I had a restless sleep that night. My dreams were twisted into nightmares. I had been dreaming of the memory rune I had created. At first it was just the memory of Sebastian nearly dying over and over again but then the dream changed into my memory of the day my father died. And to my horror, I was looking at myself as I stabbed him again and again with my Morgenstern blade. When I was done I took my steele - that was covered in blood - and drew the memory rune on myself so I wouldn't remember what I had done.
I woke in a cold sweat. My eyes went to my forearm where I had drawn the rune in my nightmare and I was relieved to find nothing there. Then, I noticed Izzy sound asleep in the bed next to me. At sometime during the night she must've sensed my distress and came to my room.
I pushed my hair out of my face and brought my hand away, disgusted. I needed a shower. While under the hot running water I let my paranoia take over and checked myself all over for another memory rune. You'd think I would have noticed an unfamiliar rune on my body by now. But I hadn't noticed the one behind my ear for years. I used the bathroom mirror to check as well and when I was finally satisfied that there wasn't another rune on my body I finished up with my shower and got dressed.
My parabatai was sitting awake on my bed when I exited the bathroom. Her fingers were furiously typing on her phone as she texted someone - probably Simon. There was a light smile on her face. Yeah, definitely the bloodsucker.
Izzy's expression changed when she looked at me though; I must've had a look on my face that caused her to be concerned.
"What's wrong, Clary?" She asked and I quickly explained to her what Sebastian and I had discovered last night with our missing memories. It had been far too late into the night by the time my brother and I finally went to bed. I hadn't wanted to bother Izzy so late.
"You've had your power since you were a little girl," Izzy concluded. "And Sebastian too, so it seems." My mind went back to when Jonathan was holding my brother captive. He had looked like death, I had thought he was dead. Was that why he was able to survive the Wayland's torture?
"How my dad said it," I started, recalling Valentine Morgenstern in my dream. "He wasn't surprised that Sebastain could manifest a special power. And when he was talking about mine he 'realized' my power when I first used it. It was like he was expecting us to manifest some sort of special ability. But why?"
"I mean, he was your father, Clary," my parabatai tried to reason. "His lifetime goal was to create more powerful shadowhunters. He literally created you and Sebastian. Maybe he just thought the two of you would be more powerful than him and when he found out you guys had abilities he embraced it."
I didn't want to disagree with Izzy but I shook my head. Something about it just wasn't sitting right with me. I was beginning to realize there was a lot about my father that I didn't know. They were things I needed to find out.
A fire message appearing on my bedside table interrupted our conversation. I picked up the still-burning piece of paper in anticipation. I found myself smiling. I knew my contact would come through for me.
"I've got our way into Faerie," I told Izzy as I held up the piece of paper.
The four of us convened in the library. We also had Alec on something called 'video chat' on Izzy's laptop. Well Alec and occasionally Magnus who kept walking through the background. One time he walked by without a shirt on. Not really something I wanted to see.
"So my contact can get us into Faerie," I told the group. "We just have to get to California."
"I can make a portal!" Magnus chimed in from somewhere in Alec's background. Great, that problem was solved. But there was another one-
"Has anyone actually been to California?" I asked. You couldn't portal to somewhere you had no recollection of. Otherwise it was dangerous and you might get lost.
"I have," Ashton spoke up. "We took a field trip to the Los Angeles Institute once when I was at the Academy."
"That's great," I replied. I just hoped portaling to the current base of operations for the Nephilim didn't get anybody's attention. What was left of the Clave would definitely try to stop us if they found out what we were up to.
"What about time slippage in Faerie?" Sebastian brought up. "You know time runs differently there. If we're not careful we could go in for a day and come out a month later." I hadn't thought about that. But it made sense that my brother, who always had his nose in a book when he wasn't training, would remember that.
"Is there a rune that-" Alec started speaking but then the image froze. It was stuck on the most ridiculous face of the Lightwood before the screen went black. A moment later Izzy's phone rang and she set it down on the table, on speaker. "Sorry, Magnus shot out the wifi router when he was playing with Chairman Meow." I heard the warlock's voice in the background, defending himself. Alec ignored him and continued what he had been saying.
"Is there a rune that you can draw Clary, to prevent that?" We had filled Alec in on the whole extent of my affinity with runes, not just the one I had drawn when we saw Jace and Jonathan.
"It doesn't work like that," I said. "I can't will one of the runes to be. They just come to me." Or at least so far I hadn't been able to force myself to make a new rune.
"When I was at Shadowhunter Academy I heard of charms that could prevent the time slippage," Ashton said. "We'd just have to find one."
"I think I know the best place," Izzy said. "I can send Simon to the Shadowhunter Market see if he can come across one. I'd say we could go ourselves but I wouldn't want to draw attention to the fact we're going into Faerie."
"That's a great idea, Iz," Alec said from the phone. "Another thing though. I think a couple of us should stay behind. If last night's demon attacks were any indication they're not going to stop any time soon. Mom and Luke can't handle them by themselves if we all leave."
As much as I agreed with Alec I didn't like the idea. Who knew what we would be getting into in Faerie? It would have been better to have numbers.
"There's no way I'm staying here," Sebastian told us. "If my Father had this mysterious lab I'm seeing it with my own eyes."
"I'll stay behind," Alec offered. "If anything Magnus can help me out with the demons." In the background I heard a 'hell no.' "What do you mean you can't fight demons because you're half one?" He yelled at his boyfriend.
While Alec and Magnus were squabbling Ashton spoke up. "I'll stay too." I looked at him. If we were heading face first into uncertain danger I wanted him by my side. He caught my eye. "You need to go too, he's your father. And Izzy should go because she's your parabatai."
After a moment I nodded. "Then its settled. Sebastian, Izzy and I will go to Faerie. Alec and Ash will stay behind."
Author's Note: New chapter! :D
