Welcome to the new round of How Can I Rip Out and Stomp On Your Hearts This Time? I hope you enjoy the new story. I'm trying a new writing style. Disclaimer: Cassandra Clare owns everything save the plot, which is mine.


Her other hand slid to her waist, where Heosphoros rested with its scabbard rucked into the belt of her gear. Her fingers curled around the back of his neck. His eyes were wide; she could see his heartbeat, pulsing in his throat.

"Now, Clary," he said, and she leaned up, touching her lips to his face. She felt him shudder against her as she whispered, her lips moving against his cheek.

"Hail, master," she said, and saw his eyes widen, just as she pulled Heosphoros free and brought it up in a brought arc, the blade slamming through his rib cage, the tip positioned to pierce his heart.

Sebastian gasped, and spasmed in her arms; he staggered back, the hilt of the blade protruding from his chest. His eyes were wide, and for a moment she saw the shock of betrayal in them, shock and pain, and it actually hurt; it hurt somewhere down deep in a place she thought she had buried long ago, a place that mourned the brother he might have been.

"Clary," he gasped, starting to straighten, and now the look of betrayal in his eyes was fading, and she saw the beginning spark of rage. It hadn't worked, she thought in terror; it hadn't worked, and even if the borders between the worlds were sealed now, he would take it out on her, on her friends, her family, on Jace. "You know better," he said, reaching down to grasp the hilt of the sword in his hand. "I can't be hurt, not by any weapon under Heaven—"

He paused to draw out the blade, the metallic gleam set off by the thick coating of black blood. He examined it, small black drops dripping to the cold floor off the end, rubbing at the wound in his ribs as if it were a week old bruise still causing his nuisance.

"The Dawn-Bringer," he mused, sneering in disgust before his hand shot out, grasping her throat.

She cried out, hand coming up to clutch his wrist, fingers clawing at his hand. She heard the cry of her mother but it was quickly muffled by Luke.

"You think to kill me with the Dawn-Bringer?" He asked, anger hardening his voice. "A blade forged of our ancestors, the Morgensterns! I cannot be harmed by any weapon under Heaven, and this, sister, was forged in the name of Hell. It was clever of you to put the fire in it but this is of the Morgensterns. And we are of the Morning Star, the fire was turned to that of hell the moment you took it from Jace!"

Suddenly she was pressed flush against him, his hand gripping her chin as his eyes blazed, their lips mere inches apart. She wanted to scream with terror as he looked out over the people still kneeling before the dais, eyes calculating and fiery with black anger. But his anger faded to something more cunning.

"You've betrayed me, sister," he said, thumb stroking over her jaw in absent contemplation. It made her tremble in fear. She'd failed. And now everyone she loved would suffer for it. "But I am your king, you my queen and I would never be so tasteless as to harm my queen, even after a betrayal such as yours."

"What are you going to do?" Clary asked as his thumb stilled and he looked back to her with those sharp eyes.

He jerked her chin up, startling her. "I'm going to punish you," he said, his words like the feel of a snake against her skin, chilling her. "By punishing our brother, but not here."

He spun her around, hand still closed over her throat so he could keep her hostage against his body. He nodded to the Endarkened, who rose and stepped forward, tugging her friends and family to their feet. They all looked desolate and horrified, for her no doubt. It broke her heart to see that Jace looked utterly empty, devoid of any hope at all as he stared at her, his golden eyes hollow and sad.

"You are all guests here," Sebastian addressed them. "On the sufferance of my queen, now your queen. You will be treated as such, as long as you act accordingly, step out of line in the slightest, only once, and I will have you killed. Take our guests to their chambers," Sebastian said to the Endarkened.

Clary had wished they went quietly, but that was untrue. Her mother, whose hair had been shorn short and whose eyes looked broken, screamed as an Endarkened had to drag her away as she tried to get to her daughter. Isabelle smacked the Endarkened's hand away and spun in a huff, putting up an indignant front to mask the despair Clary saw. Her beloved Jace had to be practically carried away, unwilling to move on his own.

Only when everyone was gone, leaving the throne room empty and silent, did Sebastian speak again.

"Come, Clarissa, and I shall show you to your temporary chambers," he said in her ear, slipping his hand down to circle her arm and walk her down the dais. His anger seemed evaporated now, gone from his being even as his shirt soaked up his blood and he guided her to the hallway opposite the broken windows.

The hallway didn't really matter to her, only that she'd failed. The heavenly fire should have burned Sebastian from the inside out. It should have killed him, but it didn't. And when they reached her 'chambers,' she thought she was a dead woman.

Sebastian opened the oak door, shoving Clary in first before stepping in after her, shutting the door behind him. She quickly turned so she could see her brother. She expected anger, yelling, blows but none of it came, just an appreciative once over before he spoke.

"These are your chambers, sister. You will be staying here until decisions have been agreed upon, then you will be staying with me one way or another," he said calmly, leaning back against the door.

Clary was disgusted; she reared back. "I would never—"

"Did I ask you?" He cut in, voice vacant of inflection but she heard the sharp, invisible edge to his words. She was already walking on thin ice with him, she was not to push it. "Now, I assume you are tired from your journey. The bathroom is over there and the sheets are fresh. Get some rest sister and we will discuss the details of our regime in the morning. Goodnight."

He turned and was gone. Ice blue sparks crackled around the door handle after he'd closed the door. Clary turned to inspect what hell hole her brother had decided to throw her in but she found only luxury, the contrast to what lay outside Sebastian's demonic palace.

The bed held a soft mattress, draped in silks and thick blankets, over stuffed pillows. Mahogany dressers adorned the walls and a mirror hung above a vanity. The door to the bathroom stood open and she walked over to examine it, cautiously pushing open the door to find a glass shower stall and tiled flooring.

She didn't care she wasn't in a cell or torture chamber. She cared that she didn't know whether her friends were in prison cells or on the rack. She paced anxiously in the room, even though her body began to ache and soreness set in. Her concern and worry built as she thought of her mother and Luke and Jace. For the rest of her friends. She could feel her chest getting tighter but made herself sit on the edge of the bed, focus on her breathing so she could actually breathe…

That was all a year ago, a year ago when she'd had hope of escape. When she was a foolish little girl filled with hope and belief that she could escape somehow with her family and friends. In that year the hope had been beaten out of her, any trace of her previous softness or kindness had been drained. At least that was how she felt. The conversations she had with Jace and the brief exchanges with her mother told her otherwise, they told her there was still a spark of her old self; they told her how she was still kind and caring and good of heart but they'd all changed.

Jace was harder, more deadly and lethal but he was still the Jace she loved. Though she was not allowed more than a few hours with him a week. They used to spend those hours plotting escape, months ago. But now they spent it basking in the other's presence, hating when the Endarkened came to end their time together.

On the off chance she did see her mother, she seemed in decent health and when she got to speak with her, Jocelyn said that she and Luke were not bothered or tortured but left alone so long as they didn't cross the path of the king, Sebastian. Only she and Jace were apparently the ones in training, with Valentine's enhanced techniques.

Magnus and Alec forgave each other somewhere along the hellish, one way road trip that was the rest of their lives. They did not cause much of a stir in Edom, so Sebastian gave them more free reign than he did to others, especially that Magnus's father was revealed to be a Prince of Hell. Clary didn't know the circumstances behind the warlock and his father and Sebastian but the ugly pallor Magnus had worn when she'd first seen him here in Edom had gradually disappeared as the times went by.

Simon and Isabelle were much like Alec and Magnus, docile, broken now. It hurt Clary to know that Jace and she were the only ones that have seemed to withstand their time in Edom. The rest seemed broken and complacent, though Jace and Clary certainly weren't devoid of their own scars and cracks, but they weren't complacent either. They still fought back against Sebastian, they were the only ones who knew how to, the only ones who could without risk of being slaughtered though sometimes, when the two were allowed their few hours, they talked together about killing each other, so they wouldn't have to suffer this any longer.

Sebastian, the day after her defeat, for it was hers and no one else's, came to her and told her he would give her a year to settle. A year to become accustomed to Edom and being queen. To become accustomed to routine and to him before he would demand decisions be made.

That year ended tomorrow. Tomorrow and she would be forced to go willingly to Sebastian's side, to decide the absolute fate of her friends and family. And in most ways, she didn't really have any choice. Sebastian, of course would ask her, consider what she said shortly and if he deemed the advice or notion to his liking, he followed through. If not, well, it was never good.

So she sat, warm and comfortable in the arms of her lover, the only lover she intended to take if she had anything to say about it. The fireplace crackled in the hearth, making the room cozy and homelike. As much as Clary would hate to admit, this place has become more of a home to her. It was surprisingly well kept and luxurious for a previously deserted, demon inhabited realm. Even the plants outside the palace walls were beginning to grow back.

Jace sat on the long couch, pillowed on the overstuffed cushions with her curled in his lap. Though both were content in the moment, neither smiled. They rarely ever smiled anymore, though the others did so more often the longer they were here, the more comfortable they grew as nothing happened to them. But they knew nothing of the deal that had been struck between the three Morgenstern siblings—for Sebastian refused to call Jace anything other than a Morgenstern; the deal of a year's allotment awarded to Clary to make her decisions, to settle, to accommodate before hers and everyone else's fate were set in stone and sealed in blood forevermore in this hell hole.

Clary was dressed in a soft cotton top and sleep shorts, though from where Sebastian had managed to procure these kinds of accommodations seeing as they were cut off from home—though now Edom was becoming home ever so slowly—Clary had no idea. She'd lain her head against Jace's shoulder, her arms settled around his neck as they both watched the flames in silence. This time, they had not taken to bed as they had done most every other week with their allotted few hours, discussing other things in between. This time was grim, for Jace knew in the morning Clary was to make a decision, and it wounded him still so deeply that she might be taken away from him.

The first time they'd been reunited had been filled with tears and joy and relief, but also shock. Sebastian had told them they were allowed to do whatever pleased them in each other's company, though only a few hours every week. Jace, who'd been hollow eyed and hopeless, had only held her that first time. Held her and whispered to her of how they could escape. That is how the first eight weeks went, plotting and planning and scheming and hoping to get out. Plans of bargaining with Magnus's father were fleshed out.

Those plans put into action in a dark courtyard with Jace and Clary, Magnus and Alec, Isabelle and Simon, Luke and Jocelyn. Asmodeus was summoned, Asmodeus was convinced, Asmodeus betrayed. He was in league with Sebastian and knew of his little guests, it was Asmodeus's realm in the first place after all. Sebastian was then summoned to the courtyard, his Endarkened surrounding him.

"Do you think to conduct such affairs in my court without my knowledge, sister? Brother?" He'd asked, dressed in nothing but his usual black jeans and dark shirt though now he preferred finer clothes befitting a royal.

Clary had shaken and trembled with anger and fear, Jace holding her hand beside her.

"I think to free myself from this prison, Sebastian. You have no use for us, or at least for them. Give them freedom from this realm to our home if not me. Do that for me if you ever possessed any love for me," she'd begged, back then still desperate and fool enough to believe her brother would spare any of them.

"This is why I keep you and them here, Clarissa. Is because I love you and you will come to love me in time. Come to love your reign here, but this foolishness will not be tolerated or repeated," he'd said, face calm and almost concerned, like they were ignorant children in need of a guiding hand. Without turning from them he'd said. "Five lashes of silver for the wolf."

Clary and Jocelyn had both burst forth at the same time, angry at first, screaming at Sebastian. He'd held up a hand, his look going cold and razor sharp.

"I'm not finished," he'd deadpanned. "Ten lashes for the Shadowhunters, five with a blessed whip for the vampire, ten for the warlock and bind his hands for six hours. As for my brother and sister, they will receive thirty lashes by leather, seeing as they are the perpetrators of this experiment."

Everyone had screamed and kicked and snarled as the Endarkened had fallen upon them, dragging them off to deliver each punishment separately. Clary and Jace were dragged together, fighting and snarling down a hall to a dark room. It took seven Endarkened to finally get the both of them tied up, their shirts stripped, their hands bound above their heads and their backs exposed. They weren't even allowed a wall to brace themselves against. They spoke in frantic, hushed whispers as one tried to calm the other and vice versa, tears already beginning to form when Sebastian had walked in.

They'd both quieted, glaring at the snow white blond as he'd crossed the room, his eyes running over their bare torsos, eyes lingering on Clary's bra, Jace's stomach. He'd had the nerve to smile.

"I will get this over with as quickly as possible," he'd said from behind them even as they heard the whip unfurl and smack the ground. Clary had shivered with hatred and fear even though Jace was stoic, staring ahead with dead eyes as though he'd done this before. He probably had.

"But you must understand that I cannot have my queen and my brother running about causing trouble. I deal with traitors and problems swiftly and deftly in my kingdom, Clarissa, our kingdom."

The first lash had been to Jace's back, and all that was wrung from him was a muffled grunt. Clary's first lash was lighter than she expected but no less painful, she couldn't help the whimper that had been a scream, though she'd repressed it. Sebastian worked his way quickly through thirty lashes to each of them, leaving their back dripping and bloody, sensitive and screaming as the Endarkened once more came in to take the two pain drunk Morgensterns down from their bonds.

Sebastian ordered the Endarkened to separate her and Jace and take them to their rooms. She'd been too deep in pain to tell who had come to tend her wounds but Sebastian deliberately kept the healer and the stele from her long enough for the whip marks to scar. Stark white lines that still marred hers and Jace's back, though she hasn't ever seen the condition the others had been in or their wounds. They had all been confined to their rooms for a week to heal and to deter anymore 'trouble,' as Sebastian called it. Nothing more than a nuisance.

Jace and Clary's few hours a week had been taken away for two months before they were gradually allowed to see each other again. Free time had been taken up with training for both Clary and Jace, ruling and personal lessons with Sebastian just for her. Sebastian, though, had never once tried to force her to his bed.

The whippings happened twice more, though not for summoning the demon prince, but for causing 'trouble' and each time more of her friends had given up, the group getting smaller and smaller until, to her surprise, the only ones left were her, Jace, Alec and Magnus. By then, she and Jace both had given up by the fifteenth lash.

"What do you suppose he'll ask me tomorrow?" Clary asked quietly in the crackling warmth of the room. Jace's hand slid under her shirt to rub her back in smooth, massaging circles. He leaned in and laid his lips against her neck, tenderly drawing at the skin.

"He'll ask the questions that you know he wants an answer to, Clary. We know the rules now, we know how to play Sebastian's game. That's all we need, baby," he said against her throat.

"I suppose," Clary said, leaning into Jace's touch. "Do you think, after, he'll let us still be together?"

Jace's hand slid into her hair, pulling her head back to expose more of her neck. "Even if he doesn't, I don't care how many whippings and beatings I receive, I'll still find a way to be with you."

Clary sighed, combing her fingers through his golden locks that have become longer in their year here. All the men were a bit shaggy as Sebastian only allowed anyone other than Jace and Clary with anything weaponized, such as scissors, for a few moments every other month. She shivered, letting Jace muddle her mind with his lips and tongue and teeth.

"Will you let me distract you tonight?" Jace asked, holding her fiercely, a yearning that was fueled with a passion only shown when the two of them were alone.

"Yes," Clary breathed without hesitation. In this last year, she had given herself completely to Jace. There were no secrets between them, no lies, no problems. They were one united front against Sebastian, though it was never enough against him.

Jace laid her back against the couch, his fingers curling against her skin, stripping away fabric with practiced ease, exposing her bare chest and flat, toned stomach. We don't even have an ounce of our former selves to spare, Clary thought as Jace's shirt disappeared. Both of them had been worked hard, beaten many times, scarred and whipped into shape. Neither had any flab or fat anywhere on their body. Their skin wasn't flawless as it had been. Their backs were crisscrossed with whip scars.

Clary had come fully into her woman's body this past year. Her breasts filling out, her hips curving, her small waist becoming tucked in as her legs grew shapelier, her bum becoming tight and pert as all the training flattened her stomach and back. Sloping her shoulders and tightening her calves. Jace ran his hands over all these things as well as his mouth as he spread her thighs. Though the fall to coming into her womanhood completely was that Sebastian took an even more intense obsession in her. More so than before, and though she'd never let it show to anyone but Jace, she was scared of what he might do.

Clary threw a hand over her mouth to muffle her moans even as Jace's mouth touched her down there, moving and licking and heating. Though she and Jace have come together on many, many occasions, they've never made it loud and obvious, afraid of drawing Sebastian to them or incurring his wrath. They were still unsure of what he thought of them being together, despite their time in the apartment.

"You're getting louder, Clary," Jace whispered against her, making her gasp, his fingers wrapped around her hips, pinning her to the couch.

"Or you're getting better," Clary gritted through her teeth as she tried not to scream.

"You flatter me, baby," he said, delving back in, making her writhe in pleasure, causing sweat to coalesce on her skin.

"Stroking your ego is one of the only pastimes here," Clary gasped, hands tangling in his golden hair as she went over the edge. As she shook with pleasure, Jace rose above her, grinning down at her. Clary was sad that they had both lost some of the light that used to be in their smiles. In each other's company, their smiles were the brightest they could be but they were a shadow of what they used to be.

"And baby, don't I enjoy it," he whispered, still smiling as he laid himself over her naked body, settling himself between her legs as he kissed her deeply. She wrapped her legs around his waist, pulling him closer so their bodies could be pressed together, their heat and sweat mingling.

Clary moaned as he slid home, their bodies molding to each other perfectly, like they were made for one another. Her hands grazed over his back, nails scratching lightly as his hips bucked slowly, drawing out the pleasure. His arms circled her waist, pulling her up against his body, arching her back against him so he could bury himself deeper. Plant himself in her and brand his claim to her.

Her fingers brushed over painfully fresh, puckered scars on Jace's lower back. He hissed, pulling back from the kiss, but not her body. Clary gasped, cupping his face as pain contorted his beautiful, rugged features.

"Oh Jace, baby, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you," Clary said, frantically trying to recover and make up for her mistake.

Jace took a moment, breathing in and out through gritted teeth before blowing out a final breath and laying his body back down over hers, burying his face in her chest as though he could hide from the pain and humiliation the scars marked him with.

"They still hurt like a bitch," he murmured. "No wonder Sebastian is so grumpy all the time."

They both laughed softly at his little comment as he distracted himself from the pain. Clary added to the distraction by slowly revolving her hips. He groaned against her skin, pressing a hot kiss to the curve of her breast but all in all, the mood had been killed. She looked down the expanse of Jace's back to the raised, pink lines running parallel to the last six inches of his spine down to his tailbone.

Sebastian had followed through on his promise to not punish her but Jace, their 'brother.' He'd had the Endarkened hold Clary with her arms pinned behind her back as they'd brought Jace into a small, dark cell. Sebastian had come in shortly after, baring a gleaming silver whip. Clary hadn't recognized it at first, but as soon as Jace's eyes flashed at hers in the dim lighting with panic and fear, she knew.

Sebastian was going to whip Jace with demon metal, and she was to watch.

Jace had been bound to a post, hands in front of him, staring straight at her. His eyes had begged her not to watch, to turn away but she wouldn't abandon what little support and comfort she could give Jace by not witnessing this crime. Plus, Clary was unsure if Sebastian would have been angered by her aversion to observing such a spectacle when the entire purpose of the exercise was to punish her for her betrayal.

Neither of them had spoken a word aloud, only communicating silently through their eyes even as Sebastian spoke, taunting them.

"Our brother is being punished because of you, Clarissa," he'd said, unfurling the whip so it clanked against the ground, echoing surprisingly loudly in the small chamber. "You betrayed me and this kingdom. Jace will receive six lashes with the demon metal. And hopefully it will provide a permanent enough reminder to the both of you that this treason will not happen again."

With his final word, he raised the whip, Jace taking his cues from Clary. As she breathed in, deeply, the whip came up and Jace followed suit, taking a deep breath and tensing before the first lash came down. Jace wasn't the one to scream. The look of utter pain and remorse that his love had to watch this made her heart break. She kicked and fought until eventually she had to be pinned to the ground. Sebastian paused before delivering the second blow.

"Get her up," Sebastian deadpanned, wiping off his whip with a flick of his wrist.

The Endarkened holding her hauled her off the ground, holding her shoulders to keep her on her knees. Jace was panting already, his face drawn and pale, in pain.

"Stop," Clary had sobbed. "Please don't do it again. Can't you see he's in pain?"

"No one stopped our father when he was whipping me!" Sebastian snapped and the outburst stunned Clary into silence. "No one begged him to stop because I was in pain, and I have endured much more than this pathetic angel boy ever has or will. So be silent!"

Clary's tears had stopped abruptly, watching the fury and pain crossing her brother's face, the panic and pain on Jace's. Sebastian had resumed his whipping, delivering the last five lashes in silence. Except that silence was broken on the third lash, making Jace scream out in pain. Clary had fought against the Endarkened again but they held her immobile.

Once Sebastian was finished with his gruesome task, Jace was taken away and he walked up to Clary, still kneeling on the ground, staring blankly at the crimson blood still littering the floor of the cell. Sebastian took her chin in his palm, turning her dead eyes up to his flashing black ones.

"I do not know if I like you on your knees or not," Sebastian mused, turning her head from side to side. He met no resistance; she was in shock. Then he crouched before her, hand still cupping her chin. "I hope this will not have to happen again Clarissa, I did not enjoy hurting our brother, or seeing you in pain. But a king must do what is necessary to keep order in his kingdom, even if it causes him pain."

His words had snapped her back, making her reel away from him, sneering. "You enjoyed every second of it!" She hissed. "I saw it in your eyes."

He'd shrugged, running his fingertip down her exposed throat.

"See what you will, Clarissa. I did not enjoy it," he'd said, standing and cocking his head, telling the Endarkened to take her away. Clary had thought it couldn't get any worse but when they dumped her in her rooms, she'd found the bloody Jace, carefully draped over her couch. He still hadn't been given a shirt, his whip marks openly bleeding and fresh.

She'd rushed over, kneeling before the couch.

"Jace, Jace, tell me what to do. What can I do?" She sobbed, frantically searching her room for something to help him. But there was nothing. That was Sebastian's intent. To allow her to see Jace's wounds and be unable to help the man she loved out of pain. It was cruel and sadistic.

So she'd sat on the couch, unable to even clean the blood from his back without making him scream, with his head in her lap as they both sobbed, helping each other through the pain. Thinking on it, Clary thinks that was the first step she'd taken toward her callous self that she'd become. A part of her had died watching Jace in so much pain, while she was helpless to do anything but stare.

Now, Jace presses his nose into her shoulder, riding through the throbbing that had to be radiating through the scars. His hands clenched on her hips, nails digging in but Clary remained silent except for quiet reassurances and apologies. He finally settled enough for him to look her in the eye and her heart hurt to see the repressed pain in his golden eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Jace. I didn't mean to hurt you," Clary whispered, pushing shaggy locks from his eyes. Jace caught her hand, bringing it down to kiss her palm, the inside of her wrist.

"It's not your fault, Clary," he said against her skin. "It's not your fault, you forgot they were there in the heat of the moment. When I'm with you, I can almost forget they are there too."

She sighed, rubbing a leg up and down Jace's calf.

"But it is my fault, he punished you because of me," Clary began but Jace immediately cut her off.

"Stop, don't do that to yourself. We've already been through this. I would rather he have punished me than you. We didn't know the fire wouldn't work and I was terrified that he would hurt you for stabbing him." Jace rose on his elbows, brushing two fingers over her cheek. "I'm just glad he didn't use demon metal on you."

He bent to press a light kiss to her lips, taking away the worry and pain momentarily. When he pulled back, Clary was smiling softly, amazed and enamored of Jace's strength.

"Whatever he asks of you tomorrow, I know you'll make the right choices based on what you want. Don't think of the rest of us too much, do what you want and the rest of us will find a way to cope," he soothed, finally finding the strength to move his hips.

Clary moaned, her hands tightening on Jace's shoulders.

"Now how about we stop thinking about Sebastard and enjoy ourselves tonight," Jace whispered but the unspoken words sat heavy between them. They would enjoy themselves tonight because they might never get a chance to do this again.