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"Simon…," she whispered--then she heard the sharp two-tone beep that signaled that a text e had just arrived on her cell phone The phone itself was lying folded on the bedside table; Clary picked it up and saw that the e was from Isabelle

She flipped the phone open and scrolled hastily down to the text She read it twice, just to s Then she ran to the closet to get her coat

"Jonathan"

The voice spoke out of the blackness: slow, dark, familiar as pain Jace blinked his eyes open and saw only darkness He shivered He was lying curled on the icy flagstone floor He must have fainted He felt a stab of fury at his oeakness, his own frailty

He rolled onto his side, his torn wrist throbbing in its nize your own father, Jonathan" The voice caain, and Jace did know it: its sound of old iron, its smooth near-tonelessness He tried to scramble to his feet but his boots slipped on a puddle of so the stone wall hard His chain rattled like a chorus of steel wind chiht blazed upward, searing Jace’s eyes He blinked away burning tears and saw Valentine standing on the other side of the bars, beside the corpse of Brother Jereht stone in one hand cast a sharp whitish glow over the room Jace could see the stains of old blood on the walls--and newer blood, a small lake of it, which had spilled from Jeremiah’s open ht of the black for jewels "That thing," he choked out "Where is it? What was it?"

"You are hurt" Valentine moved closer to the bars "Who ordered you locked up here? Was it the Clave? The Lightwoods?"

"It was the Inquisitor" Jace looked down at his and on his shirt He couldn’t tell if any of it was his Blood was seeping slowly froarded hih the bars It was the first time in years Jace had seen his father in real battle dress--the thick leather Shadowhunter clothes that allowed freedo the skin from most kinds of des, each lyphs and runes There was a wide strap across his chest and the hilt of a sword glea his cool black eyes on a level with Jace’s Jace was surprised to see no anger in them "The Inquisitor and the Clave are one and the sahtwoods should never have allowed this to happen I would never have let anyone do this to you"

Jace pressed his shoulders back against the wall; it was as far as his chain would let hiet from his father "Did you come down here to kill me?"

"Kill you? Why would I want to kill you?"

"Well, why did you kill Jereafter he spontaneously died I know you did this"

For the first tilanced down at the body of Brother Jeremiah "I did kill him, and the rest of the Silent Brothers as well I had to They had so I needed"

"What? A sense of decency?"

"This," said Valentine, and drew the Sword from his shoulder sheath in one swift asp of surprise that rose in his throat He recognized it well enough: The huge, heavy-bladed silver Sith the hilt in the shape of outspread wings was the one that hung above the Speaking Stars in the Silent Brothers’ council room "You took the Silent Brothers’ sword?"

"It was never theirs," Valentine said "It belongs to all Nephiliel drove Adaarden And he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubiazing down at the blade

Jace licked his dry lips "What are you going to do with it?"

"I’ll tell you that," said Valentine, "when I think I can trust you, and I know that you trust h the Portal at Renwick’s and smashed it so I couldn’t come after you? And the way you tried to kill Clary?"

"I would never have hurt your sister," said Valentine, with a flash of anger "Any more than I would hurt you"

"All you’ve ever done is hurt htwoods who protected me!"

"I’m not the one who locked you up here I’htwoods and their friends in the Clave" Valentine paused "Seeing you like this--how they’ve treated you, and yet you remain stoic--I’m proud of you"

At that, Jace looked up in surprise, so quickly that he felt a wave of dizziness His hand gave an insistent throb He pushed the pain down and back until his breathing eased "What?"

"I realize nohat I did wrong at Renwick’s," Valentine went on "I was picturing you as the little boy I left behind in Idris, obedient toeous, yet I treated you as if you were still a child No wonder you rebelled against htened, cutting off the words he wanted to say His heart had begun pounding in rhyth in his hand

Valentine pressed on "I never had a chance to explain s I’ve done"

"There’s nothing to explain You killed randparents You held my mother prisoner You slew other Shadowhunters to further your own ends" Every word in Jace’s mouth tasted like poison

"You only know half the facts, Jonathan I lied to you when you were a child because you were too young to understand Now you are old enough to be told the truth"

"So tell h the bars of the cell and laid his hand on top of Jace’s The rough, callused texture of his fingers felt exactly the way it had when Jace had been ten years old

"I want to trust you, Jonathan," he said "Can I?"

Jace wanted to reply, but the words wouldn’t cohtened around it, cutting off his breath by inches "I wish…," he whispered

A noise sounded above the of aoff the City’s stone walls Valentine started to his feet, closing his hand over the witchlight until it was only a dilow and he hiht," he h the bars

Jace looked past hi but blackness beyond the faint illu dark forht before it "What’s co forward on his knees

"I o," said Valentine "But we’re not done, you and I"

Jace put his hand to the bars "Unchain ht it"