Phase Two (Book Two: Experiment Series TMI)✔

.CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

Luke's sister looked up, her blue eyes, so much like Luke's, fastening on Clary. She seemed dizzied, shocked, her expression a little unfocused as if she'd been drugged. She tried to start to her feet, but Cartwright shoved her back down. Sebastian started toward them, the Cup in his hand.

Clary scrambled forward, but Jace caught her by the arm, pulling her back. She kicked at him, but he'd already swung her up into his arms, his hand over her mouth. I struggled to my feet but my legs were still weak, pain ebbing through my wound, making me collapse back on my knees.

Sebastian was speaking to Amatis in a low, hypnotic voice. She shook her head violently, but Cartwright caught her by her long hair and jerked her head back. I heard her cry out, a thin sound over the wind.

Sebastian had one hand fisted in the back of Amatis's hair, the Cup jammed against her mouth. As he forced the contents down her throat, she retched and coughed, black fluid dripping down her chin.

Sebastian yanked the Cup back, but it had done its work. Amatis made an awful hacking sound, her body jerking upright. Her eyes bulged, turning as dark as Sebastian's. She slapped her hands over her face, a wail escaping her, and I watched in astonishment that the Voyance rune was fading from her hand-fading to pallor-and then it was gone.

Amatis dropped her hands. Her expression had smoothed and her eyes were blue again. They fastened on Sebastian.

"Release her," Clary's brother said to Cartwright, his gaze on Amatis. "Let her come to me."

Cartwright snapped the chain binding him to Amatis and stepped back, a curious mixture of apprehension and fascination on his face. Amatis remained still a moment, her hands lolling at her sides. Then she stood and walked over to Sebastian. She knelt before him, her hair brushing the dirt.

"Master," she said. "How may I serve you?"

I gasped in horror. I knew what the boys had been planning, about the cup, and raising Lilith and turning the Nephilim into spawns of the devil, literally. I even willing to help them out, though I was always in that God forsaken apartment. But now, I watched everything play out before me, I could only watch, terror freezing my bones, regretting ever wishing to leave the prison I had been locked in.

"Rise," Sebastian said, and Amatis rose from the ground gracefully. She seemed to have a new way of moving, all of a sudden. All Shadowhunters were adroit, but she moved now with a silent grace that I found oddly chilling. She stood straight in front of Sebastian.

For the first time I saw that what she had taken for a long white dress, was a nightgown, as if she had been awakened and spirited out of bed. What a nightmare, to wake up here, among these hooded figures, in this bitter, abandoned place.

"Come here to me," Sebastian beckoned, and Amatis stepped toward him. She was a head shorter than him at least, and she craned her head up as he whispered to her. A cold smile split her face.

Sebastian raised his hand.
"Would you like to fight Cartwright?"

Cartwright dropped the chain he had been holding, his hand going to his weapons belt through the gap in his cloak. He was a young man, with fairish hair, and a wide, square-jawed face. "But I-"
"Surely some demonstration of her power is in order," said Sebastian. "Come, Cartwright, she is a woman, and older than you are. Are you afraid?"