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"Alexander?" she said, her voice rich with disbelief "Alexander Lightwood?"

It was Camille

"Jace" Lilith's voice came down like a whip across bare flesh; even Clary flinched at the sound of it "I command you to-"

Jace's ar the knife at Lilith It whipped through the air, end over end, and sank into her chest; she staggered back, caught off balance Lilith's heels skidded on the shted herself with a snarl, reaching down to pluck the knife froe Clary couldn't understand, she let it drop It fell hissing to the ground, its blade half-eaten away, as if by a powerful acid

She whirled on Clary "What did you do to hio Now they seee and protrude Small black serpents slithered from her eye sockets; Clary cried out and stepped back, ale This was the Lilith she had seen in Ithuriel's vision, with her slithering eyes and harsh, echoing voice She advanced on Clary-

And suddenly Jace was between theain He seehteous fire, as Raziel had by Lake Lyn that horrible night He had drawn a seraph blade from his belt; the white-silver of it reflected in his eyes; blood dripped from the rent in his shirt and slicked his bare skin The way he looked at her, at Lilith-if angels could rise up out of Hell, Clary thought, they would look like that "Michael," he said, and Clary wasn't sure whether it was the strength of the nae in his voice, but the blade he held blazed up brighter than any seraph blade she'd ever seen She looked aside for ain a crulass coffin

Her heart twisted inside her chest What if Sebastian's demon blood had poisoned hi he had done willingly, to himself For her Simon

"Ah, Michael" Lilith's voice was rich with laughter as she moved toward Jace "The captain of the hosts of the Lord I knew him"

Jace raised the seraph blade; it blazed like a star, so bright that Clary wondered if all the city could see it, like a searchlight piercing the sky "Don't come any closer"

Lilith, to Clary's surprise, paused "Michael slew the demon Sammael, whom I loved," she said "Why is it, little Shadowhunter, that your angels are so cold and without mercy? Why do they break that which will not obey them?"

"I had no idea you were such a proponent of free will," said Jace, and the way he said it, his voice heavy with sarcasain than anything else would have "How about letting us all walk off this roof now, then? Me, Simon, Clary? What do you say, demoness? It's over You don't control me anymore I won't hurt Clary, and Si to resuscitate-I suggest you get rid of hi back, and he's way past his sell-by date"

Lilith's face twisted She spat at Jace, and her spit was a black flaled toward hied for the deone like a shadohen light shone on it, vanishing and refor just behind him As he spun, she reached out alainst his chest

Jace went flying, Michael knocked fro across the stone tiles Jace sailed through the air and struck the low roof ith such force that splintering lines appeared in the stone He hit the ground hard, visibly stunned

Gasping, Clary ran for the fallen seraph blade, but never reached it Lilith caught Clary up in two thin, icy hands and threw her with incredible force Clary hurtled into a low hedge, the branches slashing viciously at her skin, opening up long cuts She struggled to free herself, her dress tangled in the foliage She heard the silk rip as she tore free and turned to see Lilith drag Jace to his feet, her hand fastened in the bloody front of his shirt

She grinned at hilealad you're on your feet, little Nephilim I want to see your face when I kill you, not stab you in the back the way you did my son"

Jace wiped his sleeve across his face; he was bleeding fro his cheek, and the fabric came away red "He's not your son You donated some blood to him That doesn't make him yours Mother of warlocks-" He turned his head and spat, blood "You're not anyone's mother"

Lilith's snake eyes darted back and forth furiously Clary, disentangling herself painfully froe, saw that each of the snake heads had two eyes of its own, glittering and red Clary's sto to slither up and down Jace's body "Cutting my rune apart How crude," she spat

"But effective," said Jace

"You cannot win against reatest Shadowhunter this world has known, but I aht ive you a weapon I'll have ht me one on one, and we'll see ins"

Lilith looked at hi around her like smoke "I am the oldest of demons," she said "I am not a man I have no male pride for you to trick le combat That is entirely a weakness of your sex, not et what I want" She let go of him them, with a half-conte hi blade of Michael

He seized it just as Lilith laughed and raised her hands Half-opaque shadows exploded from her open palms Even Jace looked shocked as the shadows solidified into the for red eyes They hit the ground, pawing and growling They were dogs, Clary thought in auely resembled Doberman pinschers

"Hellhounds," breathed Jace "Clary-"

He broke off as one of the dogs sprang toward hi howl erupting from its throat Aitself directly at Clary

"Ca here?"

He iht down the urge to s he wanted was to look like a fool in front of Magnus's ex-girlfriend

"It was Lilith," said the va voice "She had her cult ainst huhther wrists to the pipe rattled "They brutalizedhis eyes on a level with Camille's Vampires didn't bruise-they healed too quickly for that-but her hair was matted with blood on the left side, whichthe truth "Let's say I believe you," he said "What did she ith you? Nothing in what I know about Lilith says she has a particular interest in va me," she said "You would have heard"

"You killed three Shadowhunters Magnus said you clai it because someone had ordered you to-" He broke off "Lilith?"

"If I tell you, will you help reen, pleading She was very beautiful Alec wondered if she had once looked at Magnus like this It ht," he said, astonished at the coldness in his own voice "You don't have a lot of bargaining power here I could go off and leave you for Lilith to have, and it wouldn't make much difference to me"