Chapter 25 - Treachery

Every time Clary thought she was done crying, another round of freshly baked tears came rolling down her cheeks.

At several moments in time of the half hour she had spent in her, she had felt like the world's most pathetic person as she sat on a spiral staircase that led to the second level of the garden slash greenhouse, her knees hugged to her chest.

She found it almost ridiculous that she crying so much over a boy she had met a week and half ago but she felt as if the pain went in deeper and longer than a week and a half. It pierced her in deep and it hooked itself deep in her, not letting go no matter how hard she tried to pull away.

And all they had ever done was kiss. No 'I love you's or anything official or exclusive yet it hurt, more than it should. Much much more.

The sound of a pitiful meow momentarily dried her tears as Clary looked up, surprised to see a pudgy looking Church meowing at her, it's fluffy Persian head cocked to a side.

It looked at her like it was confused, his lazy eyes slitted and narrowed slightly as if it were scrutinizing her.

"Don't look at me like that." Clary said, wiping away a falling tear with the back of her already tear stained hand.

Church meowed again and gave Clary a look that, crazily, could've have only meant 'you look pathetic'.

"I know. You don't have to meow it in." Clary muttered, resting her chin on her arms as she stared at the grayish blue cat while it stared back.

Clary lost the staring contest, blinking when her raw red eyes needed tears. Church seemed to purr with satisfaction as it padded quietly and gracefully over to Clary, nudging her leg with its head as it settled beside her, it's tail swishing.

Church continued to nudge its head in a demanding manner, meowing occasionally. Clary sighed, scooping the ball of persistent fur up into her arms and into her lap. Church purred, his tail tickling Clary's arm as it continued swishing back and forth.

Clary absent-mindedly stroked Church's soft silky fur as she stared almost sightlessly at the flowers that were a few feet from where she sat.

Unlike normal daytime flowers that bloomed in the day, these flowers were closed and bundled up tightly. Even from here, Clary could smell their captivating scent of lavender and vanilla.

In a flash in her mind, she remembered one of the many dreams she had. This one of the blond angel in the midnight greenhouse. A tear slid down her cheek as she gritted her teeth.

Shadowhunters didn't cry.

Again and again, Clary saw in her head - not of Jace and Colette kissing but of Jace being happy with Colette; laughing, hugging and looking at Colette with eyes filled with love and adoration.

Clary realized in a small part in her body that what she was feeling for Jace was completely unreasonable but every time she saw those images in her head, it was like each image was a knife stabbed into her heart before being dragged across her already shredded heart.

She didn't hate Colette (which was absurd, she knew). For all Clary knew, Clary herself could've been the third wheel in their relationship.

Her eyes fluttered shut and the tears flowed again. She felt her lips tremble and she bit it hard to stop the trembling until she tasted blood. She gasped at the sudden pain, her eyes fluttering open.

Her tongue tasted salty coppery liquid.

Church meowed and Clary continued her unconsciously halted petting.

Clary looked down at the Persian cat on her lap, staring at her with its big eyes. She patted its head, sighing again.

Church looked away, it's head moving away from Clary's touch. Church let out a guttural hiss. Clary felt Church's body bunch and tense in her lap as his hair stood on end.

"What is it?" Clary said soothingly.

Church hissed again as it glared into a wall of green - trees and plants so tightly positioned next to each other that they looked like a wall of green and occasional flowers.

A sharp pain in her lap made her gasp. Clary gently lifted Church and gently dumped him on the steps beside her. There was a tugging sensation and she looked down and saw that her jeans were slightly torn and blood dotted the skin. Church had his claws out as he continued to hiss.

Clary narrowed her eyes at the wall of green and thought she saw someone's silhouetted face watching her. She blinked and the face disappeared.

Again, Clary refused to say "Who's there?"because to her, it seemed like the most stupid thing anyone could do. What did all those girls in horror movies think they were doing? What would they do if a murderer popped out from behind the kitchen and replied "Oh, I'm back here, sharpening a knife for your death. Sit tight for a moment. You wait a minute please"?

Brushing the underside of her jeans, Clary got up and slowly approached the wall of green. The soles of her feet had gone numb and the bleeding had stopped a long time ago. She had dug and yanked out any of the shards of glass she could get to but some were in a little too deep.

Before she could even reach the wall of green, someone tall and slim stepped out from behind the foliage.

"Oh … you scared me." Clary breathed.

"What are you doing up here?" she asked Clary, looking completely sincere.

Clary shrugged. "What are you doing up here?"

The girl smiled - a twisted, malicious smile that made ice shoot down Clary's spine - before lunging at Clary.

It was a blur but somehow Clary had managed to duck in time before she could be tackled.

She jumped to her feet and whirled around, only to come face to face with her. The girl that stood before her now looked nothing like the girl she knew. There was a slight crazed look in her eyes and her hair was a complete mess.

Clary heard her skull crack against the tiled path of the greenhouse, pain shooting through her head and her vision wavering. She gasped at the pain before a harsh pressure cut off her breathing. She thrashed underneath her attacker and grasped and yanked at the arm that was choking her vainly. Clary swung her fist up and knocked the side of the girl's head. She reared back and Clary took the opportunity to crawl away.

"Come back here!" she growled and yanked Clary by her leg back. Reaching out blindly, Clary grabbed a flower pot and smashed it on the bitch's head. She snarled in pain as blood dribbled down the side of her face.

A silver colored powder was blown into Clary's face and involuntarily took a breath of it.

The effects of the powder was instantaneous. Clary felt lightheaded and her vision blurred.

Black spots danced across her vision and Clary felt her attempts grow feeble. There was a hiss in her ear and an indignant snarl but Clary couldn't concentrate well enough to see what it was. She felt a sharp yank on her wrist, where her charm bracelet always hung on. It had been a present from Keayla and recently, Clary had taken to wearing it. The bloody traitor, who was trying to keep Clary still as she feebly thrashed, kicked and punched, screamed as the sound of a sizzle rang close to Clary's ears.

Just before her eyes closed and she let her body drift, Clary remembered when she was attacked in Labyrinth by a mystery person and cursed silently at the fact that her attacker was the same person that was on top of her now, threatening to kill her. She remembered what happened in Labyrinth now but damn it that she only remembered now.

Everyone trusted her but she betrayed them and now she was trying to kill Clary. She had sent them the demons in Labyrinth, had been probably double crossing her this whole time but why?

"By the way, Keayla had it coming." Isabelle whispered menacingly on her ear.

Murmuring a curse, Clary tried to grasp onto that last wisp of anger but failed. Instead, she relaxed and let her mind fall into unconsciousness.

And now that she drifted, Clary couldn't have possibly seen the shadowed figure who had been watching the entire struggle between the two disappear in a haste and returning to the Institute.

Alec watched his parabatai repeatedly beat himself up mentally.

Jace had his face buried in his hands, occasionally letting out a tortured moan or groan. Jace sat in one of the Victorian high backed chairs in his room while Alec sat opposite him on his own bed, his legs crossed as he silently watched Jace who had barely said anything since he dragged Alec in here.

While his mother had been in the midst of asking him question after question after question - all practically the same except in different words - Jace had burst into the Institute, looking frantic, desperate and lost. Alec had got up immediately, cutting his mother off mid-sentence and wordlessly followed Jace. Alec could see in Jace's posture and attitude as he walked that Jace in no way was okay.

Without asking any questions, Alec had followed Jace into his own room where Jace had thrown himself into the chair he was sitting in now and had been in for the last twenty minutes.

The only words Jace muttered in that time was "Kill me, Alec." before he continued silently battering himself up. Alec had seen this side of Jace enough to know what was going on.

In some way, something had probably happened that had destroyed or ruined something that Jace probably blamed himself for though it probably wasn't even his fault in the first place. Jace had always had a tendency to blame himself for any mishap or anything, really. And even when it was evident that he want to blame, Jace would always manage to use his smart tongue and words to twist things up so Jace could still blame himself.

"Jace," Alec sighed.

"I'm not done," Jace muttered before relapsing into silence.

Alec sighed, ignoring what Jace said. "What happened? Talk, Jonathan Christopher Herondale."

"We're on full name basis now?" Jace said, finally looking up at Alec. His eyes were haunted and his expression blank.

"What happened?" Alec sighed.

"Well, if you must know, Alexander Gideon Lightwood, I screwed up." Jace said simply, leaning back onto the chair and running a hand through his hair.

"Screwed up what?" Alec said, leaning forward.

"Everything. I can't seem to stop hurting her," Jace groaned, running both his hands through his hair, pushing the long golden curls back.

"What did you do?"

"I … I don't know how to explain." Jace said, groaning in frustration. He got up suddenly and started pacing, his hands continuously running through his hair.

"From the start then."

Jace looked at Alec levelly and searched his eyes, as if to see if Alec would judge him. Alec put on his most trustful and open face because even though sometimes when Alec felt one way, his face and actions showed the other.

Jace seemed to be satisfied with his search before slumping back into the chair he had occupied a few moments ago.

"I saw Colette and I followed her." Jace started, his eyes troubled.

Already, Alec didn't like the story. Anything that started with Colette could never be good. But Alec kept quiet and silently urged Jace to go on.

"And so I followed her for quite a while; she wouldn't stop walking so I continued following her." Jace said, creases appearing in his forehead. Jace was rambling - something he barely did but would do when he couldn't process properly. Alec gave him a meaningful look and Jace exhaled in frustration. "I finally got her and when I did, I confronted her about what she did to Clary earlier today."

"Confronted her how?" Alec said curiously. He wouldn't have minded if Jace had thrown a punch or two. Or three. Or four. Five would be good too.

"Verbally." Jace said and his eyes glinted with regret. Whatever that happened next, Alec knew that Jace probably regretted not going with the physical option. Alec wished Jace had went with the physical option.

"I told her off, I screamed, I threatened and all that while, Colette smiled like some fool." Jace said through gritted teeth.

"And just when I was about to slap her, she kissed me." Jace said and Alec noticed that his parabatai paled slightly, as if the mention or thought of what he had just said sickened him like it some lethal poison that burned his mouth.

Alec's jaw dropped, to say the least. He wasn't expecting that.

"I pushed her off immediately of course but I heard this … sound of breaking glass and I thought someone had seen. I turned the corner and saw, out of all the 7 billion people in the world, Clary running away." Jace groaned the last part, slumping in his seat.

"Well, technically, all seven billion people wouldn't be able to fit in the Institute ..." Alec said, trying to lighten the mood. Obviously Jace didn't appreciate his effort because he reached backwards towards Alec's work table, picked up one of the thicker, soft cover books on the table and flung it at Alec. The book bounced of Alec's shoulder, pain prickling the place where the corner of the book had bounced off. It landed with a muted thud on the bed.

"I'm going to kill Colette when I get my hands on that airy bloated head of hers." Jace snarled, grinding his teeth together. He buried his face in his hands groaning.

"She must have known Clary was watching," Alec said, ignoring the already dulling pain in his shoulder. He figured that Jace was probably too full with angst to come up with witty one liners.

"But you didn't kiss her back, did you?" Alec said, raising an eyebrow.

Jace glared at Alec. "Of course not." Jace's golden eyes blazed angrily.

"But I thought Clary didn't have feelings for you?" Alec said, the fact popping into his head suddenly.

Jace sighed. "I don't know. I ..." Jace glared at Alec. "Now I feel like I'm upset over nothing."

"No, no, carry on."

"You should have heard her, Alec. The last time I heard her so broken or hurt was when we threw Jonathan's ashes into the Lake - okay, maybe not that bad but she still sounded so hurt ..." Jace said, his eyes burning with a memory. His voice was thick with regret. He shifted uncomfortably, making Alec wonder he was thinking or remembering.

"His name was Sebastian, Jace." Alec said patiently. Alec hated it when Jace called Sebastian Jonathan. The bastard didn't deserve the same name as Jace even though the real non demon Sebastian was someone who seemed like he would have been noble and funny and kind and gentlemanly. The real Sebastian, if he hadn't been tainted and contaminated by Lilith's blood since birth and even in the womb, could have been Jace's parabatai.

Sometimes, a picture of Jace and Sebastian laughing together, acting like brothers haunted Alec's mind. He pushed the image away now and tried to focus on Jace at the moment instead of his own petty jealousy over someone who was dead.

"I know," Jace said, looking at his callused hands - the hands of a warrior and a musician. Alec had always admired Jace for being able to balance his training and his music and come out at the top of both. He knew no other Shadowhunter, besides Clary, who could balance the two. It had been one of the things that had attracted him to Jace in the first place. He still did admire him for that ability to balance but now nothing more than utter respect.

"But it seems wrong for me to call him Sebastian. Sebastian was a demon, someone that was never supposed to exist if it wasn't for Lilith. The real Sebastian was Jonathan, someone who could love and regret and forgive and feel remorse and he died Jonathan, not Sebastian. He died as who he was supposed to be." Jace said, looking up from his callused fingers. "Don't get me wrong, I still hate the guy for what he did but I feel like calling him Jonathan is the least we could give him from the life he was supposed to have. I refuse to refer to him as Sebastian unless we're talking about him when he was Sebastian."

"Did you try looking for Clary?" Alec said, preferring the original topic.

"Yes. But I can't find her anywhere," Jace said. "Even if she's not … sad … I want to see her but I can't find her anywhere." Jace said, a slight tinge of desperation in his voice.

"Calm down, Jace." Alec said, stopping himself from going over there to slap some calm into Jace.

"I - I - I can't, Alec. Something doesn't feel right." Jace said, gritting his teeth.

"It could be the nerves. I mean she did catch you and Co-"

Jace visibly blanched before he shot him a glare that meant to burn him where he sat. Alec shut up immediately. "It's not. Before the War, when we were in Idris … I knew, I felt Clary was in trouble. And when I got to Amatis', Sebastian was there, threatening Clary."

"I thought the body of a guard shoved under a bridge was what alerted you?"

"That told me something was definitely wrong but I had this feeling long before that."

"Then why don't just track her with a rune?"

Jace's lips pressed together tightly and he reluctantly reached into his shirt and pulled out the chain that hung around his neck from which hung the Morgenstern ring.

Alec watched as Jace removed the chain from around his neck and dropped it into his right palm. He closed it and took out his stele with the other hand before drawing a rune on the back of his right hand.

Jace felt sick to his stomach. His one sided kiss with Colette was disgusting, to say the least. It had felt wrong in so many ways, the feeling of her lips against his.

Those lips weren't Clary's and worse of all, they belonged to Colette.

Jace fought back a shudder at the thought. He couldn't even comprehend what Colette was thinking when she had practically attacked him and kissed him. As surprised as he had been, his reaction had been immediate.

His hands had dropped to Colette's waist, squeezed and he had shoved her away, for a gentler word. The moment his lips where free, Jace had the sudden urge to spit. He had wiped his mouth with his sleeve repeatedly. He had screamed at Colette before going after Clary.

The kiss reminded Jace of another time, almost two years ago, in Idris. That time, he had been desperate to distract himself from his raging feelings for Clary. He had dragged Aline Penhallow into one of the rooms and they had escalated into a make out session. Even then, he only managed to make it through that by imagining it was Clary he was kissing. Even then, it had felt wrong but he had persevered anyways.

Jace closed his eyes and cleared his head and concentrated, waiting for the rune to take effect.

He waited for an image of where Clary was … and waited.

The moment seemed to drag on and on until just a quick flicker, the flash of an image appeared behind his eyelids. It was like looking through fog. He couldn't see the image properly, a fog of smoke blocking the pure vision. He saw the image of fire just before it disappeared, leaving Jace to looking at the inside of his eyelids again.

Slowly, he opened his eyes, meeting the blue eyes of his parabatai.

"Nothing." Jace said. He could feel his heartbeat picking up at a rapid speed. "I can't see anything." Jace said.

"Try again," Alec pressed.

Feeling hopeless, Jace repeated the tracking ritual again and this time with worse results.

Nothing.

He saw absolute darkness, not even a flicker of an image to guide him to wherever Clary was. His hand tightened on the ring in frustration, his eyes fluttering open.

"Jace," Alec warned. He was staring at Jace's hand which still clutched the Morgenstern ring. Jace looked at it and was surprised to see that crimson ran down his hand and dripped onto the hardwood of Alec's floor. He didn't feel the pain but he was shocked to see that he was bleeding.

He ungrasped his hand and saw that the sharp-cut edges of the ring had cut into his palm, leaving marks that were about a centimetre long with blood oozing from the cuts.

Alec exhaled angrily, kneeled before him and grabbed his injured hand and applied his stele to his wrist. Jace watched as Alec drew an iratze before pulling back.

"I saw nothing," Jace repeated, standing. He quickly slipped on the Morgenstern ring again, feeling the now slightly warm metal hit his chest.

"She couldn't have left the Institute, could she?" Alec said, standing as well.

"I don't know. She could have," Jace said, running a hand through his hair. "But even if she did, what could be disrupting the magic?"

"A large body of water maybe?" Alec suggested. Jace thought of any other ways that could block magic but he was too stressed to think properly. He hated feeling so...vulnerable but the other thought of losing Clary again was unbearable, almost physically painful for Jace. It was making him impulsive and it was clouding his usual state of mind.

"Unless Clary fell into the East River or if you fancy checking every single lake in New York and Brooklyn, I don't think so." Jace said. He could feel the worry and frustration slowly building up in his chest, peaking to a boil until it could no longer collect anymore and it would explode.

"It could be the Blocks in her mind." Jace said, twisting the Herondale ring fidgetily around his left middle finger.

"But Blocks don't do that, Jace." Alec said in a gentle voice, as if he were talking to a toddler that had a problem with understanding the concept of a rainbow.

"But her case isn't ordinary, is it? Jem said so himself." Jace said and instead of reveling in the fact that he was right like usual, he only felt cold ice spreading and traveling through his body. What if the Block in Clary's mind barred all ways of tracking her? The thought made Jace's stomach flip in his body. He gritted his, teeth, determined to get a grip on himself. Alec but his entire lower lip, looking like he didn't have a comeback for what Jace had just said.

"Blocks can't, Jace. They're mental, all in the mind. Tracking is physical. It's just not possible." Alex said after a while. Jace exhaled frustratedly. His parabatai was right.

"But something is seriously wrong, Alec." Jace started towards the door and Alec followed him, his own eyebrows furrowed in thought.

"I'll go get Isabelle," Alec said as he took off in the opposite direction. "Why don't you head to the library first?"

Jace nodded curtly and continued taking long strides which was all Jace could manage so he wouldn't break into a sprint.

He did, however, start a mild jog before it turned out into a moderate run.

He shouldered the library doors open and halted in his action when he saw who was in the library.

It was as if a switch had been flipped inside him because Jace's worrying was momentarily pushed to the back of his head, storm clouds replacing the front part of his mind.

Colette, the royal queen bee pain in the ass, sat on one of the chairs, looking very, very pleased. Her eyes were slightly hooded, a small smile playing on her lips.

"Hey, Jace," Colette greeted, her smile growing slightly wider.

Jace gritted his teeth, his eyes searching for Maryse.

"She's on the second floor," Colette said lazily, crossing her legs.

Without saying anything, Jace silently headed towards the staircase. He took the steps two by two and spotted a crown of black peeking out from behind a bookshelf.

"I can't find Clary." Jace said, pushing hair out of his eyes.

"I'm sure she's around somewhere, Jace." Maryse said, distracted as she flipped through a book.

"She's not. I can't find her." Jace said.

"Jace, relax. I'm sure she's around here. Just go take some more time to look for her.

"Jace!" Alec called.

"What?"

"I found Isabelle. But that's not all I found," The tone Alec was using made Jace blood run cold. He sounded horrified and slightly shaken.

"I was just wondering around and I found this splatter of blood on the third floor against one of the doors, Jace," Isabelle said.

"Whose?" Jace asked, almost afraid for the answer.

"I don't know. But Jace, it could be Clary's."

"Whatever it is, I don't think she's in the Institute anymore. I can't track her."

Jace joined Alec and Isabelle on the ground floor.

"How should we -" Isabelle started but cut off at the sound of a howling meow. Jace looked up and saw Church limping into the library, looking more angry and annoyed than hurt. One of its hind legs was bleeding, it's fur there matted with drying blood.

A bracelet hung from Church's mouth. He dropped it at its feet and commenced to licking itself clean.

"What happened, Church?" Jace said as he approached the injured animal. In response, Church hissed and spat angrily before continuing his self cleaning. Jace picked up the bracelet that Church had dropped.

It wasn't anything expensive looking or particularly fancy but a single charm hanged from the metal bracelet. It was the rune for freedom.

It was covered in dirt and blood. Dried blood.

"Ew. Put it back in the greenhouse where it belongs," Colette murmured. She had come closer for a lbook at the bracelet but she was standing a little too close to Jace for her safety.

Before Jace could knock Colette's teeth in, her words registered in his head.

"How did you know this was from the greenhouse?" Jace said slowly. He turned to look at Colette who had paled.

"I guessed." Colette replied quickly.

"Colette." Jace hissed.

Jace glared into Colette's eyes and spotted the slight glint of spite in her eyes. He was about to push her further but Isabelle beat him to it by tackling Colette to the floor.

A/N - Hey! What do you think so far? Do you officially hate me? Thanks for reading and please leave a review if you like.