City of Glass Sneak Peak!

City of Glass August Excerpt

***
At the table sat Jace. He was leaning forward on his elbows, his golden hair tousled, his shirt slightly open at the neck. She could see the thick banding of black Marks tracing his collarbone. He held a cookie in one graceful hand. "Good," he said, "you're back. I was beginning to think you'd fallen into a canal."
Clary just stared at him, wordless. She wondered if he could read the anger in her eyes. He leaned back in the chair, one arm thrown casually over the back of it. If it hadn't been for the rapid pulse at the base of his throat she might almost have believed his air of unconcern.
"You look exhausted," he added. "Where have you been all day?"
"I was out with Sebastian."
"Sebastian?" Clary was momentarily gratified by his look of utter astonishment.
"He walked me home last night," Clary said, and in her mind, the words I'll just be your brother from now on, just your brother, beat like the rhythm of a damaged heart. "And so far, he's the only person in this city who's been remotely nice to me. So yes. I was out with Sebastian."
"I see." Jace set his cookie back down on the plate, his face as blank as an unpainted canvas. "Clary, I came here to apologize. I shouldn't have spoken to you the way I did."
"No," Clary said. "You shouldn't."
"I also came to ask you if you'd reconsider going back to New York."
"God," Clary said. "This again --"
"It's not safe for you here --"
"What are you worried about?" she asked tonelessly. "That they'll throw me in prison like they did with Simon?"
Jace's expression didn't change, but he rocked back in his chair, the front legs lifting off the floor, almost as if she had shoved him. "Simon --?"
"Sebastian told me what happened to him," she went on in the same toneless voice. "What you did. How you brought him here and then let him just get thrown in jail. Are you trying to get me to hate you?"
"And you trust Sebastian?" Jace asked. "You barely know him, Clary."
She stared at him. "Is it not true?"
He met her gaze, but his face had gone still. "It's true."