"Alec? Alec?"

His parabatai was unresponsive. Something roiled inside him, something hot and angry and ugly, something that made him want to throw his head back and howl. No no no no NO. This couldn't be happening. Not now. Not when the elusive finish line had been close enough to touch.

Jace sat up, blinking away the tears that had formed. He didn't give a shit anymore. He was going to cry and nobody was going to stop him. As his vision cleared, he saw Alec's broken body lying as it had been when Jace had landed on top of him. His leg was bent unnaturally, and Jace could just make out a sticky red pool underneath it. Cursing violently under his breath, he checked the wound and found that despite the gathering blood it wasn't too deep. Trying to stay his rising fear, he recalled how passing out in pain isn't uncommon, particularly when there's a sudden loss of blood. Best case scenario, Alec was just in a lot of pain. Worst case scenario… Jace gulped. His stomach lurched when he saw the dots of blood forming where he had hit his head.

Staggering to his feet, he surveyed his surroundings, using his training to override the instincts that made him want to kill something. They had fallen from a small cliff that was about ten metres high and made from solid rock. The ground under their feet was hard rock too - no wonder Alec looked so mangled.

Alec, he thought, and the tears returned to his eyes. This wasn't fair. This wasn't fucking fair. He looked away from his parabatai, redirecting his attention before he exploded. Using all the strength he could muster, he staggered to the solid stone wall and examined it for hand- and footholds. There were enough for one person to climb out, but they were too shallow for a weighed-down person to get a good enough grip.

"Fuck it all," Jace muttered, and punched the wall. Pain raced through his knuckles, droplets of blood slowly forming from where his skin had been grated, but he didn't care. He wanted the pain. He wanted to feel it because goddamnit he wanted to feel something other than the staticky numbness that he felt in his chest. He punched the wall again and again and again until his fists were singing with pain and his blood stained the rock. It was only when breathing steadily became too difficult that he stopped.

Jace leant his head against the rock, against the inexorable stone, and he let a sob shudder through his body. His skin felt hot as he slid down to a kneeling position, letting his forehead scrape down the wall. Alec wouldn't want this, a small voice said. Don't hurt yourself. But that only made him hurt more, because Alec was fucking broken and it was his fault for being too petty to look up.

He lifted his head to the sky, pale sunlight flooding his vision, and he whispered, "Alec."

But that wasn't enough. The roaring beast inside was still thundering through his veins. And so he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and howled with all that was left of him, "ALEC!"

Magnus heard him before he saw them. In a way, hearing a voice should have been a comfort - it meant that Jace was okay. But when you're worried for your boyfriend's life and you hear someone scream his name in agony, all thoughts of comfort dissipate. When he reached the ledge the other two had fallen off, Magnus barely had the sense to stop. In fact, if Isabelle hadn't grabbed his hand, he quite possibly would have careened off the edge too.

Regardless of how solid the ground was underfoot, Magnus felt like the world had been swept away beneath him. Alec was lying there, his leg crooked, blood pooling, and Jace was standing at the foot of the drop covered in scratches. Some awfully bitter part of Magnus hated that Jace was standing and Alec was not. He hated that he thought that, but that didn't change the fact that he did. In the time that Magnus had been staring at the two of them down there, it seemed he had found his way to a sitting position. Or perhaps Isabelle had helped him there. He didn't know and didn't care. But when Clary and Simon burst onto the scene, both him and Izzy were sitting down, subconsciously lessening themselves to become as helpless as they felt.

When Clary and Simon saw Jace and Alec, they both blanched. When Jace looked up and saw Clary, he paled too. He didn't want her here - he didn't want her seeing him like this, bloodied and battered and half-gone. But she did see him, and an odd part of him found peace in that.

"Is Alec - "

"No," Jace answered. He didn't care what she was saying. Is he okay? No. Is he dead? No.

"We… Magnus," Simon muttered, whirling to face the warlock. "Your magic. You have to be able to do something."

"I… I… I don't feel good," he said, and vomited into the bushes. Clary looked on with pity.

"Magnus… do you feel capable of getting them up here?" The question sounded timid, but everyone could hear the intensity behind Izzy's words.

He nodded slowly, but then added hastily, "If I use what I have to get them up here… I'm so sorry, Iz. I can feel the magic leaving me now. I won't be up to getting us out of here."

She gulped. "But… but there's no way out…"

"Hey," Simon said calmly, kneeling down next to her. "Hey. Look at me. We'll turn on the GPS. We'll find a way out."

"But if we don't? Magnus can't get us out," she whispered.

"Then we wait for the police to show up and save us. It's their job."

"But… what if…" Her voice cracked a little. "What if no one's looking for us?"

Simon leant backwards, as if putting space between them would allow him to register what she'd said better. What if no one was looking for them? He hadn't even considered that an option. Jocelyn would set the police on their trail - he was almost sure of it. And that person he'd overheard… surely, there couldn't be too many lost people between here and New York?

But the more he thought about it, the more uncertain he seemed. What if, what if, what if?

"Iz?" Clary walked over to her, eyes glittering with tears. "We'll make it. Whatever comes our way, we'll make it. We saved the world, remember? It's going to take more than the wild to keep us down." With a faint glimmer of a smile on her lips, she took Izzy's hand. "We need to get Jace and Alec up here, to make sure they're safe. We'll cross the other bridges when we get to them."

Nodding slowly, Izzy turned to Magnus. "I hate to ask too much of you, Magnus, but - "

"Of course. Of course," he said to himself, as if the words were enough to fortify his strength. Izzy looked to Clary once more.

"I trust you," she whispered, and that was enough to make Clary's brimming eyes overflow.

Magnus' familiar blue sparks echoed around his fingers, though without the strength of before. Slowly, both Jace and Alec began to hover off the ground, Jace using his arms for balance, Alec drooping limply. Magnus frowned, his fingers becoming more rigid, but the parabatai dropped a few centimetres before falling back to the ground. It wasn't a big enough fall to cause feasible damage, but Magnus looked as pained as though he had pushed them off the cliff himself.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled, "I'm so sorry - I can't. I'm not strong enough."

"Could you… could you lift one of them?"

All eyes went to Clary. Magnus' brow furrowed as he concentrated. "I guess…"

"Izzy - give me your stele." She didn't hesitate before handing it over. Without so much as a second thought, Clary gave herself the surefooted rune and leapt over the ledge, ignoring Simon's bleat of panic. She landed safely, right next to Alec, and assessed the damage. "He's… he's okay. I think. Magnus, you need to lift Alec out of here."

"What about Jace?" It was Simon who asked it, and even though nobody reacted, Jace would never forget it.

"Jace," Clary explained, "will climb back up. With me."

He held up his bloodied knuckles in protest. "I can't - "

"I'll give you an iratze. It'll be okay," she said softly, her steady green eyes calming him. She reached out to him, stele held delicately in her fingers, and Jace swallowed his pride and surrendered his arms to her. Trying to hide her smile of appreciation, she got to work, and Jace could feel the pain ebb away as his skin knitted itself back together. He thanked her for healing his hands, but she wasn't finished. She tended to the lesions on his arms, and insisted on checking his legs for breaks or sprains. When she was satisfied that he was okay to climb the wall, she straightened up and looked him in the eye.

"Wait - your forehead is bleeding. Let me - "

"It's okay," Jace snapped, trying to push her attention away. "Let's just make sure Alec's okay, and then we'll try and climb that thing."

"It's not okay, Jace, you're hurt. I can just do an iratze - it won't take long."

"I said I'm fine."

"Jace, let me - "

"I'm fine!" He hadn't meant to bark it so loudly, and for a split second, he thought he had scared Clary. But there was no fear in her expression - instead, there was a steely determination that almost made him afraid.

"I know you're mad at me, Jace. I know you're worried about Alec. I know you don't want to let me help you. But there's a difference between being noble and stupid, and to let yourself hurt for the sake of being the bigger person is stupid. I don't care if you want to scream at me, slap me, beat me into a pulp. You can do it. But not before we've made it our of here alive, okay?"

He was so taken aback by her outburst that he didn't object when she gently cupped his face in her hands and applied an iratze to his brow. By the Angel, he had missed her touch. Part of him wanted to bat her hands away, but the other part of him wanted to melt into her right then and there.

She withdrew her hands, the iratze done and the wound already healing, but neither of them broke the other's gaze. There was something unsaid between them, something that both wanted to scream into the other's face but couldn't find the words for, something that tore them apart and stitched them together all at once.

"Okay - I'm going to lift Alec now," Magnus mumbled, and out of the corner of his eye, Jace could see the blue sparks coming to life. Clary broke eye contact by spinning around to watch what was happening, and a selfish part of Jace wanted to whirl her right back around so he could keep looking at her. Keep trying to say what he felt without words.

Slowly, Alec started to levitate off the ground. Nobody dared say a thing as he rose higher and higher, Magnus concentrating so hard he wasn't breathing. It was clear lifting one person was easier than two - instead of the fumbling ascent that Jace and Alec had begun, Alec was steadily rising. By now, Magnus had almost turned blue in the face from the effort, but nobody was watching him - all eyes were on Alec. He was almost at the ledge where Simon, Izzy and Magnus waited - if he were to drop from here he'd suffer more damage.

Ever so slowly, Izzy reached out for her brother, her skin paler than usual, and secured a hand around his leg. With Simon's steadying hand on her shoulder, she pulled her brother over to solid ground and cradled his head gently. Only then did Magnus release him.

Simon leant over the edge of the drop with a hand outstretched. "Clary - the stele."

She threw it up to him and despite all his un-athletic tendencies, he caught it on the first try. Izzy then set to work runing Alec with iratzes, mumbling what may have been a prayer over and over. When Simon leant in, however, he discovered the litany was not religious at all, but rather a stream of violent threats promising all of her wrath on Alec if he didn't wake up.

Clary turned back to Jace. "Are you ready to climb?"

He looked at the wall, then back at her. "Are you… are you sure about this?"

"What other choice do we have?" She asked, with mild irritation. "We scale it now or later - whenever you feel up to it."

There was something he wanted to say, something so undeniably true that it almost seemed obvious, but he couldn't put a finger on it. He scanned her face for anything that would give away her knowing what it was, but she didn't appear to. She just watched him carefully for any sign of pain.

At last, he took a deep breath, and whispered, "Why are you doing this?"

"Doing what?"

"I could have done the iratzes myself. You didn't need to put yourself at risk for me."

"Jace… firstly, I know you wouldn't have done the iratzes you needed. You would have healed your knuckles, maybe one of your arms, enough to feel better but not enough to stop the pain. You would have felt guilty about not hurting when your parabatai so clearly is, and you would have risked your own safety by climbing that wall with injuries. I couldn't let you do that." She stepped in closer to him so that the next words were spoken directly into his throat. "And secondly - you know me. My fatal flaw - I'm a risk taker."

And perhaps it was the way she said it, the mischievous glint in her eyes. Perhaps it was because she was so close that she was all he could think about. Or maybe, just maybe, he had wanted to do it for a very long time. Whatever reason, Jace leant down and kissed her.

Part of Clary hadn't expected the kiss. Part of her had. But all of her knew that if Jace hadn't kissed her first, she would have kissed him. Was this forgiveness for her secrecy? Not at all. But it was something else, something so important it felt like it was tearing her limb from limb. Something inexpressible by words, something physical, something electric, something all-consuming. This wasn't an idle expression of affection - this was a battle cry that echoed through her bones.

Jace knew that, too. He knew that the indescribable feeling he had felt could only be expressed in this way. He cared for her so much, too much, and she was here, she was here, she was here.

They were here.

He finally pulled away, breathing heavily, as if kissing her had taken a toll on him. But she understood now - he could tell. She understood how complex this all was, how much he wanted her, how much he felt. So without a further word, he walked over to the rock wall and began his climb.

She was beside him in an instant, and her lighter weight and smaller fingers made it easier for her to use the tiny handholds available. Even though a sadistic part of him missed the pain shooting through him, it was a relief not to find his limbs shuddering with each movement.

Clary was ahead of him, scaling the wall with comparative ease. There was no way she could help him - she was flattened against the rock, and to pull away and reach for him would cause her to fall off. All she could do for him was reach the top and guarantee her own safety.

Isabelle was still muttering hurriedly under her breath as she drew whatever runes she could think of that would bring her brother back. Simon didn't know whether or not it was possible to overdose on runes, but if it was, Isabelle was pushing the limits. Magnus looked on forlornly, as if he wanted to help but couldn't. Simon didn't doubt this was the case - he'd spent so much magic bringing Alec up here that he appeared to have crumpled. It was unfair on Magnus, Simon decided, for his magic to be so intrinsically linked to his emotions. Perhaps it wasn't - perhaps it was just Alec - but seeing his boyfriend so broken had knocked him off his feet. Magnus noticed Simon staring, and offered him a weak smile.

The tenderness of the moment vanished when Isabelle gasped loudly. Simon looked to her first, to her disbelieving joy, and then to Alec - to see his eyelids fluttering. To see his head moving in discomfort.

Jace was struggling to get higher than a few metres, his grip weak and the increasing sweatiness of his hands not helping. Clary had almost made it, and he was so far behind. Why couldn't he do this? He reached for another small dent in the rock, securing his hand on it, but his arm felt hollow when he tried to haul himself up.

But then -

But then -

Something sputtered to life inside him. Something small and weak and fragile but there nonetheless. And he found a whole new cavern of strength inside him, a well of power infinitely deeper than he'd thought.

It was almost as if Alec was in his mind, whispering to him: get your sorry ass up here.

And so with his renewed strength, he did.

Clary made it to the ledge and used the uneven ground to haul herself up. Seeing Alec conscious made the pain ringing in her fingers dull.

"He's okay?"

"He's not responding to what I'm saying, but that could be out of stubbornness," Izzy reported. She had adopted the matter-of-fact tone that she often used to hide how emotional she felt.

"But he's okay," Simon concluded, saying what Isabelle knew she couldn't. Not without breaking down. Simon frowned. "Where's Jace?"

"Coming," she said, but she wasn't certain. She made to go check on him, but Simon beat her to it.

"Sit down, Clary. Rest."

So she did.

Jace's seemingly infinite strength was a lot more limited than he'd realised. He was so close, so tantalisingly close to reaching the top, but his arms felt like they were about to give way. Less than a metre left, he reassured himself, but that offered little consolation. Come on, Jace, come on.

And then, he felt a hand on his, someone reaching down to help haul him up. He couldn't look up to see who it was, but he could have sighed aloud at the relief of having help. The hand gripped his wrist and pulled him upwards, allowing him to find surer footing and clamber up to the ledge. When he was finally safe, he was able to see who'd helped him.

Huh. Simon Lewis was watching him with concern, his hand still close to Jace's wrist.

"Did you… did you pull me up?"

"Of course," he said, as if it were no big deal. Jace frowned, still processing it. He had thought the person hauling him up was relatively strong… much stronger than Simon, who could only manage eleven chin-ups.

"You're… you're stronger than I thought you were," Jace mumbled. Simon looked touched.

"That just might be the nicest thing you've ever - "

"It's not saying much, considering I didn't think you were strong at all, but you know."

"Oh…" Simon's smile faltered. Jace winked.

"Just kidding. I'm impressed, Lewis."

Simon, who still looked uncertain of whether or not to trust Jace, gave him an awkward thumbs-up. "Thanks for that… and uh… good job getting that far up the wall. It was pretty impressive."

"As much as your awkward compliments are… fascinating, I have a feeling this'll be more of interest to you," Clary said, gesturing at Alec.

Jace crawled over to his parabatai, whose eyes were now open. It looked like he was struggling to say something but couldn't.

"Hey… Alec… um… sorry about the whole… thing. I should have listened to you."

Alec shook his head slightly, but Jace paid no heed.

"And I just… yeah. I'm so sorry this happened to you, Alec. God."

Alec shook his head again. If he wanted to say something, he couldn't. And then, although he'd only been conscious for a minute or two, his eyes fluttered close once more. Jace winced, as if seeing his parabatai like this was painful. Simon couldn't help but feel bad for him - he knew if it were Clary fading in and out of consciousness, he'd be in as much agony.

Magnus, who had been watching carefully, shuffled himself closer to Alec. Even though it clearly pained Jace to be apart from Alec, he respectfully edged aside to let Magnus in. The two of them, both hurting for Alec, shared a nod - quick, decisive, and bottomless in meaning. Perhaps this was what Alec had been talking about that morning, Magnus pondered - perhaps this was the primal bond that circumstance had forged. Perhaps it could only have been found at the end of this violent path.

"I'm sorry," Jace whispered for Magnus alone.

"For what?"

"For this. For not listening to Alec. It was my fault that he wound up like… like this. I'm so sorry."

Magnus considered this carefully Did he have any right to accept Jace's apology? After all, it was Alec he was apologising to. Wasn't he?

But maybe he wasn't. Maybe he was apologising to Magnus. Jace, who constantly rebuked the idea of condolences because apologies were for when you'd wronged someone. Jace, who thought 'I'm sorry for your loss' was meaningless unless you'd caused the loss. Perhaps now, of all times, Jace had realised that apologies weren't just about settling scores. They were about expressing empathy, a hurt that manifested itself differently for different people but was hurt nonetheless. And so Magnus took a deep breath, and whispered, "thank you."

The trek back to the camp was long and slow. Both Alec and Magnus had to be supported, and Jace was determined to still be injured by Clary, who noticed the limp he was trying to hide. Clary wasn't too great herself, with her fingers bloodied and arms shaking from the rough ascent, but she was in comparatively good health. Izzy was shaken, but she brushed it off quickly. Simon seemed to have come off best of everyone, with his only ailment being that he'd strained his arm when hoisting Jace up (although he'd never admit that he'd hurt himself doing something as mundane as that).

Because of this, the job of carrying Alec was shared between Simon and Izzy. He was too tall for one person to carry, so they shared his weight between them, Izzy cradling his torso and supporting his head whilst Simon had a hold of his legs. It wasn't the most comfortable of arrangements, especially not for Alec, but it was all they could manage. After denying profusely that he was injured, Clary finally agreed to let Jace walk on his own - only, she reminded him, because she had to support Magnus. If it had been any other day, Magnus would also have claimed he was fine and brushed it off, but he didn't feel like being heroic. Instead, he gratefully accepted the shoulder Clary offered as they stumbled along.

After fifteen minutes of painstaking silence, Isabelle requested a break - it felt as if Alec had gotten heavier the further she'd walked. Simon didn't object, and even Jace quietly obliged. They sat where the forest was less dense and they could all face each other.

"Well," began Clary, "now's a good a time as any to discuss our next move."

They looked around at each other, waiting for a suggestion. Nobody said anything, but not because they didn't know what to do - because nobody felt like talking. Personally, Magnus felt that he'd vomit if he was asked to speak. Not when he had Alexander's head in his lap, his eyes closed and breathing measured.

It was Simon who broke the silence. "We use the GPS, I guess. Nobody found a way out?"

Eyes downcast, they shook their heads. Simon gulped. "GPS it is, then."

Nobody had anything else to say - they didn't particularly want to. Not after what they'd been through. So Clary cleared her throat and tried something different.

"Okay. Here's a dilemma for you all. Would you rather die to save a thousand people, but know no one would ever know it was you, or live knowing that everyone would know you didn't save a thousand people?"

Seeing the quizzical looks she was given, Clary shrugged. "It's just a question to make you think."

"The first option," Izzy said with confidence. "I could never live with letting a thousand people die… and if everyone else knew, it'd be even worse."

"But… think about it," Simon said, frowning slightly. "If nobody, absolutely nobody, knows that it was you who died, doesn't that mean your family and friends will never know? I mean, I don't care about being thought of as a hero, but for your family to not know how you died… I don't know if I could do that to them. To the people I care about."

"So you'd let a thousand people die just so your family could have closure?" Isabelle asked, her tone borderline aggressive. Sensing this, Simon shook his head profusely.

"Not at all. I'd probably choose the former option as well. But… it's not such a black-and-white decision, is all."

"I have another dilemma before you all," announced Jace, sparing himself, Clary and Magnus from answering. "Would you rather have your parent read through every single message you've ever sent, or your significant other?"

Magnus laughed shortly, accidentally drawing attention to himself. He mumbled, "I just imagined a Prince of Hell reading over my sexts to a shadowhunter. No, I'd rather it was Alexander."

Being able to speak so lightly was like a breath of fresh air. Perhaps all was not lost.

Smiling to herself, Isabelle nodded in agreement. "That makes sense. I don't know… I'd probably say S.O. as well."

Simon blushed. "I… uh, it's a really close call… I'd say… parent. Maybe."

"What?" Isabelle asked, her eyes widening in incredulity. "What are you hiding from me, Simon Lewis?"

"Nothing," he muttered, but he caught Clary's smirk. He remembered all the late-night / early-morning text conversations they'd had, with him freaking out over how hot Isabelle was, and how little he knew about dating. He'd rather his mum be reassured of her son's innocence than Isabelle-freaking-Lightwood, angel on earth, know what a bumbling idiot he really was when it came to loving her. But he saw her growing smile, the smile that was self-assured that he wasn't hiding scandalous messages to another pretty shadowhunter, and it made him smile, too - she didn't think he was anywhere near as suave and mysterious as he'd hoped. Oh well.

"I… I agree with Simon," Clary admitted. "It'd be a close call, but… I'd show my mum."

"Excuse me?" Jace asked, his voice full of shock. She tried to play off her answer as flippant, but Simon knew exactly why - for every message he'd sent Clary about how stunning Izzy was, she'd sent at least four complaining about Jace being insufferable. It was all affectionate, of course, but Clary used Simon as a sort of sponge to vent all of her frustrating thoughts into, and it just so happened that Jace was often at the forefront of those thoughts. There was nothing especially damning to be found, but Simon doubted Jace's ego could handle Clary's relentless (though very creative) insults.

"I'll speak for Alec," Isabelle volunteered, getting Clary out of confronting Jace. "I think he'd rather show a parent."

Magnus raised an eyebrow. She shrugged. "I don't think he'd want you to have all that blackmail material to hold over his head," she admitted, thinking back to the countless stupid messages the two had exchanged.

Magnus, however, shook his head fervently. "I am almost certain he'd choose me. I think your parents would die if they read his messages."

"The dilemma only applies to messages he's sent, not received," Jace said with a knowing grin.

Magnus smirked. "I know."

Fake gagging, Isabelle hurried the conversation along. "Okay. One more and then we get moving again."

"I have one," Magnus announced. A chorus of groans echoed around the clearing. There was no positive outcome to this situation. "Would you rather sleep with your partner's best friend, or have your best friend sleep with your partner?"

Isabelle frowned. "Well, if I choose the first option, I sleep with Clary, and in the second option, Simon would sleep with… Clary, I guess. Or maybe Alec. Either way, I can't see the latter option going well." She nodded at Clary. "So I guess I'd sleep with you, Little Red."

Clary rolled her eyes. "Well, I'd have to choose between me sleeping with Alec or Jace sleeping with Simon, so… I don't think there's any good outcome. I mean… there's no sexual chemistry between either of those pairings. Unless there's something I don't know about," she added quickly, glancing at Simon and Jace. To Simon's mortification, Jace winked at him, biting his lip playfully.

"Well, I guess that answers that question," Clary mused. "I'd choose my partner sleeping with my best friend."

"I'd have the same options, right? Me and Simon or Clary and Alec? I'd pick Simon and me as well," Jace decided. Simon had flushed bright red, and stumbled when contributing his answer.

"I'd have to choose between me sleeping with Clary or Alec and Izzy sleeping with Clary… um, if you're okay with it, Iz, I'd choose the latter."

Magnus raised an eyebrow. "Wow. What wonderfully consistent results."

"And you?" Simon dared to ask. The amusement vanished from Magnus' face.

"And me… what?"

"Who would you choose?"

"What do you mean?"

"Would you rather sleep with Jace, or would you rather Alec sleep with… your best friend."

"Alec is my best friend," Magnus replied with a wry smile.

"Fine. Alec with Catarina," suggested Isabelle.

Magnus scowled at her. "Oh, so you're fine with discussing your brother's sexual life now?"

"If it makes you uncomfortable, of course," she replied brightly.

Rolling his eyes, he decided, "I'd sleep with blondie. Catarina's not Alec's type, and… well, I'd pity the fool that tried to get into her bed. Not… not now, after all."

"Um… I appreciate that," Jace announced, and the look on Magnus' face clearly asked why that confirmation was necessary. Looking ever so slightly sheepish, Jace added, "I try and cherish the compliments you give me. They're few and far between."

"Please, you adore yourself enough for the both of us."

Jace made to snap back, but the conversation was promptly halted by Alec's eyes fluttering open.

"Alec! Are you okay?" Isabelle asked, but he didn't respond. His eyebrows inched marginally inwards, as if trying to frown. Making gentle hushing sounds, Magnus stroked his hair idly. He wished his magic was its usual self, but he knew that to save Alexander now would drain him entirely.

Alec's show of life changed the atmosphere dramatically. No one felt up to playing silly games - their only goal was to get back to the camp.

They waited until Alec had lapsed back into his comatose state, which took about thirty seconds, before standing again. Then, like before, they trudged back to the relative safety of their tents.

"Are you sure?"

They sat in a circle, their eyes hooded and their expressions sour. Despite his current state, Alec was there too, lying with his head in Magnus' lap. They had agreed that everyone needed to be present when the decision was made, even if they weren't conscious to experience it.

"We're sure, Clary," Isabelle confirmed, resting a gentle hand on Clary's shoulder. She could tell the other girl was reluctant, and perhaps she had reason to be. However, this was their last shot at getting out of here - now that Magnus' magic was so drained, there was no choice but to hope for a route out.

Clary surveyed the circle with a sombre expression, waiting until everyone (bar Alec) had given a nod of agreement. Then, and only then, did she hold the power button of the GPS down until the screen flickered to life.

It was 1:49 when the phone rang. Jocelyn had answered it before the second ring.

"Hello?" She answered, a plea in itself. Luke hated to hear her so desperate, so broken.

"Yes, it's Jocelyn," she told the caller, her voice quaking.

And then her demeanour changed. She froze. She straightened her back. Her breathing steadied and her voice grew stronger. She nodded a few times, told the caller she understood, and then hung up the phone.

Luke stood up off the bed, searching her face for something, anything.

"Well?"

She took a deep breath. "There was a signal from a GPS that their radars picked up this afternoon, from about twenty minutes ago, around the other side of the mountain."

Luke's eyes widened. "Clary…"

"Clary has a GPS," she said breathily, a smile breaking out across her tired face. "Clary has a GPS!"

Luke pulled her into an embrace, tears welling up in his eyes. God, he had missed her smile.

"They're alive, Luke," she whispered. "They're alive."

Hey guys!

Thanks so much for reading another chapter! I'd just like to acknowledge annieherondalelightwood for her idea of giving Jocelyn and Luke a sign. I hope you enjoyed it, and please review if you have any thoughts! Also feel free to PM me if you have any queries / comments!

Have a wonderful day!

- The Potterhead from Middle Earth xxx