Blackstairs

Seduce me like a Herondale, Fuck me like a Blackthorn 

[cassandraclare]

hi cassie :)

i miss julian SO much and fear for his reaction to dru being kidnapped and ty leaving the scholomance to go off on this dangerous mission with the first heir 😭 our man is going to be STRESSED thinking he’s lost 3/4 of his kids, will we hear from him and emma in TLKOF and see his reaction to finding out what dru and ty are up to? (i wouldn’t be surprised if he tried to burn down the world to get dru back he’s THE julian blackthorn)

thank you and so so insanely excited to read the book, less than 6 months left!!!

Poor Julian! Yes, it's true Dru and Ty are older than they were last time we saw them with Julian, but I think Julian will continue to wish to protect them. I think he will wish to protect them on into their adulthood, and when he is ninety-six and Dru is ninety-two or whatever, he will continue to regard her as his baby sister, and Ty as his baby brother. (Who is ninety-three.)

Ultimately though Julian has a role like the TID characters in The Last Hours: he can worry, and he can wish to protect his siblings, but in the end he isn't the one who can do what has to be done. Only the protagonists can do that. He can't burn the world down to save Dru, in that she has to save herself. He can set little fires though. :)

[black-stairs]

My heart 🥹 little fires ❤️

[cassandraclare]

LKOF chapter sampler snippet

Meanwhile, back at the Scholomance:

“You told us your final project would be about solving crimes using magic. But this”—Catarina tapped the stack of paper in front of her—“seems to be about the alternate dimension Thule. It includes a section on how one might possibly get there—” 

“That part is theoretical,” said Ty. 

“All right,” Catarina said. “But . . .

the final project is supposed to cover the kind of work you want to do when you leave the Scholomance. You’re an adult Shadowhunter. Solving crimes using magic seems like something you could do. Attempting interdimensional travel to a hell world does not. I know your brother Julian visited that other world, but there were extenuating circumstances involved that will never be replicated.” 

“I said it was theoretical—” 

“If you opened a door to hell in your dorm room and a beast came through and ate you, that wouldn’t be theoretical.” 

“No, I would call that empirical evidence. But I’m not doing that.” 

Catarina templed her hands beneath her chin. “I believe you,” she said. “And I don’t think you actually want to go to Thule, even if a version of Livvy is alive there. I think you turned in a final project you knew couldn’t possibly pass on purpose.” 

Ty froze. 

[darcycarstairs]

litjoy tda edition sneak peak

yall don’t know what you’re doing to me.

all credit to litjoycrate. this is from their instagram.

[witchlingcirce]

OKAY!! This dream was so cool and I kinda wanna share my absolute nonsense theory!!

I definitely think this dream has something to do with Lucifer being the eventual villain and the impacts it’ll have on the shadowhunter world. HOWEVER: this leads the question: how? And why is Kit saying it’s Ty fault.

A really old shadowhunter theory is that Livvy is the one who will get possessed by Lucifer and honestly I’ve always supported that and I think it’s plausible. Out of any character, Livvy is probably the easiest to posses.

Okay I think possess might not be the right word since she’s a ghost? But I think Lucifer being able to control Livvy would be a really interesting concept and I think it could be likely, throughout GOTSM we see that Livvy has a very increasing fragile mind set, we even see her talk about possibly possessing Mina! Even so, we know that Livvy DOES in fact have a Ty to the living world as well (Ty, since he messed the spell up). Thisss would 100% let Lucifer do stuff behind the scenes and easily mess with the TWP cast.

This also leads back to Kit saying it’s “his fault” in the dream like sequence, as it quite literally is Ty’s fault if he does posses Livvy (since ya know he brought her back).

I have a lot of other theory’s as well, since we know that Livvy’s ritual failed, maybe Ty accidentally opened some kind of pathway into the human world?? (This also kinda links back to the fact that the pathway COULD be Livvy…)

[runes-pain-and-glitters]

Cristina propped herself up on her elbow. "The land of Faerie was once united, but has been split in half. And one day high monarch will need to reunite the two halves. Someone who will take the burden of ruling off your hands. And then the two a halves of you, Kieran, can be whole and healed too."

"I fear that day may be far off," Kieran said.

"I feel it is closer than we might think,” said Mark. "But in the meantime, we will make the best of what we have together."

It's no coincidence that they talk about someone uniting and ruling over the fairy lands when the next book is called "The Last King of Faerie"

And personally, I don't feel like this will be about Kit, but more about Ash

[theamazingwhizzo]

Cold fire spread through Kit’s veins; he moved toward the Riders, as if he could reach up and pull them from the sky.

Chapter 31, QOAAD

“Kit.” The voice sounded as if it was coming from very far away. Not Ty’s voice, either. Kit felt as if ice had been injected into his veins, but he forced himself to roll over onto his back.

A birthday snippet from LKOF

[black-stairs]

Yes! Cassie did say we’ve sort of seen Kit’s powers or at least a diluted version. Seems like he was on the edge of tapping into it or did unknowingly

[the-serenity-of-night]

IM GOING INSANEEEEEEEE?????? CLARY BEING KIDNAPPED??? DRU vs JANUS ??? ASH MIGHT STOP JANUS MEETING HIS AUNT??

[cassandraclare]

I love everything you write. You have such an amazing way of making every character even little side ones stand out and feel so important I’ve always loved that about your writing how no matter how many characters are in the books you always make them feel important and not just there to be there. Everyone has a purpose.

I’m going to go outside the shadowhunter questions and ask..

When will the next book in The Chronicles of Castellane be released?

The way you ended Ragpicker King broke me. I was a mess still am a mess.

Such a beautiful amazing series and I can’t wait for more!

Oh dear! I am so sorry. And thanks for your kind words. Ragpicker King was a big complex tale and I'm still a little exhausted from it! Very fun though and I'm excited to go forward with a lot of the new things we've found out about the characters.

Right now the publishing plan is

Last King of Faerie (this year)

Last Prince of Hell

Castellane #3 (The Bone Conjurors)

. . . and either Last Shadowhunter or Black Volume, depending on schedules that have to be worked around. If everything went ideally it will be LKoF (2026) LPoH (2027) and Castellane 3 (2028) but beyond that we have now moved into a future that publishing would consider highly theoretical. :)

[black-stairs]

Did my eyes read correctly? Last Shadowhunter? Is that her way of saying last shadowhunter book or is the book called Last Shadowhunter?

Is this something we knew already? Is this last shadowhunter to remain on earth? What happened to others? Is everyone human now? Did we lose the mortal cup and we have the last person to turn into a shadowhunter?

Theories? Who will be the last shadowhunter remaining? Clary is my guess. In the end, we will go back to the beginning.

[darcycarstairs]

local blackstairs stan freaking out about her new copy of sobh

[cassandraclare]

Hey Cassie, it’s been a while, I’m 33 next week. It been a fun 15 years reading your books. Recently I read Castellane, also beautifully written. Shadowhunter world remains my favorite though, and I’m a Blackstairs girl. I’m still gathering up the nerve to read Bred in Bone because I hear it’s a sad one. Can you tell me if we see them again in the first book? Do we know where they are?

Bred in the Bone is sad, but not because anything terrible happens to Julian or Emma. It is more sad in the philosophical sense of reminding us that nothing is permanent, that as Stephen King once titled a story, "All that you love will be carried away." Mortality, human nature, love, you know. The little stuff.

So it's not so much sad as haunting, I would say. And Emma and Julian are fine; we see them in book one. Still happy, still together. :-)

[black-stairs]

I guess I’m finally reading Bred in the Bone guys…

[catreadsbooks]

TMI/TID/TDA/TEC/TLH Extras

Edited in October 2024: Cassie has compiled a lot of the bonus content in different PDFs, you can find them here, but please be aware that you have to be a newsletter subscriber to have access to these files.

This list is still a WIP, but I’m doing my best to update everything! Since some content is exclusive and even Cassie hasn’t shared it yet, I also won’t share it here. I’ve still listed it and I’m sure you’ll find it elsewhere. :)

The Mortal Instruments

City of Bones (27 March 2007)

Not For Humans (crossover between Holly Black’s Modern Faerie Tale series and The Shadowhunter Chronicles, set before City of Bones)

Awake (Jace meets Clary for the first time from Isabelle’s POV): part of We Jace You A Clary Christmas (PDF)

Original prologue from Jace’s POV

Magnus’s Vow

Kissed: Magnus and Alec’s First Kiss

When Midnight Comes: Jace’s point of view of his first kiss with Clary: Part of We Jace You A Clary Christmas (PDF)

Official Clave files (City of Bones 10th anniversary edition): teaser

City of Ashes (25 March 2008)

Because It Is Bitter: The Seelie Court kiss from Jace’s POV: Part of We Jace You A Clary Christmas (PDF)

Deleted scene: Isabelle defends Jace

Deleted scene: Magnus explains the faerie world

City of Glass (24 March 2009)

Read the original first chapter of City of Glass

Chapter 2: The Demon Towers of Alicante*

Jace kisses Alec*

Chapter 7: Where Angels fear to tread*

Chapter 9: This guilty Blood*

Chapter 13: Where There Is Sorrow*

Manor scene: Jace’s POV: Part of We Jace You A Clary Christmas (PDF)

Jace’s letter to Clary

Chapter 20: Weighed in the Balance*

Jocelyn’s story

* Cut, deleted or changed

City of Fallen Angels (5 April 2011)

A story told in postcards

City of Lost Souls (8 May 2012)

A Question of Power

The Act of Falling

A Dark Transformation: Becoming Sebastian

Stephen’s letter to Jace

Deleted Malec scene

Deleted Jace scene

Deleted or cut scenes (including the cut DSCS)

City of Heavenly Fire (27 May 2014)

Inside jacket artwork

Uncut Clary and Jace cave scene

Deleted scene/comic: Magnus sends Emma and the Blackthorns back to Los Angeles

Comic strip scene “The Wedding” (exclusive to the UK edition)

Cut scene: Jonathan’s death

Letter from Faerie to Arthur Blackthorn

The Infernal Devices: Bonus content inside Life is a Book (PDF)

Clockwork Angel (31 August 2010)

On the Bridge: Will and Jem before Clockwork Angel: Part of Life is a Book (PDF)

Of Loss: Will’s perspective on his kiss with Tessa: Part of Life is a Book (PDF)

Why Will Hates Ducks: Part of Life is a Book (PDF)

Deleted scenes (Jem & Tessa on Blackfriars Bridge, Nate & Tessa, Will & Tessa): Part of Life is a Book (PDF)

Tessa’s letter to Nate (exclusive to Illumicrate’s Clockwork Angel: 10th Anniversary Edition): Part of Life is a Book (PDF)

Clockwork Prince (6 December 2012)

Will’s letter to his parents: Part of Life is a Book (PDF)

Burning Bright: Jem’s meeting with Tessa from his viewpoint: Part of Life is a Book (PDF)

Will’s love letter to Tessa (can also be read in Clockwork Princess)

An Offering of Moonlight: Jem’s Perspective on “Fierce Midnight”: Part of Life is a Book (PDF)

Deleted scenes: The Whole of It (Will tells Jem about his curse), Tessa and Jem: Part of Life is a Book (PDF)

Clockwork Princess (19 March 2013)

Cut scene: Will and Jem

‘Will’s love letter to Tessa’

Carstairs, Herondale and Lightwood family tree (1831-2007), proceed with caution, because SPOILER this family tree is not correct

After the Bridge (Tessa & Jem with art by Cassandra Jean –> City of Heavenly Fire spoilers)

Will and Tessa comic from Cassandra Jean and Cassie

The Dark Artifices

Set before the books

Stars to Burn (Mark & Kieran, with art)

Lady Midnight (8 March 2016)

A Long Conversation (short story in some first editions of Lady Midnight, now an ebook): Part of We Jace You A Clary Christmas (PDF)

Cut scene: Julian

Unedited beach scene

Deleted scene: Emma and Cameron

Deleted scene: Emma, the Blackthorns and the Ashdowns

Deleted scene: Emma and the Blackthorns

Deleted scene: Emma, Clary and Church

Lord of Shadows (23 May 2017)

Cottage scene (Emma & Julian, with art)

Our Waking Souls (canon online short story about Clary & Jace, with art)

Deleted Jemma scene (exclusive to UK 5th anniversary edition)

Queen of Air and Darkness (4 December 2018)

Deleted prologue: pending

Cut Blackstairs scene (unedited)

Deleted Jemma scene

A Love That Never Tires (short story in some first editions of Queen of Air and Darkness, sequel to A Long Conversation): Part of We Jace You A Clary Christmas (PDF)

Kit’s letter to Jace (exclusive to UK 5th anniversary edition): teaser

The Eldest Curses

The Red Scrolls of Magic (9 April 2019)

Magnus’s letter to Alec (from City of Heavenly Fire, formerly exclusive content for Illumicrate & Good Choice Reading)

How Magnus met Catarina: Now a flashback scene in The Lost Book of the White

Deleted snippet (back then the book titles were different)

The Lost Book of The White (1 September 2020)

Edited scene from beginning of the book

In Dreams Begin (Jem and Tessa’s wedding)

Simon’s graduation party (exclusive to Waterstones, deleted scene): A Tale of Brunch (PDF)

The Last Hours

Set before the books

Chain of Gold Extra Content (flash fiction): Bonus content inside The Penultimate Hours (PDF)

The Devil Tavern

Days Past: Lucie and Cordelia

Days Past: Christopher

Cirenworth Hall

The City of Bones

Lucie and Ghosts

A Lightwood Christmas Carol, Part 1

A Lightwood Christmas Carol, Part 2

The Anniversary Party, Part 1

The Anniversary Party, Part 2

Chain of Gold (3 March 2020)

Deleted scene: Matthew

Wedding Invitation (exclusive to Good Choice Reading): Part of Life is a Book (PDF)

Fairy Tale of London: part of Life is a Book (PDF) and also Fairy Tale of London (PDF). You can see artwork from the short story here.

Lucie’s letter to Cordelia (exclusive to LitJoy Crate)

Ragnor’s letter to Magnus (exclusive to Waterstones rune edition)

The Whispering Room from James’s POV with art by Cassandra Jean

Chain of Iron (2 March 2021)

One Must Always Be Careful of Books (exclusive to first editions)

Fever (exclusive to Waterstones )

Matthew’s letter to James (exclusive to LitJoy Crate)

Chain of Thorns (31 January 2023)

Aught But Death (Lucie and Cordelia become parabatai): Aught But Death (PDF)

Matthew writes to James (exclusive to Waterstones)

Jesse writes to Lucie (exclusive to LitJoy Crate)

Deleted snippets: pending

Unidentified snippets

The bonus content is put under the book titles where you can find the extras in, e.g. The Act of Falling is set in City of Fallen Angels but you can find it in City of Lost Souls.

[bonechandelier]

Hey so if any of you are doing any sort of reread before The Last King of Faerie, I think you’d appreciate this

[yviintheclouds]

WHY IS NOBODY TALKING ABOUT THIS GORGEOUS ART FROM THE NEWSLETTER!!!

frostbite studios has done it again

[stavroulaschreave]

just finished reading the ragpicker king

The fact that conor couldn't let kel to be punished even if he might have done everything they accused him of because he loves him

The fact that kel thought that conor was going to kill him and he never resisted

And he fell thinking conor wanted him dead

The fact that conor gave the amulet to kel to be safe always when he is in grave danger himself

Just the love and loyalty in this story

[sankta-wraith]

SHE DID IT

[gracecarstairss]

Laurent Aden Theory

Ragpicker King Spoilers below!

I think that Laurent Aden, the privateer that Anjelica ran away with, is Cas, Kel's friend from the Orfelinat. Here are the reasons why:

Their descriptions match! In Sword Catcher prologue, Cas was described to have blonde hair, blue eyes, and freckles. We learn in Ragpicker King that he has blonde hair & blue eyes.

Laurent states that Castellane is "the place of his birth" during his POV.

The only times Kel thinks of Cas during Ragpicker King is when he's thinking of Laurent Aden and reminisces on how he and Cas wanted to be pirates when they were young.

Kel never sees Laurent up close/face-to-face. He sees him in person at the Solstice Ball but Laurent has a mask on his face, and Kel is far away from him. The single time they interact is when Kel is in Anjelica's room trying to convince her to not leave and Kel hears Laurent speak out the window. They never see each other but...Kel RECOGNIZES HIS VOICE, saying his voice was oddly familiar but he couldn't place it. He thinks that maybe he heard his voice at the Solstice Ball, but they weren't even in the vicinity of one another. This is the biggest piece of evidence that Laurent is Cas.

In the final scene with Laurent waiting outside for Anjelica, Laurent literally says to her that she should tell Kel that he needs to get out of here and that there's enough room on Sedai for Kel to escape with them. He obviously knows who Kel is and wants him to escape with them and live.

Maybe I am spending too much time trying to make Cas exist in this series, but I am CONFIDENT that Laurent is Cas. All these things line up too well.

[black-stairs]

Yep! Yep! This is it, I just finished the books and I was sure someone got it too! I waited 2 books for Cas to show up. At first I thought he was the Ragpicker king when he was a legend in the beginning of the story and not familiar, then I thought maybe Prosper Beck because we hadn’t seen him. But Laurent is perfect.

It took me a while to get that Andreyan was the Maharam’s son. After his fascination with the Ashkar and Magic when we heard the story of how Maharam exiled his son, I figured it had to be him.

Antonetta seemed sus to me showing up when Gremont was being killed and just in time to save the party. But I didn’t catch she was Beck. I just figured she was more involved in the story.

[black-stairs]

Kel spotting a bit of red anywhere: Is that Lin?

Cassie: let’s pair Kel with Antonetta, they seem like they have good chemistry

[black-stairs]

Venturing out, not very far though - The Sword Catcher is my next read!

About 50 percent into the book, here are my thoughts so far:

It took a long long time for the scene to set, to be expected I guess, when reading something with so much history, and backstory, and depth. So after 30 percent of the book is when things finally started to sit at a comfortable place and the action finally started. I now have the twinge of knowing I’m on the precipice of a revelation and I know I’m starting to collect the pieces but working on putting them together.

Here are my thoughts character wise:

Kel: very interesting person to be in the head of. He seems very sharp and very naive at the same time. I don’t have a lot of feelings for him yet even though he’s the front and center of things. Unreliable narrator with a twist. He seems like an outsider but really he’s an insider.

Lin: lots of spunk this girl. She shifts from being surprised at people taking Connor casually and taking Connor casually herself. I can see that she’s the girl with the purpose though, love that. She gives me very AU Emma vibes.

Connor: very curious, so curious. I wonder if Kel has the measure of him or Lin does. Kel believes Connor would break his leg for him, Lin thinks to herself that he didn’t have to go through with it (in a way that makes it sound like he wouldn’t ). Most of what we know about Connor is from Kel’s perspective and it seems Kel is clearly not objective. While he does note Connor’s stubbornness and his anger, he seems to very quickly brush it aside. Kel does seem to color Connor and Annetta with the same tones, you can sense fondness, and just a tinge of longing on both ends, mixed with realization and acceptance of it being beyond reach.

Is he just a brat like we are shown, or was he playing with his friends as a way to win some money and pay the debt off? Are there layers to you Connor? Or are you about to experience character development? You have me turning the pages.

Anetta: Cordelia coded to the T. I would love to read more of her.

Merren: I would read a whole spin off about him. I want his story!

Ragpicker King: oddly I like him, is he written to be liked? We haven’t seen anything about him so far that makes me not like him. He seems to collect people for their skills and lets them freely grow too, while making sure there isn’t “too much crime” in Castellane.

Other thoughts/theories -

1. Is Cas coming back in some way? Is he the Ragpicker King or Beck?

2. The word, the word that everyone whispered to the queen for the source stone. I have a feeling I know one such word already, happens to be a casual password thrown about?

3. Fausten sus AF! Did he throw away The King’s sword catcher under false pretenses?

4. Speaking of sus, Falconet shady too, did he order the hit on Connor? He definitely has an agenda.

5. Does anyone in the palace actually work for the palace? Everyone seems to just be passing around notes. The Queen there picking out drapes, and the whole staff be passing out notes behind her back.

6. Does Mayesh want Lin to take his place next?

7. I wonder who Connor will pick to Marry.

8. Mayesh… Is there more to him than just loyalty? I wonder…