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She scraain her composure "Jace, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean--"

"No You’re not sorry Don’t be sorry" Heover his feet--Jace, who never sturaceful move His hands caertips, ht to pull away, but stood frozen, staring up at him "You don’t understand," he said His voice shook "I’ve never felt this way about anyone I didn’t think I could I thought--the way I grew up--my father--"

"To love is to destroy," she said nuht that part of my heart was broken," he said, and there was a look on his face as he spoke as if he were surprised to hear hi my heart "Forever But you--"

"Jace Don’t" She reached up and covered his hand with hers, folding his fingers into her own "It’s pointless"

"That’s not true" There was desperation in his voice "If we both feel the same way--"

"It doesn’twe can do" She heard her voice as if a stranger were speaking: reether? How could we live?"

"We could keep it a secret"

"People would find out And I don’t want to lie to my family, do you?"

His reply was bitter "What fahtwoods hate me anyway"

"No, they don’t And I could never tell Luke And my mother, what if she woke up, ould we say to her? This, ant, it would be sickening to everyone we care about--"

"Sickening?" He dropped his hands from her face as if she’d pushed him away He sounded stunned "What we feel--what I feel--it’s sickening to you?"

She caught her breath at the look on his face "Maybe," she said in a whisper "I don’t know"

"Then you should have said that to begin with"

"Jace--"

But he was gone from her, his expression shut and locked like a door It was hard to believe he’d ever looked at her another way "I’, then" His voice was stiff, forain You can count on that"

Clary’s heart did a slow, purposeless somersault as he moved away from her, plucked a towel off the top of the dresser, and headed back toward the bathroo h all the hot water, I’ll be very annoyed" He stepped into the bathroo the door shut behind him

Clary collapsed onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling It was as blank as Jace’s face had been before he turned his back on her Rolling over, she realized she was lying on top of his blue shirt: It even smelled like hi around it like she’d once curled around her favorite blanket when she was very small, she closed her eyes

In the drea water, spread out below her like an endless ht sky And like a mirror, it was solid and hard, and she could walk on it She walked, slittering in the far distance like a faerie castle wreathed in lights--and where she walked, spiderwebbing cracks fissured out frolass splashed up like water

The sky began to shine It was alight with points of fire, like burning match tips They fell, a rain of hot coals fro up her ar bonfire, but when it struck the ground it becaold eyes and gold hair, and white-gold wings sprouted from his back, wider and more thickly feathered than any bird’s

He smiled like a cat and pointed behind her, and Clary turned to see that a dark-haired boy--was it Sis spread froht, and each feather was tipped with blood

Clary woke up gasping, her hands knotted in Jace’s shirt It was dark in the bedroo from the one narro beside the bed She sat up Her head felt heavy and the back of her neck ached She scanned the rooht, like a cat’s eyes in the darkness, shone out at her

Jace was sitting in an array sweater and his hair looked nearly dry He was holding soh what he ainst, here in the Institute, Clary couldn’t guess

"Did you sleep well?"

She nodded Her mouth felt thick "Why didn’t you wake ht you could use the rest Besides, you were sleeping like the dead You even drooled," he added "On my shirt"

Clary’s hand flew to her et to see someone drool," Jace observed "Especially with such total abandon Mouth wide open and everything"

"Oh, shut up" She felt around a the bedcovers until she located her phone and checked it again, though she knehat it would say NO CALLS "It’s three in the ht?"

"I think he’s weird, actually," said Jace "Though that has little to do with the time"

She shoved the phone into her jeans pocket "I’e"

Jace’s white-painted bathrooh it was considerably neater There wasn’t ht, closing the door behind her, but at least there was privacy She shucked off her wet shirt and hung it on the towel rack, splashed water over her face, and ran a co hair

Jace’s shirt was too big for her, but the ainst her skin She rolled the sleeves up and went back into the bedroo exactly where he had been before, staringobject in his hands She leaned on the back of the ar, he turned it over so that she could see it properly It was a jagged piece of broken glass, but instead of reflecting her own face, it held an irass and blue sky and the bare black branches of trees

"I didn’t know you kept that," she said "That piece of the Portal"

"It’s why I wanted to co wereure out what he’s up to"