A/N: Here it is! The long awaited family dinner! What will happen? Will Izzy be able to keep up with her lies? Will Maryse ever find out about the baby? Keep reading to find out! Some dialogue and action sequences belong to Shadowhunters episodes 3x3 and 3x6. Hope you loves enjoy! XOXOX

Devil in the Details

Tonight was the night.

Izzy studied her reflection in the mirror, trying to pick out any imperfections. She wore a black dress with a high neckline to cover her lack of runes, and an oversized leather jacket to disguise what now could not be taken as anything other than a baby bump. Heels were out of the question as her feet swelled at the thought of cramming into anything that required buckles, straps, or balance to remain upright. So, she laced a pair of red high-tops and declared that would have to be good enough.

It was just dinner with her mother.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Izzy asked for the hundredth time.

There were a million things they should have been doing: chasing the Owl, stopping the angel-killing demon, preventing more wraiths from killing innocent mundanes. Instead, they were dressing up for dinner with Maryse like it was another ordinary weeknight.

"We've already pushed it back as far as we could," Alec said, apologetic. "We'll tell her that you've returned from Shanghai for a debrief and wanted to see us before heading back in the morning. If she asks about the mission details, I'll step in and say it's classified. She may not like it, but she'll understand."

She'll understand. That was the mantra that got Izzy out of the house (and under the protection of Lucifer's blessing, a warlock, and multiple street lights) and to the restaurant without high-tailing it back to the safety of the apartment. The thing was...Maryse Lightwood was hardly the understanding type. She was the opposite of understanding. She did not except excuses. She did not tolerate failure.

So, as Alec talked to the hostess at Hunter's Moon regarding their reservation, Izzy found it harder and harder to cling to her mantra. If Izzy were to bite the bullet and tell her mother that she was pregnant with Lucifer Morningstar's child, it was incredibly hard to believe Maryse Lightwood would understand.

"Okay," Alec heaved out a sigh as he returned, looking each of them in the eye. "Remember, Mom is on edge and that means avoiding any sensitive subjects, like Dad, or that I turned down that job at the Clave, or that Izzy is pregnant with the spawn of Satan - "

"- or the fact that you're dating a dastardly warlock?" Magnus suggested with a waggle of his eyebrows.

"Hmm?" Alec was so confused, but that confusion is what pulled him out of his downward spiral. He visibly slumped and ran his hands over his face. "I'm sorry. Am I being terrible?"

"No, no, no. You're just tense," Magnus said, trying to soothe Alec's nerves. It was cute how much he cared, even cuter how Alec let him fuss.

"How much does she know about...everything?" Izzy asked. It only just dawned on her that Maryse not only had been absent from their lives, but New York as a whole. Idris was a whole world away, literally. Did she know about the wraiths? The Owl? Surely she heard about Izzy stepping down as Weapons Master, and probably had a few choice words to say about that to boot.

"I don't know," Alec confessed, pulling at his collar. He never wore button downs, and Izzy was willing to bet the one he had on was one of Magnus' charmed to fit properly. "But I guess we'll find out."

The door to Hunter's Moon opened, letting Jace, Clary, and an unexpected third party inside the pub.

"Simon!" Izzy squeaked in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"Uh, Clary said something about needing a buffer for an awkward family dinner," he explained, shoving his hands in his pockets, uncertain. "Is that okay?"

"Of course," Izzy replied immediately, swallowing thickly around a panicked smile. Right about now, she wished she could have a drink to calm the nerves jumping under her skin.

"Do you smell that?" Simon asked, wrinkling his nose nearly identical to the way Raphael had in the basement. He looked around, trying to find the source, before narrowing his eyes at Izzy, confused. "Why is your heart beating so quickly?"

"Let's find our table, shall we?" Magnus said, clapping his hands together and sweeping Simon away from Izzy so quickly he could have had vampiric speed.

That left Izzy and Alec to walk with Jace and Clary: the original four. Izzy tried to ask if Clary was doing alright, but she never got the chance. Clary and Jace were wrapped up in their own world, Jace taking Clary's coat for her and draping it over the back of her chair, doting as usual. Her wounds were healing well; she didn't even flinch taking her coat off.

Izzy didn't take her coat off, for to do so would be to defeat the purpose of disguising her bump, though she supposed no one would see it under the table. Still, she couldn't be too careful, and took the seat furthest to the end in case she needed to make a hasty exit. Alec then sat next to her. Beside him was Magnus, who sat next to Simon, who was across from Clary who was next to Jace. That left the seat next to Jace open for Maryse, and an extra seat for Luke Garroway, who Maryse invited for reasons unknown to everyone.

For extra reasons unknown, Luke and Maryse showed up at the same time, approaching the table from opposite directions. Luke must have come in from the back way. As a friend of Maia's and leader of her pack, he had that perk. Maryse had to use the front door like anyone else, which probably freaked out a bunch of patrons. The Downworlders the frequented Hunter's Moon were used to seeing Clary, Izzy, Jace, and Alec around. But Maryse Lightwood? Renowned advocate for keeping the Downworld oppressed and Shadowhunters in power? That wasn't a sight you saw everyday.

They would be tipping their waitress well. Depending on how badly dinner went, or how horrific Maryse behaved, very well.

"Wow! Quite the party," Maryse proclaimed as she hung her coat on the seat next to Jace.

"You don't stop by very often, so I thought it might be nice to see a bunch of familiar faces," Alec said in his best diplomat's voice.

"Of course, thank you for being so considerate," Maryse replied and smiled at Alec. Strange enough, it was a genuine smile, not a hint of malice or sarcasm.

"Maryse Lightwood at the Hunter's Moon," Luke said with a low whistle and a shake of his head. "Who would have thought we'd see the day?"

"Lucian..." Maryse started to say, but the rest of her words never came.

She looked genuinely surprised to see him. Surprised might have been the wrong word. Luke and Maryse had never gotten along, at least for as long as Izzy had been alive. Maybe she was regretting coming to dinner. Maybe Izzy would get lucky and Maryse would get up and leave.

Instead, Maryse sat down in the chair Alec pulled out for her and made herself comfortable at the table. Luke was still staring at her, Izzy noticed. He hadn't stopped looking at her mother since she approached the table, and it wasn't in a bad way. It was like he couldn't look away, and Maryse noticed.

"What?" she asked, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

She wasn't a self-conscious woman, so she stared Luke down until he said, "Nothing. I just..."

"What?" Maryse asked again, a hint of her usual demanding tone bleeding through.

"I just haven't seen you let your hair down, literally, since the Accords Ball in Idris."

That...that was not what Izzy was expecting. Everyone was watching them now, curious to see who would say what next. It wasn't every day Maryse Lightwood had a civil conversation with a werewolf, even a werewolf who used to be a Shadowhunter.

"That was twenty years ago," Maryse pointed out.

"Was that twenty years ago?" Luke repeated like he couldn't quite believe that much time had passed. Izzy was sure he was seeing Maryse just as she was at that ball, twenty years younger with her hair down. Maybe that was how he always saw her. "Well, you look just as lovely now as you did then."

Was Luke...was Luke flirting with their mom?

"So, Lucian, how is work?" Maryse steered the conversation into a safer direction.

"Busy," Luke replied, taking a drink of his beer. "I've had my hands full trying to pass these Owl killings off as random disappearances or suicides. Pretty sure my partner is on to me, and if she doesn't get to me first, my boss will."

"They don't suspect you, do they?"

"Hard to tell. I know someone's been around my office. It's only a matter of time," he said grimly, looking over to Alec. "You come up with anything new on your end that could help me out?"

"Unfortunately not. We've reached a dead end. But I was hoping not to talk about work tonight," Alec said, his expression pinched and slightly uncomfortable. He was a stickler for protocol, and didn't like to discuss sensitive information in an open restaurant full of mundanes.

"Alright then, no work," Maryse agreed easily. Everything with her was easy tonight. A little too easy. "What about personal lives, then? I see that you've mended things with Magnus, Alexander. And Jace, you have Clary." She looked over to the other end of the table where Jace had one arm slung over the back of Clary's chair, leaving a very out of place Simon on her other side. "What about you Isabelle? Anyone special in your life?"

Izzy nearly choked on her water. Out of all the things she expected to be asked about, her love life was not one of them.

"No, no one special," Izzy rasped, dabbing at her lips with her napkin. "I've been, uh, focusing on the mission."

"Oh, well what about that vampire you were seeing before?"

"Raphael Santiago has been reported missing by his coven," Alec supplied, and just like that, Izzy was being interrogated by two members of her family.

She didn't know about the missing persons report, and cast a glance to Simon. Did he report Raphael missing? Were they still close enough to consider each other friends? Did Raphael tell Simon anything about what he was planning, anything about Izzy? It was hard to tell with Simon looking like a deer caught in headlights.

"The last time I saw him, we decided to go our separate ways," Izzy said, not quite a lie and not quite the truth.

"Well, I can't say I'm sorry to see him go," Maryse admitted, and it was strangely comforting to hear her mother's signature snarky judgement. "He was a bad influence on you. You're a beautiful, strong, confident young women. You can definitely do better."

That...that was unexpected. Izzy felt tears sting in her eyes. Her throat clogged with tears.

Did her mother...did her mother just complement her? Voluntarily? And mean it? After a whole lifetime of never feeling good enough, or strong enough, or just enough in general, it was a lot to process.

"This is your mother on edge?" she heard Magnus whisper to Alec.

"Thanks, Mom, I - " Izzy cut herself off, a wave of conflicting emotion removing her ability to string words together. She was validated and overjoyed to finally have her mother's approval, and yet...and yet her guilt over lying to her mother and keeping something so important from her kept Izzy from feeling the full effects of that joy.

"You don't have to say anything, Isabelle," Maryse assured, reaching across the table to take Izzy's hand. "I realize I have been hard on you over the years, and unfairly so. I want to try to do better by you from now on. And hopefully, if I do a good enough job, we can work on actually having a relationship."

"Yeah," Izzy nodded, overwhelmed. "I think I'd like that."

She allowed herself to envision a future not where Maryse was the boogeyman who haunted shadowy corners, but where she was a loving and doting grandmother. Izzy saw a future where she could place her baby in her mother's arms, in a nursery her mother helped her build, and smile at the sight. It was a wonderful future, and Izzy wanted it. She wanted it more than she ever wanted it before.

"You're in a really good mood tonight, Mom," Jace commented, his posture tense as he leaned back in his chair. "We thought you might be upset, what, given the divorce and everything."

"I've made my peace with that," Maryse said with a wave of her hand, her pleasant demeanor sobering to something serious. "But your instincts are right. I do have some unpleasant news. In light of Malachi's coup, the Clave has reopened its investigation of former Circle members."

"You had nothing to do with Malachi," Alec said, confused as to why Maryse would be investigated for something with which she had no connection. Izzy was confused as well. Her mother's case was closed and done. She was pardoned, reintegrated into Shadowhunter life. She was the freaking Head of the Institute, a revered member of the Clave. And yet...

"Still...based on a review of my actions in the Circle, the Clave has reclassified me a traitor."

"What?" they all echoed, stunned with disbelief and horror.

"They're stripping me of my runes. In a few days, it'll be announced that I have been exiled from Alicante."

"This is completely unjust," Jace decreed, his expression growing darker by the second "You've given your life to the Clave!"

"This is total hypocrisy," Alec spat, his cheeks flushed red with anger as he demanded, "What about the Pangborns?The Blackwells? Do they keep their positions?"

"What about-what about Dad? He was assigned to the LA Institute," Izzy said, trying to make sense of the unfair distribution of punishment.

Maryse tried to intervene, "- as part of a deal."

"That is exactly my point!" Alec cried, not caring that his outburst had drawn attention from surrounding tables. "He gets a slap on the wrist, not exiled!"

"Please, don't make this harder than it already is," Maryse begged, her eyes fluttering shut as she explained herself. "My punishment is more severe because my crimes were too. Back in the days of the Circle, I was convinced Valentine had all the answers. I recruited many good people...including your father. And together with Valentine, I orchestrated all the bloody details of the Uprising."

"But you got out," Jace pointed out.

"Only after I knew we were doomed," Maryse said, casting her gaze around the table, repentant. "Once I saw Valentine for who he really was, I couldn't believe what I had done. I vowed to devote the rest of my life to the Clave. But the charges against me are just."

"That's very noble of you, Mom. But if you're not going to fight this thing, I will. Even if that means stepping down from the Institute," Alec said, all defiance and stiff upper lip, always the model oldest child. Izzy knew he would go to bat for any of them, would lay down his life for anyone he loved, and despite all their mother's faults, Maryse was one of those people too.

"No. Seeing what you have accomplished as Head of the Institute...nothing has made me prouder," Maryse said, matching Alec's fierce determination. No one had to wonder where he got that from. "The Clave's always had its faults. My generation nearly destroyed everything in our passion to fix it. Yours will have to be wiser."

"Does this mean we will be seeing more of you?" Magnus asked, surprisingly gentle given their history.

"I'd like that," Maryse said, her eyes shining with tears as she looked between the warlock and her eldest son. "I may have had my prejudices in the past, but seeing you stand by Alec...it's what every mother wants for her children. Thank you for loving my boy."

Magnus and Alec were speechless. Hell, everyone at the table had their jaws on the ground. Who would have thought that Maryse Lightwood, notorious hard-ass and former Head of the New York Institute, would turn out to be capable of so much growth?

"I hope I'm not embarrassing to you now," Maryse said and dabbed at her eyes. She was still too proud a woman to cry in public, happy tears or not.

"What are you talking about?" Alec asked and shook his head, taking Maryse's hand in his. "You're our mother. We stand by you."

"Always," Jace said, placing his hand on top of Alec's. All that was left was for Izzy to add her hand, and their family was complete.

"Thank you," Maryse said, emotion thick in her own voice. "If there is a silver lining in all of this, it's getting to be with the three of you again."

"So... what are you gonna do now?" Izzy asked, curious. Maryse's whole life had been the Clave. Who was she without it?

"I need to find a job. I'm looking forward to it, actually." Maryse laughed a little, then noticed that Luke was staring at her. She met his gaze and laughed a little more. "Poetic justice, isn't it? Considering how shamefully I acted when you were excommunicated."

"I'm not the type to rub it in," Luke said, sympathetic. "Believe me, I know firsthand how hard it is, reaching for your stele and realizing it's not there. I know it's daunting, but I promise it's not all bad. And if you need help adjusting, I'm around."

"I appreciate that," Maryse said with another genuine smile. "It is a new beginning, a chance for me to be a better person."

"There you go," Luke said, his smile just as kind, and tipped his beer bottle towards her in a toast.

It was right around the time everyone else raised their glass in a toast that Izzy felt the waterworks coming on, and there was no stopping them this time. So, she got up and excused herself, making a bee-line to the restroom. It was all the way in the back of the restaurant, down a long, narrow hall. Izzy accidentally bumped into a woman with curly blonde hair, their arms shoving into each other forcefully.

"Sorry," Izzy apologized quickly, her head down so no one could see her embarrassingly wet eyes.

She was met with a hiss. "You don't deserve him."

That got Izzy's attention.

Teary eyes be damned, Izzy's head snapped up. The woman in front of her was pale and blonde and young, her eyes crazed and her clothes rumpled and dirty but not obviously so. Like she hadn't changed them in a few days. And...were those bloodstains?

Izzy's guard went up, and the woman got closer to Izzy, getting into her space. Izzy took a step back, pushing through the double doors that led to a stock room. Inside, the room was poorly lit save for one swinging overhead lamp. Crates and boxes of supplies created a dangerous maze.

"Excuse me?"

"You. Don't. Deserve. Him," the blonde repeated, slower, fangs peeking out between blood red lips. Vampire.

"Him who?" Izzy asked, slowly, carefully. She took another step back, extra cautious now that she knew this wasn't just another ordinary crazy. Maybe if she could find out who this vampire wanted -

The vampire hissed and bared her fangs in full.

- she would still have to fight. Great.

Izzy wasn't prepared for the backhand to her face. Her head spun, her cheek stung. She was pissed. So, she reached around, grabbed a bottle from the shelf, and smashed it right over the vampire's head. She screeched at an ungodly high pitch and shook shards of glass from her hair. Blood streaked across her face where the glass had cut in, the wounds healing near instantaneously as she picked the pieces out.

She was distracted. Good. It gave Izzy enough time to ram her in the stomach and flip her over a shoulder into a crate. The vampire's body fell through the wood and landed on the concrete with a heavy thud. She didn't get up, not immediately, groaning on the ground.

"Stand down! State your name and clan!" Izzy commanded in an effort to regain control of the situation. She didn't know who this vamp thought she was, but she had messed with the wrong Shadowhunter.

Unfortunately, this vamp did not get the memo that there was an order to these sorts of things, and did not recognize due process when she heard it. So, a fledgling then. Izzy could have guessed as much from the unhinged behavior. But then, she actually had the audacity to get up and charge at Izzy.

No mercy it was.

Izzy grabbed the nearest thing she could use as a weapon: a broomstick. It wouldn't do much good in the long run, but it did an okay job fending off a graceless fledgling. Heidi was easy enough to side step and trip, at least before Izzy started to lose her breath. Then, she remembered she hadn't been to training in months. Her handling of the broomstick was as close to amateur as she had been since she was twelve years old and just starting to use her whip. In all honesty, Izzy and Heidi were evenly matched. The only difference was that, in about five minutes, without an angelic weapon or backup or runes, Izzy would be a sitting duck.

"You went rogue, attacked a blood truck, killed a mundane," Izzy listed, trying to keep talking in favor of fighting. She kept moving, kept her eyes trained on Heidi's fangs, on her amateur movement, on her hands and what she might grab. "You need to turn yourself into the Clave."

The fledgling didn't like that answer. She didn't like it at all.

Izzy had precisely five seconds to duck out of the way of a set of wicked sharp fangs before said fangs were buried in her neck. But Izzy was slow, slow and tired and her ankle was swollen from wearing heels. Someone was screaming her name, telling her to move, but she was helpless against the speed and strength of a fledgling vampire. Those fangs should have sunk into Izzy's skin like butter and bled her dry.

At least, that was what should have happened.

What really happened was, the moment those fangs touched the vulnerable skin between Izzy's shoulder and neck, Izzy's whole body surged with energy as raw and electric as a live wire. Izzy could feel it, hot and static all around her, vibrating through her fingertips, down through the floor. Her hair stood on end, pushing the energy outwards in an efficient, glowing tide.

When the surge died down and the flash of light faded, Izzy was alone. The fledgling was gone. For a moment, Izzy thought she had run, that the forcefield had scared her off.

It was only until she picked the ash off her clothes that she realized it wasn't ash at all. It was the fledgling. Or, rather, what was left of her: microscopic specs of dust.

Lucifer's blessing had protected Izzy from harm, as promised.

Izzy was safe. She was whole. There were no wounds on her, no teeth marks in her neck, and her blood was safely in her body. But there was ash - vampire - in her hair. There was vampire in her hair. And she was shaking. When had she started shaking?

What was wrong with her? She had taken down dozens of demons and Downworlders in her short life. Never before had it affected her like this. But all she could think about was Raphael, chained to the roof with the sun ready to burn him alive, and wonder, what if it had been him?

Tears smarted in her eyes, clogged her throat. She had to cover her mouth to keep from crying out. She had killed a Downworlder against the permission of the Clave, in a violent and horrible way - and there was vampire in her hair. Mental breakdown was moments away, but someone grabbed her before she could fall.

Someone took her into their arms and held her close to their chest, strong and broad hide her face as she cried, as she took shuddering, deep breaths in to calm herself. She recognized the smell of the cologne, the silver polish, the well-worn leather. Alec. He must have followed her, and when the commotion broke out, he must have been the one to scream her name.

"What the hell was that?" came the distraught voice of Maryse Lightwood. Oh right, her mom was here. For dinner. As if this couldn't get any worse.

"Mom," she heard Alec say, cutting off her theatrics. Whatever else he said to her was muffled by his jacket. He turned back, and spoke soft enough for only Izzy to hear. "Are you okay enough to stand?"

Izzy nodded. She may have lost her dignity, breaking down with her family around to witness, but she would not let herself be completely humiliated. She had some pride left. So, she let Alec steady her on wobbling heels. There was no more vampire dust in the air, everything having settled in a thin layer of grime on the ground.

There was an audience to her spectacle, though who saw what was hard to tell. Mom and Alec were there, of course, having followed her. But why did Simon have to be there? He wasn't supposed to be at dinner. He wasn't supposed to be touched by all this insanity. Yet there he was: dark jeans, stupid tee-shirt, jacket and all.

Simon knelt down next to a larger pile of the dust, plucking out a necklace from the mess. His face twisted into something dark, something sad.

Did this vampire mean something to him? Was Simon who she was after, the man she said Izzy didn't deserve? Simon looked half-way to devastated, so she had to have been someone close to him. Guilt threatened to eat Izzy alive. She stumbled over to Simon, nervous in a way she had never been around him before.

"Simon...Simon I'm so sorry - "

"Hey, don't be," Simon said in that gentle, assuring way, trying to make her feel better even when she could tell he was hurting. "We all saw what Heidi was going to do to you. It wasn't your fault. If anything, it's mine. I was her sire. I should have kept her under better control."

"No, no that's not true," Izzy tried to protest, but all she could think was, Heidi. The vampire you killed had a name, and her name was Heidi.

She wanted to tell him that her actions were not his fault, that Heidi was her own person and that her actions didn't reflect on the kind of person Simon was. But the words got caught in her throat and died on her lips, and by the time she could unjumble her screwed up thoughts, Simon had nodded that pitiful little nod and walked off.

"We should go get Magnus, call it a night, go home," Alec suggested, already back at Izzy's side and steering her to the front of the restaurant.

Maryse stayed off to the side, staring at Izzy as if she were some kind of wild creature instead of her daughter in need of support. That was the thing about Maryse Lightwood: she never quite knew how to be a mother, no matter how hard she tried. Izzy prayed to God and the Angel that she never ended up the kind of mother that her own mother was. Izzy prayed that her baby never had to go through something like she was going through right now.

Mundanes stared at the group of them as they wove their way back through the restaurant. Half-eaten plates sat cold on the table, and Izzy got nauseous from the smells. Clary spun the straw in her soda absentmindedly as she chatted with Luke.

"Where did Jace go?" Alec asked, staring at the seat Jace used to occupy, now just as empty as the others.

Clary frowned. "I thought he followed you..."

That didn't make sense. Why would Jace just get up and disappear without saying anything?

"Your mother and I have this," Luke said, gesturing to the table of food and the unpaid bill. "You go do what you have to do."

That was all the permission Alec needed to switch from doting brother and son to Head of the Institute. His expression closed off, his game face appeared, and his gaze honed in on the door, hand already reaching for his stele to light up a tracking rune. Something wasn't right, and Alec suspected foul play. Izzy did too, she just couldn't stop shaking, couldn't stop feeling the static buzz of Lucifer's gift, couldn't stop breathing in ash -

"Stay here," Alec commanded, steering Izzy to sit at her spot at the table.

"No. I'm going with you."

There was no room for arguing, not when it came to family. She could do this. She could suck it up and deal with the trauma after Jace was safe.

They must have been quite the sight: a group of tattooed teenagers bursting out onto a busy street, but their attention wasn't on mundanes or their limited judgements. No, Clary had already activated her night vision rune and Alec was busy drawing a tracking rune on a spare patch of skin, ready to find his parabatai no matter the cost. Izzy wished she could contribute something other than scanning the crowd of people in hopes she saw a familiar swoop of dirty blond hair.

Then, someone screamed. They were close. They were -

"Hey!" Clary screamed, then broke out at full speed with Izzy and Alec right behind.

What they found wasn't Jace. It was the Owl.

The Owl looked up, its terrible masked head cocking to the side as it registered the intrusion and saw it was caught. It sprung up from its victim and blurred into shadow, leaving them with another mundane body.

The woman on the ground wasn't dead, but she was starting to turn blue, her chest eerily still. She must have been the one who screamed, trying to signal for help. Izzy prayed they weren't too late, that some good could come of this night.

"Isn't that Luke's partner?" Simon asked, catching up. His voice wobbled, still shaken from Heidi as he stumbled head first into another gruesome scene.

"She must have been following him." Clary let out a string of curses and dialed 911. "The Owl can't have gone far."

"Maybe it took Jace," Alec said, starting to pace.

"Uhh...guys..."

Izzy wasn't able to say more, not with her attention focused solely on the creature at the end of the alleyway and the mass of writhing black wraiths emerging from the shadows behind it. The Owl didn't run, didn't get torn to pieces. The Owl raised its arms in a challenging gesture, as if daring anyone to come closer.

Was the Owl...was the Owl controlling the wraiths?

Alec tensed and gripped his stele with white knuckles. Clary bounced on her toes, hands in front of her face as if she could punch her way through. Simon swallowed and mimicked Clary, out of his depth but willing to try for the sake of his friends.

This can't be happening, Izzy thought, frozen in horror. This can't be -

A flash of blinding light followed by a surge of magic knocked everyone back. Izzy's ears rang as another burst followed, then another, until there was a cacophony of light, power, and sound enough to disorient anyone or anything.

Magnus, Izzy realized as the Owl came under attack. Magnus Bane came to save the day.

The wraiths scattered, the light driving them back to whatever Hell they crawled out of while the Owl shrieked, holding its metal-masked face as it was forced it its knees. Its mask blurred; whatever spell held the Owl together disintegrated under the assault until there was no mask at all.

When the Owl raised its head, Izzy bit back a scream.

Turns out, they had found Jace after all.