The girl with the flaming red hair let her hands hang limply by her side as the sour taste of a dying heart leeched into her.
She forced herself to meet the gaze of the boy who held her entire world in his hands alone.
His tawny amber eyes flickered sadly, like the dying sparks of the embers.
Silvery patterns decorated their skin, a matrix of swirling lines and enchantments. Runes that spoke of strength and power.
The boy put his hand lightly on her cheek, cupping it gently.
"You know why I have to go. Just do this one little thing for me. That's all I will ever ask of you." His voice cracked. "Clary, please."
He held her gaze in his for a moment longer than he should have. He felt a warm pressure suddenly on his hands as the smaller girl entwined their fingers together.
"The Abyss is open once more. It is the very thing that the Clave has been so paranoid about for centuries. The serpent shall reign once more as its thousand years are up. And now with Jonathan leading them? What other horrors can you imagine that he will bring forth? Abaddon was only the beginning. I can't let you put yourself in danger, not anymore."
"Jace…" she put both her arms around his neck, tiptoeing to reach his height.
She didn't try to persuade him not to go. As short a time she knew him, she understood that it was his duty, what he was born for.
To ask him to let it go would be like taking his entire life away from him. She could not have been that selfish.
"His name is Sebastian, not the same one that you have. He will never ever be able to compare with you."
Clary had bunched her hands into fists and they were now knotted tightly in his shirt.
She could feel the tears that were welling up in her eyes were threatening to spill over. She fought the urge down.
"Let me come with you. If my brother really opens the gates to the Abyss, no one will be safe anymore. Let me do my part. I'm a shadowhunter too!"
Her voice shook and her knees buckled.
She would have slid onto the floor had he not caught her. His golden blonde hair tickled her cheeks as he set her gently down before slumping down next to her.
"Let me tell you a story." She nodded slowly. For him, anything.
"Back then, when Hodge was tutoring us. I remember him going in depth about the Abyss and the angels. He said that Michael and his angels working together had fought a dragon, one of the creatures that had appeared forth the darkness. That was the first time I had heard of any Angel working to help anyone of us-" he gestured at himself and her.
"-I remember when I first met you, you asked me why I didn't believe." He stared intently at her. "That was because I didn't have anything that I could really live for. But now…" He tucked a stray curl of her hair gently behind her ear.
Clary didn't let him finish his sentence. She pulled him closer towards her, wrapping herself in his embrace. She tilted her face towards his, their foreheads just touching.
She put her lips to his. He didn't throw up any resistance when she ran her hand down his hair and held him close to her.
All she wanted to have was to enjoy this closeness that they could not have forever.
He flattened himself against her, his fingers tracing her cheeks while his other hand was slung across her back.
She was reluctant to even move a fraction away from him, but eventually both of them had to pull away for air.
She was panting heavily, her heart set on running a relay race. Jace, she could tell, was also facing the same thing. Even his cheeks were flushed.
He smiled at her, a true genuine smile, one she had longed for and missed for days. He pulled her close to him again and whispered low in her ear.
"You're the key. The key to the abyss to my heart. I would fall into oblivion, just for you. I would do it again and again if I had the chance. Forever with you is still not enough. It will never be."
She put her palm on his. "Promise me you'll be safe…"
He smirked at her, his eyes lighting up. "Have a little faith."