This steady burst of snow is burning my hands
I'm frozen to the bone
I am a million miles from home
I'm walking away
I can't remind your eyes, your face
Prologue
Jocelyn looked shaken to her core.
Her hands, shaking, rose to clamp firmly over her own open mouth. Her green eyes, welling with fearful tears, drank in the fair hair, pale face and dark eyes before her.
She looked away from the horrifically identical dark eyes quickly; moving them over to her very much alive son, her pallor now almost as white as the latter's hair.
One.
There should be one and only one.
Standing off to the side wordlessly, Clary knew what her mother was seeing; Jonathan's face, copied exactly into a more feminine guile. The sharp angles of his face were identical to those of the one that was before Jocelyn; a mirror image that at the same time, was dissimilar only by gender.
The only thing stopping Clary from running over to put herself between her mother and the two of them was Jace's hand; steady and firm on her forearm, it seemed to act as a balm to her anxiety.
"It's not your place, Clary."
Appalled, she spoke his name, ensuring she put every ounce of her outrage into the word. "Jace, that's my mother!"
He didn't respond; he didn't look at her once. Shaking his head in a silent, "No," loose golden curls falling into his eyes, Jace continued to simply watch the scene in front of him with unconcerned eyes.
It's not your Jace, Clary reminded herself, again. The frequency of how often she had told herself that seemed to have increased within the last few days, she realised. Her mother's voice, surprisingly steady, stole her attention away from Jace.
"This is impossible." Jocelyn spoke slowly and quietly, both words weighed as if she were sure of the truth in them, but also simultaneously doubting.
The dark gaze ahead stared Jocelyn out resiliently, the pitiless black depths almost holding a faint indication of amusement; almost; there was a nasty underlying sadism in them that seemed to engulf that humour.
From the side, Jonathan shifted, a trace of laughter colouring his voice and real amusement clear in his face. "Nothing impossible about it." he countered.
The sound of her son's voice, sure and resilient, seemed to snap Jocelyn back to herself between one moment and the next. "You two," she snapped sharply. "What are you?"
Distinctly, and at precisely the same moment, Jonathan and his female double, both of them fair haired and dark eyed and so alike, smiled…
A/N: Opening lyrics: "Iron" by Woodkid.
So, here we have a short and sweet prologue to an idea that's been drifting through my mind a lot since Sebastian/Jonathan's return. If you haven't read as far (and finished) City of Glass onward, this story probably won't make much sense at all. Not that it does whatsoever in its current form, but hey. That was just the teaser/prologue. It's not supposed to yet ;)
Hm, so Jace is still possessed in this story. Poor guy. Also, you'll notice I refer to Sebastian as Jonathan. That's just a habit; I've always seen him as Jonathan Morgenstern since discovering the devious bastard's real identity. I couldn't give a damn if he prefers to be known as Sebastian. Sorry demon boy. When I write you, you're Jonathan. And now, thanks to my imagination, there's more than one of you...
If you have time to leave a small review of your thoughts, it is always a great help and very much appreciated. Thank you.
Chapter one coming: March 2013.