City of Secrets

Chapter 19: Love Makes Liars Of Us All

Snow drifted down from the sky like fine, white powder and covered Manhattan in its eerie cold beauty. Come morning, however, the pure white color of it would turn a dirty brown-black from the pollution and waste.

Ember sighed as she walked down the streets of Manhattan, her warm breath puffing out in front of her as a cloud of fog. Her backpack bounced against her back at a constant rhythm as she walked. Roselyn made a small sound of discomfort from inside her five layers of blankets, and Ember pushed away the blankets until she could see her daughter's face. Roselyn looked up at her with her big brown eyes and smiled when she saw her mother. Ember couldn't help but give her a smile of her own at seeing it, and then immediately covered her up again when a harsh wind blew against her.

Isabelle appeared next to her in an instant in when she heard Roselyn's muffled whimper. Her heeled boots click-clacked against the pavement, her long dark hair blew behind her face flawlessly, and her long red coat rippled in the wind. "You should have left her at the Institute," she said. "It's too cold to take her outside."

"What kind of mother would I be if I left my daughter behind?"

"You didn't have to leave," Isabelle said. "You could have waited until it warmed up again."

"No," Ember said sharply. "It has to be now. She has to see her. I promised."

Isabelle sighed. "You won't be able to do this after you Ascend. You know that, right?"

Ember picked up her pace. "That's why I'm doing it before, Isabelle."

"If the Clave would know," Isabelle warned her. "If Jacob knew-"

"But he doesn't," Ember interjected. "He won't, and if he doesn't know, the Clave won't know either." She stopped and turned around. "And that includes all of you. Jacob can't know that we came here. It has to remain a secret. Understand?"

"We promise," Clary, Jace, and Alec said in unison.

"But what happens if someone asks where we went?" the eldest Lightwood sibling asked.

"We tell them what I told Maryse." Ember kept walking, and she heard the sound of feet shuffling and scrambling to catch up to her. "We tell them that we went to the park, and that you came to protect me in case any demons tried to attack."

"You know, for someone so short that isn't a Shadowhunter, you move surprisingly quick," Jace said.

"And for someone who was born Nephilim and with the Angel's gift, you move surprisingly slow," she shot back. Alec snorted next to Jace, and Ember had the satisfaction of seeing Jace's smug smirk turn into a frown.

"Are you just going to let her speak that way to me, Alec? Your parabatai?"

"Yes," Alec said. "That's exactly what I intend to do."

"Traitor," Jace grumbled. "No wonder my ancestor disliked Lightwoods."

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that for your sake," Isabelle said from Ember's side. "You don't want to know what I can do to you with this whip."

"It's just his wounded ego talking, Izzy." Alec briefly stopped to look at something displayed in a window shop. "He's not used to not being the only one with the Herondale wit."

"I'm not a Herondale though," Ember argued.

"I know," Alec replied. "Maybe there's a reason Jace is the last Herondale."

"Yes," Jace said, and pretended to clean his nails with a knife. "The answer is simple. The world isn't prepared for another person as amazing as me."