(yeah I totally beat you all! This is my birthday victory haha)

"I didn't remember there being a cellar here," said Jace, staring past Clary at the gaping hole in the wall and the stairway leading down into impenetrable blackness. He raised the witchlight, and its glow bounced off the downward-leading tunnel. The walls were black and slick, made of a smooth dark stone Clary didn't recognize. The steps gleamed as if they were damp. A strange smell drifted up through the opening: dank, musty, with a weird metallic tinge that set her nerves on edge.
"What do you think could be down there?" she asked.

"I don't know." Jace moved toward the stairs; he put a foot on the top step, testing it, then shrugged as if he'd made up his mind. He began to make his way down the steps, moving carefully. Partway down, he turned and looked up at Clary. "Are you coming? You can wait up here for me if you want to."

She glanced around the empty library, then shivered and hurried after him.
The stairs spiraled down in tighter and tighter circles, as if they were making their way through the inside of a huge conch shell. The smell grew stronger as they reached the bottom, and the steps widened out into a large square room whose stone walls were streaked with the marks of damp—and other, darker stains. The floor was scrawled with markings: a jumble of pentagrams and runes, with white stones scattered here and there.

Jace took a step forward and something crunched under his feet. He and Clary looked down at the same time.

"Bones," Clary whispered. Not white stones after all, but bones of all shapes and sizes, scattered across the floor. "What was he doing down here?"

The witchlight burned in Jace's hand, casting its eerie glow over the room. "Experiments," Jace said in a dry, tense tone. "The Seelie Queen said—"

"What kind of bones are these?" Clary's voice rose. "Are they animal bones?"

"No." Jace kicked a pile of bones with his feet, scattering them. "Not all of them."

Clary's chest felt tight. "I think we should go back."

Instead Jace raised the witchlight in his hand. It blazed out, brightly and then more brightly, lighting the air with a harsh white brilliance. The far corners of the room sprang into focus.

Three of them were empty. The fourth was blocked with a hanging cloth. There was something behind the cloth, a peculiar shape—

""Jace," Clary whispered. "What is that?"

He didn't reply. There was a dagger in his free hand, suddenly; Clary didn't know when he'd drawn it, but it shone in the witchlight like a blade of ice.

"Jace, don't," said Clary, but it was too late—he strode forward and twitched the cloth aside with the tip of the dagger, then seized it and jerked it down. It fell in a blossoming cloud of dust.

Jace staggered back, the witchlight falling from his grasp. As the blazing light fell, Clary caught a single glimpse of his face: It was a white mask of horror. Clary snatched the witchlight up before it could go dark and raised it high, desperate to see what could have shocked Jace—unshockable Jace—so badly.

That was solely one of the most vicious and cruel things Caasnadra could have done.......

But damn do I love her so. oh my god. Jace and Clary together, and they are talking some-what normally. Which is amazing compared to their last confrontation. I wonder what they saw.... and I wonder where this celler thing is located. Could it be in the ruins of the Wayland mansion?

Very interesting...She sure knows how to leave us wanting more.

Once again... a very Happy birthday to you Cat

Ohmygod. I seriously just freaked the heck out and nearly squeed my face off! It was impossibly cruel to leave us hanging on so many little details like that! Aahhh. Like Clary and Jace, as Alaska said -- they're talking normally. Does that mean Clary and Jace have a sort of truce thing? Or is Clary just not thinking about Jace and how she still loves him at this moment and isn't thinking about how awkward it is?

First, where they are ... I think it has to be the Wayland manion, yeah. If those bones really are from Valentine's experiments, it would probably have to be there, right? I was just going to say that it couldn't be at another house, since Valentine surely wouldn't have left Jace alone for who knows how long as young as he was ... but there are loads of things wrong with that. First, Jace was a responsible boy (or, at least, grown up and obedient) at a very young age. Although, judging from the bones, Valentine messed up his experiements often and left them to rot in the basement/dungeon, so he probably started way before Jace was born (depending on how early he experimented on Jace, who is clearly still alive) so maybe it wasn't the Wayland house (although Michael Wayland was in the Circle, so maybe he let Valentine use his house for stuff?). Also, there were servants in the Wayland house, no? They would have been able to look after Jace if Valentine left (if this wasn't at the Wayland house) or, if it was, they would have been able to guess (somewhat) what was up, if Valentine kept bringing home children and they never left.

I'm not sure any of that really made any sense, sorry. I'm just thinking out loud right now.

Anyway, second. Who the hell could scare Jace (unshockable Jace, as Clary notes) that badly?! (Actually, I just re-read it and realised that we don't know it's a person [I'd thought the "white mask of horror" was referring to the person behind the curtain, but that was Jace's face...].) To entertain the thought it's a person, though: Jace said he didn't have any friends, didn't even know anyone his own age, until he'd met Alec when he was 10 and went to live with the Lightwoods at the Institute. (CoB, ppg. 310-311). Although, when Madame Dorothea read Jace's tealves when he and Clary had gone to visit her, she told Jace that "you have an enemy," to which Jace responds, "Only one? That's good news." (pg. 105) I can only conceieve that Valentine is that enemy - Jace didn't know anyone else before the Lightwoods, or so he says. (Though I'm not only assuming right now that what Jace saw behind the curtain was a person, but also that he/she is Jace's age.)

But what else would be behind the curtain? Maybe it's something that's bringing up memories of Jace's childhood and what happened to give him the star-shaped scar. Although, if that scar is a momento of the experiments, why does Clary have one? Clearly the experiments had to have been done when the person was alive and out of the womb, or no human bones should be on the floor, and Clary was born outside of Valentine's influence, whether it was on the run from Valentine or in New York, but I'm sure it was in New York. They wouldn't have let her travel on a place with a newborn baby. (Unless the bones on the floor were from rudimentary attempts and Valentine had perfected his efforts by the time he needed to pass them on to Jace and Clary, and he was able to give the gifts to Clary while she was still in Jocelyn -- still without Jocelyn's knowledge, too.)

*sigh* I think all we actually know for sure from this passage is that Jace is unbelievably shocked and/or scared from someone/something, and that the house he's in is familiar to him ("I didn't remember there being a cellar here,") whether the house they're in is the Wayland manor or not. Hmm. (Sorry for the long post -- hopefully I was coherent!)

And, yes -- happy birthday, Cat! =) Hope you have/had an awesome day.

Oh. My. God.

That was...something. I need to find out what it was!!!!!!!!! Heck, we ALL want to find out. But, we can't. Damn. It must have been something really creepy, of really strange. Or just plain shocking.

Anyway, happy birthday, Cat!

I asked for a cookie.... AND NOW I WANT MORE!!!!

This is such a cliffhanger cookie, WHY CASSANDRA WHY!!!!????

But what could shock the unshockable jace..... HMMMMMM

WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I DON'T WANNA WAIT UNTIL MARCH!!! *cRIES IN CORNER*

This probably happened before the august cookie cause they don't seem like * *

I wants the details on this cookie damn it!!! Its being mysterious....... *Swipes cape over face* Where did the cape come from???

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAT !!!! YOU ARE NOW OLDER THAN ME... FOR LIKE 27 MORE DAYS!!!! Then we're tied again

I return briefly from my self imposed, school induced, exile for news of this cookie!
i am glad I did for this cookie is delicious and wonderful!

THERE'S SOMETHING NAUGHTY BEHIND THAT DRAPERY, I'M SURE OF IT.

No, probably not.

But but... Yay! That means whatever Jace said to Clary they sorted out!
...or maybe he hasn't said it yet.
Or maybe she's angry at him, and she's just thinking that's sexy or something like some girls do.
"You're totally pissing me off, but let's hang out all the time"

Either way, it's totally awesome.

I miss you guys so hard D:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAT.

that was intense. I love the cookies, but then they make me go and check my calendar to see if March is really that far away :[

... and it is.

I think it's a dead body, but that's the obvious (I think). Hmm... always with the cliffhangers!!!

and... even though it's five minutes past twelve my time, happy birthday cat! =]

Ahh! Why does she do this to us!

this cookie was such a cliff hanger, I need the book now.

That is evil, leaving it hanging RIGHT THERE.

I'm just wondering--did Jace actually stab whatever was underneath the veil/blanket/whatever? Or did he just pull aside the veil/blanket/whatever? Because if he stabbed it then my first impression was that he stabbed someone he knew, or came across the body of someone he knows/loves. My mind is honing in on Alec, but that's just because my mind is still spinning from that KISS ME MWAH cookie that made all the gay luvin inside me squeal.

Anyway. I'm pissed we have to wait for forever for this freaking book. THat's why I try to avoid these forums, because it makes me so excited then I realize we have to wait until March.

^No, I don't think he stabbed whoever (if it's a person) was behind the curtain. It just said that he "twitched the cloth aside with the tip of the dagger." His surprise was from whatever/whoever was behind it, but he didn't stab anything.

I don't know what I'm going to do while I wait! I just discovered the cookies like five minutes ago so I got really excited and read them all.... and know I have to wait foreeeeeever for the next one!! I have a question though.... who is the "he" Clary was referring to when she said" what was he doing down here?" Are they entering a secret lair?? maybe Valentine's secret lair.... *evil laugh*

OK REALLY NEED FOR MY BIRTHDAY TO COME SOONER SO THAT WAY I ONLY WAIT A WEEK BEFORE CoG!

On another note if the the thing behind the cloth is a body in the Wayland house, then maybe its a an experiment that Valentine has been hiding for years and not just any experiment but maybe Clarys real brother. Meaning that Jace is the real Wayland son! and then it would allow Jace and Clary to be together! i know its wishful thinking but i cant help but speculate.