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He reached down and savagely yanked a hunk of grass out of the ground Dirt still clung to the roots He tossed it aside "We were forced to do e did It’s not as if we did it for fun, or to hurt hihost of a smile, "you’re my sister"

"Don’t say it like that--"

"What, ‘sister’?" He shook his head "When I was a little kid, I realized that if you say any word over and over fast enough, it loses all itsthe words over and over to ar,’ ‘mirror,’ ‘whisper,’ ‘dark’ ‘Sister,’" he said, softly "You’re my sister"

"It doesn’t matter how many times you say it It’ll still be true"

"And it doesn’t matter what you won’t let me say, that’ll still be true too"

"Jace!" Another voice, calling his na He was holding a black plastic bag in one hand Behind hi in a long leather coat that flapped in the wind like a bat’s wing Alec caht blood," he said "Like you asked"

Jace opened the top of the bag, peered in, and wrinkled his nose "Do I want to ask you where you got this?"

"Fro them "They bleed their meat to make it halal It’s animal blood"

"Blood is blood," said Jace, and stood up He looked down at Clary and hesitated "When Raphael said this wouldn’t be pleasant, he wasn’t lying You can stay here I’ll send Isabelle down to ith you"

She tipped her head back to look up at hiht cast the shadow of branches across his face "Have you ever seen a vampire rise?"

"No, but I--"

"Then you don’t really know, do you?" She stood up, and Isabelle’s blue coat fell around her in rustling folds "I want to be there I have to be there"

She could see only part of his face in the shadows, but she thought he looked almost--i you can’t do," he said "Let’s go"

Raphael was tale of dirt when they ca, Jace and Clary a little ahead of Magnus and Alec, who seeone Isabelle was sitting on the ground, her whip coiled at her ankles in a golden circle She was shivering "Jesus, it’s cold," Clary said, pulling Isabelle’s heavy coat close around her The velvet arnore the fact that the hem of it was stained with Siht"

"Be glad it isn’t winter," said Raphael, setting the spade against the trunk of a nearby tree "The ground freezes like iron in winter So round, before it can be born"

"Is that what you call the, too friendly sos

"Yes," said Raphael "It nus then, and for a split second looked surprised before he wiped the expression carefully froh Warlock," he said "I hadn’t expected to see you here"

"I was curious," said Magnus, his cat eyes glittering "I’ve never seen one of the Night Children rise"

Raphael glanced at Jace, as lounging against a tree trunk "You keep surprisingly illustrious co about yourself again?" asked Jace He smoothed the churned dirt with the tip of a boot "That seems boastful"

"Maybe he meant me," said Alec Everyone looked at him in surprise Alec so rarely made jokes He smiled nervously "Sorry," he said "Nerves"

"There’s no need for that," said Magnus, reaching to touch Alec’s shoulder Alec nus’s outstretched hand fell to his side

"So what do we do now?" Clary de herself for warmth Cold seemed to have seeped into every pore of her body Surely it was too cold for late suesture, s," he said "The fledgling draws strength fro frolared at him resentfully "You don’t see" He stepped back a little frorave--Clary forced herself to think of it as a grave, since that’s exactly what it was--and gestured to the others to do the same "Make roo on top of him"

Theyher elbow and turned to see that the other girl hite to the lips "What’s wrong?"

"Everything," Isabelle said "Clary, o--"