Page 110 of Better in Black
“We want to invite you to a wedding!”
“Oh.” Max looked stunned. Then he slammed the window shut.
“Maybe he’s not a fan of weddings?” Jace said, into the ensuing silence.
“Maybe I should have told him it wasourwedding?”
“I don’t think he’s a big fan of us either.”
Before Clary could admit defeat, they heard the front door open, then bang shut again. A moment later, Max stepped into the yard. He was holding a shovel, his grip white on the wooden handle.
Clary took a wary step back. Max Trueblood had been a full Shadowhunter adult when he’d left the Clave; he’d had years of training. If he was really angry, he could do some damage—unless they fought back, which was the last thing she wanted to do. She didn’t even want to imagine trying to explain to Maryse that she and Jace had tracked down Maryse’s long-lost brother, then beaten him up.
She held up her hands, palms out. “We’re unarmed,” she said.
“Well,” Jace said. “Mostly unarmed.”
“I bet,” Max said, eyeing their backpacks. “So. Whose wedding are we talking about here?”
“It’s a double wedding,” Clary said. “Ours. And Isabelle and Simon’s.”
Max stood very still. A wind had come up, blowing the dead leaves across the grass. “Isabelle. She’s Maryse’s daughter?” Max said, so quietly she almost couldn’t hear.
“Yes,” Clary said, very carefully. “And she has a brother. Alec.”
“The Consul,” said Max, and Clary and Jace glanced at each other in surprise. “I do knowsomethings,” Max added.
“Alec got married last year,” Jace told him. “He and Magnus have two kids, which I guess makes you a great-uncle.”
Max didn’t quite laugh at that, but he did let out a sharp exhalation of air. “I suppose so,” he said. “Alec—Alexander. Robert must have named him. It’s an old Lightwood name.”
“He did,” Jace said. “And Maryse named her second son Max. After you.”
Max winced and lowered the shovel. Now that he’d stopped glaring, he looked even more like his namesake. “Does Maryse know you’re here, inviting me to your wedding?”
“No,” Clary started, and added quickly, as he began to turn away, “but not because she doesn’t want you there. We just didn’t want to tell her we were trying to find you in case—in case it didn’t work out.”
“Right.” Max looked up at the cloudy October sky. “You seem like nice kids,” he said, tightly. “But the Shadowhunter world isn’t my world anymore. It’s been decades since I was a part of it. I live here in the mundane world. My life is here. Not there. I have no place among the Nephilim now.”
“You would have a place with Maryse, if you wanted one,” said Jace. “She misses you.”
“I doubt that.” The fierce glare returned. “My sister cut off allcontact with me when I left to be with my wife. And now my wife is dead.” He spoke the words with a bleak finality. “The last thing I need is Maryse lording that over me.”
Clary and Jace exchanged a glance.No wonder,she thought. No wonder he was so angry; no wonder he wanted nothing to do with them or the past they represented. The Clave had made itself an enemy to his love, and his love was dead. The Clave had ensured that he would suffer that loss alone.
But maybe there was still something that could be salvaged, Clary thought. “Maryse would never lord it over—”
Max cut her off. “You don’t know my sister.”
“No,youdon’t know your sister,” Jace said quietly. “Not now. You knew the person she was. Not the person she’s become.” He hesitated. “Her husband is dead too. Robert. He was killed in Idris.”
Something flickered behind Max’s eyes. For a moment, Clary dared to hope. Surely, if he knew that Maryse had also suffered, he would feel differently? Maybe even sorry for her?
But the stony look came back over Max’s face, and Clary knew they’d lost him. “I’m sorry,” he said. “But it’s too big a risk for me. I don’t expect you to understand.”
He dropped the shovel, turned, and walked off. Clary rushed after him. “I know Maryse,” she said, to his back. “I know her well. I know she took in Jace when he had nowhere else to go. And she cared for him like a mother.”
“Yeah, well.” Max hunched his shoulders, as if trying to defend against her words. He pulled his car keys out of his pocket, heading for the driveway. “Shadowhunters take care of their own.”
