City of Lost Souls Read Free Page B

Institute, the boy with bitten nails and holes in his sweaters and a chip on his shoulder that had seemed immovable. “I know you’re upset, Clary,” he said, his voice sharp, “but if you’re suggesting that Iz and I care less about Jace than you do—”
    “I’m not,” Clary said. “I’m talking about your parabatai connection. I was reading about the ceremony in the Codex . I know being parabatai ties the two of you together. You can sense things about Jace. Things that will help you when you’re fighting. So I guess I mean… can you sense if he’s still alive?”
    “Clary.” Isabelle sounded worried. “I thought you didn’t…”
    “He’s alive,” Alec said cautiously. “You think I’d be this functional if he weren’t alive? There’s definitely something fundamentally wrong . I can feel that much. But he’s still breathing.”
    “Could the ‘wrong’ thing be that he’s being held prisoner?” said Clary in a small voice.
    Alec looked toward the windows, the sheeting gray rain. “Maybe. I can’t explain it. I’ve never felt anything like it before.”
    “But he’s alive.”
    Alec looked at her directly then. “I’m sure of it.”
    “Then screw the Council. We’ll find him ourselves,” Clary said.
    “Clary… if that were possible… don’t you think we already would have—,” Alec began.
    “We were doing what the Clave wanted us to do before,” said Isabelle. “Patrols, searches. There are other ways.”
    “Ways that break the Law, you mean,” said Alec. He sounded hesitant. Clary hoped he wasn’t going to repeat the Shadowhunters’ motto when it came to the Law: Sed lex, dura lex . “The Law is harsh, but it is the Law.” She didn’t think she could take it.
    “The Seelie Queen offered me a favor,” Clary said. “At the fireworks party in Idris.” The memory of that night, how happy she’d been, made her heart contract for a moment, and she had to stop and regain her breath. “And a way to contact her.”
    “The Queen of the Fair Folk gives nothing for free.”
    “I know that. I’ll take whatever debt it is on my shoulders.” Clary remembered the words of the faerie girl who had handed her the bell. You would do anything to save him, whatever it cost you, whatever you might owe to Hell or Heaven, would you not? “I just want one of you to come with me. I’m not good with translating faerie-speak. At least if you’re with me you can limit whatever the damage is. But if there’s anything she can do—”
    “I’ll go with you,” Isabelle said immediately.
    Alec looked at his sister darkly. “We already talked to the Fair Folk. The Council questioned them extensively. And they can’t lie.”
    “The Council asked them if they knew where Jace and Sebastian were,” Clary said. “Not if they’d be willing to look for them. The Seelie Queen knew about my father, knew about the angel he summoned and trapped, knew the truth about myblood and Jace’s. I think there’s not much that happens in this world that she doesn’t know about.”
    “It’s true,” said Isabelle, a little animation entering into her voice. “You know you have to ask faeries the exact right things to get useful information out of them, Alec. They’re very hard to question, even if they do have to tell the truth. A favor, though, is different.”
    “And its potential for danger is literally unlimited,” said Alec. “If Jace knew I let Clary go to the Seelie Queen, he’d—”
    “I don’t care,” Clary said. “He’d do it for me. Tell me he wouldn’t. If I were missing—”
    “He’d burn the whole world down till he could dig you out of the ashes. I know,” Alec said, sounding exhausted. “Hell, you think I don’t want to burn down the world right now? I’m just trying to be…”
    “An older brother,” said Isabelle. “I get it.”
    Alec looked as if he were fighting for control. “If something happened to you, Isabelle—after Max, and Jace—”
    Izzy got to