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The sun beat down mercilessly, enveloping Clary in such humidity that she felt slightly dizzy; she had not experienced such heat like this living in Brooklyn. It was sometimes hot back home in the summer months, however here Edom vaguely resembled a desert. Today was the hottest day since they had arrived, and Clary suspected that her skin would burn.
She had been walking beside Jace at the front of the group. She had held his hand at first, seeking comfort but after a while, their hands had become so sweaty that she had let go. Clary turned around to look at the others.
Alec, Simon, and Isabelle were just behind them. Simon was kicking small rocks as he strolled, mostly looking down but he kept eyeing Isabelle, but she was too preoccupied drinking water from her canister, in between sips murmuring something to Alec, who looked too distracted to be listening to her. He kept glancing behind to where Magnus was walking just a few paces behind. Clary felt sorry for Alec, he still loved Magnus, possibly even more than he had when they were together. She knew his pain, loving someone but never being with them. She and Jace had experienced so much pain with their love. Their story was filled with countless obstacles which had prevented them from being together but they had overcome them all. At least they could be happy with each other now.
Blair was just behind Magnus, looking forward toward Isabelle and Simon, probably listening to their mundane conversation. As if sensing Clary's stare, she switched her gaze to the redhead. Clary offered a thin smile, feeling a little guilty for staring. Blair curved her mouth upward slightly but her eyes still looked more calculating than friendly. She then looked down at the sand. Her blonde hair fell down to frame her angular face. Her hair was more platinum compared to Jace's golden locks which glinted in the sunlight as she turned to face her boyfriend.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" He asked with a chuckle.
"I was just thinking about everything we've gone through to be together, and it's finally happened," Clary responded.
"Well, not every couple have thought they were siblings at one time," Jace said with a smile, but a sadness gleamed in his eyes at all the heartache caused by Valentine lying to them.
Clary looked upward; the sun was at its peak. A blazing orb in the bright sky, emitting light and heat to all that had the misfortune of walking the barren land of Edom. But then she supposed some choose to live here- Sebastian chose. Maybe he felt at home here, like hell was the only place that he could belong. Then perhaps it was. He would be a little out of place anywhere else filled with… well…light. Clary thought to herself. Possibly that could be just the bad side of him, the evil side. Would her true brother want to live here? Rule here? If Jonathon and Sebastian were two different people, would they choose different lives and do different things?
"Jace, how to we save Sebastian?" Clary blurted out. Jace looked slightly taken aback by the question, but it was all Clary had been thinking about this whole time.
"You want to save him?" Jace questioned.
"If we can, I mean it's not his fault he is entirely evil, maybe if we could extract the darkness from him he would be a different pers…"
"No! I'm sorry Clary but he's done unforgivable things in his short life." Jace raised his voice and the rest of the group looked at them, everyone stopped walking at the same time.
"Clary, he murdered our brother, just because he was there. Max was no match for Sebastian so for fun he killed a child. That sort of person cannot be reformed. The question we should be answering is how we kill him," Said Alec, anger blazing in his eyes and voice.
"But we've tried to kill him! Numerous times he has been inflicted with wounds which would be fatal to any other mundane or shadowhunter…maybe it's just not meant to be?" Clary bit back, angry at Alec for attempting to decide the fate of her brother. She instantly regretted arguing with him, as he and Isabelle had reason to want him dead more than everyone else- they had lost Max.
"Clary," Alec started, his muscles tensed and Clary noticed that his fists were turning white where he was curling his fingers inwards so fiercely.
"Amatis." Alec started listing names of the dead and Clary felt a tear slide down her face as guilt overwhelmed her.
"Rafael." A harsh look of pain crossed Magnus' eyes at the loss of his friend.
"Max." Isabelle tried to put a hand on her brother's shoulder but he brushed her off as he finished his point.
"What he supposedly did to Blair." Clary glanced over at the blonde to be met with her hazel eyes, which looked unemotional, there was no pain. Blair then looked away from Clary as Alec continued listing names.
"Even Jace was lost to us for some time. Look me in the eyes Clary, and tell me that Sebastian Morgenstern deserves to be saved." The two locked eyes, only for a few seconds but to Clary, it felt like an eternity.
"No, I can't… I'm sorry Alec, but he's my brother. I can't just throw him to the wolves by plotting ways to kill him!" Clary spoke quietly, trying to calm the situation, whilst still not giving up on her brother.
"Clary… your brother is the wolf. He is the predator and he is killing anything and everything in his way, even those who do nothing against him he is murdering for pleasure, for fun," Jace cut in, not angry at Clary, and he gripped her hand and squeezed it gently before letting go.
"I…" Clary struggled to answer back. She knew that Alec and Jace were right. She thought back to when she had once kissed her brother, as much as it nauseated her. The moment that their lips had met, she was swept off her feet and detached from her current reality. But it had been almost like a nightmare. An intense feeling of being swallowed by darkness, unable to escape but most of all it felt wrong, both because he was her brother but also he felt like an abomination of nature. Clary focused on that evil, what it felt like to be connected in any way to Sebastian Morgenstern. She concentrated on how evil he could be, and tried to fuse this evil with her brother so she could say what she needed to:
"So how do we kill him?" The words felt foreign on her lips- as if she had become a different person to try and kill her own brother.
"I cannot give a step-by-step answer to that but I think I might be able to help out slightly on why we can't kill him like a normal shadowhunter, or closer to his actual self, demon."
"Please do continue," Alec turned to face his once-boyfriend.
"I believe that we cannot kill him because he is no part angel like you shadowhunters so we cannot use darkness to kill him…"
"Darkness?" Jace questioned.
"The things that would kill off you lot, like a demon bite for example," Magnus seems slightly irritated at being interrupted.
"As I was saying, that cannot kill him, but he is neither wholly demon,"
"I think you're mistaken there, we've had many conversations referring to him as a demon," said Simon, and Alec nodded along with him in agreement.
Magnus rolled his eyes in frustration at their lack of understanding. "Yes you do but he is not a demon. Normal demons have nowhere near the intelligence of a shadowhunter, which is what makes them fairly easy to dispose of, they only have their numbers on their side, shadowhunters are both stronger, most of the time, and they are far more intellectual. Greater demons are cunning, but they lack any good emotion, like attachment to another person. Whatever he felt in that apartment with Jace and Clary wasn't love, but he still didn't kill them, and he protected them. He also does not possess any magic, as far as I know, so he can't be a demon.
"The only other option I considered was that he was like Lilith however, he can't be as she is a fallen angel from the heavens, and Sebastian never was and never will be a demon. Again, Lilith has magic, which Sebastian doesn't. Since he isn't at least wholly demon the light you have in seraph blades is not strong enough to burn him. The only thing strong enough to do that was the heavenly fire, and a strong blast of that. But we lost the heavenly fire." Magnus concluded his explanation with a smile as he looked around at all the astonished faces around him.
"Wow, you thought that through thoroughly," Jace said.
"Well I had to do something whilst sitting in that cave whilst all of you lot were wallowing in your own misery and contemplating defeat," Although the words were harsh, Magnus said them lightly, not meaning to offend.
"We didn't lose the heavenly fire though, it is just…inaccessible, currently trapped in the sword," Blair spoke confidently, and when eyes turned to her she stood up tall, not shrinking back with fear as she had back in the cave. She's finally starting to open up to the group, Clary thought.
"Yes but we don't have the sword do we," Alec said harshly, he was hostile toward Blair, just as he had been to Clary when she had first come to the institute what felt like years ago, but in truth it really wasn't. Her life had changed so much since then.
"That's not my fault, I was merely suggesting where to start your grand assassination plan," Blair responded, not taking her eyes of Alec, challenging him to answer back as foully as he had before.
"Anyway…" Jace interjected, "So let's not think about Sebastian right now," he looked across at his girlfriend and offered a friendly, knowing smile. "Let's concentrate our efforts on finding the sword for now because we can't face Sebastian without it."
"Also, I'm surprised that we haven't run into him yet, he was watching Clary and I whilst we were in Alicante, yet in a land which he rules, he can't find us? It just doesn't add up," Jace thought out loud.
"Where did you leave the sword then Clary? After you tried to…" Simon didn't finish the sentence. Clary felt slightly guilty. She had failed her mission, had submitted to Sebastian then defied him and tried to murder him, but failed. And everything that had happened since was a result of that.
"It was in his 'throne room' where I last saw all of you before you were locked in that room, but Sebastian knows that heavenly fire was in the sword, he talked about it when we were back at the stronghold so he never would want to leave a possibly fatal weapon behind. No, it must be near him. Probably not on him, but close, where he knows that no one else would be able to get it." Clary pondered about the location of the sword.
"I'd say it would be in a tomb, or a locked chest that he keeps in a room," Simon said excitedly, "I mean, that's what happens in movies and stuff," he finished.
"I'm not sure about a tomb unless you can find one just lying around in Edom," said Alec, looking upon Simon as if he were stupid.
"Technically a tomb can't lie around…" replied Jace.
"It won't be in a tomb, because even if there was one, Sebastian would want to be able to pick up the sword if he was ever threatened, or needed to move out quickly if say he found out where Clary was. It also wouldn't be in a chest as it would need to be big to hold a sword like Heosphoros, and that would attract too much attention if anyone ever wanted to look for it, it would be easy to find," commented Blair.
Alec glared over at her and looked as if he were about to snarl. "You seem to know a lot about the sword and Sebastian for a girl who was supposedly trapped in a dungeon," growled Alec.
"And you seem to know a diminutive amount about the sword and Sebastian for a shadowhunter on a mission to destroy the man then eradicate his followers." Blair didn't look angry in the slightest as she held her ground. She looked more frustrated at having to answer for herself when all she was doing was giving valuable advice.
Clary fought the urge to laugh; only Isabelle and Jace ever stood up to Alec and his angry outbursts. Jace sniggered next to her at the rage displayed on Alec's face and Isabelle's lips curved at the corners.
"I was just posing the question that we don't know if we can trust her," Alec made a dismissive gesture toward Blair.
"Well, right now we need all the advice and information that we can get so let her speak Alec, honestly… you and your temper," said Isabelle, glaring at her brother before smiling at Blair.
"My bet is that he would keep it with someone he trusts, probably one of the Endarkened, maybe one of his generals?" She finished, ignoring Alec's eyes on her.
"Yes but there's dozens of his followers, and we have no idea which one he would give it to, even if he did give it to one of them," Alec rubbed at his eyes in frustration.
"But that's the only plan we've got." Said Clary, filling the silence.
"Well there's nothing we can do from here, we need to keep walking until we come across something that can point us in the direction of where Sebastian is, or somewhere we can stay for the night as I don't like our chances out here in the open," replied Jace.
All in silent agreement, Jace and Clary turned and continued walking onward, the others in close pursuit. They continued travelling, murmuring to each other as they went walking for hours in the midday heat, until the sun started to go down, sinking toward the ground as if in slow motion; almost as a dramatic build up for when the moon would rise taking the place of the yellow orb, bringing with it the beauty of the stars, but also the dangers that accompanied night.