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It was Isabelle who snatched one of the empty candelabras from the side of the door and aimed it at Raphael as if it were an enormous three-pointed spear

"What have you done to Si, she sounded exactly like her mother

"El no es muerto," Raphael said, in a flat and eround alentleness She had forgotten how strong he th despite his slightness

In the light of the candles that spilled through the doorway, Clary could see that Sih at the front with blood

"Did you say--" she began

"He isn’t dead," Jace said, holding her tighter "He’s not dead"

She pulled away from him with a hard jerk and went to her knees on the concrete She felt no disgust at touching Simon’s bloodied skin as she slid her hands under his head, pulling him up into her lap She felt only the terrified childish horror she re broken her , said a voice in the back of her head, will put these pieces back together again

"Sione "Simon, it’s me"

"He can’t hear you," said Raphael "He’s dying"

Her head jerked up "But you said--"

"I said he was not dead yet," said Raphael "But in a few minutes--ten, perhaps--his heart will slow and stop Already he is beyond seeing or hearing anything"

Her aret hinus"

"They can’t do hiood," said Raphael "You don’t understand"

"No," said Jace, his voice as soft as silk tipped with needle-sharp points "We don’t And perhaps you should explain yourself Because otherwise I’ue bloodsucker, and cut your heart out Like I should have done last time we met"

Raphael smiled at him without amuseotten?"

"I never actually finished the oath," Jace reminded him

"And I never started," said Isabelle, brandishing the candelabra

Raphael ignored her He was still looking at Jace "I re for your friend It is why I brought hiestured at Si the others drink him to death You see, he broke in, without pera he was yours I have no wish for a ith the Nephilim"

"He broke in?" Clary said in disbelief "Si that stupid and crazy"

"But he did," said Raphael, with the faintest trace of a s one of us, and he wanted to know if the process could be reversed You ht remember that when he was in the form of a rat, and you came to fetch hi of him," said Jace "I approved"

"Perhaps," said Raphael "In any case, he took some of my blood into his mouth when he did it You know that is hoe pass our powers to each other Through the blood"

Through the blood Clary re away froht in McCarren Park "He thought he was turning into one of you," she said "He went to the hotel to see if it was true"

"Yes," said Raphael "The pity of it is that the effects of my blood would probably have faded over tiestured at Simon’s limp body expressively

"Nohat?" said Isabelle, with a hard edge to her voice "Now he’ll die?"

"And rise again Noill be a vampire"

The candelabra tipped forward as Isabelle’s eyes widened in shock "What?"

Jace caught the makeshift weapon before it hit the floor When he turned to Raphael, his eyes were bleak "You’re lying"

"Wait and see," said Raphael "He will die and rise as one of the Night Children That is also why I ca in his voice, no sorrow or pleasure, but Clary could not help but wonder what hidden glee heso opportunely lucked into an effective bargaining chip

"There’s nothing that can be done? No way to reverse it?" deht distantly that it was strange that these two, Jace and Isabelle, who did not love Si But perhaps they were speaking for her precisely because she couldn’t bear to say a word

"You could cut off his head and burn his heart in a fire, but I doubt that you will do that"

"No!" Clary’s arhtened around Simon "Don’t you dare hurt him"

"I have no need to," said Raphael

"I wasn’t talking to you" Clary didn’t look up "Don’t you even think about it, Jace Don’t even think about it"

There was silence She could hear Isabelle’s worried intake of breath, and Raphael of course did not breathe at all Jace hesitated a moment before he said, "Clary, ould Simon want? Is this what he’d want for hi down at her, the three-pronged e flashed across herthe sharp end of it into his chest,the blood splash up like a fountain "Get away from us!" she screaures walking along the avenue in front of the cathedral turn and look behind them, as if startled at the noise

Jace hite to the roots of his hair, so white that his wide eyes looked like gold disks, inhuman and weirdly out of place He said, "Clary, you don’t think--"

Sirasp She screa him up toward her His eyes ide and blind and terrified He reached up She wasn’t sure if he was trying to touch her face or claw at her, not knoho she was

"It’shis hand down to his chest, lacing their fingers together "Simon, it’s me It’s Clary" Her hands slipped on his; when she looked down, she saw they ith blood from his shirt and fro "Sihtened on hers He breathed out--a harsh, ratcheting sound--and then did not breathe in again