-Clary

I wake up, once again, in my room in the apartment. Everything has been stripped bare. The only thing in the room is the bed, sheets, a pillow, and a new door. I walk into the bathroom and see clothes that are laid out for me. I move back to the room and I can tell that I won't just be able to open this new door whenever I want. Everything that happened came back to me then in a flood. Jonathan waiting for me in the kitchen. Jonathan hitting Max. Max slumping onto the ground in complete stillness. My heart drops to my stomach at the memory and I double over, clutching at my stomach. Then I remember seeing Jace's face when he saw his little brother lying still on the kitchen floor. It looked like he had been shattered at the site of Max. "Please let him be alright, please let him be alright." I chant lowly trying to convince myself. But when I think about how hard his little body slammed up against the cabinet and the way he went utterly still, I think I know deep down that he will not be alright. "Please be alright, Max."

I gather myself knowing that sitting here thinking about all of the bad things that have happened won't stop Valentine and my brother. I am the only one who can because I am on the 'inside' with them now. I get to my feet and walk to the door. The moment I touch it, it sends an electrical shock racing through my arm and into my chest. I jerk my hand back and yelp in pain. I definitely won't be opening this door or eavesdropping through it. I step back away from the door and move to sit on the bed. I guess now it is just a waiting game. I decide then to at least try to make the wait as unpleasant as possible for them. "Jonathan!" I yell at the top of my lungs. I know I don't have the slightest chance at Valentine coming when I call, but I know Jonathan will. He is my best chance to getting out of here; but also my worst chance at staying here. But I have to try. I can't just sit here and wait. "Jonathan!" I yell louder this time. "Jonathan!" I don't even know if someone is here. "JONATHAN!"

"I hear that you are awake, little sister." I can hear Jonathan on the other side of the door. "I enjoyed watching you sleep for a while. Did you know you mumble when you dream?"

I shiver runs down my spine. He was watching me. Does that mean he was touching me or did he use the Spy rune? "You were in here?" I ask him.

"For a little while." he says, his voice muffled through the door. "But I wasn't talking about just now. I was talking about when we were in the Penhallow's together. Did you happen to notice that our rooms were right next to each other?"

I an overwhelming sense of dread and disgust overwhelm me while I realize what he was implying. "You have such virginal skin, unmarked by runes all over your body. I hate when women scar up their bodies. It's better when you put the runes on your arms and legs, don't you think?"

It was worse than I thought. He saw me...naked. This morning after Jace and I... How long was he watching? I subconsciously move my arms to cover myself up. I feel so unbelievably violated; and by my own brother. I hear him laugh then, "There is no need to be ashamed or cover up. I have already seen you, more than once, and you are beautiful. You are perfect for me."

I realize with despair that he is using the Spy rune to watch me and there is nothing I can do about it. I can also hear him talking, but I can't seem to process what he is saying. "You have seen me more than once?" I say mostly to myself, but of course Jonathan could hear me. "Yes. So, like I said, there is no need to be so shy. Although," I can hear his voice grow sinister when he says this, "your body was tainted by having his hands all over you. Too bad he won't have those hands for long. Nobody gets away with touching what is mine."

My stomach clenches as what I have tried so hard to suppress comes bubbling to the surface. I try to force it back down, but it is too late. Jonathan doesn't just want to be my brother, he wants to be my lover. He wants to have me like Jace had me.

I jump up off of the bed and run to the bathroom where I try to vomit into the toilet. My body rocks with convulsions as it tries to find anything in my stomach to force out, but it has been a long time since I have eaten anything. I hear my bedroom door open and I panic. I reach out to the bathroom door and slam it shut locking it just in time to hear Jonathan try and turn the door knob.

"Clary?" I can hear him on the other side of the door. "Why are you sick? Let me in to help you." His voice is soft and pleading. I have heard this tone before and I will not fall for it again.

"Leave me alone!" I shout back at the door.

"Oh come on, Clary. Don't be like that. I don't want to restart things between us on a bad note."

"There is nothing between us!" My voice is strong and commanding even though my stomach is not.

When he speaks again, I can hear the vehemence and conviction in his voice. "But there is. You said so yourself. We are a team, you and I. We were made for each other. One light and one dark. We are the perfect balance."

Oh God. I think I am going to be sick again. Hearing him talk about me, about us, like that is disturbing me down to my core. Just as I am about to try to vomit again, I hear another voice coming from the other side of the door where Jonathan is. And this voice is angry.

"Jonathan! What are you doing in here?!" It's Valentine. I never thought I would be glad to hear his voice, but right now, I am.

"Please make him go away!" I shout to Valentine.

Jonathan speaks up then. "She is sick. She needs my help."

"No, I don't. Go AWAY!" I shout with as much venom as I can muster.

I can hear Valentine's voice is stern and commanding when he says, "I don't think she wants your help, Jonathan. You are not even supposed to be in here in the first place."

"But father." Jonathan's tone is pleading.

"Go now, Jonanthan." is Valentine's only reply.

I realize then that, once again, I had been wrong about Jonathan. He was the one who would never let me go. If I was going to garner any help, one way or another, it was going to be through my father. Jace had always talked about him with affection and said that although he was a harsh and strict man, he did show him love. Luke also said that he wasn't always this hard and unfeeling man that I see, today. I need to find a way to get him to feel affection towards me. I can hear two sets of footstep retreating away from my bathroom door.

"Valentine, wait!" I hear one set stop while the other keeps moving further away. "Please. I want to speak with you." I hear nothing and the silence drags on. I count to 22 before I hear the footsteps come back towards me.

"I am not sure I can trust you, Clarissa, to speak face to face with me." Valentine's voice is hard and skeptical.

"What am I going to do?" I ask him. "I have no weapons and barely have any training. What harm could I possibly do?"

I can hear him give a small laugh with no humor behind it. "You managed to escape from this house once with just a stele and slip out of the hands of the best shadowhunter there has ever been. I will not underestimate you again."

"Yes, but" I was drawing a blank. What could I say to convince him to speak with me? "You're right. I did do those things. Because of what you did to me before I was even born. I know about Ithuriel. I was there. I saw him and set him free."

Even though there is a door between us, I feel the shock radiating from him.

"Just have one conversation with me. Answer some of my questions. I think I deserve to know where I came from since my mother wasn't exactly forthcoming."

I have gambled with honesty instead of trying to play the innocent victim. I hope it works because I don't think that I will have another chance at getting him to talk to me like this again.

"Fine. Wash your face off and come out of the bathroom." he says resigned.

I do a small happy dance inside of my head, aware that he or Jonathan could be watching me at any given moment, and keep my face set into an unmoving mask. I quickly splash water on my face and rinse my mouth out. I grab the handle of the door and slowly open it. I see Valentine standing by my closed door with his hands grasped together behind his back. He reminds me of those movies set in the Victorian era where all of the men would walk around with their backs straight as an arrow with the their hands behind them. I look sheepishly at him hoping to portray that I am afraid of him; that I am not a threat. He looks at me and then gestures for me to sit on the bed. I have a feeling that he always likes to be the one standing and looking down at whomever he is talking to.

"Now Clarissa, what is it that you so desperately need to know. You already seem to know quite a bit."

"That is because I am not stupid. I assume that is what you thought of me before?"

Valentine's mouth quirks up at the side ever so slightly before he says, "I did. Your mother decided, before I even knew of your existence, that I didn't deserve the chance to get to know you. She raised you a mundane and mundanes tend to be completely oblivious and stupid. I should have known that with my blood running through your veins you wouldn't have been so ignorant and naive as I expected you to be."

"And the angel blood. That also runs through my veins?"

He takes a deep breath and lets it out. "Yes. That too."

"What about Jace?" I ask him. "What did you do to him? The Seelie Queen said that he was your experiment too." Valentine looks irritated when I say this.

"I only did the same thing I unknowingly did to you. That the Seelie Queen knows about that makes me quite angry."

"So Jace and I are the same? We both have extra angel blood coursing through our veins?" I ask him impatiently.

"Yes. You are correct." he answers me. So that explains it. Under all of that false bravado and all of his snarky remarks, he has the heart and blood of an angel. Not demon blood.

"But, what about the blood you collected from the demon? The lady demon. What did you..." Understanding, harsh and strong, hits me like a train. "Jonathan." I whisper mostly to myself. "That's why he says the things he says to me. Does the things he does to me. Why he wants what he wants from me." I am talking to myself but I can see Valentine shift his weight in the corner of my eye as he is listening to me.

Valentine's voice is stern and urgent when he speaks to me. "What are you talking about, Clarissa? What does Jonathan say and do?" I look back up at him with pleading in my eyes.

"Please don't leave me alone with him. Please don't." I am practically begging him at this point.

"Tell me what he says, Clarissa." The tone in his voice lets me know he expects and answer this time.

I lick my dry lips and find my voice behind the lump in my throat and drop my head to look at my feet. I can't look him in the eyes while I say this. "He says that we belong together. That we are one. That I belong to him." I am wringing my hands together in my lap. "He said that he watched me...while I was...I was...naked. He told me I was beautiful." My voice is trembling by the time I can get the last few words out. When I hear no response, I chance a look up at his face. It is the first time I have seen him show me anything other than indifference and anger. There is anger in his face but it is also accompanied by disgust, worry, and understanding. He realizes I am looking at him and I watch as the mask of indifference comes back down over his face. I am suddenly hit with the image of Jace. How he wears a mask of indifference and sarcasm to keep everyone away. To keep from getting hurt. Maybe Valentine is the same way.

"Do not worry, Clarissa. You will not deal directly with him anymore." He shifts like he is going to leave but then stops. "I thought keeping my distance from you was what was best. I am sure you have heard nothing but horrible things about me and I was sure you didn't want me near you. I was just trying to make you comfortable. But I had no idea..." He sincerely looks troubled. He has put one hand up to rub his brow and the other is clenched at his side.

I start to reach my hand out to him, but immediately pull it back. I don't think he would want me to touch him. He sees this and huffs out a breath. "You are also very much like your mother." and he leaves the room by waving his hand across the door.

-Jace

I glance behind me to make sure Alec and Izzy are still there. I can see Alec quickly dispatch a Iblis demon and notch his bow with another arrow. So far Alec and I have been able to take care of all of the demons while Izzy carries Max through the chaos. She hasn't said a word this whole time. We are half way to the Accords hall and we haven't seen many children who are still alive. With all of the adults at the Council meeting, there is no one to protect the children that are left behind. I don't know if Valentine planned it this way or not, but I will not let him go unpunished for this.

Izzy breaks her silence and yells for me to watch my side. I look just in time to see the Dahak demon coming for me. I step to the side and spin so I will be facing the demon with it's back turned to me. I bring the two seraph blades in either of my hands in a scissoring motion and cut off his head before he even knows what has happened.

We turn a corner and run into about 20 Vetis demons. We freeze in our tracks as they see us. There are too many of them for just me and Alec to take them on. We start to slowly back away when I hear something hit the ground behind Alec. A Vetis demon has jumped down from the top of a building and has us blocked in. A string of curses come from my mouth as I ready myself in my fighting stance.

Just as the first demon lunges forward, three werewolves come flying around the corner snarling and with their teeth bared. I freeze in confusion as I don't know if they mean to help us or attack us. The wolves seem to see my confusion and then one of them jumps at the nearest demon, sinking it's teeth into the Vetis' neck. Chaos breaks out. I successfully manage to dispatch two demons when a third takes advantage of my distraction and jumps on my back. I reach back to grab it and throw it off, but suddenly it's weight is pulled off of me. I look back to see that Izzy has laid Max at her feet and sliced the demon in half with her whip. I give her a quick nod of appreciation and continue the fight. Soon enough, we have killed all but two of them, who turned and ran away, and I turn to see that the wolves are still there with black ichor covering their muzzles.

I take a cautious step toward the one that seems to be in charge, as the other two are flanking it, and hold my hands up to show them I mean no harm. The leader starts to shudder and transforms back into their human form. I stare in shock when I realize that it is Maia who is standing in front of me. "You mean you couldn't recognize me?" Maia asks.

"Maia?" Alec asks in disbelief. "How did you get here?"

"Luke sent word out that Valentine was probably planning an attack against Allicante and got a warlock to portal the pack here." Maia answers. "And then when we got here, he had organized most of the wolf packs here in Idris and got them to agree on helping out you arrogant shadowhunters. Said that whether we hated you or not, you kept this world from being overrun with demons. Kept this place safe for us to live ..." She stops mid-sentence when she looks at Izzy. Izzy is picking Max's body back up from the ground and Maia pales about three shades.

"Is that...is that your little brother?" Maia asks Izzy with her voice soft and low.

The only thing she can manage to do is shake her head yes in response. Maia turns her head back up and looks to me and Alec. "I am so sorry, guys. I really am."

I nod and look to Alec and Izzy. They return my gaze with the same sadness I feel in my heart. "We need to keep moving." I say sternly. "We need to get to Accords hall. That is where everyone will be gathering." Maia nods and tells me to lead the way and says that her and her wolves will help us get there. I give her my thanks and start to move forward again.

We only encounter a handful or demons before we reach the steps to the Accords hall and our assumption was right. I can see the Guard burning in the distance and the hall is overflowing with people trying to find their loved ones. My heart sinks when I think about finding Maryse and Robert.

As I am looking around, I see Inquisitor Aldertree across the room and am instantly reminded of Simon. 'Oh no' I think to myself. The Guard is burning and that is where Simon is. I look back to see that Alec and Izzy have found Robert and Maryse and the look on their faces...I turn away. I reach the Inquisitor and roughly grab his shoulder and spin him in my direction. He looks stunned and very annoyed when he sees who I am. "Excuse you, young man, but who do you think you are?" Aldertree says in a condescending voice.

"The prisoners from the Guard; where are they?" I ask him.

The Inquisitor quickly breaks eye contact with me and says, "I am sure I don't know. The protocol is for the guards to take the prisoners and evacuate them hear, in a secure room. Why do you care, Jace Morgenstern?"

"That is not my name!" I snap at him. "Now where are they?"

Aldertree scoffs at my demand. "I do not have to answer to children nor do I have the time or patience to be berated by Valentine Morgenstern's son."

"That man is not my father!" I yell through gritted teeth. Seeing that he is going to offer no help, I turn away and start marching to the exit. He has probably left the prisoners to burn to get rid of them. Him holding Simon isn't exactly in compliance with the Accords and probably figured that his problem would solve itself with the fire. I am all the way outside when I feel a hard hand on my shoulder. I turn to see that it is Alec looking sick.

"Jace, where are you going? Mom and Dad are asking for you." Alec's voice is low and his expression is confused.

"I am going to go get Simon." I tell him. "I think the Inquisitor left him in the Guard cells to burn. To get rid of him." Alec purses his lips and looks back to the doors to the hall and says, "Alright. I will come with you."