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CHAPTER SEVEN:
❝ And Death Shall Have No Dominion ❞
Isabelle had been telling the truth: the Institute was entirely deserted. Almost entirely, anyway. Max was asleep on the red couch in the foyer when they came in. His glasses were slightly askew and he clearly hadn't meant to fall asleep: There was a book open on the floor where he'd dropped it and his sneakered feet dangled over the couch's edge in a manner that looked as if it were probably uncomfortable.
Esme's heart went out to him immediately. He reminded her of Simon at the age of nine or ten, all glasses and awkward blinking and ears.
"Max is like a cat. He can sleep anywhere." Jace reached down and plucked the glasses from Max's face, setting them down on a squat inlaid table nearby. There was a look on his face Esme had never seen before — a fierce protective gentleness that surprised her.
"Oh, leave his stuff alone — you'll just get mud on it," said Isabelle crossly, unbuttoning her wet coat. Her dress clung to her long torso and water darkened the thick leather belt around her waist. The glitter of her coiled whip was just visible where the handle protruded from the edge of the belt. She was frowning. "I can feel a cold coming on," she said. "I'm going to take a hot shower."
Jace watched her disappear down the corridor with a sort of reluctant admiration. "Sometimes she reminds me of the poem. 'Isabelle, Isabelle, didn't worry. Isabelle didn't scream or scurry — '"
"Do you ever feel like screaming?" Clary asked him.
"Some of the time." Jace shrugged off his wet coat and hung it on the peg next to Isabelle's. "She's right about the hot shower, though. I could certainly use one."
Nico said, "So can I."
"I don't have anything to change into," Clary said, suddenly wanting a few moments to herself. Her fingers itched to dial Simon's number on her cell phone, find out if he was all right. "I'll just wait for you here."
"Don't be stupid. I'll lend you a T-shirt." His jeans were soaked and hung low on his hipbones, showing a strip of pale, tattooed skin between the denim and the edge of his T-shirt.
Clary looked away. "I don't think — "
"Come on." His tone was firm. "There's something I want to show you, anyway."
Surreptitiously, Clary checked the screen on her phone as she followed Jace down the hall to his room. Esme looked around, left alone with a sleeping Max and a very awake Nico. She said, "I'm gonna go home." But she said home like she had actually meant to say something else, but switched it at the last minute.
