The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.
― G.K. Chesterton
Clary
Standing in the Institutes front garden, carving runes into the stone gates, I can't help but remember the time when I was first transported to Idris, when I was dropped right into Lake Lyn along with Luke. I remember being so overwhelmed. I was not going to be left behind like some stupid child who would be in the way. So I jumped right in and drew whatever came to mind at the time. And almost died.
But at least now I have more control over my powers, and I can do so much more than I would have ever imagined. I feel useful, and I feel like I belong exactly where I am. No matter how scary it gets, I know I have my friends and family. And they have me.
So I push down the lump of fear that keeps lodging itself in my throat and finish the Portal, feeling fuzzy and tired from all of the energy that I've used up tonight.
"Here," my parabatai walks up to where I lean against the wall, watching the Portal open up. She takes out her stele and gestures to my arms. I hold them out and follow the black lines that come out of the tip, feeling much more energized by the time she is finished. "Do mine, too."
I really like this about parabatai, even though I never really noticed it before. Sure, I knew that there were certain things that parabatai could do that normal Shadowhunters couldn't, but I never realized the extent of it all. Just drawing runes on one another enhances the strength of the rune, and we are tuned into each other's bodies. We can feel when the other is getting weak or tired, and we can compensate for that, to protect one another better. It's amazing.
"Thanks, Iz," I sigh and roll my shoulders, feeling the energy vibrate through my body. "Let's get going."
Everybody quickly gathers around the Portal. Jace enters first, followed closely by Isabelle and I.
Stepping through the icy waves feels the same as it has every other time I've traveled by Portal, whipping me around blindly and chilling me deeply. I land hard on my feet, stumbling immediately, but Isabelle is at my side, helping me straighten out.
"Thanks," I murmur. My parabatai gives me a half smile back. I look around to see that we've landed in Angel Square. I had aimed for us to land just outside of the walls, and the fact that we Portaled directly into Alicante is grounds for worry. It means that there's something wrong with the wards.
The other factor that added to that unease is the Square. It's empty. Entirely, completely empty. Not a soul walks the grounds, and the bronze statue of the Angel Raziel that sits in the middle of the square is upended and mangled.
"This isn't good," Jace says, his voice low and cautious. My mother and Luke walk up beside me, both with concern on their faces.
"I'll take the pack up to the Armory and see what it's like over there," Luke says, quickly gathering his men and signalling them to head out.
"Be careful," I hear my mom whisper to him, before she places a tender kiss on his scruffy jaw. I turn away, and walk towards towards Jace, Isabelle, and Adira.
"Accords Hall or the Gard?" I ask them. We need to figure out what's going on, where everybody is. Those two places are the most likely to give us answers.
"We should head up to the Gard and see if there's anybody home. Maybe they used the Portal to evacuate," Adira says quietly, looking between us all for confirmation.
"We'll take care of that. If there's anybody left in Alicante, they'll be in the Gard; it's the safest building here," Maryse says, walking up to us briefly and explaining to us that we should go to the Accords Hall and see what shape it's in. From here in the Square, the Hall looks fine. It's dark out and there's no sort of huge disruption, besides the statue of Raziel being turned over.
"Be careful," Maryse says, giving Isabelle and Jace both a loving glance. When she starts to walk away, Isabelle steps forward.
"Mom…" Isabelle calls weakly. Maryse turns around and Isabelle approaches her awkwardly. I can't hear what they say, but Iz pulls her in for a hug, holding tight. Maryse looks up, finding Jace standing among us and holds her hand out. It's such a sweet gesture, welcoming Jace into her hug with Isabelle. With his mom and sister.
Jace's face lights up and I can't help the smile that creeps up on my own at watching him hold both his mother and his sister close.
I turn to find my mom, and she walks up to me, with Luke at her side.
"Be careful, baby," my mom whispers. "We're going to try to regroup here, but if anything happens…" She trails off and Luke rubs his hand across her back.
"Just be safe. Do what you need to do, but be safe," Luke places a hand on each of our backs and nods positively. I sigh and we break apart, finding our own groups and heading out.
"Let's get this over with, already," Simon speaks up from where he stands next to Izzy. I nod in his direction.
"Agreed."
When we are closer to the Great Hall, Jace is the first to take out his seraph blade and name it. I, however, pull out my new sword. I can just as easily cut down an Endarkened Shadowhunter with this, as with an angel blade.
"Should we knock?" Simon asks. His voice is wavering, but I know that he's just attempting to joke.
We line up at the massive entrance, each of us holding some sort of weapon in front of us, prepared to strike. Isabelle, with her electrum whip, pulsing with energy; Simon with his gifted daggers lining his belt and an arrow notched in his bow. We probably look like a ragtag group of kids, especially Simon with his normal jeans and hoodie, and me with my crazy hair whipping around. At least Jace and Isabelle look ready to kill.
Jace steps forward and nudges both doors open with his foot, throwing a spare witchlight deep into the room. It cracks and skids against the marble floor before settling near the middle. The room appears to be empty.
"Let's go," Jace grunts, his own witchlight held up in the air for more light. Isabelle reaches into her pockets and pulls one out, nodding for me to follow her off to the right. Jace and Simon go in the opposite direction.
We briskly circle the large ballroom-type area, and end up meeting back in the middle, all of us with matching looks of disbelief. There isn't a single person here.
"There's always the antechambers to the sides, and the halls to check," Isabelle whispers, her eyes constantly moving, searching for movement.
"We'll take the western half," Jace speaks finally, not looking too happy to split from us.
"Ten minutes," Isabelle says pointedly towards Jace and Simon. "Be back here." The finality of her voice is undeniably protective. Don't get hurt, it says.
Jace takes my hand quickly, and gives it three firm squeezes, accompanied by, "I love you."
I whisper the words back and squeeze his hand in the same sequence. I love you.
Then we head out. Isabelle leads us to the Eastern side of the cavernous hall, and through a set of French doors into a long corridor that runs the length of the building.
"Let's be quick about this," I say nervously.
"Don't worry," Isabelle smiles sharply at me. "I've got your back, Clary."
"I'm not worried for me." I open the nearest door, my witchlight illuminating the room and revealing that it's empty.
"I know. You can take care of yourself, sure. You're worried about everybody else." She says it so matter-of-factly.
She always knows how I'm feeling, and I don't know if that's because of our parabatai bond, or because she's just intuitive. I just know that it's nice to not have to explain yourself once in a while; she just gets it. She gets me.
And it works the other way around as well. Our friendship is much different than it was back before we became parabatai. It's closer, more understanding-
"Clary!" Isabelle hisses under her breath. "Something's up ahead."
I train my eyes ahead and strain to hear what she hears. Footsteps. An uneven tread, a thump and then a scraping noise.
I slowly move to the side of the hall, hiding myself in a little niche in the wall, and Izzy does the same, crouching behind a potted plant on the other side of the hall. She closes her fist on the witchlight, so that a sliver shines through her fingers, barely illuminating her face. I feel around my belt for my stele, raking my hand across a dagger by accident. Finally my hand closes on the cool, smooth oblong object and I whip it out.
The light from Isabelle's witchlight barely reaches me, but it is enough for me to draw a vision rune into my arm. I grit my teeth at the sting, but the Mark is finished in seconds. I put it away and peek around the corner.
Just meters down the hall is a hulking, disfigured person, if person is even the word to describe it. The Forsaken are mundanes who have had runes inflicted upon their skin, driving them crazy. It transforms their bodily appearance just as much as their minds; they don't have minds, anymore. No thoughts, no feelings, no pain. They're basically zombies, they'll kill anything in their way.
Luckily for Isabelle and I, one Forsaken isn't a problem.
I look over and see Isabelle sitting on one knee, her whip poised to flick out. I give her a thumbs up and poise my own blade for backup.
In a flash of silver, her whip slices through the air, licking around the torso of the rotting creature. It emits a cry of rage and stumbles forward, but before it can lunge for Isabelle, I jump out and swing my sword down, my black blade sinking into its legs. As it falls, my parabatai quickly dismembers the creature. We hop over the putrid smelling body and continue down the hall as planned, clearing each room as we go.
"You know, you've been pretty calm about all this," Isabelle comments after a while. I look over at her with a shrug.
"Can't afford anymore breakdowns," I mutter, knocking open another door. I'm greeted by a figure jumping towards me, giving me no time to react. I shriek and I try to move away, but then I feel Izzy push me from the side and circle with the Dark Shadowhunter.
"Shit," I mutter and get back to my feet. I come up behind the man and swing my sword down with as much force as I can manage. My already-bloody sword sinks in between their shoulder-blades and a thick, black substance leaks out of the deep gash. Gross.
It turns on me and I step one foot back, bracing myself and holding my sword in front of me like Jace taught me. I dodge when he lunges, and swing around to block his strange, black blade with mine. It looks like the demonic equivalent of a seraph blade.
Isabelle cinches the adamas whip around its legs, tripping it up like an At-At. I go for the killing blow and let my blade sink deep into the back of the guy's neck, severing the spinal cord, and nearly his whole head.
It's not the blood, or the dead look in the guys eye that catches me off guard when I roll over. It's the silver wedding band on his left hand that sends me reeling.
Knowing that this man was someone's husband, someone's father, someone's son… It sets into my stomach like nausea, and I kneel down beside him. At one point, sometime before being forced into this, he was a Shadowhunter. He fought for his people, at some point, before being forced into this life.
"Ave Atque Vale, brother," I mumble.
I stand up and brush past Isabelle, my sword in hand. I can do this. I can do this.
We meet Simon and Jace back in the main hall, where they report their findings.
"Just a few Endarkened and Forsaken. Simon got a little practice in, too, didn't ya buddy?" Jace smirks and claps Simon on the back.
Simon, on the other hand, looks a bit ragged and sickly. He has a black fluid on the front of his shirt, and he looks a bit tired.
"What the hell did you guys do?" Isabelle asks sharply, eyeing Simon cautiously.
"I fanged a damn Endarkened Shadowhunter. It. Was. Horrible!"
Ew. Poor Si.
"Gross," Isabelle mutters and shakes her head at Jace.
"Are you going to be okay, Simon?" I ask. Jace rolls his eyes.
"He's fine, he just doesn't like the taste."
"Considering that dude tasted like the ass of a camel, no, I did not enjoy it," he sputters, wiping the back of his hand across his mouth, and then onto his jeans.
"It's peculiar how you can manage to make something seem so comical in the middle of all this," Jace says with an appreciative smile, gesturing around us. We're in the middle of a war, and of course, Simon seems to inadvertently lift everybody's spirits. He's pretty cool in that way.
When we exit the Hall, a number of things are off, but the most noticeable manifests itself in the form of a great, orange bonfire, reaching for the sky and the surrounding grass. It's not a bonfire at all, though.
The flames nip at the surrounding foliage, cocooning the emerald surroundings with smoke and turning it to black ash. The smell is acrid and makes me gag in disgust.
We all hurtle towards the flames, scanning the area for disturbance. When we get close enough to choke on the smoke, I can almost feel the death. My sword is drawn and I dance around the flames with Isabelle at my side; Jace and Simon are also circling the area.
And there it is, the source of the fire.
A body.
My first thought goes straight to my mother and Luke, and my heart stutters dangerously, my breath tight.
"MOM," my parabatai screams, and I can feel the pain, the anguish that rips through Isabelle. Jace's arms are slack, his blade held loosely between his fingers. His face mirrors Isabelle's.
And then she's gone, charging towards the flames. Simon intercepts her and holds her back. She lashes out at him, and I have to help him wrestle her to the ground; if she keeps on like this, she's going to get herself killed, too.
Maryse Lightwood is dead. My parabatai's mother is laid in a heap, unceremoniously dumped and set alight without a proper funeral.
"Jace!" I call, looking back for him, but he's nowhere in my line of sight. "Simon, where did Jace go?!" I scream over Isabelle's sobs.
"I don't know, I'm a bit busy, Clary!" He bites back. I wince at his harshness, but seeing him holding her like that, like she is his whole world, softens me. His whole world is falling apart right under him, complete with running mascara. "Izzy, baby, listen to me, look at me!" He pleads with her, holding her contorted face in between his hands.
I know he can handle it, though, and I leave him to find Jace. I know what he's planning on doing- it's obvious that Jonathan did this; he's done everything. But I have no clue where to even look. The path leading away from the Angel's Square is empty, not a soul in sight.
Until about ten minutes down the trail, when I see a light up at the Gard. I jog up the small hillock and see that the light isn't light. It's fire. It's Jace.
A golden fire lights his body, licking around him hungrily. Yet, he remains perfectly in tact.
Heavenly Fire.
And charging at him with a gleaming sword that matches my own, is my brother.
Been a while, eh? Whoopsies. Hope you enjoyed it. 3 more chapters. Are you excited? Nervous? Drop me a review and let me know how you feel!
Also, I have a lot more up on Wattpad. I have an awesome HP fanfic that I'm working on in my spare time. I know, I shouldn't pick up ANOTHER story until I have time, but this is seriously a total side project right now. It's really good though. I also have some 5SOS Smut over there x'D
Don't judge me xD
Anyways my wattpad is user/MrsJaceWaylandHeron or just MrsJaceWaylandHeron if the link doesn't work xD
ALSO. I have an outtake from this story.
MY version of Clace's first time, as seen in chapter 33! It is lightly smutty (:
Please please leave a review, gois. It'd be so fucking appreciated, I love you guys!
Emily