"How long ago did they leave?" I asked Izzy as we climbed into the car. Apparently Jace didn't know how to drive so him and Alec had elected to walk there.

"Like thirty minutes ago!" She started up the engine and started driving away from the institute. "Alec and I were having breakfast in the kitchen when Jace came in saying he needed my brother for something. I tried looking for them when I was finished eating but I found my mom instead and she said they had already left."

"Why would they leave without us? It doesn't make sense," I wondered.

"Jace likes to take the lead on things," Izzy told me. "He probably just wants to find the note first to rub it in all of our faces."

"There might be an-" Sebastian started but I screamed at Izzy. She had just ran a red light.

I held onto the handle bar. "Izzy, getting us pulled over or killed isn't going to get us there any faster."

"Yeah, yeah," she said but I don't think she was really listening to me.

I held on for dear life until we reached the apartment complex that the address led us to.

And I climbed out of the car I noticed a familiar blond about to enter the building. "Jace!" I shouted.

He stopped and started making his way over to us. Alec followed.

"Why the hell would you leave without us?" I asked him. I wanted to hear what his explanation was.

Jace shrugged. "You guys were taking too long to get ready. I didn't want to wait."

"You know we all agreed to leave at 10 not 830 in the morning," I informed him.

"Yeah well, the early bird catches the worm, or in this case the note," he said.

"Come on guys," Alec intervened. "Let's go inside. Bickering out here isn't going to help anything."

Oh Alec, he was always the mediator between us. I'm sure if he wasn't here I probably would have killed Jace by now.

The five of us made our way into the building and up to the second floor where Javier's apartment was located.

I tried the knob on Javier's unit. It was locked, of course. Making sure there was no one else in the hall, I drew an opening rune in the door. The lock clicked open and the five of us quickly entered.

The apartment was pitch black. I found a light switch and turned it on. The windows had been blacked out, that's why we couldn't see. I realized that the apartment was also a mess. Clothes, empty blood bags, and trash littered the floor.

"How are we ever going to find anything in this mess?" Sebastian wondered. "The note could be anywhere."

"Then we search everywhere," I told them. "Izzy and I will take the bedroom." The two of us left the rest of the apartment up to the boys.

Ironically, the bedroom wasn't as messy. There were only some clothes on the grand and an unmade bed.

The two of us began to move through the room, opening drawers and looking inside the pockets of his jeans. I threw the already looked through clothes into a pile when I was done with them so we wouldn't get them mixed up.

Izzy and I had almost gone through the entire room and came up with nothing. From the sound of it, it didn't seem like the others were having much luck either.

Suddenly, I had an idea. I walked over to the bed and lifted up the mattress. "Izzy!" I called as I noticed a piece of paper hidden underneath it. She fetched the note and I let the mattress fall back onto the boxspring.

When I looked at my Parabatai I noticed her face had gone white. "Izzy? What is it?" Instead of speaking she handed me the note.

I nearly dropped it when I saw what was written:

The Morning Stars

Will go out...

One by one

There was no signature just the words and the same angelic rune from Miles' body drawn below.

Morning Star...that was what Morgenstern meant. And this cryptic note just after my father...it had to be connected.

"Clary-" Izzy started but I shook my head and walked out of the room. I found Sebastian going through the kitchen cabinets and handed him the note.

"No," he tried to laugh it off. "This is a joke, it has to be." His train of thought was the same as my own. "But Mom said Dad's death was an accident. A hunt gone wrong."

"Mom lied," I told him. "Our father was murdered. Murdered by the same person who's been killing these vampires."

"What are you guys talking about?" Jace asked. Sebastian reluctantly handed him the note. Alec leaned over his parabatai's shoulder to read it.

"I don't see how this has anything to do with you two and your father," Jace said.

"Jace, you may be my Parabatai but you're an idiot," Alec told him. "Morgenstern means Morning Star." He took the note out of the blond's grasp and handed it back to me.

"So this person, whoever they are, is gunning for you two?" Jace asked.

"Seems so," I said. I couldn't understand why. Our family didn't have enemies. We helped Ascended, we trained new shadowhunters. Who would want to stop that?

"It makes sense that they would hide the vampire fangs in Sebastian's room then," Alec put two and two together. "Trying to frame him."

"And killing Javier and trying to frame me," I said. It made sense now. The killer hadn't wanted to stop us from finding the note, he just wanted the vampires to turn against us. Maybe have them do the dirty work for him.

"But why, why frame us? Why target our family in the first place," Sebastian wondered.

"I don't know," I said, feeling the fire flame up inside me. "But what I do know is that Mom lied to us and I intend to find out why." I shoved the note in my pocket and made my way out the door.

I was halfway to the door leading stairwell when one of other apartment's door opened. Out stepped a blue eyed boy with brown hair. "What were you doing in Javier's apartment?" He said.

"We're his friends," I lied. "He asked us to pick something up for him."

"Javier doesn't have friends," the boy said. "And he never brings anyone home." This neighbor was getting annoying. I was beginning to regret that we hadn't glamoured ourselves. "Tell me who you are!" I realized he was holding a knife out at me.

"Who are you?" I retorted back. A concerned neighbor would not go to these lengths. The knife didn't scare me. I could disarm him before he moved a muscle.

"I don't think you're in the position to be asking these questions," he said referring to the knife. Was he really so dumb to realize there was five of us versus him?

I sighed and disarmed him of the knife hitting him in the nose with the hilt of it for good measure. "Let's go," I told the others.

"Clary!" Izzy exclaimed.

"What? He was annoying and I didn't have time for that."

"I'm calling the cops!" The boy shouted as we entered the stairway. Let him. The cops couldn't do anything to us.

"I'm so glad that you were there to disarm that situation Clarissa you sure handled it with poise and grace on a mundie," Jace snarked at me as we were leaving the building.

"Honestly you can go fuck a stick, Jonathon, and I recommend you go do that before I shove one up your ass for you," I retorted, I swear I was actually going to kill him someday.

"Well that's kinky," he threw a wink my way then did the smartest thing he has ever done and left as the rest of us got in the car claiming running would do him good and he couldn't afford to be lazy like the rest of us.

"Mom!" I shouted as soon as I entered the Institute. I began going from room to room, Sebastian following me. I had wanted Izzy to come with, she was my Parabatai after all, but she said this was a family matter. Something I needed to deal with alone.

I finally found her in the sitting room talking with Maryse. "Mom!" I shouted. Something in my eyes must have made the head of the Institute realize that we needed privacy because she quietly excused herself and left the room.

"Clary, we were talking ab-"

"Why did you lie to us? Why didn't you tell us that Dad was murdered?!" I was furious. I had the right to know.

"How did you find out? Jace told you didn't he?" She sighed. Jace knew? Why on earth did Jace know.

"What? Why would you tell Jace and not tell your own children that their father was murdered," I spat.

"Jace overheard Maryse and I talking about it," my mom admitted. "I asked him not to mention anything. If Jace didn't tell you how did you find out?"

"It doesn't matter how we found out!" Sebastian shouted. "What matters is that you lied to us. You made us believe that Dad was killed in the line of duty, a noble shadowhunter death, not murdered in cold blood."

My mom sighed and motioned for us to sit down. We didn't budge; I crossed my arms. "I was trying to protect you two," she told us. "I'm sure you remember that day."

I remembered that day perfectly. Izzy had came out the night before and the three of us work up early in the morning to spend the day in Alicante. We went shopping, met some friends, and had lunch and dinner out. We hadn't returned home until late. That was when Mom told us what had happened: Dad went out on a mission. It went wrong. He was killed. I had never gotten to say goodbye. He was still sleeping when we left that morning.

"I was gone most of the day, I was visiting the Penhallows," Mom said. "And when I came home I found your father. There was no trail, no clues to who had done it. I decided it was best to fabricate the truth to you two instead of have you wonder who killed him for the rest of your lives."

"You had no right!" I told her. "He's our father. We deserved to know the truth." Now that I knew he was killed inside the house, I knew it was definitely a shadowhunter who had done all this. Our house was completely warded. No downworlder or demon could enter.

"I'm sorry, Clary, Sebastian," she said. "I really am. You'll understand one day, when you're a parent you do what you think is the right thing for your children."

"Well it wasn't the right thing," I retorted before turning and walking out of the room. Sebastian was on my heels after me. I didn't care that she was leaving tomorrow anymore, I didn't care that she would leave with this sour mood between the three of us. It was her fault.

I threw the training room door open. I had heard Jace mention to Alec that they should do some training once they got back. Sure enough, they were practicing with seraph blades.

The two boys looked at us as we entered. Without warning I lashed out and kicked Jace square in the chest. He wasn't expecting it and fell to the ground where I pinned him. In my hand I was still clutching the knife from Javier's neighbor.

"Kinky," Jace had the nerve to say. Again. "I didn't think you were this type of girl Clarissa." I gripped the dagger and punched him in the face.

"Ow!" Jace yelled. "What was that for? You're going to ruin my face. Wait! Alec! Where are you going!" He struggled to get up but I held him down.

"I don't know what you did Jace, but you're on your own." Alec left the room. It was just the three of us now.

I gripped his shirt tighter. "You knew about our father being murdered. You knew and you didn't tell us."

"I was trying to protect you," Jace said. I stood up off of him, letting him get up.

"Why is everyone trying to protect us?" I was sick and tired of it. We were trained shadowhunters, we could protect ourselves.

"I think a crazy murderer trying to kill your family is reason enough," Jace figured.

"You found that out today and besides that would be even more reason to tell us," I pointed out. "Why have you been lying to us for days?"

Jace sighed. "I didn't want you two to experience what I had to." Was Jace Herondale actually showing compassion? Was I dreaming?

"Your parents died in a fire. They weren't exactly murdered." Everyone knew the story, the Herondale manor had gone up in flames. Jace was the only survivor.

"It was arson. Somebody deliberately set it on fire. That's what the public doesn't know," Jace said.

Three murders in Idris? Could this be a coincidence?

A/N: Here's a long chapter for you! Hope you enjoyed it! Lots of stuff happened didn't it? Who's gunning for the Morgensterns?