Angels Twice Descending by Cassandra Clare, Robin Wasserman Read Free Book Online Page B

and ever, my brother, hail and farewell.”
    *    *    *
    Simon grazed a finger over the small stone plaque, tracing the engraved letters: GEORGE LOVELACE.
    “It’s pretty, isn’t it?” Isabelle said from behind him.
    “Simple,” Clary added. “He would have liked that, don’t you think?”
    Simon thought that George would have preferred to be interred in the City of Bones, like the Shadowhunter he was. (More to the point, he would have preferred not to be dead at all.) The Clave had refused him. He died in the act of Ascension, which in their eyes marked him as unworthy. Simon was trying very hard not to be angry about this.
    He spent a lot of time these days trying not to be angry.
    “It was nice of the London Institute to offer a place for him, don’t you think?” Isabelle said. Simon could hear in her voice how hard she was trying, how worried she was for him.
    They told me a Lovelace is always welcome at the London Institute, George had said when he heard about his placement.
    After his death the Institute made good on their word.
    There had been a funeral, which Simon had endured. There had been a variety of reunions, big and small, with his friends from the Academy, Simon and the others telling stories and trading memories and trying not to think about that last day. Jon almost always cried.
    Then there had been everything else: Life as a Shadowhunter, mercifully busy with training and experimenting with his newfound physical grace and energy, along with fighting off the occasional demon or rogue vampire. There had been long days with Clary, reveling in the fact that he could now remember every second of their friendship, preparing for their parabatai ceremony, which was only days away. There had been numerous training bouts with Jace, usually ending with Simon flat on his back while Jace stood over him, gloating about his superior skill, because that was Jace’s way of showing affection. There had been evenings babysitting Magnus and Alec’s son, snuggling the little blue boy to his chest and singing him to sleep, and feeling, for a few precious minutes, almost at peace.
    There had been Isabelle, who loved him, which made every day glow.
    There had been so much to make life worth living, and so Simon had lived, and time had passed—and George was still dead.
    He’d asked Clary to Portal him here, to London, for reasons he didn’t quite understand. He’d said good-bye to George so many times now, but somehow none of it felt quite final—it didn’t feel right.
    “I’ll take you there,” Clary had said. “But I’m coming with you.”
    Isabelle had insisted too, and Simon was glad of it.
    A soft breeze blew through the Institute’s garden, rustling the leaves and carrying the faint scent of orchids. Simon thought that George would be glad, at least, to spend eternity in a place where there was no threat of sheep.
    Simon rose to his feet, flanked by Clary and Isabelle. Each of them slipped her hand into his, and they stood silently, bound together. Now that Simon had regained his past, he could remember all the times he’d almost lost one of them—as he could remember now, vividly, all the people he had lost. To battle, to murder, to sickness. Being a Shadowhunter, he knew, meant being on an intimate basis with death.
    But then, so did being human.
    Someday he would lose Clary and Isabelle, or they would lose him. Nothing could stop that. So what was the point? he’d asked Catarina, but he knew better than that. The point wasn’t that you tried to live forever; the point was that you lived , and did everything you could to live well. The point was the choices you made and the people you loved.
    Simon gasped.
    “Simon?” Clary said in alarm. “What is it?”
    But Simon couldn’t speak; he could only gape at the gravestone, where the air was shimmering, and translucent light was shaping itself into two figures. One was a girl about his age; she had long blond hair, blue eyes, and the