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It was Si to Jace "What does it say?"

But it was Valentine who answered, not taking his eyes from the wall There was a look on his face--not at all the look Clary had expected, a look that ht "It says," he said, "Mene ered to her feet "That’s not what it says," she whispered "It says open"

Valentine met her eyes with his own "Clary--"

The scream of metal drowned out his words The wall Clary had drawn on, a wall made of sheets of solid steel, warped and shuddered Rivets tore free of their housings and jets of water sprayed into the roo, but his voice was drowned out by the deafening sounds ofwrenched from metal as every nail, every screw, and every rivet that held together the enors

She tried to run toward Jace and Sie of water ca hole in the wall This ti her under So her na of the ship She shouted his naed hole in the bulkhead and into the river

She spun and kicked in the black water Terror gripped her, terror of the blind darkness and of the depths of the river, thein on her, choking out the air in her lungs She couldn’t tell which as up or which direction to swiful of filthy water, her chest bursting with the pain, stars exploding behind her eyes In her ears the sound of rushing water was replaced by a high, sweet, iht in wonder A pair of pale hands reached out of the black water and drew her close Long hair drifted around her Moht, but before she could clearly see her mother’s face, the darkness closed her eyes

Clary cahts shining in her eyes She was flat on her back on the corrugated steel of Luke’s truck bed The gray-black sky swam overhead She could smell river water all around her, mixed with the smell of smoke and blood White faces hovered over her like balloons on strings They swam into focus as she blinked her eyes

Luke And Si down at her with expressions of anxious concern For a , she realized it was full of ashes In fact, so was the air--it tasted of ashes--and their clothes and skin were streaked with blackish gri ash in her mouth "Where’s Jace?"

"He’s…" Simon’s eyes went to Luke, and Clary felt her heart contract

"He’s all right, isn’t he?" she deh her head "Where is he? Where is he?"

"I’e of her vision, his face in shadow He knelt down next to her "I’m sorry I should have been here when you woke up It’s just…"

His voice cracked

"It’s just what?" She stared at hiold, his eyes bleached of color His skin was streaked with black and gray

"He thought you were dead too," Luke said, and stood up abruptly He was staring out at the river, at so Clary couldn’t see The sky was full of swirls of black and scarlet smoke, as if it were on fire

"Dead too? Who else--?" She broke off as a nauseating pain gripped her Jace saw her expression and reached into his pocket, bringing out his stele

"Hold still, Clary" There was a burning pain in her forearan to clear She sat up and saw that she was sitting on a wet plank shoved up against the back of the truck cab The bed was full of several inches of sloshing water,down frolanced at the place where Jace had drawn a healing Mark on the inside of her ar, as if he’d shot a jolt of strength into her veins

He traced the line of the iratze he’d drawn on her arers before he drew back His hand felt as cold and wet as her skin did The rest of hi to his body

There was an acrid taste in her mouth, as if she’d licked the bottom of an ashtray "What happened? Was there a fire?"

Jace glanced toward Luke, as staring out at the heaving black-gray river The water was dotted here and there with sn of Valentine’s ship "Yes," he said "Valentine’s ship burned down to the waterline There’s nothing left"

"Where is everyone?" Clary aze to Simon, as the only one of thereenish cast to his already pale skin, as if he were sick or feverish "Where are Isabelle and Alec?"

"They’re on one of the other Shadowhunter boats They’re fine"

"And Magnus?" She twisted around to look into the truck cab, but it was empty

"He was needed to tend to some of the more badly wounded Shadowhunters," said Luke

"But everyone’s all right? Alec, Isabelle, Maia--they are all right, aren’t they?" Clary’s voice sounded small and thin in her own ears

"Isabelle was injured," said Luke "So was Robert Lightwood He’ll be needing a good amount of ti Malik and Ien, are dead This was a very hard battle, Clary, and it didn’t go well for us Valentine is gone So is the Sword The Conclave is in tatters I don’t know--"

He broke off Clary stared at hihtened her "I’m sorry," she said "This was my fault If I hadn’t--"

"If you hadn’t done what you did, Valentine would have killed everyone on the ship," said Jace fiercely "You’re the only thing that kept this fro a massacre"

Clary stared at him "You mean what I did with the rune?"

"You tore that ship to fraght have held it together, just snapped apart The whole thing shuddered into pieces The oil tanks came apart too Most of us barely had time to jump into the water before it all started to burn What you did--no one’s ever seen anything like it"

"Oh," Clary said in a small voice "Was anyone--did I hurt anyone?"

"Quite a few of the demons drohen the ship sank," said Jace "But none of the Shadowhunters were hurt, no"

"Because they can swim?"

"Because they were rescued Nixies pulled us all out of the water"