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"It was … different," Jace hedged "Hoas Alicante?"

"It esoe armory in Alicante and they took me to some of the places where they make the weapons They showed er, and I’e to show me--"

Jace couldn’t help it; his eyes flicked instantly to Maryse, his expression incredulous So Max didn’t know about Hodge? Hadn’t she told him?

Maryse saw his look and her lips thinned into a knifelike line "That’s enough, Max" She took her youngest son by the arm

He craned his head to look up at her in surprise "But I’ to Jace--"

"I can see that" She pushed hiently toward Isabelle "Isabelle, Alec, take your brother to his roohtness in her voice when she spoke his na up the syllables in her et yourself cleaned up and meet et it," said Alec, looking fro on?"

Jace could feel cold sweat start up along his spine "Is this about my father?"

Maryse jerked twice, as if the words "my father" had been two separate slaps "The library," she said, through clenched teeth "We’ll discuss the matter there"

Alec said, "What happened while you were gone wasn’t Jace’s fault We were all in on it And Hodge said--"

"We’ll discuss Hodge later as well" Maryse’s eyes were on Max, her tone warning

"But, Mother," Isabelle protested "If you’re going to punish Jace, you should punish us as well It would only be fair We all did exactly the sas"

"No," said Maryse, after a pause so long that Jace thought perhaps she wasn’t going to say anything at all "You didn’t"

"Rule nuainst a pile of pillows at the foot of his bed, a bag of potato chips in one hand and the TV re a black T-shirt that said I BLOGGED YOUR MOM and a pair of jeans with a hole ripped in one knee "Never screith a blinda potato chip and dunking it into the can of dip balanced on the TV tray between thehters than uys dancing?"

"That’s not dancing They’re trying to kill each other This is the guy who’s the uy, re?"

Clary crunched at her chip and stared meditatively at the screen, where aniures of tingedspear Every once in a while one of them would speak, but since it was all in Japanese with Chinese subtitles, it didn’t clarify uy?"

"No, the hat guy was the dad He was the uy was the one with theSiet up and answer it Clary put her hand on his wrist "Don’t Just leave it"

"But itfrom the hospital"

"It’s not Luke," Clary said, sounding more sure than she felt "He’d call my cell, not your house"

Si back down on the rug beside her "If you say so" She could hear the doubt in his voice, but also the unspoken assurance, I just want you to be happy She wasn’t sure "happy" was anything she was likely to be right now, not with hermachines, and Luke like a zombie, slumped in the hard plastic chair next to her bed Not orrying about Jace all the ti up the phone a dozen ti it back down, the number still undialed If Jace wanted to talk to her, he could call

Maybe it had been a mistake to take him to see Jocelyn She’d been so sure that if her mother could just hear the voice of her son, her firstborn, she’d wake up But she hadn’t Jace had stood stiff and aard by the bed, his face like a painted angel’s, with blank indifferent eyes Clary had finally lost her patience and shouted at hi off Luke had watched hio with a clinical sort of interest on his exhausted face "That’s the first time I’ve seen you act like sister and brother," he’d re in response There was no point telling him how badly she wanted Jace not to be her brother You couldn’t rip out your own DNA, no matter how much you wished you could No matter how much it would make you happy

But even if she couldn’t quite ht, at least here in Simon’s house, in his bedroo enough to remember when he had a bed shaped like a fire truck and LEGOs piled in a corner of the roohtly striped quilt that had been a present from his sister, and the walls were plastered with posters of bands like Rock Solid Panda and Stepping Razor There was a drued into the corner of the room where the LEGOs had been, and a coe fro in her own bedrooer existed, so at least this was the next best thing

"More chibis," said Silooh baby versions of the pots and pans "I’ the remote "I’m tired of this anime I can’t tell what the plot is and no one ever has sex"

"Of course they don’t," Clary said, taking another chip "Anime is wholesome family entertainment"

"If you’re in the mood for less wholesome entertainment, we could try the porn channels," Simon observed "Would you rather watch The Witches of Breastwick or As I Lay Dianne?"

"Give , had already switched the TV to another channel

His laughter broke off abruptly Clary looked up in surprise and saw hi blankly at the TV An old black-and-white --Dracula She’d seen it before, with her osi, thin and white-faced, was on-screen, wrapped in the fah-collared cloak, his lips curled back from his pointed teeth "I never drink … wine," he intoned in his thick Hungarian accent

"I love how the spiderwebs are ht "You can totally tell"

But Si the reht back," he muttered His face was the color of winter sky just before it rained Clary watched hi her lip hard--it was the first tione to the hospital that she’d realizedoff his hair, Jace regarded his reflection in therune had taken care of the worst of his bruises, but it hadn’t helped the shadows under his eyes or the tight lines at the corners of his htly dizzy He knew he should have eaten so fro the release of physical activity, to burn out his drea the towel aside, he thought longingly of the sweet black tea Hodge used to brew froreenhouse The tea had taken away hunger pangs and brought a swift surge of energy Since Hodge’s disappearance, Jace had tried boiling the plants’ leaves in water to see if he could produce the sa liquid thatand spit