He shuddered again, and Jem immediately stood and produced a blanket, wrapping it around his shoulders.
“Move closer to the fire,” Jem said, guiding him up and to a chair. When Simon had settled a bit and warmed, Jem encouraged him to continue.
“Maureen told me I had to decide which one of them to save. Jace showed up again and gave me some lecture about how all the choices were hard. I jumped in.”
“Who did you decide to save?” Jem asked.
“I hadn’t . . . decided . . . anything. I knew I had to jump. And I guess I knew Maureen was dead. She said she was dead. But Clary wasn’t. I just had to get to Clary. I got all of this energy all of a sudden and I could swim to her. And when I swam to her, I looked up and she was swimming to me.”
Jem sat back and tented his fingers together for a moment.
“I want to see Clary,” Simon said through chattering teeth. His body was warm—it had probably never been cold, really—but the river water still felt so real.
Catarina reappeared a moment later with Clary, who was also wrapped in a blanket. Jem immediately got up and offered her his chair. Clary’s eyes were wide and shining, and she looked to Simon in relief.
“Did it happen to you, too?” she said. “Whatever that was.”
“I think we both got it,” he replied. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I’m just . . . really cold. I thought I was in the river.”
Simon stopped shivering.
“You thought you were in the river?”
“I was trying to swim to you,” Clary said. “We were in Central Park, and you got sucked into the ground—like you were being buried alive. And Raphael came, and I was on his motorcycle, and we were flying over the river and I saw you. I jumped off. . . .”
From behind Clary’s chair, Catarina nodded.
“I saw something kind of like that,” Simon said. “Not exactly, but . . . enough. And I reached you. You were swimming to me. Then we were back . . .”
“. . . in Central Park. By the fountain with the angel.”
Magnus had joined the group as well and stretched himself out on a sofa. “Bethesda Fountain,” he said. “Shadowhunters may have had something to do with building it. I’m just saying.”
“What does this all mean?” Simon asked. “What was this about?”
“The two of you are different,” Magnus said. “There are things in your backgrounds that mean that . . . things have to be done differently. For a start, both of you have had blocks put on your memories. Clary has an unusual amount of angel blood. And you, Simon, used to be a vampire.”
“We know that. But why did you have to drug us to do something symbolic?”
“It wasn’t symbolic. The parabatai test is the test of fire,” Catarina said. “You stand in rings of fire to make your bond. This . . . this is the test of water. The nature of the test requires that you have no knowledge of the test. Mentally preparing for the test can affect the outcome. This test wasn’t about Julian and Emma. It’s about the two of you. Think about what you both saw, what you both learned. Think about what you felt. Think about when you were both able to swim to each other when you had nothing left, when you should have died.”
Simon and Clary stared at each other. The fog began to lift.
“You took the water,” Jem said. “And you joined in the same place in your minds. You were able to find each other. You were linked. ‘And it came to pass that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.’?”
“Parabatai?” Simon said. “Wait, wait, wait. Are you trying to tell me this is about being parabatai? I can’t have a parabatai. I turned nineteen two months ago.”
“Not exactly,” Magnus said.
“What do you mean not exactly?”
“Simon,” Magnus said plainly, “you died. You were dead for nearly half a year. You may have been walking around, but you were not alive, not as a human. That time does not count. By Shadowhunter standards, you are still eighteen. And you have the whole year until your nineteenth birthday to find a parabatai.” He looked toward Clary. “Clary, as you know, is still within the age limit. There should be time for you to Ascend and then for you two to become parabatai immediately—if that’s what you want.”
“Some people are uniquely suited to be parabatai,” said Magnus. “Born to it, you might say. People think it’s about getting along, about always agreeing, being in sync. It’s not. It’s about being better together. Fighting better together. Alec and Jace haven’t always agreed, but they’ve always been better together.”
“It has been spoken of often to me,” Jem said in his soft voice, “how much the two of you were dedicated to each other. The manner in which you have always stood up for each other and put the other first. When a parabatai bond is true, when the friendship runs deep and honest, it can be . . . transcendent.” There was sadness in his eyes, a sadness so profound it was almost frightening. “We needed to find out if what had been observed about the two of you was true for your sake. You’re about to witness the ceremony. That can cause a powerful reaction in true parabatai. We had to know for sure that it was true and that you could withstand it. The test told us what we needed to know.”
Clary’s eyes had gone very wide. “Simon . . . ,” she whispered. Her voice was raspy.
“It’s a bit of a technicality,” Magnus added, “but Shadowhunters have no problems with technicalities. They love a technicality. Look at Jem. Jem is a technicality in the flesh. People don’t come back from being Silent Brothers, either, and there he is.”
Jem smiled at this, the sadness in his eyes receding.
“Parabatai,” Clary said again.
And in that moment, something settled over Simon. Something like a blanket on a cold day. Something completely reassuring.
“Parabatai,” he said.
A long moment settled between them, and in that moment, all was decided. There was no need to discuss it. You do not need to ask if your heart should beat, or if you should breathe. He and Clary were parabatai. All of Simon’s anger was gone. Now he knew. He had Clary, and she would have him. Forever. Their souls knit.
“How did you know?” Simon asked.
“It’s not that hard to see,” Magnus replied, and finally some of the usual levity was in his voice. “I’m also literally magic.”
“It’s pretty obvious,” Catarina added.
“Even I knew,” said Jem. “And I don’t know you very well. There’s always something about true parabatai. They don’t need to speak to communicate. I saw the two of you having entire conversations without saying a word. It was like that with my parabatai, Will. I never had to ask Will what he was thinking. In fact, it was usually better not to ask Will what he was thinking. . . .”
That got a smile from Magnus and Catarina both.
“But I see it between you. True parabatai are linked long before the ceremony takes place.”
“So we can . . . we can do the ceremony?” Clary asked.