Jace was losing. He knew it. Felt it in the sweat he spent; in the blood he spilt. Odds were, he would die today, but there was that silent acceptance he'd always had, the truth of that possibility he'd carried everyday, since first becoming a Shadowhunter.

But he still planned on taking Sebastian with him.

"You just won't die, will you?" Sebastian hissed, throwing another arch down on him. Jace moved, rolling to the left, ignoring the stones that stabbed sharply between his shoulder blades. "Maybe it's a good thing," Sebastian continued. "Then you won't miss the end. And I like those that I kill, to know they will not win before they die."

"I wouldn't have believed otherwise," Jace spat, no longer making reckless advances. He evaded Sebastian's blade that tore through the air, whistling past his ears, scathing small parts of his arms and legs. He blocked out the sound of the battle he was drowning in, not noticing the new current that had begun to lit the air.

"Wayland!" Someone shouted suddenly, and Jace shifted with blurring speed, keeping Sebastian in his peripheral vision as he saw something flash forward where he'd heard the shout. A sword. He saw it, carving its way through the air. Before Sebastian's could sink into him, Jace flipped around and caught the blade, ignoring the nick the movement brandished on his arms.

He reveled in Sebastian's surprised look as he pointed his weapon at him. "It's Lightwood," he corrected, before taking the first advance.

Sebastian and Jace blurred together. One cloaked in shadow, the other clad in armor, smearing in whirls of black, disappearing in out of the surrounding darkness.

Clary couldn't tell what was happening. Could barely comprehend the sight as others surged around them, encircling their own enemies, two black rivers cutting the middle as shadowhunters ran both to and from Magnus. They were no longer the vulnerable, defenseless beings Sbeastian had depended on them to be. Now they were attacking the hybrids with newfound force, forged in the hearth of vengeance and anger.

She gripped her own blade tightly, her knuckles glowing pale white. Jace has disappeared from sight again, both him and Sebastian weaving among the war like shadows, As if playing a game of tag than trying to kill one another.

She would not let him fight alone. If he was in this war, Clary would not sit quietly on the sidelines.

She went for the first hybrid she saw, a rising beast, its thick hide shining in the faraway light. She saw its eyes; reflective in the dark, gleaming, wicked as the edge of her knife.

All tiredness seemed to leave her in an instant, replaced by the vivacious desire that only d

grew more fierce. More in need of being fulfilled, and that was to end this.

She ran at it. Through the shadow, in a city of ruins, across dirt wet with her own people's blood, she raised her sword and met her eyes with the hybrid's.

Clary expected a fit of teeth. Of gnashing jaws and rumbling snarls. Of claws searching purchase on her. She expected a fight.

But it didnt come.

The hybrid stood stoically in front of her, eyes glowing from a face nearly swathed in night, but made no move to attack.

In the middle of war, she imagined its nails digging into the earth, taunting her. A tactic.

She raised her blade, leveling it with the beast's massive head.

Do it, she almost said out loud.

Then the hybrid shook its head, like a million needles rattling together, and just as she prepared for impact, the eyes disappeared and the hybrid loped away.

Clary stood there in shock, as the battle continued around her, staring into the place where the hybrid had disappeared.

It didn't attack her.

And that's when the pieces came together in her mind, and the truth of Sebastians words rang rang in her ears again, repeating over and over, each word quieter than the last.

She felt the reality of it settle in her chest and to prove its authenticity, she did something really stupid.

When Clary spotted another Hybrid, he didn't hesitate and ran up alongside Its massive hide, pointing her blade at the quivering fur.

Its eyes found her, reflective orbs staring, floating, waiting.

But then its attention seemed to waver and it shifted its attention to someone else and like the other, disappeared.

Clary couldn't breathe. All the air left her in an instant as she stared after the hybrid. She looked down at herself, fear molding into the reality of what happened, and knocking her over in waves. She felt suddenly shaky and unable to think. What did he do, she asked herself, as she continued to stand there, suddenly feeling more vulnerable than she had without a weapon.

What did he do?

Isabelle had no idea how she'd winded up in a place like this, But had little time to contemplate it. Hybrids rushed her but she branched out of the way, moving swiftly through the, feeling fur graze her back.

"Isabelle!" Someone called to her-Simon. But she couldn't pay him much attention; the sight before he drew her in, not the war, no not that. But the duel absorbing both Sebastian and Jace in a frenzy of slashing swords and calculative speed.

Another hyrbid charged and she dove to the side, but one tooth had caught, carving a thin slash down her arm. She cursed under her breath.

"Here," Simon was suddenly by her, handing her a weapon. But it wasn't just any weapon-it was her whip and her fingers wrapped around the hilt, feelings reassured by its presence.

He helped her to her feet, barely missing the next Hybrid. She drove her whip across its side, hearing the satisfying snap as it crossed over the beast's flesh and it roared back in agony.

"Who's winning?" She yelled to Simon, over the roars and clashing of weapons.

Simon shrugged, before deftly moving to the side as a hybrid charged through.

"We've had better days," he said. She could clearly hear the bitter tone beneath his words.

"No," Isabelle clarified. "I mean Jace and Sebastian."

"Oh," Simon ducked. "Jace Is too hard headed to give up a fight."

Which meant he was driven now by mostly anger and loathing towards Sebastian. Isabelle whirled around and plunged her way back toward the duel, weaving through the onslaught of teeth versus metal.

Simon caught her before she could join in.

"What are you doing?"

"This is my fight, too," she said, pulling back the arm he'd grabbed and narrowing her eyes with his. "It's all ours."

And then she stepped into the duel and stood by Jace's side.