Hey, beauties :)
Jace smelt Clary before he saw or heard her.
She wasn't covering up her scent anymore, and it was one of the first things that Alec noticed as well, his head jerking back as the unfamiliar smell filled the room. There was still that sharp underlay, like lightning, but there were so many other smells piled on top of that, just like with every other human. She smelt like rain and wet dirt and flowers.
She also smelt like anger and frustration and worry, given she wasn't trying to hide her chemosignals either, so her emotions were just out there in the open, like everyone else. Joining together with everyone elses emotions.
Simon was close behind her and then Magnus appeared in the room and Jace noted with idle interest as Magnus walked over to Alec and put his hand on the small of the werewolves back. It wasn't possessive or a particularly big gesture, but Jace saw the way Alec's body relaxed just a fraction, not quite as tense as he had been before Magnus had put his hand on him, and Jace was glad that Alec had someone else there to help with the pain of the situation.
Maia, Isabelle, Aline, Helen and Jordan were next and after taking a moment to take in the fact that they could actually smell Clary for the first time, Isabelle's eyes nearly bugged out of her head when she did a quick skim of the apartment and realized that her younger brother wasn't there.
"Where's Max?" She asked, the words sounding as though they had been punched out of her. Alec left his spot beside Magnus and walked over to his sister, putting an arm around her. She didn't relax against him, her eyes were panicked as she looked around the room and repeated, her voice louder this time, "Where's Max?!"
"We'll get him back," Jace told her.
"Get him back?!" Isabelle's eyes swung to Jem. "He was here with you!" Jem visibly flinched at that comment and Maia quickly wrapped an arm around the werewolf, tugging him close to her side.
"We'll get him back," Clary repeated Jace's words, her voice firm. Eyes in the room moved to her and it was surprising when it was Jem who spoke up.
"You've been completely MIA this past week. You were supposed to be here, protecting us, helping us find out who was attacking us. Maybe Max wouldn't be gone if you had been around," he was quiet, but Jace knew that he was putting into words what most of the pack was thinking. Clary didn't say anything right away, but Jace could feel her magic. It was filling the room, swirling around his pack, and he could feel it prickling over his skin. He could feel her presence in every one of his senses, just like that night he went to bed and he was in pain and he could feel her comforting magic. He wasn't sure if she was doing in consciously, but it helped. It didn't irritate him like it had when he had first felt it.
"I've been around," Clary said quietly. "I just thought that you might need your space, you needed to focus on training and I needed to see if I could track them down in any other."
"And could you?" Maia's voice was abrupt.
"No," Clary shook her head. Jace's eyebrows raised at that and she looked over at them. "I can't do it alone. We need to do it together." That felt different coming from her. She had acted as though she had this all under control, as though she knew what needed to be done—from the moment she had gotten there, she had been completely confident in her abilities and given off this aura as though she knew exactly what she was doing.
He didn't doubt that she knew more than they did.
But they were stronger together, and he was glad that she knew that.
"My brother was here," Clary stated, looking around the pack. "I assume that Jace has told you about Valentine, who's the leader of The Circle, that he's my father." It still sounded a little unbelievable when they heard it out loud, but they nodded without speaking. "Jonathan is my half brother—on my dad's side—he's a couple of years older than me and he's a Spark as well. Or at least, he calls himself a Spark, but I don't really know what he is exactly. His powers took years to manifest, I showed a long time before him and I had a lot more control than he ever did. Over the years, I've only heard things about him, and none of them are good. Valentine gives him power, but he still doesn't have that control and people with magic who don't have control are never good."
"He was the one in the room when my dad died," Jace breathed and all eyes flashed over to him. Jace was only looking at Clary though, and she dipped her head forward, in confirmation. Jace took in a deep breath in, trying to ignore the scents of everyone else in the room, and he found a faint scent, a faint scent that his mind managed to connect to the memory he had of him and Clary in the room with an older boy at the door.
A boy he now knew was Jonathan Morgenstern.
"We don't have time for this," Isabelle broke through the quiet. "We need to find Max." Jace agreed with a grim nod.
"Is there a scent for you to follow?" Magnus asked and both Alec and Jace shook his head.
"It disappears outside," Alec replied. "Or else we wouldn't be here." Magnus looked over at Clary and she nodded, closing her eyes for a moment. The rest of the room exchanged looks, wondering what it was she was doing. But then they felt the humming in the room and the magic that Jace had been feeling was felt by everyone. When she opened her eyes, they were flashing bright purple and he could practically see the energy jumping off her skin.
"Let's go," she told them, leading the way out of the loft. "To where you first saw them."
Clary wasn't slowing down for anyone, and Alec and Isabelle were close behind her. Jace hesitated just long enough to tell Jordan to stay in the loft, which he clearly wasn't happy about, but agreed to, because he knew that he wouldn't be able to help them. Simon was staying behind as well, given he had taken off his backpack and put it onto the coffee table and was pulling things out. Jace wasn't sure what he was carrying around, but he got hints of herbs and even some wolfsbane. Usually the scent of wolfsbane would worry him, but he trusted Simon because he trusted Clary, so he didn't question it.
They made it to the woods, all of them on foot, including Clary, Magnus and Aline. Magnus was helping Aline keep up with bursts of magic coming from his fingers, but Clary was out in front. Jace easily caught up with them, joining Clary right at the front, and Isabelle and Alec were right behind them. They made it to the woods and Clary let Jace lead the way, taking them deep into the woods where they had first been attacked.
"Jace!" Aline's breathing was coming out a lot heavier that the werewolves, because even with Magnus' magic, she was still using a lot more energy than the others were using. "Clary!"
"Ssh!" Jace hissed out as he came to a stop, and the rest of his pack stopped around him. Magnus looked over at Aline, his eyebrows furrowed as he watched her. There was panic and fear rolling off her in waves, and even though the whole pack was worried and scared and angry and panicked about what was going to come next, there was something different about Aline. Magnus couldn't smell her chemosignals, but he could read her face, and he reached out and touched her arm.
"Are you okay?" He asked her quietly. Aline's lips parted as she looked up at the warlock and she swallowed hard. "Darlin', you're the banshee, you have a lot more power here than you might think. If you can see or smell something here that we need to know..."
"It's nothing new," Aline whispered. "But it's strong, and it keeps on coming and—"
"I can smell him," Isabelle murmured unnecessarily, cutting off Aline and Magnus' concerned eyes turned to look at the Lightwood girl. All of the werewolves could smell Max, although it wasn't strong. Isabelle started running.
"Izzy!" Alec shouted, running after his sister.
"Hey!" Jace growled out and then he was running, Clary close at his side and the rest of the pack following. Isabelle and Alec were running recklessly, not taking in their surroundings, not pausing to take in the other scents in the woods around them. Everything was off, the whole woods around them was wrong, there were scents and magic and a tremor in the ground and the trees that shouldn't be there. "Alec! Isabelle! Stop!" Jace roared, his voice getting louder with every word.
"Max!" Isabelle shouted, not caring that her Alpha was yelling at her to stop. Alec seemed to realize that there was something else going on around them, though he was still running after his sister. Jace caught up easily, and he grabbed for Isabelle's forearm. "Let me go!" Isabelle cried out, fighting against Jace, but Alec grabbed her other arm as well. She tried to pull against them, but she was slowed down enough to allow for the rest of the pack to catch up. Clary stopped short beside them, looking around, her fingers spread out and sparks of purple circling in dips and waves around her hands and arms.
"Isabelle, be quiet," Jace told her, and the girl finally quietened down and she took in the scene around them.
There were people coming out of the woods.
Not just people.
Vampires and the Alpha werewolf.
More supernatural beings that all had the red circle burning on their necks.
They completely circled around them, and held by the scruff of his neck by a man with a nasty curl of his lips, was Max, his body limp.
So obviously it's been a while, and there's a lot of songs that I haven't recommended! I've just decided to log into that website thing that shows your top tracks, so these are my short term top ten. 1) She - Harry Styles. 2) Radio - Lana Del Rey. 3) Living Proof - Camila Cabello. 4) Hazel - Carlie Hanson. 5) September Song - JP Cooper. 6) We Made It - Louis Tomlinson. 7) All My Friends - AJ Mitchell. 8) The Sound - The 1975. 9) Wrong Direction - Hailee Steinfield. 10) Dazed & Confused - Ruel. Bonus song would be You Should Be Sad by Halsey, which is fucking amazing, so far my second favourite of the released tracks from Manic.
There's been a lot of amazing TV shows that have recently come out; The Witcher/His Dark Materials/Watchmen/The Mandalorian. These are all amazing, incredible acting, the sets and scenery and costume design is just A+. Also Spinning Out was really good, I absolutely loved Mandy and Marcus. I love when there are strong side characters that I can fall in love with, and it had good story lines.
I've also been to a couple of concerts that were great; Greta Van Fleet, Ruel, Shawn Mendes and Khlaid. All bloody brilliant.
Now. I don't want to say much about how shit 2020 has been because we're only 14 days in and holy shit, I feel like there's a lot going on. A fucking lot. For me, what hits closest to home is Australia on fire. On the fifth of January our skies turned an apocalyptic orange because the winds changed and the smoke reached us here in New Zealand. I just want to say to everyone who is dealing with anything right now—it doesn't matter how big or small—I love you and you're not alone x
Tumblr: SereneCalamity
Twitter: CalamitySerene