Tuesday, June 27, 2017

THE SILVER MASK by Cassandra Clare & Holly Black / Snippet #MagisteriumSeries


The forth installment in Cassandra Clare and Holly Black's the Magisterium series, THE SILVER MASK, is set to be released on October 10th, 2017. Today Cassandra Clare shared a snippet from the upcoming release. You can read her entire post hereRead the snippet below.


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That night, though, Call didn’t dream, and when he woke up, there was a guard outside his cell, holding his tray of breakfast.
“You’ve got another visitor,” the guard said, looking at Call sideways. He was pretty sure all the guards were still waiting for him to slay them with that charisma.
Call sat up. “Who is it?”
The guard shrugged. “Some student from your school.”
Call’s heart began to pound. It was Tamara. It had to be Tamara. Who else would visit him?
He barely noticed the guard sliding the breakfast tray through the narrow opening at the bottom of the door. He was too busy sitting up straight and running his fingers through his tangled hair, trying to calm it and figure out what to say to Tamara when she came in.
Hey, how are you doing, sorry I let our best friend get killed …
The door opened and his visitor came through, walking between two guards. It was a Magisterium student — that was true.
But it wasn’t Tamara…

“Jasper?” Call said in disbelief.
“I know.” Jasper held up his hands as if to ward off gratitude.
“Obviously you’re overwhelmed by my kindness in coming here.”
“Uh,” Call said. Master Rufus had been right about Jasper — his hair looked like he hadn’t brushed it in years. It was sticking out all over. Call marveled at it. Had Jasper really worked to get it looking like that? On purpose? “I assume you came to tell me how much everyone at school hates me.”
“They don’t think of you all that much,” Jasper said, obviously lying. “You just didn’t make that big of an impression. Mostly, everyone’s sad about Aaron. They thought of you as his sidekick, you know? Blending into the background.”
They think of you as his murderer. That’s what Jasper meant, even if he didn’t say it.
After that, Call couldn’t bring himself to ask about Tamara. “Did you get in a lot of trouble?” he asked instead. “I mean, because of me.”
Jasper rubbed his hands against his worn designer jeans. “Mostly they wanted to know if you put spells on us to keep us in your dark thrall. I said you weren’t a good enough mage to do anything like that.”
“Thanks, Jasper,” said Call, not sure if he meant it or not.
“So what’s it like in the ole Panopticon?” Jasper asked, looking around. “It very, uh, sterile-looking in here. Have you met any real criminals? Did you get a tattoo?”
“Seriously?” Call said. “You came to ask me if I got a tattoo?”
“No,” said Jasper, abandoning all pretenses. “I actually came because — well — Celia broke up with me.”
“What?” Call was incredulous. “I can’t believe it.”
“I know!” said Jasper. “I can’t believe it either!” He flopped down in the uncomfortable visitor chair. “We were perfect together!”
Call wished he could reach Jasper so he could strangle him.
“No, I meant I can’t believe you went through six checkpoints and a potentially embarrassing full-body search just so you could come here and complain about your love life!”
“You’re the only one I can talk to, Call,” said Jasper.
“You mean because I’m chained to this floor and can’t get away?”
“Exactly.” Jasper seemed pleased. “Everyone else bolts when they see me. But they don’t understand. I have to get Celia back.”
“Jasper,” said Call. “Tell me something, and please answer honestly.”
Jasper nodded.
“Is this the Assembly’s new strategy for torturing me until I give them information?”
Just as he spoke, a thin tendril of smoke rose from the ground-floor level, followed by the flicker of flames. In the distance, an alarm started to sound.
The Panopticon was on fire.


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We're looking forward to adding this book to the rest of the series, when it's out.  
Have you read the rest of this series yet? Did you enjoy it? 

I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves. ~ Anna Quindlen

Good children's literature appeals not only to
the child in the adult, but to the adult in the child.
~ Anonymous ~