Chapter 1

Jace was walking down one of the halls in the institute, lost in his own thoughts. Now that things were back to normal with him and the heavenly fire, he had time to relax. The usual demon fighting was nothing to him now. Especially since the only thing on his mind was Clary. It seems that every time he thinks about her, he gets a sudden rush. Like a dose of adrenaline when he thinks about her. So fighting seems to be the way to feed that adrenaline. When he's with her, it's a whole different ball park. He's never been so in love in his life. He couldn't imagine his life without her in it. He didn't want to. It was bad enough that they went so long thinking that they were brother and sister. Deep down he knew that they weren't. But at the time, everything made sense.

As Jace went to turn a corner, he bumped into Magnus. Magnus gave him a mean glare, which confused him a little bit, considering himself and the rest of the group did their best to show that they didn't want Magnus' father to take away his immortality. "Watch where you're going, Shadowhunter!" Magnus spit at Jace. "What the hell's your problem?" Jace asked, a bit annoyed. Jace had thought he and Magnus had formed a pretty decent friendship these past couple of months. "I'm sorry...it's just...Alec." Magnus started to explain. "What about Alec? I thought you guys were doing great." Jace said. "No! We are! It's just that...I want to marry him...but I feel that he won't feel the same way. Like it will be too soon and that he will say no. I've waited a very long time for someone like Alec to come along and I don't want to let him go." Magnus explained. "Who said you would ever have to let him go? Believe me, Magnus. Alec loves you. He might not be showing you as much, but I remember how he was when you two broke up. I would hate to have to see him go through that again." Jace told him. And it was completely true. Jace loved Alec dearly, and he hated to see him so depressed. Like his world had ended. In a way, it had. "What brought this on anyway? You never worry about things like this." Jace said, a bit shocked at the realization. Magnus scratched the back of his head nonchalantly. "Oh it's uhh...it's nothing." Magnus looked around cautiously. "What the hell's the matter with you?" Jace asked, a bit annoyed again. "Nothing!" Magnus almost shouted and started walking quickly the way he was headed before they ran into each other. "Well, alright." Jace said and started walking the direction he was headed. He wondered what the hell that was all about. It was unlike Magnus to be worried about something like that. He knows damn well how Alec feels about him. And for him to be talking to Jace almost as if asking for advice, was very weird.

As he passed the weapons room, he heard whispers coming from inside. Peaking his curiosity, he stopped and opened the door to find Alec and Isabelle in there. "What are you guys up to?" he asked, seeing as how neither of them had weapons in their hands or any gear on for training. Not that they needed training. They stopped talking and looked at Jace. "Well don't let me interupt if you're not going to speak." he said. What was wrong with everybody? "It's nothing." They said together. "Just talking about a demon that we hadn't recognized when we fought it the other day." They said a little too smoothly for Jace's comfort. "Uh huh..." was all Jace said and walked back out, closing the door behind him. Before walking away, he heard Alec say "That was close...". "Hmmph." Jace started walking the direction he was going once again.

As he went back down the corridor where all of their rooms were, he stopped at Clary's door and knocked. She answered almost immediately. "Hey." she smiled at him. He smiled back. "Hey. Can I come in?" he asked. "Of course." She moved aside to let him through the door. He went to her bed and plopped right down in the middle of it, laying down with his arms up and his eyes closed. "Everything okay?" she asked. She hadn't sat next to him like he expected her to. "I don't know." He said annoyed. "Everyone's been acting strange towards me. Like they are keeping something from me." He opened his eyes then to look at her. She was leaning against the door with her arms crossed. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?" He asked her. All she did was shake her head no. "Why aren't you speaking?" He sat up this time, propping himself up on his elbows. "I'm just tired, is all. You came as I was about to go to bed." she said. She still hadn't sat next to him on the bed. "Fine. Don't let me bother you, then." He got up and walked to the door. He kissed her on the forehead. "Goodnight..." he said, opened the door and walked out. She closed it behind him before he could turn around to look at her. Not only was he pissed, he was confused and hurt. It seemed like everybody was trying to avoid him. To keep something from him. Had he done something wrong? He couldn't think of anything. Ever since they had killed Sebastian, everything was going fine now. Or he had thought. He walked across the hall and opened the door to his room, walking in without even turning the light on. It was dark, but he had cleaned the room before, so he knew he wouldn't step on anything on the way to his bed. He climbed into his bed, not even taking his shirt or shoes off. Nor did he get under the covers. He just put his arms up and under his head and closed his eyes to drift off into another sea of nightmares. He didn't have an escape for even them.