A/N: Crappy as always. Sorry for the wait. Disclaimed.
That's all I have to say. You don't like my irregular updates? Deal with it.
Creak.
Two dark forms, standing close, quiet, listening.
Thud.
One of the silhouettes turned, and the scarce light from a flickering lantern abandoned on the floor was just enough to illuminate the edge of a manic grin.
"So the insects have finally arrived? I think we'll thoroughly enjoy crushing them underneath our feet. Right, Jonathan?"
.o.O.o.
Inside the school was . . . strange. He'd gone here for three years, but even so, he barely recognized the place. Piles of ashes and debris in the corners, blackened hinges where doors should have been, bright yellow police tape declaring almost everywhere to be off limits and making it hella hard to move around properly. Dust particles floated lazily in the air, every movement the teenagers made causing them to whirl in the sunlight which made them so very visible. Sometimes, a tiny flake of ash or two would lift from the ground as well, fluttering like the wings of a dying butterfly.
Jace felt so incredibly poetic today it was almost funny.
"Here it is," Isabelle whispered to them, and said guy froze with one foot on the floor and the other conveniently placed right over another one of the hindrances known as police tape. Alec barked out a short laugh at the undignified position, but was quickly silenced by a glare and a hissed "Pink glitter, Alexander."
(Pressed tightly against a wall out of the siblings' sight peeking around the corner, one Magnus Bane smirked proudly.)
"Shut it, you two. Or I'll punch you."
The two brothers shared another glance, this time one of absolute dread. Isn't she supposed to be more . . . I don't know . . . traumatized or something? Jace thought, She almost died like an hour ago?
He set his foot down again, proceeding to move the other one past the tape and back to its original place beside the other one. But, you know, a bit further away. Yeah. Whatever.
Anyway.
Izzy had found the entrance to the basement. It looked . . . it looked like a regular door. Jace had been walking past it the last few years and never thought anything special about it. But the way his sister was staring at it, you would've thought it was the gate to Hell. Or Heaven.
He couldn't blame her, though. His expression felt pretty much the same. This was it. He could feel it. This was where it all ended.
Isabelle reached a trembling hand out and grabbed the handle. Slowly, too slowly, it turned, and slowly, too slowly, the door opened.
Slowly, too slowly, they entered the darkness in a straight line, not bothering to close the door after themselves.
A few minutes later, Magnus Bane slunk in after them.
.o.O.o.
The staircase smelled like mud and rotten eggs. Cold seeped in through his clothes, chilling him entirely to the bone. Careful, he reminded himself, you have to be careful.
Because if he wasn't, he was dead.
Every movement echoed like screams in a cave, every step made a noise similar to that of thunder. When he breathed it sounded like a hurricane, and he was still waiting for the moment where the man called Valentine would come up and find him just by following the drum that was Magnus's heart beating desperately against his ribs. Let me out, it seemed to say, trying to force its way out of his chest by sheer force. He had to stay, though, long enough to hear what exactly had happened to Clary and how he would find her. Or something. Of course, Magnus wanted to help Alec, too. But his boyfriend could put of a decent fight, and hell, Jace and Isabelle were there. Anger that crazy woman and you were dead, even more so if you touched her lipstick on top of it. (He knew from experience. Never, ever, try to borrow Isabelle Lightwood's makeup. She will find you and she will kill you.)
So, basically, this was what he'd found out:
There was this person Jace and Alec had been referring to as Valentine. Apparently, he'd killed Alec's little brother Max a few years and had now attempted to bury Isabelle alive with the help of his son Jonathan, who seemed silent but kind of unstable. And the plan to kill the Lightwood siblings, Mr. Garroway, someone named Jocelyn, Clary and (here he shivered a bit) himself had also been put into motion. Anyway, Jace had offered them Clary instead of Isabelle, Isabelle had gotten pissed and dragged them all here, and now they were all about to be murdered. Yep, that was about it.
"Enough with your stupid fucking beating around the bush," Jace hissed out between clenched teeth. "Where. Is. She?"
"Why, Jonathan, she is nowhere you will ever find her."
"How the hell do you know my name you fucking maniac?" he whispered back. Magnus heard Isabelle and Alec draw in a surprised breath, completely in synch with one another.
"Please. Do you really not recognize my name? Valentine. Valentine Morgenstern."
For a few seconds, everything was silent. The calm before the storm, Magnus thought, before everything seemed to explode even though practically nothing had changed at all.
"It's you. Finally, finally, finally I get to fucking kill you." Jace's voice was calm, controlled. It was that kind of voice you only saw in movies, the kind of voice you never thought anyone would use in real life. "You killed them, motherfucker."
But Valentine, it seemed, was completely unaffected. "Indeed I did, and would you be so kind as to stop using such vulgar words? It is making me sick to my stomach. And, anyway, what are you going to do? You couldn't stop me then, you can't stop me now. They're all going to die by my hand, with a little help from my son here. Celine, Stephen, Max, they are already gone. And Clarissa, well, I believe she is beyond you help now. Last time I saw her she was going mad, thrashing around and screaming like you wouldn't believe."
Magnus froze, and inched a little closer to the still open door. It was strange that Valentine hadn't commented on that yet, considering the basement was completely dark except for the light let in by said doorway.
Jace said something again, something Magnus couldn't entirely pick up on, but the answer was so clear it might as well have been whispered right into his ear.
"She's in the forest approximately two kilometers southeast of here. The cabin where we put her might be a little hard to find since it blends in very well, but look for an irregularity in the forest floor and you'll see it. Now get out of here quickly before Father notices you."
He turned around and realized that it had.
A tall boy around his own age stood beside him, with snow-white hair and impossibly black eyes. He gestured with his head toward the door with an impatient look on his handsome face.
"Jonathan, block the exit and close that infernal door, please."
So that was Jonathan, huh.
Magnus nodded and exited the room as quickly as he'd entered, then started running as quietly as possible. A slam, and he knew Alec and the others were trapped inside the basement.
But he was free, now. And he knew where to find Clary.
I'll come back for you, Alec.