New chapter! We're getting ever closer to the end of this story, and while i kinda just want to be done with it, i'm definitely going to miss writing it.

"Can I ask…?" Isabelle asked a few minutes later, motioning slightly in Mal's direction. She, Alec, and Magnus all seemed no worse from the wear of traveling all the way here. I was sure both Jace and I looked slightly worn out, but the three of them seemed fine, if slightly suspicious of our new traveling companion. But that was to be expected.

"Not if you're expecting an answer." Jace baited her with a smirk. "You'll have to learn this thing called patience and wait like Maggs and Allie-boo are doing." Jace was lucky that neither Alec nor Magnus was here to hear him.

Isabelle only frowned. "You're so juvenile."

At the moment, Isabelle, Jace, and I were waiting impatiently for Alec and Magnus to return. They were looking for a place where we could take a break from demon hunting and explain the situation, and so far it didn't seem like they were having much luck.

"Hey!" Alec's voice came from behind me. Speak of the devil. "We found a place."

"We would have found one earlier, but as evidenced by the lack of just about everything, we're not in Manhattan anymore." Magnus announced. Was it just me, or was he smirking again?

"Yeah," Alec agreed. "All we could find were apartments and little shops. Finally, we came across a small one nearby. There's just one little problem…"

"This," Jace announced minutes later. "Is disgusting." With one glance, he had already found the problem with the place.

"What?" Isabelle asked, glancing around innocently. "You don't like pink?"

That was the problem: the entire restaurant was pink.

In response to Isabelle's question, Jace sniffed disdainfully. "I'm a guy."

From the booths at the back of the room to the counters where the food was prepared, it was obvious that the owner loved pink. None of us felt comfortable in the small diner, but unsurprisingly, Jace was the only one who voiced his complaints.

Mal alone seemed happy with the place. "Isn't it so cute?" She asked me in that cheerful way of hers. "I love pink. It's the color of cotton candy and strawberry ice cream. Don't you like pink?"

"I love pink." I lied. I moved to take my seat in the booth beside Jace, but before I could he tapped me on the shoulder.

"Hey, Clary." He nudged me to get my attention. "Can I talk to you for a second?"

I looked up at him suspiciously. "If this is a repeat of last time, I'm not going to go along with it. It's not, is it?"

"Of course not." Jace grinned and eyed me suggestively. "But it could be if you wanted it to."

"Jace."

"It's important." He told me, his face sobering instantly. "And it's about the demon."

"Malheureuse?" I asked, frowning. "What is it?"

"I know you think that she really wants to help us and that's she's telling the truth, but her story doesn't match up." Jace's golden eyes lit earnestly. "Some of the things she told us made no sense."

"Like what?" I asked worriedly. I glanced across the room to see Mal chatting amicably with Isabelle. Isabelle was watching Mal suspiciously, but she seemed entertained by the girl nonetheless.

"First of all, she's a demon." Jace said like it was obvious. Which, I guess it was. "They don't help people. They kill them. They don't help shadowhunters either. She didn't just come along for curiosity's sake. "

"I know that, Jace." I sighed. "And I never said that I trusted her, but even if it's not the only reason she's here, according to the ring, she does want to help."

"It's not the only reason." Jace assured me. "It can't be." He frowned thoughtfully for a moment and ran a hand through his golden-blonde curls. He said hesitantly, "And there's one more thing. Something I'm surprised you didn't already notice with or without the ring."

"What?" Knitting my brows, I thought back over what we had learned about Mal, paying special attention to the feelings the ring gave me about whether or not she was telling the truth. I couldn't think of anything questionable. She had told us that her father was Asmoday, that her mother Neeva was a warlock.

Wait a second. A warlock. The pieces clicked together and I felt incredibly stupid. "Warlocks can't have children!" I burst out.

"Exactly," Jace agreed smugly. "So how did this one have a kid?"

I was at a loss to answer that one. "But the ring said it was the truth, or at least the truth as she believes it."

"Clary…" Jace started doubtfully. "There's always the chance that the ring doesn't work like we think it does. We shouldn't put so much stock in it; it could be the thing throwing us off."

I shook my head emphatically. "You have to trust me on this, Jace. It works."

"I don't know, Clary." Jace still looked like he didn't believe me.

"What are you two up to over there?" Magnus called from across the diner. "No more sneaking off, love birds!"

"Yeah," put in Izzy. "The table is ready."

"We're coming." Jace called back. Turning back to me, he added. "Just keep that in mind, Clary. Try to think of a rune or something we can use instead of being so dependent on this demonic object we know next-to-nothing about."

"Jace," I began. But he was already gone.

"I'm back!" I heard him announce from across the room. "I know you all missed me." No one deigned to reply. I shook my head and followed him.

"What's wrong with you?" Isabelle was asking Jace as I got back to the table and slid into the booth next to him.

"Many things." Jace informed her seriously. "Do you want a list?" He lifted an eyebrow. When she didn't reply, he continued. "The first and foremost being that I am surrounded by the color pink." Mal squeezed in beside me, and Magnus and Alec sat across from us. Isabelle pulled up a chair and sat at the end.

"So what happened to you guys?" Isabelle demanded once we were all seated. "Jace, we haven't seen you in hours!"

"Don't brag." I told her, receiving and indignant nudge under the table from my boyfriend.

"Oh trust me," Isabelle replied, grinning. "I'm not. I just want to know what happened."

"It's kind of a long story…" I said, giving Jace a look. I wasn't sure how much we should tell them. As far as the three of them knew, my lead on the whereabouts of Botis came from a person. Not an evil demon that I controlled with a ring I had stolen from another, more evil Greater Demon.

"Kind of?" Isabelle raised an eyebrow. "Well, we have plenty of time. It's why we're here after all."

"Start at the beginning." Magnus suggested. "Where did you two disappear to?"

Jace and I exchanged glances and he gave a self-satisfied smirk. "We got… distracted."

"See?" Magnus poked Alec in the side. "Didn't I tell you that's what they were doing? I knew we should have bet on it."

Ignoring his boyfriend, Alec asked. "So you abandoned us to go do what exactly?"

"Really, Alec?"A slow grin spread over Jace's face. "I would think that even you know what people who are dating do when they're alone together, especially now that you have Mr. Sparkly over there. But if you really need me to explain it to you then I should probably start at the beginning. Have you ever heard of the birds and the bees?"

Rolling her eyes, Isabelle interrupted. "Can we just say they were cuddling and move on? I'm already scarred enough for one day."

"I object to that!" Jace said loudly. "I am a man and men do not cuddle." He thought about it for a minute. "While we may kiss and hug and do other slightly more inappropriate things, there is no cuddling involved."

"I didn't know you were in the habit of kissing guys, Jace." It was, of course, Magnus who said this. His usual cat-like grin was tauntingly devious.

Jace blinked. "If you don't mind, Magnus, there is a child at the table. I think she's probably better off without hearing the explicit details of my love life."

"So you admit it!" Magnus accused.

"I don't recall saying that." Jace said blithely. "Just because many men are attracted to me doesn't necessarily mean that I return the sentiment."

"Actually," I put in, "around people other than Alec, Jace is somewhat of a homophobe."

"Only when they hit on me!" Jace protested. "This, thanks to my gorgeous features and rapier wit happens quite often."

"I'm sorry to interrupt, but have you decided what you'd like to eat yet?" A new voice interrupted. The waitress was dressed, just like everything else in the diner, in pink. Her dark, slightly Gothic make up definitely didn't fit with the rest of her uniform. Momentarily forgetting our discussion, we ordered our food and the waitress hurried away.

"Now," Jace continued once she was gone. "Back to the topic at hand."

"And the topic at hand was?" Isabelle asked.

"Me, of course." Jace informed her. "I know you all count the minutes until you can escape from your humdrum lives by hearing how awesome mine is."

"Just get on with the story, Jace." Alec cut in. "And tell us how you ended up here."

"If you insist." Jace said, still grinning. "Well, after our pleasant excursion, you guys disappeared. Clary tried to use her cell probe thing to talk to you, but something killed it. We figured the fastest way to find you would be to meet here."

"Cell probe?" Isabelle asked dubiously. "What's a cell probe?"

"Whatever it is, it sounds naughty." Magnus said, examining his glittery nails. He lazily lifted his gaze to meet mine. "What have you been up to, Clarissa?"

"He means my cell phone, Magnus." I informed the warlock haughtily. "And no one killed it, Jace. The battery died."

"Mmhmm." Jace agreed in that tone of voice that said he had no idea what I was talking about. "The point is that we made it here alive and unscathed." He made a tragic face as he remembered the events of the subway. "Well, alive anyway."

The others all furrowed their brows. In response to their questioning looks, I laughed. "Jace made a new friend on the subway. Didn't you, sweetie?"

Jace muttered something under his breath about creepy gay guys and annoying girlfriends. "Let's not relive that." He added aloud. "Once was bad enough."

"I take it that was when you met our lovely guest." Magnus commented, giving Mal a beguiling smile. The girl smiled tentatively in response. It was an odd reaction considering how out-going she had been the whole time she was around me and Jace. As soon as we found the others, she had gone quiet. "Would you care to introduce the poor girl, Clary?"

"Malheureuse, meet Isabelle, Alec, and Magnus." I pointed to each of them in turn. "Isabelle, Alec, and Magnus; meet Malheureuse."

"C'est français, n'est pas?" Magnus spoke directly to the dark-haired little girl. She flashed him a real smile this time.

"Oui, monsieur." She nodded. "Mais je m'appelle Mal."

"Enchanté, mademoiselle. You can call me Magnus." I had never seen Magnus look as charming as he did smiling at Mal.

"My mother was French," Mal told Magnus, reverting to what I assumed was her normal, chattering self. "But my father was the one who named me. Mother didn't like the name, so she always called me Mal."

"And who were your parents, little one?"

Jace and I exchanged glances. Should we let Mal tell them who her parents were? Alec and Isabelle still looked skeptical, though Magnus was quickly warming up to her. If she told them that she was the daughter of a Greater Demon and a warlock, we were going to have a lot of explaining to do.

"Um, Mal…" I started, but it was already too late.

"My father's name is Asmoday and my mother's name is Neeva." Mal told them.

Alec spit out his drink. "Asmoday?" He and Isabelle practically shouted at the same time.

"Neeva?" Magnus' much quieter question somehow cut through the noise Alec and Isabelle were making. All attention turned to the warlock who was frowning at Mal as if she were some sort of puzzle that he was trying to understand. "Do you mean Neeva Dupuis?" Mal nodded. "I knew you reminded me of someone!"

"Who's Neeva Dupuis?" Alec asked curiously, looking from the girl to his boyfriend and back again.

Magnus turned to face the dark-haired shadowhunter incredulously. "You've never heard of Neeva? Neeva Dupuis is one of the oldest warlocks still in existence. She's beautiful and powerful, not to mention very famous. Her post as High Warlock of Paris is coveted." His voice implied that this knowledge was more personal than professional.

"So you know her?" I asked curiously.

"Know her?" One of Magnus's sparkly brows rose. "Neeva is a dear friend. I spent quite a few years learning about Parisian culture living in her quarters." I wondered if I was the only one who noticed the sudden scowl that graced Alec's face.

"Wait a second," Isabelle cut in with a frown. "There's something wrong with this story." All attention turned to her. Pushing her raven hair out of the way, she spoke up. "I don't know if any of you besides me remember this small insignificant fact, but warlocks can't have children.

"Oh, you don't know Neeva." Magnus told her with his trademark grin. His tone implied that not only did he know Neeva, but he knew her very well. "There was a rumor a few years ago, but I never believed it."

"A rumor about what?" Isabelle asked nosily.

"That she was making deals with demons." Magnus said as if it was obvious. He tapped his sparkly nails against the table top as he talked. "Neeva wasn't the sort to go against the Accords, but I remember she always loved children. I guess she finally got desperate enough to make some sort of deal for one."

"So you believe her?" Alec asked incredulously. It was obvious from his tone that he didn't believe a single word out of the girl's mouth. But then again he was kind of biased.

"You don't?" Magnus queried. His tone was a warning that this was not up for discussion. Alec's scowl deepened.

"Magnus…" Mal began, studying him as if she was looking for something. "Your last name wouldn't happen to be Magnus Bane, would it?" Her head tilted to the side in question.

"The one and only." Magnus winked at her. "Magnus the Magnificent at your service."

"I think I heard mother speak of you once." Mal said in that cheerful tone of her. "She said that you were a close friend. And something about a… bedspread, I think. She said it was your going away present and that she had missed you ever since."

"A bedspread?" Alec questioned snidely. "What kind of a present is that?"

"Never interrupt when I am being flattered." Magnus frowned at his boyfriend. "And a bedspread was a perfectly acceptable present considering our… relationship." Alec turned his glower on Mal as if she was the cause of everything that was wrong with the world, and Magnus seemed to notice his expression for the first time. "Aw, Allie-boo." He simpered, giving Alec a kiss on the cheek. "Neeva and I haven't spoken in years, and you are my one true love. You have nothing to worry about." He leaned forward and gave Alec a real kiss.

"Oh, please!" Jace burst out. "No porn in public areas. Save it for the bedroom." He snickered. "On a bedspread bought for our dear Magnus by a very special someone." If looks could kill, Jace would be dead. Alec's glare came back in full force and its entire force was directed at Jace's blonde self.

"Now that we know who she is," Isabelle changed the topic yet again. "Can someone please tell me why Maleru… Mal is here?"

"That one's simple." Mal spoke up. Dark haired and dark eyed, she looked as innocent as ever in the bright lighting of the restaurant. "I'm here to lead you to Botis."

Alec was still sulking in his corner and Magnus was whispering in his ear about who knew what. Isabelle was the only one who still seemed to find Mal suspicious. "Why?" She asked simply.

Mal's innocent expression wavered for a second, just long enough that I could see the fierce determination it hid. The ring was once again in its normal position on the string around my neck, so I couldn't use it to find out what was bothering her. "I have my reasons." She told Isabelle. "My father has been at war with Botis for a long time, and the Greater Demon Botis has given me many other reasons to detest him. And, as I told Clary and Jace earlier, a demon is always up for a good fight."

"So you're going to lead us to him?" Isabelle still made no effort to hide her doubts. "And how do we know that after we defeat Botis, you won't turn on us and call other demons to take us out?"

"You don't." Mal agreed. "And I may be a demon, but I'm not an idiot. If I were planning on fighting you, I would do it with better odds. Fighting five to one is never a good idea."

"Okay, here's one last question. And just so you know it is a test." Isabelle said. "Why should we trust you?"

"That is a very good question." Mal smiled. "Let's just say when choosing between two evils, I always like to pick the one I've never tried before. So, I'll be on your side."

"That's not an actual answer." The raven-haired girl pointed out. "But it's a good avoidance tactic." Her expression changed, and I could tell that she had made up her mind. "Malheureuse," Isabelle began, "I have no idea whether you're loyal to Asmoday, us, Botis, or even the manager at the closest Starbucks. But I do know that I like you, and for now that will have to do."

"Good." Mal said, her chipper smile returning once again.

"Good." Isabelle agreed.

"Now that that's settled," Jace spoke up. "We have a Greater Demon to kill." Leave it to Jace to remind us we had killing to do. It was nice to know that some things never changed.