GENESIS: A RIGHT TO STAND (Book One) • SHADOWHUNTERS

TRUCE

Spencer wandered through the halls of the Institute, the Codex tucked under her arm. She was still trying to process all that had happened at Renwick's—the information Valentine had revealed still sent her head spinning.

    She ached to tell someone—anyone—but Jace had forbidden her.

    She awoke on a bed in the hospital wing, and Jace was there.

    "You're awake," Jace said. "Good. We need to talk."

    "About what?" she asked. Her head still ached.

    Jace only gazed at her, then reached forward to the cabinet beside her. He poured the contents of the pitcher into a cup and offered it to her. "You know what."

    Spencer sipped, her head feeling better immediately. "What's there to talk about? I've got angel blood, I'm Nephilim, Valentine practically raised me. That's all there is to it."

    "No. It isn't." Jace took the cup from her and placed it back on the cabinet. He grasped her wrist. "Spencer. You absolutely cannot tell anyone this. Not Izzy. Not Clary. Not even Alec."

    "Why? Someone needs to know. I—they need to help me." She touched her rib, where Jace and Marked her.

    "I will help you," Jace said. "I'll train you, teach you about the Runes. But the Clave will eventually send Shadowhunters here, to the Institute, and I don't think they'd be too pleased to find out that there's not one, but three teenagers tied to Valentine here. Even if you don't share blood," he added, sensing Spencer was about to argue, "he still raised you. And then, they will ask why he took such a special interest in a mundane, and you will have to tell them that you're a Shadowhunter."

    "But I'm not," Spencer replied. "Didn't you hear Valentine? I'm Nephilim. It's different. I don't know how, but it is. I'm not one of you."

    Jace nodded. "You're right. You're not. But until we figure out some way to get the Mortal Cup back, you are a mundane. Got it?"

    "Got it."

    "That means you will continue to act like a mundane. You will continue to act like you're planning on Ascending. And most importantly, you do not tell anyone."

    He got up to leave but Spencer said, "Jace. You said there were three of us tied to Valentine. Who else?"

    Jace hesitated. "Clary," he said finally. "She's Valentine's daughter. And my sister."

    He left then, and Spencer was alone in the hospital wing, dumbfounded.

    That had been this morning. Apparently, she'd been unconscious for three days. Spencer had since left the hospital wing and gone to her room to get her book, and had spent the last hour or so searching for Jace or Alec, just for someone to talk to. Besides, she figured she should probably check up on Alec—she hadn't seen him since taking down Abbadon.

    She heard the elevator rattle up to the foyer, so Spencer ran to meet it. Obviously, someone was here, and she'd talk to anyone she could.

    When she reached the foyer, Spencer heard voices. She poked her around the corner to see Clary standing with Isabelle.

    "...it was horrible," Isabelle said, "and I don't know what we would have done if Magnus hadn't showed up and magicked Alec back to health. Is that a word, 'magicked'? Jace told us all about what happened on the island afterward," she went on. "Actually, we knew about it even before, because Magnus was on the phone about it all night. Everyone in Downworld was buzzing about it. You're famous, you know."