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Love is a fael but Love

-William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost

TWO WEEKS LATER

1

THE LAST COUNCIL

"How er will the verdict take, do you think?" Clary asked She had no idea how long they'd been waiting, but it felt like ten hours There were no clocks in Isabelle's black and hot-pink powder-puff bedroom, just piles of clothes, heaps of books, stacks of weapons, a vanity overfloith sparklinglacy slips, sheer tights, and feather boas It had a certain backstage-at-La-Cage-aux-Folles design aesthetic, but over the past teeks Clary had spent enough tiun to find it co

Isabelle, standing over by the ith Church in her ararded her with baleful yellow eyes Outside thea Nove the s like clear paint "Notany er "Five minutes, probably"

Clary, sitting on Izzy's bed between a pile ofstack of seraph blades, sed hard against the bitter taste in her throat I'll be back Five minutes

That had been the last thing she had said to the boy she loved ht be the last thing she would ever get to say to him

Clary rearden The crystalline October night, the stars burning icy white against a cloudless black sky The paving stones smeared with black runes, spattered with ichor and blood Jace'sworld Clasping the Morgenstern ring around her neck The love thatto look for hi her back down into the shadows of the building She had joined the others in the lobby, hugging her mother, Luke, Simon, but some part of her, as it alas, had still been with Jace, floating above the city on that rooftop, the two of them alone in the cold and brilliant electric city

Maryse and Kadir had been the ones to get into the elevator to join Jace on the roof and to see the remains of Lilith's ritual It was another ten minutes before Maryse returned, alone When the doors had opened and Clary had seen her face-white and set and frantic-she had known

What had happened next had been like a dreaed toward Maryse; Alec had broken away fronus, and Isabelle had leaped to her feet White bursts of light cut through the darkness like the soft explosions of camera flashes at a crime scene as, one after another, seraph blades lit the shadows Pushing her way forward, Clary heard the story in broken pieces-the rooftop garden was elass coffin that had held Sebastian had been sments Blood, still fresh, dripped down the pedestal on which the coffin had sat

The Shadowhunters wereplans quickly, to spread out in a radius and search the area around the building Magnus was there, his hands sparking blue, turning to Clary to ask if she had soave hi and retreated into a corner to call Simon She had only just closed the phone when the voice of a Shadowhunter rang out above the rest "Tracking? That'll work only if he's still alive With that much blood it's not very likely-"

Soed hypothermia, exhaustion, and shock took their toll, and she felt her knees give Her round There was a dark blur after that She woke up the next ht with her heart going like a trip-hahtmare

As she struggled out of bed, the fading bruises on her ars told a different story, as did the absence of her ring Throwing on jeans and a hoodie, she staggered out into the living room to find Jocelyn, Luke, and Simon seated there with somber expressions on their faces She didn't even need to ask, but she did anyway: "Did they find him? Is he back?"

Jocelyn stood up "Sweetheart, he's still -"

"But not dead? They haven't found a body?" She collapsed onto the couch next to Simon "No-he's not dead I'd know"

She re her hand while Luke told her what they did know: that Jace was still gone, and so was Sebastian The bad neas that the blood on the pedestal had been identified as Jace's The good neas that there was less of it than they had thought; it had ive the ireater voluht it was quite possible he had survived whatever had happened

"But what happened?" she demanded

Luke shook his head, blue eyes somber "Nobody knows, Clary"

Her veins felt as if her blood had been replaced with ice water "I want to help I want to do so"

"I wouldn't worry about that," Jocelyn said grimly "The Clave wants to see you"

Invisible ice cracked in Clary's joints and tendons as she stood up "Fine Whatever I'll tell the they want if they'll find Jace"

"You'll tell the they want because they have the Mortal Sword" There was despair in Jocelyn's voice "Oh, baby I'm so sorry"

And now, after teeks of repetitive testimony, after scores of witnesses had been called, after she had held the Mortal Sword a dozen times, Clary sat in Isabelle's bedroom and waited for the Council to rule on her fate She couldn't help but remember what it had felt like to hold the Mortal Sword It was like tiny fishhooks e the truth out of you She had knelt, holding it, in the circle of the Speaking Stars and had heard her own voice telling the Council everything: how Valentine had raised the Angel Raziel, and how she had taken the power of controlling the Angel fro hers over it She had told theel had offered her one wish, and she had used it to raise Jace from the dead; she told them how Lilith had possessed Jace and Lilith had planned to use Simon's blood to resurrect Sebastian, Clary's brother, whoarded as a son How Siht Sebastian had been ended too, no longer a threat

Clary sighed and flipped her phone open to check the time "They've been in there for an hour," she said "Is that norn?"

Isabelle dropped Church, who let out a yowl She came over to the bed and sat down beside Clary Isabelle looked even ht in the past teeks-but elegant as always, in black cigarette pants and a fitted gray velvet top Mascara was sed all around Izzy's eyes, which should have made her look like a racoon but just made her look like a French film star instead She stretched her arled n," she said "It just htwood ring on her finger "You'll be fine You didn't break the Law That's the i"

Clary sighed Even the warmth of Isabelle's shoulder next to hers couldn't melt the ice in her veins She knew that technically she had broken no Laws, but she also knew the Clave was furious at her It was illegal for a Shadowhunter to raise the dead, but not for the Angel to do it; nevertheless it was such an enor for Jace's life back that she and Jace had agreed to tell no one about it

Noas out, and it had rocked the Clave Clary knew they wanted to punish her, if only because her choice had had such disastrous consequences In some way she wished they would punish her Break her bones, pull her fingernails out, let the Silent Brothers root through her brain with their bladed thoughts A sort of devil's bargain-her own pain for Jace's safe return It would have helped her guilt over having left Jace behind on that rooftop, even though Isabelle and the others had told her a hundred tiht he was perfectly safe there, and that if Clary had stayed, she would probably now betoo

"Quit it," Isabelle said For ato her or to the cat Church was doing what he often did when dropped-lying on his back with all four legs in the air, pretending to be dead in order to induce guilt in his owners But then Isabelle swept her black hair aside, glaring, and Clary realized she was the one being told off, not the cat

"Quit what?"

"Morbidly thinking about all the horrible things that are going to happen to you, or that you ould happen to you because you're alive and Jace is roove She never spoke of Jace as being dead or even gone-she and Alec refused to entertain the possibility And Isabelle had never reproached Clary once for keeping such an enor, in fact, Isabelle had been her staunchest defender Meeting her every day at the door to the Council Hall, she had held Clary fir, h endless Council interrogations, shooting dagger glances at anyone who dared look at Clary sideways Clary had been astonished She and Isabelle had never been enorirls ere more comfortable with boys than other female companionship But Isabelle didn't leave her side Clary was as bewildered as she was grateful