnus Bane to a party, which she attends with Jace, Simon, Alec and Isabelle. There, they discover that Magnus is the High Warlock of Brooklyn, and he placed the block on Clary, although his attempts to help her remember are unhelpful. During the party, Simon is turned into a rat by a faerie drink, and Jace and Clary go to a vampire-infested hotel to rescue Simon who has been taken home by a vampire.

Clary and Jace are helped into the hotel by a teenager named Raphael. He then betrays them and reveals that he is the leader of the vampire coven that are residing inside that hotel, and soon Clary and Jace are fighting for their lives. They are saved by werewolves who claim they want Clary. Clary and Jace escape and rescue Simon, but get injured in the process.

At The Institute, Clary and Alec get into a fight. Jace takes Clary to The Institute's garden where they kiss. Clary realizes where the Mortal Cup is and she, Jace, Isabelle, Alec, and Simon go and retrieve it. Alec gets injured by a greater demon during the fight and nearly dies. Simon comes into the room and saves the group by shooting out the light dome above exposing the demon to light and drives it back through the portal door. Magnus Bane heals Alec at the Institute. When Clary and Jace give the Mortal Cup to Hodge, he reveals he's working for a man named Valentine who is meant to be dead. Valentine takes Jace. Clary goes after Hodge, but is kidnapped. When Clary wakes up she finds out Luke took her but for her own safety. He tells her the story of how he and her mother met and why he was there to look after Clary. Clary finds out Valentine's her father, and Luke and Clary track down Jace and Valentine. Luke and his werewolf pack raid Valentine's lair, but they are ambushed.

During the attack, Luke and Clary get inside, and while Luke is distracted, Clary finds Valentine and Jace. Valentine reveals that he is also Jace's father, making them siblings. Jace's original name was Jonathan. Jocelyn left Idris when she thought Valentine had killed her son and her parents. Luke then returns to fight Valentine, with Jace's help, but Valentine escapes to Idris, where he has hidden the Cup. Clary retrieves her mother, who is in a coma, and takes her to a hospital. In the meantime, Alec has been healed by Magnus Bane. Clary and Jace meet at the Institute and express their frustration that they cannot be together forever like they once believed.

City of Ashes[]

Published 25th March, 2008

Events take place directly after where the story in City of Bones finished. The story is told in third person and mostly from the perspective of Clary, including her confusion over her relationship with her new found brother and her feelings for Simon.

Clary Fray starts to wish for her life to go back to normal. But her life is far from it as a demon-slaying Shadowhunter.

The story starts with a brief scene of Valentine who has paid a warlock to summon the Demon of Fear who kills the warlock. Valentine raised the Mortal Cup which gives him absolute power over the Greater Demon. Then it cuts to Clary whose mother still hasn't woken up at the hospitol. Clary is now living at Luke's house. Simon gets sick, which makes Clary startled and then he kisses her in the kitchen, and later calls her his girlfriend. Jace is sent from The Institute by Alec's parents, because Maryse (Alec and Isabelles mother) fears Jace is spying for Valentine. He goes to a bar and picks a fight with a werewolf pack, after it is revealed that there was a were child slain in the alley way. Jace was asked to help, and he had seemed indifferent of the situation, refusing to help. He antagonized the pack causing them to attack. Luke walks in and saves him. Jace refuses to talk to him so he calls Clary. Luke convinces Jace to talk to Maryse so Jace Luke and Clary go to the Institute and confront Alec's mother who explains that the Inquisitor is coming to talk with Jace and she was trying to spare him. Clary goes back home to Luke's with Simon and he stays over. She gets up to go fix herself up in the bathroom when she received a text message from Isabelle. When the Inquisitor arrived to Institute, Jace, using his so-called charm, angers the Inquisitor and she locks him in the Silent City. That night, sitting in the cell of the Silent City, Jace hears the screams of the Silent Brothers as something is attacking everyone. He finds out that Valentine killed the Silent Brothers to get the Soul-Sword (Second of the Mortal Instruments). Clary comes to the Institute where Isabelle and Alec explain that Jace was thrown in the prison. A distress call goes out to the Institute from the Silent City, but the adult Shadowhunters were called to the park where a Faerie Child was killed and were not available at the moment. Isabelle and Alec decide to go find Jace and Clary tags along to go to save Jace, since she is the only person who knows the entrance. They discover all of the brothers have been killed, locate Jace. Clary uses a mysterious rune to free Jace. When they emerge, they see a group of shadowhunters (including Maryse and the Inquisitor). The Inquisitor believes that Jace might have had a hand in the killing because the Soul-Sword is the only instrument to use against the Shadowhunter to prove if he is lying or telling the truth. Then Magnus Bane appears offering his apartment to take Jace as a prisoner. Later on, Alec, Clary and Simon goes to Magnus' apartment to visit Jace and found out about Valentine's possible plans

They go to The Fairy Realm and Clary was told to stay as she was tricked into taking fairy food. However, the Queen said that "the kiss the girl most desires" will allow Clary to leave, leading Clary to kiss Jace in front of the whole Court. Simon storms off when they leave the realm. Clary, Jace and Isabelle go back to the Institution taking advantage that no one is in there. Clary and Jace have a fight about each others feelings and the fact that they are siblings, in Jace's room. Later Raphael shows up at the Institute with Simon dying in his arms, with the only choice left for him to become a vampire. Raphael explained that Simon believed that he was already turning into a vampire because he had bitten Raphael in rat form during City of Bones. Because he entered on his own free will, he was considered "free game" and was drained and also given vampire blood. They bury his dead body in a Jewish cemetery, as requested by Clary, and Simon is reborn. After this Clary had ignored Jace as a punishment to herself because she feels guilty about Simon. Clary and Simon meets at Luke's house and talk about if whether Simon is going to tell his mother about his new condition, when Luke brings Maia who has been hurt. Luke goes outside after helping Maia saying he can't do much and needs a warlock. Simon and Clary call Jace to tell them about the incident, and appears moments later with Alec and Magnus. While Magnus is healing Maia, Jace, Simon, and Clary get involve in a fight outside with demons and find Luke injured. They bring him inside the house and Magnus heals him too. Jace says he knows Magnus is dating a friend of his, making Alec nervous and making it seem he is the one dating Magnus. At Clary's room Jace tells her that he wishes he could hate her. They go after the demons and that night Jace goes to visit Valentine (his father) on a boat in the river. While on the boat Valentine offers Jace and his friends protection if he will join him and come back to Idris. Jace responds with no. The Inquisitor shows up the next morning and claims Jace was with Valentine and plans to threaten Jace's life unless Valentine returns the Mortal Instruments. She places him in a magically electrified cell in the training room of the institute, and tells him that she is going to trade his life for the Mortal Instruments. He tries to explain to her that it will not work, but she does not believe him. At this time, Maia leaves Luke's apartment to travel to see Simon because she wanted to apologize to him for the names she called him after she was attacked and she realized that he was a vampire. On the way, she is attacked by the Demon of Fear, which she interprets as her older brother who tortured her while he was still alive. Valentine kidnaps her shortly afterward.

Later, Luke and Clary realize Maia is missing, as she had left a note stating that she was going to make amends. Clary realizes that she means Simon, and calls Simon even though it is daytime. He answers and tells her that Maia never made it to the house, and then hears someone breaking in. Clary and Luke jump into the car to go rescue him but Valentine finds him before they can get there in time. Later Alec convinces Jace to find a way out, and suggests he should escape the cell by leaping out of the cage (which only has four walls). There, he calls Clary and she reveals that Simon and Maia were captured by Valentine. He tells her to bring Luke to the Institute, and wait outside for him. Jace tells Alec to call Magnus because he, Clary and Luke are going to need him. He then escapes through Isabelle's window and waits at the roof of the institute. Luke and Clary arrive at the Institute and Clary sees Jace jump from the roof and land safely on the ground. It is revealed that this is the ability of the Angel given to Jace by Valentine. Clary discovers that she can create new runes(her ability of the angel) including the rune "fearlessness". Simon and Maia are currently alive on the boat when Valentine arrives. He then proceeds to throw silver dust on Maia, hurting her. He then tells Simon he is going to kill him, and asks him if he has any last words. Simon replies, "Clary," and Valentine proceeds to slash his neck. Jace finds Simon dead and feeds him his blood to return him to life. Later on Jace fights a demon which he is sure he cannot win and the Inquisitor appears and sees the star shaped scar Jaces has. She then kills the demon for Jace and dies leaving Jace very puzzled. Clary confronts Valentine on the boat and she draws an "open" rune she created which tears the boat apart. Clary falls into the river but is saved by the nixies the Fairy Queen sent to help. The nixies deliver her to her group by being pulled onto a truck enchanted by Magnus to "drive" on water. While they are on the truck, the sun begins to rise, creating a deadly problem for Simon, who is also on the truck. Simon and Clary share a moment, believing he is about to die but, miraculously, he doesn't: a permanent side effect caused from ingesting Jace's blood, making him a "Daylighter". Clary realizes that she loves Jace and wants to be with him no matter what the consequences, when she goes to talk to him later on Jace tells her that he will be and act as her brother from then on without hearing what she has to say first. A devastated Clary then meets a woman named Madeleine who tells Clary that she knows a way to wake her mother.

City of Glass[]

Published 24th March, 2009

As the Lightwoods, Jace and Clary prepare to leave for Alicante, the Institute is attacked by Forsaken, forcing the others to leave without Clary, and take Simon with them. While the others meet up with Aline and her cousin Sebastian, Clary, stranded in New York, creates her own Portal to the city and travels there with Luke. They arrive in Lake Lyn, where the cursed water makes Clary ill, and Luke takes her to his sister Amatis to recover. Alec is ordered to bring Simon to the new Inquisitor, who wishes to know why a Downworlder is in Alicante. Under the ruse that Simon is being sent home, the Clave secretly interrogate and imprison him.

Clary sneaks out to visit the Lightwoods, but argues with Jace and storms out. After leaving, Clary meets Sebastian, and tells him about her mother's coma and her need to find the warlock Ragnor Fell. Sebastian takes her to Ragnor's house, but Ragnor is dead and Magnus is there in his place. Magnus temporarily freezes Sebastian so that he cannot hear and tells Clary to bring him a spell book from the Wayland country home, and she convinces Jace to take her there. Together, they find Valentine's underground lab, where a dying angel tells them that Jace was imbued with demon . After the manor falls apart, the two roll down the large hill, sharing a kiss on the way down. Jace tells her that he is truly part-demon, because he loves his sister in a romantic way. Clary, angry, (though was previously enjoying herself) shoves Jace off of her. They trek back to the city in silence, only to find the Towers burning up in flames.

Meanwhile, Valentine gives the Clave until midnight the next day to surrender; if they do not, he will kill every Shadowhunter left. He kills the Inquisitor before leaving. Jace comes to meet Clary in her room at Amatis's where they talk and Jace tells Clary that he loves her. Clary's mother arrives, woken from her coma, and they argue, Clary being angry that her mother lied to her her whole life about being a Shadowhunter and having a brother. Clary storms out, and goes to a hill where Simon finds her. From there they see the Clave preparing to surrender. Clary remembers a rune the dying angel showed her, which can be used to bind a Downworlder and a Shadowhunter so that they share each others' powers and she also knows a partner rune. She tells the Clave, and Shadowhunters and Downworlders begin bonding, including Alec and Magnus, who reveal that they have been having a relationship.

Jocelyn tells Clary that Clary can create new runes, and also that Sebastian(Jonathan), not Jace, is the brother who was given demon blood. Jace is not Clary's brother, but he was given angel blood, like Clary, so he has abilities to make him a more skilled fighter. Meanwhile, Raphael agrees with the Clave that the vampires will fight if the Clave give them Simon; Simon agrees, but first Clary marks him with the first Mark ever made: the Mark of Cain. Raphael cannot kill Simon as he plans to as it will rebound on him seven-fold, although this means Simon will have to fight in the coming battle. Jace, after following Sebastian across the country to a cave, overhears Valentine and Sebastian talking, and learns that Valentine plans to summon Raziel at Lake Lyn. After Valentine leaves, the two boys fight, and Sebastian tells Jace that he is Clary's brother, not Jace. Sebastian almost kills Jace, but Isabelle arrives to help Jace kill Sebastian, though his body is never recovered after it falls in the water, so they assumed he was dead. Also, Isabelle confirms that Jace is not Clary's brother.

Clary travels by portal to Lake Lyn to stop Valentine from summoning Raziel but is knocked out on the way. Valentine binds and silences her with runes, then tries to kill her. Valentine then stabs Jace while Clary watches, killing him. The Angel Raziel appears, kills Valentine for all of his actions, and tells Clary she can be granted any one wish. After briefly thinking about her choice, she chooses to bring Jace back from the dead. She gets to finally tell him to his face that they are not in fact brother and sister and that he doesn't have demon blood in him, and they share a long-awaited kiss.

About a day later, the Shadowhunters prepare for the funeral of all of their fallen, including Max Lightwood (killed by Sebastian/Jonathan), and Valentine. Jace watches from a nearby hill, too depressed to actually attend. Meanwhile, Clary finally accepts she is a true Shadowhunter by blood, and puts on someone's old Shadowhunting gear, symbolizing her readiness to become a true warrior.

The book ends with all of the remaining main and recurring characters sitting in Alicante at a party, watching a fireworks show, which Clary thinks look like falling angels, while in the arms of Jace.

City of Fallen Angels[]

Published April 5th 2011

The head vampire Camille (who was Magnus Bane's girlfriend in Clockwork Angel) asks Simon for help to overthrow Raphael who betrayed Camille for power over the clan. Clary's mother is getting married to Luke. Later when Simon gets back home, his mother asks him about the bottles of blood she found in his room and Simon tells her the truth but she freaked out and Simon tells her with his vampire powers that she was dreaming. Since Jace was reborn after he died in City of Glass, demons can control him. The mother demon, Lilith, gets "inside" him. They find out that Jonathan (Clary's brother) is still alive and starts a new generation of his type. City of Fallen Angels takes place after the events of City of Glass. It shifts its focus between Jace and Clary and Clary's best friend, Simon, and how he adjusts to life as a vampire. From the August 2nd press release: "I initially envisioned City of Fallen Angels as an ending to the story begun in City of Bones, but I soon realized that in fact where my pen was taking me was into a new trilogy, one even more epic, dark and passionate than the first. In the first three Mortal Instruments books the fate of the Shadowhunters hung in the balance; now it's the fate of the world. I can't wait to share this journey with my readers as familiar characters are deepened, new faces introduced and relationships tested like never before."

While City of Fallen Angels was originally intended to focus more on Simon, Clare later changed her mind: "As I sat down to write CoFA, and realized it was a much bigger story than I had thought, the focus shifted off Simon and more onto the rest of the characters. Magnus and Alec, who originally were not going to be in the book at all, now have a major role to play. Clary and Jace have a central role to play. That stuff about Simon leaving town? Not happening; the major action takes place in NYC. While I did try to preserve a strong plotline for Simon, in which he is more than an adjunct to the larger drama surrounding Jace and Clary, it would now be very misleading to refer to it as 'Simon's book' or indicate that it is mainly about him. It is not."

In her own words, Clare summarizes City of Fallen Angels: "City of Fallen Angels takes place after the events of City of Glass. It splits its focus between Jace and Clary and Clary's best friend, Simon, and how he adjusts to life as a vampire, but it's still an ensemble-cast story, and all the characters from the Mortal Instruments series appear in it: Jace, Isabelle, Alec, Magnus, Luke, Jocelyn, Maia, and many more. (It even helps to have read The Clockwork Angel before you read [City of Fallen Angels], because some of the characters from the [Infernal Devices] series do show up in it. However, it isn’t required.) In City of Fallen Angels, someone's killing the Shadowhunters who used to be in Valentine's Circle and leaving their bodies around New York City in a manner designed to provoke hostility between Downworlders and Shadowhunters. Internecine warfare among vampires is ripping the Downworld community apart, and only Simon — the Daylighter who everyone wants on their side — can decide the outcome; too bad he wants nothing to do with Downworld politics. Meanwhile Jace and Clary investigate a mystery that has deeply personal consequences for them — consequences that may strengthen their relationship, or rip it apart forever. Love, blood, betrayal and revenge: the stakes are higher than ever in City of Fallen Angels."

Many readers, however, have complained about the focus switching to Simon, wrongly believing that the book will not include Jace or Clary, to which Clare replied: "What I want to know is, where did this rumor start that they aren’t? Every description I’ve ever given of City of Fallen Angels includes the information that Jace and Clary will be in it, and be in it plenty. And yet I get this question every day. I’d love to know why!"

City of Lost Souls[]

Published May 8th 2012

The story begins two weeks after City of Fallen Angels, with Jace and Sebastian still missing. Clary, who wants to find Jace, asks the Queen of the Fair Folk to help her using a bell given to her in the previous book. The queen agrees to help if Clary returns two Faerie rings (which have the power to speak to each other though their minds) that were stolen and kept in the Institute library. Clary agrees, out of desperation to find Jace. While Clary is in the library looking for the rings, Sebastian and Jace enter, talking like old friends. Shocked, Clary stays hidden while they take some books and leave. That night at Luke's home, she wakes up to find Jace next to her. Jace tells Clary that he and Sebastian have returned to ask her to join them. They are interrupted when Jocelyn sees Sebastian and screams. A fight breaks loose, in which Luke is stabbed by Sebastian then Jace and Sebastian disappear but before they go, Jace mouths to Clary that he will be back for her. Clary and Jocelyn move into Magnus's house for their own safety. Shortly after they arrive Clary and her mom get in to an argument, Clary storms off and then portals out to meet Simon at the diner. Clary then agrees join Jace and Sebastian with a view to spying on them, whilst using the Faerie rings to communicate with Simon. Over time, Clary realizes that Jace is possessed and is acting much like Sebastian. Meanwhile, everyone else is trying to think of a way to kill Sebastian without killing Jace; they are tied together with Lilith's magic, meaning one cannot be killed without killing the other. Isabelle and Jocelyn go to the Iron Sisters for help and learn that the connection between Sebastian and Jace can be broken using a blade of Heaven, which can only be given by an angel. They come to a solution when Simon suggests summoning Raziel. They agree that Simon should do this because he has the Mark of Cain, making him invincible. Clary learns from Sebastian that he intends to make a second Mortal Cup with the power to kill all greater demons. Later, Jace manages to revert to his true, non-possessed self for a few minutes to explain Sebastian's plan to Clary. Jace tells her that Sebastian wants to use Lilith's blood to create an army of dark Shadowhunters using the second Mortal Cup. Simon and the others travel to Luke's farmhouse to summon Raziel. There, Raziel gives Simon a blade of Heaven named Glorious, but in return demands the right to strip Simon of the Mark of Cain. Simon agrees and Raziel takes the Mark away, rendering Simon no longer invincible. Clary and Sebastian travel to "The Seventh Sacred Site" to create an army of new Shadowhunters. Sebastian summons Lilith and mixes her blood in the second Mortal Cup, then demonstrates his creation to his followers by forcing Amatis to drink from the Cup. Simon, Magnus, Alec, Isabelle and Shadowhunters from the Clave then arrive and Sebastian's dark Shadowhunters meet them in battle. Simon gives the Angel blade to Clary, who tries to hunt down Sebastian. Clary uses the Angel blade and stabs Jace, believing that it won't kill him as his heart is more good than evil. Jace is set alight, leading the other to believe that he is dead. The battle ends when most of Sebastian's dark Shadowhunters have been killed, and Sebastian flees. Clary sees that Jace is not dead and his family take him back to the Institute. After some days, Clary speaks with Jace and learns that after being stabbed by the Angel blade, he now has sacred fire inside him. The sacred fire prevents people from touching him, as doing so will result in them being burned. Magnus breaks up with Alec because he (Alec) considered a way to make Magnus mortal but never told Magnus that Camille made such the offer, even though Alec refused the offer. The story ends with Maryse showing two of the Silent Brothers - Enoch and Zachariah - a pair of angel wings and a note from Sebastian with the words "Erchomai, I am coming", which she found on the floor of the institute library.