Page 3 (1/2)
She set the glass down on the table beside her It was empty "And you answer questions with questions to throw me off, just like Valentine always did Maybe I should have known"
"Maybe nothing I’m still exactly the saed about me If I didn’t remind you of Valentine before, I don’t see why I would now"
Her glance moved over him and away as if she couldn’t bear to look directly at him "Surely e talked about Michael, you must have knoe couldn’t possibly have s we said about him could never have applied to Valentine"
"You said he was a good er twisted inside hiht that seeraphs? You raphs of Michael Wayland and realized he wasn’t the man you called your father" She bit her lip "Help raphs were destroyed in the Uprising That’s what you told me Noonder if it wasn’t because Valentine had them all burned so nobody would knoas in the Circle I never had a photograph of my father," Jace said, and wondered if he sounded as bitter as he felt
Maryse put a hand to her te "I can’t believe this," she said, as if to herself "It’s insane"
"So don’t believe it Believe me," Jace said, and felt the tremor in his hands increase
She dropped her hand "Don’t you think I want to?" she demanded, and for a moment he heard the echo in her voice of the Maryse who’d coht when he was ten years old and staring dry-eyed at the ceiling, thinking of his father--and she’d sat by the bed with him until he’d fallen asleep just before dawn
"I didn’t know," Jace said again "And when he asked me to come with him back to Idris, I said no I’?"
She turned to look back at the decanter, as if considering another drink, then seemed to discard the idea "I wish it did," she said "But there are so ht want you to remain at the Institute Where Valentine is concerned, I can’t afford to trust anyone his influence has touched"
"His influence touched you," Jace said, and instantly regretted it at the look that flashed across her face
"And I repudiated him," said Maryse "Have you? Could you?" Her blue eyes were the same color as Alec’s, but Alec had never looked at him like this "Tell me you hate hi he stands for"
Adown, saw that his hands were so tightly fisted that the knuckles stood out white and hard like the bones in a fish’s spine "I can’t say that"
Maryse sucked in her breath "Why not?"
"Why can’t you say that you trust me? I’ve lived with you almost half my life Surely you must know me better than that?"
"You sound so honest, Jonathan You always have, even when you were a little boy trying to pin the bla on Isabelle or Alec I’ve only ever met one person who could sound as persuasive as you"
Jace tasted copper in his mouth "You mean my father"
"There were only ever two kinds of people in the world for Valentine," she said "Those ere for the Circle and those ere against it The latter were enemies, and the former eapons in his arsenal I saw him try to turn each of his friends, even his oife, into a weapon for the Cause--and you want me to believe he wouldn’t have done the same with his own son?" She shook her head "I knew him better than that" For the first tier "You are an arrow shot directly into the heart of the Clave, Jace You are Valentine’s arrow Whether you know it or not"
Clary shut the bedroo TV and went to look for Simon She found hi His hands were braced on the draining board
"Siht, cheerful yellow, the walls decorated with frarade school Rebecca had so talent, you could tell, but Si meters with tufts of hair
He didn’t look up now, though she could tell by the tightening of his shouldera hand lightly on his back She felt the sharp nubs of his spine through the thin cotton T-shirt and wondered if he’d lost weight She couldn’t tell by looking at hi in a mirror--when you saw soes in their outward appearance "Are you okay?"
He turned the water off with a hard jerk of his wrist "Sure I’ainst the side of his chin and turned his face toward her He eating, the dark hair that lay across his forehead stuck to his skin, though the air coh the half-open kitchen as cool "You don’t look fine Was it the movie?"
He didn’t answer
"I’hed, it’s just--"