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CHAPTER EIGHT:
❝ A Fine And Private Place ❞
The cemetery was in the outskirts of Queens, where apartment buildings gave way to rows of orderly-looking Victorian houses painted gingerbread colors: pink, white, and blue. The streets were wide and mostly deserted, the avenue leading up to the cemetery unlit except by a single streetlight. It took them a short while with their steles to break in through the locked gates, and another while to find a spot hidden enough for Raphael to begin digging. It was at the top of a low hill, sheltered from the road below by a thick line of trees. Clary, Jace, Nico, and Isabelle were protected with glamour, but there was no way to hide Esme or Raphael, or to hide Simon's body, so the trees provided a welcome cover.
The sides of the hill not facing the road were thickly layered with headstones, many of them bearing a pointed Star of David at the top. They gleamed white and smooth as milk in the moonlight. In the distance was a lake, its surface pleated with glittering ripples. A nice place, Esme thought. A good place to come and lay flowers on someone's grave, to sit awhile and think about their life, what they meant to you. Not a good place to come at night, under the cover of darkness, to bury your friend in a shallow dirt grave without the benefit of a coffin or a service.
"Did he suffer?" she asked Raphael.
He looked up from his digging, leaning on the handle of the shovel like the gravedigger in Hamlet. "What?"
"Simon," she said quietly, pushing her champagne hair out of her face. "Did he suffer? Did the vampires hurt him?"
"No. The blood death is not such a bad way to die," said Raphael, his musical voice soft. "The bite drugs you. It is pleasant, like going to sleep."
A wave of dizziness passed over Clary, and for a moment she thought she might faint. "Clary." Jace's voice snapped her out of her reverie. "Come on. You don't have to watch this." He held out his hand to her. Looking past him, she could see Isabelle standing with her whip in her hand. They had wrapped Simon's body in a blanket and he lay on the ground.
"I want to be here when he wakes up."
"I know. We'll come right back." When she didn't move, Jace took her unresisting arm and drew her away from the clearing and down the side of the hill.
Esme, unmoving, sat down on the grass just there. She was staring at Simon's wrapped body, rocking back and forth. I'm sorry I wasn't there, I'm sorry I wasn't there, I'm sorry I wasn't there -
It was surprisingly chilly out. For the first time this season, Esme could see her breath when she exhaled. Nico sat down next to her, witchlight in hand. It illuminated both their faces in a strange glow, softening their sharp edges.
