Thank you to greygirl2358, ilubcupcakes and luminousfishy for reviewing.

Summary:

Seb, Jace and Clary snuck into Valentine's office to try and find out more about this 'circle' thing seb overheard Valentine talking about. Jace and Clary went in the office and Seb was keeping watch. Jace and Clary have just heard Valentine's foot steps coming down the hall.

I hope you like it! Here goes:

Chapter Twenty Four

Panic struck Clary's heart like a bullet, as fear began to attack her throat, making her breaths shallow and fast. There was an alarm ringing in her head, piercing through her mind, shattering all of her thoughts, all she knew was that she didn't want Valentine to find them, she didn't want to scream out in pain as the thick leather hit her back, she didn't want to see the thick red blood streaming down the side of Jace's head, not knowing whether he was alive, she didn't want to fall asleep to the tortured cries of her own mother. Luckily, Jace was able to think clearly, to look through the haze of fright. Grabbing her sweating hand, he pulled her so her sea green eyes fell upon him. Silently, he motioned towards the centre piece of the room; the thick, wooden desk. With hope in their hearts, they crept round and crawled underneath it, careful not to hit their heads on the rich brown oak. Clary slithered under, curling her back against the smooth sides and tucking her feet under and out of sight. Jace did the same, his knees either side of Clary's as she heard Valentine swing open the door brashly, indicating his raging temper. Immediately, he picked up the phone, banging in the numbers he required and impatiently waiting for the other person to pick up, for the seemingly endless droning to stop.

Clary stared out the window, watching the trees sway in the wind and the leaves swirl around in the winter's air, only able to make out shadows through the darkness. She didn't know how long she had been there, what she did know was the screaming pain radiating from her back, the pins and needles stabbing into her legs and how much she longed to move, to free herself from the position she had held for god knows how long, but she knew that she couldn't. The fear of what Valentine would do if he saw her was far greater than her discomfort and so she remained still, literally paralysed by fear.

And so there she stayed, glancing longingly out of the window, wishing she could feel the wind whipping through her hair as she ran, ran far from here, never ever looking back. The more she watched the trees the more the swaying began to look like a dance to her, like mother nature was forcing her creation to dance for her, threatening it with the warning of broken branches or lightning bolts. And the more she stared, the more she became aware that the trees and her, they weren't all that different. She too was being oppressed, was under total and complete control and was owned by a power far greater than herself. And the greater power in her case, too, was not afraid to display its ultimate power. She too was dancing, dancing out of fear, out of dread of what the wind would do if she stopped.

She began to feel very sleepy, the fear and the adrenaline had drained from her, leaving her with only one overpowering sense; fatigue. She had to battle with her inner self to stop her eyelids from shutting, long since having given up listening in to Valentine's conversation. She was at the point where it wouldn't have mattered if she had been lying on a bed of incredibly sharp nails, she still would have been able to fall asleep. She had closed her eyes for possibly the fiftieth time that evening when she felt a nudge on her knee; she opened her eyes with a jolt to see Jace, motioning toward the window with his eyes. With a sinking sensation in her stomach, she saw that it was morning, the fragile lines of orange and yellow were just beginning to streak the sky and the trees were stood still, drained from all the dancing. The birds were beginning to squawk, greeting the new day in the only way they knew how. She could hear all of the melodious sounds of the new morning, yet in the background she could hear another sound, a fainter one; she could hear snoring.

Slowly peaking her head around the russet wood of the desk, her eyes scanned the room. Sure enough, just above her head, dressed all in black like the grim reaper come to take you to the world of death, sat Valentine. To her upmost relief, he had his head on the desk, his demonic black eyes shut, and he was snoring softly. It turns out that anyone could look innocent whilst sleeping. His usual harsh features had softened and he showed no signs of cruelty as his chest gently rose and fell. Nodding slightly to Jace, she began to crawl out from under the desk, every part of her body screaming with pain. Her arms and legs felt like stiff planks of wood and like a mechanical object, she found it hard to move. Awkwardly and very much robotically, she inched out from under the desk, opting to stand up once she had left the desk region of the room. As she began to rise, her spine clicked, its way of crying out, the sound echoing around the room, she held her breath, staring intently at her sleeping father. But he didn't wake, and so quickly and silently she and Jace got the hell out of there, the leather bound diary still tucked away in her back pocket.

They turned the corner, relief glistening off of their faces as they began to inaudibly laugh, they had done it, they had got it, they were out. Clary stared at Jace's face, hardly able to make out his features in the dim light. And then suddenly they were kissing, all the pain and longing and relief of the last few hours melted away as Clary slid her hands over Jace's smooth back clenching at the muscles on his shoulder blades. Jace ran his hands through Clary's tousled hair longingly and Clary moved her hands down his back, wrapping them around his waist, bringing him closer to her, her heart beating faster and faster inside of her chest. And then it was over, their foreheads still touching as they smiled at each other through the dark, Clary's arms still wrapped around Jace's waist. There, in the dark hallway, staring into the eyes of the boy she cared about more than anything else in the world, Clary couldn't remember a time when she had felt happier.

Thank you for reading and please review as it means such a lot to me! Also if you have any suggestions or comments just say so and I will try and encoporate your suggestions into the coming chapters :)