DEAR DARLIN' • ALEC LIGHTWOOD

xii

"TELL ME WHAT? What's so important that Luke risked his life?" Clary demanded to know. Apollo let out an audible groan as he felt his powers weakening. Luke wasn't a believer of the Olympians, he didn't worship Apollo, so for the god to do this for the man, it took a lot of strength from him. Magnus looked to the god in concern, but Apollo just gave a weak smile.

"Everything Jocelyn hoped to hide from you." Magnus told Clary, using his magic to bring a sketchbook and pencils in front of the redhead.

"Why?" Clary asked, picking up a pencil.

"When you were younger, I'd watch you sketching. It was your bliss. You're gonna need some bliss now." Magnus told her, a bit of pity on his face.

"Back then, there wasn't a day I didn't draw. It was like breathing. Now, I look at this blank page and I barely even know what to do. Sometimes I feel like my art, my memories My life, it it all vanished with that Memory Demon." Clary looked sadly at Apollo, a person who she saw as a brother less than a week ago but everything seemed so difficult now.

"Your art, everything you are they're all still here. You're the woman your mother always knew you could be."

"But tried to keep me from being." Clary spitefully added.

"That's why you need to know how you got here." Apollo called out from the living area.

"Will it help me find my mother?"

"That's the only reason I can think of why Luke would be so adamant." Magnus told her watching her take a deep breath, readying herself for the truth.

"I'm ready. Bring it, warlock." Clary lifted her head, bringing the sketchbook closer to her on the table.

"When I first heard about your father, around the time he and Jocelyn first got together, long before the Uprising and the Circle, Valentine elevated the Morgenstern name to be synonymous with virtue."

Images started flashing in Apollo's mind, of the time this happened.

"Defenders of the Accords, allies to the Downworld. This is who we are!"

"And your mother was at his side." Apollo told Clary.

"We must never violate our oath. Because this is our sacred duty."

"But by the time my people came to know him, barely two years later his name had become synonymous with devastation. Your mother told me it was then she first saw the signs." Magnus' eyes looked down, both in fear and in shame. Warlocks having to hide who they were, the oppression hurt.

"Val! Are you hurt? Talk to me. Whose blood is this?"

"Warlocks."

"They attacked you? Where? When? You've broken the Accords. I'll talk to my father. He knows the Law better than anyone. Sometimes it isn't clear who instigated the fight."

"The Accords are a fallacy. Everything about them, down to the blasphemous magic that binds us all to their stupidity."

"The Accords guarantee peace."

"We are Shadowhunters. We don't make peace with demons. Downworlders are half human. And half demon! Shadowhunters kill demons. I'm fulfilling our destiny."

"They never found all the bodies. We'd all stood with the Clave for centuries." Magnus was holding back the anger in his voice, knowing that wasn't what Clary needed in that moment.