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"My son in return for the Mortal Instruments That was it, correct? Otherwise you’ll kill him"

"Kill him?" Isabelle echoed "MOM!"

"Isabelle," Maryse said tightly "Shut up"

The Inquisitor shot Isabelle and Alec a venolare between her slitted eyelids "You have the terenstern"

"Then my answer is no"

"No?" The Inquisitor looked as if she’d taken a step forward on solid ground and it had collapsed under her feet "You can’t bluff me, Valentine I will do exactly as I threatened"

"Oh, I have no doubt in you, Ile-nize these qualities in you because I possess the like you I follow the Law--"

"Even when it instructs you to kill a boy still in his teens just to punish his father? This is not about the Law, Ien, it is that you hate and blame me for the death of your son and this is yourive up the Mortal Instruments, not even for Jonathan"

The Inquisitor simply stared at him "But he’s your son," she said "Your child"

"Childrenyou never understood I offered Jonathan safety if he stayed with me; he spurned it and returned to you, and you’ll exact your revenge on hien," he finished, "if not predictable"

The Inquisitor didn’t seem to notice the insult "The Clave will insist on his death, should you not give ht in a bad dream "I won’t be able to stop them"

"I’ I can do I offered him a chance He didn’t take it"

"Bastard!" Isabelle shouted suddenly, and ed her backward, holding her there "He’s a dickhead," she hissed, then raised her voice, shouting at Valentine: "You’re a--"

"Isabelle!" Alec covered his sister’s le, alance

"You … offered hi to re out "And he turned you down?" She shook her head "But he’s your spy--your weapon--"

"Is that what you thought?" he said, with apparently genuine surprise "I a out the secrets of the Clave I’m only interested in its destruction, and to achieve that end I have far more powerful weapons in my arsenal than a boy"

"But--"

"Believe what you like," Valentine said with a shrug "You are nothing, Iime whose power is soon to be shattered, its rule ended There is nothing you have to offer me that I could possibly want"

"Valentine!" The Inquisitor threw herself forward, as if she could stop hih hiust, he stepped back and vanished

The sky was licked with the last tongues of a fading fire, the water had turned to iron Clary drew her jacket closer around her body and shivered

"Are you cold?" Jace had been standing at the back of the truck bed, looking down at the wake the car left behind it: thite lines of foa the water Now he caainst the rearof the cab Theitself was aled up with bluish smoke

"Aren’t you?"

"No" He shook his head and slid his jacket off, handing it across to her She put it on, reveling in the softness of the leather It was too big in that co to stay in the truck like Luke told you to, right?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"Not in the literal sense, no"

She slid her glove off and reached out her hand to hihtly She looked down at their interlaced fingers, hers so s and thin "You’ll find Simon for me," she said "I know you will"

"Clary" She could see the water all around them mirrored in his eyes "He may be--I mean, it may be--"

"No" Her tone left no rooht He has to be"

Jace exhaled His irises rippled with dark blue water--like tears, Clary thought, but they weren’t tears, only reflections "There’s so I want to ask you," he said "I was afraid to ask before But now I’" His hand ainst her cold skin, and she found that her own fear was gone, as if he could pass the power of the Fearless rune to her through his touch Her chin went up, her lips parting in expectation--his htly it felt like the brush of a feather, the ; she saw the black wall in theold: the shadow of the ship

Jace let go of her with an exclaot up aardly, Jace’s heavy jacket throwing her off balance Blue sparks were flying froht she could see that the side of the ship was corrugated blackdown one side, and that an iron railing ran around the top What looked like big, aardly shaped birds were perched on the railing Waves of cold see When Jace called out to her, his breath caine roar of the big ship

She frowned at hirabbed for her, sliding a hand up under her jacket, his fingertips grazing her bare skin She yelped in surprise He yanked the seraph blade he’d give her earlier from her belt and pressed it into her hand "I said"--and he let her go--"to get Abrariel out, because they’re co?"

"The de Then she noticed the huge, aard birds she’d seen before They were dropping off the railing one by one, falling like stones down the side of the boat--then leveling out and heading straight for the truck where it floated on top of the waves As they got closer, she saw that they weren’t birds at all, but ugly flying things like pterodactyls, ide, leathery wings and bony triangular heads Their mouths were full of serrated shark teeth, row on row of theht razors