His room was dark, the only light coming in through the small slit in the curtains. Sat at the edge of the bed Clary rubbed her hand over her arm looking down behind her at Jace's sleeping form. The bed sheet was wrapped around his waist leaving the expanse of toned tanned skin exposed; thick black marks overlapping the silvery outlines of faded runes marred the otherwise perfect skin, his arms were folded beneath his head; the gold silken strands of his hair streaking across his bruised face. A deep fissure bisected his lower lip with a twin cut distorting the upper lip, shuddering at the rust coloured blood still freckling his chin Clary pushed herself up off the mattress, padding carefully to the en-suite bathroom she closed the door softly before switching the light on.
The harsh white light stung her eyes, tears glittering on her lashes as she became accustomed to the bright illumination. Looking at herself in the medicine cabinet mirror above the white porcelain sink Clary noticed her dull complexion with a mixture of irony and amusement; she spent hours locked in this small bathroom while Jace slept and it seemed the hours were catching up on her. Her normally vibrant hair lacked any semblance of lustre and instead hung in a sheet of dull rust coloured waves; her skin was pale making the smattering of auburn freckles look like rivets of blood leaking from her pores. Running the tap she waited for the water to turn ice cold before thrusting her cupped palms underneath the stream of water.
The chill of the water was numbing against her face, a small gasp escaped her lips before she could supress it. Stopping still she waited to see if the involuntary noise had elicited any change from the room adjacent; hearing nothing Clary hung her head shutting off the faucet and turned off the bathroom light. Groping blindly for the door handle she felt the cool metal under her fingertips pushing down lightly on the handle she pushed the door open a fraction pressing her slight frame through the crack. She stood with her back to the door for a few moments taking in the room before her; the normally pristine floor was covered in debris. Seraph blades scattered the floor, items of gear lay scattered everywhere a blood drenched towel had been thrown over the foot of the bed and their steles lay on the bedside table, discarded like crayons on a child's drawing table.
Memories of the previous hours filled Clary's head. Jace's prone body draped over the stone steps of the Institute his skin glowing internally from the Heavenly Fire still residual from his encounter with Glorious. Unable to touch him, for fear of being burnt, they had had to leave him on the wet stone whilst fat raindrops assaulted him, sizzling upon contact with his bare skin. The agonising minutes that dragged past as they waited for the Silent Brothers to arrive followed by the hours spent pacing outside the infirmary listening for the smallest sign of life from within. Silence soon gave way to agonised screams which succumbed to whimper begging until again lapsing into a drawn out silence. Clary had pounded the doors to the infirmary screaming and begging entry futilely claiming she could help, Alec had dragged her away twice both times she had evaded him to be denied entry again. Sobbing she had collapsed at the door her hands darkening to purple from the tremendous force with which she had pounded the wood.
Finally the door had opened to a train of parchment-robed clad Brothers; each had passed by silently without even an acknowledgement of her presence until a final figure had stopped in front of her. Her unseeing eyes registered the wash of parchment before them, her dulled nerves feeling the odd mixture of coolness and heat coming from the hand of the Brother that knelt before her as if the hand on her shoulder was made of stone that had been left in the sun. She turned her head to look up and into the face of the Brother that comforted her; in her mind she had known it would be Brother Zachariah but still her body responded with the familiar shock of seeing his largely unmarked face and quiffed back ruffle of ink black hair. Do not torment yourself young Clarissa. I gave you my word that young master Herondale would not be hurt in my presence. Dumbfounded Clary opened her mouth to speak but only a rush of air came out, in her head a torrent of abuse toward the empathic Brother raged; a thousand biting a derogatory comments waged to be released but in the end silence overcame each.
A noise broke through Clary's reminiscing, a gargled-choke like sound coming from the direction of the bed. Panicked Clary dashed toward Jace as he catapulted up into a sitting position his torso leaning precariously over the edge of the bed, his fists bunched into the sheet and mattress stretching the thin skin over the bone and turning its usual golden shade to a horrible milky yellow. Heaving dryly his eyes streamed with red-tinged tears as he continued to choke on something. Dragging the cool night air into his lungs slowly the choking dulled down to a chest wrenching cough before slowing into deep breaths. 'Clary?' panic laced his voice, unable to help herself Clary turned her head away from the sight before her; the glow of Heavenly Fire radiated frim his eyes and lit his veins 'Clary!' Jace's cries became more urgent until, unable to stop herself, Clary threw herself across the room and onto Jace.
The bare skin of his chest burned into hers, sweat and pain coursed off her but she didn't care she clung onto him tighter making his pain hers. 'No more Jace' she whispered repeatedly like a mantra into his ear. She could feel him shaking beneath her, the want to have her near but the need to keep her safe still raking his body making his arm muscles spasm as they worked to clutch her to him whilst simultaneously push her away. As the spasms began to subside and the heat radiating from his cooled Clary pulled away so that she could look into his eyes; they had faded back to their usual golden shade, reminiscent of butterscotch sauce, and were rimmed with a mixture of fatigue and blood. Shushing him as he began to sob she pressed her lips to his temple, 'please stop looking for trouble Jace. Please, I can't keep losing you' she whispered into his hair.
It took hours for Jace to settle and even wrapped around Clary, separated by a thin bed sheet, he couldn't sleep. Flipping onto his back he looked out at the approaching dawn, her begging words already lost on him as he formulated another way to rid himself of this Heavenly curse. I'm doing this for us Clary, I promise he thought casting a sideways glance over her sleeping form. Slipping gracefully from beneath the sheet he collected his shirt and a pair of clean jeans from the wardrobe. Dressing he watched his girlfriend sleep; her hand rested on the pillow next to her head, her fingers twitching in and out of a fist whilst her eyes moved rapidly beneath their rice paper thin lids. She was so small even in sleep; he hadn't noticed the bruising shadows beneath her eyes or the bird-like bones of her hands jutting out from beneath the skin. She was rapidly losing weight and wasting away before him and he couldn't stop himself as he snuck from the room and out onto the already bustling New York streets.
'Jace!' Clary's eyes flew open the residue of her nightmare still fresh on her lashes, momentarily disorientated her gaze flew around the room. Empty again. Sitting back against the cold stone wall she wrapped her arms around her knees making herself as small as she could. Unbidden her tears flowed freely whilst she sobbed Jace's name.