HELLO HELLO HELLO! I won't bore you with too much rambling... YET! I'll let you read the update that I should have written LONG ago.

MEET ME BELOW! ;)

Chapter Seventy-Three

He's standing right there, right there.

And for a moment, I can't breathe.

Logically, I know it's only been a few days since I've seen him, but so much has happened that I can't think logically. He's long since robbed me of that ability.

He doesn't see me, not at first. Instead, he's leaning against the railing, the city alive and pulsing with glittering night-light and sound, and the wind is howling, pulling at his hair and mine, and he's staring down, so many stories below, a distant look on his beautiful face.

My eyes skitter around the roof, but it is deceptively empty—and I see my chance. My one chance.

I take a shuddering breath and step forward. My feet crunch the gravel, and he hears, his head snapping over immediately.

His eyes lock with mine, and I suppose I expect a moment of shock, of realization, of conflicting emotions, but he's had me read too many books and the reality is only fury—quick fury spreading over his face.

"Isabelle!" he yells, throwing his hands up, jerking away from the roof's railing. "Goddamn it!"

"Jace," I begin, my voice shakily holding onto calm.

"Don't—d-don't, don't speak to me," he growls, tripping over the words, his rage making his speech clumsy. He paces frantically along the roof, pulling sharply at the short strands of his hair.

"Jace, please, just listen to me," I plead, running forward, towards him, but he moves back quickly, keeping the chasm of things unsaid between us.

"I said don't talk to me," he warns. "I have to think of what I'm going to do with you before Valentine comes back."

"Where is he?" I ask quickly, my eyes dancing back towards the stairwell door. "Jace, you don't understand. He's going to hurt our baby. He's going to hurt all the Guardian children, and he's going to kill you! He wants to be the leader of the Guardians forever. He's—"

"Shut up, Clary! You're lying!"

"Jace, I have done so many wrong things," I whisper, my voice trembling with barely repressed emotion. But still, a small piece of my old self comes back, and I manage to be halfway calm as I go on. "I have managed to fuck everything up. I have managed to hurt you in a way I cannot fully understand, and I know that I've ruined any trust in me that you ever had and maybe ruined your trust in people in general. But you have to know, that despite everything I've done, I would never have hurt our baby—nor would I have lied about anything when it came to him. He is the one thing I did right—as corny and dramatic as it sounds—and he is the one thing that I don't regret. Please, you have to listen to me about this, Jace. You have to know that our baby is in danger—"

"I won't let anything happen to him," Jace says flatly, his face shutting and closing on me like a slammed door. "He's the one thing I don't regret either. I'd never let any harm befall him."

My breathing hiccups dangerously. "Jace, Valentine is cunning. He'll kill you before he hurts JC and the other children. He won't risk your response to JC's…to his d-death."

"Clary, I swear to—"

I never get to hear what he swears to.

I never get to because now, we aren't alone.

At first, I hear his voice. I hear his soft sigh and his ice-cold laugh, and fear closes my throat. But when I turn, when I see, the fear turns to something a word cannot describe and my legs wobble.

"What are you doing?" Jace whispers to his father.

"What needs to be done," Valentine says, almost pleasantly.

Jace and I move at the same time.

We lurch forward in perfect synchronization only to slam into stone-hard air. I fall backwards, landing sharply on painful gravel. Jace totters but manages to right himself only to slam back into the wall of nothingness.

"What are you doing?" he screams, but unlike his fury-drenched words before, he sounds only broken. Horrified. Betrayed by everything and everyone.

I get up again and slam into the wall with Jace, as if we can move it, but I see the white chalk around us. Some kind of spell. Some kind of evil. Some kind of prison.

A part of me knows it's hopeless, but I still scream and thrash with Jace.

But there's really nothing to do but watch the evil man snuggle our son closer to his chest and smile.

It's short and totally mean to leave you guys hanging there, but at least it's something!

I miss you all soooooo much! Words cannot describe. The love and support y'all have sent my way has touched my very soul. Thank you, beautiful darlings. I PROMISE, I'll finish the story now. PROMISE.

Please check out my author's page, as I've given a more detailed explanation of WHY THE HECK I SUCK SO MUCH there. ;)

Love you all! I can't wait to reply to reviews and PMs tomorrow. oxoxoxo