Chapter 4
Jace ran over to the wall and picked up the strand of hair. It was definitely Clary's. He started spinning around in slow circles, trying to see if anything in the alley could give him a clue as to what happened. He knew there had definitely been a fight, but that was all he knew. He sat down on a discarded cardboard box to think. Who would want to hurt Clary?
He slapped his palm onto his forehead as he realized how simple the answer had to be. He only knew one person that would want to hurt Clary. "Valentine," he whispered to himself in the still night air of the alley.
When Clary came to, she was laying on a bed in a small, plain white room. She was confused for a few minutes, but slowly everything came back to her. The kiss with Jace. Valentine. The fight. Hitting the wall.
She began moving around and was surprised that she hardly felt any pain. She knew that she'd hit the brick wall really hard, and she remembered the pain from the impact. There was no way she should be feeling so little pain.
Clary looked down at herself, and was shocked to see that someone had drawn an iratze on her pale skin. She could hardly believe it. Valentine had helped her? Clary was incredulous. She knew that her father didn't care about her.
With a sigh, Clary got off of the bed, and decided to try the door. To her surprise, it was unlocked. She looked out into a long dark hallway that seemed to branch off ahead. As she started walking, she heard voices.
"Should we go check on her, father? She should be waking up soon." Clary shrank back as she recognized the voice as Jonathan's.
"It doesn't matter Jonathon," Valentine replied, "We just need her to serve our purpose. After her purpose is done, if your sister still doesn't want to be here, we'll just kill her anyway."
Sister? Father? Clary's heart pounded as she realized exactly what she had overheard. Jace wasn't her brother. Jonathon was! Clary was shocked. She had figured out that Valentine was lying about Jace being her brother, but she never imagined that she actually had a brother. She had also never imagined that her brother could be Jonathon.
After the initial shock of finding out about Jonathon wore off, the other part of the conversation Clary overheard sunk in. She knew that she would never willingly want to be with Valentine and Jonathon. So they were going to kill her. Clary turned and ran back down the hallway. She had to find a way out. She had to find her way back to Jace, and she had to tell Jace the truth.
For the first time in his life, Jace was thankful that his brother, Alec, was dating a warlock. He raced to Magnus' apartment, clutching the strand of Clary's hair.
As soon as he got to the door, he was pounding on it and shouting "Magnus! Magnus, open up!"
"Jace? What are you doing here?" Magnus questioned, irritably.
Jace explained everything to Magnus about Clary's disappearance, and begged him to use the strand of hair he'd found to try a tracking spell.
"You know that there is a chance this won't work, right?" Magnus asked softly.
"Yes, but I have to do whatever I can to get her back," Jace whispered.
Magnus sighed but agreed to do the spell. He retreated into his office and began working. A few hours later he came back out. Jace held his breath. He rarely prayed, but now, he was just praying that the tracking spell worked. He needed Clary more than he had ever needed anything in his entire life.
"It was a little shaky at first," Magnus started, "but I finally managed to locate Clary."
Jace shouted in joy. He nearly reached out and hugged Magnus, but he stopped himself. "Where is she? Where is my Clary?" he shouted.
"Paris," Magnus answered simply. Paris? Why would she be in Paris? Jace was puzzled, be he didn't waste much time on it. He quickly thanked Magnus and raced out of the apartment. "Clary," he muttered to himself, "I'm coming for you."