Disclaimer: I do not own The Mortal Instrument. Everything recognisable belongs to Cassandra Clare.
Here's the next chapter. It's the longest one so far, so I hope you like it.
Jocelyn smiled half-heartedly at Luke who returned the smile gently and kept a firm grip around her shoulder. "We don't have to do this if you don't want to." He told her as they walked painstakingly across the floor. It was late at night, the air had begun to cool and August had started showing its colours.
"No, I want to. I always do. It's just difficult." She replied and unlocked the magically secured door with a silver key she had bought from a warlock almost two decades ago.
After opening the door and walking inside, they could both feel the dusty air around them. It hadn't been cleaned in a long time and the few cardboard boxes piled in the corners of the room looked dilapidated.
"You know, I've been doing this annually for the last fifteen years, but even as much as I force myself to pretend that I am okay, I don't think I'll ever be able to face this room without an empty, cold feeling inside me." She told Luke with a sad countenance on her pale face, her green eyes standing out clearer in the light of the old room than usual.
"I know." Luke put an arm around her holding her lovingly against his warm body.
Jocelyn felt her eyes sting as he pressed her closer to his body, trying stiffly to keep her eyes from watering.
"I'm fine." She breathed and the grip loosened a little bit. "I'm fine." She repeated, more to reassure herself than him this time.
She walked over to the tallest box and brushed her fingers over the surface. Opening the box with heavy fingers, she saw the photo album with pictures of her dead one year old daughter. Her hands shook as she lifted the dark album from the top of the box, brushing the dust off it.
Jocelyn inhaled deeply before opening the cover, her eyes fixed on a pair of bright green eyes. The baby smiled back at her, her short red hair flaring around her round face. The child smiled brilliantly towards the person who had taken the picture.
Another picture showed two children, one younger than the other. Jonathan held Clary tightly in his arms; Jocelyn could remember the day the picture had been taken. It was raining outside and Jocelyn had been inside with her two children watching the water fall to the ground. Clary loved rain. Jocelyn often took her to the windows watching the raindrops racing down the glass. The baby laughed a trilling laughter as she watched in amusement.
Jonathan had walked up to them, him being around three at the time had asked to hold Clary, but since Jocelyn always was of the overprotective type she had forced Jonathan to sit down on the floor before he could hold her.
Jocelyn smiled at the picture of her two children and turned the page over. The next picture was of her mother and Jonathan, and underneath another picture of Clary. Her hair had grown a little bit, still burning red, like Jocelyn's.
While looking at the pictures inside the photo album she was oblivious to the fact that Luke had walked up next to her. He lifted his hand, gently drying her cheeks from the tears staining them.
xxxx
The sixteen year old girl looked around the large roof of the old police building, her bright green eyes focused on the where to put her feet. The air was getting colder now as they were approaching the middle of August. The cold wind left chilled goosebumps on her rune stained arms. And she rolled down the sleeves of her jacket, watching the pallid scars disappear from view.
It felt extremely revealing to not have a hundred fresh runes burned into her skin today.
She looked around, taking in her surroundings. The roof was about 200 feet long and wide and the floor was obviously old and dangerous to walk on. Clary's favourite.
She drew one of her infamous rapiers and pointed it towards the ground.
Her father was away, meeting someone in a European country and would have to get back without Clary's portal rune, seeing as she still hadn't figured out how others could paint the rune without risking ending up in the wrong place. He had taken a young warlock with him, Jackson, or something ordinary like that. This had left Clary alone for the day and she decided to take the opportunity to get some fresh air without having to kill someone.
The evening sun shone orange around her and she smiled at the beautiful view. If she had to spend her birthday somewhere, she didn't mind it being here. She looked into one of the broken windows next to a large entrance leading to the floors under her. Her appearance shocked her as she had forgotten the temporary glamour rune she had burned into her skin, it was another one of Clary's invented runes that she hadn't shared with anyone.
It was a glamour rune, giving her the ability to hide most of her true appearance. Her hair had turned black and she had a paler complexion than usual. Her mouth was thinner and she also appeared taller than 5'2". It was a herculean task to change only one part of herself without using a lot of powers; her emerald green eyes. They would never change.
She stepped carefully toward the opening where there once had been a door. As she neared it she heard voices coming from the stairs. With a groan she turned away from the door and hid behind a damaged single wall next to the staircase.
"No Alec, I am pretty sure your warlock boyfriend lied. This is a piece of crap." She heard a boy's voice ring in her ears. At the word warlock Clary drew her other rapier, ready for whatever it was that came her way.
xxxx
After a few silent minutes footsteps could be detected on the roof floor. Jace gave the others a quick squint and moved towards the sound.
His soundless rune helped him move undetected in the direction of the sound.
His eyes locked in valiant green eyes and they stared at each other for a half a second before the girl pulled her hood over her face and swung a thin long sword at him. He avoided the buffeted weapon and drew his own, shouting for the three other teens.
"So you are the one who tried to kill my father." It wasn't a question; he already knew he was right.
The girl didn't answer and again swung her sword with all her force at him. He answered her attack by pulling out his own sword, a thicker gold blade, with small runes marked all the way up to the sharp end.
They fought brutally for a few minutes, none of them showing any sign of defeat. The three other Shadowhunters were by his side fighting against the girl after watching the striving fight.
Who the hell was this girl, she fought the four shadowhunters like a machine, her moves quicker than theirs, her sword's strikes stronger and her reflexes faster than theirs. It was like she knew what they would do even before they knew it themselves. Jace hated it, but it was the truth.
The four had encircled the girl and even thought Jace couldn't see her face he knew she had broken out in perspiration. He saw her grip something from the inside of her jacket and a flicker of silver caught his eyes.
"Look out!" He yelled at the three other fighting Shadowhunters as the girl threw the silver ball at Alec, he avoided it watching it fall to the ground exploding in small sharp teeth with black liquid streaming out of them.
They all knew what she threw; it was the same thing that had almost killed Stephen.
"So you like playing dirty?" Jace yelled at her, again her emerald eyes caught his again, and he could feel the cold smirk forming over her lips.
"You don't know what playing dirty is." She hissed back at him, he jumped back in surprise as he heard her voice. It was a young voice, so full of venom she almost sounded hurt.
She sprung forward choosing to attack Jace first. He swung his sword at her violently.
A pained sound left her lips and he knew he had managed to wound her, probably not badly, but anything that could weaken the girl was good enough.
He saw Isabelle's gold whip fly though the air landing next to the girl's feet. She wheeled around to face the only other female Shadowhunter on the roof.
Before she could do anything Jace had drawn his stele pointing it to the floor. The girl attacked Isabelle with her rapier and tried to stab her in the stomach, Isabelle's fast reflexes saving her.
"Iz!" Jonathan shouted as he saw how close she was to getting speared by the dark clothed girl. He perfectly threw one of his knifes at the girl tearing her jeans. A small stream of fresh blood staining the girls clothes and she swore loudly.
Jace drew the rune he had never thought he had the ability or possibility to ever draw. The small mark on the roof top floor glowed angry in yellow against the grey concrete. "Get away!" He shouted to his three companies.
They all heard him and zoomed out of the way of the glowing rune cracking the floor in two. The Shadowhunter girl turned just in time to see the already unstable roof burst under her feet. She gave them a fiery look, her eyes burning with hate as she realised what happened. Jace mediocre destruire rune opened the concrete floor around her, it didn't have the full effect it could have had, but for some reason he felt like that was for the best.
She fell through the roof floor, dust erupting around the hole. Her body falling fast landing on the cold ground under them, and as the other teens zoomed carefully towards the hole in the roof they saw she had landed unconscious on the ground under them. She was covered in debris from the heavy concrete floor.
They all looked at each other in amazement and fear; they had really overpowered the Shadowhunter.
"Oh Jace, please tell me you didn't kill her." Isabelle's voice whispered behind him. Even as much as Jace hated this girl he agreed, he really hoped she was still alive.
They ran down the set of stairs and straight for the unconscious Nephilim.
The four Shadowhunters began moving the large pieces left of the floor covering her body, and as soon as they had freed her they all stared at her in bewilderment.
Her black hair was tangled around her face, sticking to the skin because of the blood on her forehead. She was extremely pale, with white scars from runes covering every part visible of her body, with the exception of her face.
"Jace, you carry her."
"What? Where?" Jace asked surprised.
"Well, we're not going to leave her here." John replied as he watched the other blond boy walk hesitantly towards the girl lying motionless on the cold stone floor.
"She's still breathing." Jace told the others as he lifted her limp body into his arms. He saw she had what looked like a broken leg and she had a large cut in her shoulder which was bleeding uncontrollably. He carried her out of the building; Alec applied a mendelin rune on both his parabatai and the unconscious girl in his arms, hiding them from the mundane eyes around the building.
They hurried the way from the crumping building all hidden from the view of mundanes, Alec walked next to Jace with Isabelle and Jonathan whispering behind them.
xxxx
The semiconscious girl lay on the stone floor of the institutes training room moaning in pain as the two Shadowhunters approached her. "Should we put an iratze on her?" The female Shadowhunter asked her son. "No." He replied and stopped next to the girl on the floor.
"We'll do that after she has talked." Stephen answered and pulled her up by the collar, again the girl let out a small pained hiss as her broken leg moved in an odd angle.
Stephen didn't care, he was too angry. Not only with the black haired girl in front of him, but the four children who had taken it upon themselves to catch the Shadowhunter girl. He had been furious when he saw his eldest son walk in the doors of the institute; carrying an unconscious black haired girl with a deformed body, looking like she had been thrown off a cliff.
Which he later found out hadn't been too far from the truth. His son had performed a destruire rune, which in the worst case could've blown them up into pieces. It was a rune his sixteen year old son had no knowledge about. He could've gotten himself killed.
Stephen felt the anger erupt inside him again and he had to calm down to keep himself from taking it out on the girl. She had almost killed him a week back, but he couldn't do anything to her until they had her fully conscious and ready to talk. He felt the urge to shake her awake, but knew that wouldn't work. She had to wake up on her own.
"Ok, I can't stand seeing her like this. I don't care if she's killed a thousand men or not, she is still a child and I'm drawing a healing rune on her now." There was an angry voice coming from the door behind the two Herondales.
Jocelyn walked inside the training room, her silver stele already out as she approached the young girl. She eyed her carefully; she seemed to have fallen unconscious again after being dragged up by Stephen. Her hands were restrained by a pair of blue burning handcuffs tightened around her wrists, Jocelyn had seen the type of handcuffs before; they were used on prisoners of the Silent City. They were extremely uncomfortable handcuffs made out of blue flames that squeezed closer to the wearer's wrists if they tried to resist or fight them. In worst possible scenario they burned the skin of its unfortunate wearer.
The iratze was completed within seconds and Jocelyn walked away from them, her raging eyes not casting them a glance as she closed the door behind them.
After only a few minutes the iratze had strengthened the girl enough for her breathing to become even. The rune wouldn't mend her broken leg and possibly broken ribs, the handcuffs around her wrist kept the rune from giving her all its power, but she would wake up sooner than later.
Another five minutes passed by, the faint rising and falling of the girl's chest was the only indication that she was still alive. Jocelyn's rune had calmed and strengthened her breathing. They had decided to bind her to a chair before she woke up. They watched her, talking in hushed voices when they saw her brow crease and slowly, her eyes darted open.
xxxx
Clary gasped in agony as she felt the throbbing pain I her whole body. It was difficult to breathe and when she raised her hand to touch her chest another burning pain erupted in her wrists, keeping her hands down. The horrible pain in her whole body kept her eyes and cheeks moist.
She gazed around in the room, her world was a blur, but she saw two faint silhouettes walking towards her. She opened her mouth to speak, but her throat felt raw and she forced herself to swallow instead. Her tongue was cracked and dry which made even the smallest tasks like swallowing painful.
Again she tried to raise her hand, this time to remove the hair clinging to her face because of dried blood. And again another shot of pain flared up in her arms, moving up to her shoulders.
She looked around, her vision cleared this time. She was sitting on a chair, her hands tied tightly behind her back. She began breathing heavily again, this time for the fear of what had happened to her.
Clary remembered the fight with the four stupid Shadowhunters; she had fought them for a while before the gold-blond haired boy had drawn a destruire rune and ruined everything. Anger flared in her eyes as she thought back at the fight. She had messed up. She had promised her father to never mess up again. He would be furious.
"So, you're awake." A cold female voice rang in Clary's ears.
She didn't reply, another fear came crashing down on her, what did she look like? Clary tried to spot something which could tell her if the glamour rune was still in work or if she had been unconscious for too long.
She looked down at her own naked arms, it would be impossible to detect whether she was under glamour or not by looking at her skin, she had lost a lot of blood and would be pale either way. Instead, Clary threw her head forward, the hair that was not clinging to her face came in to view and she saw black hair. Exhaling relieved, she looked up at the woman standing in front of her.
"Guess I am." She managed to answer after a long silence.
"Who are you?" A man's voice asked her and she turned her head painfully to look at him. Her green eyes met the familiar face of one of the Shadowhunters from a week back, the one she had thrown a ball filled with demon poison at.
"I see you got away in one piece." Clary breathed between closed teeth and forced a smirk on her lips.
The man hissed something she couldn't hear, and moved toward her. "I did, and I'll only ask you this one more time. Who are you?" He asked her in a bitter voice.
"Go to hell." Clary whispered, her strong voice failing her. A burning pain, which made new tears well in her eyes, she blinked to keep them from falling down her cheeks. The man had struck one of her already bruised cheeks.
"We can do it the easy way, you answer me when I ask you a simple question, or we can do it the hard way, we can take you to the silent city and pay the infamous Mortal Sword a little visit. Your choice." He finished before pulling out another chair and sitting down on it.
Clary met his eyes, panic pressed its way out of her emerald eyes and she laughed decried. "You do that. It's your loss Nephilim." She answered, trying to calm down her voice enough to sound dauntless.
"Call for the Silent Brothers, we'll take her down in a few hours." Stephen called out the woman in the room.
Clary struggled against the pain in her chest as she said, "I wouldn't do that if I were you. You never know what those ugly backsliders will do with the information I hold." She didn't know what she was doing. The only thing she knew for sure was that she had to keep herself away from the mortal sword. She couldn't reveal any of her father's secrets, let alone the fact that he was still alive.
"What information?" The Shadowhunter asked stupidly.
"Yeah, like I'll crack that easily." She pressed another taunt from her lips and locked her green eyes with the angry blue eyed man.
Her mind worked painfully fast. Trying desperately to come up with something to say.
She was going to lie her way through the two Shadowhunters interrogation. If it was only one thing she knew better than fighting, it was the art of speaking untruthfully. She saw the man's angry face and acted at once. Her eyes flared up in horror and she flinched when he drew his hand through his blond hair.
Noting the black haired girl's movements, he tilted his head to the side. Clary closed her eyes in pain and let out a light sob.
"Why did you kill Isaac Ashwood?" He asked in his harsh voice.
Clary opened her blank eyes and met the Shadowhunter's deep blue eyes once more.
"I didn't… I didn't mean to" She stuttered, making sure her voice sounded scared and regretting.
"You didn't mean to? I am pretty sure I heard you threaten to kill the man." He laughed mockingly at her.
Dammit, she really hoped they hadn't heard the dialogue between the two Shadowhunters.
"I did, but that wasn't until he.." She sobbed, permitting herself a dramatic pause, "he.." Her voice failed her, the burning in her raw throat making the explanation sound even more realistic.
It was a long pause, she could hear the two other people in the room breathe heavily and the woman whispered something to the man. Clary had to oppress the desire to roll her eyes in their credulousness.
"That still doesn't explain why you attacked us." He said, still looking into the girl's wide green eyes.
"I thought you were with him. He said if I tried to attack him he would have many more of his kind waiting for me, ready to kill me in a heartbeat. I said I didn't believe him, tried to put on a brave face, but then you came, and… I.. I panicked." Clary felt hot tears stream down her already white-salted cheeks. She could see his eyes soften little by little.
"His kind?" The female asked her, "What do you mean by his kind?"
"Dark Shadowhunters. The evil Shadowhunters. They used to have a circle, believing only Shadowhunters were worthy of existence, they tried to.." The man cut her off, "We know that."
Clary used all her self-control to keep the smirk building in the corner of her lips from growing visible. Of course they knew that, everyone knew about the uprising. Her father's uprising.
"Why did you attack my son and the three other Shadowhunters with him at the time?" He asked, failing to hide his emotions.
"They attacked me!" She hissed, this was actually true, they had been the once initiating the fight.
"Stephen." The woman called out faintly.
The Shadowhunter, Stephen, didn't seem to listen to her.
"What were you doing.." He was stopped mid-sentence, "Stephen!" The woman called out again, louder and clearer than last time.
"What?" he asked her, turning around to face the female Shadowhunter.
"Her hair." The woman replied simply.
Clary swore under her breath, she knew what had happened. She had run out of time. The rune had lost its effect.
Stephen turned back around to face the girl and saw the long, red flaring hair fall down her shoulders. She became a few inches shorter and her face grew rounder.
He stood up in shock. "Who the hell are you?" The venom in his voice clear in the air as he stepped backward. Clary only smirked, hiding her frustration; it looked like she would have to come up with a different escape plan.
Leave a review telling me what you thought.
Also I would like to say that I messed up in the last chapter, spoiling my own story. But it's been fixed, so if you don't know what I'm talking about, it's not important :P