Disclaimer: I do not own the Mortal Instruments series. Everything recognisable belongs to Cassandra Clare.
It's not the longest chapter, but it's very important for Clary and everyone's futures. And you should probably also know that I have written the next chapter already, so it's just around the corner.
HAPPY NEW YEAR GUYS and thank you sooo much for an amazing year! You've all been so wonderful, and I can't wait to see what 2015 will bring Clary and Jace and everyone else involved in the Shadow world.
He stood inside the Infirmary, listening to the voices arguing loudly. His back was touching the walls carefully, his eyes watching the girl with intensity.
"It's been four days, she should've woken up by now." It was Luke, his voice noticeably calmer than his wife's.
"They said to give her time, what I can't understand is how you didn't manage to get the cup back. I told you, it was immensely important, it was your number one task!" Imogen's voice rang inside the Infirmary and Jace started to grow more and more irritated with his grandmother.
"It was our number one task?" Jocelyn snapped at the Inquisitor, causing Luke to grab Jocelyn's wrist. To Jace it looked like the raggedy werewolf was preparing to stop a fight already.
"Yes, of course." Imogen exclaimed like it was the most obvious thing in the world, "You can't possibly think that, this girl," Imogen pointed towards the unconscious Clary on the bed, "Is more important to the Clave than one of the lost Mortal Instruments, and not any instrument, the Mortal Cup. You do understand what we could do with our dying race if we again had that cup." Imogen paused, looking between Clary and her mother. "You should be extremely grateful, Jocelyn, that I will not be holding you responsible for the disappearing of the Mortal Cup. You should be extremely grateful your daughter is still breathing."
Imogen turned to walk out the door, and Jace saw Jocelyn was about to follow, but thanks to Luke's firm, but careful grip, she stopped.
"I need some air." Jocelyn called out. Her eyes ran through the room, taking in everything, before her green eyes landed on Clary. "I'll only be a minute." Jocelyn announced, but Jace got the feeling she was speaking to the unconscious girl by the bed and not as much the other people in the room.
"I'll come with you." Luke told her, and she sent him a small, but thankful glance.
Jace moved from the space against the wall towards the empty chair. Alec and Isabelle had left the Infirmary a few hours ago. Alec had been asked to accompany his father to Alicante; apparently there was some unfinished business they had to clear up with the Consul.
"You know, this would be the right moment to wake up, Clary." Jace whispered, looking at the sleeping girl.
"I don't like having one-sided conversations, it makes me feel really stupid, and you know how I feel about stupid." Jace continued, "Now, how about you just open your eyes, I never though Clary Morgenstern would sleep with both her eyes closed, but it seems like even the best can be wrong sometimes." Jace let out a silent chuckle, he closed his eyes.
"God, that sounded so much worse when there were no one here to tell me to take my arrogant ass and go to hell." Jace leaned his elbows on his knees as he continued talking.
"You see, that's why you need to get your shit together and wake up already. We don't have time for this, do you understand how much worse my already arrogant self is going to end up if you're not here to tell me to get my shit together?" Jace, finally done with his little speech leaned back in the chair, propping his feet on the side of the Infirmary bed.
xxxx
Jace didn't know how long he'd slept, hopefully not more than a few hours. Something had woken him up, and he looked cautiously towards Clary's sleeping body before him.
He noticed someone standing at the end of the hall, his dirty blond hair and piercing blue eyes looking at his brother.
"Hey." Jace muttered quietly at his younger brother.
"I just.." Iwan pointed towards the door, "Alec told me to tell you he's back. He needs to talk to you, it's really, really important." Iwan struggled to say, his voice fast and childish. Jace would've laughed at how young his brother sounded, but if Alec wanted to talk to him about something regarding the Consul, it didn't sound like anything even remotely laughable.
"Oh, okay." Jace nodded as he pushed himself off the chair and walked with quick steps towards the door.
"Ehh, did he tell you where he wanted to meet me?" Jace turned to face Iwan.
"It's not really just you they're talking to, as I said, it's really, really important." Iwan muttered, walking up next to his brother, "But he wanted you in the library."
Jace felt a knot tighten inside his stomach as he walked down the hall, Iwan in his heels. What if they had news about Clary? What if she would never heal? Never wake up?
Jace opened the library door, and what met his eyes was not what he'd expected. Robert Lightwood stood with his back towards Jace, shielding parts of his son, but Jace could see the crimson stains of blood on his parabatai's shirt.
"What the hell happened?" Jace asked, running down the last few steps towards the group of people.
"It's not my blood." Alec answered calmly.
"No? Whose blood is it then?" Jace asked another question, his voice ringing through the room.
"Sister Magdalena, formerly one of the Iron Sisters and in the later years, a member of the Circle." Robert answered, looking at Jace carefully. "Does it ring any bells?"
"No." Jace replied confused, "Should it?"
Alec nodded carefully, "She's the woman with the key, the one who helped us get Clary out of the manor." He explained.
Jace remembered the woman clearly, her eyes had been orange and her hair almost as red as Clary's.
"Oh, yeah I remember her." Jace confirmed, his voice suddenly hollow, "is she.." Jace didn't finish his sentence, because his grandmother snapped back, "Dead, yes."
"And she came with a note, such a horrible way to let one of our own, Circle member or not, die." Celine shot in, her voice trembled a little as she spoke. Jace's mother had one arm around her parabatai, holding the mother of the still-unconscious girl tightly.
"A note?" Jace ached for more information, and it came quickly. A small piece of paper, a dramatic red stain across the white paper, was handed to him.
'Erchomai.'
It was such a simple word scribbled across a piece of paper. Eight letters. Had someone found the note without a dead body next to it, they would likely not even bother to pick it up, but the power behind the words went so much deeper. If Valentine had no problem killing one of the most useful members of his Circle, how could anyone else be safe? This was a message to the people, a warning.
"I am coming." Jace whispered.
Jace remembered the letter Clary had left them before she'd disappeared, 'Please don't go after me. This is war, and I'm picking which side to fight on. There is no going back. Don't make everything harder than it already is.'
It looked like Clary was right in a lot of things. By going after Clary that night, they had sparked a war that had been building up for years, and there was definitely no going back.
"So, he thinks we'll be scared away with this stupid note?" Jace asked, a short, false laugher added at the end of his sentence.
"He is right too." Robert informed Jace, meeting his golden eyes.
"What do you mean? We're Shadowhunters, we don't scare that easily." Jace stated with a sincere laughter in his voice now.
"I am afraid the Clave is. They've arrange a trial on Clary. It'll be held as soon as she wakes up and is healthy enough to stand on her own feet." Stephen answered his son. Jace could feel the smile fade from his face like someone had dropped a brick on his foot.
A trial? Clary had done enough things to get herself stripped of all her marks, if the Nephilim held a trial, she was basically already dead.
xxxx
Déjà vu crept up on Clary as she opened her eyes. She was staring up at a white ceiling and her whole body ached like she'd been thrown in front of train. She drew a sharp breath as she tried to sit.
She had definitely been here before, more than once too. The white walls made everything seem bigger, and at first Clary wondered if she'd entered another one of her crazy, horror-filled nightmares. But something was different this time, she could feel her own pain, she could feel her own hair tickle down the side of her neck.
No she was awake.
Clary tried one more time to sit up, forcing the agonising pain out of her mind, focusing on moving her body into a standing position. Her feet felt sore, like she'd not been using them for a long time, which probably was true. How long had she been in the manor? And how long had she been where she was now?
It really seemed extremely familiar.
Clary moved awkwardly, leaning on different objects standing before her as she walked towards the door.
A few cries escaped her as she walked. She'd gotten almost halfway before she stopped, staring at the unfamiliar person before her. Red hair, yes. Green eyes too. But her complexion was so pale and sick and she was full of unhealed bruises. It looked like someone had tried to wash the blood out of her hair and face, because her skin was still a little red where the forehead met her hairline.
Clary bit her lip hard, closing her eyes to keep the horrible image out of her mind. If that's how she looked like from the front, Clary didn't even dare imagine how her back looked. They hadn't even managed to heal the smaller cuts on Clary's skin. The only thing Clary noticed was that her arm was no longer broken.
Clary leaned on one of the beds, forcing herself to keep moving. She would worry about what she looked like when she knew exactly where she was.
Pushing carefully at the white door, Clary entered the most beautiful hallway she'd seen in a long time. Her heart skipped a beat as she recognised the hall. She was standing in the Institute.
A second of panic hit Clary hard, she couldn't be inside the Institute. Nobody knew where Clary had gone, and they certainly didn't know where the Morgenstern Manor was.
Clary could feel her breath starting to run faster and shorter. Her heart beating rapidly against her chest. Clary could hear her own heartbeat drumming in her ears as she looked around.
This couldn't be happening; she was still caught inside her own mind. Trapped inside an endless nightmare.
"Clary!" Someone whispered. The voice was so well-known, so warm that Clary wanted to fall into the person's hands no matter whom it was.
Clary met his golden eyes and they showed everything Clary needed at that moment. She wasn't going crazy. This was real. He had to be real.
There was one way to find out. Clary hadn't been able to communicate or touch anyone else in her nightmares, why should this one be any different?
"Hey." Clary managed to press out between her heavy breaths.
The boy was next to her within seconds. His hands cupping her face like he too was making sure she was real before he carefully let his arm swing around her neck, pulling her into a tight hug. Somehow he managed to avoid touching her back, which Clary was extremely grateful for.
Clary held on to Jace's solid body, letting her exhausted body fall into his arms for a few seconds before Jace pull away from her so he could hold her face in his hands again.
"You're okay, right?" he asked urgently. "You should get back to the Infirmary." Jace explained as Clary winced.
Clary raised an eyebrow at him before she gave him a quick, reassuring kiss. "I'm fine." She whispered.
"That's exactly what someone who's not fine would've said." Jace whispered back, his lips touching her ear as he spoke.
Clary didn't bother protesting, letting him lead her back inside the Institute's Infirmary, completely uninformed about what would be hitting her the next few days.
Thank you so much for ready the last chapter I will be posting in 2014! Leave a review telling me what you thought!