Ta da! New chapter.

"Since Alec is so concerned," Magnus said, frowning disapprovingly at his boyfriend. "I did happen to make some headway in the process of waking Jace."

"Really?" I asked eagerly. Magnus smiled indulgently at the excited expression I knew was on my face. "What did you do?"

"Follow me." He said mysteriously and turned on his heel to walk out of the room. Alec and I shared a confused glance before turning to follow him.

He led us into his bedroom. Alec sank easily down onto a Papasan chair almost as purple as the walls in Rivera's office, proving just how comfortable he was in Magnus' house. Magnus meanwhile was digging through a pile of clothes tossed haphazardly on his canary-yellow sheets. While he dug, he muttered something unintelligible under his breath.

"Aha!" He crowed, straightening up. "Found it." He held the object he had been searching for up for our inspection.

"That's a book." I pointed out helpfully.

"Yes." Magnus agreed. "And that's Alec and that's a chair. Are you done now?"

"Excuse me." I muttered sarcastically, but he was already talking again.

"You of all people should recognize this book, Clary." Magnus continued. Pushing a pile of clothes out of the way, he sat down on his bed and laid the book beside him. "You're the one who gave it to me." It was then that it dawned on me that the book he was holding was none other than the Book of White.

"I take it that's the elusive Book of White?" Alec inquired, propping his feet on Magnus' bed. I had a feeling that if anyone else tried that, they would be reprimanded by the warlock.

"The one and only," agreed Magnus. "Just like me."

"So you found a spell to fix Jace?" I asked. "Let's g-"

Magnus cast his eyes toward the ceiling. "Magnus the Magnificent was speaking." He said as if he were talking to a child.

I narrowed my eyes at him frustratedly and snapped, "Magnus the Magnificent can go screw himself."

"Now, now, little shadowhunter." Magnus admonished superciliously. "Is that anyway to talk to the only person who can save the love of your life?"I frowned at him but didn't reply. I knew Magnus wasn't one for idle threats.

Alec, who had been silent during this whole exchange, spoke up, "So what did you find?"

Magnus glanced fondly at him before saying, "A spell." From the way he was looking at Alec now, I knew that he was thinking of the prize he would get if he held up his end of the bargain. "I found a spell that may wake Jace up. If it works, it will also prevent the demon from possessing him again."

"What do you need to do the spell?" Alec asked as he pushed his dark hair out of his eyes.

Magnus graced him with a smile. "You can leave that to me. It is part of my job after all." They continued on in this vein for a few minutes, half flirting and half discussing the spell.

"Wait," I interrupted as something occurred to me. "You said if it works. What happens if the spell doesn't work?"

"Worst case scenario?" Magnus inquired. "Jace stays the way he is now. Permanently." The relieved smile disappeared from Alec's face, and I knew my expression mirrored his. Seeing our unease, Magnus was quick to reassure us. "But it's only a moderately difficult spell, so nothing should go wrong. Don't worry. I do spells like this one all the time."

"Have you ever actually tried this spell before?" I asked warily, not really wanting to know the answer.

Magnus met my eyes as he said, "No, but I have a seventy-five percent success rate with spells I haven't tried before, and I get almost all of the leftover twenty-five percent right the second time."

"Magnus!" I cried loudly. "You won't get two tries on Jace!"

"Which is why I'm going to be especially careful with this case." He assured me. I didn't know how he and Alec could both look so clam. This was Jace we were talking about, not some random customer that hired Magnus for help. "I need to know as much about Jace's condition as I can." Magnus looked back and forth from me to Alec.

I was still in shock from the idea that I might never see Jace, the real Jace, again. My last real memory of him would be him being taken over by Botis. I barely even heard Alec begin his explanation of this whole thing was started.

I was drawn back into the conversation as I heard Magnus say, "What about the demon you caught today? Did you learn anything from him?"

Alec shook his head. "We couldn't get him to budge even under interrogation. We're not going to get any information out of him; he's more afraid of Botis than he is of anything we could do."

"We know he works for Botis though," I put in. "When we first saw him, he was muttering about what Botis would do if he lost the ring."

"What did you do with him?" Magnus asked curiously.

"We have him locked in a cage like the Inquisitor did to Jace, and Isabelle was assigned to watch him." Alec explained easily. Magnus seemed to think this over for a moment.

"What I don't understand," he mused. "Is why Botis trusted this random lesser demon with a ring powerful enough to help him win a demon war."

Alec looked pensive for a moment before he answered. "That's what I thought too, because no Greater Demon would give that kind of power to anyone besides itself. None that I know of anyway, but then Clary suggested that Botis may have believed that the lesser demon was so terrified of him that it wouldn't give the ring up unless it was defeated."

"Well, he was right." Magnus pointed out.

"And that totally doesn't help us." I replied.

"We have the ring now," Alec said. "That has to count for something. We also have the Book of Shadows. And a spell that could possible save Jace's life." I refrained from saying that it could also make Jace brain dead.

"And we all have Isabelle's lovely cooking to look forward to," Magnus said, playing along with Alec's attempt to steer things in a more cheerful direction.

"But we still don't know what Botis knows." I persisted in pointing out. "For all we know, Jace could have been the demon's personal camera the whole time. It could know everything."

"No." Magnus shot my nervous statement down. "Because if it knew everything, it would be after the Book of Shadows by now."

I sighed. "Without Jace here to help, we all suck at this dealing with demon stuff." I missed Jace once again, as I had been doing for days.

"I don't suck." Alec objected. "I'm good!"

"At what?" Magnus retorted. "Honey, I hate to be the one to have to tell you this, but that outfit is so last year. And chapstick doesn't count as makeup. Though from the looks of it, you don't even use that." Magnus shook his head at Alec's apparent hopelessness. "Now when are you going to let me give you a makeover?"

Alec frowned at the change in subject. "How about never?" He replied. "Is never good for you?" They argued so easily that I knew they had been over this subject many times before.

"Objection noted." Magnus smiled mischievously and clapped his hands together twice.

Without even moving, Alec ended up across the room tied to the chair at Magnus' vanity table. "Magnus!" He shouted. "Untie me now!" Magnus was grinning at his disgruntled boyfriend. I smiled too, and the seriousness that pervaded the air only moments ago was all but forgotten.

"Hmmm…" Magnus pretended to think about it. "No, I don't think I will."

Alec glared at him. "Once I get out of here, I'm going to kill you."

"You would never do that." Magnus told him. "You love me too much." The warlock was no longer reclining leisurely on his bed. Instead, he had gotten to his feet and was moving steadily closer to Alec. Alec, in turn, was eying the sparkly warlock with a mix of anger and wariness on his face.

"Why would I love you after you tied me to a chair?" Alec demanded. I figured I wasn't the only one to notice that he was avoiding passing judgment on Magnus' statement.

Magnus grinned and said cheekily, "Because I know you, Alec." He trailed a hand down Alec's chest in a way that made me think this was a private moment that I probably shouldn't be seeing. "I really know you."

The brightly clothed man seated himself in Alec's lap, receiving only a glare for his efforts. He leaned over to whisper something in Alec's ear, all the while stroking his chest. Alec stopped struggling with his bonds. I blinked uncomfortably, wondering if they had forgotten all about me. I took a few steps back, wondering if I should leave the room.

This went on for some time, and I was beginning to wonder if Magnus had forgotten about giving Alec a makeover. Almost as if on cue, the warlock said out loud, "Oh, don't worry, sweetheart, I haven't forgotten the reason I tied you to the chair." He stood and turned to face the vanity table. "Though I'd love to tie you to the chair for an entirely different reason as well."

That was when I decided it was time to leave the room. Magnus and Alec had forgotten all about me and from the way things were going, they wouldn't remember for a while. I let myself out of the apartment with a parting glance at Magnus' brightly colored phoenix and set off down the street. I thought about taking the subway home, but it was a long ride. I decided instead to take a cab.

It didn't take me long to flag one down and soon, the cab driver and I were speeding towards the Institute. The cab was silent. No music was coming from the radio, and the cabbie stared at the road silently, leaving me alone with my thoughts. Originally, I had meant to go back to Luke's, but my mom would likely ask me questions I was in no mood to answer. She liked to feel involved in my life, and normally, I let her. But I was still uncomfortable thinking about Jace, much less saying what had happened out loud.

Better to go to the Institute, even though the only one there was Isabelle. Yes, that seemed like a much better idea. Maybe I could even convince her to come with me to grab a bite to eat from Taki's. As I was thinking, I realized I was unconsciously playing with the ring on the string around my neck. It felt surprisingly light and with a jolt of realization, I realized that it was not the Morgenstern ring that usually hung around my neck.

I felt the Morgenstern ring, heavy and large beside this small and delicate one, so I knew I hadn't misplaced it. The question was, how had the silver, jewel-encrusted ring ended up around my neck? I gazed at it searchingly, as if it would provide the answers I was looking for. To my dismay, nothing was forthcoming.

The only plausible answer I could think of would be that since I had worn the ring, it was somehow connected to me. Legends said that this very same ring had the power to control minds. How could something so small and dainty be so destructive and evil? I had to admit I was curious. What would happen if I tried it on again? The legends mentioned nothing about the ring changing shape when it changed owners. I wondered what else they had failed to mention. This ring could have some good power too, and no one would ever know.

"Miss…. Miss!" The cabbie said loudly, bringing me back to reality. I hadn't even realized that he had been trying to get my attention for the past few minutes.

"Sorry." I said absently. I handed him some money and climbed out of the car.

After the cab had driven away, I stood immobile on the sidewalk in front of the Institute. I was still consumed by the idea of trying on the ring. The ring might not have to be an item of mass destruction. For all I knew, it could save lives. There was only one way to find out, I reasoned. I slipped the ring onto my finger.

Ooh, what's going to happen with Clary and the ring? Will Magnus be able to fix Jace? I'm not even gonna ask about Alec and Magnus, we all know what they're going to do.