The last Chapter ended when Jace walked out on Clary after they looked at his father's box. If you don't remember I suggest reading it again.

Please Review ;) and enjoy

(this story contains an extra section from the POV of Magnus)


Clary walked back into Isabelle's room, expecting to find Jace already there. Instead she found Isabelle and Simon sitting on the bed. Well, Isabelle was sitting on the bed. Simon was basically falling off it with laughter.

He stopped when he realized Clary was in the room, biting his trembling lip to keep the chuckles at bay. "So? What happened?"

"Did he remember anything else?" Isabelle asked.

"He said he remembered himself holding the box," Clary said. "That was all."

"Well did anything happen?" Isabelle pressed. She continued at Clary and Simon's blank stares, "Did he do anything out of the ordinary?"

"He's Jace."

"I mean out of the ordinary even for Jace." She rolled her eyes. Sometimes Clary could be narrow minded.

"Not really." Clary thought. He'd done many things that weren't what Jace would have done, before the sword incident, but she wasn't completely sure if he would have done them before he met her or not. Everyone had said he'd changed once he'd met her, but how? And in what way?

She sighed. "I don't know. I don't really know what Jace would do any more."

"Well if I had to guess he'd say something sarcastic to cover up what he was really feeling." Both Isabelle and Clary threw daggers at Simon. "What? It's true."

"Ya I know the box."

Alec and Jace sat back at Takies, with the impending blue waitress bouncing next to them. She was a little too peppy for Jace today. Alright, a lot, and she wouldn't leave him alone no matter how many times he said to.

"Well you're knife is in it." Jace fiddle with the napkin on the table.

"So?" Alec drummed his fingers on the table. To be honest, he was only half paying attention to what Jace was telling him. There might have been another time when he would have given Jace his complete and utter attention, but at the moment he was barely giving him ten percent.

"It touched it," Jace mumbled. He was talking to himself now. "I saw myself hurt her. We were in bed together and I…I stabbed her in the arm."

At this, Alec perked up. "You were what?"

Jace waved it off. "We didn't get far. The knife came down before a second layer could come off. But Alec," Jace threw napkin down on the table with unnecessary force. "Don't you see? I've hurt her before, countless times, and I don't even know why I did it."

"You were becoming possessed," Alec said with a shrug. "It doesn't matter now. We all knew that you would hurt Clary if you had a choice—"

"But I did have a choice. Not," Jace said, holding up a finger to the waitress who had opened her mouth. "Ready yet. Give us ten more minutes."

She frowned, but the frown disappeared quickly into a hasty grin and she bounce away. Jace knew she would be back in let than five minutes. He'd be lucky if he even got one.

"I didn't have to hurt her."

"It wasn't your fault," Alec persisted, but he could already see that Jace wasn't going to believe him. He had to change his tactics.

Letting out a deep sigh, he let himself fall back into his seat. "But you are hurting her now, you realize that, right? She can't stand to be away from you and when you look at her as though she's just another girl you want to use—"

"But I don't," Jace growled.

Alec just continued, as though he hadn't interrupted. "It just breaks her heart even more. Soon there won't be any heart left to break and she'll just be a hollow shell. By the time you remember everything she won't even care about anyone anymore and you'll be slamming your head into a wall. And I," he added as an afterthought, "will not stand by and let that happen to my parabati or the girl he loves. Or at least did love."

Something deadly flashed in Jace's eyes and Alec had to refuse the urge not to flinch.

Jace knew he was right. It was one of those rare times that he knew Alec was right and it hit him hard. But he couldn't help but feel angry at his parabati. He did love Clary, he knew that, and he knew he does now. He just doesn't remember anything.

"And you taunting her by almost kissing her isn't helping either." Jace stared in shock for a second. "Isabelle."

"One day I'm going to kill her," Jace muttered just as the waitress came back. She showed up peppy and smiling blue faced again and he just about snapped. "Will you go away? Can't you see that we're just here to talk and don't want to be bothered by you."

"Jace," Alec warned but again Jace waved it off with a wave of his hand.

"Just go."

The waitress looked stunned for a moment. Blank and pale in the face, she turned and walked to the next table, asking for their order.

Alec glared at Jace. "What was that for?"

"She was getting annoying," was all he muttered, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the side wall.

"So you had to go and embarrass her in front of the whole restaurant?"

Jace didn't say anything. Alec sighed and let his head fall onto his hand. "You're hopeless."

"Runes." Jace sat up quickly in his seat. He was feeling a mixture of shock and disbelief. How had he not thought of that before? "Maybe there's a rune for amnesia, or whatever it is I have, that we never learned about."

"Well why don't you ask your girlfriend? She makes new runes, I'm sure she could try one for you."

"She's not," Jace started but stopped himself before he could say another word. Technically, Clary was his girlfriend. And he wanted her to be, he couldn't ignore that. So why did he always want to say she wasn't?

"Well at least you're getting better," Alec said. "That time you cut yourself off before you finished. I think this might work."

Jace made a noise deep in his throat that sounded like a mixture between a growl and a scowl. Throwing one last glare at his parabati, he jumped from the booth and walked hurriedly towards the door.

"Jace," Alec called after him. When Jace didn't turn to look back, Alec scooted out of the booth and ran after him. He wasn't sure he trusted him enough at this point if he'd really go back to the Institute or go to a club.

Clary was in the kitchen with Isabelle when Alec and Jace walked in. Immediately she perked up, but when she saw Jace's expression she whipped her face clean of any and went back to watching Isabelle cook. She knew she should probably stop her but Izzy was persistent.

"By the Angel, what is that horrible smell?" Jace asked, wrinkling his noise. When he caught sight of Isabelle at the stove he understood. "Izzy, I may have forgotten three months of my memory, but that doesn't mean you're allowed to cook."

Isabelle shot Jace a glare and continued to stir the soup. It was an accommodation of sweet potatoes, pickle juice, and horse radish. She wasn't sure how it would turn out but that was all she could find in the fridge.

"Well what can you cook?"

"Eggs," Clary replied and then bit her lip. The image of Jace cooking eggs for her flashed in her mind, along with a million others of Jace and Sebastian together. No, not Jace, she reminded herself. She shook her head to clear the images away.

When she finally came back into focus she found all three Shadowhunters staring at her with raised eyebrows. She still didn't get how they all did that.

"Well," Isabelle said, going back to stirring. "We don't have eggs, or anything else for that matter."

"Has it ever occurred to you to, oh I don't know, order food?" Jace asked. He was absolutely positive that Isabelle's cooking could kill someone more efficiently than her fighting could.

"Shut up."

"Fine," Jace said, walking over and taking Clary by the arm, "but I need to talk to Clary."

Frowning, Clary looked up at Jace but he stealthily avoided her gaze. Suddenly he jerked her away from her seat, causing her to stumble slightly as he dragged her into the hallway. She needed to work on her training.

"What's that about?" Isabelle asked, pointing a spoon in Clary and Jace's direction.

Alec shrugged, keeping wary eyes on the spoon. "Jace wants to see if a rune can help him remember everything."

"How did you get him to want that?" Isabelle sounded astounded.

"Told him how much he was hurting Clary." Isabelle nodded and went back to stirring the soup. "You aren't going to make me eat that, are you?"

The spoon clattered in the pot as Isabelle thrust her hands into the air. "All I'm trying to do is help."

"Cooking isn't going to help," Alec said. "Unless someone here wants to end up in a hospital for a month."

Isabelle made an unpleasant noise like a growl in the back of her throat at her brother. Sometimes he could be a real pain in the ass. Turning on her heals, her dress flowing around her legs, she stalked out of the kitchen through the opposite door Clary and Jace went through.

"Izzy," Alec called. "Wait, what about the soup?"

"Do it yourself!"

As soon as they were outside the doors, Jace let go of Clary's arm. He turned to her, ignoring the racing pulse of his heart and the disappointment of not touching her. "I need you to do something."

"Alright," Clary said, not skipping a beat. She was willing to do really anything at this point to help him bring back his memories. It had only been not even a day and it was already killing her.

Jace took a deep breath and pulled out something long and thin from his belt. Clary recognized it immediately. "I need you to create a rune for me. One that can help me to remember."

Clary took the stele from his outstretched hand almost hesitantly. She held it carefully in her hand like a pencil, unsure of exactly what to do. Usually, when she thought of a new rune they came to her, quickly and easily, but right now her mind was blank. No image of swirling black lines appeared, not even already existing ones.

Jace grabbed the edge of his shirt in his hands and pulled it over his head. The sight of his honey skin, lined with the black flowing curves of runes and the scar over his heart, was almost too much for Clary to bare. Her hands shook, not from nerves but from the knowledge that she couldn't reach out and touch him without him flinching away.

"I-I can't," she said and was surprised she took a step back. She saw the spark in Jace's eyes diminish slightly and wished she could take that step back. "I'm sorry. I can't see anything."

"You can't see anything?" he asked, his eye brows furrowing with both confusion and disappointment.

"I can't picture any rune in my head." Clary shook her head in frustration. He voice dropped to a dead whisper, so soft that even in the empty hallway Jace could barely hear her. "I'm sorry."

She stuck out her hand with the stele in it, her eyes closed, head fallen. Jace stared at her for a second, not even pretending that he didn't feel the racing pulse in his veins any more. He could see it in hers too, the same pulse that matched his in perfect unison.

Finally, he noticed the stele in her hands. He could barely stop his hand from shaking as he reached out and took it, letting his fingers brush against hers. There was a sharp intake of breath, and Jace was horrified to realize that it was him who did it.

Clary's eyes flew open as the stele left her hand and they shot up like arrows to link with Jace's. He'd felt it too, she knew he did. Whatever it was that passed between them when they touched he'd felt it.

He slid the stele back into his belt, not daring to break eye contact. He never knew how much he could wish to touch someone, and not in that way. He just wanted to touch Clary, to brush his fingers back across her skin. Even that would be just enough.

The confusion of it was just too much. Closing his eyes, Jace let images try to wander across them. But they all seemed to be stuck behind some invisible barrier. Nothing was getting through.

Clary didn't try to hid the disappointment as Jace's eyes closed. She knew nothing was going to happen. He was still probably confused by it all and, even though Jace would never let anyone else know this, she knew it was just too much for him. He may seem fine on the outside, but on the inside Clary knew that what he really needed was just time.

Taking a deep breath, a silently as she could, Clary turned and walked back towards the kitchen. She had only made it three steps when something caught her hand and pulled her back and lips fell on hers.

Magnus sat at his desk, signing yet another letter from the Clave. They were getting furiously annoying about all this 'Loosing Sebastian' stuff, and while Magnus had said he was no longer helping they still were persistent on having him track Sebastian. But he wouldn't do it.

He read over the second page of the letter for the fifth time when he finally felt overwhelmed. His head fell into his hands. Against his closed eyelids he could still see Alec's face, dull and pleading. He'd never seen Alec like that before. He'd seen him happy, sad, in pain, in shock, embarrassed, determined, everything. He'd seen him pleading before even, but there was something about this time that made it different. Maybe it was because he knew Magnus wouldn't have helped him no matter what he did.

But he had ended up helping him. It was too strong of a pull to ignore.

Magnus pulled his fingers down his face, letting out a long sigh. He couldn't believe he did it, any of it. Especially the kiss. But he could help that either. He wasn't sure why he did it but he did, and now the damage was done.

His stomach still flipped whenever he thought about it, which had been frequent in the last few hours. Perhaps he had just been caught up in the moment.

With a dull thump, Magnus' hands landed on the table in front of him. A shadow darted across the room at the sound and out the door. Magnus smiled, even though there was no reason too. He'd woken the Chairman from his nap. Again. For the fifth time that day.

Mindlessly, Magnus stood up. He looked down at the snufflebox on his desk, the initials WS engraved onto it. He could still remember the conversation he'd had with Alec when they'd found it.

"Good organization," said Magnus. "I knew the man who founded it, back in the 1800s. Woolsey Scot. Respectable old werewolf family."

Alec made an ugly sound in the back of his throat. "Did you sleep with him, too?"

Magnus's cat eyes widened. "Alexander!"

Alec had been so mad, and he hadn't understood why. Now he did.

He wondered if this was the way Tessa felt with Jem and Will. She was immortal, like him, and had fallen in love with two mortals. It must have been hard, to love two people at time. It was hard enough for Magnus to love one. One that didn't want him to be immortal or didn't want himself to be mortal.

It must have been harder still to watch them die out while she lived on.

He still can't imagine life without Alec, even though that was one he was living at the moment. But he still knew Alec was alive, and right now, that was all he needed to know.

Glancing away from the snufflebox and the funny but disturbing memories, Magnus headed back into the main part of his apartment.

He had barely made it to the sofa when there was a slight knocking at the door. He frowned. Who could that be? He had only one suspicion.

He walked over to the door and nearly threw it open. He could already feel the blue sparks starting at his fingertips.

"I told you not to come back Alexander. I will not help you with Ja—" he stopped himself in mid-sentence, blinking at the figure in front of him. Her he had not expected.