City of Heavenly Fire
Clary had just found out about the angel wings from Sebastian. She'd been called to the library from her bed and found everyone staring at her. No one spoke as she walked to the broken window. Beneath it she only saw something black covered in gold ichor. But when she had approached she saw that the black mound was angel wings and the gold ichor angel blood. She also saw a piece of paper slightly stained by the blood on top of the gob. Even before she read it she knew what it would say. There was one word neatly scrawled on the page. Erchomai. Clary's Latin was good enough to know that it meant I am coming. She had quickly turned and left to go see Jace. Clary had told no one about what Sebastian had tried to do to her, so they didn't know half of what that note meant. Everyone had offered her sympathetic glances on her way out that had masked their pity and fear. But Clary had not wanted pity from them. She was outraged at Sebastian that after all he had done to her, he could start up again so soon. She wanted revenge. She wanted to watch her brother's black eyes lose their light as she ended his miserable life with her bear hands.
Clary turned the corner, walking quickly, as to get to Jace faster when she heard a breathing sound breathing. When she turned and saw nothing, she dismissed it as paranoia. Light from the new day shone in the Institute's windows lazily lighting up her path. The muffled sounds of New York and seeing Jace calmed her hateful emotions leaving Clary slightly relaxed. She felt a cool draft from down the hall and tightened her jacket around her waist. But when it persisted, Clary frowned and followed the cool air from where it came from. She turned down a cramped hallway following the current to its source. Soon after, she noticed she did not recognise the crimson carpets and horrific pictures that decorated this hallway.
Clary kept following the corridor, its twists and turns confusing her. It reminded her of a maze set up in Central Park she Luke and her mother had done for her seventh birthday. A twinge of guilt pierced her stomach thinking of how worried her mother would be because she slept here tonight. Clary was just worried about Jace and would not have been able to leave him last night. She saw a painting of what was obviously a mundane bride having her heart cut out by a xanhar demon. Clary thought she had already seen this painting because its gore and blood had imprinted on her mind the last time she had walked by it. Chills ran down her spine. She slowed down to examine the paintings more carefully to take in their beauty with her artists eyes and to make sure she knew when she saw a repeated image. Clary didn't know how much time had passed since she'd been there. Hours? Days? The paintings blurred together in her mind and her legs were getting tired when she rounded a corner and saw a door at the end of the hallway.
The door had an odd appearance. It was the last thing in the hallway, completely looking out of place alone in front of a wall. The hall ended abruptly where the door stood. A pit formed itself in Clary's stomach, she knew what happened next. She approached the door seeing that it must be old because of its dark intricately carved wood dulled over by the centuries of use. Clary took a deep shaking breath not knowing why this was scaring her so much. She was a shadowhunter. A mysterious door should not scare her. Gathering her courage, Clary opened it, knowing full well how many horror movies had started this way. Clary's heart was beating so quickly she thought it would fall right out of her chest. White was all she saw at first, then she realised that it was snow. Kilometres and kilometres of it. The whole landscape in front of her was covered in the white fluffy stuff. After they adjusted to the bright light pouring through the door, her eyes deciphered small rolling hills and smoke in the distance. To an untrained eye, this would have looked like a very shiny, very large picture taken by a skilled photographer.
But Clary knew it was a mirror portal, much like the one at Renwick's she had seen so many months ago. Clary also knew that mirror portals showed the last image that they had been to. Jace said that there were no portals in the Institute. Had he lied to her? And why would anyone need to go to this winter oblivion? Questions rolled through Clary making her head spin. The picture faded in and out of focus, her eyes failing her. Clary slammed the door shut, locked it, and slid down the rough surface of the door, her shirt catching on the wood. She heard a laugh from the back of her mind. The world was spinning around her faster and faster making her feel like a marble rolling down a hill. Her stomach was churning her thoughts pinballs in her head. Laughing sounded through her louder now, crueler. The slivers of wood that pierced her skin through her sweater made her whole body feel like it had nails jabbing into it. She was a tennis ball bouncing back and forth, back and forth. Now the laughter was giant snickers, loud whoops of laughter, screams of it. It was agonising having to hear these horrible sadistic howls in her head. The person they came from clearly wanted her to suffer. Clary tried to grab hold of something solid around her or in head to keep her sanity but everything was moving, spinning, shaking. She could feel her mind gradually disconnect from her body, trying to save itself. Clary didn't know her own name anymore. She didn't remember how to speak, how to walk, how to function. Then she saw a face. She was looking for a solid, a constant to rid herself of this feeling. And there it was. She gradually found gravity again and the numbness left her limbs. It was similar to a ride stopping. Her body felt like it was snapping back from fast motions of a roller coaster. The face spoke then. "Clary! Clary! Clary wake up!"
The face was reshaping itself. Golden blonde curls and golden eyes framed by long lashes stared down at her. Clary recognised the face instantly.
Jace.
"Clary! Wake up! Come on Clary!" Jace's voice was threaded through with worry and panic.
"Wha-" She was cut off by a fierce kiss planted right upon her lips. Clary melted to Jace, but when she opened her mouth against his a sharp spark panged on her tongue like a scolding. The pain broke them apart.
Clary looked up at Jace her eyes full of disappoint from their ruined kiss. "Jace! What happened? Where am I?" At first Clary remembered nothing, then images rushed back into her head like wildfire. The corridor, the paintings, the door, the portal.
"I was leaving the infirmary to find you, then I saw you just lying on the floor. I called your name but you weren't responding. You were out for minutes until you woke up."
"Out? You mean I passed out?" Clary looked around and realised that the sun was pouring through the large windows providing ample light with which to see. She felt the hardwood under her legs. She was back in the main hallway. Clary looked to the side of the corridor to find the spot where the mysterious hall lay gone, covered up. She must have dreamed the whole thing.
"You betcha, sleeping beauty. You're okay? You don't need to go to the infirmary?" Joked Jace, but Clary sensed a bit of lingering panic in his voice.
"Yeah, Yeah. I must've just passed out because of lack of sleep."
"Lack of sleep? Okay Pinocchio." Jace's voice suddenly turned serious. "Did you hear about the message? The one in the library." Clary knew he was tip toeing around her, not wanting to awaken undesirable feelings.
"I'm not worried until he's here." Lied Clary. Jace seemed to be doing well today with his Heavenly Fire. Most days he could barely hold her hand, so she wanted to profit of this day with Jace.
"So you wanna go to bed and get rid of this sleep deprivation of yours?"
"Oh I don't know if we'll sleep Jace…" Clary flirted with a sly grin on her face.
"Man Clary I don't know how we'll hold back!" Jace said with a grin. Clary knew that it was actually very hard on Jace not being able to touch her.
"Oh babe it'll be hard!" She half joked half sobbed. But the pit in her stomach was not because of her relationship with Jace. It was because when she opened her eyes, she had not expected to see Jace's eyes, nor wanted to see them.
She had wanted to see Sebastian's. She had wanted to wake up to Sebastian Morgenstern, her brother.
Sebastian.
A small echo of the laughter flitted through her mind.