"All right, love birds!" Magnus's voice functioned better than any alarm clock I've ever owned. "Get out of your nest! And don't even think about telling me what happened last night because I do not want to hear it!"

I cringed at that. Of course Magnus had to make some comment, he was Magnus.

"Have some respect!" Jace shouted towards the warlock's voice.

"You really showed him," I muttered, snuggling closer to his warmth. And that's when I realized my face was literally pressed against his completely bare chest. Oops. Feeling exquisitely awkward, I rolled away from him. "I'm going to get dressed. Don't follow me."

Jace's tempting half smile was nearly impossible to turn away from. I think I deserve a medal for managing it.

I padded out to the living room where my bag still was. Magnus was sprawled in an armchair dramatically, looking for all the world like a melodramatic actress.

"Bathroom's down the hall and to the left. And if you take a shower, don't even think about touching my body glitter." He opened one cat-like eye to stare at me. "It's expensive."

"Don't worry," I promised, grabbing clothes out of my bag. "Your body glitter is safe with me." And away I went, getting ready to start my day of sitting around Magnus's apartment and probably watching old reruns with Jace. Exciting day is exciting.

Of course, we could talk about what had happened the day before in the Silent City but I wanted desperately to not think about it. Focus on being alive first. And being clean. Yay hygiene.

After a quick shower which left me smelling girlier than I ever had in my life, I went back to the living room to find both Jace and Magnus thrown dramatically in chairs. I had a terrible feeling that a movie could be made about my experience staying at Magnus's. It would be called Jaci and the Overly Dramatic, Overgrown Children- well, judging by this opening scene.

"Clary's coming," Magnus announced the instant I'd sat down.

"When did she call?" Jace asked. "I don't remember her calling."

"That's because she didn't. She's at the door right now."

I glanced over at the lazy warlock. "Are you going to let her in?"

"Alec will."

Not surprisingly, he was right. Within moments, the door opened and Magnus swept out of the room to great the guests.

Jace glanced over at me. "Ready to face this?"

"Are there any other options? No, no there aren't."

And much sooner than anticipated, Clary had appeared in the doorway, Simon in tow.

"Do you go anywhere without him?" Jace demanded.

"Hello, Jace," Clary said shortly. "Nice to see you too. I'm all right, how are you? That's good to hear."

Simon was glowering at Jace. Simon sure seemed moody recently. "That's what you're supposed to say, you know, to be polite."

"Si," I warned quietly. The last thing I wanted to deal with was a crazy fight between the two crazy boys in which my crazy sister would end up getting herself involved and crazy Jaci would be expected to solve everything. Not today!

"Okay, you're here," Magnus said, entering the room with Alec. "Now get them out."

"Can we just leave?" I asked innocently. "I was under the impression that I was forced to be here against my will."

"But not against your will to live," Magnus pointed out. "If you want, I can find another demon to attack you and then just not heal you, would you prefer that?"

I smiled at him as sweetly as I could with as miserably as I felt for unknown reasons. "No, thank you."

"All right," Jace said as he got to his feet. "You want a round table meeting, we can have a round table meeting."

Magnus looked like he was going to burst with sunshine. "I love round tables. They suit me so much better than square."

And, poof!, behold, round table with six matching chairs. Perfectly set up in the middle of the living room. The magical powers of magic. Mentally I told myself to shut up and stop being so nervously internally chatty.

"That's amazing," Clary said. I couldn't help but notice she should've said "This is amazing" since she was talking about the chair she sat in. "How can you create something out of nothing like that?"

Magnus smirked at her limited knowledge of magic. "You can't. Everything comes from somewhere. These come from an antiques reproduction store on Fifth Avenue, for instance. And these" – magic coffee! – "come from Dean & DeLuca on Broadway."

I took a seat and pulled one of the Styrofoam cups towards myself. "Do they taste better because they're stolen?"

"These are stolen?" Simon balked, nearly dropping the cup he'd selected at random.

"Ooo," I sipped my coffee. "I think mine's a cappuccino!"

"Hazelnut?" Jace asked.

That reminded me of the last time I'd had hazelnut cappuccino and the thought process that had gone before it and how it had involved Peeta. "Did you bring my cat?" I asked Clary.

Clary looked completely surprised. "Why would I bring your cat?"

"Because he's mine and I'm here."

Magnus put his foot down. "No cats. Except for Chairman Meow."

"Can we focus, please?" Alec asked, glowering at each of us and daring someone to challenge him. Except me. He avoided eye contact with me.

"Let's start at the beginning," Clary said wisely and turned her attention on me. "You said what happened in the Silent City was Valentine's fault?"

I shoved my beverage over towards Jace and allowed my head to drop into my hands. First question and I was already exhausted. "Did I? I don't really remember much of it." I managed to catch Clary's confused look. "It was Valentine's fault, I just couldn't remember if I'd said that last night."

"What happened?" Alec asked eagerly, leaning towards me from his location of across the table. "Did you see him?"

"One question at a time," Jace said in my defense.

"Thanks but I got this. Yes, I saw him. He followed his… his demon into the dungeon – after killing the Brothers. He sent the demon away and told me it was… Agramon." I felt useless. It was all I could come up with and they were all looking at me so expectantly. "I think I blacked out about then. But he did have the sword, I remember seeing it."

"Alec," Magnus wasn't looking at him, he was frowning at the carpet, thinking, "last night, when the Silent Brothers called for your help, where was the Conclave? Why was no one at the Institute."

"There was a Downworlder murder in Central Park last night. A faerie child was killed. The body was drained of blood."

Jace laughed humorlessly. "I bet the Inquisitor will think I did that, for a distraction."

"It's not something to joke about," Clary hissed.

During the ensuing small argument, Magnus moved to the window and stared out at the street below. "Blood. I had a dream two nights ago. I saw a city all of blood, with towers made of bone, and blood ran in the streets like water."

Simon glanced at me. "Sounds like someone's been watching too many horror movies."

Alec glared. "Magnus, what's wrong?"

The sparkling warlock tore his gaze from the window and back to us. "The blood. It can't be a coincidence. There have been several murders this week of Downworlders. A warlock, killed in an apartment tower down by the South Street Seaport. His neck and wrists were cut and the body drained of blood. And a werewolf was killed at the Hunter's Moon a few days ago. The throat was cut in that case as well."

"It sounds like vampires." Simon looked like he could faint.

"Don't vampires have fangs?" I pointed out. "Why would they bother cutting throats when they could just puncture them? No matter how the blood's been taken, if it's been taken everyone will automatically assume vampires. It sounds like they're being set up."

"It's a bad idea to try and frame the Night Children," Jace said and took a long drought of my hazelnutty comfort-in-a-cup.

A thump drew attention back to Magnus who had plopped a large, green book on the table. "I agree with the creepy twins." He pointed towards Jace and me. "I don't think it was vampires. There was a strong demonic presence at both locations. I think someone else was responsible for all three deaths. Not Raphael and his tribe, but Valentine."

"Why do you say that?" Jace's voice was extremely quiet.

"The Inquisitor thought the faerie murder was a diversion," Clary suggested almost breathlessly. Had she really always been so eager to jump to Jace's comfort and I'd just ignored it? "So that he could plunder the Silent City without worrying about the Conclave." Answer: Yes.

Jace scoffed. "There are easier ways to create a diversion and it is unwise to antagonize the Fair Folk. He wouldn't have murdered one of the clan of faerie if he didn't have a reason."

"Why do I feel like it can't possibly be a good reason?" I stole my hazelnut-happiness back. I needed it.

"He had a reason," Magnus assured us, flipping through his book. "And not a good one. There was something he wanted from the faerie child, just as there was something he wanted from the warlock and werewolf he killed."

Alec asked, "What's that?"

"Alec, what were they all missing?" Look at me, I'm Little Miss Short-Tempered.

Magnus shot me a look that clearly meant to subdue my unnecessary sass. "Their blood." He indicated the page in the book he had flipped to. "You can't read it. It's written in a demon language. Purgatic."

"That's Maellertach, though," Alec pointed out.

I could recognize the angel on the hilt very distinctly. Even though the words on the page meant nothing to me, looking at them made my skin crawl and I almost drew closer to Jace but I knew I was being ridiculous. As long as no one did whatever those words said, I had nothing to be afraid of.

"The Ritual of Infernal Conversion. That's what Valentine's trying to do." Magnus paused for effect.

Clary ruined his moment. "The what of what?"

Magnus sighed, and dove into an explanation. "Every magical object has an alliance. The alliance of the Soul-Sword is seraphic – like those angel knives you Shadowhunters use, but a thousand times more so, because its power was drawn from the Angel himself, not simply the invocation of an angelic name. What Valentine wants to do is reverse its alliance – make it an object of demonic rather than angelic power."

"Lawful good to lawful evil!" Simon chimed in.

Clary and I both rolled our eyes on cue.

"As the Angel's Sword," Magnus continued, "Maellartach's use to Valentine would be limited. But as a sword whose demonic power is equal to the angelic power it once possessed – well, there is much it could offer him. Power over demons, for one. Not just the limited protection the Cup might offer, but power to call demons to him, to force them to do his bidding."

"A demon army?" asked Alec.

"This guy is big on armies," observed Simon.

Magnus ignored them both. "Power even to bring them into Idris, perhaps."

A terrible sense of foreboding seemed to creep into the room and hover like a cloud. I shuddered, to think of beautiful Idris, swarmed with demons. And I'd never seen Idris. Idris wasn't my home, it was the faraway Shadowhunter land I'd never touched, only heard about. It was Jace's home. It was Jocelyn's home, and Luke's. And my parents', whoever they might possibly be.

That thought was more powerful than the others. It was my unknown family's home. It had to be kept safe. If Idris could be lost, then couldn't anything?

"There's still one more child to go?" Clary's incredulous tone snapped me out of my thoughts.

"Two more," Magnus corrected. "He didn't succeed with the werewolf child. He was interrupted before he could get all the blood he needed. Whatever Valentine's ultimate goal is, he's already more than halfway to reversing the Sword. He's probably able to garner some power from it already. He could already be calling on demons-"

"But you'd think if he were doing that, there'd be reports of disturbances, excess demon activity," Jace interrupted, his golden eyes were feverishly bright. "But the Inquisitor said the opposite is true – that everything's been quiet."

"Well if he's raising an army, he has to recruit them first, doesn't he?" I asked.

It was the sort of doomed admission that no one wanted to acknowledge by speaking. It was logical. I wished I hadn't said it, that I could've kept pretending we still had more time. How can things move so quickly?

A phone rang. Clary jumped. Coffee was spilled.

"It's my mother," Alec announced and moved away from the table for more privacy.

Meanwhile, Simon and Clary seemed determined to put on a show that embarrassed everyone with their awkward displays of affection. The coffee spilled had ended up on Clary's wrist creating a burn that Simon tried to heal with a kiss.

"We could show them up," Jace whispered loudly enough so only I could hear. I didn't even bother replying.

Alec came back, looking confusedly at Simon and Clary. "What's going on?"

"You've saved us," Magnus observed as the awkward couple went to pretending nothing had happened.

Wait, when did Simon and Clary become a couple? I honestly couldn't remember hearing about it, it must've been a recent development. At least she seemed to be getting over Jace, at last.

"I told my mother about the Infernal Conversion," Alec announced.

"Let me guess, she didn't believe you," Jace drawled.

Alec shook his head. "Not exactly. She said she'd bring it up with the Conclave, but that she didn't have the Inquisitor's ear right now. I get the feeling the Inquisitor has pushed Mom out of the way a taken over. She sounded angry." His phone rang again – for some reason I'd half been expecting that. "Sorry. It's Isabelle. One sec."

Jace turned to Magnus. "I think you're right about the werewolf. Jaci was there when he was found."

I nodded slowly, trying to not let the entire memory come back. It was difficult. "There was a shadow or something there and it ran off."

"It sounds to me like Valentine's henchman was interrupted in the middle of doing whatever it is he does to get the blood he needs. He'll probably try again with a different lycanthrope child," Magnus said gravely.

"I ought to warn Luke." Clary was ready to jump into action, already half out of her chair.

"Wait." And Wonder Boy was back. Looking funny.

"What did Isabelle need?" I asked him.

He paused for an instant. "Isabelle says the Queen of the Seelie Court has requested an audience with us."

"She can't have one." The words were out before what Alec had said fully registered in my mind. When it had, I internally agreed with myself.

"Who's the Queen of the Seelie Court?" Clary asked.

"She is the Queen of Faerie," Magnus told her. "Well, the local one anyway."

There was suddenly pressure on my shoulder, pushing my back against my chair. Jace was holding me there, so I wouldn't fall. Why would he think he needed to do that? Also, why was the room spinning?

"Tell Isabelle no."

"But she thinks it's a good idea," Alec argued.

Jace fairly growled. "Then tell her no twice."

"Is it safe to go there?" Clary butted in.

I laughed weakly and brushed off Jace's hand. "Sure, it's as safe as jumping into a tank full of half-starved sharks while covered in blood."

Sarcasm: my natural defense mechanism.

Clary graced me with another of her wonderful glares. "I don't know anything about the Seelie Court. No one's keeping me informed, so don't act all high and mighty. As far as I know, faeries are little kid stuff. I dressed up as a faerie for Halloween when I was eight. I had a hat shaped like a buttercup."

"Doesn't matter," I cut in, feeling sick to my stomach.

"Jaci's right," Alec agreed with me. (Wow, that's incredible.) "Isabelle thinks – and I agree – that it's not a good idea to ignore the Fair Folk. If they want to talk, what harm can it do? Besides, if the Seelie Court were on our side, the Clave would have to listen to what we have to say."

"Please don't drag this discussion out," I begged. "Just make a decision but stop talking about it."

"Jaci, it doesn't concern you anyway," Clary pointed out. "You can't go anywhere."

"The Queen wants to see her."

I froze.

"No." Jace's tone was decisive.

"Jace, we won't be sending her alone," Alec pointed out.

"But you can't send her," Simon pointed out.

Alec shook his head. "We can't not send her. A request from the Seelie Court – it would be stupid to ignore it. Besides, Isabelle probably already told them we're coming."

"It's not even possible," Jace said.

"There is a way," Magnus corrected, thoughtfully.

I stared at Magnus, praying he was wrong.

"I specifically enchanted the contract with the Inquisitor so that I could let you go for a short time if I desired, as long as another of the Nephilim was willing to take your place."

"Where are we going to find another – Oh." Alec blushed. "You mean me."

"No!" Jace shouted, standing violently. "She's not going."

"Jace," I said quietly. "If… if the Queen asked to see me specifically then maybe… maybe I'll have more pull with her than anyone else. Maybe they'll take our side in this and we'll have their support." I took a deep breath before facing him. "It's our best chance."

He looked furious… and defeated. "I'm going with."

"Obviously, loverboy," Magnus sighed with a roll of his eyes.

"Isabelle can meet you in the park by Turtle Pond," Alec said. "She knows the secret entrance to the Court. She'll be waiting."

"And one last thing." Magnus rounded on me and then included Jace in his threatening glare. "Try not to get yourselves killed in the Seelie Court. If you die, I'll have a lot of explaining to do."

"I don't think it will matter," I pointed out weakly. Parks and faeries and ponds.

Oh my.