Angels • Alec Lightwood (DISCONTINUED)

Ten

"Careful son,
You've got dreamer's plans."

U N K N O W N P O V

I have two goals in my life.

One- shatter Daisy Greenway's happiness until she's as broken and bent as I am.

Two- Then, finally, when's she's destroyed and ready to give up- finally- I will kill her.

Nothing can forgive what she did to me.

Nothing.

Revenge is a dish best eaten cold, as they say, and my revenge is very cold. I have waited sixteen long, hard years, but now everything is ready.

I know what I'm doing. Nothing can go wrong.

Finally- finally- I am ready.

I am coming.

D A I S Y

'I can't be part Shadowhunter,' I said slowly. 'I can't. I can't lie, can I? Besides, someone would have told me!'

The Silent Brothers didn't move. We will need to take you to City of Bones to discover your true identity. If you are willing, we can talk to Maryse Lightwood and arrange a visit for you.

My blood went cold. 'A visit to the Bone City? I- I couldn't! It's Shadowhunter land, and I'm-'

The words I'm a faerie stuck in my throat the way a lie always did, and I felt the sudden urge to scream, or cry, or do anything but just sit here talking to the Silent Brothers. I am a faerie, I thought furiously. I have wings, don't I? And I have pointed ears, and I can't lie.

Alec stood up next to me. 'I'll go and get Mom,' he announced. 'I'll be back in a minute.'

The moment the door swung closed I breathed in and out loudly, deep ragged breaths that did nothing to help the pressing of tears onto my eyelids. 'I can't be part Shadowhunter,' I said weakly. 'I can't.'

You never knew your parents, the second Silent Brother said, and I flinched. It is possible, and likely.

You would not be able to bear Runes, Brother Enoch added. The Shadowhunter in you is only a quarter. But you being unable to tell a lie... It is very curious. Very curious indeed. Going to the City of Bones could even reveal who your parents were.

My heart skipped a beat- I'd always wanted to know who my parents were, but...

Not like this. Not this way. Not with the Silent Brothers scrutinising my every move, not with them checking the archives or files or whatever they called it. I wanted my parents to show up and claim me as their daughter.

And in the City we could try and prevent further attacks, Brother Enoch added.

Attacks? I thought, and then remembered. Of course. Why I was here in the first place- the attacks on me, the tattoos.

The door banged open, and Maryse Lightwood walked in, Alec trailing behind her. 'Jane,' she said to me, nodding.

'I go by Daisy now,' I said softly. 'Jane had too many bad memories.'

Maryse blinked, then smiled. 'If only it was so easy for all of us to leave a life behind,' she said.

Alec's head swivelled back and forth between us like he was watching a tennis match. 'You two know each other?' he asked.

'We met,' I said. 'Maryse saved my life.'

Maryse inclined her head. 'You were only two, Alec. But I remember-' she sighed. 'You still look the same,' she told me. 'Exactly the same.'

Maryse Lightwood, Brother Enoch said. We had just been discussing Daisy's unique parentage, and the gift of not being able to lie.

'Gift?' I said, without meaning to. 'Sorry, uh, carry on.'

It is possible Daisy may be able to lie, with practise, the Silent Brother continued. But first we need to discover who attacked her, and why. And how to stop these attacks, along with her parentage.

'How long would she stay?' Maryse asked. 'If, of course, she is willing.'

A few days, Brother Enoch said. It depends.

I felt my breath hitch in my chest. A few days. A few days in the City of Bones- a place that faeries never went, unless they were dragged there in chains.

I can't go there. I can't.

But I had to. I had to find out who my parents were.

I glanced at Alec, and I saw the look in his eyes mirrored in his mother's. Go if you want to, but we won't make you.

Make your decision, Daisy, the Silent Brothers said, as one. Make your decision.

I took a deep breath. 'I'm going,' I said. 'I have to find out who my parents were, and I have to be safe. I'm going to the city of Bones.'