choking, and she snatched the stele from his weapons belt. Then she ran.
Magnus jerked the wheel to the side so fast that the tires screeched. Isabelle shrieked. They bumped up onto the shoulder of the road, under the shadow of a copse of partly leafless trees.
The next thing Simon knew, the doors were open and everyone was tumbling out onto the blacktop. The sun was going down, and the headlights of the truck were on, lighting them all with an eerie glow.
“All right, vampire boy,” said Magnus, shaking his head hard enough to shed glitter. “What the
Alec leaned against the truck as Simon explained, repeating the conversation with Clary as accurately as he could before the whole thing flew out of his head.
“Did she say anything about getting her and Jace out of there?” Isabelle asked when he was done, her face pale in the yellowish glow from the headlights.
“No,” said Simon. “And Iz — I don’t think Jace wants to get out. He wants to be where he is.”
Isabelle crossed her arms and looked down at her boots, her black hair sweeping across her face.
“What’s this Seventh Sacred Site business?” said Alec. “I know about the seven wonders of the world, but seven sacred sites?”
“They’re more in the interest of warlocks than Nephilim,” said Magnus. “Each is a place where ley lines converge, forming a matrix — a sort of net within which magical spells are amplified. The seventh is a stone tomb in Ireland, at Poll na mBron; the name means ‘the cavern of sorrows.’ It’s in a very bleak, uninhabited area called the Burren. A good place to raise a demon, if it’s a big one.” He tugged at a spike of hair. “This is bad. Really bad.”
“You think he could do it? Make — dark Shadowhunters?” Simon asked.
“Everything has an alliance, Simon. The alliance of the Nephilim is seraphic, but if it were demonic, they’d still be as strong, as powerful as they are now. But they would be dedicated to the eradication of mankind instead of its salvation.”
“We have to get there,” Isabelle said. “We have to stop them.”
“‘Him,’ you mean,” said Alec. “We have to stop him. Sebastian.”
“Jace is his ally now. You have to accept that, Alec,” Magnus said. A light misty drizzle had begun to fall. The drops gleamed like gold in the headlights’ glow. “Ireland is five hours ahead. They’re doing the ceremony at midnight. It’s five o’clock here. We have an hour and a half — two hours, at most — to stop them.”
“Then, we shouldn’t be waiting. We should be going,” Isabelle said, a tinge of panic in her voice. “If we’re going to stop him—”
“Iz, there are only four of us,” Alec said. “We don’t even know what kind of numbers we’re up against —”
Simon glanced at Magnus, who was watching Alec and Isabelle argue with a peculiarly detached expression. “Magnus,” Simon said. “Why didn’t we just Portal to the farm? You Portaled half of Idris to Brocelind Plain.”
“I wanted to give you enough time to change your mind,” said Magnus, not taking his eyes off his boyfriend.
“But we can Portal from here,” Simon said. “I mean, you could do that for us.”
“Yeah,” Magnus said. “But like Alec says, we don’t know what we’re up against in terms of numbers. I’m a pretty powerful warlock, but Jonathan Morgenstern is no ordinary Shadowhunter, and neither is Jace, for that matter. And if they succeed in raising Lilith — she’ll be a lot weaker than she was, but she’s still Lilith.”
“But she’s dead,” said Isabelle. “Simon killed her.”
“Greater Demons don’t die,” said Magnus. “Simon… scattered her between worlds. It will take a long time for her to re-form and she will be weak for years. Unless Sebastian calls her up again.” He pushed a hand through his wet, spiked hair.
“We have the sword,” Isabelle said. “We can take out Sebastian. We have Magnus, and Simon—”
“We don’t even know if the sword will work,” said Alec. “And it won’t do us much good if we can’t get to Sebastian. And Simon isn’t even Mr. Indestructible anymore. He can be killed just like the rest of us.”
They all looked at Simon. “We have to try,” he said. “Look — we don’t know how many are going to be there, no. We have a little time. Not a lot, but enough — if we Portal — to grab some reinforcements.”
“Reinforcements from where?” Isabelle demanded.
“I’ll go to Maia and Jordan back at the apartment,” said Simon, his mind quickly ticking over possibilities. “See if Jordan can get any assistance from the Praetor Lupus. Magnus, go to the downtown police station, see about enlisting whatever members of the pack are around. Isabelle and Alec—”
“You’re splitting us up?” Isabelle demanded, her voice rising. “What about fire-messages, or—”
“No one’s going to trust a fire-message about something like this,” said Magnus. “And besides, fire- messages are for Shadowhunters. Do you really want to communicate this information to the Clave via fire-message instead of going to the Institute yourself?”
“Fine.” Isabelle stalked around to the side of the car. She yanked the door open, but didn’t get inside: instead she reached in, and drew out Glorious. It shone in the dim light like a bolt of dark lightning, the words carved on the blade flickering in the car light:
The rain was starting to paste Isabelle’s black hair to her neck. She looked formidable as she walked back to rejoin the group. “Then we leave the car here. We split up, but we meet back at the Institute in an hour. That’s when we leave, whoever we have with us.” She met each of her companion’s eyes, one by one, daring them to challenge her. “Simon, take this.”
She held out Glorious to him, hilt-forward.
“Me?” Simon was startled. “But I don’t — I haven’t really used a sword before.”
“You called it down,” Isabelle said, her dark eyes glossy in the rain. “The Angel gave it to you, Simon, and you will be the one who carries it.”
Clary dashed down the hallway and hit the steps with a clatter, racing for the downstairs and for the spot on the wall that Jace had told her was the only entrance and exit from the apartment.
She had no illusions that she could escape. She needed only a few moments to do what had to be done. She heard Sebastian’s boots loud on the glass staircase behind her, and put on a burst of speed, almost slamming into the wall. She jammed the stele into it point-first, drawing frantically:
Sebastian’s fist closed on the back of her jacket, jerking her backward, the stele flying out of her hand. She gasped as he swung her up off her feet and slammed her into the wall, knocking the breath out of her. He glanced at the mark she had made on the wall, and his lips curled into a sneer.
“The Opening rune?” he said. He leaned forward and hissed into her ear. “And you didn’t even finish it. Not that it matters. Do you really think there’s a place on this earth you could go where I couldn’t find you?”
Clary responded with an epithet that would have gotten her kicked out of class at St. Xavier’s. Just as he started to laugh, she raised her hand and slapped him across the face so hard, her fingers stung. In his surprise he loosened his grip on her, and she jerked away from him and flipped herself over the table, making for the downstairs bedroom, which at least had a lock on the door—
And he was in front of her, grabbing the lapels of her jacket and swinging her around. Her feet went out from under her, and she would have fallen if he hadn’t pinned her to the wall with his body, his arms to either side, making a cage around her.
His grin was diabolical. Gone was the stylish boy who’d strolled by the Seine with her and drunk hot chocolate and talked about belonging. His eyes were all black, no pupil, like tunnels. “What’s wrong, little sis? You look upset.”
She could barely catch her breath. “Cracked… my… nail polish slapping your… worthless face. See?” She showed him her finger — just one of them.
“Cute.” He snorted. “You know how I knew you’d betray us? How I knew you wouldn’t be able to help it? Because you’re too much like me.”
He pressed her back harder against the wall. She could feel his chest rise and fall against hers. She was at eye level with the straight, sharp line of his collarbone. His body felt like a prison around hers, pinning her in place. “I’m nothing like you. Let me go—”
“You’re everything like me,” he growled into her ear. “You infiltrated us. You faked friendship, faked caring.”
“I never had to fake caring about
