Chapter Four

I had never seen someone so on edge, and that was saying a lot, considering the fact that I had lived with my mom when Valentine and Jonathan had left us. I felt nauseous just thinking about them. The funny part was that Izzy was on edge for a stupid reason. The games.

If I was being honest, I honestly didn't know why everyone was so on edge for these games, especially if they had them every week.

"Clary!" Izzy yelled, "why aren't you worried about the games? It's your first time."

"Should I have a reason to be worried?" I asked.

Magnus sighed. "Izzy I don't think anyone told her about it yet."

"You're kidding right?" she yelled in exasperation. "I told Jordan and Alec to tell Clary. They must of thought that if she didn't know then they'd have an advantage."

"Guys you do know that I'm right here. I can hear you. What aren't you telling me?" I asked annoyed.

Izzy, Maia, and Magnus shared a look.

"It seriously can't be that bad, can it?" I asked.

"Well," Izzy started, "let's just say that when a new person joins the game there's a ritual that they have to complete."

"A ritual? What kind of ritual?" I asked.

"Technically we're not allowed to tell you, but we can tell you what ours were," she explained.

I sat on Izzy's bed unpatiently. "Well, are you gonna tell me?"

"Yeah, but first you need to know that how you react to the ritual determines whether or not our team gets extra points or not. If you react normally and rationally then we get an extra point, but if you don't then the other team gets two points," Izzy explained.

I shook my head in confusion. "What do you mean how I react? What are they gonna do pretend somebody died and see how I react?"

"Well they might," Maia said. "Technically you never know."

"Maia why don't you tell biscuit your ritual story," Magnus said.

"Sure," she said, turning to face me. "I joined the games about two weeks after Jordan and I got into a relationship."

"Wait!" I said. "So you're saying that technically I didn't have to do these stupid games."

"Well yeah but…"

I sighed. "Whatever just continue the story."

Maia continued. "So the night before the games after dinner, Jordan came up to me and broke up with me. Or so I thought he did. So I said I was tired and wasn't feeling well and didn't participate in the games. That cost my teams chance at winning, and Jordan's team ended up winning and they betted on us having to be there servants until the next games."

I shuddered. "I can't even imagine being any of your guys' servants."

"Even me biscuit?" Magnus asked with stupid puppy dog eyes.

I rolled my eyes and laughed. It was definitely an unfamiliar sound, my laugh. It had been too long since I had felt myself laugh around other people. "Definitely you Magnus."

He smirked. "Whatever biscuit. You love me."

I rolled my eyes and turned to Izzy. "What was your ritual?"

Izzy shuddered and her eyes turned into a glossy black. "They used Max with me. They pretended to kidnap Max in front of me and I couldn't save him. I had thought I lost Max, and I started breaking down crying. I called off the games so we could look for Max and call 911, but then Max ran up behind Jace with a huge smile on his face and said 'I did what you asked now where's my money'. Max wanted Jace to be proud of him, even if it was for something stupid like that. Max idolized Jace." Izzy laughed at the memory and started crying. "And now he's gone, and he's never coming back."

I didn't know what to say. "Izzy I'm sorry you didn't have to tell me that. I... I-"

"It's fine," she said wiping her eyes, "I just wanted you to know how serious they are about these rituals."

"How about we forget about the rituals for now and just relax until dinner," I suggested.

Everybody nodded, not wanting to say anything to upset Izzy any further. So for the next few hours, we sat in Izzy's room relaxing and talking until dinner, unaware that somebody was already setting up Clary's ritual in the kitchen.

Author's Note: PLEASE READ!! If any of you are confused about the games or the rituals just let me know and I'll try to clear it up. I might go back later and explain it more, but anyways what do you think Clary's ritual will be? LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK THE RITUAL WILL BE *Cough cough* its TOTALLY not because I dont have any idea on what its supposed to be

Clary: I wonder what my ritual will be...

Jace: Yeah me to

Clary: So your saying you don't even know what it is yet!

Jace: Hey it's not my fault!

Clary: *rolls eyes* suuurrreeee

Author (me): It's true, im sorry... (starts mumbling stupid excuses) writers block and having a lack of information makes it hard to come up with ideas