Page 13 (1/2)

"That silly thing? Men going around getting their heads chopped off for love? Ridiculous" Will unpeeled himself from the door and made his way toward Tessa where she stood by the bookshelves He gestured expansively at the vast number of volumes all around him "No, here you’ll find all sorts of advice about how to chop off someone’s else’s head if you need to; much more useful"

"I don’t!" Tessa protested "Need to chop off anyone’s head, that is And what’s the point of a lot of books no one actually wants to read? Haven’t you really any other novels?"

"Not unless Lady Audley’s Secret is that she slays demons in her spare time" Will bounded up onto one of the ladders and yanked a book off the shelf "I’ll find you so, and Tessa had to dart forward to seize it before it hit the floor

It was a large squarish volume bound in dark blue velvet There was a pattern cut into the velvet, a swirling symbol reminiscent of the marks that decorated Will’s skin The title was stalanced up at Will "What is this?"

"I assuiven that you’re currently inhabiting our sanctu you want to know--about us, about our history, even about Doorlders like you" Will’s face turned grave "Be careful with it, though It’s six hundred years old and the only copy of its kind Losing or da it is punishable by death under the Law"

Tessa thrust the book away from her as if it were on fire "You can’t be serious"

"You’re right I’htly in front of her "You do believe everything I say, though, don’t you? Do I seem unusually trustworthy to you, or are you just a na&iu, Tessa scowled at him and stalked across the room toward one of the stone benches inside aalcove Throwing herself down onto the seat, she opened the Codex and began to read, studiously ignoring Will even as he aze on her as she read

The first page of the Nephili on the tapestries in the corridors: the angel rising out of the lake, holding a sword in one hand and a cup in the other Underneath the illustration was a note: The Angel Raziel and the Mortal Instruan," Will said cheerfully, as if oblivious to the fact that she was ignoring hiel blood there, and you’ve a recipe for indestructible hu a book, mind you, but it’s a start"

"Hardly hu the pages There were dozens of pictures of angels--tuht shed sparks as it fell There wereopen a book on whose pages runes burned like fire, and there werearound hies ofeyes and sewed-shut lips; i swords, like warrior angels out of Heaven She looked up at Will "You are, then, aren’t you? Part angel?"

Will didn’t answer He was looking out the , through a clear lower pane Tessa followed his gaze; thegave out onto what had to be the front of the Institute, for there was a rounded courtyard below theate surliht There were iron letters worked into the wrought arch atop the gate; when looked at from this direction, they were backward, and Tessa squinted to decipher them

"Pulvis et umbra sumus It’s a line from Horace ‘We are dust and shadows’ Appropriate, don’t you think?" Will said "It’s not a long life, killing de, and then they burn your body--dust to dust, in the literal sense And then we vanish into the shadows of history, nary a e of a mundane book to remind the world that once we existed at all"

Tessa looked at hi--that amusement that didn’t seem to pass beyond the surface of his features, as if he found everything in the world both infinitely funny and infinitely tragic all at the same time She wondered what had , for it was a quality he didn’t appear to share with any of the other Shadowhunters she hadhe had learned from his parents--but what parents?

"Don’t you ever worry?" she said softly "That what’s out there--ht come in here?"

"Deh Tessa wasn’t sure if that hat she hadof the evils of the world in general He placed a hand against the wall "The mortar that made these stones was mixed with the blood of Shadowhunters Every beam is carved of roood Every nail used to haether is made of silver, iron, or electruround surrounded by wards The front door can be opened only by one possessing Shadowhunter blood; otherwise it remains locked forever This place is a fortress So no, I am not worried"

"But why live in a fortress?" At his surprised look she elaborated "You clearly aren’t related to Charlotte and Henry, they’re hardly old enough to have adopted you, and not all Shadowhunter children must live here or there would be more than you and Jessamine--"

"And Jem," Will reminded her

"Yes, but--you see what I mean Why don’t you live with your family?"

"None of us have parents Jessamine’s died in a fire, Jem’s--well Jem came from quite a distance away to live here, after his parents were murdered by demons Under Covenant Law, the Clave is responsible for parentless Shadowhunter children under the age of eighteen"

"So you are one another’s family"

"If you must romanticize it, I suppose we are--all brothers and sisters under the Institute’s roof You as well, Miss Gray, however te hot blood rise to her face, "I think I would prefer it if you called me by my Christian name, as you do with Miss Lovelace"

Will looked at her, slow and hard, and then smiled His blue eyes lit when he smiled "Then you must do the saht about her name much before, but when he said it, it was as if she were hearing it for the first time--the hard T, the caress of the double S, the way it seemed to end on a breath Her own breath was very short when she said, softly, "Will"