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The Mortal Instruments Series
a white man with long brown hair wearing jeans and a gray t-shirt sits crosslegged with his hands clasped.
a blonde man with black tattoos on his arm kneels over photos wearing jeans and a brown t-shirt holding a long sword tip down in one hand.
a white woman with long black hair wearing leather pants and a black tank top braces herself on one knee holding a cracking whip.
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The Mortal Instruments
by Cassandra Clare

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Introduce yourself to the Shadow World along with Clary as she realizes that her mother has been hiding some pretty big secrets. As Jace will tell you - "all the stories are real." Clary realizes how true that statement is as she meets warlocks, vampires, werewolves, pixies, faeries, and even the occasional demon.

For more from Cassandra Clare, check out her website at https://cassandraclare.com/

City of Bones
a blonde man with black tattoos on his arm kneels over photos wearing jeans and a brown t-shirt holding a long sword tip down in one hand.

Prepare yourself. Clary Fray goes to the all-ages Pandemonium Club with her best friend Simon. They watch as a blue-haired kid in a red jacket gets stopped at the door for carrying a wooden staff, but he shows the bouncer that it is fake and is a part of his vampire hunter costume. Clary notices his bright green eyes. The bouncer lets him in. Once inside, the boy follows a long-haired girl in a white dress and a ruby necklace into a storage room. Clary watches this from the dance floor, then she sees as two more boys follow the blue-haired boy and she begins to get concerned. She sees one of the followers pull a knife out of his jacket. When she points this out to Simon, he doesn’t even see the two followers, but he agrees to go get a security guard. Clary goes toward the storage room, but when she gets there, she thinks it’s empty at first. But then, Clary can suddenly see them again. The blue-haired boy tied to a pillar surrounded by the long-haired brunette girl, Isabelle; a black-haired boy, Alec; and a blonde boy, Jace. They ask the blue-haired kid if there are any more demons with him. The blue-haired demon boy tries to make a deal with them before they send him back to Hell, he insists that Valentine is back and that he can tell them where to find him. When Clary steps in to stop them from hurting the blue-haired boy, they seem confused that she can see them. Jace insists that the blue-haired kid is a monster, but Clary doesn’t believe it until the boy breaks free and attacks Jace. She can see his claws as he cuts Jace, but Jace manages to stab a knife into his chest. The demon disappears. Jace explains that demons return to their own dimension when they’re killed. Clary doesn’t understand what is happening - which is compounded when Simon comes into the closet and can’t see anyone except Clary. She tells him and the bouncer that Simon brought that it was all a mistake, and they leave - leaving Isabelle, Alec, and Jace alone. By the time they get a cab and make it home, Clary is officially past curfew and in trouble. Clary’s dad was a soldier named Jonathan Clark who died in a car crash before she was born. Afterward, her mom Jocelyn changed her name back to her maiden name (Fray) and does not like to talk about Clary’s dad. But she does keep a box carved with the initials J.C. that holds his military medals, a few pictures, a wedding ring, and a lock of blond hair. Jocelyn’s friend Luke comes to the apartment to help Clary’s mom with some stuff, and Clary talks to him for a moment. She trusts him. She asks what he would do if he saw something no one else could, thinking of the club. Luke tells her that she’s an artist, she sees the world in a different way than everyone else. She’s not crazy, just different. Her mom follows Luke inside and announces that they’re going on vacation to Luke’s farmhouse… for the remainder of the summer. Clary doesn’t understand why, she has responsibilities, classes that she’s taking over the summer that she paid for herself. Clary doesn’t want to go but Jocelyn tells her it’s not optional. As they argue, Luke tells them he’s going to leave, and Jocelyn follows him out. Clary overhears Jocelyn tell Luke that she can’t get ahold of Bane, he’s been out of town for weeks, but Luke tells her that Clary isn’t Jonathan and Jocelyn can’t keep going to Bane forever. What is going on!? Luke sternly tells Jocelyn to talk to Clary. Then Simon shows up and interrupts them, Clary makes a quick escape with him. They go downstairs past Clary’s neighbor’s apartment: Madame Dorothea, Seeress and Prophetess. As they pass, Dorothea’s apartment opens to show a dark-skinned man with black hair and green cat eyes, and sharp teeth. Seeing him makes Clary dizzy. She shakes it off. Clary tells Simon about her mom’s summer plans. Simon isn’t worried, Jocelyn will probably change her mind. Clary vents about how her mom doesn’t talk about her family or her early life or Clary’s dad. It’s like her life started at Clary; she doesn’t even have wedding pictures! Clary has never even met her grandparents. Simon points out that Jocelyn may not like her parents, she does have a lot of thin white scars all over her back and arms, but Clary doesn’t know what he’s talking about. She’s never noticed any scars. Meanwhile, her mom has called her phone a couple of times, but Clary just ignores the calls. They go to see one of Simon’s bandmates at a poetry reading (it’s terrible). While Simon goes to get them coffee, a girl nearby asks Clary if he’s single. She’s a little thrown about this, but decides she’s going to let Simon know, but when he gets back, he doesn’t want to talk about that girl or any other girls. It wouldn’t be fair if he started dating someone because he already likes someone else. As he prepares to tell her who that person is, Clary spots the guy from the night before watching her. Jace. He quickly leaves the coffee shop and Clary jumps to her feet to follow him. She confronts him about following her and eavesdropping, he tells her that she’s a conundrum. A mundane (someone of the human world) who can see him – that shouldn’t be happening. Hodge (his tutor) thinks she may be dangerous, that’s why he’s following her. He looks at her hands closely but sees nothing, explaining that Shadowhunter children get the Voyance rune on their hands when they’re young. It helps them see the magical world. He shows her his hand, but she doesn’t see anything until he instructs her to let her mind relax. Then she can see it, what looks like a black tattoo on the back of his hand. He explains that the tattoo is a rune burned into the skin, they call them Marks. This one is permanent; most vanish after they’re used. Jace goes further, telling her that he is a Shadowhunter - they kill demons, although Downworlders (i.e. warlocks, the fey, werewolves) call them less complimentary names. He tells Clary something important: all the stories are true. He wants her to come meet Hodge. Just then, Jocelyn calls again and Clary answers to tell her she’s on her way home. But her mom is in a panic. She tells Clary not to come home – go straight to Simon’s and stay there. Jocelyn says to call Luke and tell Luke that he’s found her. She asks Clary to promise not to come home. Clary can hear heavy crashes in the background. Just before the line goes dead, Jocelyn tells Clary that she loves her. Clary tries to call her mom back but gets nothing but a disconnected sound, she drops her phone in her panic, and it breaks - unusable. She grabs Jace’s phone to use but he tells her it will be no help. It’s not a phone, but a Sensor. Jace asks what happened, offering to help Clary, but she runs away from him and into the dark alleyway making her way towards home, Sensor still in hand. When Clary gets to her building, she is stopped by Madam Dorothea so that Dorothea can complain about a burnt-out lightbulb and the dirty skylight. When Clary finally makes it up to the apartment, the place is trashed. The bookshelves tipped over, the sofa and cushions ripped open, the paintings cut from the frames and ripped up. The television, laptops, and her mom’s wallet sit untouched. Her mother is nowhere to be found. She runs to her mom’s room, which looks untouched, and Clary hears a slithering sound coming toward the room. She turns around to find a scaled, bug-like creature with a flat snout and a barbed tail. It looks like it’s about to jump at her. She evades the creature as it lunges, she can hear it talking. It wants to eat her. The Sensor she still holds starts to vibrate and heat up. She hears the bug talk to itself, reminding itself that it’s not allowed to eat her. It keeps mentioning someone named Valentine. The bug attacks her and she’s able to stop from getting bitten by jabbing the Sensor into its mouth, but she still gets acidic spit burning her face and throat as it drips on her. She thinks she’s done for, but the creature suddenly rolls off her, fluid pouring from its mouth. She runs toward the door but is hit by something on the head and knocked out. She wakes up in her mom’s garden with Jace tending to her head wound, police scouring her apartment. Jace tells her they are likely not real police, demons have a way of covering for themselves, but he’s more concerned about Clary. She got hit by the Ravener demon in the head and it wasn’t a hard hit since the demon had been injured, but it was enough to poison her. The Ravener died from the injuries Clary gave it, but now they need to get to the Institute before Clary dies from the poison. He helps her walk and draws something on her wrist that he says will hide her for the moment. He ends up carrying Clary most of the way to the Institute. She wakes up three days later in the infirmary with Isabelle beside her. She introduces herself as Isabelle Lightwood and lets Clary know that she lives in the Institute. When Clary asks if Jace is her brother, Isabelle explains that they are not related. Jace lives with them at the Institute because his parents died. His mom died when he was born and his dad was killed when he was ten, murdered right in front of him. Then she leaves Clary to clean up as she lets everyone know that Clary is awake. Clary goes exploring before Isabelle returns and finds Jace as he plays the piano. They go to find Hodge together. Jace explains that the Institute pledges safety and lodging to any Shadowhunter who requests it, so they have a residential wing that can house up to two-hundred people. Though people come and go, it’s usually just him, Alec, Isabelle, Max (all siblings – Alec oldest, Max youngest), their parents, and Hodge. Right now, the Lightwood parents are not at home. He tells her to think of the Institutes as a sort of embassy, and they work as foreign diplomats. The Lightwoods are in the Shadowhunter home country called Idris with Max working on some peace negotiations. Clary has never heard of Idris, not a surprise. It is not on any maps and has wards all around the borders. It’s as if it doesn’t exist for most people, but it’s situated between Germany and France. Jace introduces her to the Institute’s cat, Church, and then to Hodge when they get to the library. Hodge carries a raven named Hugo on his shoulder. Jace tells him that Clary stuffed his Sensor into the Ravener’s mouth and the runes must have killed it, but Alec (who sits near the fireplace) doesn’t believe it. He looks at Clary like he hates her and doesn’t believe she’d be able to kill a Ravener on her own. He doesn’t think she should be in the Institute, mundanes are not allowed. They could be reported to the Clave for this! Hodge doesn’t think that’s true; they can offer sanctuary to mundanes at times. The real question is why a Ravener would be after Clary or her mom (location still unknown), Raveners act under the orders of warlocks or demon lords. And they don’t normally bother themselves with humans. Clary wonders if it might have been mistaken identity, maybe they were looking for Madam Dorothea, but Jace says no, Dorothea is a fake. When Hodge decides it’s time to alert the Clave, Jace stops him. He reveals that when he rescued Clary, he used a mendelin rune to hide her from the demons dressed like police officers. It worked on Clary with no ill effects, meaning that she is not a mundane. If she were, the mendelin rune would have killed her. Jace thinks one of Clary’s parents was an exiled Shadowhunter. Maybe they were in hiding because her dad was a Shadowhunter and it’s against the law to marry a mundane. Clary thinks that whatever the secret is, Luke would know it. And he’s probably losing his mind after not hearing from Clary for three days. Clary calls Luke who tells her the police contacted him to say that her mom was missing. He hasn’t heard from Jocelyn. She offers to come to his house, but he says it’s too dangerous for Clary to come there. Whatever Jocelyn is messed up in, it’s safer for Clary to be away. He points out that he is not Clary’s dad, and that he has his own problems, he instructs her not to call him for any more favors. On the verge of tears, Clary speaks to Hodge alone. He asks if she’d ever seen a demon or strange creature before Pandemonium, she says that she hasn’t. He’s perplexed by this puzzle, but one thing is for sure. Normal people do not get attacked by a demon. Normal people can’t see demons; their minds would have filled in the blanks, and they would’ve seen a dog attacking them or something like that. Normal people cannot hear demons speak. Clary is not a normal person. She brings up the name the Ravener said: Valentine. Hodge is shocked. He explains that Valentine was a Shadowhunter who has been dead for sixteen years. Perhaps it was someone using Valentine’s name to send a message. Hodge explains that Shadowhunters are also called Nephilim, offspring of angels and humans, the first of which was Jonathan Shadowhunter. Jonathan Shadowhunter summoned the Angel Raziel and mixed Raziel’s blood with human blood, giving it to humans to drink. Those humans became Shadowhunters and their abilities were passed to their children. The Cup is now known as the Mortal Cup. When Shadowhunter numbers grew small, they could use the Cup to create more. But now the Cup is gone, Valentine destroyed it before he killed himself, his wife, and his child in a fire. Valentine had created a group called the Circle and they killed hundreds of Downworlders as well as other Shadowhunters during the last Accords before barely being defeated. Valentine hated Downworlders and wanted them all killed, he did not believe the Accords should exist. The Clave disagreed and believed they should work in tandem with Downworlders. It was when the Clave turned on Valentine and his Circle that Downworlders were convinced that at least some of the Shadowhunters could be trusted, allowing for the Accords to be signed. They are currently working on the Accords again as they have to be resigned every fifteen years, perhaps someone who disagrees with the Accords is using Valentine’s name. Hodge begins to write a message as Clary leaves the library; he sends it with Hugo. Afterward, he writes a second note. She finds Jace in the weapons room looking for a new Sensor and polishing seraph blades, made by the Iron Sisters. She asks him to take her to her apartment to go through her mother’s things. Jace tells Alec he doesn’t need to come; they can handle it on their own. On their way, Clary asks how Jace knew she was a Shadowhunter (he didn’t, but he was 90% sure). Clary smacks him, citing the other 10% in which she could have died when he placed the Mark (she was already dying, btw). She asks what it means to be parabatai. He explains that it is a pair of Shadowhunters who fight together, like him and Alec. They are more than just best friends. Their fathers were also parabatai. Alec’s dad is his godfather; it’s why he lives with them now. Jace finally explains what a Sensor does – picks up demonic frequencies like a radio. When they get to the apartment, Jace goes in first. There’s blood on the stairway banister. Clary opens the door to find the place completely empty. No furniture, no trash, nothing. When she goes to the door of her room, the knob is ice cold. She opens it and is blasted backward, inside is a huge smelly man. Jace takes a swipe at the giant with one of his blades. When the giant staggers back, Jace grabs Clary and pushes her toward the apartment door. They make it out and the door locks automatically behind them. The giant hits it, shaking the entire door as Jace yells at Clary to get out of the building. The giant blows the door completely off and comes at them with an axe. Jace engages the giant and manages to put a seraph blade in his shoulder before the giant grabs Jace and drags him down the stairs falling. Both of them are still alive, Clary runs to Jace. His arm is broken but he instructs her to reach in his jacket and grab a seraph blade for him. He activates it and finishes the giant off. He uses a tool called a stele to draw Marks onto his skin, iratzes that will heal him. She notices his skin has a bunch of white marks, like Simon said about her mother’s arms. Clary can almost remember seeing them on her mother. Jace explains that the giant’s body is not disappearing because it was not a demon. One Mark on a human can kill them, but a bunch of powerful Marks drawn on a human drives them insane and this is what they become: the Forsaken. Loyal to the person who marked them and powerful. And where there’s one, there may be more. Jace prepares to go back upstairs and look around but Dorothea comes out and tells him to stop, there are more creatures where that one came from. Dorothea knows they’re Forsaken and she knows about the Clave, but neither Clave nor Covenant have ever helped her and she owes them nothing. Dorothea tells Clary to forget her mom, she’s gone. Alive for now but gone. When Jace threatens Dorothea with the Silent Brothers, Dorethea finally invites them in. Jace enters her apartment, but he doesn’t like it - Dorothea already knows his name. Dorothea’s apartment is covered in magical paraphernalia. She offers them tea and reveals that her mother was a warlock. Jace tells Clary that all Downworlders are demon in some way. Warlocks have demon parents and are strong because of it. Vampires and werewolves are made because of diseases brought from demon realms. Faeries are likely the offspring of angels and demons, but some say they are fallen angels. Either way, Jace doesn’t believe Dorothea because warlocks cannot have children. Dorothea clarifies that she was adopted, raised to watch and guard her apartment after her mother was gone. She reads their tea leaves: Jace’s foretells of violence and a lot of bloodshed, an enemy already made, and love with the wrong person; Clary’s is undecipherable. Dorothea wonders if Clary has a block on her mind to hide memories and the Sight. She pulls out tarot cards instead and has Clary draw one – she picks the Ace of Cups or the “love card” as Dorothea calls it. Clary recognizes the artwork; her mother made the tarot deck for Dorothea. She explains that Jocelyn knew what Dorothea was and vice versa, and they would trade favors for gossip and any mention of the name Valentine. She tells Clary that her mother was a Shadowhunter. Jace knows now what Dorothea’s protecting: a sanctuary for Downworlders hiding from the Clave. He finds a Portal behind a curtain. It’s likely the reason Jocelyn chose to live here, the chance for an expedient escape although she didn’t use it the day she went missing. Clary flings the Portal open, wanting to see where her mother could have escaped to. It takes them to Luke’s house. They decide to do some investigating into Luke; his truck is gone so Clary doesn’t think he’s home. They find another intruder… Simon. He came here to find Clary, but Luke sent him away with a message that Clary was at an out-of-town relative’s house. Simon knew that Clary doesn’t have any other relatives and watched as Luke packed a bag full of weapons and left his house. Clary tells Simon everything. Simon is delighted. But he doesn’t like Jace. Inside the bookstore attached to Luke’s house, they find manacles and blood. Manacles that were nearly torn out of the wall. Simon notices the coffee pot is on. They find Luke’s duffel bag of weapons in his office. While they’re there, Luke comes in with two men (Jace suspects they’re warlocks). They hide behind a decorative screen and Jace uses his stele to make it so they can see what’s happening but not be seen. Jace realizes that the men are not warlocks but Shadowhunters in warlock robes. They call Luke “Graymark” while he calls them “Pangborn” and “Blackwell”, and it’s clear that Luke doesn’t want them here. Clary overhears as they tell Luke that Valentine sent them, that they have Jocelyn (but she hasn’t woken up), and that they believe Jocelyn hid the Mortal Cup, but Luke insists he doesn’t know where it is. Luke tells them he won’t interfere with Valentine’s plans, with Jocelyn or otherwise. They ask Luke if he remembers training together before the Accords, they wanted to see if he was still recognizable. It appears that Luke and Jocelyn were both Shadowhunters who’d been exiled. They want to know where Jocelyn’s daughter is. Luke plays dumb at first, then says he’d assumed Clary was killed by the Ravener demon at her apartment. Luke tells them that whatever is happening, he’s not interested in getting involved. He doesn’t know where the Mortal Cup is, he hates Valentine, and he doesn’t intend on getting in Valentine’s way. In fact, he planned on leaving town for a while. The Shadowhunters eventually leave, followed by Luke. Clary is upset, she believed Luke when he told the Shadowhunters that he didn’t care about her mother or getting her back. Simon points out that the Shadowhunters barely held back their hostility of Luke and Clary wonders if they’d be reluctant to kill another Shadowhunter, but Jace doesn’t think so. They probably think Luke knows something he’s not telling them. They don’t have any problem killing other Shadowhunters. He should know, he watched the two of them kill his father. Jace takes Simon and Clary back to the Institute, where Simon meets Isabelle and is immediately awestruck. He stays in the kitchen with Isabelle as the other two go to find Hodge working in the greenhouse. Jace explains that Hodge grows medicinal plants, most of which only grow in Idris. He also tells her that Isabelle has always been interested in learning to fight, she comes from a long line of warrior women and is one of the best Shadowhunters he’s ever met (we already know that Jace has killed more demons than any other Shadowhunter his age). Clary asks about Alec, Jace tells her that Alec has never killed a demon, he’s usually too busy protecting the other two. They find Hodge sitting, staring into the sky. Jace tells him what happened, starting with the Forsaken warrior and finishing with the Shadowhunters at Luke’s house. This upsets Hodge. He tells Jace that the Circle is rising again. He leads them to the library where he finds a book and reads them the oath at the beginning, the oath that the Circle members all vowed to uphold. He explains that the Circle was a group of Shadowhunters that was led by Valentine. They were dedicated to eradicating all Downworlders. They planned to wait until the Accords were going to be signed (it happens every fifteen years to refresh the magic) and during the Accords, slaughter all the Downworlders in attendance since the Downworlders would have been unarmed. They believed this would start a war between Shadowhunters and Downworlders during which they could eliminate the rest of the Downworlders. They call the event the Uprising now. Hodge has a copy of this book because he was a member of the Circle, as was Clary’s mother. Clary is shocked, her mother would never be a part of a group like that, but Hodge doubts Jocelyn had much choice in the matter. She was Valentine’s wife, after all. Clary does not take this information well. Hodge continues on. He explains that as Valentine’s views grew more radical, some of the Circle members became uncomfortable. Lucian (Luke) left first, then Jace’s dad, Michael Wayland. But Pangborn, Blackwell, Alec and Isabelle’s parents Robert and Maryse, and Hodge all stayed. Some of them were afraid of what Valentine might do if they left, some of them were true believers. However, when the Uprising failed, those who had been afraid like Hodge and the Lightwoods stayed and worked with the Clave while loyalists like Blackwell and Pangborn fled. Those who stayed received clemency for working with the Clave but were still punished. Hodge cannot leave the Institute, and the Lightwoods were sent far from home to New York, although their punishment was not as severe since they had a child. Even so, the Lightwoods can only go to Idris on official business for short periods of time while Hodge will never be allowed to enter Idris again. Hodge did not realize at first who Clary’s mother was, he knew her as Jocelyn Fairchild. At dinner that night, Hodge explains more about the Mortal Cup. Valentine likely wants it to create an army of Nephilim for himself, since the Mortal Cup can take mundanes and make them into Nephilim, he wouldn’t care about the Cup’s risk to the mundanes. It takes resilience and strength, testing and training to survive the transition from mundane to Shadowhunter. When Isabelle pushes back (that goes against everything the Nephilim stand for!), Hodge tells her that Valentine cared only about killing demons and Downworlders. He would have sacrificed his own son to create a pure world – his figurative son, obviously. Valentine didn’t have a son. After the fire that destroyed his house, everyone assumed that Valentine and Jocelyn had both perished – but it’s clear now that they both survived. Jace wants to find Clary’s mom and the Cup, but Hodge says no, this is better left to experienced Shadowhunters. Jace suggests having the Silent Brothers – archivists and librarians who use some of the most powerful runes ever made, which warps their bodies and makes them into some of the strongest, most feared demon hunters - look for information in Clary’s memories, but the thought scares her and when Simon backs her up, he is escorted out of the Institute by Isabelle. Brother Jeremiah comes early the next morning to meet Clary. He is bald, without eyes, his mouth is sewed shut, and he speaks mind to mind. He touches Clary’s head gently but after a moment, reveals that her memories have been blocked by a spell and she will need to come to the Silent City. She agrees to go and Jace decides to accompany her. On the way, Jace talks about his dad who taught him everything: weapons, demonology, arcane lore, languages, and gave him horses, weapons, books, and even a hunting falcon. Jace wants to kill Valentine himself, but if Hodge knew that he’d never be allowed to try. It’s the reason he didn’t mention that he recognized Pangborn or Blackwell. When Jace was ten, he heard someone approaching the house and alerted his father, who told him to hide. He hid under the stairs. Forsaken came in with the two Shadowhunters and cut Jace’s dad’s throat. Soon enough, Jace and Clary arrive at the Marble Cemetery and taken to a statue of an angel holding the Mortal Cup. Jace uses his stele to open a door in the ground that reveals stairs. They go down. Once below, Jace explains that the Shadowhunters bury their dead in the Silent City. Those who die in battle are cremated and the ashes used to make the marble archways – it serves as a powerful protection against evil. They go to the second level, where the archives and council rooms can be found. Clary stands in front of a long row of Silent Brothers. She gives them permission to look in her mind, and she sees the images as the Brothers flash through them. She sees as Jocelyn take her to an entryway marked with the words “Magnus Bane”. When the Silent Brothers are done, they explain that the block on her mind is stronger than expected and they cannot remove it without killing her – only the person who created the block can remove it. Brother Jeremiah escorts Clary and Jace out. Jace and Clary take a taxi to Taki’s for breakfast, calling Alec on the way. Jace explains that Magnus Bane must be a warlock, since only a warlock could have put the block on Clary’s mind. Inside Taki’s, Clary sees all kinds of magical creatures just having breakfast. Ifrits (warlocks without magic), kelpies, selkies, werewolves, they all come to Taki’s. So does Alec and Isabelle, and Isabelle has Simon with her. Jace gives the others the name Magnus Bane and Isabelle brings out a flyer. An invitation to a party she got from a kelpie at the Pandemonium club. The party is at the house of Magnus the Magnificent Warlock – the High Warlock of Brooklyn. They return to the Institute and Clary tries to sleep but finds herself in the library instead. She looks at the book that Hodge had shown her earlier and a paper falls out of it. An old photo of a group of teenagers. Her mom is one of them. Her arm is around a boy with very pale blonde hair and black eyes. Hodge comes in behind Clary and tells her that the boy is Valentine, seventeen at the time. He tells her that Valentine was charming and clever and very persuasive. Looking at the picture, Clary sees Hodge and Luke too. Hodge points out Alec and Isabelle’s parents as well as Michael Wayland, Jace’s dad. Jace and his father don’t look anything alike, but apparently Jace takes after his mom. This is a picture of the Circle. Valentine is right in front and Luke, his second in command, is just to Valentine’s right. Hodge explains that the Circle was created out of their absolute certainty that their morals were correct - as only the young can believe. Idealism. Hodge lets Clary keep the picture but asks her not to show Jace, he has enough going on without reminders of the past. Clary asks if Hodge has gotten a response from the Clave about the Cup and he confirms that he has. They’ve sent Shadowhunters to investigate, but the Shadowhunters are not staying at the Institute in case it is being watched by Valentine. When Clary gets back to her room (Hodge gave her a sleeping draught), she finds Jace looking through her sketchbook. She is so shocked that she drops the draught so instead, Jace tells her a story to put her to sleep. Of a Shadowhunter boy who received a falcon from his father when he was six. A falcon who didn’t like the boy - and the feeling was mutual. But the boy wanted to train the falcon to make his father proud. He took the hood off the falcon against his father’s rules and eventually the falcon came to trust the boy enough to eat out of his hand (although it did cut his hand the first time). The falcon came to love the boy. When his father found out, the boy’s father killed the falcon - saying that falcons are not meant to be loving pets and that one was now broken. The boy learned a valuable lesson: to love is to destroy and to be loved is to be destroyed. Clary is appalled but Jace insists that the boy’s father was only trying to make the boy strong. Clary falls asleep from sheer exhaustion. She’s woken up by Isabelle who insists that Clary wear some of her clothes to the party. As Isabelle does a little makeover montage, Clary asks if Alec is gay. Isabelle makes Clary promise not to tell anyone. Their parents would disown him. Shadowhunters, at least the older ones, are not tolerant people. They go downstairs to meet the boys (Simon is shocked at how short Clary’s dress is) and Jace gives her a dagger. She puts the dagger in her backpack. When they reach Magnus’ apartment, he almost doesn’t let them in, but Isabelle brings out her invitation - insisting they were invited. Magnus warns them not to hurt anyone at the party. Simon and Isabelle go straight to the dancefloor but Clary is approached by Magnus, Alec and Jace quickly join them. Before they have a chance to ask Magnus anything, a vampire starts yelling at Magnus about how someone ruined his vampire motorcycle by putting holy water in the gas tank. When the vampire points his finger at Magnus, the vampire suddenly can’t breathe. No one threatens the High Warlock of Brooklyn. Magnus magically escorts the vampire out of the party. Jace is impressed. Alec reveals that it was them with the holy water (Magnus already figured as much) and Jace asks Magnus to speak to them privately. Magnus doesn’t have much of a choice, so he takes them to his room. He tells Clary that her mother asked him to put the block on her mind. Jocelyn first brought Clary to him when she was a baby, and he’s seen her every two years since. Jocelyn was due to bring Clary to him about a month ago, but they never showed up. When he inquired at their home, he was told that Clary had run off after an argument and they would call him when Clary came back, but Jocelyn never did. Clary asks if he can undo the spell but that’s much more difficult than placing it. Besides, the spell is already fading, and its effects will vanish eventually. It’s better if she allows the block to disappear naturally. But he insists that Jacelyn was trying to protect Clary. Better than his parents ever did: his mom killed herself and his mother’s husband tried to drown him. Since he can’t undo the spell, Magnus gives something to Clary that she may have had if she’d grown up as a Shadowhunter – the Gray Book (short for Gramarye). Every rune the Angel Raziel wrote is written inside of it. Magnus takes the book and gives Clary instructions. He’s going to open the book. She is going to study the page until she feels something inside of her mind shift. As Clary looks at the rune that Magnus turns to, finally something clicks and she understands what it means. “Remember”. And it does help her to remember. She flips through a couple other runes before Magnus takes the book away from her. Even with her new memories Clary doesn’t know anything about the Mortal Cup, Magnus confirms that he never saw anything about any of the Mortal Instruments within Clary’s memories. At the realization that there is more than just the Cup, Clary is told that the Mortal Instruments consist of a cup, a sword, and a mirror. The Silent Brothers have the Sword, no one has known where the Mirror is for ages, and the Cup was in Idris until it disappeared and now, they need to find it before Valentine does. The Cup allows more Shadowhunters to be created. Magnus (who was at the Uprising) guesses that Valentine is after revenge, but Magnus doesn’t know where the Cup is and even if he could, he wouldn’t help them to find it. He agrees that the Clave is not as bad as the Circle, but Downworlders have enough issues with the Clave. When they leave Magnus’ room, Clary remembers to look for Simon and Isabelle. Isabelle has been looking for them because Simon has been turned into a rat and she points them to underneath the bar, where Simon scurried. Magnus tells them that Simon must have drank one of the cocktails at the party and the effects are only temporary. Clary slips Simon into her bag to let the effect wear off naturally, too much magic is hard on a mortal. Then Magnus becomes very sick of everyone’s dramatics (vampires in particular) and kicks everyone out of his apartment. He winks at Alec on the way out though, and he gives Clary one piece of advice. Don’t risk her life to save her mother, that’s not what Jocelyn would want. And don’t forget, Jocelyn left her world because she was running from Shadowhunters. On their way out of the apartment, one of the vampires bumps into Clary hard before winking and disappearing into the crowd. When they get to the street, Clary realizes that her bag has been ripped open and Simon is now gone. Jace takes Clary back to Magnus’ house while Alec and Isabelle head back to the Institute. Magnus happened to see a vampire leaving with a rat in his hands, but he just assumed the rat was another vampire, they don’t all turn into bats. Vampires aren’t allowed to hurt people, they probably took Simon thinking he was just one of the Shadowhunters’ pet. Clary demands to know where their lair is. The old Hotel Dumont uptown. Jace asks if there’s a holy place nearby and they’re pointed to a Catholic church – they’re going to need weapons if they’re going into a vampire lair. Once inside the church, Jace searches near the altar. He finds carved into the floor the rune for “Nephilim” and uses his stele to open the stone floor, showing a cache of weapons from holy water to silver bullets to different styles of knives. As Jace chooses what they need, Clary learns that he’s not really a believer in Heaven and all that. He’s seen a lot of demons in his life, but never an angel. He admits that there may be a God, but as far as Jace can tell, he doesn’t care about them so why does it matter one way or the other. They make their way to what used to be the Hotel Dumont but has been christened by the vampires as “Hotel Dumort” and decide they have to break in. As they prepare to tip a dumpster looking for a cellar door, they are interrupted by a thin Hispanic boy who warns them away from the hotel, offering to take them back to the subway. Jace guesses that the boy knows about the vampires. The boy, Raphael, explains that the whole neighborhood knows to stay away from the hotel. Once, a group of boys went in expecting to clean house, but none of them came out, Raphael’s brother was one of them. When Clary insists that they are going in and Raphael recognizes what Jace is, he asks to go inside with them. He can show them how to get in. But Jace says no. Raphael shows them anyway – removing a rusted grate that Raphael thinks goes down into the basement of the hotel. Jace goes in first, Raphael holds Clary’s hand as she lowers herself in. She notices that his hands are cold. Raphael follows, not caring about what Jace said. Raphael tells them the vampires sleep on the upper floors, and he heads up a staircase. He seems to know quite a bit about the vampires. As Jace and Clary ascend after him, they hear a scream and Jace starts running. Raphael has disappeared from their view. Jace enters what used to be a ballroom and finds Raphael standing in the center of it. Raphael heads toward the door to leave, but Jace calls him back, throwing a knife at him. Raphael is a vampire. Apparently Jace guessed way back in the alley but wanted to find a way into the hotel, so he used Raphael. But Jace knew for sure what Raphael was when he saw a scar on Raphael’s chest from where he wears a crucifix. Raphael points their gaze upward where they see rows of vampires watching, called by Raphael. Clary decides they’ll use Raphael as a hostage. They’re told that the vampire master is in Idris at the moment, they’re being led by Raphael in her absence. Clary offers Raphael’s freedom in exchange for Simon, explaining that he’s a mundane who was transformed into a rat. One of the vampires, Lily, is astounded that she wants to get a rat back, but a different vampire brings Simon forward, explaining that he thought the friend was his friend Zeke. It makes more sense that the rat is Simon; Zeke would never have bitten him and certainly not five times like Simon has! The party leaders decide to take an oath that each party will not hurt their hostage, and the vampires demand that Jace swear first (a Shadowhunter won’t break their word) but Jace disagrees. The vampires would break the Covenant if they killed Simon, but Raphael points out that he’s on vampire territory, thus no longer protected. Besides, everyone has heard that Valentine is back (he raised a pack of Raveners a week ago and has brought his Forsaken into the city) so the Accords and Covenant will likely be defunct soon enough. Clary gets impatient and grabs Simon from the vampire, kicking Lily hard and getting smacked hard in the process. Jace lets go of Raphael to run to her. Raphael takes his chance and attacks Jace, but rat Simon bites Raphael’s forearm. Raphael throws Simon on the floor and Simon runs to Clary. Jace leads Clary toward the door as Raphael screams at the vampires to kill them – all three of them. Jace holds his seraph blade above his head, it’s glowing since it’s been primed with an angel’s name. The vampires stay away from the blade’s circle of light. Lily surges forward once but her skin burns where it touches the light. Clary watches as suddenly, the windows of the hotel are blown inward, and the vampires look around scared. Wolves surge through the windows growling. Not just wolves, werewolves. The Covenant forbids vampires and werewolves to go to each other’s lairs because they hate each other - so something very bad must have happened for the wolves to be here. When confronted, one of the wolves tells them that they’ve come for Clary. The vampires refuse to hand her over and so the wolves attack. In the middle of the fray, as Jace and Clary (holding Simon) are stuck in the corner of the room, Simon jumps out of Clary’s grasp. He paws at some drapes, showing them a door behind them that was hidden. Before they can get the door unstuck, a wolf comes straight for Clary. She throws a dagger at him, and it lands in the wolf’s side. They open the door, go through, slam it shut, and Jace runes it so it should stay closed for a while at least. With nowhere else to go, they run up the stairs to the roof. They soon hear wolves behind them. Jace gets one of the vampire motorcycles on the roof to start and they ride it off the roof just before they’re caught. They ride it off over the Hudson River before they remember that the motorcycle runs on demon energy, and the sunrise is quickly approaching. The sun will destroy the motorcycle. Jace clears the river and makes an emergency landing, but it is rough and they both fall off as the bike disintegrates in the sun. A little beat up but not too badly hurt, Clary turns to find that Simon is back in human form. The three of them arrive back at the Institute to find a very angry Hodge. When Clary is alone, Alec approaches her. He tells her that he thinks she should go home. He knows Jace - and Jace believes he needs to save the world. And trying to save Clary is going to get Jace killed. Especially since, this time, he left Alec behind and only took with him the person who has no training whatsoever. Alec calls her selfish, Clary retorts that no – he’s the selfish one and that he’s too afraid to actually kill a demon. Besides, she knows that he just wants Clary to leave because he’s secretly in love with Jace himself. That is a step too far, Alec won’t ever stop hating her now. Clary heads to her room to sketch, drawing some of the things she’d seen that night. Simon comes to see her after Hodge fixes his broken foot. He thanks Clary for coming for him, he didn’t think she would. It’s always been him that cared more about her, him that needed her more. Clary insists that’s not true. She only cares about three people: her mom, Luke, and him. When Clary finally leaves her room, Simon has fallen asleep on her bed and Jace is in the hallway. He wants to take her somewhere for her birthday, even though it’s a day early. He takes her to the greenhouse on the roof, packing a dinner of cheese sandwiches, fruit, and granola bars for them. When Jace was little, it was just him and his dad. He didn’t go to school; he didn’t have any friends until he met Alec at ten. But his dad let Jace do whatever he wanted on his birthday. They talk about losing parents and conversation turns to Luke. Jace says that something about Luke’s behavior doesn’t add up. But they’re interrupted by the midnight bell. Jace points out a flower to Clary that only blooms at midnight as it opens up, his birthday present to her. Or one of them, he also gives her a witch-light of her own. As they pack up to leave, Jace kisses her. Then Jace spots Hodge’s crow Hugo and explains they should go; Hodge will be close behind the bird. Jace takes Clary back to her room and kisses her again, but Simon comes into the hallway from Clary’s room where he’d fallen asleep. Now Simon and Jace are both mad at her, making Simon storm off and Jace gets snarky, hurting Clary’s feelings. Clary follows Simon, who has decided to go back home, and in their argument, it comes out that all the times he dated girls, Simon was only trying to make her jealous. He’s been in love with Clary for years and he was giving her time to decide if she felt the same about him. Apparently, she’s decided. He leaves the Institute and Clary tries to find something to do. Running on instinct, she sits down and starts drawing runes. She rushes to Jace’s room – she thinks she knows where Jocelyn hid the Mortal Cup! She explains by showing him. She displays a sketch that she just drew, then after drawing a rune, she reaches inside the paper and takes the coffee cup from inside the sketch - the one she drew. She thinks her mother hid the Mortal Cup inside one of her paintings. She explains that she was playing with runes, she’s not sure where the runes came from, but it allowed her to do this. She remembers the tarot card in Madame Dorothea’s deck that Jocelyn had drawn. Clary drew the Ace of Cups – she thinks the cup on that card is the Mortal Cup. At Dorothea’s, the card is safe behind wards while even Dorothea doesn’t know what she has. After a discussion with Hodge, Jace wakes up Alec and Isabelle. They’ve decided it’s best if they get the Cup themselves instead of calling the Clave. Alec disagrees but is overruled, especially when Jace explains that Dorothea hates the Clave. She wouldn’t work with them. They’re going to need a car (which none of them have, nor do they have licenses). Clary calls Simon. It’s not an easy conversation but she points out that with the Mortal Cup, she may be able to get her mom back, and Simon agrees to borrow his friend Eric’s van and pick them up at the Institute to take them to the apartment. Hodge overhears Clary’s conversation and the hostile tone that Simon used. He explains that love can quickly turn to hate in the correct environment, especially when unrequited. It is a power imbalance. Just like with Valentine. Luke always believed he and Jocelyn would be together, but she fell in love with Valentine and Luke couldn’t handle it. He left the Circle and allowed his friends to believe he was dead. Clary doesn’t understand. If Luke loves her mother, why didn’t he say anything over the last decade and a half. Hodge wonders if now Luke finally found a chance to hurt Jocelyn like she hurt him all those years ago. Clary doesn’t want to believe that, but she doesn’t know what to believe anymore. She asks how they will find Valentine when they get the Cup (to trade for her mother), but Hodge says not to worry, Hugo will find him. Clary returns to her room to finish getting ready and stuffs the photo of the Circle in her backpack before meeting the others in the library – where they’re marking themselves with steles. They meet Simon out front and Simon compliments Alec’s bow, he actually does know some about archery from summer camp. When they reach Dorothea’s, the Shadowhunters check out the area while Clary apologizes to Simon in the van. It doesn’t go as well as she’d like, and then the others are back for Clary. Alec leaves his bow in the van and brings a bladed staff instead, even though Isabelle questions his decision. They leave Simon with the van. According to their Sensors, demons are no longer in the area, but they were there recently. Clary knocks on Dorothea’s door. She answers wearing a huge yellow turban and an outfit of green and orange. Dorothea lets them in as Clary confirms to her that they have not yet found Jocelyn, but they do know that Valentine took her. Clary explains that they’re looking for the Mortal Cup and Dorothea puts the pieces together. Jocelyn Fray is, in fact, Jocelyn Fairchild – who was not dead after all. Clary asks for the tarot deck Jocelyn made for Dorothea. She finds the Ace of Cups card. Using Jace’s stele, she draws a rune on the back of the card before placing the stele in her pocket, reaching her hand inside, and pulling the Mortal Cup out. The now empty card turns to dust and crumbles. Nobody is quite as shocked and awed as they probably should be, until Dorothea proclaims that the Cup has been damaged! She steps forward to show Clary the damage, but Clary shrinks away from her. Jace steps forward, no one is going to touch the Cup except for them. Dorothea tells him that Valentine won’t be pleased and although Jace is not sure what’s happening right now, he doesn’t like it. Dorothea offers to let them use the Portal and quickly pulls the curtains down that conceal it, it’s already open – showing black lightning and red clouds and a shape coming right for them. Jace yanks Clary down as the shape hits Dorothea and sinks into her. She stands, bigger and angrier than before. Madame Dorothea is now nine feet tall with talons, she demands they give her the Mortal Cup. Dorothea declares that it is the Demon of the Abyss, Abbadon – a Greater Demon. Dorothea is dead now, her body only a vessel for him to use. The Shadowhunters strike but a Greater Demon is not what they were planning for. They’re hurt and Alec is knocked out when he’s thrown against the wall. Abbadon has Jace’s throat in its talons when Clary sees something moving - Simon, in the doorway of the apartment holding Alec’s bow. He shoots the skylight in the roof – it was so dirty that it was blocking the sunlight, which a demon can’t stand. When the direct sunlight hits it, the demon crumples to the floor and shrinks smaller and smaller until it disappears. Jace only wants to get to Alec, where Isabelle already holds his head in her lap. Jace calls for a stele and tries to draw healing runes on Alec, but they vanish without working. He’s been poisoned by Abbadon’s talons, and he needs to get back to the Institute. Clary slips the Mortal Cup into her jacket, and they put Alec in the back of the van. Simon drives them as quickly as he can. Isabelle compliments Simon’s quick thinking with the skylight while Clary berates herself for being so scared that she froze. Jace explains that Dorothea was possessed already when they’d arrived, but Abbadon had hidden most of itself inside the portal where it wouldn’t be sensed. Hodge is waiting for them when they arrive at the Institute. Simon leaves them to help Alec as Hodge explains that he’s not sure if his remedies will help, Greater Demons are so powerful, and Alec has lost a lot of blood. Jace blames himself for the injuries, Shadowhunters live by a code and it’s a code that Jace believes in wholeheartedly, a code he lives by. Yet when he saw Abbadon, Jace didn’t think about helping Isabelle or Alec, he thought about protecting Clary. Even though he knew Alec was acting strangely. Hodge interrupts Jace and Clary, explaining that he will send Hugo for the Silent Brothers, hoping that they will get there soon. It’s too bad they didn’t retrieve the Cup. Clary explains that they did - pulling it out of her jacket. The note that Hodge was writing falls to the floor. Hodge looks at Jace – telling him he looks so much like his father - before Hodge gives Hugo the order to attack Clary. Hodge calls the bird off only after he has taken the Cup from Clary. Clary sees that Jace is now at Hodge’s feet unconscious. Hodge has erected an invisible wall between himself and Clary so she cannot interfere. He never called the Clave at all about Valentine or the Mortal Cup. He pulls Jace’s ring off of Jace’s hand and slips it on, twisting the ring three times. A tall man appears next to Hodge, calling him by his last name - Starkweather. Hodge addresses the man as Valentine. They’ve been in communication; they’ve made a deal. Hodge is working with Valentine, but he still seems protective of Jace and the Lightwood kids. Hodge, shaking from fear, gives Valentine the Mortal Cup and watches as Valentine takes Jace away, stating that Jace will be with his father soon – where he belongs. Valentine disappears with Jace through a portal, ending Hodge’s curse as he leaves. Hodge does not take the invisible wall down as Clary bangs on it, demanding to know what exactly he’s done and why. She thinks he’s traded Jace to a man who hated Jace’s father to free himself of a punishment that he deserved. Hodge insists that Clary only knows fragments of the story. Why was he punished for helping Valentine when the Lightwoods and the Waylands did the same – yet they did not receive the same sentence. He can’t even go outside! He urges Clary to leave the Institute and the Shadowhunters behind while she still can, before he leaves the room with a note he wrote after Valentine’s departure. For a little while, Clary lays destitute on the ground crying until she remembers that she has Jace’s stele in her pocket. She draws a rune on the invisible wall, which shatters it around her. She runs to the window, where she sees Hodge walking away from the Institute and she takes off after him, pocketing the stele again. When she catches up, she asks Hodge where Valentine is, but he refuses to tell her, instead throwing a weapon at her. The chakhram, his weapon of choice. He misses, giving Clary the chance to run, but before she can go anywhere, a werewolf moves between the two of them. Hodge tells the wolf that Valentine would take him back but the wolf leaps at Hodge, getting a chakhram in the side. The wolf bites down on Hodge’s shoulder and then turns toward Clary, who runs. She doesn’t make it far before the wolf grabs her leg and she falls, hitting her head. She wakes up in a damp room, happy to feel the stele in her pocket still. She realizes she’s in a jail cell just as a man carrying a lamp approaches the cell. She’s shocked to see that the man is Luke. She rears away from him and he’s not surprised, but he tries to explain what’s happening. She won’t listen, Luke abandoned her when she needed him most and has done nothing but tell her lies. She sees that he’s bleeding from his side and realizes that he is the werewolf that fought Hodge. Hodge was hurt, but drug himself away while Luke carried Clary to safety, he was gone by the time Luke got back for him. Luke asks if Hodge hurt anyone at the Institute, being very aware that he was trying to kill Clary when Luke found them, and Clary says no. He just gave Jace to Valentine. Luke introduces Gretel and Alaric, the second and third in charge after him. Alaric is the wolf she stabbed at the Hotel Dumort (awkward, but Alaric isn’t holding grudges – he even returns her blade to her). Alaric and Gretel leave to get a medical kit as Luke explains that he is in charge of their wolf pack. Jocelyn knew all of this already but was insistent that Clary know nothing about the Shadow World. Clary fills Luke in on what she knows now: Jocelyn was a Shadowhunter married to Valentine who stole the Mortal Cup before going into hiding. That she took Clary’s memories away. That Jocelyn doesn’t matter to Luke; Clary heard Luke say it. Luke insists he only said it because he doesn’t know where the Cup is and he did not want to put Jocelyn in more danger. Luke knew the Lightwoods, knew Valentine. They were in the Circle together, back when Luke was a Shadowhunter. Back before he was a werewolf. He settles in to tell Clary the story; it’s a long one. Per Luke: He’d known Jocelyn since they were children growing up together in Idris. They were sent to the city there, Alicante, to go to school where Luke met Valentine - who was one year older and very impressive. Handsome, clever, rich, talented. Things that Luke admired and wanted to be - but was not. He was not rich, not clever, not a talented Shadowhunter. Valentine offered to train Luke, saying that he believed Luke could become great under his tutelage. And Luke did get better. But Luke was not the only person Valentine collected. He brought in a bunch of misfits – Hodge (bookworm), Maryse Trueblood (her brother married a mundane), Robert Lightwood (terrified of Marks). Valentine surrounded himself with people who were impressed with him, making those people more than what they had been. He built himself a cult. He became obsessed with the fact that fewer Shadowhunters existed with every generation, and he began to believe the Clave should use the Mortal Cup to make more. This is sacrilege to some of the Clave, who are very stuck up and believe the Shadowhunters are a level above mortals, descended from the angels and all that. They shouldn’t sully their bloodlines with that of mortals (the same reason Shadowhunters who marry mundanes are exiled). Valentine convinced his followers to follow his stance, that they needed to save the Shadowhunters from disappearing. Then Valentine’s dad was killed during a werewolf encampment raid. Valentine became harder, crueler. Only Jocelyn could calm him and the two of them fell in love. They married when they left school and lived on the Fairchild estate. The Circle grew, in size and in power amassed. Valentine’s views changed too – he still wanted the Cup, but he now wanted to eliminate Downworlders altogether. Most of the Circle agreed with him. Luke was not cool with the new rhetoric but didn’t say anything so he could stay close to Jocelyn. Michael Wayland was also reluctant but continued on with the rest of the Circle. They watched as Valentine meted out torture as punishment, although he never killed a Downworlder who had not broken the Accords, therefore not breaking the Accords himself. When Jocelyn became pregnant, she confided to Luke that she was scared of Valentine. She would hear screams from the cellar, where Valentine disappeared for nights at a time. She didn’t know what he was doing down there. At that point, Valentine and Luke were parabatai – warriors closer than brothers who would die for each other. They went into a nest of werewolves one day, and one of the wolves bit Luke’s shoulder. He woke up in Jocelyn’s house; he began to heal as they waited for the full moon to see if he’d been poisoned. To see if he was now a werewolf. Three weeks later he began to change for the first time. Valentine dragged Luke into the woods where he gave Luke a dagger, half of a matched pair, and told Luke to kill himself. Valentine left Luke there, but instead of killing himself, Luke ran to the wolf encampment and challenged the werewolf who had changed him. He was shown to the clan leader. Luke only wanted to die, but instead he managed to beat the other werewolf, and he became the pack’s new leader. He left behind his Shadowhunter self and became a new version, a wolf. But he never forgot Jocelyn. Luke worried about her but could not go to her, to do so would be to forfeit his own life and put her in danger. She eventually came to Luke instead. Jocelyn explained that she’d had her baby, a little boy named Jonathan Christopher. Valentine had told the Circle that Luke had killed himself, but rumors began to circulate about a wolf who had once been a Shadowhunter and Jocelyn knew she needed to warn Luke that Valentine was coming for him. When Valentine did finally show up, he did not find Luke. Luke hid, thanks to Jocelyn’s warning, and Luke and Jocelyn began to meet in secret. This is how Luke learned that the Circle had a new plan, they’d allied with demons. With a demon’s help, Valentine stole the Mortal Cup and put a fake in its place. They used the demons to obtain weapons that could be smuggled into where the Accords would be signed that year. The location is warded from most weapons. The Circle planned to massacre the Downworlders at the signing of the Accords, which would not only eliminate some powerful Downworlders (who would not be armed at the signing) but also ensure the Accords did not get signed. This could cause the agreement between Shadowhunters and Downworlders to become null, there would be no rules - it would be a free for all. Jocelyn and Luke worked together to prepare the Downworlders and warn them of Valentine’s plan. On the day of the Accords, Jocelyn and Valentine left their home to ride to Alicante, leaving their son behind. Luke and his pack followed them. At the Great Hall, the Accords were brought out and Valentine, with his acolytes, raised their weapons. Jocelyn opened the doors to the Great Hall where Luke was waiting. His pack burst in followed by faerie knights and vampires and warlocks, who fought back against the Circle. They tried not to hurt anyone who was not in the Circle, but many died anyway. Luke found his way to Valentine and they faced each other, where Valentine refused to address Luke since he was now a “monster”. As they fought, the Circle fell. Jocelyn tried to stop Valentine, but Valentine grabbed her and used her as a hostage instead. He threw Jocelyn’s silver locket at Luke, burning him, as Valentine disappeared with Jocelyn. Luke tried to follow but it was mayhem outside. Things were on fire, people were fleeing. He eventually found Jocelyn, whom Valentine had abandoned, and they moved quickly to get back to Jonathan. Jocelyn was on horseback and arrived at the manor first. She found it already burned to the ground, destroyed by Valentine with demon fire, with the bones of Jocelyn’s family inside. Her mother, her father still holding a dagger, a skeleton wearing Valentine’s amulet, and the small bones of a child. Of Jonathan. Luke took Jocelyn and fled to Paris, where Luke wanted Jocelyn to go to the Institute for help, but she refused. She no longer wanted anything to do with the Shadowhunters. She revealed that she was pregnant again – she would not let the Shadow World touch this new life. She bought a plane ticket and refused to tell Luke where it would take her, so he dropped her off at the airport instead. The last thing Jocelyn said to Luke before they separated was to warn him that Valentine was not dead. When she left, Luke went back to his pack, but he no longer felt settled there and he could not lead them. When it was time for the Accords to be signed (the meeting was rescheduled), Luke went for the signing. He saw the Lightwoods receive the punishments for themselves, Hodge, and Michael Wayland – the only known Circle members to survive. Michael had lost his wife and hidden himself away with his son at his country estate. Michael was allowed to stay exiled on his estate while the others were sent to New York and Hodge was given the additional punishment of a curse, since his family was not as powerful as the others’. After signing the Accords, Luke left his pack. He wandered for some time: Paris, London, Boston, until he found his way to New York. He always looked for Jocelyn but found no trace of her. Until, walking around SoHo, he saw a landscape of the Fairchild’s manor home in the window of a gallery. It was signed Jocelyn Fray. That night he found Jocelyn and met Clary. Clary already knows the rest. Woah woah woah. Luke is saying that the picture on the mantle was not really Clary’s dad, Valentine is Clary’s dad! Yes, that picture was just an old neighbor who died. The box her mom was always sad about, “JC” was her brother not her father. Jocelyn was so protective of Clary because she’d already lost a child. The other wolves return to patch up Luke’s side and all the wounds that Clary got from Hugo (who is actually Valentine’s bird Hugin). Enough is enough, Clary is ready to move forward. She’s ready to find and rescue her mother. What is their plan? Clary saw Valentine come through a portal to get Jace. If he is in New York (a big maybe – but it is where he believed the Cup to be hidden), then Magnus had told her there are only two portals in the city. Dorothea’s, which has been destroyed, and Renwick’s. It’s not a name that Luke recognizes so they grab a phone book. No locations with that name, and it’s not a Shadowhunter name. Clary is fed up and calls Simon, asking him to google it for her. Simon finds out that Renwick is short for Renwick Smallpox Hospital, which used to be an asylum in the 1800s. Originally used during the smallpox epidemic to quarantine the poorest of the sick, it was repurposed and eventually abandoned. It still stands on Roosevelt Island but visiting it is forbidden. Luke tells her that Roosevelt’s island used to be called Blackwell’s Island – owned by the very old Blackwell Shadowhunter family. Like the Blackwell who works with Valentine. Luke tells the wolves to get everyone ready for battle. Luke leads Clary out of the wolf pack’s den, an old police station that looks like a Chinese restaurant from the outside (delivery only). Luke gives orders to Gretel and Alaric to pass on to the literal convoy of werewolves that stretches around down the block. Afterward, he sits with Clary in his truck and leads the wolves toward their destination, asking for information about Jace. She explains that Jace is Michael Wayland’s son, who was killed when Jace was ten. Luke tells her that only the young werewolves can’t control their changes and that he’s only been leader of the pack for about a week – after he realized that Valentine took Jocelyn. It took him a day to track down the nearest pack and become leader. He’s not proud but he doesn’t regret killing the previous leader if it meant getting reinforcements to save Jocelyn. They drive to the island and as far in as they can before the road grows too rough, forcing them to continue on foot. The hospital is glamoured to look like a ruin to hide the ornate building that actually stands there. Luke gives orders to the wolves then to Clary. Stay with him. Stay inside the circle of wolves where they can protect her. They’ll move as a group. Clary promises to do as he says and as the group gets closer, Alaric smells Forsaken and the whole pack transforms into wolf shape. They come upon the Forsaken and the fight begins, but Luke keeps Clary with him. One of the Forsaken almost gets Clary but Gretel jumps on top of it, knocking it away. Alaric grabs Clary from behind, running with her to the doors of the building. Clary watches as the Forsaken kills Gretel. Alaric takes Clary onto the porch with Luke behind them. Alaric wants to go with them into the building, he’s now Luke’s second, but Luke orders him to stay outside. Alaric obeys but is not pleased, watching them enter the doors of the hospital. It’s dark, so Clary pulls out her witch-light. If they needed proof that Valentine has been here, they can see it in the redecorating. The Circle’s motto is carved into the granite floor. They search by room, coming upon a room full of weapons – so full that Luke is impressed, before finding Jocelyn asleep in a bedroom. She has manacles on her wrists and ankles and a rubber tube inserted in one of her arms. Luke suspects that Jocelyn is under some sort of spell. The Shadowhunter Blackwell comes up from behind them, telling them the chains are unbreakable so don’t even try. He and Luke trade snarks until Luke asks what their plan is for the Mortal Cup. Blackwell almost spills, but Pangborn arrives in time to shut him up. Luke offers to take Jocelyn and leave them alone, calling the pack off, but Clary wants to find Jace. Luke kills Blackwell, Pangborn is unmoved, Luke asks Pangborn for the keys to the manacles. Pangborn says no, besides – he’s been looking forward to killing Luke for years. As Luke begins to shift, Clary runs. She tries to take a weapon from the armory but none of them will come free. They’re guarded by some sort of dark magic. She heads to the next floor up and finds a gallery, Jace stands at one of the windows. Clary runs toward him and he holds her for just a moment while chastising her for coming for him. When she explains how she got there, he tells her to call Luke and the wolves off. There’s been a big misunderstanding. He thought his father was dead this whole time but he’s not, Jace has seen him! Hodge had been lying all these years. Valentine walks into the room, and Jace introduces him to Clary as his father. Valentine wants to see the dagger that Clary carries, the one that Jace gave her, and Valentine shows her the Morgenstern crest carved onto the blade. Everyone, including the Lightwoods, the Silent Brothers, and the Clave, were led to believe that Jace was Michael Wayland’s son, but he was not. Jace insists that Clary does not understand what’s happening. He tells her that Hodge was the one that wanted the Mortal Cup. He sent the Raveners after Jocelyn. Valentine only brought Jocelyn here to help her, Valentine went to the Institute stop Hodge. Even when Clary insists that she saw Hodge give the Cup to Valentine, Jace will not listen. She keeps insisting that Valentine is not his father, Jace doesn’t understand why she refuses to believe him. Valentine seems to know who she is, but she doesn’t know how. Valentine calls Jace Jonathan and Clary is confused. Jace explains that “Jace” is just a nickname. It’s how his initials sound when said like a word: J.C. Jonathan Christopher. Valentine realizes that Clary knows more than he thought she did. He tells Jace that he lied to him before when he said Jace’s mother was dead – he thought that would hurt Jace less than knowing that his mother had abandoned him. She’s actually alive, asleep downstairs, and Clary is his sister. Now Jace refuses to believe what he’s being told. They kissed! He liked it! He would’ve known, he’s sure. Clary is still hostile to Valentine, so Valentine further explains. She’s heard a story, but that story was only a half-truth. Michael Wayland was never Jace’s father. Michael died in the Uprising and Valentine assumed his identity, choosing to live in exile on the Wayland estate. For ten years, he lived there with his son until he received a letter. The author of the letter knew who Valentine was. At that point, Valentine staged his own death (again) and sent Jace to the Lightwoods. It was important that everyone believe Jace was Michael Wayland’s son so that Robert Lightwood would agree to take Jace in. Valentine tells Jonathan that Jocelyn fled after the Uprising, ashamed of her ties to Valentine. He did not realize Jocelyn was pregnant again when she ran. Valentine greets Clary as a daughter and offers for her to join them. Jace agrees – they’ll be able to sort everything out that way. Luke flings the door to the gallery open, and he looks awful, he’s covered in blood, but he assures Clary that it isn’t his. Valentine gets all high and mighty, asking if he killed Pangborn with his teeth but Luke shows him the dagger he used to do it. The dagger that Valentine gave to him when Valentine told him to kill himself. They argue back and forth about Luke, about Jocelyn, until Jace tries to step in and Valentine yells at him using the name Jonathan. Luke is shocked. Jace is angry that Jocelyn left him, but Luke tries to tell him that Jocelyn thought he was dead and would be proud of him if she knew. Luke tries to push Clary away, telling her to get to safety but Jace stops her from leaving the gallery because the Forsaken will have broken through the front doors, they watch as Valentine and Luke start to fight. She tells Jace about how their mom cried over him. She tells him how Jocelyn found bones she thought were his in the ashes of the house. As they argue, Jace is unwilling to listen about Jocelyn, and Valentine stabs Luke in the chest with his sword. He pulls it out and stabs Luke again with a laugh. Clary throws herself in front of Luke before Valentine can stab him a third time. She throws her hands up and Valentine cries out. She sees Valentine holding his now bleeding sword hand after dropping the sword. Jace threw a dagger at him to prevent him from killing Clary. Valentine is furious but he masks his anger and compliments Jace’s throw. Clary yells that Valentine is the murderer, not Luke; he killed his own in-laws and probably Michael Wayland and his son too. Valentine demands that Jace pull Clary away so he can kill Luke and Jace begins to do just that, trying to block Clary from looking so she does not see Valentine do it. He’s struggling with the decision but following his father’s orders (he doesn’t want to lose his only family again). Luke demands to be allowed to stand before his death. Clary tries to remind Jace that he has a family even if they aren’t blood related (the Lightwoods) and when Valentine swings on Luke, Jace moves so quickly she can’t believe it. He pushes Luke out of the way of the sword and faces Valentine, telling his father to leave. When Valentine calls Jace “Jonathan Morgenstern”, Jace corrects him. His name is Jace Wayland. Valentine Morgenstern is a stranger to him. When Valentine refuses to move, Jace places the tip of his own sword to Valentine’s throat. Valentine doesn’t believe Jace will actually hurt him because he’s too soft, but then Luke stands back up. The whole story comes out. Valentine knew that Jocelyn was going to leave him and he did what he had to do, he burned Jocelyn’s parents. Luke stands next to Jace to give Jace strength. Clary reminds them that they still need the Cup, but Valentine won’t tell them where it is - only that it is in Idris where it won’t be found. Luke gently takes the sword from Jace but tells Valentine he won’t use it unless forced. Luke tells Valentine to take a Portal with him to Idris and give them the Cup back. But just then, Alaric tears the door down. In the moment of distraction, Valentine grabs a dagger from his belt and throws it at Luke. Alaric jumps in front of it. Luke drops next to Alaric and Jace orders Clary to stay there as he takes off after Valentine, who is running away. She doesn’t listen but she does grab a dagger, the twin kindjal that Luke brought, on her way after them. Valentine stops by a mirror, showing Clary and Jace Idris through the Portal the mirror holds, Jace’s childhood home, and invites Jace to come with him to get the Mortal Cup as Valentine steps through. Clary tries to convince Jace not to go but Jace insists he needs to get the Cup. Clary believes that if Jace goes through, Valentine will still not give him the Cup. He would kill Jace not to lose control of it. He only wants Jace to come to be able to control him too. Valentine confirms that if Jace wants the Cup, he will have to kill him and even pulls Jace’s hand holding the seraph blade close to his own chest, giving Jace the opportunity to plunge it into his heart. Jace can’t do it. Valentine scoffs, he always knew Jace was too soft. Valentine closes the Portal and destroys the mirror containing it. Jace kneels down and looks at one of the shards of glass from the mirror. He can still see Idris inside it. Luke approaches them and breaks the news that Alaric is dead. Jace believes that he has failed, he could have saved everything if he had only killed Valentine, but both Clary and Luke impress upon him that this is not his fault. Jace pulls Clary into a hug and holds her. In the aftermath, Clary’s mom is taken to the hospital where she is visited by Brother Jeremiah. Brother Jeremiah doesn’t know what’s wrong with Jocelyn and cannot help her, but the good news is that Magnus was able to cure Alec after he was poisoned by the Greater Demon Abbadon. Luke has been spending all of his time next to Jocelyn’s bedside. Simon picks Clary up from the hospital and she talks about how different everything is now, sometimes she wishes it would go back to the way it was before. But Simon surprises her by saying he doesn’t wish that. Clary hasn’t been back to the Institute since she followed Hodge out, but Jace already let her know that both Alec and Isabelle were okay and their parents are on their way back from Idris after the Clave was told everything that Hodge had been hiding from them. Simon takes Clary to the Institute now and offers to go inside with her, but she wants to do this alone. She does invite him to come over and hang out with her the next night, and he kisses her cheek before leaving. Isabelle meets Clary when she comes in. She has decided that she actually likes Clary, she was worried about her when she realized that Clary and Jace were gone. Jace told Isabelle and Alec that Hodge’s curse was broken and he left, but not that Hodge betrayed them. They’ll find out at some point, but he doesn’t want to be the one to tell them. Jace also told them about what happened on the island, but they already knew since the whole Shadow World was talking about it and Magnus had been there helping Alec as the pack invaded the island (Magnus stayed next to Alec’s bedside all night, until Alec woke up and Magnus could see he was okay). Isabelle also knows that Jace and Clary are siblings and the children of Valentine. Alec is getting around on crutches for now, but he’s healing quickly. They aren’t sure how Magnus knew to come help since none of them had contacted him, but Clary suspects it was the note that Hodge wrote right before he left the Institute. Alec takes Clary up to the greenhouse to see Jace and they talk to each other about the nasty things they’d said to each other after Clary and Jace went to the vampire lair. They end their talk on good terms. Clary goes to the greenhouse and sees Jace, who still has the shard of the Portal where he can see Idris. He explains that even though Valentine was not a good father, Idris was the only place he felt like he belonged, where he was sure of who he was. It was the only place he was happy. Jace would have gone with Valentine through the Portal if not for Clary. She makes him feel like he belongs. She asks him to come to the hospital with her to see Jocelyn. She thinks his voice might wake Jocelyn up. He agrees to go with her and takes her to see his new toy – a vampire motorcycle that someone had left at Magnus’ house and that Magnus gave to Jace. He uses the motorcycle to fly them to the hospital.

a whte womanwith red hair blowing in the wind wearing leather pants and jacket holds a glowing wand in one hand.

Are you ready? In a glass skyscraper in Manhattan, a young warlock named Elias attempts to draw a pentagon. He’s been hired to summon the demon Agramon for his client, and the pentagram will keep them protected, but his client’s impatience is making it difficult for Elias to focus. Once the pentagram is complete, Elias chants in Chthonian to summon the demon. When Agramon arrives within the pentagram, Elias’ client watches as the demon passes the border of the pentagram as if it does not exist. As the demon begins to approach Elias, as Elias desperately tries to banish the demon, as the demon kills the young warlock and then turns to Elias’ client. The client tells Agramon that hopefully he will still be able to use the warlock’s blood, he needs it. He knew what Agramon could do but withheld that information from Elias. The client explains that he has the Mortal Cup, therefore Agramon must obey his commands. He introduces himself to the demon as Valentine. Jace, Isabelle, and Alec are coming home to an empty Institute after hunting the subway tunnels. They’re covered with mud when Maryse Lightwood announces her presence. Isabelle and Alec’s mom has been in Idris with their dad and younger brother but just arrived back after being alerted to everything that happened with Hodge. Max came home with her, but their dad Robert is still in Idris. She has not yet told Max about Hodge. Every time Maryse looks at Jace, he feels like her eyes are cold – which was never the case before. She tells Isabelle and Alec to take Max to his room and get cleaned up. She asks Jace to meet her in the library after he’s cleaned himself off. When he sees Maryse in the library, she accuses him of knowing his father was Valentine and not Michael Wayland for longer than he admits. He must’ve known the things they said about Michael did not apply to Valentine, he would have seen them in pictures. But they didn’t talk about Valentine at all and Michael only generically, things they would have said about any Shadowhunter. And as for pictures, he’d been told that all the pictures of the Circle had been destroyed. He didn’t have any pictures of his father, probably something that Valentine did on purpose so no one would figure it out. Now that Maryse knows the truth, she claims she can see Valentine in Jace. How he can sound so sincere even while lying to her face, for example. She knew Valentine. She saw him turn his followers into weapons, just like he will do to Jace. Jace will be an arrow for Valentine, shot right into the heart of the Clave. Meanwhile, Clary and Simon are in Simon’s room watching anime. Clary had taken Jace to the hospital to see their mom, hoping his voice would wake her up, but it did not. Instead, they argued and he stormed out. She hasn’t spoken with him since and Jocelyn is still asleep. The phone is ringing at the apartment, and Clary tries to get Simon to ignore it, but when they flip the channel and the movie Dracula comes on, Simon quickly leaves the room. He’s acting strange, Clary follows him and finds him sweating, leaning over the sink. She doesn’t really remember what happened in the vampire lair, but it seems that it is still very fresh in Simon’s mind. He asks her if she thinks he’s been acting differently, and she realizes that he looks thinner. Maybe he’s a little more wary of his surroundings or a bit more confident. He kisses her then, and she kisses him back, but the phone starts ringing again and Simon turns away to answer it. It’s Isabelle and she’s calling for Clary. Jace is gone. Maia Roberts is sitting at the Hunter’s Moon, a local werewolf bar, when Jace walks in looking for trouble. He reminds her of her brother Daniel, who had been abusive to her (even breaking her arm) before he got hit by a car and died. A year after Daniel’s death, as if fate decided she hadn’t had enough, she met Jordan and they started dating. Jordan was just as bad and not nearly as sneaky as Daniel about his abuse. She broke up with him, she had to lock herself in her family’s house to keep herself safe from him, but Jordan saw her a few days later with another guy. That night, she was attacked by a wolf. The doctor who stitched her up told her parents it must have been a big dog, but dogs don’t whisper “You’re mine now” before running away. Jordan’s family moved out of town immediately, and Maia ran away and joined the pack that Luke is now in charge of. All that to say, Jace reminds her of Daniel and Jordan. She immediately doesn’t like him. Her opinion doesn’t change when he sits at the bar and tries to start a fight with Bat, another werewolf in Luke’s pack. The bartender tells Bat to walk it off before it escalates, much to Jace’s disappointment, but Bat is back just minutes later. There’s a young werewolf outside who has been killed. Bat is covered in blood (not his), he saw someone leaning over the boy’s body. He was still alive when Bat scared the thing off – it was more like a shadow than a person – but his throat had been cut, and he couldn’t tell Bat anything. Bat stalks over to Jace, who is not reacting to this news, and demands that the Shadowhunter help. Jace is feeling cold and mean, he tells Bat that there’s nothing to do now. The kid is already dead. Tensions get really high really quick and a fight breaks out (Jace vs. everybody else), but then Luke walks in and tells everyone to back off. Jace doesn’t speak for the Clave and even if he wanted to, he couldn’t do anything right now anyway. Luke’s already heard through the grapevine about what happened with Maryse, and he brings Jace to the bartender’s office to talk. Simon and Clary are out searching for Jace when they get a call from Luke saying he’s found him. He asks Clary to come to the bar and speak to Jace, he’s not listening to Luke. Simon was hoping they would do something fun that night, but Clary feels like she needs to go and asks Simon to come with her. When they arrive, Jace refuses to talk with Simon in the room, so Simon excuses himself to the hallway. He tells Clary and Luke that Maryse kicked him out of the Institute. He thinks that Maryse believes he didn’t go with Valentine not because of his loyalty but so that he could be a spy for Valentine at the Institute and report on what was happening with the Clave. Maryse wants Jace to say he doesn’t love his father and he can’t do that. Luke explains that he shouldn’t have to. He understands, he loved Valentine once too. Clary realizes that it wasn’t Clary that Jace was looking for today – but Luke, someone who would understand the dichotomy of what he was feeling. Luke goes on to say that Maryse can’t turn her affections for Jace off, that’s not how love works. She’s hurt. She loved Valentine and he hurt her badly, now she loves Jace and she is worried about him doing the same thing. He offers to let Jace stay with him for as long as he needs to, but he recommends that Jace go back to the Institute and talk to Maryse first. He can also tell Isabelle and Alec to stop worrying. Jace agrees to go but only if Clary and Luke come with him. Luke isn’t sure that’s a great idea, he hasn’t seen Maryse in fifteen years and he’s sure Maryse doesn’t like him, but Jace is insistent. Simon waits in the hallway. He has a feeling in his stomach, a tense feeling, that he’s had ever since he first saw the way Clary looked at Jace. He had always been happy to give Clary space and time to figure out her own emotions. He figured she’d realize they were meant to be together eventually. But that was all before Jace. When Simon found out that they were siblings, for a moment he felt relieved but now the tense feeling is back. He’s in the hallway waiting still when Maia comes up to him looking for Luke. Simon is surprised to find out that Maia is a werewolf, he confirms that she wasn’t always a werewolf. Werewolves are born mortal and are given lycanthropy through being bite – it’s a demonic disease without a cure, like vampirism. She tells him that Jace is an asshole, which Simon absolutely agrees with, and asks him to pass a message on to Luke. Magnus Bane is in the alleyway outside. Clary sends Simon home, much to his annoyance, while she, Luke, and Jace head to the Institute. Maryse took Jace’s keys (and he didn’t take anything else with him) but Luke explains that any Shadowhunter meaning no harm can enter through the church. They walk through the church to the elevator, taking it up to the entryway of the Institute. There they find Maryse and Raphael, the vampire. It takes Maryse a moment to recognize Luke. Raphael is speaking to Maryse about the murdered werewolf cub as well as a young warlock to assure her that the murders were not done by his clan (they were both drained of blood, so suspicion was immediately on the vampires), but when he hears Luke’s name Raphael realizes they need to speak. Luke is the new pack leader, Raphael is the clan leader (for the moment), and they have issues to discuss – Luke tells Raphael he will arrange a meeting. Then Raphael sort of disappears. He was just a projection; his corporeal form cannot enter the Institute since it is technically a holy place and Raphael is cursed. Then Maryse turns on Luke. She is not happy to see him and is still very prejudiced against Downworlders. But Luke speaks on Jace’s behalf, not letting Maryse get to him. Maryse lets it all out, all her vitriol for what happened during the Uprising. Valentine had told his followers that it would be quick and easy, but Luke made sure that didn’t happen when he warned the Downworlders. Luke didn’t even warn them about what they were walking into. The fact that she was prepared to massacre Downworlders, Luke included, doesn’t seem to faze her. She left Alec at home that day and laid down arms only to make sure nothing happened to him. But still, the Circle would not turn against Valentine when questioned by the Clave, at least not until they found out that Valentine had abandoned them. They had believed that he had died during the Uprising, but he left, dying later in a fire (which we now know was staged). Maryse’s whole world fell apart in that moment, and she told the Clave everything she knew. Now she can’t afford to trust Jace. Not even with Luke volunteering to speak on his behalf, offering to be questioned by the Soul-Sword, one of the Mortal Instruments that forces a Shadowhunter to be truthful. Maryse says the Sword won’t work on Luke now because he’s been turned, but what if Jace was questioned by the Sword. Luke isn’t a fan of this idea; being questioned by the Sword is painful and only certain people can use it, one of them is the Inquisitor. The Inquisitor is the same person who sentenced the Circle after the Uprising. She hates Valentine and will likely take that out on Jace. Maryse says she’s already on her way to the Institute. After the Clave found out about Hodge, they are all to be questioned. Luke doesn’t want Jace questioned by the Inquisitor, but Jace points out a different problem. If he’s not there when the Inquisitor arrives, it will make Maryse look more guilty - like she’s hiding him. They will all be punished. And if Jace refuses to be questioned, he leaves behind being a Shadowhunter for good. Jace decides to stay. Later, Luke and Clary have pizza with Simon at Luke’s house. Simon tells them that he met Maia and tries to convince Clary that the Shadowhunters are a cult. They talk about how weird it must be for Luke to have seen Maryse, but he says it’s weirder to be in the Institute. He spent fifteen years trying to forget his past, but the Institute feels a lot like Alicante in Idris. It takes him right back. He doesn’t think Maryse really hates him, although it would have been a lot easier for the her and Robert if he had died. They’ll probably think he’s a bit of a wild card, potentially full of grudges against them in particular, and they’ll need to work with him if he’s leading a pack in New York. Clary says she’s thinking about getting a few Marks for protection and Luke explains that she would have to go through a lot of training to do that safely. She can do the training if she chooses to, but even if she doesn’t, he wants her to have a stele. He brings out Jocelyn’s, which he had been keeping since Jocelyn didn’t want it in her house. It’s old, but it will still work. Clary takes it while Simon is fuming. Clary said she didn’t want to be a part of this weirdness but here she is, going right back in. Jace is having a nightmare of the tortures his father put him through in the name of his “training” when Alec comes to bring him to the library. Maryse wants to see him. Jace went looking for Alec when he first came back but Alec was gone, he explains he had to go for a walk to clear his head, although he doesn’t tell Jace where he went or why he has a red mark on his neck. His mom had told them how she’d told Jace to leave and how Hodge had betrayed them. The fact that Jace hadn’t told them makes it look like he was hiding something. Alec doesn’t think that, Alec believes Jace completely, but somebody else might think that. Alec counsels Jace to try to keep his sarcasm in check, but this just makes Jace angry and he storms off to the library alone. In the library, Jace finds Maryse with the Inquisitor, who Maryse calls Imogen Herondale, but Jace is only allowed her to address as Inquisitor. Jace does not, in fact, keep his sarcasm in check at all and the Inquisitor is already disposed to dislike him since she seems to hate his father. She calls Valentine one of the most arrogant disrespectful people that she’s ever met. Anytime Maryse tries to defend Jace, Imogen reminds her that she and Robert are under scrutiny right now as well. After yet another sassy comment from Jace, she decides to send him to a cell in the Silent City for the night. Kept on the lowest levels of the Silent City, the cells are meant for Shadowhunters who murder another Shadowhunter, or Downworlders who break the Covenant. It is not meant for minors who are excessively sarcastic. Maybe he will learn to keep his tongue down there. Somebody knocks on Luke’s door, and he takes a knife to answer it, later asking Clary to come meet Maia. Maia is going to keep an eye on the shop for the next couple weeks, so she’ll be in and out, but don’t worry, she has her own key. Simon tells Maia he appreciates someone being around to protect his girlfriend Clary, which is the first time Clary has heard that she’s his girlfriend and it stuns her, causing her to act rudely toward Maia (but she later apologizes). All these changes are coming at her too fast. After Maia leaves, Simon asks if he can spend the night since it’s so late. Luke says yes and he stays in the same bed as Clary. It is, after all, a double. Jace is in his prison cell. Not only is he in a cell, but he is chained to the wall. It is so dark, he can’t see anything. It’s causing him to panic, anxiety rising in his chest. Then he starts to hear screams. Those can’t be real… but they are. He sees Brother Jeremiah as he comes down the stairs holding a torch. His mouth, which is normally sewn up, has been cut open and is in a silent scream. He looks terrified. Brother Jeremiah falls to the bottom of the stairs and doesn’t get back up, the torch rolling toward Jace. He reaches but the chain is too short to grab the torch. He reaches again, this time breaking his wrist to be able to grab it. But he sees nothing. Nothing but Brother Jeremiah’s body. Then a door behind Jeremiah begins to open and something huge and formless with burning eyes comes through it. It lunges at Jace and Jace’s torch goes out. Simon and Clary are making out on her bed when she gets up to change into her pajamas. She tries not to compare kissing Simon to kissing Jace. When she leaves the bathroom, Simon is already asleep on the bed, so she grabs her phone when it pings an alert. She reads a text message that causes her to run out of the room. Jace wakes up to find Valentine looking down at him. He has broken into the Silent City, killed any Silent Brothers he could find, and stolen the Soul-Sword. He asks Jace why he is in the cell and who put him there – he never would have let Jace be hurt like this. The Lightwoods should have done a better job protecting him. Valentine apologizes for the way he acted. He was trying to protect Jace by not telling him about his mother, but he expected Jace to act like the child he once was and was not prepared to meet a man instead. He prepares to leave, leaving Jace in the cell, but tells Jace that when he wants to find him he will. Clary rides the subway to the Institute, but Isabelle is surprised to see her when she arrives, despite being the one that sent Clary the message saying Jace was in jail. Neither she nor Alec seem that outraged. After all, Jace is a soldier and he wouldn’t be allowed to mouth off like that in the army either. As Alec asks Clary to ask Jace to cooperate with the Inquisitor, Max comes to tell them he heard a call in the library. Their parents and the Inquisitor are out investigating the murder of a faerie child in the park, so Alec and Isabelle go to answer the call, leaving Clary with Max for a moment. They talk about manga. She offers to take him to her favorite store to buy some manga books. When Isabelle gets back, she explains that it was the Silent Brothers calling for help. They lock Max inside Isabelle’s room and Isabelle and Alec start to mark each other. Clary insists on going with them, but Alec says no. She’s not trained; she will only be a liability. But Clary argues that she’s actually been to the Silent City and knows how to get there, something that the other two do not know. Isabelle turns to her and tells her its time she got her own Marks. Isabelle only gives Clary two runes: one for protection and the eye that allows Shadowhunters to see the Shadow World clearly. When they get to the entrance of the Silent City, Clary shows them the angel. Brother Jeremiah used a rune to open the entrance, but Alec uses his blood, it should work too – just like at the Institute. They descend the steps, Clary between the other two holding her witch-light. She sees where the Soul-Sword used to be displayed. It’s now empty, other than the blood that was sprayed on the table, floor, and walls around it. They see one Silent Brother impaled on a spire, dead. Alec leads them downward and Clary gets antsy the closer she gets to Jace until she can’t’ stand it. She rushes past Alec to the door blocking the cells. She draws an opening rune, begging the door to open, and the strength of her rune blows the door of its hinges. Jace is passed out in his cell, his manacled arm dangling between the manacle and his prone body. When she runs to him, he wakes up. He’s drowsy and possibly hit his head. He can’t remember exactly what happened, but they all agree on one thing - they need to get out of here. They release Jace’s hand and do a quick healing iratze on his wrist, they’ll patch him up better once they’re out of the Silent City. When they climb the stairs, the entrance to the Silent City looks bright as if it’s daytime, but it can’t be. They exit to find dozens of Shadowhunters waiting, shining their witch-lights. Maryse is one of them. The Inquisitor is also there. Alec explains that they received the distress call from the Silent Brothers when Maryse was investigating the faerie that was killed, and when they could not raise anyone else, he and Isabelle went to help. They didn’t see any Silent Brothers that were alive, but they did not do a thorough sweep either. Maryse sends her Shadowhunters inside. The last woman to enter, with silver-hair, looks at Clary as if she wants to say something but ultimately just follows the others into the Silent City. The Inquisitor assumes, and Jace confirms, that Valentine came and killed the Silent Brothers to steal the Soul-Sword. Jace can’t say what help he had, or why he wanted the Sword, but the Inquisitor does not believe him. She doesn’t believe that Valentine wasn’t here to help him – probably the faerie murder was just a distraction - she doesn’t believe that Valentine didn’t fill Jace in on his plans, she doesn’t believe that Alec and Isabelle didn’t come here specifically to free him. She wants to imprison Jace in his cell again, even though a mass murder happened inside the Silent City and he’s barely able to stand. In fact, Jace can’t stand. He’s so weak he has to sit and then lay down on his back. There is something seriously wrong with him but, as of right now, the healers for the Shadowhunters are the Silent Brothers and they can’t help him. Alec recommends they use Magnus Bane, and in fact, Alec has already called him. He’s just arrived – Magnus makes his entrance. The Inquisitor insists that Jace cannot stay at the Institute so Magnus volunteers to let Jace stay with him. He’s guarded prisoners for the Clave before and has never had a problem. The Inquisitor agrees, but Jace is still to be questioned tomorrow – with or without the Soul-Sword. Clary dreams of her mother. Jocelyn is wearing the same dress she wore when she was imprisoned at Valentine’s. She seems to know that she’s sleeping but says there’s a lot to do, she asks if Clary is there to help her. She draws a rune on Clary’s arm, telling her that it will protect her. When Clary wakes up, the rune is still on her arm. She meets up with Simon, and they meet Alec and Magnus’ apartment to see Jace. They need to figure out what they’re going to do now. After Magnus explains to them that he cannot create anything from nothing, whenever he magics something out of the air, he’s actually liberating it from someplace else (like the store), Jace tells them everything he remembers from the Silent City – how Valentine came to see him holding the Soul-Sword and had some sort of shadow demon with him. It was unlike anything that Jace has ever seen. Magnus asks why no one was at the Institute and Alec tells him about the faerie who was killed. This makes Magnus think. One warlock, one faerie, one werewolf child killed all within the week. Everyone thinks that it’s the vampires, but Raphael insists that it’s not, and there was a demonic presence at the locations that Magnus had visited. He thinks Valentine is behind these murders, he wants to perform the Ritual of Infernal Conversion. Every magical object has some sort of allegiance. The seraph blades Shadowhunters use to kill demons have an angelic alliance, like the Soul-Sword. The Ritual of Infernal Conversion will reverse the blade’s alliance from angelic to demonic. The Mortal Cup allows Valentine to have some dominion over demons, but a powerful sword with demonic alliance would allow him to call demons to him and force them to obey him. He could make a literal demonic army and, since demons aren’t of this dimension, there’s no way to know how many demons actually exist. It could be limitless! The ritual requires the sword to be heated to red-hot, then cooled four times, once each in the blood of a Downworlder child. 1. A child of Lilith (a warlock). 2. A child of the moon (werewolf). 3. A child of the night (vampire). 4. A child of faerie. Magnus believes that Valentine was interrupted while draining the werewolf child of his blood, so he likely hasn’t been able to complete that portion, but he already has the blood of a warlock and faerie child. He’s halfway done. He may even be able to use the Sword at least partially, even if it doesn’t have full strength. It’s been awfully quiet lately with little demonic activity. Is that because Valentine is calling all the demons to him? Alec speaks to Maryse on the phone and tells her their theory. When he stands to speak on the phone, Clary burns her wrist on some hot coffee but refuses to use a stele to heal herself, making Simon preen in front of Jace. Maryse agrees to bring up the Ritual of Infernal Conversion with the Conclave (what they call each small section of the Clave, this is the New York Conclave), but Alec thinks that the Inquisitor is edging Maryse out and he’s not sure anyone will listen. Just then, Isabelle calls Alec. The Queen of the Seelie Court would like an audience with them. Jace is in favor. In fact, it’s a hard no from him. Isabelle overheard Maryse and Alec’s conversation, and she knows a knight of the Seelie Court. The knight told her that the Queen of the Seelie Court would like to speak to them and maybe they can tell her about the ritual, the Seelie Court might believe or even ally with them. Jace insists they shouldn’t go and is adamant about Clary not going if he’s not there to protect her. Faeries are the offspring of demons and angels and while they look angelic, they are vicious. They can’t lie, but they like to be creative in their truths, and they are cunning. They live for hundreds of years, and they are not here to help mortals… or Shadowhunters. Alec insists on going, it really could help them, but Jace says he will bodily stop them from going if necessary. It’s not safe for Clary and he doesn’t trust the others to protect her. Good news though, Magnus wrote the contract allowing him to house Jace for the Clave and he put in the contract a stipulation that he could allow Jace to leave for a short period of time if another Shadowhunter took his place. It was signed by the Inquisitor herself. Alec agrees to stay so Jace can go. He’s Valentine’s son, he’s probably the one the Seelie Queen would rather see. Magnus does advise Jace to try not to die, that would make matters difficult. Jace, Clary, and Simon meet Isabelle at the Turtle Pond at Central Park. Simon insists on accompanying them into the Court. Isabelle reminds them not to eat or drink anything and then takes them to the entrance. She wades out into the water when the moon is in the right spot in the sky. She approaches the reflection of the moon on the water and bids Jace to go first. He leans backward, falling into the moon’s reflection and disappearing. Clary follows him. She lands in an underground atrium, followed by Simon and then Isabelle, and they wait for a faerie to come collect them. They’re greeted by Meliorn, a dalliance of Isabelle’s, who takes them through the Court to see the Queen. They pass revelers and Jace draws a rune on Clary so that she can see the faeries as they truly are, breaking the spell on her that could draw her to dance with them forever. Isabelle goes so far as to blindfold Simon so he is not drawn in. Clary is bitten on the finger by a pixie and brings the wound to her lips, sucking the blood that was drawn off the finger reflexively. It tastes almost sweet. Meliorn introduces them to the Seelie Queen and Jace is as charming as ever. They explain that they believe Valentine is behind the murder of the Seelie child and why he did it, but the Queen does not care. If he’s not going to kill any more of her people, then let the Shadowhunters deal with him. Jace reminds her, before getting ready to leave, that Valentine’s fight may be with the Shadowhunters for now, but he hates Downworlders even more, he will be on their doorstep next. The Queen asks Jace if he would turn against his own father and Clary pipes up that they hate their father. The Queen comments that Valentine’s “little experiments” did not turn out as expected. As they turn to leave, the Queen informs them that one of them must stay because they partook of the Court’s refreshments. It was Clary, who imbibed what the pixie was eating when she sucked the blood from her own finger after being bitten. Jace demands to know what the Queen wants for Clary’s freedom, and she wants a kiss. Not for herself or for Meliorn either. Everybody volunteers to kiss Simon, but that’s not it. She wants Clary to get the kiss she most desires – Jace’s. Desire and disgust are not always kept separate, Clary didn’t know Jace was her brother until recently. They all decide it’s just a kiss and Jace comes forward. It starts soft, becomes fierce, and then Jace breaks it off abruptly and without warning. Clary is now free to leave but none of them will be leaving the same as when they came in. Simon especially. Meliorn escorts them out of the Court and back into Central Park, leaving them without saying goodbye (Isabelle decides it’s time to break up with him). They’re deciding what to do next and Isabelle tells Jace to come to the Institute. No one is there, they’re still at the Silent City, and he agrees since he needs something from his room. Clary wants to share a taxi home with Simon and try to give him some explanation about what happened in the Court, but Jace points out that Simon has already left. Clary sees him walking out of the park alone. She calls to him, but he doesn’t turn around. When they arrive back at the Institute, they find Max alone sleeping on the couch. Jace takes Clary to his room to get her dry clothes, and she tries to call Simon, who is avoiding her. She yells at Jace that this is his fault. He shouldn’t have kissed her like that. She doesn’t want to be kissed by him at all. Why would the Seelie Queen make him do that. Jace reminds her that the Fair Folk don’t like, the Queen was doing Jace a favor because he wanted to kiss Clary. She played the two of them like a fiddle when she saw the way they looked at each other. Clary tells him she tries not to look at him at all; this whole thing is impossible. They’re siblings! She insists that she loves Simon, but Jace calls her out. She loves him like she loves her mom and Luke, not like a boyfriend. She’s lying to herself and Clary snaps. He’s right. She loves Simon like a brother when it should be Jace that she loves that way and she wishes he and Simon were switched but they aren’t and there’s nothing they can do about it. She apologizes but Jace tells her not to be sorry. He has never felt this way about anyone. He didn’t think he could after the way that he was raised – to love is to destroy. He doesn’t want to give her up. She tells him everyone would be disgusted if they were together. Maybe she would be disgusted. He’s hurt. He moves away from her and assures her he won’t kiss her again. He goes to the bathroom to take a shower, and she falls asleep on his bed. She dreams of a lake so smooth it is like a mirror, walking on the frozen surface as the ice cracks beneath her. Fire begins to rain from the sky, but when it touches the ground, it is Jace with white-gold feathered wings behind him. He points behind her to where she sees Simon standing, black wings spread behind him. Each feather is tipped in blood. She wakes up around 3 am. Simon has not called. She finds Jace sitting in the chair next to him holding something. The piece of broken mirror that shows Idris. He keeps thinking he’ll see Valentine inside it, but he doesn’t. Magnus can’t feel Valentine in the city either, and he has the ability to sense these things to a certain extent. This is what he wanted to retrieve from the Institute. Jace has been helping Magnus, even gave him the Morgenstern ring to help. He asks Clary how she opened the door to his cell in the Silent City. She begins to explain it was just the opening rune when the Institute’s doorbell rings. Clary thinks it’s Simon who has arrived, but when they arrive at the steps of the cathedral, they find Raphael holding a body. Clary was kind of right; the body is Simon’s. Clary starts to collapse but Jace catches her. Raphael explains that Simon is not dead, but he is dying. In about ten minutes his heart will stop. Raphael remembers when they rescued Simon from Hotel Dumort and brought him here instead of allowing the other vampires to kill him. Simon broke into their lair, but Raphael kept him alive because he doesn’t want any bad blood with the Shadowhunters. Simon was afraid that he was becoming a vampire and wanted answers – to know if it could be stopped. Raphael reminds them of when Simon bit him as a rat. He must have ingested some of Raphael’s blood at the time. That is how the infection is passed. Unfortunately, if Simon had left well enough alone, he probably would have been fine, the effects of the blood fading with time. But now, he will die and rise again as a vampire since he has ingested vampire blood. And no, it can’t be reversed. Clary immediately tells Jace to stay away from him, not to touch Simon, but Jace asks her what Simon would want if he were given the choice. She holds Simon as he takes his last breath, whispering to him that she loves him. Isabelle is furious and rounds on Raphael, who explains that Simon will need to be buried and dig his way out of his grave. If they don’t, he will stay in this state. Not alive but not quite dead either. The longer they wait, the less likely Simon will be able to dig himself out. Clary decides they will bury Simon in a Jewish cemetery, and she will wait for him. She will be there when he wakes up. They take Simon’s body to a graveyard and Raphael digs the grave as Isabelle stands guard and Jace speaks to Clary. He tries to convince her that she doesn’t need to watch but Clary insists on being there when Simon wakes up. After all, he would still be alive if it weren’t for what happened at the Seelie Court. Jace points out that they didn’t have a choice, they were forced into it, they weren’t trying to hurt Simon – but Clary isn’t ready to hear this. Alec shows up with a bunch of blood bags and Magnus in tow. He and Jace join Raphael, they lower Simon into the ground and cover his grave. Raphael explains what happens next. Simon will need to claw his way out of the ground himself. When he does emerge as a fledgling vampire, he will be starving. It will not be pretty, and Simon will need to eat. When Magnus tries to put his hand on Alec’s shoulder, Alec moves away from him and Magnus looks hurt. Pretty soon, Clary sees the dirt above Simon’s grave move. She rushes forward as Simon frees himself and crawls to the surface. She falls to her knees beside him, and he tries to bite her before he’s knocked away, and Raphael brings him the blood bags. Clary thinks he doesn’t know who she is anymore, but Raphael clarifies. He does, he’s just so hungry he doesn’t care. Next time won’t be as bad. Afterward, Clary and the others take Simon to Luke’s to clean him up before taking him home. Since then, he’s been telling his mom that he has the flu as he shelters inside with the curtains closed. Clary hasn’t spoken to Jace since that night – penance for doing this to Simon. She visits her mom in the hospital and speaks to her. Suddenly the whole story spills out. What happened with Valentine, learning she was a Shadowhunter, the party where Simon turned into a rat, finding out Jace is her brother, the Seelie Court, kissing Jace, Simon becoming a vampire, how everything is her fault! It feels good to tell her mom even if her mom still doesn’t wake up. Luke was eavesdropping and tries to tell her that this wasn’t her fault on their way home. She didn’t make Simon go there and he didn’t go because he was mad at her. He was compelled to by the blood he ingested, he was what they call a darkling. And as for the party, she thought he would be safe when they went. Besides, Simon has fought tooth and nail to be next to her for her whole life. Likely, she wouldn’t have been able to stop him from going. Luke encourages her to reach out to Jace – he probably isn’t doing well – but she retorts that she needs to be there for Simon right now. He’s not doing well either. Obviously, she can’t be supportive to more than one person at a time. Simon is on Luke’s front porch when they get home and she takes him inside. She urges him to tell his mom and sister the truth, she will even go with him, but he mostly has a fatalistic attitude and gallows humor with the inability to see anything else at the moment. They’re interrupted by the sound of a crash outside. At the window, they see that Luke has run over something with his truck and they sprint downstairs. Luke carries Maia inside. She was being followed by a Drevak demon. It attacked her, she has poisonous spines sticking out of her arm, but he doesn’t think this was an attack by Valentine. Usually, Drevak demons work as spies or messengers, it’s likely that Maia just got in its way. Luke prepares to pull the spines out and instructs Clary and Simon to go to the kitchen and call the Institute. In the kitchen, Clary asks Simon to call Jace since she doesn’t want to talk to him. She’s been avoiding his calls. When Jace answers, he sounds heartbroken. It’s the first time Simon has heard the way Jace speaks to Clary when they’re alone and it makes him angry, but also a little sad. He tells Jace what happens and Jace prepares to come to Luke’s with Alec and Magnus. Simon leaves the kitchen and sees Maia on the couch exhausted. Luke has gone to move the truck off of the front lawn, so the neighbors don’t get alarmed. She asks for water and when he gives her a glass, her fingers touch his own. She realizes what she is and freaks out. He explains that he was turned a few days ago, against his choice, like she was turned. But she is nothing like him. She’s still alive! She lashes out at him with her talons, and his fangs start to come out unwillingly. He’s backing away when Clary comes into the room and throws a dagger at Maia, pinning her sleeve to the back of the sofa. She asks Maia what her problem is. They’re both Downworlders, both turned, both given a demonic infection. But the demon that infected werewolves hated the demon that infected the vampires and so, the two groups hate each other. They’re programmed to do it. Soon enough, Simon will hate her and Luke too. That’s when Jace walks in with the others. Magnus immediately starts to help Maia, who is getting weaker, as Jace asks where Luke is. He didn’t see him on the front lawn, but he did see the truck. That’s not good, even Magnus’ attention is taken from Maia for a moment. Jace goes to investigate as Alec stays to guard the house. Clary meets Jace at the door and insists on going with him. He doesn’t want her to and the two argue until Simon comes out. He will check on Luke, at least he won’t be busy flirting while Luke is missing. It’s decided that all three will go, Jace passes a seraph blade to Clary. The truck is outside idling, still on the front lawn, and Jace’s Sensor lights up with demonic activity. More than just a single Drevak demon. He suggests the other two go in and trade places with Alec, this may be more serious than they thought, when Clary sees something slithering near the riverbank. Two shapes crouch over the body of Luke, Jace recognizes them as Raum demons – much worse than Drevaks. He runs toward Luke and fights one of the demons, telling the others to get inside, but before they can the second demon comes right for Clary. The demon tackles her and wraps a tentacle around her. She writhes underneath it and manages to kick it away, grabbing the seraph blade and naming it, bringing the blade’s blazing light. The demon almost looks scared before turning around and jumping into the river. Jace must’ve taken care of the other demon because it’s also gone, and Simon is holding a pipe that he ripped off a telephone pole. They run to Luke, who is unconscious but breathing. They take him inside, where Magnus has just moved Maia upstairs. Magnus assures them that he can help Luke, Raum demons aren’t difficult, but they really need to stop calling him to help them. He’s the High Warlock of Brooklyn! He’s busy! Is he the only warlock they know? Jace responds that he’s the only warlock they know that’s dating their friend. Alec is astounded. They aren’t dating, how could Jace think that? Jace tries to convince Alec that he doesn’t care that they’re dating, though he does wish Alec would stop hiding it and just be honest with him. Alec is hurt and angry. Jace believes it’s because Alec doesn’t think Jace is okay with his sexuality when really, it’s that Alec has had hidden feelings for Jace for years. But then Luke wakes up and distracts them all. Luke sleeps on the couch as Maia takes his bed. Jace catches Clary in the hall. They tell each other that they don’t hate each other. In fact, Jace wishes he did. He wants to hate her, that would be so much easier than what he does feel for her. Clary asks what that is, but Jace won’t name it - not when she won’t tell him anything and won’t even speak to him right now. They’re interrupted mid fight by Simon, who storms out again. Clary yells at Jace that he ruins everything before following Simon. Simon is going home before the sun comes up. He can’t trust her anymore. She’d rather pine over Jace than try to be with him, with someone that she can be with. Clary tells him she just needs some time to get over what has happened, but she doesn’t tell him he’s wrong. At least she’s not lying to him anymore. Jace calls Raphael and asks to use a demon motorcycle, his own is still on the roof of the Institute. Raphael brings it to him and speaks of Maryse. The Shadowhunters are still blaming the vampires for the recent murders of young Downworlders even though Raphael insists it is not them. Jace asks if he’s spoken to Maryse about this and Raphael reveals that he couldn’t talk to Maryse if he wanted to – everything goes through the Inquisitor right now. He gives Jace the motorcycle and asks if they’re even now – this is penance for Simon’s being turned. Jace retorts that this is a start, but they’ll never be even. Jace flies to the East River and spots a huge, black boat. His father’s boat. He uses an opening rune to get on board and the place seems deserted. Lighting a witch-light, he holds it above his head to look around. He sees a girl standing in front of him with her arms crossed over her chest, the front of her white dress covered in blood. It’s Clary He catches her as she falls toward him. How did she get here? He tries to wake her up and Clary tilts her face up and finally opens her eyes. Eyes that aren’t green anymore but glowing white. He passes out. When he wakes up, Valentine is sitting next to him. Jace explains that he questioned the Raum demon at Luke’s house to find out where Valentine was hiding, he knew the demon had been sent by Valentine and figured it was to take Maia since he still needs a lycanthrope child for his ritual. Valentine confirms that he is doing what they thought. He is behind the murders for the Ritual of Infernal Conversion. He’s using demons as guards, the demon that Jace saw as Clary was actually Agramon – he uses your greatest fears against you. Valentine was able to have him called by Elias, whose greatest fear was having a demon break through his ward. Which Agramon used… to break through the ward. Most people die of fright when they see Agramon. Valentine asks Jace to take a walk on the deck, he wants to show Jace something. He wants to know why Jace is there. Jace asks what blood runs through his veins, the questions the Seelie Queen gave him, but Valentine tells him it’s the blood of the Angel. Jace sighs, no different than any other Shadowhunter then. But that’s not the only reason Jace is there. He needs to talk to someone and he has no one anymore. The Lightwoods hate him and have turned him out, Luke is probably close to doing the same, the Inquisitor loathes him, Alec is mad and Jace doesn’t even know why, and let’s not even talk about Clary. He wants to give Valentine the chance to tell him the truth about what he did and why he did it. Why did he kill the Silent Brothers and take the Sword? What is he planning? Jace points out that Valentine hates demons and here he is working with them. Valentine says he will be Nephilim, always be a Shadowhunter, no matter what he thinks of the Clave. But the Clave is corrupt. They pander to Downworlders and it makes them weak. At some point, the demons will see that and attack, which the Clave will not be able to withstand. They will fall. He had planned on making his own Shadowhunters, but he doesn’t have that kind of time, and Luke’s pack killed most of his Forsaken. So now he is using the Sword to call an army of demons which he will command to destroy themselves when he is done with them. If the Clave will not see reason voluntarily, they will be forced. There are already those who agree with Valentine, when they are faced with annihilation, the rest of the Clave will come to his side. Regardless of their personal feelings toward Valentine. They get to what Valentine wanted to show Jace – the Soul-Sword. He asks Jace to hold it and as soon as Jace grabs the hilt, it feels like it’s pulling him under. He sees demons everywhere. Filling the sky, the water, the deck around him. Valentine explains that he chose this spot because the veil between worlds is thin. The demons have been called here by the Sword, waiting just on the other side of the wards for Valentine to call for them. With that number of demons, the Clave won’t have a choice but to agree to Valentine’s terms. Valentine asks Jace to join him. He promises that the Lightwood kids will be safe, as will Clary. All of Jace’s friends will be safe. Jace gives Valentine his answer. Clary wakes up in the morning and checks on Luke, giving him a rundown of what happened the night before. Maia comes downstairs, also pretty fuzzy, and remembers that she tried to kill Simon. She apologizes for it before heading back upstairs, she was delirious. Soon they’re joined by Jace, who comes in from the front porch with Alec. Magnus’ magic was so depleted the night before that he couldn’t keep Jace inside against his will, so he made Jace swear to stay inside (but he didn’t swear on the Angel which is the only kind that counts). He tells them he only went for a walk and Alec was waiting there when he got back. They go over what happened the night before, but one thing doesn’t make sense. The demons were two against three, but one was a baby vampire and the other an untrained Shadowhunter. Why did they retreat? Clary thinks it may have been because of her and shows them the rune on her forearm. It isn’t from the Gray Book. That’s impossible, all runes are from the Gray Book and new ones can’t be made. But neither Luke nor Magnus recognize this one. Clary reminds Jace what the Seelie Queen said about them being experiments. That Jace’s gift was the Angel’s own while Clary’s was the gift of words that cannot be spoken. The Fair Folk don’t lie so it must be true. When she did the opening rune on Jace’s cell, it blew the door open and unlocked everything inside the cell as well. That’s why they didn’t have to break Jace’s manacles. Maybe Clary’s runes are more powerful than normal, maybe she can make new ones. Luke tells her to go get her sketchbook. When she returns, he asks her to draw a new rune. Jace suggests one that means “fearless”. They have plenty for bravery but none that take fear away. She draws a rune and they test it on Alec, but he doesn’t feel any different. They’re trying to find something that scares him to test him with when the doorbell rings. When Luke answers, Maryse and Isabelle storm into the room, followed by the Inquisitor, and lastly by Robert Lightwood. Alec stands up and tells his parents that he has an announcement to make. He has been dating someone, but not just anyone. A Downworlder. Magnus uses magic to knock him out for a second, preventing Alec from saying anything he wouldn’t want to say normally, but clearly Clary’s rune works. The Inquisitor tells them that they have arrived because Jace has broken the Law again, plus Magnus clearly can’t be trusted to keep him locked up since they are currently at Luke’s house where they are not supposed to be. She reveals that she used a tracking rune on the piece of mirror that shows Idris, the piece that Jace retrieved from the Institute and keeps in his pocket. She knows that he went to the river yesterday to see his father. He asks if the Clave often invades the privacy of its Shadowhunters, but the Inquisitor warns him to watch his mouth. If he continues, his friends could be found complicit in his deceit since they freed him not only from the Silent City but helped him leave Magnus’ care as well. Isabelle retorts that Jace is family and when she is warned by the Inquisitor, Robert tells Imogen to be reasonable. They are just children and Isabelle doesn’t want her family torn apart. The Inquisitor says that they use that excuse constantly. They were only children when they joined the Circle. She begins to say that her son was also just a child but is interrupted by Luke. So, this is about Stephen. No, it’s not! It’s about the Law! Which Jace has broken. He will return to Idris with the Inquisitor the next day. Clary asks when he will be back but Jace yells at her to stay out of it for her own good. He’s never yelled at her before. Luke places a hand on her shoulder and comments that if Jace went back to his terrible father, it is because they failed him, not the other way around. Alec agrees with the Inquisitor. Jace lied to them and there’s no excuse for that. The others look at him unbelievingly, but he continues to say that the Law is the Law. Isabelle storms out of the room, followed by Magnus, who is purposefully not looking at Alec. The Inquisitor tells Clary that she will be watching her. Then she cuffs Jace with fiery magical manacles and leads him out of the room. If he tries anything, she won’t hesitate to stab him in the back. They’re followed out by the rest of the Lightwoods. Luke needs coffee. This is very bad. The Clave is looking to punish Valentine, but in his absence, they will make do with punishing his son. There will be a Trial before the Clave. Since Jace is so young, they may just strip his Marks but that would mean he is no longer a Shadowhunter and that would kill Jace. Worse, Luke believes that Jace really did do what he’s accused off – going to see Valentine. He and Clary are both disappointed, they both thought Jace was seeing Luke as a surrogate parent. Meanwhile, Maia thinks it’s finally time to leave now that the yelling downstairs has stopped. She sneaks out the window, confident they won’t notice that she’s gone. They barely noticed when she was there. Well, Simon noticed her. She feels terrible about the things that she said, which aren’t even true, and she makes her way to Simon’s house. She wants to apologize at least, maybe they can even be friends. On the way, she starts to get nervous. She’s a werewolf, even injured there’s few things that can hurt her now. Even so, she can’t stop herself from feeling panicked. She decides to get off the road and runs straight into Daniel – her abusive older brother who died years ago. It’s Agramon showing himself to her as Daniel and terrifying her until Valentine commands him to stop. He asks Maia how old she is. She’s only seventeen…. Perfect. The Inquisitor takes Jace to the Institute, upstairs to the training room. She uses seraph blades to create a cell in a Malachi Configuration. He cannot break out of it, and it will not fall until the blades are removed – which Jace cannot do, he will die if he touches them. She reveals that Jace is not going to see the Clave, she is going to trade him to Valentine in exchange for the Mortal Instruments. Jace tries to make her see that Valentine will not trade them, he does not care what happens to Jace. The Inquisitor, Imogen, doesn’t believe that. Jace tells her that Valentine is creating an army of demons using the Instruments and he will delay their return, by the time she realizes that he has no intention of returning them at all, it will be too late. She doesn’t believe him. But before she leaves, she says returning Jace to his father is better than Valentine deserves. He deserves to hold his dead child, knowing there is no way to bring him back. He should know what that feels like. Jace’s arms are starting to burn from the manacles. Clary tries to call Isabelle but gets no answer. She and Luke are both uneasy. He decides to check on Maia and finds Luke’s room empty and a note Maia left saying she went to “make amends”. He’s worried, Raum demons are trackers, she could still be followed by them. Clary guesses that Maia is planning to make amends with Simon and she calls him, waking him up since it’s the middle of the day. Maia hasn’t been there; Simon is home alone. But while they’re on the phone, he tells Clary to wait. He thinks someone is trying to break into his house. Jace is lying in his cell when Alec sneaks in to see him. He asks what Jace was thinking, going to see his father after everything his dad did to him. Jace reveals that Valentine made him an offer. If he worked with Valentine, he would do what he could to make sure that the people Jace loved were safe. Alec says he must’ve taken it hard when Jace still told him no. Jace is surprised, why would Alec think he said no? Because Alec knows Jace – he has no doubt that Jace will not join his father against the Clave. He’s right, Jace told Valentine no. But what about all that “the Law is the Law” stuff that Alec said? Alec explains that he wanted the Inquisitor to trust him so she wouldn’t watch him closely like she is to Isabelle and Max. But Alec will always be on Jace’s side. Always. What the Inquisitor is doing is wrong. She hates Jace with a fury stemming years, it’s a hate that’s been growing for longer than she’s known Jace himself. The doorbell rings and Jace tells Alec to call Clary. Ask Luke what he knows about Stephen, the Inquisitor’s son. Luke tells Simon to barricade himself in his room and stay put, they’re on their way. He tells them that he heard a big bang downstairs like his door had been kicked in, and then his cat came running into his room, as he moves his desk and bed in front of his bedroom door. Then the call goes dead. He answers when Clary calls him back (sorry, he dropped the phone trying to help the cat) but they there is a bunch of noise on Simon’s end and he doesn’t answer her. Valentine picks up the call. He says he hasn’t done anything to Simon. Not yet. Alec returns to Jace, Isabelle won’t let him use her phone and keeps screaming at him for betraying Jace, but he has brought a few things with him this time. He rolls an apple to Jace, and it rolls through the barrier to Jace. So, then Alec sends through a small silver disk, a portable unlocking rune that Jace can use to take off his manacles. Alec has been thinking. The cells of the Malachi Configuration go up thirty feet, but there’s no roof. With what everyone has been saying about Jace and his “gifts from the angel”, could he jump that high? Alec has seen him do things that would kill other Shadowhunters. They decide it’s worth a try, but Jace remembers what the Inquisitor told him. If he hits the walls too hard, he will die, while brushing up against it only gives him a hard jolt like electricity. He tells Alec not to watch and prepares to jump and grab onto the rafters. Clary and Luke arrive at Simon’s house to find his room in complete order again, though the cat is freaking out. Clary finds Simon’s cell phone and sees the last message sent: “Now I have them all.” Luke says that Valentine has all the children he needs – Simon and probably Maia too. Something has changed. Valentine seems to be targeting specific people now when before, he was happy to use whichever young Downworlder he could easily get his hands on. Clary realizes that he’s trying to hurt Jace. Jace must’ve done something that really pissed him off. Alec forces his way through Max into Izzy’s room before he’s followed by Jace - and his siblings finally forgive him. They need to use Izzy’s phone, but she left it downstairs in the kitchen. Max agrees to get it, he’s too young for the Inquisitor to pay attention to anyway. When they get the phone, Izzy calls Clary and finds out about Simon and Maia. Jace tells Clary and Luke to come to the Institute but don’t come inside, he will meet them outside. Ending the call, he tells Alec to call Magnus and have him meet him at the river. They need his help to get on Valentine’s ship. Isabelle and Alec need to stay at the Institute. It’s their job to convince the Inquisitor to send everybody she has after Valentine when he does not agree to her deal. But how does Jace plan on getting out of the Institute when Imogen has half the New York Conclave downstairs on guard duty? He stands on Izzy’s third story window and disappears. Simon wakes up and realizes that Maia is in the room with him. She tells him that Valentine has taken them and they’re on a gigantic black boat, but that’s all she knows. She was still conscious when they arrived and saw hundreds of demons milling around. Simon explains that he was talking to Clary when he was taken. Maybe someone will come and save them. Maia apologizes for what she said to him, vampires scare her. When she first joined the New York pack, she saw a vampire rip a werewolf in half. And before Simon turned, he reminded her of what it was like to be human. Luke and Clary wait outside the Institute when they see Jace on the roof. Clary runs from the truck toward the Institute like an idiot, calling attention from the Shadowhunters guarding the Institute. Jace walks off of the roof and lands gracefully in front of her. They run to the truck and Luke takes off, leaving the Institute and the Shadowhunters behind. Simon is thirsty. Maia wakes up from a fretful sleep and reaches out to Simon, their fingers just brush. She’s glad she’s not alone. Soon enough, Valentine stands in front of them. He tells Simon to stand against the wall, but Simon doesn’t, he will do whatever he can to protect Maia. Simon taunts Valentine about Clary until Valentine blows silver dust on Maia’s face, burning her. He takes the Sword off his back and points it at Simon. Vampires are damned, they will never reach heaven. But legend says that anyone killed by the Mortal Sword will see the pearly gates, so really Simon should be thanking him for this. He slashes the Sword across Simon’s throat. Clary asks how Jace jumped from the roof and isn’t hurt, and he doesn’t know - much like Clary doesn’t understand how she was able to draw a new rune. Maybe they really are different…. Jace tells them the plan as Alec texts him an address to meet Magnus at. Magnus will get them through the protections that Valentine has on the boat. Jace will go on the boat and free Simon and Maia. Luke is worried about him (Jace is a bit surprised) and insists that he be the one to go instead, but Jace maintains it has to be him. Valentine is using Agramon and Jace can be marked with Clary’s fearless rune. With it, he could take Agramon down, but Luke can’t be marked. Luke says the Clave will come but Jace doesn’t think so. The Inquisitor has the Lightwoods on lock down and she’s obsessed with the idea of trading Valentine for the Mortal Instruments. He’s not optimistic that she’s going to call the Clave at all. When they arrive at the address, Magnus is not there. Jace walks to the riverbank and throws something into the water, but Clary can’t tell what it is. He tells them that Maryse and the Inquisitor have been arguing for hours, she hasn’t noticed yet that he’s gone. He’s given Valentine until sunset to decide on the trade. Luke asks about the Inquisitor’s son. Stephen Herondale was someone that everyone loved. He was talented, handsome (but not too handsome), nice (but not boring). His parents ran the London Institute, but he came to Idris to study at the Shadowhunter Academy, that’s how Luke got to know him. He joined the Circle, even become Valentine’s second-in-command after Luke was turned. When his mother asked him to come back to the Clave, he cut her off completely. But Stephen’s wife had undesirable family members according to Valentine. Valentine made Stephen divorce his first wife, Amatis, and marry a very young woman named Celine who was also loyal to Valentine. Later, Stephen was killed while raiding a vampire nest and Celine, who was eight months pregnant at the time, killed herself when she found out. Stephen’s father died soon after, he was terribly heartbroken. Imogen hates Valentine because he has a son while her own is gone, and she also blames him for destroying her entire family: her son, husband, and unborn grandchild all dead, leaving her alone. Jace understands, it was Valentine’s fault, but Luke disagrees. Stephen was given a choice and he chose Valentine. Jace was given the same choice and look where he is. Jace wasn’t able to bring many blades with him, he only has three. When Magnus arrives, he asks to see Luke’s truck. While Magnus and Luke are distracted, Jace asks Clary to draw the fearless rune on him. Luke will think it’s a bad idea, but Jace knows it’s the only way to get past Agramon. When she’s done, he gives her several Marks too. Then Magnus tells them to hop into the truck, which Luke then drives onto the river on top of the water toward Valentine’s ship. Alec and Isabelle hover outside the library door for sunset. Isabelle storms in uninvited. She wants to be there to hear Valentine’s answer. When they come in, Maryse looks angry, but Imogen looks irate and unhinged. Valentine arrives and speaks to them through a projection of himself. The Inquisitor confirms that if he does not trade the Mortal Instruments, they will kill Jace. Valentine calls her out for saying she always upholds the Law, killing a child because you hate his father is not the Law. He also does not take the deal. He tells Imogen that he offered Jace protection and Jace turned him down. Jace has not been working with him, and Valentine will not give up the Mortal Instruments, not even for his own son. The Inquisitor cannot believe his decision, but he vanishes. The truck sits outside the ship as Magnus strips the protections away. Jace turns to Clary – he wants to ask her a question he was too scared to ask her before (not a problem with the fearless rune). But he doesn’t get the chance to ask anything, instead he hands her a seraph blade because the demons are coming. They’re all fighting, Clary repelling demons by showing the rune on her arm, and Magnus is drained from stripping the protection and keeping them down. They don’t notice the demon that grabs Clary and flies off with her until it’s too late. Jace tells Luke that the demon won’t hurt her, it’s retrieving her for Valentine, before he jumps from the truck into the water. With a nod from Magnus, Luke follows him. Imogen is distraught as Maryse tells her exactly what she’s done. She wanted to humble Valentine, to bring him to his knees, and refused to include the Clave in what was happening. She has handed Valentine victory. Robert comes into the library. They don’t have time to call in reinforcements; they have to leave now. All the Shadowhunters in the Conclave are gathering, and the boats are being readied. He’s ready for battle and offers to let Alec use his guisarme if he would like to. Izzy, also dressed and ready to go, hands her mother a naginata sword. Maryse points it directly at Imogen. She’s not going to kill her; they need all the help they can get right now, but she tells Imogen that she needs to get up and get ready for battle. She also needs to alert the Clave as to what she’s done. But first, she needs to free Maryse’s son from the Malachi Configuration. Alec interrupts, actually… Jace is already gone. The demon drops Clary onto an opening in the ship where she lands ungracefully, so unlike Jace. Next to her, Maia kneels down. Clary runs to her and asks where Simon is. Maia tells Clary that Simon is dead. Jace and Luke swim to the ship and climb up the ladder to the deck. They are surrounded by demons, who stay away from the light of Jace’s seraph blade but go no further than the light reaches. Luke tells Jace to get back to the ladder – they can’t, they’ve been surrounded – or jump off the side of the ship, when he realizes that Jace isn’t scared. He realizes that Jace has the fearless rune. They aren’t sure why Valentine took Clary, Jace thinks he wanted to make them come onto the ship and wants to use her as a bargaining chip, the demons attacking the truck have retreated since she was taken. Jace and Luke start to fight the hordes of demons. Maia describes how Valentine killed Simon and then drained his blood into bowls with the help of some demons. Then a different demon brought Maia here. Clary uses her stele to make an opening in the wall of the ship just large enough for Maia to fit through. She goes feet first, falling onto a catwalk and hurting her ankle, but she will be fine. Clary starts to climb through but is grabbed by Valentine. He can’t see Maia but kicks Clary’s stele away from her, she dropped it when he grabbed her. He says not to worry, the demons will find Maia, there’s nowhere for her to go anyway. He holds onto Clary as a demon comes and picks them up. Jace can’t believe he and Luke are still alive, but he and Luke (partially transformed) keep fighting. There are too many demons, their blood coats the deck, and still Jace doesn’t feel afraid. Luke tells him there’s too many, they should get to the railing, when a demon jumps from above them and lands on Luke, knocking his kindjal away. The demon stomps on Luke’s leg, breaking it. Jace looks around and knows that Luke is right, they’re too outnumbered. He starts to feel sad that he won’t see Isabelle or Alec again, or any of the people he loves, when a demon comes directly at him. Jace can’t fight him in time, but a shape comes out of nowhere and kills the demon. Jace looks around, dozens of Shadowhunters climb onto the deck of the ship, Malik having just saved Jace’s life. A hand grabs Jace’s sleeve, but he fights them off, he needs to get to Luke. The person takes their hood off and asks if Jace will just do as he’s told for once – it’s the Inquisitor. The demon carrying Clary and Valentine lower them to the floor and Valentine lets Clary go. There are four bowls in the room: two stained red from use, one full of red liquid, and the last empty. She screams at Valentine for what he did to Simon, but he insists that Simon was a monster. He understands how she feels, he felt the same when Luke was turned. Clary doesn’t believe he cares for anyone but himself, he just wants to own the people around him. Love isn’t owning someone. It’s giving yourself to someone, trusting them with yourself. He asks if that’s what she did with Jace, give herself to him? Does she think he doesn’t see it, the way Jace speaks about her, the way they look at each other? She claims not to know what he’s talking about, but Valentine tells Clary that he saw Jace face Agramon. Jace’s greatest fear is the love he feels for Clary. The Inquisitor wants to speak with Jace, using two seraph blades to make a barrier between them and the fighting. She explains what Valentine did and apologizes to Jace for not believing him. None of his friends will be punished for helping him. She doesn’t understand how Valentine could value his own son so little, unless… she sees Jace’s shoulder through a new hole in his shirt. She asks about the scar he has there. He’s not sure when he got it, he’s had it as long as he can remember. His dad said it was some sort of accident. Imogen is stunned. He couldn’t be! She looks at Jace uncertainly and asks if he truly thought he was Michael Wayland’s son. Jace loses it. After all this, she still doesn’t believe him? What is her plan – to use him in the fight and if he survives, throw him at the feet of the Clave again? Imogen stutters, he misunderstands her question, but Jace storms away, breaking the barrier on his way out. He looks around for Alec and Isabelle, the Inquisitor hurrying after him and trying to give him a seraph blade, telling him to take a weapon at least. She looks scared even before a demon appears before Jace. It strikes with its tail before Jace can duck but the Inquisitor throws herself in front of him and the demon’s tail embeds her chest. She manages to kill it even so, throwing her knife before she was struck. Jace kneels next to her and Imogen beckons him closer. She whispers something into his ear just before she dies, but he doesn’t understand what it means. He turns around to find Alec exhausted and injured, but relieved to see Jace - and still carrying the guisarme. He gives Jace a seraph blade and they continue to fight as Jace tells him that the Inquisitor is dead. Isabelle sees them and hurries toward them, when a spider demon comes from behind her and hits her with her poison. Some of it gets on her throat and burns through her skin. Alec drops next to her to use an iratze to heal her while Jace guards them, Jace tells him they need to get Izzy off the boat. If they don’t, she will die. Newsflash: they’re all going to die; there’s too many demons. Jace insists that Alec to get Isabelle off the boat, but he is going to fight the gigantic demon that is coming toward them now. He watches as Alec gets Isabelle to the ladder and helps her lower herself down, wondering if this is the last time he will see them, but Alec does not follow his sister. He comes back and walks towards Jace, preparing to face the demon together. The demon swerves away from Jace toward Alec, and Jace pivots to block Alec but his foot goes through the deck of the boat, rotted with the demons’ poisons. The demon hits Alec and Alec pushes him back to retreat. Jace can hear Isabelle screaming as he tries to free his leg from the deck. The demon wraps around Alec and whips him back and forth, flinging him away. Alec skids toward the edge of the ship and falls over the edge into the river. The demon comes toward Jace. Jace flings his seraph blade at the demon and then the deck collapses, Jace falls into the darkness of the ship. Valentine continues to speak to Clary, who accuses him of trying to use her and Jace for his own gains. He tells her that she doesn’t understand how dangerous Downworlders are because she hasn’t met many of them, and those she has met have been kind. He gives her a whole spiel, and she is shocked at how convincing he is, how charismatic. She asks what he wants from her and it’s actually very simple. He wants to use her to trade for Maia. He believes that her friends will definitely do the trade. They value her more than a lowly Downworlder. Not to mention, to not do the trade would be breaking Clave Law. When he steps toward her, she reaches out and grabs the Soul-Sword that Valentine had let go of, leveling it at Valentine. Jace falls through the deck and lands on a metal surface hard. He sees a stele nearby and recognizes it as Clary’s. He hears a laugh and looks toward the source. He’s dropped his last seraph blade and he’s out of weapons. He walks toward the figure he sees. Magnus pulls Alec out of the East River. He tells Alec that Isabelle made it to the boat, but he’s worried Alec might have a concussion. Alec asks Magnus to fly him back to the battle but apologizes, he knows Magnus doesn’t need to do him favors. Magnus stops him, Magnus doesn’t help Alec as a favor, but this is a conversation Alec isn’t ready for. Magnus can’t help anyway, he’s drained. He’s about to lose consciousness but his enchantment should last long enough, even while he’s out, for Alec to drive the truck back to land. He offers Magnus his strength, Magnus is doing as much fighting as the Shadowhunters and he needs it. Jace sees that the figure is Valentine and asks about Clary. Clary is fine, but he had to teach her a lesson. Valentine talks about Imogen, he knows she sacrificed herself for Jace. That’s Jace’s fault, in fact, all the deaths that happen today are Jace’s fault. Maia and Simon are already dead and if it weren’t for Jace, the Shadowhunters wouldn’t even be here. Jace is just like him, when will Jace face the truth? Jace insists that he’s not like Valentine and stabs one of the ship’s struts through Valentine’s chest on instinct. Just like he thought, it was Agramon. Jace’s fearless rune burns away and he falls, his knees weak. Jace is only down for a few minutes and when he comes to, Jace doesn’t see Agramon anywhere. He does see a trail of blood that leads to Simon’s body. He sees the gash in Simon’s throat and knows that he’s too late. Or is he? Simon’s eyelids flutter and a gargling sound comes from his throat. There’s still a chance! Jace cuts his own wrist and holds it to Simon, begging him to drink. Simon does and when Jace tries to pull away, Simon knocks him down and keeps drinking. Jace starts to go numb and just gives up without a fight, but Simon is able to gain control and stop himself. He’s so sorry, he could have killed Jace – and Jace would have let him. But they don’t have time for that now. Simon is healed and Valentine has Clary; they need to move. Clary is holding the Sword, but it hurts her hand and she drops it. Valentine laughs as he grabs it, he wouldn’t have allowed the Sword near her if she could have actually used it and points it at her throat. Does she know why her mother left him? She accused him of turning her first child into a monster and did not want him to do the same to her second, but Jocelyn was too late and she didn’t even realize it. Clary says that neither she nor Jace are monsters and Valentine is in the middle of speaking (“I’m not talking about”) when he is interrupted by Jace and Simon. Even Valentine is surprised to see Simon alive. Jace reveals that he gave Simon his blood and Valentine is disgusted. He offers the Sword to Jace, use it on Simon and fix what he has done. Clary tells them that Maia is still alive, Valentine hasn’t turned the Sword yet, and Jace throws her stele to her. She catches it and starts drawing, putting as much power behind her words as she can. Simon asks what the rune says. It says “open” and as soon as Clary says the word, the ship is ripped apart. Clary is sucked into the river. She’s pulled out of the river by someone, she thinks for a moment it’s her mother but then, she has taken in a lot of water. When she wakes up, Luke and Simon are above her and Jace is nearby. He thought she was dead. They tell her that Isabelle and Alec are safe on one of the Shadowhunter boats. Robert and Maryse are injured but alive, Malik and Imogen were not so lucky. When the boat ripped apart, it took some demons with it, but the Shadowhunters were pulled from the water by nixies. The Seelie Queen had offered them whatever aid she could and Jace had called in the favor – the thing he dropped into the river when they first arrived. Valentine and the Sword are gone but no one thinks he’s dead, and the Conclave is in tatters. And the Clave is very interested in Clary and what she can do, no one has ever seen anything like what she did to the ship. They drive the truck back to the shore and the sun starts to rise. Clary’s face turns to Simon. There’s nowhere for him to hide and they won’t be able to make it to shore before the sun is up. She thinks he’s going to die, and so does he. He pulls her into his arms and tells her he loves her. He’s never loved anyone but her. Clary can’t watch as the sun rises, but Jace pulls her hands away from her face. She sees that Simon is sitting in the full sunlight, as alive as he was a moment before. He’s never been so happy to see the sunrise. Jace goes back to the Institute and packs his things. He’s not sure where he’ll go, Luke’s first probably, but he can’t stay here. Maryse comes to the doorway and asks him to stay. They all want him to stay, Robert wants to see him, Isabelle and Alec and Max need him. He says he will only be in the way, but she tells him he’s wrong! She’s sorry, not that she expects to be forgiven. Everything she did was to protect him. Or to protect herself. She was afraid that he would hurt her like Valentine did. He was the first person after Valentine that she loved that wasn’t related to her. He walked right into her heart when he walked into her life. Jace once asked her why she never sang a lullaby to him like she did for Alec and Isabelle, but he was wrong. She did sing it; he just didn’t hear her. He takes his stuff out of his bag. A week later, after Clary is done recuperating and her cold is over, she goes to visit Simon at his apartment. He’s sitting outside in the sun reading a comic. It appears he’s still a vampire, he still wants blood and doesn’t have a heartbeat, but the sun doesn’t affect him. Even Raphael isn’t sure why. Clary gives him a kiss on the lips, and Simon tells her they need to talk. He doesn’t think they should date anymore (if they ever really were). Partly because he likes Maia, likes that she is like him, and maybe he could even love her one day. But more because he doesn’t want Clary to pretend. He wants to know that when they’re together, he’s with the real Clary. Luke picks her up from Simon’s and they decide to go to the hospital to see Jocelyn. Clary has a question for him, something that Valentine said to her. He said that Luke was in love with her mom. Luke admits that he is, but he’s never told her. It never felt like the right time. He first realized how he felt when he was around sixteen, but by that time they’d met Valentine and Luke didn’t think he stood a chance. When they ran from the Clave, he offered to marry Jocelyn and she said no. She said she didn’t want to be a burden, not knowing that it was the most selfish thing Luke had ever offered to do. The time they spent apart, he felt like a part of him was missing. It’s why he went looking for them. But Jocelyn is not stupid, she must know how he feels and just not feel the same, otherwise she would have said something. Luke has had years to come to terms with that. But Clary isn’t so sure. She once asked her mom why she didn’t date and she said her heart was already given away. Clary wonders now if she meant Luke. Besides, when he offered to marry Jocelyn, he didn’t tell her how he felt. She thought he was doing it out of obligation. Doesn’t he hate not having told her the truth? He tells Clary that yes, he does. If you can’t tell the truth to the people, you care the most about, you stop being able to tell yourself the truth too. She realizes that’s true; she asks him to drop her off at the Institute. She will meet him at the hospital after. She meets Jace coming out of the Institute and goes with him to a diner to pick up food. He thought she’d been avoiding him, but she explains that she really was sick the past week. She’s actually been wanting to talk to him. But before she gets a chance, he wants to apologize first. She kept telling him that he couldn’t have the relationship he wanted with her now that they know they’re siblings, but he kept pushing for it. That was selfish of him, that’s something Valentine would do. They don’t live in a vacuum, and they would have to deal with the world around them who would not accept it. He had just lost his whole family: his father again and the Lightwoods as well. He was crazy with loss, and he took it out on Clary. He promises not to be any more than her brother from now on, just like she wanted. She doesn’t say it – but she’s not sure it’s what she wants anymore. Clary wants to cry but she doesn’t. At least not until after she hugs Jace goodbye and gets on the subway, then the tears fall fast and heavy. When she gets to the hospital, there is someone waiting to see her on the stairs. It’s the silver-haired Shadowhunter from the New York Conclave; she introduces herself as Madeleine Bellefleur. She was a friend of Jocelyn’s in Idris. She’s not here to see Jocelyn, she’s here to tell Clary that Jocelyn isn’t going to wake up. The sleep is not something that Valentine did, it’s something Jocelyn did to herself so Valentine couldn’t get information from her. She only told one other person how the spell could be reversed. She told Madeleine, Madeleine can tell Clary how to wake her mother.

City of Ashes
a white man with long brown hair wearing jeans and a gray t-shirt sits crosslegged with his hands clasped.

All the spoilers coming right up... Clary finds Simon on the steps of the porch when she gets home. She’s packing for a trip to Idris. Madeleine told her that her mother got the spell that put her to sleep from a warlock named Ragnor Fell. She’s going with the Lightwoods and Jace to Idris so that she can ask Ragnor Fell for information on how to reverse the spell. Luke would come with her, but the Clave won’t allow him to come into Alicante, and he’s not pleased that he isn’t coming with her. But the Lightwoods have to go to Idris, the Clave has called in all of their active members who can be spared. Jace isn’t happy about Clary going either, he says it’s not safe for Clary in Alicante. Now that Valentine has the Sword and the Cup, he will be focusing on the Mirror, which he likely thinks is in Idris somewhere (no one is sure where it is). Plus, the Clave wants to speak to Clary. Jace offers to meet Ragnor Fell for Clary, Jocelyn is his mother too, but Madeleine told Ragnor to expect Clary, so Clary insists that she be the one to go. Maryse already agreed that she could come with them. When Luke gets home, they agree to stop by the hospital before Clary leaves that night. Simon gets up to leave, but Clary asks him to stay longer. He can’t, he’s going to see Maia. Things are weird between him and Clary. But Simon doesn’t actually go to meet Maia. He got a note on his window, asking him to meet someone at the graveyard. When he gets there, he sees Magnus with a group of Shadowhunters: Maryse, Max, Alec, Isabelle, a silver-haired woman he doesn’t recognize (Madeleine), and Jace – who is walking toward him. Jace left him the note, and he tugs Simon behind a tree. They need to talk about Clary. Jace asks Simon to lie to protect Clary - go out there and tell the Shadowhunters that she decided not to come to Alicante. They’re leaving now, not like this evening like Clary thinks. Magnus is there to open the Portal, but Madeleine is not coming with them, she’s only there to make sure the Portal closes once they’re through. Simon gets angry, he and Jace don’t like each other at the best of times, and right after Simon and Clary have broken up is not the best of times. Jace reveals that he has lied to the Clave about what Clary can do with runes. Only he, Simon, Luke, and Magnus know what really happened on the boat. If the Clave found out, they would want Clary to fight for them, and she isn’t trained to do that. Jace would prefer to hide that she can create new runes too, but other people already know about that. Simon accuses Jace of not wanting to tell the Clave because he doesn’t want to share Clary, he wants to keep her all to himself, but then Jace hears something weird and runs back to the group with Simon right behind him. They find the Shadowhunters fighting something that Simon thinks at first are demons, but it’s full daylight. The Forsaken. Magnus opens the Portal and tells them to go through. Maryse carries Max through, followed by Alec holding Izzy’s hand. A Forsaken swings a knife at Izzy just before she walks through the portal and Simon steps forward to help, but trips on something laying on the ground. Madeleine’s body. Jace yells at Simon to move as a Forsaken leans over him, swinging a knife down. Simon moves, but not fast enough. Clary arrives at the Institute with Luke behind her, carrying her suitcase, but it smells wrong. Like fire. Magnus comes out of the shadows and tells her the smell is hellmist, a demonic smoke that mutes certain magics. He tells them that the Institute was attacked, the hellmist allowed the Forsaken to sneak up on them and Magnus couldn’t fight them because of it. He had to open a Portal to get the Shadowhunters through, but Madeleine didn’t make it. Clary is upset. She wanted to help her mother. Ragnor is expecting her, but Magnus says he can send Ragnor a message to expect Jace instead. That doesn’t help Clary’s disappointment, she needs a moment by herself. She walks outside and remembers the Portals she’s seen in the past. Only warlocks can create them, but they’re made with runes; she can write runes. She draws on the side of the building, making her own Portal (even though Magnus has already said you can’t portal into Alicante directly and you need to have a special license to open a portal into Idris at all). She pictures the little bit of Idris that she has seen, even though it was only through Jace’s mirror shard. Luke comes to check on her and yells that it’s not safe. The wards will kill her! He grabs her arm as she steps through and he doesn’t let go. Simon wakes up with Isabelle hovering nearby. He remembers for a moment how much he liked her before she got him turned into a rat. Jace killed the Forsaken that stabbed Simon and then drug him through the portal directly into Alicante – which is very much against the Law. Simon lost a lot of blood, but Jace saved his life. That’s twice now. Maryse is going to speak to the Clave about what Jace has done, believing it will be better to explain in person. When Jace comes out, Simon begs him to make Izzy leave, not explaining till after that he needs blood to replace what he’s lost. Jace already thought of that and squeezed what he could out of a steak, bringing the bowl to Simon. Simon sees the city of Alicante out the window, the only real city in Idris, and Jace points out the demon towers that control the wards. Because of them, demons cannot get in. Izzy comes back soon, telling Jace that Alec needs to speak with him about Simon before heading to the Gard, Simon joins Jace when he goes downstairs. Clary flies through the portal toward a silver surface that looks like a mirror but turns out it is a lake; Luke is right behind her. She starts to drown but Luke pulls her to the shore and beats her back to get the water out of her system. He asks her if she ingested any more water (as if she would know) and wants her to use her stele (she thinks she dropped it in the lake). At first, he was worried. But now that she’s not dying, he’s very mad. She had no idea what she was doing or where she was going, and she just broke the Laws - just because she was left behind and decided to throw a temper tantrum. They are soaked, freezing, and miles away from Alicante. Clary asks if they can hitch a ride to the city, because she doesn’t actually know anything about Idris, and is told that anything mechanical doesn’t work in Idris because of the wards. So there are no cars, and they better start walking. On the way, he needs to tell her something else. The lake, Lake Lyn, is where legend says Raziel appeared to give Jonathan Shadowhunter the Mortal Instruments. Ever since Raziel rose out of the waters, Shadowhunters cannot drink from the lake. Downworlders can, the Fair Folk say it gives them true visions and call it the Mirror of Dreams, but Shadowhunters who take in the water will have fever and hallucinations. It can be very dangerous. So Luke is going to take Clary to someone in Alicante who can help her. She points out that he’s not allowed in Alicante, but he tells her some Laws are meant to be broken. Jace takes Simon downstairs, where Alec is lording about because the adults put him in charge and he’s going to make sure everyone knows about it. He needs to take Maryse’s things to the Gard, the official meeting place of the Clave, while she speaks to the Clave, and Alec tells Jace to make sure that Simon doesn’t leave the house. Simon is told that they’re in the Penhallow home, an old wealthy Shadowhunter family, Jia Penhallow used to run the Beijing Institute. He’s introduced to Jia’s daughter, Aline, and Sebastian Verlac, Aline’s cousin. Aline is curious about Simon but also very prejudiced, she won’t even shake his hands, citing that he doesn’t have a soul. Sebastian is more welcoming and a bit embarrassed by his cousin, and Simon notes that Sebastian’s expressions and words are mild but there is something underneath that Simon can’t quite read. Sebastian was raised by his father’s sister in the Paris Institute after his own parents were killed raiding a demon nest. He’s much more worldly than his Idris cousin, more used to Downworlders. He can even speak French, Russian, Italian, and a little Romanian! Jace mentions that not many people speak Romanian, lying that he only speaks a little of the language himself. The Clave is currently in session to discuss Valentine, who is likely going after the Mirror, but the problem is no one knows where the Mirror is or even what it looks like. Aline wonders why Clary didn’t come, she wanted to meet her, and Jace says she wanted to stay with her mother. Simon prepares to tell everyone the truth, but Jace interrupts him and shuffles him out of the room to speak in private. As they walk, Luke gives Clary a tour of Idris. They pass Brocelind Forest, which has always been a hiding place for Downworlders, but much of it was cut down to clear them out. They pass the Necropolis, where family plots stand for the Shadowhunters. Clary sees Herondale and thinks of the Inquisitor, and then she sees the Fairchild tomb. Her mother’s name is written at the bottom. “Jocelyn Morgenstern, B. Fairchild.” The Clave didn’t know until recently that she wasn’t dead. Clary looks up and sees her own headstone that indicates she will die that year. She’s starting to hallucinate. Luke says they need to hurry. Jace shoves Simon into a room and kicks Max out of it. He already explained to Simon why Clary cannot come to Alicante, if Sijmon tells the Shadowhunters that she wanted to come, they will arrange for her arrival. Simon asks what Jace’s problem is. Sometimes he acts like all he cares about is Clary but downstairs he flirted with Aline. If Jace wants Simon to lie about Clary, he has to agree to Simon’s terms. He will stop stringing Clary along and tell her he only wants to be her brother. Jace surprises Simon by saying he already did that. Perfect, but there’s one other thing. When Clary blew up Valentine’s boat, Valentine said something. “Mene mene tekel upharsin.” Simon wants to know what it means. Jace explains that it’s from the Old Testament and basically means things are changing. A portent of doom. Angels alone have the power to create new runes, Clary being able to do that and make her runes so powerful changes everything the Shadowhunters believe. Things are changing, the Laws will need to change, and the world the Shadowhunters know may be ending. The rebellion of the angels split heaven in half – creating heaven and hell. This is the Shadowhunters version of the same thing and only one side can win – Valentine wants to make sure it’s his. Clary can see Alicante, which is good because she has a full-blown fever now. Luke points out the North Gate - where they would go if they were on official business and had the proper paperwork. They walk along the east side of the city instead, Luke points her to an alleyway between houses and they walk through the walls into the city. They need to get off the streets. Since most people are at the meeting, his presence is very noticeable, and they could be in real trouble if he’s recognized. They pass a weapons shop and Clary notices there aren’t any guns. Luke explains that the runes stop the guns from igniting though no one knows why. Shadowhunters been known to use a gun on werewolves though, since they only need silver bullets to kill them, no runes necessary. Clary’s hallucinations get worse; Luke ends up carrying Clary the rest of the way. He knocks on a door and is answered by Amatis. He tells Amatis “it’s me” and she recognizes him but tries to get him to leave, he can’t be there. But he’s not there for him, he’s there for Jocelyn’s daughter. Amatis lets them inside. Simon sits back downstairs with the four young Shadowhunters (and Max) when Alec comes in. He’s supposed to bring Simon to the Gard; they’re sending him back to New York. Jace wants to make sure that Alec will make sure everything’s all right, and he and Alec share a long look. Simon doesn’t understand what the look means, but finally Jace looks at Simon instead – congratulating him on getting to go home. On the way to the Gard, Simon comments that it must suck having to be the one to escort him, but Alec disagrees. He’s an adult, he needs to be responsible. Plus, the Consul knows him. The Consul is a high officer in the Clave. He interprets the Laws, advises the Inquisitor (there’s a new one, Inquisitor Aldertree), and counts the Council votes. Simon tries to make conversation, which Alec is highly suspicious of. Talk turns to Jace and Clary, and Alec reveals that he is learning from Simon’s mistakes and will not be telling Jace the truth about how he feels. Simon asks about Magnus, but Alec doesn’t think Magnus likes him that much. He barely spoke to him at the Portal. When they get to the Gard, Simon is surprised to find that the witch-lights hurt his eyes. They’re greeted by the Consul, Malachi Dieudonne, who is rude and doesn’t quite believe that Jace needed to bring Simon through the Portal. Alec asks for specifics and is told that Magnus will be waiting for Simon in Manhattan. Alec doesn’t look totally convinced, especially when Malachi interrupts Simon and calls him “Downworlder”. But they’re joined by the new Inquisitor, who ushers Simon forward in a much more congenial manner, while dismissing Alec completely and sending Malachi to escort Alec out. But neither Alec nor Simon feel comfortable, and Alec stares at the two of them as Aldertree leads Simon away. Clary drifts in and out of consciousness. She can hear Amatis and Luke speaking in between her dreams. Dreams of Lake Lyn with fire reflected on its surface, and angels with bloodied and broken wings walking across it, all with Jace’s face. There are more angels with wings of black. She is awake for long enough to learn she’s been calling out for Jace, but Luke doesn’t think he should be called from the Penhallow’s. She dreams of Alec and Isabelle after a battle, a faceless man with a bat’s wings. Luke forces her to drink and the visions stop. She sees Amatis and Luke leaning over her and notices their eyes are the same color. Luke says that Amatis is his sister. The Inquisitor leads Simon through the Gard, falling silent as soon as they’re out of earshot of Alec and Malachi. They pass the meeting of the Clave, Simon overhears that the Shadowhunters want retribution against Valentine, and that Valentine has completed the Ritual – the body of a young werewolf was found drained of blood outside of Brocelind Forest. The Inquisitor brings Simon into a room and bolts it locked behind him. He wants to ask Simon a few questions. He wants to know who Simon was turned by, but Simon isn’t sure. There was a whole bunch of vampires there. Aldertree says it looks like Simon wanted to be a vampire, just walking into the lair like that. Moreso, how did Simon rise again. Usually, the vampires would burn the body to prevent it. He must’ve drunk the blood of one of them, who is his vampire sire? About now, Simon realizes there is no Portal. Shadowhunters burst in and grab Simon, blindfolding him with a black hood over his face. They drag him downstairs and throw him into a runed cell made specifically for him, there’s a Star of David inside a circle with a bunch of runes on the knob of the cell door. Someone speaks nearby, from the cell next to him. The voice says the runes on the knob are the Seal of Soloman. It is claimed that the seal holds the True Names of God, and it repels demons and vampires. The voice calls Simon “Daylighter”. It’s sure the Shadowhunters have made some excuse for Simon to go missing – a school trip out of town, trip to visit family, etc. The Shadowhunters have been down there half the day trying to rig the cell to keep Simon inside of it. Simon realizes he’s not going home. Jace is waiting on the steps of the Penhallow house when Alec gets there and says Simon went with the Inquisitor. Jace is upset that Alec didn’t wait to see that Simon was sent through the Portal himself (he really doesn’t trust the Clave right now) but Alec insists that it’s okay. They have to trust the Clave, or everything will turn to chaos. Jace tells Alec that he better be right before storming off. Alec decides to send a note to Magnus; there’s no reason not to double check. Clary wakes up the next morning and Amatis tells her that Luke has left the city, he went to speak to his old pack in Brocelind Forest but didn’t mention why. Clary wants to get out of the house to find Jace, but Amatis doesn’t think it’s a good idea. She tells Clary that they are all preparing for a strike from Valentine at any moment. Ragnor will not be found unless he’s ready to be found, and the majority of the world’s Shadowhunters are in Alicante at this moment, and Clary has broken their Laws by coming here the way she did - they will not let that slide. Plus, Clary is recovering and the Lightwoods, if they knew she were here, would turn her in to the Clave. Clary doesn’t think they would, they aren’t the same Lightwoods that Amatis knew years ago, but she knows that Amatis won’t be convinced. Remembering that Amatis’ last name is Herondale, she asks if Amatis was related to the Inquisitor. She was, Amatis was married to Imogen’s son Stephen. They joined the Circle together shortly before Luke was turned and Stephen became Valentine’s second-in-command. He convinced Stephen to annul their marriage, because Amatis was Luke’s sister, and marry the docile, obedient Celine. Stephen left Amatis the house and moved back into the Herondale manor with his new wife. Amatis left the Circle and they abandoned her completely, the only one to visit her was Jocelyn. The Clave made Imogen the Inquisitor because the Circle had taken everything from her, and they were right to think that no one would hunt down the Circle more ruthlessly than she would. Amatis points to a trunk of clothes that she says may fit Clary and she leaves the room after Clary says she needs to rest. Clary immediately sifts through the trunk, finding school clothes, a wedding dress, and a silver gown. Underneath it all sits Shadowhunter gear. Clary puts on the gear and crawls onto the window ledge. Simon is brought back in front of the Inquisitor. He tries to catch a glimpse of his neighbor on the way but only sees a pile of old rags. The Inquisitor gives him a cup of blood (Simon tries to resist but he’s very thirsty) and watches as Simon stands in the sun. He asks questions about Simon’s ability. Simon says he wasn’t always able to stand in the sun; it happened only after the battle on Valentine’s ship. Aldertree asks if anything happened on the ship that could have led to this. Simon realizes… Jace’s blood. But he doesn’t say anything, he claims instead that he may have been drugged - he doesn’t remember anything between being knocked out by Valentine and waking up on Luke’s truck. That’s inconvenient for Aldertree. He points out that some members of the Clave are not as understanding as the Lightwoods and suspect that Simon, who is able to walk in the sun and just so happened to find himself smack dap in the center of Alicante, is working as a spy for Valentine. The Council is not listening to him or Malachi, especially not after what happened with Imogen, and the Clave is split down the middle – at war with itself. He tells Simon a story. The Lightwoods were once in the Circle; they were granted mercy when they recanted provided they stayed out of Idris and were sent to New York to run the Institute. Their record has been spotless, and they’ve won the trust of the Clave back. But maybe they always knew Valentine was alive and were loyal to him, waiting for him to return. They took in his son, helped him find the Mortal Instruments, and assisted him with the Ritual of Infernal Conversion. They arranged to have Imogen Herondale killed when she realized what they’d done and now, they come to the Clave to spy for Valentine so he can finally force the Shadowhunters to follow his grand plan. And they’ve brought Simon with them as a distraction. Simon, who also has a sarcastic streak, tells him this theory has more holes than Kent Avenue has potholes. Aldertree reveals that some must be sacrificed in the name of a greater cause and the Lightwoods may need to be the sacrifice. He’s here to bring the Shadowhunters back together - even if his story isn’t true, it sounds pretty good. Probably the Lightwood kids will be fine anyway, or at least the younger two. The Clave needs someone to blame and he’s going to give it to them. He demands that Simon confess to this story but Simon refuses. He can picture the Lightwoods. Alec, Isabelle, Max, even Jace. None of them deserve this. He will not support this lie. So, the Inquisitor sends him back to his cell to starve. He won’t be getting any more blood until his answer changes. Clary wades into Alicante and eventually gets directions to the Penhallow house. When Isabelle answers the door and sees Clary, her face falls. Simon is returned to his cell, and the voice speaks to him again. He tells Simon that the Downworlders have legends of creatures like Simon, which is why he keeps calling him “Daylighter”, but he’s surprised the Lightwoods allowed Simon to be taken. The Shadowhunters that live outside of Idris tend to be a lot more tolerant than the ones who stay local. He wants to know what Aldertree wants from Simon, but Simon wants to know who the voice is. He says he’s Samuel Blackburn. He was in the Circle with Valentine and slaughtered Downworlders at the Uprising. He is Nephilim but he is not one of them. He slipped out of Idris after the Uprising and avoided capture, staying away for years. He thought it was safe to return but he was immediately brought in front of Inquisitor Herondale and interrogated for days. He’s been in his cell since then. He’s different from the others – even the Lightwoods and the Penhallows who recanted. He’s more afraid of Valentine than the Clave. He warns Simon that he should be too. Isabelle tells Clary she isn’t supposed to be here, is this about Simon? Did she have permission to come? Did she break the Law? She tries to convince Clary to go back to New York, saying that Jace had his reasons for not wanting her to come here, but Clary is really angry and wants to know exactly what Jace was thinking. She storms past Izzy towards the stairs, but Izzy calls in reinforcements and, without even knowing what’s happened, Sebastian blocks Clary’s path when Isabelle asks him to. Clary has never met Sebastian before, but he seems familiar. Clary isn’t giving up on seeing Jace so finally Isabelle relents. She says that Clary always does exactly what she wants regardless of who it hurts anyway. That hurts. Clary runs into Max first and tells him she can’t talk right now, his face falls. He’s always being told to leave, and no one has time for him because he’s so young. He points to where Jace is. Clary storms into the room Max pointed to and finds something she never expected. Jace in a passionate embrace with a dark-haired girl, Aline. Clary tries to back out of the room before she’s noticed but she accidentally slams the door shut. Aline looks confused as she buttons up her shirt, until she’s told who Clary is, but Jace looks terrible. Circles under his eyes and his fingernails bitten down. But worse, he looks like he doesn’t want to see Clary. Which is because he doesn’t. Pretty soon Alec comes in – he really needs to talk to Jace about something, but Jace is just as unwilling to speak to him as he is to Clary, and then Isabelle follows and everyone is talking and its madness. Until Jace tells Clary that she is reckless and acts without thinking. That’s the real reason he didn’t want her here. Because she acts first without any regard for who she is putting in danger or how they will get hurt. She turns to leave, telling him that she didn’t believe he was Valentine’s son at first because they were so different. But now she can see it. Simon tells Samuel Pangborn what the Clave is asking him to do – lie and blame the Lightwoods or they will starve him. He gets a little information about Shadowhunter society. All the best Shadowhunter families were involved in the Circle. All the richest, most well-known of them. Technically yes, all the Shadowhunters are paid by the Clave the same wage, if you run an Institute, you receive more compensation. But there is another way to make money called spoils. A Shadowhunter who kills a demon or Downworlder takes whatever possessions they have. It’s why some families are so much richer than others. Of course, even if Simon lied to the Clave, there’s every chance that Valentine would kill him anyway, just to make sure the truth didn’t come out. If it were Samuel, he’d probably lie to try to save himself. But then, he’s not the best person to get moral advice from. As soon as Clary is gone, Isabelle asks Jace why he treated Clary that way. He destroyed her, which he knows but he insists it is for the best. Isabelle doesn’t doubt it’s best for Clary to go home, but will Jace be able to live with what he just did. Jace turns on Alec, what was so important that he needed to tell Jace. After speaking last night, Alec sent a fire message to Magnus who told him that he had not met Simon and that no one in New York had used a Portal since Clary did. So, Alec went to the Gard with Maryse this morning intent on asking Malachi, but as soon as he saw the Consul Alec hid behind an alcove. He doesn’t really know why. He heard Malachi discussing Simon and how he was put in the dungeons. How stupid they were to believe that Simon would be sent back. And how audacious Jace was to bring him through in the first place. Jace realizes that if it had been anyone but him to save Simon, Simon may be back in New York right now. He punches one of the library windows, breaking it to pieces and cutting his hand up. Clary runs out of the Penhallow house, but Sebastian comes after her. Something about him seems so familiar to her, and he kind of reminds her of Jace – but not because they look alike. Sebastian has very black hair and dark eyes, Jace is very blonde. Sebastian offers to walk her back home, so she tells him she’s staying with Amatis Herondale. Alec brings out bandages for Jace’s hand, refusing to heal him with an iratze. He wants to know why Jace is acting this way, why he is punishing himself. He is hurting everyone, but Jace can’t help the way he feels about Clary. Alec sees the way he looks at her. Maybe he’s so mad because she’s the first thing he’s ever really been denied. Instead of answering, Jace asks what is between Magnus and Alec, but Alec says it’s nothing… at least not anymore. Jace says he hopes that isn’t because of him. He knows that Alec thinks he’s in love with Jace but he’s not. Jace is just an easy excuse, a safe excuse when he doesn’t want to admit who he really has feelings about. Alec is angry, but Jace tells him what the Seelie Queen once said. “Love makes us liars.” And although Alec isn’t really in love with him, Jace does need him to lie for him. Tell everyone he’s not feeling well and he’s not going to come downstairs today. In reality, Jace is going to break Simon out of jail. Sebastian walks Clary back to Amatis’ house and they talk. Does she like her brother? She says she does but he’s always trying to tell her what to do. Sebastian points out that it doesn’t matter much, she seems to do what she wants anyway. He likes Jace, but it doesn’t seem like Jace likes him much. Sebastian asks why she came to Alicante even though Jace didn’t want her to, but she doesn’t answer. They discuss the Circle instead. Aline’s dad was involved but left the Circle early, fleeing to Beijing and meeting Aline’s mom. Sebastian’s mom, his younger sister, was sent to Paris where she met Sebastian’s dad, but they died and he was raised by his dad’s sister, Elodie. The Lightwoods have always been grateful to the Penhallows because they voted for leniency for the Lightwoods. When she sees Amatis’ house, Sebastian tells Clary that he’d like to know her better, but she doesn’t really have the capacity for that right now. She walks away before turning back around and giving him the answer to his prior question: Ragnor Fell is the only person who can save her mom. She’s here to find him, but she doesn’t know where to start. Clary climbs a trellis to get back to her window, but Amatis is inside waiting for her. She asks Clary to come downstairs. Amatis was really hoping to be able to take care of Clary well and not disappoint Luke again. She explains, self-loathingly, that when Luke was first bitten, he came to her. Valentine was always taking stupid risks with his followers, so of course they got injured, and Luke was scared. Scared he had been infected and if he were, that Valentine would kill him. Amatis had kicked Luke out of her house and told him maybe his death would be for the best. She’s ashamed – Luke was so good! Only after Jocelyn convinced Amatis that Luke wasn’t different would Amatis shelter him in her cellar, locking him in when he changed. But the damage was already done, and he didn’t trust her any longer. Amatis explains that there is always something you can do, choices you can make, even when it feels like there are none. She tells Clary she’s welcome to come and go as she pleases. Clearly, Clary is going to do that anyway. Clary runs to her room and cries. Everyone is mad at her and she’s beginning to think that Jace was right. Simon wakes up to Jace whispering his name through the cell window. After a brief argument, Jace says he’s breaking Simon out and will get him to the only Portal inside of Alicante, which is in the Gard. Simon tells Jace to wait. Aldertree is trying to pin everything on the Lightwoods and make them look guilty. If Jace breaks him out, Aldertree will know it was him and it will come back on the Lightwoods. Simon decides to stay in his cell for now, but he does need something from Jace. He needs blood, but not human blood, he won’t drink from another human - not even Jace. Jace asks if Simon told Aldertree that Jace gave him blood. When Simon says no, he tells Simon not to protect him. Protect the Lightwoods, but not him. He doesn’t deserve it. Clary wakes up when Sebastian throws pebbles at her window and speaks to him at the front door. He wants her to get dressed; they’re going to spend the day together. She tells him she can’t. She really can’t leave the house today after the talk she and Amatis had, but then he tells her he knows where to find Ragnor Fell. She runs upstairs and gets dressed but at least leaves Amatis a note before leaving. Sebastian tells her that Ragnor Fell lives not too far outside the city, but too far to walk, so they’ll get a ride. She tells him again that her mission is a secret, but he promises that her secret will be kept by who they’ll get their ride from. Because it’s a horse named Wayfarer. A lot of Shadowhunter families keep horses in the Alicante stables. Clary doesn’t know how to ride, so she will have to sit in front of Sebastian. He explains that his Aunt Elodie discovered where they could find Ragnor Fell. On the way, they discuss Jace more. Clary says Jace has mixed feelings about Valentine since he was raised by him, but Sebastian says Valentine is a monster. He thinks it is impossible that Valentine would have ever shown Jace love or kindness. When Clary says Valentine probably did love Jace in his own way, Sebastian interrupts her. That’s not possible. They make it to a glade where Sebastian tells Clary to concentrate. Glamours in Idris are more powerful than elsewhere. When she does, she sees a little cottage with a plume of smoke coming out of the chimney in the shape of a question mark. But it’s not Ragnor Fell that comes out to meet them, but Magnus Bane. Before Clary can reveal who he is, Magnus freezes Sebastian and tells Clary to come inside. She sees that the place has been ransacked. Magnus explains that Sebastian needs to think he is Ragnor. Ragnor asked Magnus the night before to come see him, but this is how Magnus found his home the next morning - torn apart and stinking of something demonic. Someone came to Ragnor’s cottage, broke in, killed him, and ransacked it – and Magnus knows why. Ragnor left him a magical message on the walls. They were looking for the Book of the White. Valentine knew that Jocelyn had placed herself in the coma to prevent the book from coming to him. The spell she used and its antidote are both in that book, which Ragnor knows Jocelyn hid in the Wayland manor, disguised as a book of cooking recipes. The Wayland manor is warded, but probably not to Jace. Clary insists that Jace won’t help her, but Magnus disagrees. He doesn’t think there’s much Jace wouldn’t do for Clary. Speaking of relationships – what about him and Alec? Magnus insists that they don’t have a relationship. The fire message Alec sent was addressed to “Warlock Bane”. They go back outside and Magnus unfreezes Sebastian, then Magnus as Ragnor tells them to get lost – he has no interest in helping Nephilim. Clary insists they should go even as Sebastian tries to convince Magnus/Ragnor. As they leave, Sebastian apologizes. He didn’t think Ragnor would be so adverse to helping her. But while they’re out, he has something else to show her. He takes her to the ruins of the Fairchild manor and Clary runs to where the house once stood. She’s crying and Sebastian is sorry, but she tells him she’s glad he brought her here. He kisses her and she puts her fingers in his hair, but all she can think of is Jace. She tries to shut those thoughts down but it’s no good. Worse than that, she gets a feeling of utter wrongness. Not because of Jace but something else. She pushes Sebastian away and he apologizes again. He didn’t want to scare her, but they had such a connection. She doesn’t confirm that she felt any connection, almost denying it, and Sebastian’s face changes. He gets angry and grabs Clary until she says he’s hurting her. He snaps out of it and apologizes again. She says that they should return to Alicante, it’s getting dark, but she sees that his fingers have left marks on her wrists and her fingers are now stained black. As they walk back to Wayfarer, Sebastian apologizes for saying anything negative about Jace (he had implied that Jace would hurt Clary if she were involved with anyone). He knows that Jace is visiting the vampire prisoner for Clary’s sake. Wait back up, what does he mean “vampire prisoner”? Simon wakes up to find a thermos of cow’s blood shoved through the bars of his cell window by Izzy. He takes a few gulps and turns around to find Raphael standing in the middle of his cell. Well, a projection of Raphael. Apparently, Simon is supposed to tell the local vampire leader if he’s leaving the area and since Camille is still not back, that would be Raphael. He heard another rumor too: that Simon drank Shadowhunter blood to give him his new ability, but Simon claims that isn’t true. Vampires would know by now if Shadowhunter blood allowed them to walk in the sun. Raphael tells him that there’s not a Downworlder in the world that doesn’t want to get their hands on Simon right now, and that includes him. But Raphael thinks that Simon is a danger to all vampires. He promises not to hurt Simon if Simon gives up everything in his past life and goes into hiding where no one will find him. Simon insists he can’t leave his family or Clary, and Raphael insists that that is the problem. Raphael may go visit his own family every Sunday, but he knows that he is dead. Simon can’t face the fact that he’s no longer alive. When Clary arrives back at Amatis’ house, Jace is waiting for her. She can see his hand is injured (Alec is forcing him to heal like a mundane as punishment) and Jace apologizes to her. But he asks her again to return to New York, it is not safe for her in Alicante right now. She spent the day with Sebastian, who told her a bunch of stuff, and Jace wonders why she’s trusting a guy she has known for only a few hours. Clary accuses him of handing Simon over to the Clave to throw in jail, but he explains what happened: that he asked Simon to meet him in the hopes that Simon would convince her to stay in New York but they were attacked and he brought Simon through the Portal to save him, they took Simon to the Gard to be returned to New York. Clary is angry that he believed that the Shadowhunters would return Simon, but Jace insists that not all Shadowhunters are the Inquisitor. Or at least, they’re not supposed to be. But now Simon is in a jail cell, and he’s remembering all the things that Valentine told him about the corruptness of the Clave. Maybe Valentine was right. Jace also tells her that he offered to break Simon out, but Simon said no, he tells her the new Inquisitor’s scheme to frame the Lightwoods. Clary says what they need is an alibi. Somewhere that the Lightwoods would be very visible while Magnus broke Simon out of jail. Magnus might help them do it for the Book of the White. She tells him about what she learned today, and he remembers the book in the library (it was the only cookbook in the whole house), that hides the Book of the White. He agrees to take Clary to Wayland manor but it’s far, it will take hours to walk there. Clary brings out her stele, that won’t be necessary. Samuel Pangborn is impressed by the caliber of Simon’s visitors: Morgansterns, Lightwoods, the head vampire of New York. Simon promises that they will get Samuel out too, when Simon is rescued, but Pangborn doesn’t think Jace will want to break him out. And it doesn’t really matter. Soon enough, Valentine will attack the city and they’ll all be dead. It is said that demons can’t get past the Alicante wards, but Valentine intends to destroy those wards – all it takes is a little demon blood from inside of Alicante. Valentine claimed he’d found a way to do that and Samuel believes him. In his defense, Samuel did try to warn the Clave but all they did was throw him into this cell. Clary opens a Portal in Amatis’ kitchen, and they go to Wayland manor. Jace leads her to the library and Clary is struck by how big the house is, and how empty. It must’ve been very lonely. He quickly locates Recipes for Housewives and Clary opens the book to find the Book of the White tucked inside it, where the pages have been carved out. He explains that he was only allowed to read what was assigned to him. He once read a book he wasn’t supposed to, it turned out to be a journal of Valentine’s full of notes of his son: Jonathan Christopher. It was the first time Jace knew his middle name. He was whipped with a belt when Valentine found out. Jace wasn’t allowed to touch the books here, so Clary knocks some over just for the hell of it. She invites Jace to do the same, he sweeps a whole shelf onto the floor. But then he hears something – the grinding of machinery coming from inside the wall. The stones of the wall in front of them groan as they separate, becoming a doorway leading to stairs that circle down. Jace doesn’t know anything about this stairwell. He leads Clary down the circular staircase that leads to a big square room. The floor is full of runes and pentagrams. And the occasional bone. They’re not all animal bones. In one corner of the room is a humped shape covered with a cloth. Jace pulls the cloth down and they find a man dressed in dirty rags with manacles at his wrists and ankles. Clary wonders how the man is alive but then she sees the wings. Jace tries to help the angel but is repelled back by the pentagram made of connected runes that the angel is inside. The angel looks at them. He has curling golden hair; his face is emaciated and his eyes are gone. He opens his mouth and a note comes out. He causes Clary to see a much younger Valentine in the cellar with an open book in his hand, chanting until the runed pentagram lit on fire and the angel appeared inside. The scene changes and Clary sees Valentine with Jocelyn next to him as he rages about the Accords. Valentine in trees in front of another pentagram, but in this one sits a woman with her face hidden in shadow. The Lady of Edom. She drips her blood into a cup and tells Valentine that a child with that blood will exceed the power of even the Greater Demons. But the blood will burn out his humanity with time. Clary sees a pregnant Jocelyn go to Ragnor Fell and tell him that Valentine used demon blood on their son. She sees Valentine torture the angel because he wouldn’t give him what he wants: his blood. She sees her mother hiding the Book of the White. And then they’re back in the cellar as Valentine speaks to the angel, Ithuriel. He asks why the angel Raziel created the Shadowhunters but did not give them the gifts of the Downworlders. How is it that Downworlders have greater powers than the Nephilim. He wants to know where the Mirror is. If Ithuriel tells him, Valentine will finally allow the angel to die. When the visions stop, she can hear the angel’s voice inside her head. These are not the first dreams he has sent to Clary. This is where the runes have been coming from, he sends her one now. Jace looks down at the runes making the pentagram, showing Clary that they’ve been carved into the stone. She uses her stele to change them from runes of binding to runes of opening. Ithuriel reaches out and takes Jace’s seraph blade, which he has named Ithuriel. The angel stabs himself in the heart – or where his heart would be if he were a man. The blade bursts into flame, then Ithuriel himself does the same. The angel becomes a pillar of smoke as the house starts to shake and they realize that the house is tied to the angel. If he’s gone, the house will collapse. Jace and Clary run up the stairs and into the library, jumping out of a window. Jace pushes Clary into a valley and covers her body with his own as the house falls. She reaches up to touch Jace’s face, and he tells her she shouldn’t touch him. He was given demon blood. It explains everything! Especially why he can’t seem to stay away from her. He doesn’t want to be just her brother; he was only with Aline to try to forget Clary. Being without her feels like he’s bleeding out. Problem is, Clary wants only him too. They kiss but Clary eventually stops him. He believes he wants her because he’s evil. He just wants another reason to hate himself and she won’t be that reason. If he can tell her that he doesn’t hate himself, they can go right back to what they were doing. But he can’t. And it’s going to be a long walk back to Alicante because Clary dropped Jace’s stele somewhere between the cellar and the valley. They walk through the night, for what feels like ages, but as they get closer to Alicante, they can see the lights of the city glowing. But something is wrong. Jace runs forward up a hill and when they get to the top, they see that the city is burning. Isabelle had started to get worried about Jace after he’d been gone for a while, although Alec told her he was probably fine. They asked Sebastian if Jace knew he’d spent the day with Clary today, but it’s not a secret. Sebastian would have told Jace himself if he’d asked. Isabelle liked Sebastian at first, mostly because he’s handsome. But he’s never anything but calm, and she doesn’t like that. Max comes into the room and takes his book from Sebastian, who is playing with it, and Sebastian leaves the room. Isabelle yells at Max for being rude, she’s taking her frustrations out on him, but Max only responds by asking why anyone would climb the demon towers. They wouldn’t, Aline says. There’s no reason to plus it’s illegal. But Max insists he saw someone climbing the towers. Alec tries to escort Max back to bed but suddenly, the window is blown in and a scaly hand grabs Aline, pulling her out of the window frame. Alec stays with Max as Isabelle jumps after Aline. She sees a demon bent over Aline’s body, but how is that possible? Demons can’t get into Alicante. Isabelle scares the demon off with her whip and Aline, who is not dead, is able to stand and stab it. Then Aline runs away. Isabelle follows, around the house to the front where she sees absolute mayhem. Demons are everywhere and the wards are dull and empty of magic. Simon hears the screams outside and then he hears the Shadowhunters talking. Instead of protecting the Gard, they’re leaving to get to the weakest of them, their children and parents in the city. Simon can smell smoke. Samuel sounds resigned. Valentine attacked while the Clave was in session and has now set fire to the Gard. No one is coming to save them. Alec finds Isabelle outside and brings her back to the Penhallow house. Sebastian is trying to cover the broken window by hammering planks of wood over it and Max is curled in the corner holding a wooden soldier. Alec tells Isabelle to stay here and protect Max while he finds Aline. Their parents should be back soon. He tells Sebastian to keep working to protect the house and Sebastian says he’s going to place protective runes as Alec leaves. Isabelle goes upstairs to get more weapons and her own stele to help Sebastian, but when she comes back downstairs, Sebastian and Max are gone. Sebastian calls her from the kitchen. She doesn’t see Max; the whole place is dark. Sebastian says he’s sorry, out of all of them he liked Isabelle the best. He thought she was the most like him. Then Sebastian swings his hammer down. Alec searches for Aline on the street but he can’t see much, so he climbs to a roof. He sees Shadowhunters running from the Gard, the Clave joining the fight, but then he starts running toward shooting blue sparks that he has definitely seen before. He finds Magnus fighting demons and drops down next to him, killing the demon that was about to kill Magnus. Alec wants to know why Magnus hasn’t called him back. They fight side by side as Alec asks again why Magnus didn’t call him back. Magnus tells Alec that he didn’t call because he is tired of Alec only wanting him when he wants something from him, tired of watching Alec be in love with someone who will never love Alec back the way that Magnus does. Alec is stunned, Magnus loves him? Why else does Magnus help Alec’s friends every time they need it, for no charge, and fought Valentine with him, but Alec won’t even tell his parents about Magnus. They watch as they’re surrounded by demons and Alec makes Magnus a deal. They survive this and he will introduce Magnus to his whole family. Clary doesn’t believe at first that Valentine is behind the fire in the city, but Jace explains that the North Gate is open and the wards are down – this is not normal. He plans to go to the city to help, but he asks Clary to stay here where she will be safer. Just then, a pack of werewolves comes running towards them, splitting to go around Clary and Jace as they run toward Alicante. Deciding that nowhere is safe right now, Jace brings Clary to Alicante with him. He tells Clary to stay with him. She wants to check on Simon, but Jace says the Gard should have been evacuated already. Before they can decide what to do next, they see a Behemoth demon come out of the upper window of a bakery and head straight toward them. It’s only semi-corporeal and able to reform every time it’s injured, though it seems to take more energy each time. Jace stabs it and the demon coats the seraph blade in ichor – the blade’s light goes out. Simon stabs the demon in the throat with her own seraph blade and as the demon starts to reform, a werewolf comes from behind Clary and shreds the demon to pieces. Jace wants to run – this is a werewolf! – but Clary reminds him that the wolf just helped them. They’re on the same side here. The wolf changes form and shifts into Maia! She explains that Luke got in contact with his New York pack as well as some others, having them meet him in Idris, telling them that the Shadowhunters were going to need their help. The werewolves have been helping fight the demons, and it’s a good thing they came too; the Shadowhunters needed the help. Clary says they need to get to where the Lightwoods are staying but Maia tells her they’ve been taking everyone to the Accords Hall. She saw Alec there already, with Magnus. Jace explains that the Hall is warded. When they arrive, they find parents huddled with children and a small group of werewolves standing to the side that Maia joins. Alec finds Jace and Clary and then Luke comes in and Clary has never been so happy to see him. While she gives him a hug, Malachi comes in behind them and blames Luke for this invasion. Luke explains that they didn’t invade Alicante – the werewolves are there to help. They came to prove a point. That to defeat Valentine the Clave will need the help of Downworlders, but Malachi insists that the Shadowhunters have never - and will never - need the help from Downworlders. Magnus points out that isn’t true, they’ve been happy enough to use warlocks whenever they needed. Malachi and Luke continue to argue, and Clary pulls Magnus aside to give him the Book of the White. Magnus is delighted but as they talk, Sebastian interrupts. He wants to speak to Clary. But then Alec sees Sebastian and demands to know why he is not with Isabelle and Max; Sebastian tells Alec that his parents came to the house and sent him to the Hall. Isabelle and Max are with them and they’re fine. Clary agrees to talk to Sebastian but both Alec and Jace watch him suspiciously. Sebastian pulls Clary by the arm, trying to lead her outside, but she pulls out of Sebastian’s grasp. His fighting leathers are still clean, but he has two scratches on his cheek that he says were given by a she-demon near the Penhallow house. She feels the wrongness again like she did when he kissed her. He wants to know why Clary just gave a warlock the Book of the White and she explains that the warlock is actually Magnus and he’s helping her get her mother back. She’s letting him keep the book. A dark look crosses Sebastian’s face quickly and he asks her why she would give a filthy Downworlder a powerful spell book, grabbing Clary’s wrist again. When she looks back at where Magnus stood next to Alec, he’s now gone, but Alec and Jace still scowl at Sebastian. Sebastian tries to convince Clary to come outside with him, but she insists she needs to wait here for Simon. Sebastian won’t let go of her wrist and tells her that the Clave abandoned the prisoners in the Gard. They aren’t bringing them to the Hall; it was too dangerous – the prisoners may have rejoined with Valentine. Clary tries to turn away but Sebastian blocks her, causing Jace and Alec to come forward. He promises to take her to the Gard and help get Simon out if she will just come with him, but Jace tells him to let Clary go. She doesn’t need to go anywhere with him. Jace tells Sebastian that he doesn’t know what it is, maybe it’s that Sebastian seems intent that everyone likes him, but Jace does not. If Clary wants to go to the Gard, he and Alec will go with her. Not Sebastian. Sebastian says it’s Clary’s choice who to go with, and Clary looks at them both and then back at Luke, still arguing with Malachi. She says she wants to go with her brother and a strange look flickers in Sebastian’s eyes, but it’s there and gone in just a moment. She gets another feeling of wrongness, but Sebastian steps aside. As she walks toward the doors with Alec and Jace, she realizes that her wrist burns where Sebastian grabbed her. But looking down, she only sees a small smear of his blood on her sleeve from where she had touched the cuts on his face and that rubbed against her wrist. Simon is trying to escape his cell. His hands are bloody from the effort, and he can hear Samuel next to him as he prays, and their cells fill with smoke. But then he can hear Clary’s voice coming from the window. They’ve come to rescue him. Jace does something that breaks the window apart and they’re able to pull Simon out. But Simon insists that he won’t leave Samuel even as Samuel screams at them to leave him alone. Jace kicks Samuel’s window in as well, climbing in to force Samuel out of the cell. Alec pulls the Nephilim man out, but Samuel won’t uncover his face. Jace stands, looking strangely at the man and demands that Samuel uncover his face. Samuel lowers his hands and Jace recognizes him. It’s Hodge. Jace is disgusted at the sight of Hodge and tries to storm away but Alec calls him back. Jace rounds on Hodge. How could he do that to him!? Hodge must have known this whole time who Jace was, but he just let Jace believe that he was Michael Wayland’s son. He never told him that he was the son of a monster. If he had, Jace might’ve been able to do something - like kill himself. Hodge tries to explain. He didn’t know, not for sure. The day that Jace showed up at the Institute, he received a note from Hugin that simply said, “He is my son.” What was Hodge supposed to do? His life had been taken away from him. He could not leave the Institute. Had no chance to find a wife or create a family of his own. He couldn’t have turned his back on Valentine even if he tried. When Valentine offered to remove the curse from him, Hodge would have been a fool to turn him down. But once released, Hodge came here to try to warn the Clave about Valentine. Valentine cannot get his hands on the last Mortal Instrument – the Mirror. And Hodge knows where the Mirror is. But when Hodge arrived, the Clave just threw him in a different jail cell, this time for being a collaborator of Valentine’s. Jace and Alec ask what Hodge knows of the Mirror. Hodge tells them that he has been through the history books over and over again, he always wondered why the pictures depicting Raziel gifting the Mortal Instruments to Jonathan Shadowhunter always showed Raziel rising from Lake Lyn holding the Sword in one hand and the Cup in the other. The Mirror was never pictured. That’s when Hodge realized that Lake Lyn is the Mirror. Jace wants to know what would happen if Valentine realized this as well, but Hodge doesn’t want to say. What happens if Valentine has all three Mortal Instruments? Jace threatens to cut off his fingers, pulling out his dagger, but before Hodge can tell him what would happen, a dagger imbeds itself in Hodge’s stomach. Alec and Clary are astounded, why would Jace do that, but it wasn’t Jace. Sebastian comes out from the shadows behind them. Jace and Alec move toward Hodge, but Simon can’t handle the smell of the blood. He has to leave, melting into the shadows. Hodge tries to tell Jace that he was never… but he doesn’t get the rest of the words out before he dies. Clary rounds on Sebastian. Why would he do that? Sebastian insists that whatever Hodge was going to say was a lie. He was in the Circle, betrayed the Clave, and was cursed. What happened when the Clave was lenient with Hodge - Hodge betrayed them again by giving the Mortal Cup to Valentine. Clary wonders how Sebastian knows so much about Hodge. Sebastian says he got worried about them since their rescue mission was taking too long, but Jace calls him a liar. Sebastian asks why Jace is so angry. Is it because he kissed Clary, because Clary wanted him to? Clary corrects Sebastian (she did not!) but Sebastian continues to taunt Jace. He’s so happy to finally be able to stop pretending that he could stand any of them. Jace is always mooning over his own sister or whining that his dad didn’t love him, while Clary is so stupid that she gave a warlock a priceless spell book. And don’t even get him started on Alec – they shouldn’t even let his kind into the Clave. Turns out, Sebastian is all kinds of prejudiced. Clary starts to put it together. Why would Sebastian pretend to like them unless he needed to be around them. Unless he was spying on them for Valentine. Ding ding ding! Jace attacks Sebastian, but Sebastian is not only equal to Jace, he is able to take Jace by the jacket and fling him through the air. Jace hits the wall of the Gard and crumples. Clary runs at Sebastian but Sebastian bats her away, hitting her hard in the side of the head and giving her a concussion. When Alec shoots his bow, Sebastian dodges the arrow easily and takes the bow from Alec, snapping it in half. Sebastian casually mentions how he’s already taken care of one Lightwood tonight; he’ll be pleased to take out a second one. Before he gets the chance, Simon jumps on Sebastian’s back and takes hold of his arm, sinking his fangs into Sebastian’s forearm and tearing his skin. Sebastian is able to fling Simon off and kicks him in the ribcage a couple times, but while they were scuffling, Jace got back to his feet and is now prepared to try to kill Sebastian with his seraph blades. Sebastian turns and runs into the darkness. They need to get to the Hall and tell someone important about what just happened. About the Mirror. Simon mentions that Sebastian’s blood tastes like poison. They make their way to the Hall as quickly as they can, and Clary realizes what a terrible mistake she made. She told Sebastian that she was looking for Ragnor Fell, he’s probably what killed the warlock. When they get closer to the Hall, they realize the demons are now gone. They overhear other Shadowhunters mention how the demons just left all of a sudden without warning and without any clear reason. Finally, Alec sees his family in the Hall and rushes toward them, followed by Jace. But Clary sees Jace stop dead in his tracks and looks at the family. Isabelle is sobbing in the arms of her mother and Robert is on the ground holding Max’s dead body. Alec stumbles forward and goes down to his knees to grab Max’s hand, but Jace is unable to move. Clary wants to run to Jace and comfort him, but she knows she’s the last person who could do that for him. Instead, she runs to the doors of the Hall and exits to the steps, desperate for fresh air. Clary wakes up from another dream – featuring angels and a rune that blinks at her but feels incomplete. After the demons left and the sun rose, Luke had arranged for the dead to be brought inside the Hall, Shadowhunters and werewolves alike. The werewolves are camped outside of the city (Maia is bringing Simon blood), but Luke is staying inside Alicante. She hasn’t heard from Magnus since he disappeared with The Book of the White. The Shadowhunters (and Luke) have been in unending meetings. Aline comes by Amatis’ house to speak to Clary. She says that they told Elodie in Paris what Sebastian had done, and she’d said it was completely unlike him. She sent them a picture of Sebastian and the person in the picture is not the same person who arrived in Alicante. None of the Penhallows had seen Sebastian since he was a child, and his aunt who raised him had stayed in Paris, so no one knew that the person here was not Sebastian Verlac, but someone else entirely. The real Sebastian’s whereabouts are unknown, and Clary is not very optimistic about them. In addition, Aline wants Clary to know that there is nothing between her and Jace. She kissed Jace as an experiment to see if he was her type. To see if any guy is her type. He was not – jury’s still out on the rest of them. Clary takes the pictures of Sebastian to the Clave meeting, where she is not supposed to be, and Luke comes over to speak to her. He’s hesitant to tell the Clave what Aline found out before he either knows the real identity of the fraudulent Sebastian or who Valentine’s spies are within the Clave. Before they can talk for long, Amatis gasps and points to the front of the room, where a Valentine walks forward. Aldertree loses it and attacks Valentine, but he passes right through Valentine’s body – it’s just a projection. Valentine takes full responsibility for what happened. He took the wards down and called the demons. He speaks now specifically to those who used to be within his Circle – what he predicted then is happening now. Alicante is being taken over by half-breeds who presume to lead them, he looks directly at Luke (the Clave has voted to keep Luke on as an advisor). But Luke points out that the Clave didn’t do that until Valentine acted against them. He ensured what he once predicted by betraying the Nephilim and giving them and the Downworlders something they’ve never had before. Something to unite them all. A common enemy. Amatis is compelled to speak as well. All Valentine has done is set them against each other. Shadowhunter against Shadowhunter. Shadowhunter against Downworlder. He has made the Clave the paranoid group that they are now when there used to be trust. There was once a time that they were all willing to listen to him, and they will never be able to change that. Amatis will never forgive herself for that. But they will not listen to him anymore – she calls for anyone who disagrees to step forward, but no one does. Valentine issues them an ultimatum. He will bring their reraised wards down again easily and summon every demon that he possibly can. He will not spare a single Nephilim. He will cull the whole group and start over fresh with the Mortal Sword. Unless… the Clave signs over the powers of the Council to him. All Shadowhunters will bow to his rule and complete sovereignty, swearing an oath to him and receiving a loyalty rune that will bind them to Valentine. Aldertree screams at him that he doesn’t make the rules, but Valentine doesn’t listen. Instead, he reaches inside Aldertree’s chest and gives his hand a sharp turn. Aldertree falls – dead. Valentine tells them they have until midnight the next day to agree to his terms, otherwise he will bring his army to Brocelind Plain. Clary and Simon go to tell Jace, Isabelle, and Alec what happened with Valentine, but Izzy won’t leave her room. She blames herself for Max’s death and didn’t even go to his funeral earlier that day (the reason none of the Lightwoods were at the Hall today). If Sebastian was working for Valentine and he overheard Hodge’s theory about Lake Lyn, it’s likely that he already told Valentine. The Clave has taken precautions to guard the lake, but none of them feel any safer. They wonder why Sebastian stayed around after the demons infiltrated Alicante. Why did he bother with Max and Isabelle at all, even if he thought he’d killed Isabelle too, why didn’t he run back to Valentine right away? Clary thinks he stayed because of her, she remembers how he kept trying to get her to go with him. Jace says Valentine probably wants her. He’s very interested in what Clary can do ever since the boat. Jace walks Clary back to Amatis’ house, but Simon stays and tries to get Isabelle to speak to him. Jace notices there is blood on the sleeve of Clary’s coat, but it isn’t hers. It’s Sebastian’s. Jace holds her wrist for a moment before letting her go and watching her walk into Amatis’ house. Clary doesn’t notice that Jace is holding a small piece of thread in one hand. Isabelle eventually lets Simon into her room when she realizes that he’s alone. She insists that Max’s death is her fault, even though she was unconscious at the time, because Max tried to warn them that he saw someone climbing the towers and she didn’t believe him. He died and she wasn’t there to protect him. No one was there to protect him. What she needs now is not to be told it isn’t her fault, because she knows without a doubt that it is. What she needs is to be distracted, she pushes Simon onto the bed. Clary is at Amatis’ house alone when she hears someone at her window and finds Jace. He has been walking all night, unable to sleep, and he found himself walking back to her. He wants her to know something. She probably already knows it, but he can’t keep pretending. He’s never known a girl that he still wanted to be around after getting to know her, until Clary. He’s been drawn to her since the beginning, unable to let her go, unable to stop feeling like he should be standing next to her. When Clary showed up to save him at Renwick’s, he knew for sure. He has felt like he was being punished ever since finding out the truth of their relationship. Clary says if he’s punished, she is too because she feels the same way. But stopping those feelings is the only way for them to be together at all. Because if they can’t learn to love each other like siblings, they will have to not have each other at all. Jace doesn’t think he can do that. He can’t watch her date or get married to someone else. He loves her and he will love her until he dies, and he will love her in the next life if there is one. Not because he’s a monster with demon blood, but in spite of that demon blood. If anything, it proves to him that he’s still human, at least a little bit. He apologizes to her, he shouldn’t have told her like this, but Valentine will be there with his army the next night and they will either be at war or under Valentine’s rule. Jace wanted Clary to know the truth and to spend what could be their last night alive with her. Clary invites him in and tucks him into bed. She lies next to him and they hold hands as they sleep. Luke sits with the small group of Shadowhunters that has agreed to listen to his plan. To bring the Shadowhunters and Downworlders together and fight united against Valentine, he is asking them to give four seats on their Council to Downworlders – one for the Fair Folk, one for the werewolves, one for the warlocks, and one for the vampires; so that each group has representation amongst the Clave. It is causing a lot of problems even within this group, the rest of them weren’t even willing to listen to Luke. He sees movement at the doors of the Hall. He meets Jace at the door and Jace asks how the meeting is going. Short answer – not well. But Luke’s arranged to have all the Downworlders he can meet them at the North Gate at dusk, so that if the Shadowhunters do agree, they can make it to Brocelind Plain in time. Jace came to see Luke specifically; to tell him that’s he’s going after Sebastian with the thread covered in his blood. Valentine will be expecting the rest of them to fight him, but he probably won’t know that Sebastian is being followed. And even if he does, if he realizes it is Jace, Jace may still be able to get close enough to Valentine to kill him. Luke tells Jace to make sure he can follow through on that plan, but Jace knows that won’t be a problem. After all the things Valentine did to him, he made sure that Jace would be able to kill him. The sun starts to rise and hits Jace in the face. He looks up frowning and Luke is reminded of someone he used to know. Not Valentine, but Luke can’t quite place who. Clary wakes up to find Jace gone, but a note with his ring is waiting for her. He left his ring for her and explained what he was doing. She walks into the kitchen to find Amatis, Simon, and Isabelle (the last two just got there). She asks for a moment alone with Isabelle and shows her Jace’s letter. Isabelle was worried Jace would do something like this, and she wishes he’d have taken somebody with him, but there’s not much they can do about it now. Jace is a warrior and if anyone can kill Vaentine, he can. Clary points out that Valentine does not care that Jace is his son, he will kill him, but Isabelle knows that already. Clary hits hard – saying that Isabelle doesn’t care as much about what happens to Jace as she cared about Max, but Isabelle yells that Max was a little boy. It is not the same. And she does care about Jace. Clary thinks Isabelle hates her, well she doesn’t. But she is worried about Jace because Jace has been different since meeting Clary. He never cared before, but he’s wanted to be with Clary ever since they met, going out of his way to make sure she and the people she cared about were safe. Because Jace loves her. Clary likes to pretend that she’s not a part of their world, only wanting to be a Shadowhunter when it’s convenient for her, and it’s going to get them all hurt. Isabelle heard what Jace said to Alec about not caring about what happens to him because he has nothing left to live for. She doesn’t hate Clary, but she does hope that if they survive this, none of them will ever see her again. Simon comes out, he heard most of what was said and tells Isabelle that Jace isn’t the only person that is hurting right now. Clary is too. Clary nearly tells them both about what they found out at Wayland manor - about Jace being given demon blood, but they’re interrupted by someone at the door. Clary’s mom. Clary has dreamed of seeing her mother awake again since she first found her asleep, but now that Jocelyn is standing in front of her, all she can think of are the lies that she was told. She asks her mother why she hid so much from her. Who her father was, that she had a brother, that she was a Shadowhunter. She took that all away from Clary and she had no right. Clary runs into the street. Jace rides on Wayfarer (Sebastian didn’t take him) to Wayland manor and then tracks Sebastian. The rune allows him to see clearly when he closes his eyes exactly where Sebastian is as Sebastian kneels by a stream and splashes water on his face. Jace puts the stele he took from Alec’s room back into his pocket and continues to ride. Clary runs to the top of a hill overlooking the Gard, where Simon finds her. They have the first real talk they’ve had in a while. She asks if he slept with Izzy (he didn’t, not that it’s any of her business anymore), and he tells her that he doesn’t dislike Jace. He hated him for a while at the beginning because he was jealous of the way Clary acted around Jace, and he was angry when they kissed, but it also made him see the truth. That Jace had real feelings for Clary, he wasn’t using her. And it’s not Jace or Clary’s fault that he was turned into a vampire. Simon went back to the Hotel Dumort without even realizing what he was doing. For the week before that, he’d been waking up in the street already walking there, as if he were called there somehow. Simon says that Luke wants her to come back to Amatis’ house – there’s important things being decided tonight. The Shadowhunters have until sundown to decide if they will work with the Downworlders or not. Clary thinks they will. She asks if Simon is hungry, but after feeding from Jace, he’s had enough of using his friends for that. They wonder if Jace’s blood is what makes Simon special, she and Jace definitely have blood that is “different”. He asks if she can make a rune that will kill Valentine but that’s not really how it works. She explains that the Gray Book has runes given to the Shadowhunters by Raziel, but there are runes that existed before that. Like the Mark of Cain, a rune of protection. She’s not sure she’s inventing runes at all, or if she’s remembering the old ones somehow. When dusk falls, the gates stay closed to the Downworlders gathering around them. Simon is astounded that the Shadowhunters really hate the Downworlders so much, but Clary doesn’t think that’s the problem entirely. They’re afraid of the Downworlders, and she realizes as she remembers Ithuriel’s memory of Valentine, jealous of their abilities. That’s when she understands the rune that she’s been seeing, the one she felt was incomplete. It is a binding rune. She rushes down the hill; she has to speak to the Clave. Once in front of the Hall, she climbs up so she can be seen. She can hear the whispers calling her Valentine’s daughter and she admits to them all that she is, though she didn’t know it herself until recently. They probably won’t believe her though. She tells them that she can create new runes, and they don’t believe that either, not even when Alec comes forward and corroborates her statement. They don’t believe her until Clary proves it by drawing a new rune. On the inside of her wrist, she marks herself with her stele, trusting herself to draw what she needs. The rune she gives herself makes the person looking at her see who they love the most in the world. Each person sees someone different. The Clave has already decided to submit to Valentine, but she insists they can’t do that. He will start by getting rid of the Downworlders, which is bad enough, but he won’t stop there. He will expand until anyone who has befriended, or dated, or employed a Downworlder is destroyed as well. Because he doesn’t believe that anyone who doesn’t see Downworlders as monsters is worthy of being Nephilim. But with the Downworlders’ help, they can destroy Valentine. Their fight is not with the Downworlders, but a mandate from heaven to protect the world from demons, which the Downworlders hate as well. Clary has a rune that will allow them to fight next to each other. It will tie each Shadowhunter to a Downworlder, allowing the Shadowhunter to use the Downworlder’s enhanced powers while allowing the Downworlder to share the Shadowhunter’s fighting skills and training. She asks them to please let her Mark them. The crowd just stares back at her silently. The Clave meets again; Clary and Simon wait on the steps of the Hall. Jocelyn comes out and speaks to her privately. She apologizes and tells Clary that she’s proud of her. She saw what she did with the rune and guessed what the rune did. She says that everyone else was speaking the names of other people, but she could only see Clary still. That’s how she figured it out. She also is ready to tell Clary the whole truth. She met Valentine when they were in school and everybody loved him. He was like a dazzling light and they fell in love, getting married when Jocelyn was eighteen and he was only a year older. They moved to the Fairchild estate and the Circle moved nearby. It was like being the center of their own universe. Valentine would tell Jocelyn that he valued her opinion, that her views were important. It didn’t start with Downworlders. At first, he only wanted to change the outdated laws of the Clave to be more flexible and fairer to everyone, which Jocelyn also wanted. He believed that Shadowhunters should not have to hide in the world but should be revered for what they were doing. Then Jocelyn got pregnant. She was so happy. Valentine was too; he couldn’t wait to train his child to be a warrior. Then when Luke got bitten, everything changed. Valentine didn’t want Jocelyn anywhere near Luke when Luke arrived at their house that night. Valentine drug him out to the woods and when he returned alone, he told Jocelyn that Luke was dead. She didn’t know then what Valentine had done. She became depressed – eating only enough to keep the baby safe and believing she was hearing strange noises anytime she managed to fall asleep. Valentine gave her sleeping tonics that made her have terrible dreams of Valentine stabbing her or holding her down or that she was choking on poison. Then she had the baby. Her mother was with her, and both Jocelyn’s mother and Valentine thought the baby was perfect. But when he opened his eyes, Jocelyn knew that something was wrong. Every bone in her body said that this was not her baby, that this was something unnatural and inhuman. But she was the only person that saw it. For a moment, she saw that Jonathan the baby had pitch black eyes. She felt like a monster afterward, what kind of mother is incapable of loving her own child? When she found out that Luke was alive, she knew that Valentine had lied to her. Clary says that Luke had said Jocelyn already knew that something was changing with Valentine. Jocelyn explains that Luke should never have been bitten, it was a routine patrol that night and he was with Valentine. She had gone to Luke the night before and told him she could hear screams in the manor and suspected that something terrible was happening. The very next day Luke was bitten. But Jocelyn only knows this now because Luke told her – Valentine made her forget all of that, anything that scared her. She doesn’t think they were bad dreams now, but things that happened that she was gaslit into believing were not real. She thinks Valentine made sure Luke got bit to separate Jocelyn from someone she trusted. When she saw Luke again, Jocelyn didn’t tell him about Jonathan. That night, she heard a baby cry. Jonathan never cried. Valentine was at a Circle meeting, so Jocelyn made her way to his room, but Jonathan was sleeping. Yet she could still hear the crying. She followed the sound to the cellar, but it wasn’t a baby she heard. Demon-creatures bound by chains, surrounded by the bodies of Downworlders either dying or already dead. Valentine was conducting experiments on them. She found a journal detailing those experiments as well as the ones Valentine had done on himself, trying to use demon blood as an amplifier for Shadowhunter abilities. She read that he’d decided the blood needed to be given to a child to work effectively – preferably one yet unborn. Then she saw the notes about herself and how Valentine had experimented on her while she was pregnant. What he’d done to their unborn baby. She realized then exactly what Valentine was, but she couldn’t leave right away. She knew he was planning the Uprising but couldn’t allow the slaughter of the Downworlders. That’s when she started meeting Luke. But she couldn’t tell anyone about what Valentine had done to Jonathan. She continued to act as normally as possible. Playdates for Alec and Jonathan, sometimes Celine Herondale would come with them – she was pregnant by then and very impressed by how attentive Valentine was to her. He was always giving her potions for the baby’s health. Jocelyn doesn’t think Celine knew what Valentine was doing when she killed herself. Valentine seemed distraught at the news. Jocelyn became paranoid that Valentine would learn about her plans to ruin the Uprising and went to Ragnor Fell, who created a potion for her. She hid the Book of the White in the Wayland’s library at a party after she had the potion. She told Madeleine how to bring her back if she ever took the potion. Madeleine had never been taken in by Valentine, she believed he was selfish and was therefore the only person Jocelyn could trust not to tell Valentine. The other reason Jocelyn didn’t leave Valentine then is because she was pregnant again and knew that Valentine would track her down if she left. In order to keep this new baby safe from him, she had to make sure Valentine died. She thought he would die in the Uprising and then tried to convince herself that he really had died in the fire, but deep down she always knew the truth. That’s why she took Clary’s memories. To try to hide her. Clary doesn’t understand about Jace though. The way Jocelyn describes her baby – Jace is no monster. Jocelyn tells her there’s more. When Valentine kidnapped her, she had taken the potion that put her to sleep already but she could still hear when Valentine talked to her. And he did talk. He apologized for what he’d done to Jonathan (while also blaming the way he acted on her betraying him). But Jocelyn also knows that Valentine injected himself with angel blood during the time that she got pregnant with Clary. She thinks that is why Clary can do special things with runes. Valentine would also talk about Jonathan. About how he was a great Shadowhunter, but also cruel and empty and unable to love his father. Jocelyn does not believe that it is Jace. She believes that Valentine was giving Celine Herondale potions and powders laced with the blood of angels so that Stephen’s child would be equal in strength to Jonathan, but without the bad qualities. She believes that with Hodge’s help, they cut the baby out of Celine after she committed suicide. That is why Valentine was not there when Jocelyn heard the news. He had Hodge take the Herondale baby to Hodge’s childhood home and care for it until the Uprising, when Valentine started to impersonate Michael Wayland and raise the baby himself. Jace is not Valentine’s son. He is not Jocelyn’s son. He is the son of Stephen and Celine Herondale. The bones in the Fairchild manor she believes belonged to the real Michael Wayland and his actual son. But Jocelyn knows that Jonathan is also still alive. Jace was raised at the Wayland manor while Jonathan was raised at the Hodge house near Lake Lyn. Though Jace never knew about Jonathan, the opposite may not be true. Clary and Jace both have angel blood, more angel blood than the average Shadowhunter. Valentine spent years training Jonathan to appear charming and amiable. Clary has met him. Jocelyn believes he was pretending to be Sebastian Verlac. She realized the truth when Luke told her that Sebastian destroyed the wards. He likely used his own blood to do it. Jonathan was blonde, but she has to think it was him anyway. Clary is pretty sure Sebastian was dying his hair, that’s what made her fingertips turn black when he kissed her. Clary jumps up, somebody needs to tell Jace that he’s not part demon. That he’s not her brother! But then Luke comes out. The Clave has agreed to be Marked. Jace makes it to the valley where he had seen Sebastian standing, but Sebastian is no longer there. And more so, he must’ve realized he was being tracked because when Jace tries again, all Jace sees is black. He lets the bloody thread go in the wind. There’s a farmhouse nearby, Jace decides to search it while he’s here. Inside he finds a pentagram with a rune at each of the five points. Runes similar to what trapped Ithuriel. Then he sees a raven that flies near to the ground. He recognizes it as Hugo. Valentine must be using him to send messages. He follows Hugo. Clary tells Simon an abbreviated version of what Jocelyn told her and asks him to tell Isabelle. Luke and Jocelyn both stand next to Clary; Luke having just had a disagreement with Malachi. Malachi wants to send a notice to Valentine that they’re turning his offer down, but Luke doesn’t want to tip their hand. Magnus makes his way over with Meliorn, who represents the Seelie Queen. The vampires have elected not to participate in the battle. Clary shows them how the rune works. It’s actually two runes, one for the Shadowhunter and one for the Downworlder. Meliorn is nervous because runes are only for Shadowhunters, but she explains that this is not from the Gray Book. Jocelyn and Luke demonstrate, each of them Marking the other with the correct rune. They will now fight together during the battle and share each other’s strengths. They look a little nervous about doing this, but not because of the battle, and Clary wonders if Luke has had a moment to talk to Jocelyn about his feelings yet. They disseminate the runes to the crowd and Magnus sets up a Portal in the center of the room. Jace follows Hugo to a cave. Inside he finds two tunnels branching off. He hears voices coming from the left-hand tunnel. He turns to follow them. Alec looks for Magnus in the crowd as Simon tells him and Isabelle about Jace. Maia comes over and asks questions about the runes (she plans on fighting though Isabelle has been told she cannot since she’s not old enough), just as Alec asks Magnus to be his partner in the fight. After they Mark each other, Alec kisses Magnus in front of his parents and everybody. Clary stands with Jocelyn and Luke as she sees someone she knows making his way through the crowd toward them. The vampire Raphael, or a projection of him. The vampires have agreed to fight on one condition. They still want the Council seat, but they also want Simon. Jace makes his way into the cave until he sees two figures speaking. Sebastian and Valentine. Simon can hear Luke tell Raphael no, that his request is out of the question. Raphael insists that Simon is unnatural, like Jace and Clary. Such things cannot be allowed to exist. Jocelyn does not stutter when she tells Raphael that if he touches Simon, she will chop him up and serve him to her cat. Jace overhears Valentine and Sebastian – who now has blonde hair that looks much more natural. Valentine calls Sebastian Jonathan. Jace is very confused. Valentine is upset that the Clave has not agreed to his terms, Malachi had said they would. Malachi has been working with Valentine, and he was spying with Hugo as well. He knows that Clary is doing something with the Clave and is concerned but Sebastian brushes his concerns down. Clary is not as powerful as Valentine thinks. Valentine says he’s underestimating Clary. He’s also upset that Sebastian killed Hodge, who was one of the few people that knew there were two boys. Jace just gets more confused. Valentine gives a sword to Sebastian. Sebastian is to wait until midnight and if they do not get word from Malachi by then, unleash the army of demons. The sword given to Sebastian is not the Soul-Sword, but it should do the job well enough. Valentine needs to leave now and take the Soul-Sword to Lake Lyn, where he plans to call Raziel. Once he leaves, Sebastian calls Jace out of his hiding place. He knows Jace is there. Jace runs for the tunnel entrance, but Sebastian is too fast and blocks his way. Sebastian asks if it made Jace jealous watching him with Valentine. He explains that they were brought up by the same man, but Valentine sent Jace away after ten years while he kept Sebastian. Jace thinks that Sebastian is his brother. Sebastian doesn’t correct him, but rushes behind Jace and grabs him around the chest and shoulders so Jace can’t breathe. Clary goes to look for Simon and when she finds him, he wants to turn himself over to Raphael. If Clary doesn’t help him, he will ask Maia to tell him where the vampire camp is and go there himself. Clary listens to his plan. If the vampires do not participate today, it will set them apart from the Shadowhunters and other Downworlders. It will be worse for the vampires. And like it or not, Simon is a vampire. He asks Clary to do something for him, to give him a Mark. Maia takes Simon to the vampire camp and calls for Raphael. When he arrives, Maia and Simon realize they are surrounded by a circle of vampires including Lily and Jacob. Simon tells Maia to leave, otherwise they’ll both be killed, and she eventually goes. Raphael beckons Simon forward, but before he can act, Simon shows him the Mark of Cain. Anything that is done to Simon will inflict seven times the damage on the perpetrator. Simon makes sure to tell Raphael that Luke did not know about the Mark, thus Raphael’s bargain with Luke should be honored. Simon insists that he’s not doing this just for the Shadowhunters, but for the vampires as well. And he tells Raphael that his daylighter ability is not from Shadowhunter blood, but the results of an experiment done by Valentine. It cannot be replicated. Raphael tells Simon that in order for the vampires to fight with the Shadowhunters, so must Simon. Jace wakes up eventually, Sebastian thought for a second that he might have killed him. Sebastian tells Jace what Valentine’s plan is: to raise Raziel from Lake Lyn and receive one favor from the angel. He will request that all Shadowhunters who have not drunk from the Mortal Cup (who are not his followers) be struck down and made into Forsaken. He shows Jace a little taste of Valentine’s demon army – allowing them their freedom even though it is not yet midnight. He calls Valentine his father, but Jace corrects him. Their father. But Sebastian knew about Jace growing up. His father taught him things that he never taught Jace. Like where to stop someone in the back that will sever their spine and pierce their heart in one blow. He will lead the Clave when Valentine is gone, he will inherit it from him. He calls Jace angel boy and tells Jace that he should not be afraid of Valentine, but of him. Jace asks why Sebastian won’t untie his hands if he’s so much more powerful, but Sebastian is not a fool, and he won’t be baited by Jace. Now that Jace has seen the demons, Sebastian will kill him and return him to his angel ancestors so he can pass on a message. The angels have failed. Sebastian tells Jace to say whatever prayers he needs to, but Jace just asks to give Valentine a message instead. Sebastian agrees but Jace calls him out. He knows Sebastian won’t give Valentine a message. Valentine doesn’t want Sebastian to kill Jace. He will tell Valentine that Jace fell in battle or something like that. But Hugo will tell Valentine. Hugo will tell Valentine everything and Valentine will not forgive Sebastian for killing Jace. He invites Sebastian to untie him and fight him for real instead. Sebastian says nothing, just raises his sword and brings it down hard. Clary sits alone in Alicante. Everybody who can fight has gone to Brocelind, though there are older kids like Aline in the Penhallow house watching over a dozen or so younger kids. Isabelle is probably with them, and Clary would like to be with her, but doesn’t want to be in the hectic house. So instead, she sits alone in the empty Hall. That’s when the sky above her explodes. It’s full of demons and flames. The skylight in the roof cracks and glass rains down around her. Simon is heading toward the battlefield when the demons arrive. He and the other vampires can’t help but stare at the number of demons. Sebastian drags an unconscious Jace out of the tunnel and into the valley. When Jace wakes up, he punches Sebastian in the face and takes his sword, but Sebastian just as quickly disarms Jace. They fight, each of them hitting hard, each of them unable to get the upper hand, until Sebastian wrenches Jace’s hand and nearly breaks his wrist. He has Jace prone in front of him and the sword in his hand. He tells Jace that he isn’t a Wayland, but he’s not a Morgenstern either. Jace begins to put it together. Sebastian is the one with demon blood, he is Valentine’s actual son. Jace tells Sebastian that he is the one Valentine is ashamed of. He couldn’t take Sebastian with him today because Valentine couldn’t bear to stand in front of the angel with the atrocity he had made. Sebastian slowly stabs a dagger into Jace’s heart, twisting it so that it is as painful as possible. Sebastian makes it hurt as much as he can by reminding Jace that since he’s not a Morgenstern, Clary is not his sister. And she loved him back. Too bad he won’t see her again. Darkness floods into Jace’s vision but then there is something gold glittering at Sebastian’s wrist. Whatever it is, it separates Sebastian’s hand from his wrist. It’s Isabelle’s whip! She’s here and she is about to save one of her brothers and avenge the other one. Sebastian springs up and disappears into the trees. She wasn’t originally going to come after Jace because he’d asked them not to, but she had to follow him when she learned that he didn’t have demon blood. She couldn’t allow him to go on thinking that he did. Magnus helped her to track Jace with a little wooden soldier he’d given to Max. The only toy Jace had brought with him when he came to the Institute and the toy that Max clutched to himself to make himself feel brave as he died. Isabelle is drawing an iratze on Jace as she speaks. But suddenly, Sebastian reappears, kicking her away from Jace. The iratze wasn’t finished but it still helps with some of the pain, though Jace suspects he’s punctured a lung. Sebastian is too busy screaming at Izzy and using her own whip on her, that he doesn’t notice as Jace gets to his feet and slowly makes his way over to them. Jace has a dagger with him, and he stabs Sebastian in the black with it. It’s the place that Valentine taught Sebastian that you could stab a man in the back and pierce his heart while severing his spine in one go. Sebastian had bragged about it to Jace. Jace didn’t tell him that Valentine had taught Jace the same lesson. Jace sinks to his knees, he can hear Isabelle saying his name. Simon is struck by the mayhem that is the battlefield. There are demons everywhere, dead bodies lying around him. He’s knocked down but helped up by a Shadowhunter he doesn’t know, who thanks him for fighting with them. Simon fights, the Mark on his forehead throbbing, and the blood of the demons tastes awful. Clary realizes the Hall is no longer safe and she decides to go to the Penhallow’s after all. But then she sees Malachi walking toward the dais. He has a raven on his shoulder, she thinks it’s Hugo. He slips a ring on his finger and twists it, the same way that Hodge did when he summoned Valentine at the Institute. Valentine is irritated at being disturbed but Hugo brought Malachi news. Jace tracked Sebastian to the cave, he may even have followed Valentine to the lake. The two boys were fighting when Hugo flew away. Clary hides, hoping that Malachi doesn’t see her, and she gets lucky because he does not. But Hugo does and he attacks her. Malachi hits Hugo and the raven lies motionless on the ground. Malachi reaches for Clary, grabbing her wrist, which has begun to bleed from Hugo’s attack. Hugo flies up between them and scratches Malachi’s face. Hugo continues attacking and Malachi backs away, tripping over a bench and landing on the broken glass of the skylight. One of the big pieces goes through his throat. She knows that Valentine is at Lake Lyn and plans to use it somehow to make the Shadowhunters into Forsaken from what she overheard of Malachi and Valentine’s conversation. She runs toward the still open Portal. Clary lands in the lake again and is pulled out unconscious. Her wrists are bound and she’s choking up the water when she fully wakes up. She is lying on the shore of the lake. She sees a table a few feet away made of stacked stones. On top she sees the Mortal Cup and the Soul-Sword. She looks up and Valentine is standing over her, he’s the one that pulled her out of the water. He’s used a Rune of Silence on her so she can’t speak, as well as binding runes on her wrists and legs so she can’t really move. And he disabled the wards around the lake, so no one knows that she’s here. He also healed her of the lake water. He explains that he didn’t know Jocelyn was pregnant when he gave her dried angel blood in her food, thinking it might make Jocelyn happy again. He had already decided not to experiment on his own kids again. And he searched for Jocelyn for a long time, because he loved her. When he’d tracked her down and heard she had another child, he assumed Clary was Luke’s. It wasn’t until he kidnapped Jocelyn that he realized the truth about Clary’s parentage. Valentine knew then that Jocelyn would never return to him because of Clary. That she’d learned to hate him because of Clary. And that is why he hates Clary. He wants Clary to watch as he raises Raziel. He needs blood to complete the ceremony, and he plans to use hers. He pulls the Sword back to use it on Clary, but it is knocked out of his hands by Jace. Jace points his own sword at Valentine’s chest, he won’t let Valentine carry out his plan. Valentine recognizes the sword; it’s a Morgenstern sword. Jace tells him he took it after he killed Jonathan. Valentine is stunned. Jace asks what really happened to his father. Valentine explains that he rescued Jace from his dying mother because he needed a soldier. Jonathan couldn’t be that soldier. He was too savage and didn’t have the patience. But Jace was the opposite. Too gentle. It made him useless to Valentine. But something has changed between now and when they were in this position at Renwick’s, when Jace could have killed Valentine but did not. Max is dead, plus many other Shadowhunters, because of Valentine. Jace doesn’t want to do it, but he will kill Valentine anyway. He asks for Valentine’s last words. Valentine says he’s sorry but then calls the Soul-Sword to him and drives it into Jace’s heart. Jace drops. Valentine holds him and Clary thinks for a moment he is crying, but his eyes are dry when he looks up. Valentine walks away from Jace’s body. She tries to give Jace the Shadowhunter words of death: “ave atque vale”, but she can only mouth them. Hail and farewell. She watches as the runes around the altar start glowing. Valentine used Jace’s blood and is calling the angel. She drags herself to the altar and painfully grabs her stele from her belt. She adds a rune overtop of the runes symbolizing Valentine’s name. Just a little change, it’s done just before Valentine throws the Soul-Sword into the lake. The angel Raziel rises out of the lake, beautiful and terrifying. Valentine tells Raziel that the demons are still there even after a thousand years of the Shadowhunters fighting. The Nephilim have failed due to weakness and corruption, but he wants to return them to their former glory. Raziel interrupts, glory belongs only to God. Valentine doesn’t heed the subtle warning. He wants to cleanse the world of the Downworlders and demons. But Raziel is not on board. Demons have no souls, but Downworlders do. Does Valentine think he knows better than heaven? You know who else thought that? Another famous Morgenstern… the Morning Star. Lucifer. Raziel says that Valentine does not seek guidance but glory of his own. Valentine realizes he will have to compel the angel to do what he wants. But Raziel knows about Ithuriel. And it is true the master of the circle Valentine drew can compel a single action from an angel, but that master is no longer Valentine but Clary. The angel sends (possibly spits) a burning arrow that rips through Valentine’s chest. He falls to the ground as Raziel asks Clary what action she desires from him. He rids her of her binding runes and tells her that the demons are fleeing Brocelind Plain after the death of Valentine. There are Nephilim on their way to the lake now. She says one word to the angel. “Jace.” He tells her to close her eyes and she does, then Jace tells her to open them again and Raziel is gone. Jace knows what happened. Clary could have asked for anything in the world, but there’s nothing she wants more than him. They still give Valentine a funeral. Jocelyn and Luke are there, but Jace only gets to the hill overlooking the cemetery before he stops. They will burn his body but not put his ashes in the Silent City, they will be scattered at a crossroads instead as the lost soul that he was. Sebastian’s body was not there when Shadowhunters went to retrieve it. They think it was washed away by the river, but Jace isn’t convinced. He remembers Valentine as he watches the funeral, both good and bad memories coming back to him. He knows that Valentine wasn’t his father, but he was the only father that Jace ever had. Jace hasn’t seen Clary since the lake, he’d passed out and slept for two days from sheer exhaustion. He was only just let out of the Shadowhunter hospital, and she didn’t go to the funeral. After the funeral, Luke joins him on the hill. He doesn’t think it’s weird that Jace came to the funeral, it’s natural for him to grieve the father he knew. Jace talks about Hodge. He thinks that although Hodge knew Valentine had two boys, he didn’t know which one Jace was until Hodge saw Jonathan. He wonders if the reason he isn’t like Jonathan is because Valentine sent him to the Lightwoods instead of raising Jace himself. It was one of the best things he ever did for Jace, to send him to people that Valentine knew would love him. Clary sits with Isabelle and Aline as they prepare for the celebration happening that night. Aline is still kind of bitchy to Clary, which is confusing since Clary knows Aline isn’t interested in Jace. Once Aline leaves, Isabelle tells Clary what to expect. A parade, music, dancing, games. Max would have loved it. After the funeral, Jace goes to Amatis’ house to see Clary, but she’s already gone. She left with the Lightwoods. But Amatis has something she wants to give Jace and invites him in. She knows now that Jace is Stephen Herondale’s son. She was once Stephen’s wife; she probably knew Stephen best of everyone who is still alive today. She gives him a box of Stephen’s things that she had saved. Letters, photographs, a family tree. She wants Jace to have it. He asks her a question he’s been wondering about. He shows Amatis the star-shaped scar on his shoulder, mentioning that Imogen saved his life after seeing it. Amatis tells him it’s not a scar but a birthmark of sorts. All the Herondale men have it, family legend says it originated when a Herondale encountered an angel that touched him and left the star-shaped mark. She’s never heard of anyone that wasn’t a Herondale having a similar mark. Amatis tells Jace the same thing that Imogen did – that his father would have been proud of him. Later as Clary gets ready for the celebration at Amatis’ house, she overhears Jocelyn and Luke arguing. He’s been put up as the werewolf member of the Shadowhunter Council, meaning that he will need to stay in Idris. But he wants Jocelyn to know something. He tells her that he loves her and he has for twenty years. Jocelyn says nothing back and Luke leaves, heartbroken, to tell the Clave that he will take the position. Amatis speaks to Jocelyn next. Amatis is glad Luke is staying. Partly because she wants Luke to be nearby but partly so he can get over Jocelyn. If she doesn’t love him, she needs to let Luke go. Jocelyn again doesn’t say anything and Amatis realizes that she does love Luke! She tells Jocelyn that Luke only ever wanted her and Clary, nothing more, so go out there and stop him! Jocelyn runs into the hallway where she realizes that Clary heard everything. Clary opens the door and urges her mom to go and Jocelyn rushes out. After, Amatis tells Clary that Jace stopped by. Clary asks if she can borrow the silver dress in Amatis’ trunk. Clary gets ready and heads to the celebration. Downworlders and Shadowhunters mix in the streets. She heads to where the Lightwoods are staying but she’s not the first person there, the Penhallows stand with the Lightwoods. Jace, however, is not at the house. Clary walks with Isabelle, picking up Simon and Maia on the way. She asks if the Mark of Cain saved Simon and he confirms that it did, but she still wishes she knew what ramifications the Mark would have on his future. She tells Simon she doesn’t think she’s going to go back to school, but Simon says he is. He wants to be as normal as he can be. They talk about Maia and Isabelle, and Clary tells Simon that they both have a crush on him. But whoever he wants to date – she will support him. As long as they still get to be best friends. The Clave has asked Clary to draw a new emblem for the Council; she’s going to put a symbol for each Downworlder group involved. Simon is proud of her; she really made a difference with her Alliance rune. Yeah, the battle was much shorter than expected but it was brutal nonetheless, and Clary saved many lives with that rune, Downworlder and Shadowhunter alike. In addition, she got the two groups to fight together. And that’s the most important thing. Magnus joins them once they get to Angel Square and tells Clary to go to the steps of the Accords Hall. There she finds Jace holding the box of his father’s things. He has been trying since he got the box to feel connected to Stephen Herondale, but he doesn’t feel anything. Clary explains that it takes time to connect to things. Of course he doesn’t feel anything yet. Valentine wasn’t Jace’s father. Not because they weren’t blood related but because Valentine didn’t act like his father. The Lightwoods are his family. But what is his real name, Jace doesn’t even know. She asks who started calling him Jace and he answer Maryse. His name could be Jace. Not short for Jonathan, but just Jace. Jace Lightwood. Clary thinks he wants to be alone and prepares to leave, but he asks her to stay. She’s right – everything she just said was right. Ever since he was told they were siblings, it has never felt right to him. He feels differently about Clary than he’s felt about anyone ever before. He always thought love made you weak – just like Valentine taught him. But Clary showed him something else. She was not a fighter but her love for her mom, and Luke, and Simon, it made her into a fighter. It made her stronger, not weaker. When Jace saw how Valentine delighted in Jace and Clary’s feelings for each other even though they didn’t think they could be together, it made Jace hate Valentine. He thinks it’s what gave him the strength to fight his father and to be ready to kill him. His love for Clary is definitely how he beat Sebastian. Because Sebastian was stronger than Jace and he should have won, but when Jace thought of Clary and the thought of being able to see her face one more time, it gave him the strength to keep going. She makes him stronger than anything else ever has. He has never given much to the people around him, just little bits of him, but she already has everything that he is. She has since the first time he saw her. She can have all of him if she wants him. And she does want him. They kiss for the first time, completely unhindered by any worries. When Jace and Clary join the rest of their group, they hold hands. Simon speaks to Jace and they bury the hatchet. Turns out they actually like each other when they aren’t fighting over Clary. Clary looks over and sees the Seelie Queen standing at the edge of the light where the shadows start. She beckons Clary over. She has a favor to ask of Clary, in exchange for a favor of her own. She wants Clary to speak to Luke and try to sway the Council to choose Meliorn as the representative for the Fair Folk. Clary asks why the Queen would not tell them that she and Jace were not siblings if she knew, but the Queen declares that she told the truth as she knew it. That the blood of the angels runs through them both, making them siblings in the way that all Shadowhunters are siblings. She implies that perhaps Clary doesn’t know all of the secrets of her past still, but Clary will not fall for the Queen’s tricks. She tells the Queen that perhaps she didn’t lie, but she was purposefully unkind, and that is something that Clary has had enough of. She doesn’t need favors from the Seelie Queen. Luke has decided not to move to Alicante and is planning to ask Jocelyn and Clary to move into his house. Robert and Maryse have come over and are greeting Magnus Bane – shaking his hand. Clary sits next to Jace, who asks her where she went, so she tells him what happened to the Seelie Queen. She still wears Jace’s Morgenstern ring and isn’t quite sure what to do with it yet. But for now, she can just sit with Jace, surrounded by the people who love them, and watch the fireworks.

City of Glass
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Our review of City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare is coming soon.

City of Fallen Angels
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Check back for our review of City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare.

City of Lost Souls
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Our summary of City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare is coming soon.

City of Heavenly Fire
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