Quiet had enveloped the night. It was not a peaceful sort of quiet, Clary thought as she stood still, seraph blade in hand; it was the sinister silence that seemed to cover hours of time before a fight suddenly came hurling with the speed of a thousand arrows. They would come soon. Clary could feel it with each thump of her heartbeat. The wind whipped at her face, causing her red hair to fly upwards in a million directions, and she suddenly wished she has brought a hair tie.
It was not her fault, though. Alec had burst into her room while the night was growing old, tearing her away from the book she held within her hands. His blue eyes were grown wide with the urgency of battle, and for a second she had thought that Sebastian had finally come marching against the Institute. This world will be consumed by hellfire, she remembered Sebastian's words in her dream. But then, as soon as Alec had muttered the word "demons", Clary found herself rushing towards the weapons' room to retrieve her black gear. Alec, however, had blocked her path before she reached the end of the hallway, placing a finger on his lips to indicate silence. Strucken with confusion, Clary made a move to question his intentions but stopped when she recalled that it was Alec who stood in front of her. She knew he would never attempt anything dangerous without a possible reason, so she let him take the lead. Clary at least had time to grab her seraph blade, and more importantly, her stele.
When they had entered the forest beyond the Institute, Alec explained that his sensor detected a small horde of demons approaching, 'nothing that they couldn't take down'. When Clary glimpsed Isabelle waiting for them, she almost released a sigh of relief. The more, the merrier; especially for hunting demons in the pitch blackness of the night. It was dark, Clary noted as she stood in her ready stance, knees slightly bent. So terribly dark; it seemed like the stars had buried themselves within the shelter of the sky, afraid to burn with their lights. Clary fidgeted uncomfortably as she considered the fact. With no guidance from the stars, Alec or Isabelle should have used their witchlight stones to lead their way through. She had forgotten hers, of course.
They had already gotten attacked once by Ravener demons, taking Alec unawares, but giving Clary and Isabelle enough time to recover from the ambush. Everything had moved so fast at that moment; Clary found her body propelling towards the demons, teeth gritted, blade ready. She heard Isabelle's cries as she slashed back and forth with her whip, diminishing demon after demon within a matter of seconds, but as soon as Clary found a target, all voices were blocked from her ears. Ithuriel, she whispered to the angel blade as it immediately blazed with blinding rage. Clary was suddenly dancing with the blade, hacking at the demons' bodies and sliding through them as if they were made of cotton. When the fight was done with, Clary's clothes were burning with ichor, and she found Alec bleeding from a large cut. Isabelle was unharmed, and she approached her brother to draw a healing rune with her stele. The pain was apparent on Alec's face, but as the rune took effect, Clary saw Alec relaxing with each passing second. Even though the three of them were all set, she knew there were more demons to come; she could feel them.
Now that she could actually hear the demons, Clary knew what to do. Alec took a backward glance at her and nodded.
"Clary, do the honors," Isabelle said from behind.
Clary knelt to the floor and clutched her stele. She lowered it to the ground and focused intensely on the rune she was to draw. As the picture slowly appeared in her mind, Clary scribbled down the rune onto several spots of the forest floor, and immediately got up to leave when she was finished with her job. If she stayed, she knew it'd be suicide, even for her.
More demons were pouring out from the shadows. Clary could have sworn they were moving straight at her, with ferocious black eyes that pinned her frozen in place. Her vision became blurry, and she was suddenly no longer able to take in her surroundings. It seemed like the world was spinning in circles, ready to pluck her inside the chaos. Clary could hear their voices inside her mind, deep and guttural.
"Sebastian is coming."
"Erochmai."
"A land of darkness."
Just when she thought she could not bear it anymore, someone grabbed her and yanked her backwards. Her vision began to clear, and Clary took one final glimpse at the masterpiece she had created as she was being dragged back into the woods. Even as they were moving, the demons' bodies burned as soon as they touched the runes she had placed, which were impossible to avoid since she had drawn them everywhere. As they were slowly consumed by the flames, they let out a scream so full with agony that Clary winced at the sound. She would have covered her ears if she had enough energy to do so, but all the adrenaline in her body had been drained out. As they vanished, they sprayed ichor in all directions, but she could still hear a faint voice within her mind. Only now, it was not deep and guttural, yet it sounded exactly like Sebastian's, as if it was dipped in pure evil. As Clary turned away from the scene, Sebastian's voice made a final note inside her brain. Hellfire.
Maryse Lightwood was pacing back and forth the room, saying something that Clary couldn't hear. She had woken up in the Institute's infirmary and refused to lie in bed, so she found herself seated with her back hunched on a chair besides Jace's bed. Someone had draped a thick wool blanket over her shoulders, but as sticky as she felt, it was like being served straight into an oven. She shrugged the blanket off her body. Her eyelids felt heavy, but she knew better than to doze off in a situation like this. Clary slid her hand to find Jace's, but flinched away as soon as she remembered she was not to touch him. With all his quickness, Jace grabbed her hand before she could fully remove it and gave it a gentle squeeze, like that would give her all the assurance she needed. She wished it would.
Before she had woken up, Clary was constantly being haunted by nightmares. In one of them, she felt the darkness sneaking up on her, and in the other, she saw the Ravener demons' eyes fixed only on her, ready to attack and drag her to a world full of evil. Most importantly, however, Clary was chased by the demons' voices as they gave their warnings. "The darkness is coming," they said, as if in a unified voice echoing through the back of her mind. On her worst nightmare, right before she had jerked awake, she heard Sebastian's voice shudder. This world will be consumed by hellfire.
Within the infirmary, Alec sat on a couch propped against the wall, and both Isabelle and Maryse hovered uneasily above him, too nervous to stay still. A loud bell was suddenly heard across the Institute, and Jace quickly let go of her hand. Maryse looked around in confusion and approached the window.
"Mom, were you expecting any visitors?" Isabelle asked.
Maryse shook her head as she drew the curtains open. "Magnus Bane along with two of his friends? He has not had his fill of notions for us, it seems."
Clary immediately shifted her gaze towards Alec and found that her instincts predicted right. Alec looked around uneasily and suddenly appeared uncomfortable in his seat. Clary could not help but lend his heart out to him; the last person he would have wanted to see was the sassy, arrogant warlock Magnus Bane.
Maryse had called a servant to inform that the guests be escorted to the infirmary. She knew it was improper, but with both Jace and Clary's state, it was unlikely to move to a different room. When Clary heard footsteps thudding outside the room, she suddenly became self-aware. And when Magnus Bane had entered along with two of his friends—one was a handsome young man with brown hair and eyes slightly slanted to indicate a trace of Asian ancestry, and the other was a tall comely woman that seemed to be in her early twenties, with brown hair falling to her back and wide grey eyes, Clary knew she must have looked like a mess. Her hair was surely the ideal place for implanting a nest, and the stink of the battle was still entrenched onto her body.
But her worries were all cast aside as soon as she reexamined the young man with Magnus. He seemed utterly familiar to her. Clary desperately narrowed her eyes and gasped when it hit her. The others looked shocked, too, since it seemed like they had chocked on their words and left their mouths only to hang open towards the direction of the young man.
"Okayyyy," said Isabelle in a low voice, "when did Brother Zachariah become hot?"
Magnus grinned, and his cat-like eyes shimmered with a glow that had not been there the last time Clary had seen him. "Hello, everyone. Allow me to introduce you to my very dear friends," he said. "This," he gestured towards the girl, "is Tessa Gray. I'm not sure you've heard of her before, but it seems like she's the only living half-shadowhunter half-warlock."
A dead silence filled the room, as if it was consuming everybody's disbelief. "And this," continued Magnus, "is someone that all of you have met before; the mighty Jem—"
"Brother Zachariah," interrupted the young man. "Just call me Zachariah."
"How can this possibly happen, Bro—I mean, Zachariah? Just two weeks before, you were a silent brother in full, hooded and unable to speak. Is there any explanation why a man so young in appearance stands in front of me?" Maryse demanded.
"And maybe an explanation for the part where Magnus said half-shadowhunter half-warlock? Everyone in this room knows that children of shadowhunters and warlocks are still-born," Isabelle said.
Clary nodded in agreement, and both Jace and Alec seemed in doubt. Only Maryse remained calm. "Enough, Izzy," Maryse said with a stern voice. "Tessa Gray is a unique exception; the elders of the Clave are all aware of that. But that is a story for another time. Tell me, Zachariah, what exactly happened?"
"Maryse Lightwood," Zachariah addressed in a deep, rich voice; one that Clary was not accustomed to. "I have never been what you call an ordinary silent brother. Before I turned, I had demon poison running through my veins, and the only way to stop me from the fate of death was to embrace the life of a silent brother. Even so, the poison prevented me from inheriting full Brotherhood traits. And now, well, a cure was found to rid off the poison."
"So you turned your back on your brothers?" Alec said in a grim tone.
"Alexander, I had never particularly wanted the Brotherhood life. Neither did I fully receive it. Before—before I turned, I was a normal shadowhunter, just like you. In fact, I seem to remember the hot bloodiness of youth." Zachariah had a sad smile on his face. He seemed lost in the memories of his past as he reached up unconsciously to touch the faded rune on his throat.
"You—you had a parabatai," Jace whispered, as if in a daze. It was the first time he had spoken, and to her worry, his voice sounded hoarse.
Zachariah glanced sideways at Tessa Gray. They exchanged a look of recognition, and Zachariah turned towards Jace. "Yes, my parabatai. We were the closest of friends, the closest of brothers, the closest of any binding rune—" Zachariah suddenly stopped. Uncertainty was written on his face.
"He was your ancestor, did you know? William Herondale."
Alec reddened. "Who is this William that I keep hearing about?"
This time, it was Tessa Gray who spoke up. "William Herondale was my husband, Zachariah's parabatai, and a good man. Zachariah tells me you are so much like him, Jace."
"I—," Jace began, only to get interrupted by Magnus.
"I appreciate the family reunion, really. But right now, we are in much need to discuss the matter at hand." Magnus scanned the room to ensure that everyone was listening.
"Right now," Magnus continued, "Sebastian collects his army to march against you. Considering our current situation—your current situation, you have no chance of defeating him. Even if you assemble the whole Clave, you won't stand a chance of winning."
"Unless?" Isabelle asked.
"Unless," Magnus affirmed, "if you have a weapon as strong as his. Do you understand what this most recent demon attack was? Sebastian has begun gaining demons on his side."
Clary did not understand where he was going. "What would you have us do?"
Magnus's yellow-green eyes were blazing like fire. "Fight demons with demons," he said.
Tessa stepped forward. "Collect an army that is both as strong as iron and impenetrable to blades. Power automatons with demons, and you can have your victory in this war."
Everyone was horrified. "This is madness," Maryse muttered.
"It is our only way," Zachariah insisted. "It is dangerous, and it goes against all of the shadowhunter teachings that we were brought up with."
"But," Magnus agreed, "it is the only way."
"It has been done before," Zachariah said.
"I am aware that it had been done before. But never by a shadowhunter, Zachariah. I would have expected some sense from you, considering you were a part of the Brotherhood," Maryse said.
"What have we got to lose? Sebastian wants to destroy the Nephilim with the Nephilim, or these creatures he calls the Endarkened; these creatures that are no longer people. Shadowhunters keep demon energies in a Pyxis. The Clave, all around the world, has enough of these to build an army; an army that can gain us the upper hand."
"A strong one. This sounds like nonsense, but I have lived long enough to know it can work," added Tessa.
"And what makes you think these demon creatures will obey?" Maryse asked.
"You forget," Magnus smiled, "this will be not only among shadowhunters, but a cooperation between Downworlders. You have to trust us, and we can make this work. We have to make it work. We have to cooperate."
Clary swallowed hard. "What will we name this army?" she asked, even though she dreaded the answer.
"The Infernal Devices," Tessa and Zachariah both answered in unison. Clary suddenly remembered something she had read in one of the Institute's library books.
THE INFERNAL DEVICES ARE WITHOUT PITY.
THE INFERNAL DEVICES ARE WITHOUT REGRET.
THE INFERNAL DEVICES ARE WITHOUT NUMBER.
THE INFERNAL DEVICES WILL NEVER STOP COMING.