A parabatai is your partner in battle. A parabatai is your best friend. Parabatai can never fall in love. Emma Carstairs is a warrior, a Shadowhunter, and the best in her generation. Shoulder to shoulder with her parabatai, Julian Blackthorn, she patrols the streets of Los Angeles, where vampires party on the Sunset Strip, and faeries?the most powerful of supernatural creatures?teeter on the edge of open war with Shadowhunters. When the bodies of humans and faeries turn up murdered in the same way Emma?s parents were when she was a child, an uneasy alliance is formed. The search for the truth takes Emma from sea caves full of sorcery to a dark lottery where death is dispensed. Why does Shadowhunter Law forbid parabatai to fall in love? Who really killed her parents?and can she bear to know the truth?