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"What do you think?" Jace was still sitting on the piano bench, his shoulders sluht Alec was leaning against the piano behind hinus as he could get

"Jace, that’s enough" Luke was sitting up straight but looked as if it were so of an effort "You said you could dra runes, Clary?"

"I said I thought so"

"Well, I’d like you to try"

"Now?"

Luke s else in e and stared down at it Never had a sheet of paper looked quite so empty to her before She could sense the stillness in the roonus with his ancient, tempered curiosity; Alec too preoccupied with his own problems to care htening blankness She re that he wished he could hate her and wondered if soht succeed

She threw her pencil down "I can’t just do it on command like that Not without an idea"

"What kind of idea?" said Luke

"I mean, I don’t even knohat runes already exist I need to know a , a word, before I can draw a rune for it"

"It’s hard enough for us to rean, but Jace, to Clary’s surprise, cut him off

"How about," he said quietly, "Fearless?"

"Fearless?" she echoed

"There are runes for bravery," said Jace "But never anything to take away fear But if you, as you say, can create new runes…" He glanced around, and saw Alec’s and Luke’s surprised expressions "Look, I just remembered that there isn’t one, that’s all And it seeh"

Clary looked over at Luke, who shrugged "Fine," he said

Clary took a dark gray pencil froht of shapes, lines, curlicues; she thought of the signs in the Gray Book, ancient and perfect, ee too faultless for speech A soft voice spoke inside her head: Who are you, to think you can speak the language of heaven?

The pencil moved She was almost sure she hadn’t le line She felt her heart skip She thought of herher own vision of the world in ink and oil paint She thought, Who aain, and this ti the word, under her breath: "Fearless Fearless" The pencil looped back up, and now she was guiding it rather than being guided by it When she was done, she set the pencil down and gazed for a ly, at the result

The co lines: a rune as bold and aerodynae free and held it up so the others could see it "There," she said, and was rewarded by the startled look on Luke’s face--so he hadn’t believed her--and the fractional widening of Jace’s eyes

"Cool," Alec said

Jace got to his feet and crossed the roo the sheet of paper out of her hand "But does it work?"

Clary wondered if henasty "What do you ht now it’s just a drawing--you can’t take fear away froin with We have to try it out on one of us before we can be sure it’s a real rune"

"I’reat idea," Luke said

"It’s a fabulous idea" Jace dropped the paper back onto the table, and began to slide off his jacket "I’ve got a stele we can use Who wants to do nus

Luke stood up "No," he said "Jace, you already behave as if you’ve never heard the word ‘fear’ I fail to see hoe’re going to be able to tell the difference if it does work on you"

Alec stifled what sounded like a laugh Jace siht, unfriendly smile "I’ve heard the word ‘fear,’" he said "I simply choose to believe it doesn’t apply to me"

"Exactly the problem," said Luke

"Well, why don’t I try it on you, then?" Clary said, but Luke shook his head

"You can’t Mark Doorlders, Clary, not with any real effect The demon disease that causes lycanthropy prevents the Marks fro effect"

"Then…"

"Try it on me," Alec said unexpectedly "I could do with some fearlessness" He slid his jacket off, tossed it over the piano stool, and crossed the room to stand in front of Jace "Here Mark lanced over at Clary "Unless you think you should do it?"

She shook her head "No You’re probably better at actually applying Marks than I aed "Roll up your sleeve, Alec"

Obediently, Alec rolled his sleeve up There was already a perant scroll of lines ive hinus, as Jace carefully traced the outlines of the Fearless rune on Alec’s ar Mark Alec winced as the stele traced its burning path across his skin When Jace was done, he slid his stele back into his pocket and stood ahis handiwork "Well, it looks nice at least," he announced "Whether it works or not…"

Alec touched the new Mark with his fingertips, then glanced up to find everyone else in the roo at him

"So?" Clary said

"So what?" Alec rolled his sleeve down, covering the Mark

"So, how do you feel? Any different?"

Alec looked considering "Not really"

Jace threw his hands up "So it doesn’t work"

"Not necessarily," Luke said "There ht activate it Perhaps there isn’t anything here that Alec is afraid of"