Clary had always been fascinated by the whole soulmate idea that the entire world seemed to revolve around. Her mother had always told her to never believe in silly things such as that, but Clary couldn't help but fantasize about the moment that she met her soulmate. She knew there was no harm in thinking about whoever her soulmate might be. If he was her soulmate, then why would there be any harm in finding him? She knew her mom's cautions were mostly because she simply didn't want Clary to grow up.
But Clary wanted to know everything there was to know about it. Legend had it that soulmates had identical tattoos somewhere on their bodies. These tattoos were supposed to resemble something that would be of significant meaning to them. Clary had always wanted to know exactly how they worked, but no one could ever seem to give her that answer. Everyone was born with one, so people told her it was like a birthmark. But she knew that no two people had identical birthmarks.
So Clary had always been in love with just the idea of it in general. She'd watched people around her find their soulmates and fall in love, and she wished every day that she would get the chance to find hers as well. Her own tattoo was a small star, situated directly on top of her ring finger so that if she wore a ring, it could not be seen. She's always loved it, though she still had no idea what the significance of it was supposed to be.
She'd drawn it enough times to know the intricate design of it even with her eyes closed. It's swooping lines inside had always made her feel as though they might represent what love would be like when she found it. They were so smooth and held so much excitement in them that every time she looked at it, Clary wanted nothing more than to go out and hunt for her soulmate, wherever he might be.
Over the years, she'd gone through different phases, sometimes hiding her tattoo with a ring, others leaving it out in the open. But she never stopped looking at everyone's hands as soon as she met them for the first time. Throughout the years, she'd often found herself wishing that her best friend, Simon, would have been her soulmate. That would have saved both of them a lot of trouble.
But Simon's tattoo was a light saber, something Clary never let him live down, and it was on his right wrist. Simon had always said that whoever his soulmate was had to be someone who was a huge nerd just like him. He dreamed of meeting his soulmate somewhere like Comic-Con, whereas Clary dreamed of meeting hers somewhere like Paris.
She was currently waiting on Simon, idly sketching something that she really didn't have any idea where she was really going with. She couldn't wait to force Simon to go to Pandemonium that night, no matter how much Simon hated the club. She knew that Simon would do almost anything for her, especially when it was her birthday.
Stepping into Pandemonium that night seemed like a dream to Clary. She didn't know why she loved the club so much, she only knew that she did. She smiled at Simon since they could barely hear one another over the music, trying to thank him for coming without saying anything at all. She didn't know how long they'd been there when Simon wondered off to get them drinks. He'd never been much of a dancer, and Clary knew that they'd probably been on the dance for long enough already to make him start to fidget.
What happened next, however, plummeted Clary into something she had no idea of how bad it was. When she first saw the gorgeous blond boy, she thought she might be dreaming. When she saw the dark haired girl and boy following closely behind him, she had to blink several times to make sure that she wasn't just seeing things. They looked so out of place that she had no idea how no one else was noticing them. When they broke off from each other, the girl going the opposite direction of the two boys, Clary decided that she needed to follow one of them. There was obviously something going on; they were planning something, and Clary felt compelled to find out exactly what it was.
She knew without a doubt that she was going insane when she realized that no one else could see the three mysterious kids. As Simon began dragging her away from them, Clary impulsively looked down at the blond, Jace's, finger, but was immediately dismayed to see a large ring on his finger, so she knew that even if he'd had the star, she wouldn't have been able to see it.
"Clary, listen to me!" Simon was still trying to yell at her over the music as her eyes quickly darted to the hands of Isabelle and Alec, apparently the names of the other two kids with Jace. When Clary realized that Alec's hand was blank and Isabelle's wrist was covered by her whip, however that thing actually worked, she returned her attention back to Simon. "There's no one there, Clary. Are you okay? Please talk to me, Clary."
Instead of attempting to speak to Simon over the music, Clary yanked him as well as her eyes away from whoever these people that boy they killed had called Shadowhunters were and toward the door. Once outside, Clary tried to explain everything that she had seen and heard, but Simon continued to look at her as though she was insane. So she stopped trying, she just told Simon that she thought she was a bit tired and got him to take her home.
The next night, Clary had wanted nothing more than to just stay home, still trying to figure out whether or not she was going insane. But when Jace showed up at Java Jones's, Clary knew that there was more going on than that. When she'd followed Jace outside, she'd tried to get him to tell her everything that was going on, but with every answer she got out of him, she only became more confused. When he looked her up and down, Clary silently thanked herself for wearing her ring, not wanting Jace to see her tattoo when she was so vulnerable already.
"I need you to come with me, Clary," Jace said, his voice clearly purposely soft. She looked back toward Java Jones's, her mind flashing to Simon. "This could be very important. I need to keep you safe." Clary felt a flash of anger toward Jace at the thought that she couldn't take care of herself, but before she could say anything to him, her phone began ringing, and that's when all hell broke loose.
From the moment she began racing home when her mom told her not to come back to the moment she woke up in what she later learned was the Institute, Clary's mind worked far faster than she could keep up. So when she was finally left on her own for a few minutes, she could hardly keep up with what had happened. She kept going over and over everything in her mind, trying to make sense of it all, but the more she analyzed things, the less sense they actually made to her.
"I want to see Simon," she said when Isabelle came to help her find better clothes to change into. Isabelle looked at her as though she was crazy, which was apparently becoming a terribly common occurrence in Clary's life lately. "I'm sure he's terribly worried. I need to call him," Clary attempted to clarify.
Isabelle slung clothes at her before finally replying. "I don't know who Simon is, but we can't let you have any sort of outside contact until Hodge speaks with you and clears you. That's why you need to wear my clothes until we can figure out what the best course of action is and go back to your apartment as soon as we possibly can." Clary wanted to say something in return, but she simply let Isabelle turn her over to Jace who remained silent all the way to the library.
Visiting with Hodge had taken a lot out of Clary, and the fact that the Shadowhunters had taken her phone and forbidden her from calling Simon had caused Clary to search the Institute for a pencil and some paper. She knew the only thing that could calm her down and take her mind off of everything that was going on was drawing, not to mention the fact that her fingers were all but itching to hold a pencil. When she heard the music coming from just a bit down the hall, however, her mind immediately switched to her curiosity of it.
Stepping into the room was like stepping into a different world. Seeing Jace at the piano was much different from seeing him out in his gear. Where he was focused and hard when he was on a mission, Jace was terribly gentle with his hands on the keys. He seemed to be an entirely different Jace from the one she thought she knew.
As Clary stepped forward, Jace spoke up, not looking away from the piano or pausing his playing in any way. "Alec?" he asked, and Clary could hear the tenderness in his voice, a sort of tenderness that greatly surprised her. "Alec is that you?" When Clary didn't say anything, Jace turned around, his fingers still expertly moving over the keys. A smile flashed across his face when he realized who it was, but Clary wasn't looking at his face any longer.
Jace had moved just enough for Clary to see his hands, and what she saw caught her but such surprise that she became speechless. Clary reached to twist on her own ring as she realized that Jace wasn't wearing his for the first time since she'd met him. She hadn't really expected anything to be there, but Clary was certain she would know her star anywhere. Clary had just never expected to see her star where it was now: on Jace's finger.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this! There's most likely going to be at least one chapter from each character's point of view, including my babies, Ragnor and Raphael! There may be more, but until I get into it, I won't really be able to say how much more!
