City of Fallen Angels

by Cassandra Clare

Page 28

 

  "Yes," Maryse said, a look of puzzlement passing over her face as she caught the look between the warlock and the vampire. "That is, if Magnus is willing. "

  "I am," Magnus said, drawing off his gloves. "Ill talk to Camille for you. "

  "Camille?" Alec looked at Magnus with his eyebrows raised. "You know her, then? Or-she knows you?"

  "We know each other. " Magnus shrugged, very slightly, as if to say, What can you do? "Once upon a time she was my girlfriend. "

  Chapter 13

  GIRL FOUND DEAD

  "Your girlfriend?" Alec looked astonished. So did Maryse. Simon couldnt say he was unastonished himself. "You dated a vampire? A girl vampire?"

  "It was a hundred and thirty years ago," said Magnus. "I havent seen her since. "

  "Why didnt you tell me?" Alec demanded.

  Magnus sighed. "Alexander, Ive been alive for hundreds of years. Ive been with men, been with women-with faeries and warlocks and vampires, and even a djinn or two. " He looked sideways at Maryse, who looked mildly horrified. "Too much information?"

  "Its all right," she said, though she sounded a little wan. "I have to discuss something with Kadir for a moment. Ill be back. " She stepped aside, joining Kadir; they disappeared through the doorway. Simon took a few steps back as well, pretending to study one of the stained-glass windows intently, but his vampire hearing was good enough that he could hear everything Magnus and Alec were saying to each other, whether he wanted to or not. Camille, he knew, could hear it too. She had her head cocked to the side as she listened, her eyes heavy-lidded and thoughtful.

  "How many other people?" Alec asked. "Roughly. "

  Magnus shook his head. "I cant count, and it doesnt matter. The only thing that matters is how I feel about you. "

  "More than a hundred?" Alec asked. Magnus looked blank. "Two hundred?"

  "I cant believe were having this conversation now," Magnus said, to no one in particular. Simon was inclined to agree, and wished they werent having it in front of him.

  "Why so many?" Alecs blue eyes were very bright in the dimness. Simon couldnt tell if he was angry. He didnt sound angry, just very intense, but Alec was a shut-down person, and perhaps this was as angry as he ever got. "Do you get bored with people fast?"

  "I live forever," Magnus said quietly. "But not everyone does. "

  Alec looked as if someone had hit him. "So you just stay with them as long as they live, and then you find someone else?"

  Magnus didnt say anything. He looked at Alec, his eyes shining like a cats. "Would you rather I spent all of eternity alone?"

  Alecs mouth twitched. "Im going to find Isabelle," he said, and without another word he turned and walked back into the Institute.

  Magnus watched him go with sad eyes. Not a human sort of sad, Simon thought. His eyes seemed to contain the sadness of great ages, as if the sharp edges of human sadness had been worn down to something softer by the passing of years, the way sea water wore away the sharp edges of glass.

  As if he could tell Simon was thinking about him, Magnus looked at him sideways. "Eavesdropping, vampire?"

  "I really dont love it when people call me that," Simon said. "I have a name. "

  "I suppose Id better remember it. After all, in a hundred, two hundred, years, itll be just you and me. " Magnus regarded Simon thoughtfully. "Well be all thats left. "

  The thought made Simon feel as if he were in an elevator that had suddenly broken free of its moorings and started plunging toward the ground, a thousand stories down. The thought had passed through his mind before, of course, but he had always pushed it away. The thought that he would stay sixteen while Clary got older, Jace got older, everyone he knew got older, grew up, had children, and nothing ever changed for him was too enormous and horrible to contemplate.

  Being sixteen forever sounded good until you really thought about it. Then it didnt seem like such a great prospect anymore.

  Magnuss cat eyes were a clear gold-green. "Staring eternity in the face," he said. "Not so much fun, is it?"

  Before Simon could reply, Maryse had returned. "Wheres Alec?" she asked, looking around in puzzlement.

  "He went to see Isabelle," said Simon, before Magnus had to say anything.

  "Very well. " Maryse smoothed the front of her jacket down, though it wasnt wrinkled. "If you wouldnt mind. . . "

  "Ill talk to Camille," said Magnus. "But I want to do it alone. If youd like to wait for me in the Institute, Ill join you there when Im finished. "

  Maryse hesitated. "You know what to ask her?"

  Magnuss gaze was unwavering. "I know how to talk to her, yes. If she is willing to say anything, shell say it to me. "

  Both of them seemed to have forgotten that Simon was there. "Should I go too?" he asked, interrupting their staring contest.

  Maryse looked at him, half-distracted. "Oh, yes. Thank you for your help, Simon, but youre no longer needed. Go home if you like. "

  Magnus said nothing at all. With a shrug Simon turned and went toward the door that led to the vestry and the exit that would take him outside. At the door he paused and looked back. Maryse and Magnus were still talking, though the guard was already holding open the Institute door, ready to leave. Only Camille seemed to remember that Simon was there at all. She was smiling at him from her pillar, her lips curved up at the corners, her eyes shining like a promise.

  Simon went out, and closed the door behind him.

  "It happens every night. " Jace was sitting on the floor, his legs drawn up, his hands dangling between his knees. He had put the knife on the bed next to Clary; she kept one hand on it while he talked-more to reassure him than because she needed it to defend herself. All the energy seemed to have drained out of Jace; even his voice sounded empty and far away while he talked, as if he were speaking to her from a great distance. "I dream that you come into my room and we . . . start doing what we were just doing. And then I hurt you. I cut you or strangle or stab you, and you die, looking up at me with those green eyes of yours while your life bleeds away between my hands. "

  "Theyre only dreams," Clary said gently.

  "You just saw that they arent," said Jace. "I was wide awake when I picked up that knife. "

  Clary knew he was right. "Are you worried that youre going crazy?"

  He shook his head slowly. Hair fell into his eyes; he pushed it back. His hair had gotten a little too long; he hadnt cut it in a while, and Clary wondered if it was because he couldnt be bothered. How could she not have paid more attention to the shadows under his eyes, the bitten nails, the drawn exhausted look of him? She had been so concerned about whether he still loved her that she had not thought about anything else. "Im not so worried about that, really," he said. "Im worried about hurting you. Im worried that whatever poison it is thats eating its way into my dreams will bleed through into my waking life and Ill. . . " His throat seemed to close up.

  "You would never hurt me. "

  "I had that knife in my hand, Clary. " He looked up at her, and then away. "If I hurt you. . . " His voice trailed off. "Shadowhunters die young, a lot of the time," he said. "We all know that. And you wanted to be a Shadowhunter, and I would never stop you because it isnt my job to tell you what to do with your life. Especially when Im taking the same kind of risks. What kind of person would I be if I told you it was all right for me to risk my life, but not for you? So Ive thought about what it would be like for me if you died. I bet youve thought about the same thing. "

  "I know what it would be like," Clary said, remembering the lake, the sword, and Jaces blood spreading over the sand. He had been dead, and the Angel had brought him back, but those had been the worst minutes of her life. "I wanted to die. But I knew how disappointed in me youd have been if Id just given up. "

  He smiled, the ghost of a smile. "And Ive thought the same thing. If you died, I wouldnt want to live. But I wouldnt kill myself, because whatever happens after we die, I want to be with you there. And if I
killed myself, I know youd never talk to me again. In any life. So Id live, and Id try to make something out of my life, until I could be with you again. But if I hurt you-if I was the cause of your death-theres nothing that would keep me from destroying myself. "

  "Dont say that. " Clary felt chilled to the bone. "Jace, you should have told me. "

  "I couldnt. " His voice was flat, final.

  "Why not?"

  "I thought I was Jace Lightwood," he said. "I thought it was possible that my upbringing hadnt touched me. But now I wonder if maybe people cant change. Maybe Ill always be Jace Morgenstern, Valentines son. He raised me for ten years, and maybe thats a stain that wont ever bleach out. "

  "You think this is because of your father," Clary said, and the bit of story that Jace had told her once ran through her head, to love is to destroy. And then she thought how strange it was that she would call Valentine Jaces father, when his blood ran in her veins, not Jaces. But she had never felt about Valentine the way you might feel about a father. And Jace had. "And you didnt want me to know?"

  "Youre everything I want," Jace said. "And maybe Jace Lightwood deserves to get everything he wants. But Jace Morgenstern doesnt. Somewhere inside I must know that. Or I wouldnt be trying to destroy what we have. "

  Clary took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. "I dont think you are. "

  He raised his head and blinked. "What do you mean?"

  "You think this is psychological," Clary said. "That theres something wrong with you. Well, I dont. I think someone is doing this to you. "

  "I dont-"

  "Ithuriel sent me dreams," Clary said. "Maybe someone is sending you dreams. "

  "Ithuriel sent you dreams to try to help you. To guide you to the truth. Whats the point of these dreams? Theyre sick, meaningless, sadistic-"

  "Maybe they have a meaning," Clary said. "Maybe the meaning just isnt what you think. Or maybe whoevers sending them is trying to hurt you. "

  "Who would do that?"

  "Someone who doesnt like us very much," said Clary, and pushed away an image of the Seelie Queen.

  "Maybe," Jace said softly, looking down at his hands. "Sebastian-"

  So he doesnt want to call him Jonathan either, Clary thought. She didnt blame him. It was his own name too. "Sebastians dead," she said, a little more sharply than shed intended. "And if he had had this sort of power, he would have used it before. "

  Doubt and hope chased each other across Jaces face. "You really think someone else could be doing this?"

  Clarys heart beat hard against her rib cage. She wasnt sure; she wanted it so badly to be true, but if it wasnt, she would have gotten Jaces hopes up for nothing. Both their hopes.

  But then she got the feeling it had been a while since Jace had felt hopeful about anything.

  "I think we should go to the Silent City," she said. "The Brothers can get into your head and find out if someones been messing around in there. The way they did with me. "

  Jace opened his mouth and closed it again. "When?" he said finally.

  "Now," Clary said. "I dont want to wait. Do you?"

  He didnt reply, just got up off the floor and picked up his shirt. He looked at Clary, and almost smiled. "If were going to the Silent City, you might want to get dressed. I mean, I appreciate the bra-and-panties look, but I dont know if the Silent Brothers will. There are only a few of them left, and I dont want them to die of excitement. "

  Clary got up off the bed and threw a pillow at him, mostly out of relief. She reached for her clothes and began to pull her shirt on. Just before it went over her head, she caught sight of the knife lying on the bedspread, gleaming like a fork of silvery flame.

  "Camille," Magnus said. "Its been a long time, hasnt it?"

  She smiled. Her skin looked whiter than he recalled, and dark spidery veins were beginning to show beneath its surface. Her hair was still the color of spun silver, and her eyes were still as green as a cats. She was still beautiful. Looking at her, he was in London again. He saw the gaslight and smelled the smoke and dirt and horses, the metallic tang of fog, the flowers in Kew Gardens. He saw a boy with black hair and blue eyes like Alecs. A girl with long brown curls and a serious face. In a world where everything went away from him eventually, she was one of the few remaining constants.

  And then there was Camille.

  "Ive missed you, Magnus," she said.

  "No, you havent. " He sat down on the floor of the Sanctuary. He could feel the cold of the stone through his clothes. He was glad he had worn the scarf. "So why the message for me? Just stalling for time?"

  "No. " She leaned forward, the chains rattling. He could almost hear the hissing where the blessed metal touched the skin of her wrists. "I have heard things about you, Magnus. I have heard that you are under the wing of the Shadowhunters these days. I had heard that you have won the love of one of them. That boy you were just talking to, I imagine. But then your tastes were always diverse. "

  "You have been listening to rumors about me," Magnus said. "But you could simply have asked me. All these years I was in Brooklyn, not far away at all, and I never heard from you. Never saw you at one of my parties. There has been a wall of ice between us, Camille. "

  "I did not build it. " Her green eyes widened. "I have loved you always. "

  "You left me," he said. "You made a pet out of me, and then you left me. If love were food, I would have starved on the bones you gave me. " He spoke matter-of-factly. It had been a long time.