"We have to do something!" Clary cried for perhaps the third time.

I raised one eyebrow at her, making my silver circlet move slightly. "We?" I echoed. "Who is this 'we' you're referring to?"

"You, me, Luke!" Her tone was much too loud for the room and the atmosphere.

The Inquisitor and the rest of the Shadowhunters had returned to the Institute with an imprisoned Jace, Magnus had been sent back to his loft in disgrace – more or less, and Maia had long since disappeared. I had changed back into my official Seelie Court regalia and was preparing to go to the Institute myself.

"This is bad," Luke noted, running his hands through his hair.

"But Jace confessed to going to find Valentine," I pointed out as I shouldered my bag. "So it's not as bad as it could've been."

"Clary," Luke said, sitting up suddenly, "I need more coffee. Jaci, where are you going?"

"To the Institute."

"No you're not. That is the last place you should be right now."

I smiled sadly in response to Luke's grim expression. "I don't have a choice." I tapped the circlet. "I have official documents to deliver and things to negotiate."

"Then I'm coming with you!" Clary declared.

That was enough to get Luke on his feet. "Absolutely not! The Clave has gone after Jace since they can't get their hands on Valentine."

"What about me?" Clary asked quietly. "I'm Valentine's daughter."

"But Valentine didn't raise you," I pointed out. "But you do have a point. You're Valentine's daughter and you don't have the Fey protecting you. Clary, you need to stay here and lie low. I'll let you know everything I find out, okay?"

Clary clenched her jaw before spinning on her heel and rushing out of the room. I felt vaguely guilty, knowing that she was upset because she believed I was treating her like a child but I had to keep her safe.

"How long have you been in the Seelie Court?" Luke asked cautiously.

I breathed deeply. "Several days."

His eyes narrowed. "Is that so?"

I nodded. "The Queen can manipulate time within the Court. I feel like I've been training for months."

Luke looked weary and I found myself hoping that Clary had left the room in order to fetch some coffee for him.

"I'll see you," I said, drawing a glamour on the inside of my left arm and then ducking out the door.

xx

The door to the Institute swung open as soon as I set my palm on the wood and for a moment I couldn't move because of the surprise. It hadn't always worked like that, had it? I shrugged off the strangeness and decided to forgo the elevator in favor of the stairs. Church met me halfway.

"Hey, Church," I said softly, not wanting my voice to echo too much in the quiet. "Where's Peeta?"

Church yawned and flicked his tail before turning and trotting off up the stairs. I followed, fighting the urge to pick up my cloak and carry it since it was dragging on the floor. While it was annoying, it did look a lot more impressive fanned out behind me and I needed as much appearance of grandeur as I could possibly get.

But I threw it all to the wind the second my little black and white cat appeared in the hallway, trotting towards me. I picked Peeta up and cradled him close to my face, scratching behind his ears and hugging him as tight as I dared.

"Jaci?" asked a startled voice.

Peeta's head snapped around to stare as Alec approached.

"Alec."

"What are you doing here?"

I set the cat down and met his gaze evenly. "I'm here on official Seelie Court business."

Alec held his hands up as if in surrender. "I'm not trying to stop you. I just thought you should know, Jace is up in the training room."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because, of the three people inside this building who want to get Jace free, one is on lockdown in her room, one is expected in the library in a moment," he pointed to himself, "and one just arrived and no one knows she's here."

xx

I could've kissed Alec. Not that either of us would've enjoyed the experience, but I could've done it. He had gone off to the library to provide an ample distraction while I crept into the training room in order to free Jace.

It was just like I'd read in the book, a large silver cage in the center of the room, placed directly underneath one of the heavy wooden beams, so like the ones I'd had to fetch Caelia's arrows out of. Already, a plan was forming.

But for a second I was afraid I was too late. Inside the silver cage, Jace was slumped over as if dead. I gasped softly.

In response, Jace sat bolt upright, eyes trained on me. He didn't move or speak until I was kneeling right on the other side of the cage wall.

"Jaci," he breathed. "What are you doing here?"

One side of my mouth tugged up involuntarily. "You're in distress," I explained. "I'm here to rescue you."

He didn't laugh like I expected him to, instead he just stared at me with an intensity that made my stomach flip.

"You wait here," I instructed before scurrying off to find the rope that would give me access to the oak beams high above. I snagged an extra rope off the equipment wall on my way.

"So you're actually breaking me out," Jace said. I blushed at the admiration in his voice.

"No," I replied sarcastically. "I thought now would be a good time to do some extra training, you know?"

He was quiet for a minute as I debated whether or not to use the safety harness. The main source of lighting in the training room was currently coming from Jace's cage, leaving up by the ceiling very dark. I decided against the harness and instead drew my stele from my belt and traced runes for balance onto my skin.

These beams were wider than those in the Seelie Court training room and I was concerned by how comfortable I was running along them, leaping where necessary, in order to get above the cage. As soon as I was in the right spot, I looped the spare rope around the beam and carefully lowered it down to Jace, taking care not to hit the silver edges of his prison.

"That's great but I can't use my hands," Jace said, holding up his still bound wrists.

"Shoot! Here, catch!" I dropped my stele, trusting in his coordination to save it from breaking.

He caught it easily and was soon free of his bonds, tucking my stele into his belt before beginning to climb the rope. I watched the knot closely to make sure it wouldn't slip. If Jace fell, there was a chance he would land on one of the walls and I didn't expect he'd survive that.

Soon he was pulling himself onto the beam beside me, panting slightly. He held my stele out for me, our fingers brushed as I took it from him.

"Can I see your wrists?" I asked, noticing that they were braceleted in blood.

"It's nothing," he said, though he held his wrists out to me anyway.

Very carefully, I drew an iratze for him, breathing a sigh of relief as I saw his skin knit together. On impulse, I brought his left wrist up to my lips and pressed a kiss to the newly healed skin.

In an instant, he had somehow pulled me into a tight embrace, his cheek against the top of my head. "I've missed you," he murmured.

I ignored the stab of guilt about wiping his memory the previous night. "I've missed you too but you can't just stay here, Jace. The Inquisitor's going to come back eventually."

He pulled back from the embrace, taking my hands in his. "How am I supposed to get out of the Institute without being seen? I can't use a glamour against Shadowhunters. And where am I supposed to go?"

I closed my eyes briefly. "We'll get to Isabelle's room and come up with a plan there. I've seen you fight," I added. "You can do things others can't. I don't doubt you'd be perfectly able to jump out any of the windows in this building and survive without a scratch so I'm not worried about getting you out of the Institute."

He hesitated for a moment. "Jaci, how come you didn't ask when the trial is going to be?"

"Because I know there isn't going to be a trial, Jace," I answered, half considering telling him the truth for an instant.

"You're right." He sighed. "She planned to trade me to my father for the Mortal Instruments. Didn't believe me when I said it would never work."

"She's crazy," I reminded him. "And we should get moving."

"Right." Jace grinned. "So you think I could jump out of any window in this building and be fine?"

I got to my feet and started pulling up the rope, with a decent guess of what was going to happen. "I do, yes."

He stood up as well and edged past me, wrapping an arm around my waist as he passed. He pulled me in for a quick kiss and then did a backflip off the rafter.

"Show off," I murmured, smiling to myself before summersaulting after him.

xx

It was easy enough getting to Isabelle's room. The Inquisitor's guards were all stationed outside the Institute, apparently, though I hadn't seen any on my way in. We met Alec in the corridor outside his sister's room.

"You got him!" Alec said with obvious relief.

"Yeah," Jace spat, growing surly. "No thanks to you."

"Actually," I interrupted, "it was Alec's idea. I was supposed to go find Maryse and do some official stuff." I waved my hands as if chasing away bugs. "Not important."

I left the adopted brothers to have their moment while I knocked on Isabelle's door.

"Who is it?" Izzy's voice snapped. "If it's Alec, go away."

If I'd wanted to, I could've just unlocked the door with magic. "It's Jaci-"

The door flew open to reveal both Isabelle and Max. "Oh thank the Angel! I thought it was the Inquisitor! I thought you'd been caught!"

Jace stepped forward, confused. "Izzy knew the plan?"

I nodded. "I left my bag and my, um, cloak here."

"Jace!" Max cried, attacking Jace's middle with a hug.

"Shhhh!" Alec warned, glancing nervously down the hallway. "Get in the room."

"Alec?" Isabelle asked in amazement.

"It was his idea to break Jace out," I explained, shoving my way past her and rushing over to my phone to update Clary. "Excuse me."

"How did you manage to get your hands free?" Isabelle asked Jace.

"An opening rune," he said smugly, quite proud of the way he'd been able to use a stele with his wrists bound.

"Lucky those cuffs didn't burn your skin," Alec noted.

Jace inspected his wrists. "They did."

"But then how did you heal that? Those were rune burns. An iratze wouldn't've worked…"

Ducking out of the conversation at that point, I rapidly dialed Clary's number. The siblings were talking in the background while Jace dug around Izzy's room for something, weapons I was guessing.

Clary answered on the first ring.

"Jaci?" her voice was very anxious.

"What happened." My blood had suddenly turned cold. I should've been paying more attention.

"It's Simon," Clary sobbed.

I knew this was going to happen. I was at the wrong place.

"… he's missing."

At the very wrong time.

"Valentine took him."

I shouldn't've gone to the Institute.

"And – and Maia's gone too."

I should've saved Simon and Maia.

"He's using them to finish the Ritual," she gasped.

I had failed them.

But not entirely, not yet.

"Clary, drive to the Institute. Don't come in. Jace and I will meet you outside but you might have to wait for a bit, okay?"

"Okay," she said softly.

I hung up my phone and turned to the others. "That was Clary. Valentine has Simon and Maia and he's going to use them for the Ritual of Infernal Conversion."

Jace stepped forward to take charge. "Call Magnus," he ordered Alec. "Tell him to meet us down by the waterfront in Brooklyn. He can pick the place, but it should be somewhere deserted. We're going to need his help getting to Valentine's ship."

"We?" Isabelle asked brightly.

"Not you three," he responded, gesturing to the Lightwoods. "You'll have to convince her to send all the backup the Conclave has after Valentine as soon as she gets back."

"Where is she now?" Max asked.

Jace scowled. "Trying to convince Valentine to exchange the Mortal Instruments in exchange for me."

Alec was frowning. "Jace, how do you plan to get out of here in the first place?"

Jace flashed me a very quick smile. "There's always a window of opportunity. Jaci, I'll meet you outside."

I nodded, knowing full well the idiot was going to scale the Institute's roof, I was the only one who didn't gasp when he disappeared out the window.

"Did he jump?!" Isabelle cried.

I shook my head. "He's climbing."

She scowled. "Idiot."

"Show off," I added, checking that I had my elfish-Shadowhunter weapons but deciding to leave the cloak in Isabelle's room with my bag. I was on leave from the Seelie Court until I'd done my official duties as the Fey ambassador to the Clave. I'd been informed that the binding would draw me back to the court the instant my duties were finished so I was procrastinating for the lives of my friends.

"We'll be following with the Conclave," Isabelle promised.

I nodded. "See you in a bit," I said with a lot more positivity than I felt and then swept out of the room and set off jogging through the Institute.

I met no one until I got to the front door where I found two guards on the step.

"Halt," one ordered.

Scrambling for some appearance of dignity instead of frantic panic, I froze.

"Identify yourself," the guard continued.

"I am Jaelyn Catori," I answered. "Ambassador of the Seelie Queen here on official Court business with the Clave."

Apparently I'd said something wrong because the two guards exchanged a look and immediately seized me.