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"Leave hi to be very hard to explain to my mom," Simon said, and the phone went dead There was a click and then nothing CALL DISCONNECTED flashed on the digital display

"No No!"" Clary hit the redial button, her fingers tre

Simon picked up immediately "Sorry Yossarian scratched me and I dropped the phone"

Her throat burned with relief "That’s fine, just as long as you’re still okay and--"

A noise like a tidal wave crashed through the phone, obliterating Simon’s voice She yanked the phone away from her ear The display still read CALL CONNECTED

"Simon!" she screamed into the phone "Si noise stopped There was the sound of soh, unearthly yowl--Yossarian? Then the sound of soround

"Simon?" she whispered

There was a click and then a drawling, amused voice spoke in her ear "Clarissa," it said "I should have known you’d be on the other end of this phone line"

She squeezed her eyes shut, her sto out from under her as if she were on a roller coaster that had just made its first drop "Valentine"

"You enuinely annoyed "I deplore thisone’s parents by their first names"

"What I actually want to call you is a hell of a lot more unprintable than your name," she snapped "Where’s Simon?"

"You mean the vaood fa to have a say in your choice of friends"

"What did you do to Si," said Valentine, a up

By the ti on the floor, envisioning lines of dancing girls in an effort to ignore the pain in his wrists It wasn’t working

"What are you doing?" Alec asked, kneeling down as close to the shiet Jace tried to remind himself that when Alec asked this sort of question, he reallyhe had once found endearing rather than annoying He failed

"I thought I’d lie on the floor and writhe in pain for a while," he grunted "It relaxessarcastic That’s a good sign, probably," Alec said "If you can sit up, you h the wall"

Jace sat up so quickly that his head spun "Alec, don’t--"

But Alec had alreadytoward hi a ball to a child A red sphere broke through the shiainst his knee

"An apple" He picked it up with soht you ry"

"I am" Jace took a bite of the apple; juice ran down his hands and sizzled in the blue flames that cuffed his wrists "Did you text Clary?"

"No Isabelle won’t let ainst the door and screams She said if I came in she’d jump out theShe’d do it too"

"Probably"

"I get the feeling," Alec said, and s you, as she sees it"

"Good girl," said Jace with appreciation

"I didn’t betray you, idiot"

"It’s the thought that counts"

"Good, because I brought you so else, too I don’t know if it’ll work, but it’s worth a try" He slid soh the wall It was a silvery disk about the size of a quarter Jace set the apple aside and picked the disk up curiously "What’s this?"

"I got it off the desk in the library I’ve seen my parents use it before to take off restraints I think it’s an Unlocking rune It’s worth trying--"

He broke off as Jace touched the disk to his wrists, holding it aardly between two fingers The moment it touched the line of blue flame, the cuff flickered and vanished

"Thanks" Jace rubbed his wrists, each one braceleted with a line of chafed, bleeding skin He was starting to be able to feel his fingertips again "It’s not a file hidden in a birthday cake, but it’ll keepoff"

Alec looked at hi lines of the rain-curtain ated, worried--oroccurred toto Isabelle earlier I told her she couldn’t juet herself killed"

Jace nodded "Sound big-brotherly advice"

"But then I started wondering if that was true in your case--II’ve seen you fall three stories and land like a cat, ju , but I’m not sure what your point is, Alec"

"My point is that there are four walls to this prison, not five"

Jace stared at hieoht, Alec There are four walls to this cage Now if the Inquisitor had gone with two, Ipatience "Ibetween you and the ceiling"

Jace craned his head back The rafters seeh above him, lost in shadow "You’re crazy"