Emma Carstairs

Emma Cordelia Carstairs (born 1995) is the daughter of John and Cordelia Carstairs, a distant relative of Jem Carstairs, the parabati of Julien Blackthorn, a supporting character in The Mortal Instruments book "City of Heavenly Fire and the main protagonist of The Dark Artifices (which takes place five years after The Mortal Instruments'').

In "City of Heavenly Fire", set in 2007, Emma is 12-years-old and is dropped off by her parents to train at the Los Angeles Institute, which is ran by the Blackthorn family, whom the Carstairs are close to. During Emma's training, the Institute is attacked by Sebastian Morgenstern and his Endarkened Shadowhunters. The Institute's head Andrew Blackthorn and tutor Katrina are turned into Endarkened and Andrew's half-faerie son Mark is sent to the Wild Hunt in order for the Fair Folk to help Sebastian. Luckily, Emma and the other Blackthorn children were able to portal to Idris. When in Idris, Emma is informed by the eldest Blackthorn child Helen that her parents were found dead. Eventually, with the Wild Hunt's help, Sebastian and the Endarkened invaded the Hall of Accords, with Andrew attempting to cox his son Tiberius into coming to him, but Tiberius's older brother and Emma's best friend Julien (knowing that Andrew was no longer himself), threw a dagger and killed Andrew. Eventually the Endarkened were defeated when Clary Fray killed Sebastian. The Clave considered sending Emma to stay with distant relatives or be sent to the Shadowhunter Acadamy, but Emma ended up staying at the Los Angeles Institute (now ran by Andrew's brother Arthur) with the Blackthorns and decided to become Julien's parabati.

In The Dark Artifices, set in 2012, Emma (now 17) continues staying at the Los Angeles Institute with the Blackthorns. She sets out to find what killed her parents, as the claim that Sebastian and the Endarkened killed them was a cover up. Emma discovers that the person who killed her parents was Malcom Fade, the High Warlock of Los Angeles, who did it in attempt to revive his deceased lover Annabel. She also begins to develop romantic feelings for Julien, but after discovering what happens when parabati fall in love, she asks Mark (who had been returned to the Blackthorns as a bargaining chip by the Fair Folk) to pretend to be her boyfriend.