By the time you finish Cassandra Clare's latest book, Queen of Air and Darkness, nothing about the world of the Shadowhunters will be the same. The epic conclusion to Clare's most recent Shadowhunters trilogy, The Dark Artifices, drops December 4 and in addition to wrapping up the forbidden love story of parabatai Emma Carstairs and Julian Blackthorn, the fantasy novel takes a hard look at corruption in the Shadowhunter universe, mirroring our current real-world political climate.

If that comes as a shock to fans of Clare's books, that's because it also came as a surprise to the author herself. As Clare (real name Judith Lewis) began to write Queen of Air of Darkness, the installment following Lady Midnight and Lord of Shadows, she found the final chapter of The Dark Artifices series evolving as a result of what was happening politically not only in America, but also the world at large.

"With this particular book, the tagline that I wanted to use was, 'Everything changes,'" Clare tells Teen Vogue. “I've written many books in this universe at this point and I have more still to write, but I wanted to do something that would alter the way that the political landscape of the Shadowhunters works and alter the way that the whole system works so that the next series, The Wicked Powers – which is the last series in this world – would be starting off in a place that was completely different and would bring me to the conclusion I wanted for this series."