clary

Surely, she was too young to have so many ghosts.

She had worn the Morgenstern ring since Jace had left it for her, and sometimes she wondered why. Did she really want to be reminded of Valentine? And yet, at the same time, was it ever right to forget?You couldn't erase everything that caused you pain with its recollection. She didn't want to forget Max or Madeleine, or Hodge, or the Inquisitor, or even Sebastian. Every moment was valuable; even the bad ones.

He__ not feeling well,_ Clary said, catching at Simon__ wrist. __e__e going._ __o,_ Simon said. __o, I _ I need to talk to him. To the Inquisitor." Robert reached into his jacket and drew out a crucifix. Clary stared in shock as he held it up between himself and Simon. __ speak to the Night__ Children Council representative, or to the head of the New York clan,_ he said. __ot to any vampire who comes to knock at my door __ Simon reached out and plucked the cross out of Robert__ hand. __rong religion,_ he said.

Lawful good to lawful evil!" said Simon, pleased."He's quoting Dungeons and Dragons," said Clary. "Ignore him.

We need to talk. All of us About what we're going to do now.""I was going to watch Project Runway.

It's not gray," Clary felt compelled to point out. "It's green.""If there was such a thing as terminal literalism, you'd have died in childhood," said Jace.

Once there was a boy,_ said Jace.Clary interrupted immediately. __ Shadowhunter boy?___f course._ For a moment a bleak amusement colored his voice. Then it was gone. __hen the boy was six years old, his father gave him a falcon to train. Falcons are raptors _ killing birds, his father told him, the Shadowhunters of the sky.__he falcon didn__ like the boy, and the boy didn__ like it, either. Its sharp beak made him nervous, and its bright eyes always seemed to be watching him. It would slash at him with beak and talons when he came near: For weeks his wrists and hands were always bleeding. He didn__ know it, but his father had selected a falcon that had lived in the wild for over a year, and thus was nearly impossible to tame. But the boy tried, because his father told him to make the falcon obedient, and he wanted to please his father.__e stayed with the falcon constantly, keeping it awake by talking to it and even playing music to it, because a tired bird was meant to be easier to tame. He learned the equipment: the jesses, the hood, the brail, the leash that bound the bird to his wrist. He was meant to keep the falcon blind, but he couldn__ bring himself to do it _ instead he tried to sit where the bird could see him as he touched and stroked its wings, willing it to trust him. Hee fed it from his hand, and at first it would not eat. Later it ate so savagely that its beak cut the skin of his palm. But the boy was glad, because it was progress, and because he wanted the bird to know him, even if the bird had to consume his blood to make that happen.__e began to see that the falcon was beautiful, that its slim wings were built for the speed of flight, that it was strong and swift, fierce and gentle. When it dived to the ground, it moved like likght. When it learned to circle and come to his wrist, he neary shouted with delight Sometimes the bird would hope to his shoulder and put its beak in his hair. He knew his falcon loved him, and when he was certain it was not just tamed but perfectly tamed, he went to his father and showed him what he had done, expecting him to be proud.__nstead his father took the bird, now tame and trusting, in his hands and broke its neck. __ told you to make it obedient,_ his father said, and dropped the falcon__ lifeless body to the ground. __nstead, you taught it to love you. Falcons are not meant to be loving pets: They are fierce and wild, savage and cruel. This bird was not tamed; it was broken.___ater, when his father left him, the boy cried over his pet, until eventually his father sent a servant to take the body of the bird away and bury it. The boy never cried again, and he never forgot what he__ learned: that to love is to destroy, and that to be loved is to be the one destroyed.

And now I__ looking at you,_ he said, __nd you__e asking me if I still want you, as if I could stop loving you. As if I would want to give up the thing that makes me stronger than anything else ever has. I never dared give much of myself to anyone before _ bits of myself to the Lightwoods, to Isabelle and Alec, but it took years to do it _ but, Clary, since the first time I saw you, I have belonged to you completely. I still do. If you want me.

I've got plenty._ Isabelle smiled, kicking her feet up so that her anklets jingled like Christmas bells. "These, for instance. The left one is gold, which is poisonous to demons, and the right one is blessed iron, in case I run across any unfriendly vampires or even faeries, faeries hate iron. They both have strength runes carved into them, so I can pack a hell of a kick. ""Demon hunting and fashion," Clary said. "I never would have thought they went together.

Maybe that was why she couldn't cry, she realized, staring dry-eyed at the ceiling. Because what was the point in crying when there was no one there to comfort you? And what was worse, when you couldn't even comfort yourself?

And next time you're planning to injure yourself to get me attention, just remember that a little sweet talk works wonders.

I wish you'd stop desperately trying to get my attention like this," he said. "It's become embarrassing.""Sarcasm is the last refuge of the imaginatively bankrupt," she told him."I can't help it. I use my rapier wit to hide my inner pain.

Sarcasm is the last refuge of the imaginatively bankrupt.

That was vampires for you: always going for the jugular, both literally and metaphorically. They were messing up his love life as well as being inconsiderate party guests who had got blood in Magnus__ stereo system at his last party and turned Clary__ idiot friend Stanley into a rat, which was just bad manners.

He was a vampire now. He was supposed to have eternity. But what he had was days.

Isabelle!" he called again. "Let down your raven hair!'"Oh my God," Clary muttered. "There was something in that blood Raphael gave you, wasn't there? I'm going to kill him.

Jace broke off the kiss and stepped back with an exhale; before Clary could say anything, a chorus of sarcastic applause broke out from the nearby hill. Simon, Isabelle, and Alec waved at them. Jace bowed while Clary stepped back slightly sheepishly, hooking her thumbs into the belt of her jeansJace sighed. "Shall we join our annoying, voyeuristic friends?""Unfortunately, that's the only kind of friends we have.

I love you, Clary," he said without looking at her. He was staring out into the church, at the row of lighted candles, their fold reflected in his eyes. "More than I ever--" He broke off. "God. More than I probably should. You know that, don't you?