Disclaimer: I do not own The Mortal Instrument series. Everything recognisable belongs to Cassandra Clare.
Thanks to everyone for all the wonderful reviews. I love updating when you guys reply to the work.
So here's another chapter, and to everyone who's not read all the books I wanted to tell you that this story is not spoiler free. There are some cannon things happening, and other things that are not cannon.
She sat down in the brown leather couch and blinked her watery eyes with a pained expression on her face. The portal disappeared in front of her leaving a small mist of iridescent light and she sighed satisfied. Drawing out her stele again she let it fall onto her pearly pale skin.
The familiar burn of the long silver twig in her hand calmed her down. She closed her eyes and traced fine lines of an iratze on her arms, where the acid had cauterized into her body. This had left red marks and blood welling down her arms and she was glad to wind up her wound.
Her body was still trembling truculently as she put the stele down. The powerful iratze had given her skin a pinkish colour and felt it extremely sore.
Clary could hear the faint sound of footsteps approaching the door and looked up.
The large ligneous door opened slowly and she could see a man with white blond hair and dark raven eyes walk inside.
His whole appearance indicated he already knew what had happened. She didn't know how, but she knew her father was an extraordinary Shadowhunter, and she didn't question him.
"So, I understand the mission was ineffective on our behalf." He sighed; there was no noticeable anger in his voice as he spoke.
Clary let her eyes fall to the floor as she felt the disappointment in her father's words. He might hide it better than others, but nothing could keep Clary from understanding when she had failed him. His eyes revealed concern as he saw the large tear in Clary's fighting gear; her red skin giving away the fact that she had injured herself fighting the Greater Demon Hecate.
"Yes, or it would depend on what way you look at it." She smirked perfunctory and looked up into her father's dark eyes. "I got a great fight out of her."
He didn't laugh or even reveal the slightest form of amusement regarding her comment.
"Have I not told you to take this seriously Clarissa?" his voice cracking up in distress.
"Mhm, yes father you might have mentioned it at one point or another. Every day. Since I turned eight." She replied sarcastically.
"And just so you know it, I didn't just kill the demon. I tried to reason with her for a good ten minutes before attacking." She finished and could detect the faintest smile playing on her father's lips.
She loved making him smile; it was a skill only a few people in this world possessed.
"Well, if Hecate was reluctant and would not give away the information she so heartedly protected, I don't see how you have done anything wrong Clarissa. Be proud, not many sixteen year olds can fight a Greater Demon alone and live to tell the tale." Valentine's whisper echoed nefariously round her in the small room.
He left as soon as he finished talking and closed the door gently behind him.
Clary felt the smug smile creep at her lips after hearing her father speak so nobly of her. She picked up her stele and left the warm room. The stairs up to her own bedroom felt heavy as she pulled her sore body up the steps.
xxxx
The young boy fell to the ground as a strong hand forced him down. He growled annoyed and pushed himself up from the floor.
"You need to spread your legs to shoulder width and bend your knees. Going to the ground is very dangerous to the untrained fighter like you Iwan, especially if the opponent has weapons." Jace told him as he watched with a look of patience obscured behind his bright golden eyes.
"I'm not untrained. I've been training all summer, Jace." The boy replied with an annoyed tone to his voice.
"Yeah, that's about six weeks you dimwit." Jace returned toward the younger boy.
Iwan's face evoked the natural smirk in Jace's lips. "You aren't forcing Max to train like this." The boy told him and readied himself for another round against the older boy.
"No, of course I'm not. I can't let a Lightwood beat my own brother. That would be too humiliating." Jace chuckled and let the boy swing his light dagger toward his side.
Jace already knew what move his brother would use, and stepped promptly to the side. Again and again the boy found new ways of attacking, but Jace's defences kept him from doing any harm.
"Okay, now you're not being fair at all." Iwan sighed deeply and rolled his eyes at his older brother's teasing smirk.
"Do you really think a demon would fight a fair fight?" The golden boy asked him.
"No, but.." Iwan began, but was cut off by a laughter coming from the door of the training room.
"What are you boys doing here this late?" The soft voice of Celine spoke toward them.
She looked at the younger boy with a velvety expression, before letting her stern gaze fall on her older son; waiting for him to answer her.
"Mum." Jace let out a bit surprised. "I thought you and dad was meeting with the Council tonight?" he told her and studied her facial expression for changes telling him if something was wrong.
"We did meet them, why do you think I am upset you are still training in here. Everyone else went to bed hours ago." She sighed irritated and started approaching her two sons.
"Really? What time is it?" Iwan asked excitement taking control over his voice.
Celine gave him a motherly look and he exhaled as she told him to change and go to bed, he obeyed her orders and left the institute's training room instantly. Only breathing out a tired 'good night' to the two people left in the room.
Jace smiled warmly at his mother. "I know what you think." He told her and strolled towards the weapon room; tidying the chaos of daggers, swords and bow and arrows.
"And I guess you are probably right, I do push him to his limits all the time, he is working twice as hard as the other novices and it's paying off like hell." He told his mother, who gave him a hard look based on his choice of words.
"You are." She sighed and continued, "And I guess you are right as well, just try to give him a break once in awhile, remember, he is only thirteen." She finished and gave her eldest son a bright smile.
"Fine, I'll give him his little playtime breaks." Jace laughed, and after arranging all the weapons at their right places, he walked after his mother out of the training room.
"So how did the meeting go?" He asked curiously.
"I can't tell you that Jace. " Celine told him as she walked the stairs leading away from the training room.
The New York Institutes was a well-stocked institute with a selection of varieties of weapons, from bows to seraph blades; they were made of all kinds of materials chosen for their magical properties.
This was partly the reason Stephen had agreed to move there on a permanent basis.
The Institute also held basic amenities to tend to the needs of its inhabitants. Celine had fallen in love with the old Institute the first time she sat foot inside it. The large library with hundreds of thousand books, the beautiful Green-House with magical, colourful plants, and even the considerably large and well-put together kitchen, and a formal dining room, able to seat over two hundred comfortably, not that they ever were that many here at ones, had made her want to stay.
Additionally, there were around two hundred bedrooms in the residential wings, open to Shadowhunters and others who wish to take up residence there, so they usually had a bit company.
She was lost in thoughts when a large figure stepped in front of her, her heart leaped a beat before she could focus her eyes enough to see him clearly.
Stephen gave her a light kiss before gazing at Jace, who rolled his eyes and shook his head in bemusement.
"Were you down there training at this hour?" His father asked him and pointed towards the training room.
"Yeah." Jace told him with a bored voice.
"And he had Iwan down there with him." His mother complained.
Jace caught the delighted smile on his father's face and said, "Yeah, you should see him, he's even worse than you."
Stephen laughed dryly at his son's joke and followed the two of them down the corridor.
"So, mum. You never told me what you talked about at the meeting." Jace announced.
"And I'm not going to tell you either." She said brushing off his irritated gaze with a smile.
"Fine, you don't have to tell me. Alec will tell me tomorrow anyway." He breathed out and left the two adults to themselves heading for his bedroom.
xxxx
"What do you mean you can't tell me?" Jace shouted irritated with his friend's dutiful behaviour.
"I'm your best friend. You have to tell me, it's the law." He complained as he sat with his back leaned against the chair in the kitchen.
"I don't have to tell you anything." The dark haired boy answered with a sly smile as he ate his breakfast.
"Fine, but don't count on me to keep your ass away from the next demon trying to eat you." Jace uttered grimly.
Alec let out a laugh and sighed deeply.
"They haven't figured out who he was yet." Alec told his parabatai in a low voice.
Jace looked extremely relieved as his friend decided to tell him the content of the last meeting.
"What? But he can't just disappear into nothing. He has to be somewhere." Jace stated as he sipped his tea.
"I didn't say he had disappeared, I told you they had not figured out who the Shadowhunter we saw was." The blue eyes of his parabatai locked with Jace's golden eyes as he spoke.
"What does that mean?" Jace asked slowly, unsure how someone was able to hide from the council for so long. 'It's been four damn weeks.' Jace thought for himself and looked away from Alec as another raven haired Shadowhunter stepped inside the kitchen.
"Why is everyone so confident this Shadowhunter is a boy, it could be a girl. Nobody saw more than the persons back." Isabelle Lightwood claimed.
"Okay, that's great Izzy." Jace gave the girl a fake sanguine smile and turned towards Alec to ask more about the Shadowhunter they had seen slaughter one of the few Greater Demons in the world.
Demons, which normally held so much power you would need more than one insanely skilled Nephilim to complete the temporary destruction of the demon.
Thanks to everyone who read. Hope you'll take the time to review the chapter as well.
See you soon with another chapter.