She washed her hair over and over again, trying to get the dried silver gunk out. It was like trying to wash out oil paint. The scent of it lingered too, like the water from a vase after the flowers have rotted, faint and sweet and spoiled on her skin. No amount of soap seemed to be able to get rid of it.
Finally convinced she was as clean as she was going to get, she dried off and went to the master bedroom to get dressed. It was a relief to climb back into jeans and boots and slip on a comfortable cotton sweater. It was only then, as she pulled on her second boot, that the nagging feeling returned, the feeling that she was missing something. She froze.
Her ring. The gold ring that let her speak to Simon.
It was gone.
Frantically she searched for it, tearing through the wastebasket to see if the ring had gotten caught on her dress, then searching every inch of Jace's room while he slept peacefully on. She combed through the carpet, the bedclothes, checking the nightstand drawers.
At last she sat back, her heart slamming against her chest, a sick feeling in her stomach.
The ring was gone. Lost, somewhere, somehow. She tried to remember the last time she'd seen it. Surely it had flashed on her hand while she'd wielded that dagger against the Elapid demons. Had it fallen off in the junk store? In the nightclub?
She dug her nails into her blue-jeaned thighs until the pain made her gasp. Focus, she told herself. Focus.
Maybe the ring had fallen from her finger somewhere else in the apartment. Probably Jace had carried her upstairs at some point. It was a small chance, but every chance had to be explored.
She rose to her feet and went as soundlessly as she could out into the hallway. She moved toward Sebastian's room, and hesitated. She couldn't imagine why the ring would be in there, and waking him up would only be counterproductive. She turned around and made her way down the stairs instead, walking carefully to mask the sound of her boots.
Her mind was racing. With no way to contact Simon, what was she going to do? She needed to tell him about the antiques shop, the adamas. She should have talked to him sooner. She wanted to punch the wall, but she forced her mind to slow down, to consider her options. Sebastian and Jace were beginning to trust her; if she could get away from them briefly, on a busy city street, she could use a pay phone to call Simon. She could duck into an Internet cafe and e-mail him. She knew more about mundane technology than they did. Losing the ring didn't mean it was over.
She would not give up.
Her mind was so occupied with thoughts of what to do next that at first she didn't see Sebastian. Fortunately, he had his back to her. He stood in the living room, facing the wall.
Already at the bottom of the staircase, Clary froze, then darted across the floor and flattened herself against the half wall that separated the kitchen from the larger room. There was no reason to panic, she told herself. She lived here. If Sebastian saw her, she could say she had come downstairs for a glass of water.
But the chance to observe him without his knowledge was too tempting. She turned her body slightly, peering over and around the kitchen counter.
Sebastian still had his back to her. He had changed his clothes since the nightclub. The army jacket was gone; he wore a button-down shirt and jeans. As he turned, and his shirt lifted, she could see that his weapon belt was slung around his waist. As he raised his right hand, she saw that he held his stele-and there was something about the way he held it, just for a moment, with a careful thoughtfulness, that reminded her of the way her mother held a paintbrush.
She closed her eyes. It felt like fabric snagging on a hook, the jerk inside her heart when she recognized something in Sebastian that reminded her of her mother or herself. That reminded her that however much of his blood was poison, just as much was the same blood that ran in her own veins.
She opened her eyes again, in time to see a doorway form in front of Sebastian. He reached for a scarf that hung on a peg on the wall, and stepped out into darkness.
Clary had a split second to decide. Stay and search the rooms, or follow Sebastian and see where he was going. Her feet made the choice before her mind did. Spinning away from the wall, she darted through the dark opening of the door moments before it closed behind her.
The room Luke was lying in was lit only by the streetlights' glow, which came through the slatted windows. Jocelyn knew she could have asked for a light, but she preferred it like this. The darkness hid the extent of his injuries, the pallor of his face, the sunken crescents beneath his eyes.
In fact, in the dimness he looked very like the boy she had known in Idris before the Circle had been formed. She remembered him in the school yard, skinny and brown-haired, with blue eyes and nervous hands. He'd been Valentine's best friend, and because of that, no one had ever really looked at him. Even she hadn't, or she would not have been so enormously blind as to miss his feelings for her.
She remembered the day of her wedding to Valentine, the sun bright and clear through the crystal roof of the Accords Hall. She'd been nineteen and Valentine twenty, and she remembered how unhappy her parents had been that she'd chosen to marry so young. Their disapproval had seemed like nothing to her-they didn't understand. She'd been so sure there would never be anyone for her but Valentine.
Luke had been his best man. She remembered his face as she walked down the aisle-she had looked at him only briefly before turning her full attention to Valentine. She remembered thinking that he must not have been well, that he looked as if he were in pain. And later, in Angel Square, as the guests milled about-most of the members of the Circle were there, from Maryse and Robert Lightwood, already married, to barely fifteen Jeremy Pontmercy-and she stood with Luke and Valentine, someone made the old joke about how if the groom hadn't showed up, the bride would have had to marry the best man. Luke had been wearing evening clothes, with the gold runes for good luck in marriage on them, and he had looked very handsome, but while everyone else had laughed, he'd gone terribly white. He must really hate the idea of marrying me, she'd thought. She remembered touching his shoulder with a laugh.
"Don't look like that," she'd teased. "I know we've known each other forever, but I promise you'll never have to marry me!"
And then Amatis had come up, dragging a laughing Stephen with her, and Jocelyn had forgotten all about Luke, the way he had looked at her-and the odd way Valentine had looked at him.
She glanced over at Luke now and started in her chair. His eyes were open, for the first time in days, and fixed on her.
"Luke," she breathed.
He looked puzzled. "How long-have I been asleep?"
She wanted to throw herself onto him, but the thick bandages still wrapped around his chest held her back. She caught at his hand instead and put it against her cheek, her fingers interlocking with his. She closed her eyes and, as she did, felt tears slip from under her lids. "About three days."
"Jocelyn," he said, sounding really alarmed now. "Why are we at the station? Where's Clary? I really don't remember-"
She lowered their interlaced hands and, in as steady a voice as she could manage, told him what had happened-about Sebastian and Jace, and the demon metal embedded in his side, and the help of the Praetor Lupus.
"Clary," he said immediately, when she was finished. "We have to go after her."
Drawing his hand from hers, he started to struggle into a sitting position. Even in the dim light she could see his pallor deepen as he winced with pain.