JACE'S POV
As the sun fell beneath the horizon in a blaze of orange, I felt my father rest his hand on my shoulder. "Is it time?" I asked tonelessly without looking away from the last tinges of sunset.
"Almost," he whispered. "Sebastian is coming." Sebastian was Father's adoptive son, the boy he'd taken after Michael Wayland, a member of Father's Circle, had died. (A/N: Not really! Hee hee… This is supposed to be dramatic irony, but I didn't want anyone to get confused!) I'd met him only once, as my dad raised us apart. Sebastian was intimidating, and he seemed apathetic about most things.
"And then…" I trailed off, imagining the traces of sunlight staining the horizon were flames.
"And then we attack."
CLARY'S POV
When I got home, Mom was hastily rereading a yellowed letter, singed at the edges- a fire message. Her eyes were wide, and her hair was escaping her loose ponytail in a way that made her look frantic and worried.
"Mom?" I asked softly. "What's wrong?" She looked up at me, and her face reminded me of the day she'd gone to pick me up at school the day the planes crashed into the Twin Towers.
"He did it," she whispered, horrified. "He actually did it."
"Who?" I needled, worried. "Who did what?"
"Your father," she answered, visibly shaking.
"Luke?" I was very confused.
"Not Luke. Your real father." Her words chilled me into a shocked silence. But… my father was dead? Wasn't he?
As if reading my mind, Mom replied, "He didn't die. I'm sorry, Clary, I lied to you. Your real father was… he was evil, Clary, I had to leave him. Evil." Evil? I couldn't imagine someone saying these things about a man she'd once loved, but it had to be true. But I still didn't know what had happened.
"He attacked the Gard," she told me. "With demons. Clary, that's like the White House of Idris." I felt nauseous as her words finally fell into place in my scrambled mind.
"We'll fight back," I answered, my voice shockingly calm. I wondered who was speaking; it couldn't have been me. "This is a war. We're going to fight back." My mother just stared at me, a sad smile tugging at her lips.
"Of course we will."