Smoke and Mirrors ▹ Alec Lightwood [1]

CHAPTER SIX

"So what is this about?" Isabelle asked impatiently, pushing her hair over her shoulder. "I kind of need my beauty sleep." Adrian snorted into his mug.

"And I just enjoy sleep," he added. Alec made a small sound of agreement, looking like he was about to fall asleep standing up. Adrian quickly nudged him in the side to rouse him before he handed his cup of coffee over. Alec took a few sips, handing it back with a small smile. Adrian sat on one of the tables nearby and waited.

"Okay," Clary said, taking a deep breath. Adrian could tell she was nervous, and she fiddled nervously with the stele in her right hand. A sketchpad was in her other one. "Okay, so I was sketching about an hour ago, and I started seeing this rune in my head." She turned the sketchpad over so that Hodge, Adrian, Alec, and Isabelle could see. "Magnus said it would happen, that a few memories would start coming back randomly, and I think my mom showed me this rune, once. Anyway, I drew it over a drawing of this cup, and something in me told me to use a stele, so I did, and—well, let me show you."

Curious, Adrian slid back off the table and took a few steps forward so that he could get a closer look. Clary had flipped to the page with the teacup, and as he watched, she drew a rune over the drawing that he had never seen before. The page seemed to ripple. It made Adrian's eyes hurt to look at it. Clary ran a hand down the page, as if testing if the rune worked, before reaching into the page itself. When she pulled her hand out, she was holding the teacup in her fingers, and the page was blank.

Adrian very nearly dropped his mug of coffee.

"That's so cool," he gasped, eyes widening. "Oh my god, little red, you have to teach me how to do that." Clary smiled at him, pleased with the compliment.

"There's more to it," she revealed, smile widening. "When I saw the fake Mortal Cup here, I thought it looked familiar. It wasn't until I realized there was a rune to hide things inside of paintings that I realized I have seen the Cup before, in a set of tarot cards my mom painted." She twirled the teacup around her finger by the handle. "My mom hid the Mortal Cup inside the tarot cards, and gave them to our neighbor as a gift. Madame Dorothea. She never leaves her apartment and she knows about this world. That way the Cup was close, but it wasn't in a place Valentine or his men would think to look." Silence welcomed her words. Adrian was in a bit of awe. He had severely underestimated just how clever Clary Fairchild actually was. That was a mistake he wasn't going to make again.

It was Alec who ended up breaking the silence. "The Clave is searching for the Cup now," he said, "so I don't understand what this has to do with us." Adrian shot him a look. He knew Alec liked following the rules, since in his mind, the rules were what kept them safe. He hadn't come to the conclusion that all young Shadowhunters came to eventually, and that was that the Clave was corrupt. The Law is hard, but it is the Law. The Law also tended to be a giant thorn in Adrian's side, so he understood why Clary was willing to break every single one of them, especially since her mother waking up was the end result. Alec would understand that, too, in time.

"It's better if we do it ourselves," Jace responded. Adrian had to agree. The Clave was harsh when it came to getting what they wanted, plus there was a chance his father would come down to reclaim the Mortal Cup himself, and Adrian didn't want to deal with that. He had to see his father once a year, he didn't want to make it more times than that. "Besides, Hodge already agreed." Hodge nodded to confirm what Jace said.

"Well, I'm game," Isabelle muttered, pulling her hair out of the braid she had put it in just to start braiding it again. Adrian finished the rest of the coffee in his mug.

"I am, too," he sighed, setting the mug down on the table behind him. There was no way he was going to let Clary, Jace, and Isabelle go get the Cup alone, especially since he knew that Alec would go, too. Alec, who looked more than a little irritated by the line of discussion.