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"Fine," Jace said "You get her out of here I’ to deal with that"

"With what?" Alec said, bewildered

"With that," Jace said again, and pointed Soh the se, humped, and massive Easily five times the size of any other demon on the ship, it had an ar in a spiked chitinous talon Its feet were elephant feet, huge and splayed It had the head of a giant mosquito, Jace saw as it ca blood-red feeding tube

Alec sucked in his breath "What the hell is it?"

Jace thought for a ," he said finally "Very"

"Jace--"

Jace turned and looked at Alec, and then at Isabelle Soht very well be the last time he ever saw them, and yet he still wasn’t afraid, not for hi to them, maybe that he loved them, that either one of them orth more to him than a thousand Mortal Instru But the words wouldn’t come

"Alec," he heard himself say "Get Isabelle to the ladder, now, or we’ll all die"

Alec aze and held it for a , toward the railing He helped her up onto it and then over, and with ian to descend the ladder And now you, Alec, he thought Go

But Alec wasn’t going Isabelle, now out of view, cried out sharply as her brother ju, onto the deck of the ship His guisarme lay on the deck where he’d dropped it; he seized it now and moved to stand next to Jace and face the deot that far The de down on Jace, made a sudden swerve and rushed toward Alec, its bloody feeding tube whipping back and forth hungrily Jace spun to block Alec, but theon, rotted with poison, cruh and he fell hard against the deck

Alec had time to shout Jace’s nauisar the sharp end of it deep into the de a weirdly hu fro for another weapon, just as the de hi tube wrapped around hiled desperately to pull his leg froes of ered to his feet

He raised Saht as a falling star The de sound It relaxed its grip on Alec and for a o Then it whipped its head back with a sudden, startling speed and flung Alec with immense force Alec hit the blood-slippery deck hard, skidded across it--and fell, with a single hoarse cry, over the side of the ship

Isabelle was screa driven into Jace’s ears Saht illuht and predatory, but all he could see was Alec; Alec falling over the side of the ship, Alec drowning in the black water far below He thought he tasted seawater in his own ht have been blood The demon was al it--the deave way beneath Jace with a screech of cru metal and he fell into darkness

19

DIES IRAE

"YOU’RE WRONG," CLARY SAID, BUT HER VOICE HELD NO conviction "You don’t know anything aboutto--"

"To what? I’ to reach you, Clarissa Toin Valentine’s voice that Clary could detect beyond a faint a at us You think you can use ry anyry"

"I am a real father The same blood that runs in my veins runs in yours"

"You’re not my father Luke is," said Clary, almost wearily "We’ve been over this"

"You only look to Luke as your father because of his relationship with your hed out loud "Luke and my mother are friends"

For a moment she was sure she saw a look of surprise pass over his face But "Is that so," was all he said And then, "You really think he endured all this--Lucian, I , this devotion to the protection of a secret even he didn’t fully understand, just for friendship? You know very little about people, Clary, at your age, and less about men"

"You can make all the innuendoes about Luke you want It won’tabout hiive everyone ugly ly motives are all you understand"

"Is that what it would be if he loved your ly about love, Clarissa? Or is it that you sense, deep down, that your precious Lucian is neither truly hus as ould understand the at hiot"

"Oh, no," Valentine said "I’ but that" He moved a little closer to her, and she stepped in front of the Sword, blocking it from his view "You think of h the lens of yourof the world Mundane humans create distinctions between themselves, distinctions that seem ridiculous to any Shadowhunter Their distinctions are based on race, religion, national identity, any of a dozen ical, for though e the demon worlds, still somewhere buried in their ancient memories, they know that there are those that walk this earth that are other That do not belong, that mean only harm and destruction Since the den the threat to others of their own kind They place the face of their eneenerations of misery assured" He took another step toward her, and Clary instinctively ainst the footlocker now "I’m not like that," he went on "I can see the truth of it Mundanes see as through a glass, darkly, but Shadowhunters--we see face-to-face We know the truth of evil, and know that while it walks a to our world row like a poisonous flower and extinguish all life"