The next day...
The smell from the kitchen was wonderful. Clary slowly descended the stairs towards the delicious smell. Her head was pounding from the intermittent crying she did all night so her steps were soft and barely audible. As she got to the foot of the stairs and turned right towards the kitchen, she could hear a conversation between her mother and father as she got closer.
"...never go back." her mother's soft voice said, finishing some sentence that Clary didn't hear the beginning of. She walked closer and leaned against the wall just on the other side of the kitchen.
"I know. But I don't think she does." Valentine says somberly. "Even if all of this gets worked out, which isn't looking too promising, then there will be trust issues to work through with them. Big ones."
"I just hate seeing her like this." her mother's voice says as it moves around the kitchen. "I always worried about something like this happening. It was always going to be too easy to turn our families against one another. The tinder was always there between our families. All it needed was for someone to strike a match for it to turn into an inferno."
"And that's exactly what happened." her father's voice says gruffly. "This was my concern from the beginning. If things went south, Clary would be the one to pay the worst price. I wish I could fix it but as of right now, I have no idea how to. There is absolutely no way to figure out who poisoned them without Herondale's help. He would know better than anyone who would have the most to gain from his father's death and our war. I feel like I have to keep trying to figure it out though, even if it is pointless, for Clary's sake. She won't give up till she finds out."
"That's why we have to keep a close watch on her." Jocelyn says. "I don't want her to try to go and see him or anything like that. She's still convinced that he would believe her. If that were true, then he would have called her by now or at least accepted one of our calls. Honestly, Val, I don't think she realizes that it's over yet. I think she thinks that there is still a good chance of them getting back together even though there is no foreseeable amicable conclusion to this whole mess between our two families. It's over between them and she refuses to see it."
"Love makes us blind, Jocelyn." her father says in a sad voice and that is all Clary can take. She pushes off of the wall and instead of confronting her parents and giving them a piece of her mind, she hurries back upstairs. She walks back into her room and softly shuts her door before making her way over to Maia who is still sleeping in her bed. She stayed with her all night. "Maia. Wake up." Clary says softly. When Maia doesn't budge, Clary nudges her a little harder. "Maia. Wake up. I am going to need your help."
Maia grumbles a little and rolls from her back to her side and throws an arm over her eyes. "What?" she groans with a scratchy voice.
"I'm done feeling sorry for myself and I need to do something." Clary explains, sitting on the edge of the bed. "I can't let this just...get the best of me. I need to figure who poisoned Stephen for Jace. Hell, who know? Maybe he is doing his own investigation into the whole thing."
Maia lowers her arm from her face and eyes Clary inquisitively. "Seriously? Even after what Alec said to you yesterday on the phone?"
Clary visibly blanches when her friend brings up that conversation before shaking her head and continuing. "Yes. I always got the feeling that Alec never liked me much anyway. Like he'd always just tolerated me so I wouldn't be surprised if he was doing a happy dance right now because I am gone. I don't want to take his word for it on what Jace thinks."
Maia pushes herself up into a sitting position and rubs her eyes roughly before looking at Clary seriously. "Clary. I don't know what you think you can do."
"I can do something." she says exasperatedly. "I know that there is a long list of people at the party that could have done it but there is a smaller list of people who would actually have the balls to do it. That should help me narrow it down some with Father. And then if we get Izzy involved..."
"That's a bad idea." Maia cuts in.
"Why? She could help figure it out. She's known most of those people her whole life."
"And that's exactly why that would be a bad idea." Maia says sounding like she is talking to a child. "She won't be able to see things clearly. What happens when we start looking into her father or mother?"
"She would probably wouldn't like that and would probably be a hindrance to our investigation." Clary says, admitting Maia's point with a nod of her head. "Well I guess that just leaves me, then. It's all up to me."
"Well, since it's all up to you, what do you suggest is our first step?" Maia stretches out like a cat and stands up and makes her way over to Clary's bathroom.
"I think the first thing we should do is go back downstairs and pick up where we left off yesterday before the phone call." Clary stands up and follows her best friend as she pulls down her sleep shorts and starts to pee. "I think I can narrow down the list of people to only a few today. I was thinking about something Michael Wayland said and then about how one of the wives of his uptown leaders kept eyeing me all night. Like I was some sort of pest."
Maia cleans herself and stands up looking exasperated over at her friend. "And you couldn't wait to tell me that until after I peed?" she asks and Clary rolls her eyes. "I have seen so much worse from you and you know it." Clary says, eyeing her friend.
"True." Maia admits and shrugs her shoulders as she walks back over to the bed and sits down. "Now, tell me about this wife lady since I already know who Michael Wayland is."
"I think her name was Lilith." Clary says with a thoughtful look. "She was really young for the guy she was married to. His name is Raphael and he's head of the uptown district. I think he's like fifty but this chick was like twenty five or something like that. Really pretty too. Dyed blonde hair, blue eyes, big boobs. She was always really flirtatious."
"Who with?" Maia asks.
"She was definitely flirting with Jace. That's what got my attention about her in the first place. She would have been more than happy to spread her legs for him."
"And what makes you think that she might have had something to do with killing Stephen?"
"Just the way she seemed like she wanted to somehow sleep her way to the top." Clary says as she starts to pace. "Maybe if her husband got a promotion, she would be happy. She is completely the gold digger, power hungry type of hussy that were always trying to hang around Jonathan before Izzy showed up. She even started to flirt with Stephen and Michael at the same time when it was clear that Jace was only interested in me...the slut." Clary adds on the insult at the end, unable to help being just a little petty.
"Are you sure that you aren't just pissed because she was trying to get into Jace's pants?" Maia asks raising her brows in question. "It seems like if she wanted more money and power, she would just spread her legs and work her way up. You know, the old fashioned way."
Clary groans and runs her hands down her face. "Ugh. Maybe you're right." Clary admits. "Maybe I just didn't like the slut's hands all over my man." As soon as those words leave her mouth, her heart lurches a little. As of right now, she's not sure if he is her man or not. Everyone around her would say no but Clary can't bring herself to think that at this moment. "Anyway, I guess I should head back downstairs and talk this out with Dad. I don't know what they did after I left but it couldn't have been much."
"Alright." Maia says and slides off of Clary's bed. "But first, we have those cinnamon rolls that I can smell that your mom made."
"I know. I smelled them too." Clary says thinking about the conversation she overheard her parents having. "She always makes them for comfort when she wants to cheer one of us up after something bad happens."
"Then lets go carb load and eat the shit out of them. If we are going to figure this out then we will need all of the energy we can get." Maia grabs Clary's hand and smiles at her friend talking about cinnamon rolls being a way to carb load (Yeah. Sure) before kissing her briefly on the cheek and pulling her in for a quick hug. "Come on, Sherlock." she says and then is pulling Clary behind her and down the stairs.
"Where exactly are the cigars?" Jace asks Alec, looking at him like he didn't hear him right.
"I had Aline take them to a lab upstate." Alec says to Jace. "I didn't know you would want them."
"Of course I would." Jace says with exasperation. "I want to look at the humidor they came in and see the remaining cigars."
"And what would you do if you did have them?" Alec asks with raised eyebrows. "You are no forensics expert and would just end up looking at them."
"That's besides the point." Jace says abruptly, not liking that his friend is right. He doesn't know why he wants them but he just does. Maybe looking at them and holding them will help him come to terms with what Clary did. No. With what her family did. He can't think that she knew anything about it. It would hurt way too much.
"Listen," Alec says gently and leaning forward closer to Jace and resting his elbows on his knees, "I know you. You want to take over everything and do it yourself but you have to trust our people. Trust that they will do what you pay them to do and do it well. You know they will get the results back to you as soon as possible because of the circumstances."
The car they are in lurches to a halt and Jace looks out of the window. They are in the underground parking garage of his parent's building. Scratch that. His mother's building.
He swings the door open and steps out and walks over to the elevator doors that are being held open for him. They will take him straight to his mother's place and he will get to see her for the first time since the funeral. The doors slide shut just as Alec steps beside him and then they are riding upwards. "She's been really worried about you." Alec says quietly after looking to the other man, Max, in the elevator.
"Then get me a new phone and I would have been able to call my mom sooner. You know she doesn't take calls from unknown numbers on her personal line that only my father and I have the number to." Jace says shortly to him.
"It should be in your hands before tonight." he tells him and then looks straight ahead to the doors and waits for them to open. Once they do, Jace steps out and walks over to her door, bypassing his mother's guards standing at the door and sliding his key into the lock. "She changed the locks." the guard, Carl, says. "She said that the Morgenstern had plenty of opportunities to make a copy of your keys."
Jace fights the urge to roll his eyes and then raises his hand and knocks on the door. "Mom. It's me." he says loudly. A moment later and the doors swing open and reveal his mother who looks a little rougher than the last time he saw her. "Oh Jace." she says sympathetically and then is pulling him into her place and pulling him to her for a hug.
His arms find their way around her small frame and he closes his eyes and squeezes her tightly. The past forty eight hours have been the hardest of his life and it feels good to be held by someone he loves. It doesn't help that the arms that he really wants belong to the person who supposedly caused all of the heartache he feels in the first place. He unwillingly lets a tear slip out of his eye and wipes it away before his mother pulls back from him. She places her hands on either side of his face and her eyes turn sad as she says, "I'm so sorry darling. I can't believe what she did. I can't imagine how conflicted you must be feeling."
Jace shifts a little uncomfortably and looks over to Alec who is watching and listening to their exchange before looking back to his mother and nodding lightly. "I still want to do a complete investigation into it though." he says and Celine furrows her brows slightly in confusion.
"What is there to investigate?" she asks quietly and sounding genuinely curious.
"If it really was Clary who killed dad." he says and steps around his mother and walks into the living room.
"What?" Celine sounds surprised and taken off guard but not angry. "Who else could it have been?"
"I don't know, mom." he says as he sits down on one of the couches. "But the whole thing was just too perfect. All of the evidence points directly at Clary and only at Clary. She's smarter than that. A Morgenstern wouldn't have been so sloppy. They would have covered their tracks."
"Unless they wanted to get caught and start another turf war." Alec says, jumping into the conversation and walking into the room. Celine sits down next to her son and looks up to Alec. "I think Jace is looking too hard into it and looking for any excuse that it wasn't Clary."
"That may be." Jace says with a defensive tone, cutting his eyes to Alec. "But that's only because I refuse to believe that she was with me just because she wanted to kill my father. I know what I feel and I know what she felt when she looked at me. It was written all across her face."
"I would have to agree with my son." Celine says softly. "It was very clear that the two of you were desperately in love. There is no denying that."
"But that doesn't meant that she didn't do it." Alec says sitting down across from the two Herondales. He always does this. Shifts into his lawyer mode and is a little too up front when he does. "She can love you and still kill your father. It would put her in a position of power to be the daughter of Valentine Morgenstern and the girlfriend of Jonathan Herondale. She would have incredible influence over the whole damn city. Who's to say that that wasn't part of the plan in the first place?"
"What do you think, Mom?" Jace asks, looking to his mother for some sort of guidance.
"I believe what the evidence says." she tells him looking down at her hands. "The only fingerprints that were on the cigars were yours and Clary's."
"But wouldn't that be true if someone else poisoned them and wore gloves to do it?" Jace points out. "I mean, if I were going to frame someone then I would most certainly leave no trace of myself behind."
"Come on, Jace." Alec says tiredly as he pinches the bridge of his nose. "I'm a lawyer. If this were presented to any court, it would undoubtedly come back with a guilty verdict for Clary. She has motive, means, and a lot to gain from your father's death."
"But that still leaves the question of why be so sloppy? She only had something to gain if I never found out about the poison and stayed by my side. Why then, would she be so sloppy and make it so obvious that it was her?" Jace has scooted to the edge of the couch and is looking pointedly at Alec. "I thought you understood why I wanted to investigate yesterday when you came over. The whole situation was just too perfect to blame Clary."
Celine takes a deep breath and Jace looks over to her. "I think I agree with Jace." she says looking to Alec. "What he says makes sense. Now that I think about it, it is too perfect. All of the evidence points directly to Clary and for her to be her father's daughter, that doesn't make sense. She would have been more careful."
"Or it does make sense because she actually did it." Alec says with a soft tone. He looks over to the two Herondales and sees their stern faces and he lets out a long breath. "Okay." he says sounding resigned. "I'll see what I can find out."
"Now I just have to figure out what to do with the ring." Jace says with a pained look. "I don't want to take it back just yet."
"You bought her a ring?" his mother asks with a soft voice and grabbing her son's hand next to her.
Jace takes a deep breath and says, "Yeah. I was going to tell you and once I got Valentine's approval, I was going to ask her to marry me."
Celine's eyes turn sad as her free hand comes up and caresses her son's face. "Oh Jace." she says softly. "I'm so sorry."
"I don't want to talk about it." he says quickly and then looks to his mother. "Where is your phone? I still don't have one."
"It's right here." she says as she pulls her phone from her back pocket.
"I need to call Aline. I want her to get to investigating as soon as possible."
"I can call her." Alec offers and Jace shakes his head.
"I'll take care of it." Jace says and scrolls down the contact list and hits Aline's number.
She answers on the third ring. "Hello?"
"Hey Aline. It's Jace." he says tightly to her.
"Oh, hey." she says back tentatively. "How are you doing?"
"I'm fine." he says quickly while shifting uncomfortably. "I need you to do something for me."
"Anything Jace."
"I need you to tell me when and where cyanide has been sold in the city in the past two weeks. And then I want you to find out who it was sold to." Jace says with authority.
"All right." she says and it sounds like she is grabbing some paper. "Where do you want me to look first?"
"Look at the back alley kinds of deals first and then search the legal buys of cyanide."
"This might take a little while." she says back to him with an unsure tone to her voice.
"That's not acceptable. Pull whatever and whoever you need to make this happen." he says and looks up to see Alec watching him. "I want this information yesterday. Do you understand?" His tone is firm and lets her know that she needs to get this done as soon as humanly possible.
"I understand, Jace. I'll take care of it." Aline says back and he nods his head.
"Alright. I expect to hear something by tomorrow night." Jace stands up and walks to the back of the room and tucks himself into a corner where he drops his voice low so no one else can hear. "And be careful, Aline. I am worried that there could be a traitor among us if it come back that the Morgensterns aren't behind my father's death."
"You think it could have been someone else?" she asks with surprise evident in her tone.
"I'm not sure and that is why I am asking you to get this information for me. So just get it done." He looks back over his shoulder and sees his mother and Alec talking quietly as Alec's eyes glance to him with a sort of loving look like he is worried about him. "Call me when you know something." He pulls the phone away from his face and hangs up as he turns around and walks back over to his mother and his best friend. "She's going to start looking now."
"Did she say how long it was going to take to get all of the information?" Alec asks curiously.
"Not really." he answers as he runs a hand through his hair like he always does when he is stressed and sits back on the couch next to his mother and leans back. "But I put some pressure on her so I should know something soon."
Alec bobs his head up and down as he looks away and out of a large window on the back wall of the living room. "That's good." he says as he takes a deep breath and leans back in the recliner he is in.
"Just don't get your hopes up too high that it wasn't Clary." Alec says gently as he looks over to Jace after a quiet moment. "I don't want you to fall to pieces again. I hate seeing you like that."
"I'll be perfectly fine." Jace says with a slightly defensive tone as his eyes leave Alec and he looks to the wall in front of him. "I just needed to get 'that' out of my system." His voice is emphatic when he says 'that' to indicate what he means. That he is talking about destroying his penthouse and drinking till he passed out.
"I hope so." Alec says lowly and then looks back over to Jace who is still looking at the wall and gives him a tight lipped smile.
Maia and Clary eat three cinnamon rolls each before heading into Valentine's office and getting comfortable in the chairs in front of his desk. They are able to cross off about half of the people at the party in the first half of the day. They were either too stupid too pull something like this off or were too scared to. Clary, being in the mafia all of her life, has picked up a few skills that help her in this world. Most of the time, she is able to pick out who is a coward just by the way they look when talking with the head of an organization. She's seen it too many times with her father.
They have now moved on to the most likely suspects. The ones that have the most to gain from Stephen's death. The most obvious ones are Michael Wayland, George Penhallow and Robert Lightwood. Robert is the least likely of the bunch because he seemed genuinely surprised the night Stephen died and while he is heavily involved in the business, he doesn't have any real power because he is just the family lawyer. Even if Jace were out of the picture, he still wouldn't really gain anything by Stephen dying and/or expanding the Herondale territory.
Then there was Michael. He definitely had the most to gain from Stephen's death even though Jace took over. He also openly hated Clary and the relationship she had with Jace. If Jace were to die then he would be the one to take over and become the new head. That thought scared Clary to death. The thought that Michael could be behind it and Jace could possibly be in danger from him and he not have a clue about it was paralyzing to Clary. It made her want to get in a car and drive to his place and risk everything to warn him since he wouldn't take her calls.
She was also worried about Celine. He could also weasel his way into the organization by dating and marrying Celine. She wouldn't put it past him to do that because that is something that Michael told Jace that Clary was doing with him. Jace had told her about him saying over and over again that he thought she was just using him to gain power in the Herondale organization to eventually take it over for her father. There was definitely no love lost between her and Michael and that made him her number one suspect. But there was still no way to prove it. If he did do it, then he would have done a good job at covering his tracks.
"Alright." Valentine says as he pinches the bridge of his nose. "I think the first step is to find out where the cyanide that poisoned Stephen came from. If we had that piece of information, it would be easier to find out who bought it."
"So we send our people out to find out where it came from." Clary asks, looking to her father across the desk from her. Maia stepped out a little while ago because she had to go to work and Jonathan had left to go do collections for Clary so she could stay here with her father and brain storm.
"I think that is the first logical step." Valentine says as he looks back over to his daughter.
"Are you going to ask our regulars? The dealers and the black market contacts?" she asks him.
"Yes and yes." he replies.
"I also think we should look at legal sales also. Whoever it was could have bought it legally."
"That will take a little bit longer but I agree with you." His voice is thoughtful as he sits up and flips through his Rolodex and picks out a phone number of one of his informants.
"Finally. It feels good to have some sort of a plan moving along. I don't like just sitting here and have nothing happening." Clary stands up and stretches like a cat. She's been sitting for hours as her and her father brain stormed.
There is a light knock at the door and she turns around to see Sebastian poking his head in through the half opened door. "Ahh. There you are." her father says with a note of relief.
"Sorry it took so long." Sebastian says as he steps in the room and offers Clary a warm smile. She smiles back at him and tucks a piece of hair behind her ear. "I had to go run the numbers a couple of times to make sure they were right." He walks by Clary and hands Valentine a small stack of papers. "The market is picking up and I think these stocks will give you the best return on your investments."
"Are these the start up companies you were telling me about?" Valentine asks as he flips through the papers.
"They are. There are also some of the big name companies in there as well. A couple of them are launching new products and the response to the testing period of those products were above a ninety percent approval."
"That's great Sebastian." Valentine coos with a half of a smile on his face as he looks at the numbers he was presented with. "You've never led me astray so far and I have made an insane amount of money following your advice." He looks back up to Sebastian with a warm smile as he hands the papers back to him. "Go ahead and pull the trigger with all of those."
"Yes sir." he responds with a warm tone and a proud look. Sebastian has always aimed to have Valentine's approval and loved when he got it. He didn't have a father growing up and that's what he saw Valentine as since him and Clary had started dating. His father of sorts.
"If the two of you have more business to discuss, I can go for a walk." Clary suggests and Sebastian turns around and says, "No. It's okay. You don't have to go. That was all the business that we have for today."
"Oh." Clary says with a smile. "But I still want to go for a walk, Dad. I have been inside for almost three days straight and am in desperate need of some fresh air."
At her words, Valentine's head snaps up to look at her. "I don't like the idea of that." he says tightly to her.
"I am just going to go for a walk in the park right there." she says with exasperation and points out of the window to the park that the manor sits against. "This is the safest place in Brooklyn as of right now because of the extra security that you have patrolling. I just want to circle around the edge of the park and I will be back within fifteen-twenty minutes."
"I still don't like the thought of you going alone. Why don't you ask Jonathan to go with you?" he father says in a disapproving voice to her.
"Because he's out doing my job for me. Maia's at work, Izzy's with Jonathan and mom is in her zone painting. Not to mention Jordan will be with me." Clary's tone is tired and she levels her eyes at her father. "I just want some fresh air, Dad."
"I can go with you." Sebastian offers shyly. "That is...if that's okay with you." he adds on at the end sounding unsure.
"Yes." Valentine says quickly. "Take Sebastian with you. It would make me feel ten times better if you had someone else with you. Everyone else is doing patrols and I don't just want Jordan with you."
Clary looks to her father and then her eyes dart to Sebastian. His eyes are expectant while he waits for her answer. "Okay." she tells him and his lips turn up ever so slightly into a very soft smile.
"I'll grab your coat." he says as he walks by her and out of her father's office. She looks back to her father but he has already started to rifle through some papers on his desk and is not paying her any attention. She takes a deep breath and then turns and starts to head towards the foyer just outside of the office door. Just as she passes through the door, she sees Sebastian grabbing her coat, knowing exactly where it was and which one she preferred. A definite result of dating on and off for two years. He is so familiar with her and her family and even her home. She just hopes that this walk won't be awkward and weird. Hopefully he won't bring up the whole Jace thing. That is the last thing she wants to talk about at this moment. All she wants to do is walk and just let her mind forget everything and relax if only for a moment.
"Thanks." she says with a smile as Sebastian helps her with her coat, sliding it up her arms.
"If it weren't for the frigid wind outside, it would actually be fairly nice." he tells her with a smile in his voice.
"Ugh." she says with a sigh. "I just wish it would be spring already. I'm so tired of all the snow and ice."
"Well, be careful. The sidewalk is pretty icy."
"Did they not put salt down?" she asks and he shakes his head. "Well great." she says dryly. "I'm probably going to bust my ass."
He lets out a small chuckle as he opens the door after putting on his coat. "Don't worry. Between me and Jordan, we won't let you fall."
"Thanks." She gives him a half of an amused smile as they step out of the door and see Jordan step out of one of the cars. He pulls his phone away from his ear and hangs up as he puts his jacket on.
"Thank goodness you came out." His tone is light and somewhat playful. "I've been dying slowly of boredom for the past two days, stuck in that car or in the foyer."
Clary lets out a small amused chuckle as she slowly descends the stairs carefully. She unconsciously reaches out and grabs Sebastian's arm to steady herself as she goes and he holds his arm steady for her. "Sorry. Dad's got me on lock-down. I know how you hate to stay still. You've never been much of a homebody."
"Nope." he says popping the p. "So, where are we going?"
"I just want to get some fresh air so I am just going to walk around the park." She nods her head to the tree filled park just fifty feet away from the front sidewalk and he nods his head.
Just as Clary's foot steps off of the last step and touches the sidewalk, it slips out from under her she starts to fall. She lets out a very undistinguished "Umph!" and then big hands are wrapping around her waist and her descent towards the ground halts abruptly.
She looks down and sees familiar hands grabbing onto her while her hands grab onto his wrists. His chest is pressed against her back and she can feel his body heat rolling off of him in waves. "You see. I told you I was going to do that." Clary says with a slightly nervous chuckle as she starts to right herself. "Thanks Sebastian."
He lets out a small amused laugh and says, "No problem, Clary."
Once she is confident of her footing, she steps away from Sebastian and turns to face him. A small piece of hair has escaped his perfectly mussed look and he brings his hand up and tucks it back off of his forehead. When it falls out of place almost instantly again and he tries to tuck it back for the second time and fails, she reaches up and brushes it back and tucks it into place like she always did when they were dating. By the time she realized what she just did, his eyes are shining down at her with a look of want. "Old habits die hard, right?" she says quickly and then mentally scolds herself and drops her eyes from his nervously. Seriously? The best she could come up with was 'Old habits die hard'? She sounds like an idiot.
"I guess so." he says and then holds out his arm for her to take. Jordan, who was watching the whole exchange with questioning eyes, turns around and starts to walk ahead of them, his eyes scanning the surrounding area for any threats. This bothers her because her security walks ahead of her to give her privacy when she is on a date or something like that of the sort and walks behind her every other time. Jordan's actions then mean that he thinks that there is something going on between her and Sebastian when there isn't. She probably didn't help his assumption by tucking Sebastian's hair back with her hand which is something that only couple's do or your mother does for you when you are a kid. 'Well that's just great.' she says dryly to herself in her head as she takes Sebastian's arm to steady herself as they walk down the ice slicked sidewalk and out to the park.
Once their feet hit the slightly rough pavement of the sidewalk that borders the whole length of the park, she lets go of his arm and gives him a small smile as she tucks her hands into her coat pockets.
"Did you ever finish that landscape you were working on the last time I was here?" he suddenly asks her and looks down to her.
"No." she says somberly. "I tossed it. It started to look worse and worse every time I put the brush to the canvas."
"What?" he says with quiet outrage. "I thought it was great. Your mom was bragging on you about it when I picked up my Aunt's portrait."
"How did your Aunt like it?" she asks him with a smile as she turns her head to look up at him. There is a strong gust of wind then and her hair flies in her face, momentarily blinding her and filling her mouth full of her own hair. She chokes a little on her own hair and coughs it up. Her hand comes up as she starts to laugh and pulls all of her long hair back and spits it out of her mouth before tucking it behind her ear. Sebastian smiles and laughs back at her expression before answering. "She absolutely loved it." he tells Clary as their laughing quiets. "She hung it in her sitting room where she greets her company at her home in the city."
"That's great." she says with real happiness. "I know Mom was probably thrilled to hear that."
"She was." He looks back to in front of them and scoots close to Clary to let a jogger by. She can smell his familiar cologne waft in her face with a breeze before he steps back away from her. "In fact, she did her happy dance when I told her just how much she liked it."
"Oh my gosh." Clary groans with embarrassment as her hands come up to cover her face for a moment. When her hands fall away, there is an entertained smile on her face. "I can't believe she did the dance. I've told her to stop doing that horrible thing."
"I thought it was cute." he says with a scrunch of his nose and a large smile.
"It is not cute." Clary says with finality. "She looks like a pirate with a peg leg trying to do a jive. Her hands go flying with wild abandon and she usually ends up hitting herself in her own face."
Sebastian lets out a roll of laughter and then says, "She actually did hit herself. She poked herself in the eye."
"You see!" Clary says with triumph. "I'm right. She looks ridiculous and is a danger to herself and others." She starts to laugh and then she sees one of her father's cars pull up along the edge of the park and one of the newest guards hops out. She thinks his name is Jeremy or something like that.
He makes heavy eye contact with Jordan and says, "Mr. Morgenstern sent me to give you a message." He is getting closer and she sees him reach into his jacket and she immediately gets a sinking feeling in her stomach.
"And what's that?" Jordan asks sounding slightly annoyed at the rookie's know-it-all tone of voice.
"Oh wait. It wasn't Mr. Morgenstern who wanted me to give you a message. It was actually Mr. Herondale." the guy says with a growing wicked smirk.
Everything after that seems to happen in slow motion.
The guy, Jeremy, pulls out his gun. As he is bringing it up to point at Clary, Jordan pulls out his gun, lightning quick when shots break out from the car that Jeremy had stepped out of. Jordan ducks while bringing his gun up to point it at him.
Clary stands there watching until Sebastian grabs her by her shoulders. Jeremy is now pointing his gun directly at her face and she feels her mouth fall open slightly in surprise. There is a loud pop and then there is a stinging pain in her right cheek. Before another shot can be fired, Sebastian is spinning her away from Jeremy and wrapping his arms around her and knocking her to the ground.
As they are falling, she hears a flurry of shots and Sebastian grunts as his face contorts in pain. He cages her in his arms as they hit the ground and while her body is barely jostled, her head cracks painfully against the sidewalk. He lands directly on top of her but somehow manages not to let all of his body weight crush her small frame. Her eyes close against the pain that is spreading from the back of her head and when she opens them again, there are stars swirling around her vision. When they finally clear after a few seconds while the gunshots slow to only a few here and there, she looks to her left and her nose hits Sebastian's left cheek.
He is grimacing in pain while laying on top of her, his face pulling together in tightness. Jordan calls her name and she turns to see him hurrying over to her. There is a bright red stain spreading quickly along the left sleeve of his jacket and he is covered in snow like he had rolled around in it. "Clary! Clary! Are you okay?" he shouts at her as he reaches her and falls to the ground to be at her level.
"My head." she groans and then looks back over to Sebastian. "Sebastian. Are you okay?" she asks him and he just grunts.
"Clary. He's been shot in the back." Jordan tells her gravely as he looks at his back. "It looks like two times."
"What?!" she shouts loudly and then the adrenaline hits. "Oh my God! Sebastian!" Her hands come up from under him and she grabs his shoulders and then rolls him onto his side. He winces in pain but doesn't scream as she surely would have.
"I'm having trouble breathing." he croaks out as he falls onto his back. Clary scrambles to her knees and then is hovering over him; her hands going to his face. She turns it to face her and he opens his eyes and they lock onto hers. "Oh my God, Sebastian! Why did you do that?" she asks him angrily.
"Because I love you." he says simply and her heart gives a little squeeze.
"You're so stupid." she tells him as she looks down at his body while her hands flutter over him not knowing what to do. "I never wanted you to get shot for me." As she looks down at him, guilt starts to spread wide and fast through her body. He wouldn't have gotten shot if she had just said no to him or if she had just stayed inside like her father wanted her to.
"I'll be stupid everyday if it means that you are safe." he says with a wince and then a weak cough.
Tears spring to her eyes and start to fall fast and furious down her cheeks. "I've called an ambulance." Jordan says, appearing on the other side of Sebastian. That's funny. She didn't even hear him on the phone. "Jordan! You're shot too." she notes with horror. In her foggy state of mind, she didn't realize that that was what that red stain spreading on his arm was as he ran to her.
"I'll be fine. He just got me in my arm." he says dismissively. "Are you shot?"
"I don't think so." she tells him as she wipes a tear from her face. Her hand comes away a little bloody and she brings it back up to her face. Her fingers feel along her cheek until she finds a long cut right under her eye. "I think a bullet grazed me." she says in shock.
"Your face." Jordan says looking to her. "It grazed your cheek."
She looks back down to Sebastian as one of her hands finds his and grabs onto it for dear life. His hair was messed up again and for some reason that bothered her. Her free hand rises up and pushes all of it back into place until she is satisfied and when she looks back down to his eyes, they are watching her with adoration. His eyes are starting to water and her hand slides down and cups his cheek. "You can't die on me, okay?" she says to him. "I'll never forgive myself. Not again."
"I'd do it all again." he says with a shallow breath. "All of it." His eyes slide closed and panic grips her chest. "Sebastian!" she shouts at him as she hears a few sets of loud footsteps pounding closer to her in a sprint and all she can manage to think is 'No, no, no. Not again'.
Sorry this update took so long. My life has been really hectic lately. I should also probably tell y'all that there most likely won't be another chapter for a while. I am going to Italy for vacation on Friday for seven days with my husband! AHHHH! I'm so excited! Needless to say, I won't be writing at all next week and will be busy packing and ironing out all of the details of my trip for the rest of the week. Sorry...but not sorry. I have wanted to go to Italy my ENTIRE life and it's finally happening!
That being said, I WILL be updating Smutty One Shots for the Mind. I have a chapter almost done for that and I am excited to put it up.
Till next time, thanks a million for taking time from your busy day and reading my story! Y'all are the best! Don't forget to follow and review!