Sample Reading

City of Bones

"Because," said Hodge, "she was Valentine's wife."
There was a moment of astonished silence before both
Clary and Jace began speaking at once.  "Valentine had a wife?  He was married?  I thought__"  "That's impossible!" My mother would never__ she was only ever married to my father!  She didn't have an ex-husband!"  Hodge raised his hands wearily.  "Children__"  "I'm not a child."  Clary spun away from the desk.  "And I don't want to hear anymore."

"Clary," said Hodge.  The kindness in his voice hurt; she turned slowly, and looked at him across the room.  She thought how odd it was that, with his gray hair and scarred face, he looked so much older than her mother.  And yet they had been "young people" together, had joined the Circle together, had known Valentine together.  "My mother wouldn't...," she began, and trailed off.  She was no longer sure how well she knew Jocelyn.  Her mother had become a stranger to her, a liar, a hider of secrets.  What wouldn't she have done?  "Your mother left the Circle," said Hodge. 

He didn't move toward her but watched her across the room with a bird's bright eye stillness.  "Once we realized how extreme Valentine's views had become__once we knew what he was prepared to do __many of us left.  Lucian was the first to leave.  That was a blow to Valentine.  They had been very close."  Hodge shook his head.  "Then Michael Wayland.  Your father, Jace."  Jace raised his eyebrows, but said nothing.  "There were those who stayed loyal.  Pangborn.  Blackwell.  The lightwoods__"

"The lightwoods?  You mean Robert and Maryse?"  Jaced looked thunderstruck.  "What about you?  When did you leave?"  "I didn't," said Hodge softly.  "Neither did they....We were afraid, too afraid of what he might do.  After the Uprising the loyalists like Blackwell and Pangborn fled.  We stayed and cooperated with the Clave.  Gave them names.  Helped them track down the one's who had run away.  For that we received clemency."

"Clemency?" Jace's look was quick, but Hodge saw it.  He said: "You are thinking of the curse that binds me here, aren't you?  You always assumed it was a vengeance spell cast by an angry demon or warlock.  I let you think it.  But it is not the truth.  The curse that binds me here was cast by the Clave."  "For being in the Circle?"  Jace asked, his face a mask of astonishment.  "For not leaving before the Uprising."