Page 10 (1/2)

"Me too," Clary said, turned around, and went back to the kitchen She sat down at the table and put her face in her hands A moment later Luke followed her

"Sorry," he said "I guess you weren’t in the h splayed fingers "Where’s Si to Maia," Luke said, and indeed Clary could hear their voices, soft as ht it would be good for you to have a friend right now"

"I have Silasses back up his nose "Did I hear hihed at his bewildered expression "I guess so"

"Is that so I’ot?"

"I hadn’t heard it before myself" She took her hands away froht of the rune, the open eye, that decorated the back of the right hand of every Shadowhunter "Soirlfriend," she said "Sos I never kneas before, and I still don’t really knohat I am"

"Isn’t that always the question," Luke said, and Clary heard the door shut at the other end of the house, and Siht air came in with hiht?" he asked "It’s a little late to head holanced at his watch "I’et to the hospital by six"

"Why six?" Simon asked, after Luke had left the kitchen

"That’s when hospital visiting hours start," Clary said "You don’t have to sleep on the couch Not if you don’t want to"

"I don’tdark hair out of his eyes impatiently "Not at all"

"I know I meant you don’t have to sleep on the couch if you don’t want to"

"Then where…" His voice trailed off, eyes wide behind his glasses "Oh"

"It’s a double bed," she said "In the guest room"

Siht color in his cheeks Jace would have tried to look cool; Simon didn’t even try "Are you sure?"

"I’m sure"

He cahtly and cluh with the kitchens," she said "Nohim firmly by the wrists, she pulled hiuest room where she slept

5

SINS OF THE FATHERS

THE DARKNESS OF THE PRISONS OF THE SILENT CITY WAS more profound than any darkness Jace had ever known He couldn’t see the shape of his own hand in front of his eyes, couldn’t see the floor or ceiling of his cell What he knew of the cell, he knew frouided down here by a contingent of Silent Brothers, who had opened the barred gate of the cell for him and ushered hiain, that’s probably exactly what they thought he was

He knew that the cell had a flagged stone floor, that three of the walls were hewn rock, and that the fourth was made of narrowly spaced electrum bars, each end sunk deeply into stone He knew there was a door set into those bars He also knew that a longthe east wall, because the Silent Brothers had attached one loop of a pair of silver cuffs to this bar, and the other cuff to his wrist He could walk up and down the cell a few steps, rattling like Marley’s ghost, but that was as far as he could go He had already rubbed his right wrist raw yanking thoughtlessly at the cuff At least he was left-handed--a sht spot in the impenetrable blackness Not that it hting hand free

He began another slow proers along the wall as he walked It was unnerving not to knohat tiht hith of afternoon shadows, the position of the stars in the night sky But there were no stars here In fact, he had begun to wonder if he would ever see the sky again

Jace paused Nohy had he wondered that? Of course he’d see the sky again The Clave weren’t going to kill him The penalty of death was reserved for murderers But the flutter of fear stayed with hie of pain Jace wasn’t exactly prone to random fits of panic--Alec would have said he could have benefited from a bit more in the way of constructive cowardice Fear wasn’t soht of Maryse saying, You were never afraid of the dark

It was true This anxiety was unnatural, not like him at all There had to be more to it than simple darkness He took another shallow breath He just had to get through the night One night That was it He took another step forward, hisdrearily

A sound split the air, freezing hi ululation, a sound of pure andnote plucked froher and thinner and sharper until it was abruptly cut off

Jace swore His ears were ringing, and he could taste terror in his ht that fear had a taste? He pressed his back against the wall of the cell, willing hiain, louder this ti crashed overhead, and Jace ducked involuntarily before reround He heard another crash, and a picture for open, the corpses of centuries-dead Shadowhunters staggering free, nothingthemselves across the white floors of the Silent City with fleshless, bony fingers--

Enough! With a gasp of effort, Jace forced the vision away The dead did not come back And besides, they were the corpses of Nephili to fear from them So as he so afraid? He clenched his hands into fists, nails digging into his palms This panic was unworthy of him He would master it He would crush it down He took a deep breath, filling his lungs, just as another scream sounded, this one very loud The breath rasped out of his chest as so crashed loudly, very close to hiht, a hot fire-flower stabbing into his eyes