Hours had pasted and they had found nothing.
"Keep looking, there has to be something somewhere!" Tessa exclaimed.
"Why can`t Clary just use her super-rune-thingy-m`bobby and get us out of here?" Simon yawned, his eyes drifting, slowly, closing.
"That`s brilliant Simon." Izzy shook him by the shoulders in amazement.
"But I don`t have my stele." Clary protested.
"Then use mine." Izzy handed Clary her stele. Clary clenched her fist around it and willed herself to make the rune. She closed her eyes and when she next opened them, the door had been blown off its hindges. She let out a sigh and handed the stele back to to Isabelle. Will was the first person to reach the door.
"Well what are we waiting for?" He asked. "A mothers meeting?" Then he dashed off down the long, streched out corridor of the institute. They all looked at each other and followed.
Huffing and puffing, Tessa held her hand up as a sign of give me a minute. She gulped a large amount of air as though it was her last breath. Will and Jem both turned back to her, showing that they would wait until she catched back her breath.
Once they had caught up with the others, Alec slammed his fists into the nearest wall.
"We lost him." Was all he said as his anger turned into sadness. Alec glanced up, looking at nothing in particular. "I`ve got to keep searching"
"You don`t have to do anything. All of us will. You`re not doing this alone, you`re my parabatai so i`m not leaving you on your own"
"Oh how romantic. Next we will see them at the cinema holding hands and eating popcorn together!" Will did his best impression of a girl waiting for their OTP. Tessa slapped his arm. Will opened his arms as if saying what?
They all figured that Magnus wouldn`t be stupid enough to stay in the institute so they all started searching outside. As they turned the corner a swarm of clockwork people. Tessa`s face had lost all of its colour and her heart began to race. Will stepped infront of Tessa to guard her. The automatons stood still and silent.
"Do you know these creepy people who are too early for halloween?" Jace asked, curiosity filling his face.
"What are they doing here?" Exclaimed Jem, fear creeping up into his heart.
"They are here for me!" Came from a voice somewhere in the crowd.
"Who said that?" Simon asked peeking over Tessa`s shoulder. The figure came to the front line of the ongoing automatons. The man was quite small. Will started shoving Tessa towards the back of their group.
"Hello, there Tessa and Will, so nice you could join us. I`m sorry but your army is no match for mine" Said the small man, glancing over his own shoulder back towards the automatons.
"Who are you?" Asked Clary. The small man grinned and his smile stretched all the way back to his ears.
"Me? I go by many names, but, I prefer to be called Mortmain. And what do I owe thee pleasure?" Asked the man - Mortmain.
"Run!" Jem whispered into Tessa`s ear. She started but was stopped by another group of automatons surrounding them.
"Ah, ah, ah. Not so fast."
"But-how-wh-" Will was stumbling for an explanation. "How are you still alive? We saw you die by Tessa`s angel"
"Ah, yes, that. Well it`s a short story really and here`s how it goes. The guy that you thought was me was not actually me. I made myself a clone automaton in case anything like that had ever happened and a friend of mine made the automaton have my brain so he would think the way I do. So I escaped without any of you realising it. My friend will tell you the rest. Oh friend, you can come out now!" The automatons made way for this so-called-friend of Mortmain`s. It was Magnus.
