Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Author Note: For the Guest wondering what a Changeling is, it's explained in the Shadowhunter Codex: it's a healthy human baby exchanged at birth with a weak Fey one. The child will live as a member of the Fair Folk and for some reason he will develop Fairy traits, like the ears and in some case will be able to use some magic.
As for your question, Will was definitely infected with the Kohl poison :)
Also, a warning, this chapter has some pretty strong contents. Sometimes you have to hit the bottom before you can rise up again...
"You should go." Clary sighed, looking at Simon with regret. "It's almost dinner time."
They had been together the whole day and Clary was exhausted: after six months of keeping every emotion tightly bottled up, the process of finally pouring them all out had been painful. She felt better now of course: she had cried, she had cursed, she had cried some more, but Simon, as always, had proved to be the solid rock she could cling on to. She told him everything: the pain when they first had to take a sleeping Will to the Court and then leave him there, before being thrown out by the Fey knights like they were just common trash. The shame in knowing every word she said in the Council was because she had no choice. The guilt every time she delivered a report to Jiliel, knowing she was betraying her kind. The fear she would have to live that way forever. The only thing she refused to talk about was Jiliel and the way he was treating her. She didn't want Simon to know, she didn't want him to pity her. He was her punishment for betraying them, she always thought of it like that: she deserved everything he ever did to her because she was selling her friends, her world, the people who loved her and even if she felt she hadn't got a choice, she still wanted to pay for that.
"Are you sure?" Simon replied softly. "I can stay all the time you want, Clary."
"Jiliel is coming here soon." She saw his face turn into stone and she held his hand. "Please Simon, you promised. For William's sake. Please."
"Can't you tell him you're out with me? With Izzy? With anyone?"
"I was already out yesterday. And he knows I never leave the apartment the day I see Will. It's the reason he comes here every time: to gloat."
"What a bastard..." he hissed in frustration. "I'm not sure I can do this, Fray. Leaving you here with him."
She closed her eyes, trying not to give in. She wanted nothing more than letting Simon protect her, but she couldn't. "The best thing you can do right now, is help us finding a way to save William. It's all I care about. My son. I can bear Jiliel, I can bear being turned back into a mundane, I can even bear dying or becoming a Forsaken after the Clave strips my Marks... but I need to know Will is safe."
"Clary—" he started, but she put a finger on his lips, her eyes now shining with tears.
"Go, before I lose my strength and ruin everything. Please, go."
He hugged her fiercely, burying his face in her red curls. "We'll find a way, I promise. Just a little longer Clary. We'll find a way."
She nodded, trying not to cry and when Simon got up and walked out of the door he never looked back at the woman he was leaving behind. He would never leave otherwise.
Clary heard the key in her front door half an hour after Simon had left and Jiliel walked in with a large smile. Clary turned around to get a beer from the fridge, repressing the instinct of snatching the key out of his hands and shoving him back in the corridor.
"So how was your day darling?" He asked grinning, taking the beer from her hand and drinking a long draught. For being a fairy he surprisingly liked mundane stuff more than his own.
"Next question?" She replied, turning around and walking away a few steps, keeping the table between them.
"Touchy, aren't we? I wonder why." He grinned again, placing the beer on the table. "Do you want me to make your day better?"
"Please do," Clary said, a murderous look in her eyes. "Drop dead right now and I'll instantly feel overjoyed."
Jiliel laughed and turned around, going to sit on the couch. "So, how's the little brat? Insufferable as usual? Still missing mommy?"
She bit her lip, willing herself not to answer but that didn't stop the fey. "And how's your precious husband? I heard today you were escorted by my sister. Did he tell you that he's planning to move in with her? Maybe you weren't this amazing if he's moving on so fast. Or maybe my sister is just a better fuck than you ever were."
"You're as charming as usual, Downworlder." She spat, knowing he hated the epithet. "Now, if you're done gloating, that's the door."
"Oh, not so fast Clary." He hissed, his eyes glacial after her insult. "Come here."
"I don't think so." She replied, equally cold.
"Come here, now."
"Fuck you."
He was standing in the blink of an eye and suddenly he sprang towards her, throwing the table aside and attacking her. But Clary was ready. She never dared fighting him, always too scared for William to rebel. But now Simon knew. All her friends knew. She wasn't alone anymore. And even though she knew it was wrong, that it was like declaring something changed, she just couldn't take it anymore. She wouldn't go down without a fight this time. She felt the power of her runes coursing through her body and the familiar thrill for a battle made her smile. She punched him right in the face, feeling instantly good and when he looked at her with surprise she laughed.
"So you want to play, little Nephilim?" he growled, drying the blood from his nose. "Let's have some fun then."
Fighting him for the first time in all those months was liberating: with every punch, with every kick, she felt a part of her rising up again from hell. She was Clary Herondale, a Shadowhunter, not some toy that Jiliel could easily play with and then discard. She lost herself in a blur of jumps, kicks and sweat, enjoying every time she felt a grunt of pain from her opponent and when she finally pinned him down, the broken beer bottle ready to slit his throat, she panted in satisfaction, her eyes shining for the first time in months.
"So fighting turns you on, sweetheart? Had I known that, I would have let you do it more often." Jiliel gasped underneath her. They were both covered in blood, bruised and beaten, but the fairy was laughing. "Come on, kill me. Slit my throat."
"You think I won't do it?" She smiled, the glass coming down more and more. The strength rune was giving her the power to move her wrists even if Jiliel had them in his hands and was trying to move them away from him.
"Oh yes, I know you'd like that." He grinned, looking at her straight in the eyes. "And then I'd like to know how you'll explain to the Queen that you killed her favourite Knight."
"You overestimate yourself. Do you really think she would be so upset? Tomorrow she'll have a new Knight and she won't even remember your name."
"Maybe." He shrugged, not releasing his hold on her wrists. "Or maybe she'll suspend the antidote on your son and make you watch as he horribly suffers for your rebellion."
Clary froze and the blood left her face, while Jiliel laughed some more. "I never thought I would see this day though: Clarissa Morgenstern forgetting her son long enough to try and kill me. Well done, Valentine's daughter."
She tried to get up but Jiliel took advantage of the moment to roll on the floor taking her with him. She let the bottle go and found herself pinned down, her hands above her head.
"Nice little fight, Clary." Jiliel smiled, moving himself to stand between her legs and grinding his hips against her. She turned her face in disgust as he was obviously aroused. "It was pleasant to finally see some fire in you. But believe me, spill my blood again and I'll gift you a box with your son's little fingers in it."
"Don't you dare to touch him, you bastard!" She wiggled beneath him but he just strengthened the hold on her wrists, almost breaking them.
"The Queen doesn't really care if the brat is in one piece or not, darling... she can still use him like she needs to. All that matters is that he's alive."
Clary's eyes widened, her heart missing a beat. "She's using him? What... What is she doing with my son? What does she want with him?"
Jiliel laughed, a hard, cold laugh that sent shivers down her spine. "Wouldn't you like to know?"
He sprang up and grabbed her so she would stand up as well. "You and I, we have an interesting night to spend ahead of us. As much as I enjoyed our little sparring, you need a lesson in obedience dear. And I'll be very glad to give you one."
"What is she doing with my son?" She cried, aiming another punch on his face. He intercepted her fist and spun her around pressing her back on his chest, one arm on her throat starting to choke her.
"You're free to imagine, love. Imagine your little kid crying, imagine him bruised, alone, closed in a dark room maybe. Imagine him scared, crying out for a mother that can't help him. I want you to dream about it at night, I want you to hear his desperate screams every minute, awake or asleep."
He walked her to her bedroom and threw her on the bed. She coughed trying to breathe again but the fey was already on her, binding her wrists together and securing them to the headboard.
She looked up, more scared than she ever was. She didn't care about what Jiliel was going to do to her, William was the only one that mattered. Was he suffering? Was he in pain? Was it true the Queen was using him for something? But what could it be?
"You're lucky the little pest is Sebastian Morgenstern's nephew." He grinned, starting to undress, a glint of pure malice in his eyes. "If he wasn't related to him he'd be already dead. Would you have ever thought that having his same blood in your veins would have saved your son's life? Amusing, isn't it?"
With a swift motion he shredded Clary's shirt, uncovering her pale skin and then proceeded to take off her jeans leaving her in her underwear.
"He's just a child, leave him alone!" She cried trying to get free, desperation making her pull at her bindings until her wrists were bloody and in throbbing pain.
Jiliel just laughed, retrieving his belt from his clothes on the floor and looking at her, lust and cruelty filling his eyes. "That's what you get when you cross the Seelie Queen, dear. And now it's time for your little lesson. Please, please Clary, make sure you don't learn too fast—I want to have fun with this."
She woke up the next day, naked, alone and untied. There wasn't a single inch of her skin that wasn't black or blue, even breathing was hard. Across the tender flesh of her shoulder there now was an angry red scar, burnt in her back like a brand: an elf arrow, the Fairy symbol she herself designed for the Clave's insignia.
Clary rolled on the bed and fell on the floor, lacking the strength to pull herself up. Her stele was in her purse so she crawled her way to the bedroom door, clenching her teeth every time she moved, pain erupting everywhere. Her living room was a mess due to the previous night's fight, the table was upside down and there were glass shards everywhere. Moaning in pain, Clary slowly reached the entrance leaving behind a small trail of blood where shards were scratching her body and when she finally reached her purse, she paused a second to catch her breath before starting to draw iratze after iratze on her bruised skin. She lacked the strength to apply a better healing rune, like the one she had given Jace so long ago, one that would make the branding fade away. She couldn't bear to keep it, like a slave.
When she felt she could at least stand up without falling on the floor, she staggered to the bathroom, opening the warm water from the shower and leaning against the cold tiles, letting the hot drops fall on her skin until she was drenched. A traitor sob escaped her lips and then she suddenly found herself on her knees, the warm water pattering on her back making her flinch in pain, the images of the previous night flooding her mind. She cried and cried, pouring out all the suffering, all her anger, everything, until she was finally too exhausted to keep crying. When she got up, her eyes were empty, her mind blank save for one thought: whatever the Seelie Queen was doing to William, she needed to stop it. And then she would kill her and Jiliel with her bare hands, ripping out limb after limb until they cried for mercy.
And when they do, I'll show them the same mercy they showed me and my family. You were right brother, there's a dark heart in me, hidden underneath the Angel's blood. They will regret to ever have crossed Valentine's daughter. I swear on the Angel, they will regret it.
