10. Information
Clary's head reeled, how could she have been so stupid? The Queen laughed heartily, clearly relishing the situation. Rubbing the pad of her wounded appendage absently Clary glanced at her companions, noting Jace's hate-filled and frustrated expression. Isabelle stood quietly, surveying the Queen as if she were sizing up prey, her dark eyes were narrowed and the even darker curtain of eyelashes made her look especially deadly.
Clary gulped.
"What might I do to appease you, that I may leave- your highness?" Clary asked quickly, unwilling to allow Isabelle to put herself in harm's way. Her voice shook as she spoke, her nerves betraying her.
"I do find you children and your endeavours quite interesting. I might be willing to spare you this time, providing you agree to play a little game with me." The Queen laughed again, eyeing Jace with a wicked look.
"I don't think this is a good idea.." The boy in question stated, shifting uncomfortably. His eyes met with Clary's and she could almost see the emotions warring in his mind.
"I agree." Clary said, catching the Queen's eyes and holding her stare. She pushed back the bad feeling that took residence in her stomach, the most important thing right now was leaving with the information they had gathered and finding Simon, that was what needed to take priority.
The Queen clapped, giggling gleefully as she did so. To Clary's horror, upon hearing the sound two guards entered the room and restrained both Isabelle and Jace with ease, holding long curved daggers to each of their throats.
"The game is simple, you must make a choice." The Queen grinned widely with a look of intentional malice and Clary briefly wondered how someone so beautiful could be so utterly twisted.
"If you're going to ask me to choose which of them to kill then I won't, you can kill me." Clary said defiantly, crossing her arms over her chest to emphasize her seriousness.
The Queen rolled her eyes, lazily waving a hand at Clary. "I wouldn't dare. As I said before I am finding you all quite interesting, really I just want to stir up some.. hmm emotions that are already there... I'm sure you will understand in time my dear, but for now, the game is this. You must kiss your soulmate. The daggers are just to.. Persuade you to be more cooperative." She crossed the room to sit on a large windowsill, the light that filtered through the window made her hard to see, and it became clear that she wanted now only to observe.
It sounded like she had been keeping a close eye on them, she had noted before that Clary and her brother where experiments eluding that she knew more about the circumstances surrounding their births than most others and she was now making it glaringly obvious that she knew about the situation with Jace.
Clary knew what decision she would make, she wouldn't lie to anyone there wasn't any point, but looking at the twisted expression Jace held as he tried to hold back his emotions surrounding the subject made Clary's heartbreak. She knew he still hoped, they both knew Valentine was a liar -he had brought it up multiple times before the two had actually come to an understanding. She had hoped that Alec coaching him and the new woman he had proclaimed to be seeing would help him move on, though seeing his reactions to her time with Isabelle had shown her that wasn't quite the case.
She stepped forward so that she was face to face with Isabelle and closed her eyes. They were barely a foot apart and she could already feel the temptation to reach out and hold the taller girl. Opening her eyes she glanced at Jace, his eyes were brimming with tears and he looked down in an attempt to hide them, his face displaying his shame.
Sighing, Clary turned to face Isabelle again and smiled gently at her. The dark haired girls' lips twitched and she smiled a little, though the underlying sadness still peaked through. She knew it couldn't be easy for the girl, Jace looked like his heart was breaking.
"Come on now, I don't want to be here all day I do have other matters to attend you know and I do tire of this." The Queen said impatiently, moving to stand close to them.
At the look the Queen was giving them Clary threw caution to the wind and embraced the girl in front of her, the dagger that had been pressed to her throat disappeared and she brought the taller girl close to her before kissing her fully. She felt sparks fly through her as she kissed Isabelle, she lost herself in the feeling completely. Shyly she flicked her tongue across Isabelle's bottom lip, silently begging for access. Isabelle surprised her momentarily by granting her access immediately, but Clary quickly regained herself and their tongues began to dance together. Isabelle tasted like foreign spices and exotic fruits, the taste intoxicated Clary drawing her in, and it was several moments before they parted both panting for breath.
"Are you fucking satisfied now? Can we go?" Jace asked angrily, thrusting the dagger away from his throat. His face displayed a myriad of emotions and each new one seemed more troublesome than the last. He had kept a lid on his feelings before but now they were flowing freely and he seemed to be struggling to keep control. His chest heaved as he waiting furiously, eyeing the Queen with a look that could kill.
"Yes, my knight will escort you." The Queen replied, smiling smugly at him. She waved her hand dismissively.
The same fey that had escorted them to the court appeared again and led them away from the Queen's chambers, moving a lot quicker than before. Jace was silent from the moment they left, he neglected to even comment on receiving their weapons again. By the time they made it back to Central Park, the silence grew desperately uncomfortable and Jace fell a few paces behind on the trek back to the institute.
"Maybe we should flag down a cab." Clary said, wrapping her arms around her torso in an effort to keep warm. Her teeth clattered together violently and her wet clothes chased away any potential warmth.
"Here." Isabelle said softly, taking Clary's arm. She produced her stele from what Clary presumed must be a hidden pocket and traced the outline of the warming rune on the exposed flesh.
Instantly Clary felt warmer and she smiled as thanks at the dark-eyed girl, blushing at the small display of affection.
"Anyway about that cab lets ask Jace." Isabelle said happily, whirling around to ask the blonde haired boy. After a moment of silence, Isabelle turned back frowning. "Wasn't he following us?"
"He was.." Clary trailed off, peering around Isabelle. The street was silent, only a few cars passed by now and then and not a soul appeared to be on either sidewalk that framed the road. The two shared a worried glance.
"He's gone.. This is what she wanted." Clary looked down, it was her fault for not talking to him more, and working through the situation with him.
"Don't blame yourself, Clary, Jace decided to leave he's probably clearing his head. Don't worry he'll be back." Isabelle placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, offering her some small reassurance. Clary was glad, Isabelle proved herself so capable of staying cool and collected and it made Clary ever more thankful to have her around.
"Thanks, Iz. I hope he's back before morning, he's still under surveillance." She couldn't keep the worry from her voice, the Inquisitor was still at the institute and it was likely she would use his absence against him if she found out.
"We can't worry about that right now Clary, we need to get back to the institute and meet up with the others." Isabelle took her hand and squeezed it firmly, and they continued toward the institute once more.
By the time they reached the sitting room Alec, Magnus and Luke were already seated having a drink.
Each of them perked up as the girls entered at sat on the only available couch, Magnus quickly fixing each of them their own drinks.
"Where is Jace?" Alec and Luke questioned, worried expressions plastered over each of their features.
Clary let Isabelle launch into a detailed explanation of the night, she filled them in on how they arrived in the Seelie realm, where escorted and the conversation with the Queen that ensued. She watched as their faces fell as Isabelle explained how Clary was tricked and the game they were forced to play. By the end both girls were looking down, fully feeling the gravity of the situation.
"The Queen said something about a Seelie being murdered... That pertains to one of the parameters surrounding the ritual of infernal conversion. The blood of a child of the moon, a child of the night, a child of Lilith, and a child of nature. In other words the blood of a werewolf, a vampire, a warlock and a fey. The blade must be repeatedly heated and then cooled in each of the blood types to perform the ritual. Which means we know Valentine has the blood of at least one of those creatures, I will be checking with my fellow Warlocks to make sure nothing untoward has happened to any of them, you should probably do the same Luke, I'll contact Raphael as well." Magnus paused to share a look with Luke. "So it seems we have garnered quite a bit of information, considering I can also track Camille."
"What really?" Isabelle asked, a huge smile making its way to her face.
"Magnus and Camille were lovers at one point." Alec said with a smile, he glanced at Magnus who gave him an adoring look and planted a kiss on his lips.
"Alec is just an amazing person, he hasn't held my past against me at all."
Clary smiled, it was nice to see the two so in love, they set a very high standard for what a good relationship could be and Clary hoped that she and Isabelle could have something similar in the future.
"Unfortunately Camille is the exact opposite, she's ruthless and cruel. I wouldn't put it past her to align herself with Valentine for the right price." He took a long drink and rolled his shoulders as if to stretch them out.
"Would she though? Also, I don't see why Valentine would waste his time torturing me, doesn't he have better stuff to be doing right now?" Clary questioned.
"You forget he already has the sword, he has those steroids as a nice cover to give himself some peace. All he's doing now is drawing it out for effect. He might have realised he can't have you, so he's playing with you instead." Magnus suggested, his face betraying how serious he was.
"So do you think that Camille was heading the distribution of the steroids then, and Valentine had her grab Simon to get at me at the same time?"
"Two birds, one stone. Val always did like to be efficient." Luke chipped in, seemingly agreeing with the new theory that had taken the floor.
"So, I need to stop by my apartment to get all the things I need to track her, once I have her pinpointed I'll come back and we can get ready to make our move, agreed?"
"Well, Jace ran off so it's not like we can track him, try and be quick though and safe." Alec said, smiling crookedly at his boyfriend.
"Oh, honey please, you know Warlock tracking is better anyway." Magnus said with a wink, before opening a portal with a neat flourish of the hands. "Back in a flash."
"I'm sorry about how Jace reacted." Alec said after a moment of Magnus' absence. "I tried to convince him to let go, I told him sometimes things aren't meant to be but he just wouldn't believe me. I guess Jace has always struggled to form an attachment with anyone but us and he's just taking it really hard just now. He really loves you he just needs time to learn how to love you as a sister."
"I know Alec, I'm sorry I've caused all these waves... I thought that after the conversation we had things were okay but I should have read into it more and talked to him about it. I hope that he gets past this and realises there are plenty of other people out there that will love him the way he wants." Clary and Alec exchanged a smile, she was glad that she hadn't unintentionally angered the boy by proxy but realised she needn't have worried to begin with. Out of all of them, Alec was the most mature and had a way of understanding that was enviable.
"You kids grow up so fast." Luke commented with a chuckle, completely unphased by Magnus appearing next to him with a bright flash.
"Told you I'd be back in a flash." Magnus grinned, holding up a piece of paper with scrawled writing on it. Clary squinted her eyes to faintly make out what looked like an address in the factory district.
"It's time to get ready ladies and gentlemen, I have acquired the target location."