Since this is the last chapter, I just wanted to say a special thanks to those who have followed and favorited my story. It truly means the world to me. Every time I would get a little chime on my phone and see that it was from Fanfiction, it would make my day. Seriously. And a super special thanks to those who took the time to review it. Your reviews are what kept me going when I just wanted to give up on writing this story when I would get a block. I truly love all of ya'll!


-Jace

I land on my feet when the portal dumps me out over the hill of the lake shore. Right when Clary and I stepped into the portal, her hand was pulled from mine. I spin around quickly to look for her, but I see nothing. No flash of red hair or pale skin. "Shit!" I loudly whisper in frustration. I have to get to Valentine because if I know my Clary, that is where she would go if we were separated. I pull out my sword and slink up to the top of the hill and scan the lake shore while keeping low to the ground. I can barely see anything so I quickly draw a Nightvision rune on my arm. I feel it take affect and then scan the shore again.

"There!" I whisper. The view is partially obscured by a large tree, but I can make out Valentine standing by some sort of a table about 150 yards away. Just as I am about to push myself up, I see him turn around and look down at something on the ground. I look to the direction he is gazing and see something moving. 'Oh no. No, no, no, no.' I say to myself. Clary is immobile and lying on the ground.

I stand up and take off running. I still have to take a roundabout way there for him not to see me coming. As I am running, I can't help but curse myself for my stupidity. I should have held onto her tighter. Hell, I should have never let her come with me. And now, the man who wants her dead has her completely helpless. The only good thing I can think about right now is that, knowing Valentine, he will want to gloat to her. Make her watch as he completes his dream. 'There is still time' I chant in my head.

I make it to a few trees on the opposite side of Valentine from where I just was and I am close now. I can hear Valentine talking, but not Clary. I peak around the tree and see that his back is to me. I take the opportunity to sneak up behind him. As I am getting closer, I can hear his voice is angry and on the verge of screaming. I don't have anytime to waist because he is losing his patience with whatever is stalling him from doing his 'work'.

As I am closing the last few dozen feet, I catch the end of what he is saying. "I was just going to cut my hand, but when I saw you, I knew that I was meant to take your blood. That God had sent me you to help me along." Valentine sneers and I watch in horror as he raises the Mortal Sword at Clary who is practically unmoving on the ground. My mind quickly registers that she is alive and mostly unhurt except for the gash on her forehead. I raise my sword and close the last few feet to Valentine. "You will not touch her, father." I spit out at him.

He spins around and has a surprised look on his face as he sees the sword at his chest. "Everyday," I start to say, "Everyday, I regret not killing you at Renwicks. But I won't make that mistake again."

"Wait, son." Valentine gets out. I cringe internally at the word son. "I don't want to kill you. You are the only son I have left after what she did." He motions his to Clary behind him with a jerk of his head without taking eyes off of me. I can see the predatory glint in them and his body is tense. From the corner of my vision, I can see Clary moving around in quiet and quick movements. I don't dare look at her. I don't want to give her away and I can't afford not to look at my opponent. I just wish I could see what she is doing.

"She had to kill him or he would have raped her, you sick bastard." Did he forget about that part? Any father who would be okay with letting one child rape another surely deserves to die. "You never loved me." I say venomously to Valentine. "You only kept me until I outlived my usefulness and you decided that I wasn't good enough for you." He doesn't know the meaning of love, let alone how it feels.

"That's not true, Jace." He says calmly and with false conviction. "I loved you for your pure heart. If you believe nothing else, believe that." Something tugs at my heart at the way he says the last part. For about a millisecond, I allow my heart to break before I remember who he is. What a manipulator he is. "Liar!" I shout at him. I can see Clary moving around behind Valentine. She is coming closer and I think she is going to try and grab a weapon from the pile at his feet. I need to lure him a little way towards me to give Clary some breathing room while I continue to distract him.

"You know I am not lying. I have always loved you." There he goes, spouting that bullshit again. "And now," Valentine continues, "you have turned your back against me over and over again for this stupid girl!" He leans his body back out of the reach of my sword as he spins and brings the sword down towards my Clary. Before I can register what is happening, ice cold water runs through my veins and I watch as he stabs Clary in the stomach.

I am frozen. Frozen with shock and fear. I don't even remember deciding to wail from the pit of my stomach, but that is what sets me free from inside my head. Clary looks down at her stomach and brings her hands up to the wound and then looks back up to me and we lock eyes. I force myself into motion and catch her as she falls. I pull her into my arms as I rest most of her body in my lap. I pull her forehead to mine while my heart feels like it is being squeezed with a hand that someone shoved inside of my chest.

"No, Clary. No, no, no." I whisper to her. "Don't leave me." She can't leave me. Not when I just got her. I can only imagine blackness when I think of a future without her. I pull out my stele, knowing with the wound she has, it will be useless. I draw an iratze on her, pushing all of my love for her into it, and I watch as is sinks into her skin and rapidly fades away; a sign that it isn't going work.

I look down at her face and see that water is falling from me. I hadn't even realized I was crying. She opens her mouth like she is going to say something, but she just chokes on her own blood. I can feel my heart being squeezed impossibly harder and am now finding it hard to breath past the sensation. I bring my hand to her face and rest my forehead against hers. "Clary, please, please, please don't leave me. I can't live without you. I love you." Her eyes that have been trained on mine slowly start to drift closed and her muscles begin to relax. I have seen enough of death to know what it looks like. My love is slipping away. A pain is rippling up from my stomach and into my chest. I feel it move past my throat and it comes out of my mouth as a guttural scream. I squeeze her limp body in my grip, holding her. I bury my face in her hair as it wets with my tears and take a deep breath, taking in the smell of her shampoo. My body is shuddering. Wracking with grief. I have just lost the only thing in my life worth living for. I look up from my love and see Valentine standing a little ways away, staring at me.

"I am so sorry, son." He says quietly. It almost seems like he is trying to look remorseful. I look back down at my beautiful Clary and kiss her lips one last time. I lay her down gently on the ground and brush the hair out of her face and slide my jacket off and place it over her wound. All the while, I am resolving myself to stop Valentine. To kill him. Because of him, I have lost everything to live for.

I raise my head up and meet Valentine's eyes with mine. I reach down beside me and pick up the sword that I had laid there. I rise and walk in a wide arc away from Clary to get an unobstructed path of attack. Valentine holds one of his hands up while the other grips the Mortal Sword, still dripping with his own daughter's blood. "Listen Jonathan," he purrs at me.

"Do not call me Jonathan." I say through clenched teeth. I am waiting for the perfect moment to attack. While he is trying to put off an air of concern and worry, I can still see his muscles tensed, ready to explode into action.

"I did that for your own good." He says. This makes my blood boil and I can feel pure hatred unfurl itself in my belly. "Clarissa was making you weak. She was all you thought about. You had forgotten who you were."

"Don't you fucking say her name you son of a bitch." I spit out at him. "You have no clue who I am. She is what made me strong. She brought nothing but light and goodness into this world and everyone that came in contact with her could see it. Except for you." I take a step closer to him. "Everyone preferred her over you and that filled you with unbridled jealousy." I take another step closer. "You are a sad, sad man. You were so jealous because even though she was raised in the mundane world, she was more powerful than you would ever be."

Valentine's face has twisted into something rage filled. His eyes have narrowed into slits and his lips have thinned and pulled back to expose his gritted teeth. "Your wrong, Jace. She was just a common whore just like her mother; throwing herself at her own brother. You should have seen the way she tossed herself at him. Wearing tight clothes and..."

My vision clouds with red and I lunge at Valentine. I bring my sword down toward him while my other hand reaches in my belt and pulls out a throwing knife. While Valentine is deflecting my second attack, I bring my other hand up and twist toward him and bring the knife down towards his heart. Right at the last second, he turns slightly and dips and the knife goes into him right where his clavicle bone meets his shoulder. I pull back instantly, but he has already kicked my legs out from under me from when he dipped down to deflect my blow. 'I have to kill him for Clary' I say in my head over and over. Every time I say it, I get angrier and angrier and that is where I go wrong. The first rule of fighting is to keep your head in the fight. Never let your emotions take over. That is why when he kicks my legs out, he is able to stab me in my left shoulder. He pulls the sword back and looks down at me. I try to grab my sword, but the moment I try to lift it, copious amounts of pain radiate from the wound.

I roll to the side to try to get to my feet and Valentine brings down the sword again and slashes a huge cut in my right thigh. I can feel the muscles being severed and recoiling under my skin. I grunt in pain as I start to see spots in my vision. "I don't want to have to kill you, son. You are all I have left." Valentine says down at me.

"Fuck you!" I choke out at him.

"You will eventually see that I did this," he looks around himself, surveying his handiwork in the form of his dead daughter, "for you." When Valentine says this, I can hear the conviction of his belief in his voice. "She made you weak. To love is to destroy and to be loved is to be the one destroyed. How many times have I told you this?" He raises his arms out wide and gestures everywhere. "And where are you now because of her? And where is she?"

I try to get up again and grunt out in pain as I fall back against the dirt. "Stay there, Jace. I will heal you after you see Raziel, who is on my side, and then tell me that I am wrong." His eyes are hard and unwavering as he turns around and approaches his make shift table. I lean my head back because the world is starting to swim. I close my eyes to try and get a better hold on myself. That is when I see Clary. She is standing in front of me with her hair blowing gently from wind. She smiles down at me and says, "Jace. You can't give up now. Look around you. A stele will set you free. I am counting on you. I love you."

And just like that, she vanishes. Although the rational part of my brain says that I was hallucinating, my heart says she was real. I could feel her presence inside of me.

I snap my eyes back open and see Valentine with his back to me chanting in some language I have never heard before. I see him raising his hands, each of them holding one of the Mortal Instruments. I look around me and see a circle with Valentine's rune that means his name. He showed it to me when I was nine and told me I had to make one for myself. But why would he have his rune scratched into the dirt in the middle of the circle? "That's it, Jace." Clary's voice says to me.

If I can just get to the circle and write my own rune in there, maybe that would mean something. I start to drag myself with my one good arm and one good leg to the circle. I want to make a noise from the pain, but I bite down on my lip. I reach the circle and reach down for my stele only to find it missing. I look around me frantically and see one in Clary's hand just a few feet away. My heart gives another agonizing squeeze as I roll and reach her hand. I pull it up and give it a quick kiss and take the small stele from her. I roll back and look up to see Valentine throw the Mortal Cup into the lake and I know I don't have much time. I rub my hand in the dirt and bring the stele to the circle and quickly draw the rune meaning my name just as I hear the Mortal Sword hit the water.

-Clary

I open my eyes to darkness. I don't really see anything. I look down and see that the wound in my stomach is amazingly gone. I sit up quickly and look around. Still nothing. I pull myself to my feet and I see a light in the distance. I could have sworn it wasn't there just a second ago. I start to make my way to the light when I hear my angel's voice coming from somewhere below me. I spin in circles looking for him. I run to the side a little and then make a big arch in my efforts to find him. After a minute of searching, I see a dim light coming from under me. I look down and see my Jace lying on the ground, bleeding from his shoulder and his leg. I try to reach out to him, but it is like I am seeing him from the tallest tree and no matter how much I try, I can't climb down to him. I see him try to get up, but he can't. I can hear Valentine say something that I can't make out. Jace closes his eyes and I can tell that he is tired and in pain and wants to give up. I growl in frustration because no matter what I do, I can't reach him. I extend my arm and it hits a wall. I pound on it a few times before I fall back onto the floor.

I close my eyes and with everything that I have, I will my soul to leave my body. I can feel his presence after a moment and it feels like he is with me here. I smile a little at his presence.

"Jace." I say to him. "You can't give up now. Look around you. A stele with set you free. I am counting on you. I love you." I can feel myself snap back into my body like a rubber band. I look back down at my angel and watch him as he drags himself across the ground and then everything goes black. The light vanishes and I suddenly feel cold. I roll to my feet and push up to a standing position for the second time. I spin in circles, trying to find the light again to no avail. It suddenly gets very cold like someone sucked all of the warmth out of the air. I start to shiver and wrap my arms around myself. I don't know what I am supposed to do.

"Clary." I hear Jace say from somewhere behind me. "Jace?!" I shout out. I can see the light again, except this one is brighter and much closer. "Clary." Jace's voice says from the light. I don't hesitate for a second and I run full on towards the light. "Jace!" I shout as I reach the light. It engulfs me and I am suddenly falling fast.

I open my eyes and see beautiful stars. Millions of stars. I turn my head to the left and see a familiar mop of golden hair. "Jace." I breath out. I sit up and his jacket that was somehow on me slides off. I crawl the short distance to him and grab him by the face. He his awfully pale and his lips are an alarming shade of blue. "Jace!" I shout out as I shake his head. His eyes flutter open and he smiles lazily up at me. "Clary." he whispers. I look down at him and see that he is still injured. I grab the stele out of his hand and rip his shirt open. I put the stele to his skin and I can feel the angel's blood flowing through me. I put all of myself into the stele. All of my love for him. All of my desire for him to live. Everything that I have, I pour into the iratze that I have drawn on his chest. It glows and amazing gold before it sinks into his skin and I watch as the color floods back into him. His beautiful lips flush pink and his skin warms to it's beautiful tanned color and even his hair looks more golden that usual.

That is when I feel all of my energy drain out of me and I slump to the ground beside him. I sit there for a minute staring at the stars again until I hear Jace's voice. I turn my head to the side and see that he is looking at me so I smile at him. "Clary?!" He shouts at me. He rolls over to me and sits up on his knees and leans back on his feet next to me.

I probably should have said something prophetic but all I manage to say is, "Hey Jace."

His face lights up like that was the most amazing thing anyone, anywhere could have said to him and a tear escapes his eye. "Clary. You're here." He whispers to me.

I reach my hand up, even though it feels like it weighs a ton, and brush the tear from his cheek. "I heard you calling for me, Jace. You were my light and I ran to you."

He smiles wildly and brings his lips down to mine. I can feel all of his love for me in this one kiss and it almost breaks my heart. It feels like my heart just doubled in size with love.

"I'm tired." I say to him when he pulls back.

"It's okay, my love. I'm here. Just rest. You have been through a lot." I turn my face into his hand on my face and kiss it before I close my eyes and let the tiredness sweep over me.


The next few days are a whirlwind. Shadowhunters arrived at the lake shortly after I healed Jace and took us back to the hospital. I vaguely remember Jace shouting a long stream of profanities as they pulled him away from me to check him for any injuries. When I opened my eyes again, he was there holding my hand. He smiled down at me and kissed my hand that was in his and then he brought his lips to mine. When he pulled away, my mom and Luke came swooping in and wrapping me in a hug while my mother's tears soaked the shoulder of my shirt. All the while, Jace never letting go of my hand. By the time the second day rolled around, I had to kick him out when I had lunch to take a shower. He was starting to smell after refusing to leave my side for almost three days. He must have taken the worlds fastest shower, because 25 minutes later, he was holding my hand again with his hair still wet.

On the third day, they finally let me go. Izzy had shown up and joined my mother, Luke, and Jace to escort me outside to see Simon waiting with a handful of freshly pulled wildflowers. Why they wouldn't let downworlders in the hospital was beyond me. I ran to him and he grabbed me up in his arms and spun me around while we giggled like little school girls. They all walked me to Luke's sister's house, where my mom and Luke were staying (and now unfortunately me against my will), and said their goodbyes. My mom and Luke walked inside the house because Jace said he wanted to talk to me about something. Mom very reluctantly agreed and I was standing here on the steps while my beautiful boyfriend grasps both of my hands in his.

"I have something for you, Clary." I scrunch my eyebrows together and look at him with confusion. What could he possibly have for me? He hasn't left my side to even get anything. "I wanted to wait till we were alone and now that your mom is back, I don't think that will be happening much." I let out a small breathy humorless laugh. "I don't know why this means so much to you after everything he did, but for some reason, it does." He reaches into his back pocket and pulls out a stele with a pattern of stars on it.

"Jonathan's stele!" I whisper shout. I reach out and take it from him, grasping it tightly.

"I grabbed it before we left the lake shore that night. I saw how you treasured it after...he died."

"I don't know why it means so much to me either." I admit to him. "All I know is he was my brother. I never had a brother. My real brother was stolen from me before he was even born. But I still felt like deep down, there was still some small part of the brother I should have had buried in there somewhere." I look back down at the stele and continue talking. "When I see this, I see that part of my brother. The untainted part. It is the only thing I have of his; that connects me to him and proves that he was real." I turn my head back up and look into his golden eyes. "I don't expect anyone to understand it. Hell, I don't even fully understand it." I take a deep breath. "But I..."

Jace stops me there. "No. I get it. I don't know why I still wear this," he gestures to the Morgenstern ring, "and why it means so much to me. I am not even a Morgenstern. It just does. I don't think everything has to make sense. So, you hold on to his stele and I will hold onto this."

I smile up at him while he bends down to kiss me. "I love you Jace. Always have and always will." He brushes his hand across my face before leaning into me again. "And I love you, Clary." and he kisses me once again.

-Lilith

My beautiful baby boy lies in a coffin filled with enchanted liquid to preserve his body. I brought him back to Edom while I prepare for my revenge. I will lay waste to the filthy, worthless girl who killed him. I will give her to my son and he will do with her what he pleases. I know just the enchantment and rune to do it with. Soon enough, she will be under his control and he will lay waste to this world.

The End


Thank all of ya'll (yes, I am from the south) for reading my story! I hope you enjoyed it. I will be writing two more stories soon. The ideas have been floating around in my head for weeks, but I really wanted to finish this one before I started any others. One will be a Clace story (rated T) and the other will be a Clonathan story (rated M). I promise the Clonathan story will actually make you become a Clonathan fan if you aren't. Clary and Jonathan will grow up together in Valentine's twisted world with only each other to lean on. It will deal with dark themes and a sometimes dark Clary.

The Clace story will be (hopefully) funny and more upbeat with a lighter theme, but Clary will still face some hardships on her road to finding out who she is and being with Jace in an alternate universe. So, in other words, follow me! It should be interesting to see how I balance these two stories that have been dominating my head for forever now.

Thanks again, for reading. Ya'll are the best!

-ReadingIsForNerds