OH MY GOSH! So sorry this took so long! If you read my Emergency Author's Note, you know that I was at camp the last three weeks of July and had no way to write online! But believe me I worked by ass off to get his written and uploaded. I hope you all enjoy!

Chapter 2

Unknown POV

The girl no longer jumped at the crack of the whip. Although, when something has happened to you for ten of the fifteen years of your life, it wouldn't make you jump either. But the pain was still there. The pain never stopped coming, never dulled, never showed any mercy. The pain had a name.

Its name was Father.

The girl squeezed her eyes shut and shoved her fisted hand in her mouth to stifle the scream. She could feel the skin on her back splitting and the blood spilling from the gashes. Over and over, indefinite and nearly unbearable. But she did bear it, because there was nothing else to do.

But today was different. It became different the moment a loud, metallic clang ripped the girl from her thoughts. "Eat," a voice commanded. The girl knew the voice. It belonged to the man who fathered her for fifteen years. She looked up at him. His dark eyes felt like daggers as he stared at her. He raised an eyebrow expectantly at the girl. She turned to the platter dropped on the ground. There was a bowl of —well, she wasn't sure what it was, but she always ate it anyway; there was never anything else— and a picture of a group of people: A man with golden hair with his arms around a woman with jet-black hair and a man with similar hair. In front of the man with halo-hair was a young boy of about eight or nine with the same hair. The dark-haired boy was holding hands with another man with tan skin, whose hand was on the shoulder of one of the two boys standing beside them. Next to the girl was a man with glasses. One the other side of them were three teenagers who all looked to be of a similar age to the girl.

"Why?" the girl croaked. She knew what he wanted her to do. He wanted her to pick one. She knew what is for, but still the girl tried to deny it and pray it was for something, anything else, but it was impossible.

The man smirked and turned for the door. "Because if you do this, you get to go free." The girl inhaled sharply. Freedom. Freedom from all the torture and the pain and the emptiness. Freedom meant a chance. Her father noticed the emotion flash through the girl's eyes. "Yes, Rowan. Freedom."

Izzy's POV

"He's in her room again," Izzy sighed as she entered the kitchen for dinner. "I saw the light on." She looked at her brother, Alec, expectantly. When this first started, Clary and Jace would sit together, imagining what could have been had they not lost their daughter. Slowly they healed and eventually they left the stuffed animals and crib behind. But when they lost Clary eight years ago, Jace relapsed. He rarely left the room, and it had worried Isabelle at the time. And yet again, slowly Jace healed, or at least became the closest thing to "healed". But Jace was never fully the same after he'd lost Clary and Rowan.

"Izzy, he only does this twice a year," Alec countered. "It's not worth trying to get him out of there, because it won't work. And he's allowed to mou—" There was a click of a door opening and they turned their heads to see Jace standing in the doorway. He looked at each of them individually and then quietly strolled across the tile floor to the refrigerator. The whole room was silent as three pairs of eyes trailed Jace across the room.

He opened the refrigerator door. "You can keep talking, you know." Jace closed the door, an apple in hand. He raised an eyebrow at his siblings. As he walked back toward the entrance of the kitchen when Izzy rushed over and grabbed Jace's arm, preventing him from leaving. He turned to face his adoptive sister, whose eyes were full of sympathy that poorly hid the worry that Isabelle was feeling.

Izzy bit her lip nervously and said, "You can stay for dinner if you want." She heard Alec sigh from across the room and mutter something that sounded like: "beaten by default, doesn't count". If she wasn't so focused on getting Jace out of his daughter's room, which brought back so many painful memories, she would have laughed. Instead, three chattering voices echoed into the room through the open doorway. They belonged to Natalie, Andrew, and Elliot, who were Simon and Isabelle's three children. Andrew was two years older than Natalie and Elliot, who were twins.

"I'm telling you, that knife was not in the center," Natalie exclaimed. "It was close, I'll give you that. But it was not completely in the middle." Natalie had long dark hair and brown eyes that could slice into your soul like daggers if she glared at you. She was almost exactly like her mother, except for the fact that she could not walk in high heels higher than 5 inches.

Andrew raised an eyebrow. "Natalie, I don't care what you think you saw," he argued," but my knife was spot-on." Andrew was, coincidentally, a spitting image of who he was named after: Andrew Lightwood, his great-grandfather. (A/N: That is what the family tree I found online said, so sorry if it's wrong.)

Natalie and Andrew turned to Elliot who, as always, had his face hidden behind a book, oblivious to the fact that his glasses were about to fall of his nose. He looked up and glanced between his twin sister and older brother. "Oh, no," he said quickly, shaking his head. "I am not getting involved. This is between the two of you."

"Yeah, but I'm your twin sister," Natalie reminded Elliot. Andrew scoffed. Natalie was known for using the "twin card" more than she should have when she and Andrew got into arguments.

"How could I forget," Elliot muttered. Andrew laughed and gave his younger brother a high-five. "Natalie, we might be twins, but you're still the only girl." Izzy smiled to herself. Years ago she was the only girl until Jace had brought Clary to the Institute in New York.

Isabelle turned away from Jace. "And Natalie should be proud of it." She put her arm around her daughter. "You can set the table tonight, boys. And where is your dad?"

"He's putting stuff away in the training room," Natalie answered. She turned to Jace, looking expectant. "Are you going to have dinner with us tonight?" Isabelle winced. Natalie, Elliot and Andrew didn't know about Rowan or what today was to Jace. Max and Rafe, Magnus and Alec's adopted kids, knew the bare minimum. It wasn't exactly a family party/cocktail conversation material.

Jace smiled sadly. "Sure. Why not?" Isabelle glanced back at her older brother, who shrugged.

Izzy reached out to touch her adoptive brother's arm. "Are you sure, Jace? You don't have to stay if you don't want to." Natalie turned from her uncle to her mom, confused and seemingly slightly hurt. Part of Izzy wanted to tell Natalie and her brothers everything, but it wasn't her business to say. It was Jace's, and if he ever wanted to tell his niece and nephews how his family fell apart, he would.

"Yes." Jace lowered his voice. "I think it's time, Izzy. I can't keep falling back into this. It hurts too much." Isabelle's eyes quickly met Jace's. He smiled sadly and nodded. Jace turned back to Natalie. "So, what's for dinner toni–"

Simon burst into the kitchen. "Guys, we have a problem. I checked one of the city scanners to see if any extra patrols were needed tonight on my way down. There's a huge cluster of demonic energy on the edge of the city." He whipped out his phone and showed a picture to the group. On the screen was a map of part of the city: street lines and names, subway routes, outlines of neighborhoods, and a bright green cluster of small circles signaling a huge outburst of demonic energy.

"By the angel, another demonic cult?" Alec exclaimed. "My patience for mundanes is wearing thin very quickly. I'll meet you guys downstairs in 5 minutes." He walked out of the kitchen, closely followed by Andrew, Elliot and Natalie.

Rowan's POV

"I don't understand," Rowan admitted. "Those people, they're your family?" Her father slammed his hands of the table and Rowan jumped in her chair.

"No. They took someone from me and they need to pay," he growled. The man sat down in the chair across from Rowan. "Years ago, I stole something from them, something very precious. But they did not break. So again, I tortured them with loss and suffering, but again they did not give up. But I will break them."

Rowan looked at the man she called Father, frightened and confused. "I still don't understand what I am supposed to do. And what those people have to do with it." Her father picked up a piece of paper and walked over to Rowan. He set the paper down in front of her. It was a picture of the people – a family, Rowan assumed.

"These people," her father said through gritted teeth, "ruined my life. They took everything from me and will suffer. And you will make sure that happens." A million thoughts zoomed around Rowan's head as her father explained his plan. If this worked, she'd be free. All she had to do was pick one person out of the group of people, those horrible people that'd hurt her father, who was going to die. Then, Rowan never had to feel the pain again. She could start over.

Jace's POV

Light footsteps echoed through the front hall as the group readied for patrols. Jace turned his head to see a small boy running towards him dressed in toy gear. Matthew was a spitting image of Jace's younger self. He was born a year before Clary died, so he didn't remember her. Matthew sometimes asked questions, but didn't seem to mind most of the time. Isabelle was his mother-figure and he was happy that way. Although, Matthew didn't really have much of a reason to question anything. Things had been the same way at home for his nine short years alive, and Jace meant to keep it that way. He wanted to give his son a more stable childhood than what he'd had.

"Daddy, I want to come too," Matthew exclaimed. He waved the toy sword in his hand around and pretended to fight demons and monsters. Jace laughed and crouched down next to Matthew.

"Maybe next time, Matt," Jace offered. Matthew pouted for a moment. Jace stood up and raised an eyebrow, as if to say he wouldn't fall for his son's puppy-dog eyes. The boy giggled in response. "Now go get ready for bed and someone will be up soon." Matthew ran off down the hallway, his footsteps fading the farther he got from the front hall.

Natalie stepped forward. "Speaking of, who is going to stay with Matthew tonight?" She looked at her family. They returned her stare expectantly. Natalie groaned. "Fine, I'll stay this time. But you all owe me one." The rest of the group watched her storm off back into the Institute.

A loud bang turned Jace and the others' heads. The sensor that was once in Simon's hand was now in pieces on the floor. "Okay, clearly the demonic energy here is excessively high," Simon began. "Andrew, Elliot, I'm sticking you two on the perimeter. Nothing gets in or out. The rest of us will scope out the place."

"We should break off into pairs," Izzy suggested. "It's too dangerous here to explore alone. Jace and Alec, you guys take the upper floors, and Simon and I will take the lower ones." Isabelle uncoiled her whip and walked off towards the front entrance of the abandoned building, Simon following closely behind. It's been a while, Jace thought. And it had been. It had been a very long time since they had gone on a bigger patrol like this one. Jace took a deep breath and started forward.

Alec put his hand out to stop his parabatai from continuing. "Are you sure you're okay?" Jace nodded, though he wasn't sure who he was lying to more: his parabatai or himself. Nonetheless, the two began approaching the building. Quietly, Jace pulled out his seraph blade. Without the ability to successfully use Sensors, he knew he needed to be extra careful, especially with the high demonic energy levels. Soon, Alec followed his lead and readied his bow and arrows.

Once they reached the next floor, Jace signaled at Alec that they should split up left and right. Alec nodded, and headed to the first hallway to their left. Jace quickly drew a Soundless rune and moved towards the other side of the floor. The first hallway that broke off from the main floor was empty, as was the next and the one after that. Jace began to question if there was any sort of demon here at all.

"Jace," Alec called. "You are going to want to see this." Surprised, Jace walked back through the main area of the floor. He found Alec in the entry to the third room on the left. Jace looked over his shoulder and his eyes widened. In the corner of the room there was a young girl, perhaps fifteen or sixteen, with long strawberry blonde hair and bright green eyes. She was in a dirty, blood-stained nightgown. Jace sheathed his sword and pushed his way past Alec to approach the girl.

As Jace kneeled down next to the girl, she looked up at him frightfully. He reached out to her, but she flinched back. "Hey, hey, hey. We're not going to hurt you," Jace promised. "What's your name?" The girl waited a moment, then scooted father away and shook her head. Jace frowned. He stood up and walked over to Alec.

"What do we do with her?" Alec asked. "We can't exactly take her back to the Institute with us. We don't know anything about her."

"Not exactly," Jace contradicted. "She can see us, so she has the Sight. I'm almost positive she's not a Downworlder or demon; she shows no signs of being one. That pretty much leaves Shadowhunter or a mundane with the Sight." He glanced back at the girl, who somehow managed to look more scared than she had a moment ago. Jace lowered his voice. "If she'll let us, I think we should take her back to the Institute. We don't have a reason not to."

Alec's eyes sighed angrily. "I hate it when you're right." Jace smirked and walked back over to the girl. He crouched down next to her. Carefully, he reached out his hand and took the girl's. She flinched, but slowly surrendered and let him pull her to her feet.

Jace turned back to Alec. "Go find Simon and Isabelle. Grab the boys and meet us outside." The dark-haired Shadowhunter nodded and rushed off. The other returned his gaze to the girl. "My name is Jace. If you'll let us, we want to help you. I live in a place that can you stay in, at least for a little while. Do you want to go?" After a moment, the girl nodded. Jace smiled and led the girl back down the stairs to the front of the building.

"… find nothing? Not one demon? We found nothing but demons," Isabelle complained. She noticed Jace coming and gave him a look of confusion and frustration. "How did you find no demons?"

"You may have found demons, but we found a girl."

Izzy blinked. "A what?"

Alec and Jace responded in unison. "A girl." The young girl stepped out from behind Jace, avoiding eye contact with any of them. Jace watched the others' eyes scan her up and down. The girl looked terrified.

"What are going to do with her?" Elliot asked.

Andrew stepped forward. "Yeah, we can't just bring some random person back to the Institute. Can we?"

Alec approached his nephews. "Actually, we can. The girl appears to be completely harmless. Normally we wouldn't do this, but she can see us and doesn't show any signs of being in any way connected to the Downworld."

"I hope you're right about this," Izzy muttered. She walked over to a wall coded with graffiti and drew the Portal rune Clary created years ago. Suddenly the Institute appeared inside and Isabelle stepped through. Jace heard the girl gasp.

"Don't worry," he said to her quietly as the others stepped through the Portal. "It's harmless. Just don't think of anything else but the image in the Portal. I'll be right behind you." The girl nodded and swallowed hard. She stepped forward and faced the Portal. After a few deep breaths, the girl finally stepped through the Portal.

"I really hope she made it," Jace muttered as he stepped through.

Rowan's POV

The Institute was huge. And she had only seen one room so far. It was kind of overwhelming. Just as the Portal began to close, Jace stepped through. Rowan smiled. It was hard to believe that he had done anything so horrible, as her father had told her. After all, he'd been so nice to her.

"Daddy!" a young voice called out. A small boy with identical features to Jace ran into the room. He was wearing pajamas and was being chased by a girl who looked like the dark-haired woman with the whip. Rowan shuddered.

"Matthew, what are you doing out of bed?" Jace asked. He turned to the girl who sighed. She was pretty. Really pretty. Rowan was suddenly very self-conscious of her dirty nightgown.

The other girl – who appeared to be the same age as Rowan – approached Jace. "Sorry! I tried to stop him, but we heard you come in and he got excited." Jace chuckled and swung Matthew into his arms. The other girl glanced over at Rowan. "Who is she?"

"Natalie, we found her on the patrol tonight," the woman with the whip said. "Be nice." Rowan watched as Natalie's demeanor changed from playful to guarded in a split second. It was kind of creepy. Natalie nodded slowly as she eyed Rowan up and down. "We don't know much about her," the woman continued. "Just where we found –"

"Rowan," interrupted Rowan softly. All eyes turned to face her, and she instantly regretted saying anything. It was too late now. "My name is Rowan."