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I just finished reading Chain of Thorns, and I was fully on the edge of my seat to find out which of my beloved characters was going to make it out of this book alive!
Below, I’m going to cover Chain of Thorns‘ ending if you’re dying to know more about this book but haven’t gotten your hands on a copy yet!
It’s one of the craziest entries in the series, so let’s dive in!!
How Does Chain of Thorns End?
Chain of Thorns is the third and final book in The Last Hours series by Cassandra Clare.
In this book, we finally see James learn of the curse of the bracelet Grace gave him.
We also see Jesse Blackthorn’s return from death, Matthew and Jame’s makeup, and the defeat of Belial.
The third act conflict begins after the events of the London Enclave Christmas Party, hosted by Will and Tessa.
Tatiana Blackthorn shows up and kidnaps baby Alexandar Lightwood and takes him away to try to draw runes on him, which would kill him due to him being so little.
The Merry Thieves (and company) find her and stop her before she is able to harm the baby.
HOWEVER, Tatiana Blackthorns’ whole plan was to be captured so that she would be taken into the Silent City!
This is so she would have access to the bodies of the dead Silent Brothers and Iron Sisters so she could let the Chimera demons into their bodies and they would become Belial’s army.
Tatiana also visits her daughter, Grace, when she is taken to the Silent City and strips her of her powers.
Grace escapes from both her mom and the Silent City and runs to find the Merry Thieves to warn them of her mother and Belial’s plot.
At this time, all of our main characters (Alastar, Thomas, Christopher, Ari, Anna, Matthew, Lucie, Jesse, Cordelia, and James) are gathered for James to finally speak his truth and tell them about the curse of the bracelet that Grace gave him.
Though Grace comes to warn them of her mother’s plan, Tatiana still shows up with her army of Chimera-possessed bodies.
She demands that James lets Belial have his body, and Jesse joins her side.
The rest of the crew big refuse (duh), and a fight breaks out. In this fight, Christopher is injured, and he dies.
The fight becomes pretty dire, and Lucie uses her Belial-given powers to bring the Ghost of Rupert Blackthorn back, because she believes that he will call out to his wife for being a crazy revenge-obsessed B-word.
Also, she is literally fighting against her own son!
Rupert is ashamed of Tatiana when he sees what she is doing, and she gets very upset by him denouncing her and her actions and runs away in a fit of rage.
Then, Cordelia follows her and kills Tatiana!
At this point in the battle, Belial shows up, and he begins straight up killing people in front of James until he agrees to go to Edem.
James tells Belial he will join him if he agrees to let the Shadowhunters of London escape.
As James is being taken to Edem, Matthew grabs onto James. They both disappear from London and are sucked into Edem.
The London Elclave starts to evacuate to Idris, but Alastar, Thomas, Anna, Ari, Cordila, Jesse, Lucie, and Grace all manage to sneak away from the Enclave and stay behind in London to try to save Matthew and James.
Grace and Jesse work on developing the fire messages that Christopher was working on before he died so that they can communicate with the Shadowhunters who are in Idris.
Alester gives Cortana back to Cordelia, and she and Lucie go off to make a deal with Lilith to save James and Matthew.
Cordelia makes a deal with Lilith that if she kills Belial and helps Lilith get Edem back, she will be released from being her paladin.
Meanwhile, Matthew and James are just chillin’ in Edem, and Matthew is suffering from alcohol withdrawals.
At the same time, Lucie and Cordelia are in Edem trying to find James and Matthew.
They’re working out their weird interpersonal beef, and by the time they find the boys, they are once again besties! Yippee!!!
They locate Matthew right after James has let Belial take over his body, but Matthew tells Cordelia that James said to get close to him (when he is possessed) and that Cordelia would know what to do.
Belial, for whatever reason, wants to be the King of England, so he takes his new bod out for a stroll to Westminster Abbey to raise an Arch Bishop from the dead.
However, at this same time, all our London besties have been hard at work!
- Alaster and Thomas find out how to remove the Chimera demons from the bodies of the Silent Brothers/Iron Sisters.
- Grace and Jesse solve the issue with the fire messages and reach out to the Enclave to fight with them.
- Anna and Ari find the passageway through the Silent City that Tatiana used to get to London so the Enclave can get through as well.
- And Lucie, James, and Matthew make their way back from Edem and meet Belial/James at Westminster Abbey.
Nice job, team!
On another note, Lucie realizes that her weird ghost voices she hears when she is making out with Jesse is actually the deep ghostie realm.
She uses a good old makeout sesh to go deep into the realm of the dead and free the souls of the Iron Sister/Silent Brothers, and they are able to kill all the demons.
Cordelia also realizes that when Lilith tells her that Cortana can both heal and destroy if she uses the blade to stab James, it would inflict Belial with his third mortal wound.
This would destroy Belial, but James would be freed.
The Chain of Thorns Coda
Matthew finally tells his parents about the potion he bought from the Shadow Market that causes the death of his mother’s unborn baby.
His parents forgive him and tell him that they are expecting another baby.
Meanwhile, James and Cordelia are happily together and are planning to leave for their honeymoon.
Also, Bridget was struck by unearthly lightning, and they mention not knowing what effects this have on her, which explains how she is seen in Queen of Air and Darkness.
Jem communicates with Belial, who though he was destroyed, cannot fully be destroyed because he is a Prince of Hell.
However, this is a new version of him, and he tells Jem that he no longer has any interest in the Herondales.
Will he show up in The Wicked Powers series? Only time will tell!
Chain of Thorns Epilogue
This is the warm and fuzzy wrap-up of our beloved characters that us fans have dreamt of!
Everybody has plenty of closure they’re looking for, so let’s see what each of our cast is up to.
The current group of Merry Thieves ends by digging a grave so that they can bury Jesse’s coffin (and symbolically bury items that represent things they are letting go of).
- Matthew puts a bottle of brandy in the coffin.
- Ari’s item is the letter her father used to blackmail Charles.
- Thomas buries his fire message that he tried to send to Alaster (who he is now in an open relationship with).
- Alaster’s item is the hair dye he uses to use.
- Cordelia places the scabbard her father gave her for her wedding.
- Grace puts the broken silver bracelet that she had cursed James with.
- Jesse puts the Blackthorn sword into his old coffin, letting go of the idea in the past of what it meant to be a Blackthorn.
- Lucie puts a drawing of a Pyxis that she had taken from Emmanuel Gast.
- James put the pistol that he used to harm Lilith created by Christphor, symbolizing the loss of his powers given to him by Belial.
Then, they all have a picnic and are a big happy family!
Who Does Matthew End Up With In Chain of Thorns?
Chain of Thorns ends with Matthew embarking on a journey of self-discovery with his dog Oscar Wilde (as in, an actual dog, not the author).
As of now, we have no information on a relationship that Matthew Fairchild ends up in.
The Fairchild family tree is not complete compared to some of the other families listed in the series.
But we also see some plot holes within Matthew’s family tree, so it is not clear whether the family tree can be considered canon or not anymore.
Do James and Cordelia End Up Together?
James and Cordelia end the series together and are happy, their fake marriage ultimately becoming a real one!
James realizes that he has always been in love with Cordelia, and the only reason he ever had feelings for Grace Blackthorn was because of the bracelet she put on his wrist, which Belial cursed.
As the book ends, James and Cordelia are planning their honeymoon.
Who Dies In Chain of Thorns?
The big death we see in Chain of Thorns is Christopher Lightwood, aka Kit.
This is, however, confusing for fans of the series due to the family tree that was released on the dust jacket of Clockwork Princess, the final book in The Infernal Devices series.
On this family tree, it is stated that Christopher Fairchild married Grace Blackthorn, and eventually, their family line led to Robert Lightwood, the father of Alec and Isabelle.
So, I suppose the family tree is no longer canon???
Tatiana Blackthorn also dies in this book. She is killed by Cordelia wielding Cortana. However, this death is not the most shocking due to her being the villain and an overall jerk.
Anyways, did you enjoy Chain of Thorns?
I personally really enjoyed both this book and the other books in The Last Hours series, with the exception of how lame the adult Shadowhunters are in this book.
Will and Tessa are so wimpy in this series!!
Though it is fun to see their children, it’s such a bummer how often they are not in the action.
I understand this is because the plot follows a new generation of Shadowhunters while keeping the book more YA to focus on the teens…but STILL
Anywho, still a favorite of mine.
Happy reading!
-Paisley
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