Jonathan was holding the key Lilith gave him. Once in a while he would glance behind him to make sure Clary was following him. They were climbing a steep mountain path, full of scratching rocks. Clary took a deep breath, carefully avoiding the slippery moss growing between the rocks. She knew she had a sure-footedness rune, but she kept thinking what might happen to her if she lost her balance. She tried not to glance down, instead she focused on Jonathan's back, who was barely visible up ahead.
When he announced, this morning, that they were off to another of his questionable destinations, Clary couldn't imagine that she will be climbing mountains all day. Especially in a cold day in December. Up and up they would go, the strong cold winds slowly fading and a thick fog surrounding them. Clary paused for a second. She could not see Jonathan any longer. She tried to shout at him, but heard her voice coming out weak, barely a whisper. She started to climb faster now, a growing feeling of unease ordering her to move.
The fog around her felt too thick to be a normal fog, cutting off the oxygen from her lungs. Clary started to sweat, her hands slipping on the rocks as she hastily climbed. There were dreamy voices around her now, calling her name in an ancient language she never heard, but could easily understand. The fog was changing shapes, forming faces with large eyes, pointy ears and teeth.
There are fairies in this fog, she thought panicking. She was sure those fairies were too ancient and otherwordly to hesitate and attack a Shadowhunter. She wanted to grab her seraph blade, but she needed both her hands to hold onto the rocks.
Then she felt cold large hands gripping at her elbows and pushing her over the rocks and onto a smooth large balcony in the rocks. Clary tried to escape their grip until she heard Jonathan say "It's only me".
She was breathing heavily, trying to calm herself.
"I told you not to stray behind", he said while he lead her towards a gaping dark cave in the mountains.
"They always try to lure beings into their demise. They would feed on your flesh and trap your soul in the fog".
"Maybe you should have warned me", Clary finally found her voice.
"But I did warn you to stay close to me, not my fault if you never listen to me. Maybe this will teach you a lesson", he said, and Clary angrily noticed his voice was amused. "Very funny", she muttered.
As they entered into the large cave, Clary lifted her witchlight. The walls and floor were smooth polished stone, too smooth to be a natural formation.
"So why are those fairies so..bloodthirsty? Does the Clave knows?", she asked Jonathan.
"There is much that the Clave doesn't know. They are too consumed in their pride to acknowledge that not all beings are under their rule. There are more ancient forces than Shadowhunters in this world.", he replied, his own witchlight casting a pool of light around him.
"And you happen to know about these "forces"?", Clary retorted.
"You will find that out eventually.", he simply said.
Isabelle watched as Jace was forcefully going through the pages of books, riping some in his haste. Ever since the Clave informed Isabelle's parents of the loss of the Mortal Cup, they all doubled up their research.
"This is a waste of time. What we need is surely not here", he said, dropping the book to the pile, and picking another one.
Isabelle hastily snatched it out of his hands before he destroys this book too.
"We are doing our best Jace. We don't have any other resources about Lilith".
"The Silent Brothers' archives is our only chance. We have to find a way to access them".
"If we are caught..", Alec begun.
"We have no other choice!", Jace immediately regret his outburst, when he saw Isabelle flinch.
"We will find them, Jace. You aren't the only one who wants to stop Sebastian. He killed our brother. Magnus said that he is going to find something. We should wait", Alec continued.
Jace could feel Alec's reassurance through their parabatai bond. But still he felt like they were running out of time.