Read Online The Evil We Love (Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy Book 5) by Cassandra Clare, Robin Wasserman - Free Book Online Page A

are talking about the same girl here, yes? Isabelle Lightwood?”
    “Yes.”
    Sunil shook his head in wonder. “And you even have to ask?”
    So that was the new order: the cult of Isabelle Lightwood. Simon had to admit, he could completely understand how a roomful of otherwise rational people could fall completely under her spell and give themselves to her entirely.
    But why would she want them to?
    He decided he was going to have to see this for himself. Simply to understand what was going on and make sure it was all on the up-and-up.
    Not at all because he desperately wanted to be near her. Or impress her. Or please her.
    Come to think of it, maybe Simon understood the cult of Isabelle better than he wanted to admit.
    Maybe he’d been its charter member.
    *   *   *
    “You intend to do what ?” On the last word, Simon’s voice jumped two octaves above normal.
    Jon Cartwright snickered. “Simmer down, Mom. You heard her.”
    Simon looked around the lounge at his friends (and Jon). Over the past year, he’d come to know them inside and out, or at least, he thought that he did. Julie bit her nails bloody when she was nervous. Marisol slept with a sword under her pillow, just in case. George talked in his sleep, usually about sheep-shearing techniques. Sunil had four pet rabbits that he talked about constantly, always worried that little Ringo was getting picked on by his bigger, fluffier brothers. Jon had covered one wall of his room with his little cousin’s finger paintings, and wrote her a letter every week. They’d all pledged themselves to the Shadowhunter cause; they’d gone through hell to prove themselves to their instructors and one another. They’d almost finished out the year without a single fatal injury or vampire bite . . . and now this ?
    “Ha-ha, very funny,” Simon said, hoping he was doing an acceptable job of keeping the desperation out of his tone. “Nice joke on me, get me back for wussing out last night. Utterly hilarious. What’s next? You want to convince me they’re making another crap Last Airbender movie? You want to see me freak out, there are easier ways.”
    Isabelle rolled her eyes. “No one wants to see you freak out, Simon. Frankly, I could take or leave seeing you at all.”
    “So this is serious,” Simon said. “You’re seriously, not at all jokingly, actually, for real planning to summon a demon ? Here, in the middle of the Shadowhunter Academy? In the middle of the end-of-year party? Because you think it will be . . . fun ?”
    “We’re obviously not going to summon it in the middle of the party,” Isabelle said. “That would be rather foolish.”
    “Oh, of course,” Simon drawled. “ That would be foolish.”
    “We’re going to summon it here in the lounge,” Isabelle clarified. “Then bring it to the party.”
    “Then kill it, of course,” Julie put in.
    “Of course,” Simon echoed. He wondered if maybe he was having a stroke.
    “You’re making it sound like a bigger deal than it is,” George said.
    “Yeah, it’s just an imp demon,” Sunil said. “No biggie.”
    “Uh-huh.” Simon groaned. “Totally. No biggie.”
    “Imagine the look on everyone’s faces when they see what we can do!” Marisol was nearly glowing at the thought of it.
    Beatriz wasn’t there. If she had been, maybe she could have talked some reason into them. Or helped Simon tie them up and stuff them in the closet until the end of the semester had safely passed and Isabelle was back in New York where she belonged.
    “What if something goes wrong?” Simon pointed out. “You’ve never faced off against a demon in combat conditions, not without the teachers watching your back. You don’t know—”
    “Neither do you,” Isabelle snapped. “At least, you don’t remember, isn’t that right?”
    Simon said nothing.
    “Whereas I took down my first imp when I was six years old,” Isabelle said. “Like I told your friends, it’s no big deal. And they trust