"What happened." It wasn't a question, more of an order for us to explain ourselves, from the Inquisitor herself. She stood behind my father's former desk staring at the four of us.
We had retreated to Shadowhunter Academy after the skirmish with Jonathan. One of the newly Ascended remained alive, just barely. It made the most sense to bring them here to heal them rather than Alicante as it was closer. While Thalia was still missing.
"We were on our way back to Luke's when Jonathan appeared out of no where," I started to explain. Inquisitor Herondale stared at the four of us with an unreadable look upon her face.
"Just Jonathan?"
"And Jace." I was thankful that Izzy answered for me. I didn't want to be the one to tell the Inquisitor that her grandson had spilt Nephilim blood. "Jonathan, he wanted us to join him. When we told him no, he disappeared and then came back with five of his own Shadowhunters."
"Their names," Imogen Herondale ordered.
"George Lovelace," Ashton answered. I cast a sideways glance at him. I had been relieved when I saw that he was okay. He had been limping and had a gash on his arm but other than that he was fine. "Kelsey Nighthunter, Brandon Hawkwell, Anastasia Redfox, and Fernando Wainheart." I grimaced remembering that Ashton had trained with them. They had all been his friends at one point.
The Inquisitor stared at us, willing us to continue with our account of what happened. "Jonathan knocked me out at the start of the fight," Alec explained. "With his powers."
"Jonathan sent his Nephilim to fight the newly Ascended. We tried to help them but they held us back. They wanted to kill us," I told her. "Then, as suddenly as they appeared they were gone."
Imogen sighed and turned around, facing the large window. "I'll be calling an emergency Council meeting this afternoon." She turned around looking at Alec in particular. "I expect to see you there." Of course, he was the only one of us who was 18, the only one who could attend.
As the Inquistor swept out of the room I plopped down on the plush sofa to my right. I was exhausted, mentally and physically. I felt guilty over the now deceased Shadowhunters, Thalia was still missing, and-
"Here." Izzy sat down next to me. Reading my mind she lifted the hair at the nape of my neck and drew a healing rune. The throbbing in my head ceased as soon as her stele left my skin.
"Thanks, Izzy." I somehow found the strength to smile at her.
"What's our next move?" Ashton asked from where he was leaning on the wall. I realized Alec and Izzy were looking to me as well. When had I become the leader?
"We wait and see what the Council says," I told them. Even if I did have a plan it wouldn't matter if the Council's ruling disagreed with it. I was only hoping it would be something that helped. No more blood needed to be spilled.
"Clary, can you stop pacing? You're giving me anxiety," Izzy asked as she sat on my bed. We were back at my manor house, awaiting Alec's return from the Council meeting.
"I'm too nervous," I told her. "I don't know what else to do."
She reached into my bag and pulled out my sketchbook that I look with me everywhere. "Draw." She held it out to me. Izzy knew it was the best way for me to get out my emotions. Or at least it used to be.
I shook my head. "I haven't been able to." I didn't need to elaborate for my Parabatai to know what I meant.
Izzy sighed and set the notebook down. "Then talk to me about Ashton."
That got me to stop pacing and stare at her. I felt my face heating up. "There's nothing to talk-"
"No," Izzy cut me off. "That doesn't work on me. Spill." Reluctantly I told her everything that had happened the previous night. She looked like a child, giddy on Christmas.
"Stop giving me that look," I told her. "You're creeping me out."
"He is so into you, Clary!" Izzy said loud enough for Ashton to probably hear downstairs.
"Shh!" I yelled at her.
She ignored me. "And you're so into him." Izzy's smile didn't look like it was disappearing from her face. "You two are too cute! Yesterday in the car-" I shuddered thinking about "-and how he defended you today!" I wanted to point out that any one of us would have done that for anyone but she kept talking. "When are you going to tell him you like him? Oh! I know, when we get back to New York the four of us can go on a double date! Granted Jonathan doesn't destroy the world or anything."
"I'm not-" I started. "I can't..." I decided upon instead. Because the last time I admitted I liked a guy, well it hadn't turned out well.
"Not every boy you fall in love with is going to be in league with a psychopath," my Parabatai told me. "Ashton isn't Jace."
I wanted to tell her that it wasn't just that. That with everything going on where did I have time for love? But then something snapped in my thoughts- Jace.
I thought my words over carefully because Izzy would probably have my head for what I was about to say. "I don't think Jace was trying to kill us today." Quite a few things weren't adding up.
Surprisingly Izzy didn't tell me I was crazy. "I thought that too."
"Jonathan told Jace to kill us, but knocked out Alec himself," I said.
"Because he knew Jace wouldn't kill his Parabatai, no matter what," Izzy finished my thought. "When he and I alone were fighting, I thought he was just being sloppy but he didn't nick me with his blade. Not once."
"When he had us on the ground, he pulled out a dagger. He had it the entire time so why not use it before?" I posed. It would have been easy for him to stab one of us when we had been fighting in hand-to-hand combat. You don't understand...stay down...Jace's words repeated in my head. Had he been trying to tell us something?
"Remember when he was so adamant the mole was George Lovelace? Had he been trying to warn us?" Izzy brought up another point I had completely forgotten. But that made me think of something else.
"The video-" I breathed. "The video of Jonathan. Jace told us to upload and save it in multiple places, but stole the flash drive. He wanted us to have a copy."
Izzy and I stared at each other for a moment, unable to understand what was going on. Neither of us had a clue what to say next.
Thankfully, we heard the front door open and then slam shut downstairs causing us to all but run down there.
Alec was standing in the living room with- "Magnus?" I questioned. The warlock flashed me a smile. "What's going on?" I asked his oh-so-obvious boyfriend.
"The Council has deliberated," Alec started. "And decided that Idris be closed off." Closed off? What did that mean? "In a few hours it will be impossible for anyone to get inside Idris. Only from the inside can the Consul open it. All children will be portaled into Idris and excluding a few adults to watch over them, all able-bodied Nephilim will be sent to five key Institutes- Los Angeles, London, Cairo, Beijing, and Melbourne. For the majority, the rest will be shut down until Jonathan is caught."
"What about us?" I asked, suddenly annoyed. New York was where everything started, shouldn't it be one of the key institutes?
Alec shook his head. "The Clave thinks we have failed to contain the Jonathan problem in the first place. We will remain stationed in New York but will not be apart of this operation."
I was infuriated. Jonathan had murdered my parents, had shattered my brother's mind, wanted to kill all of us, but we wouldn't be able to stop him?
"Why are they closing off Idris? To keep the children safe?" Izzy question.
Alec nodded. "It was agreed upon that the future of the Nephilim needed to be secured. Jonathan is a Shadowhunter, there's no other way to stop him from entering Idris."
"Then what's stopping him from entering any Institute?" Ashton asked and I nearly jumped. I hadn't realized he was even in the room.
"Ah," Magnus said. "That's where I come in. Did any of you happen to get any of Jonathan's blood on your weapons or clothes during the fight?"
Ashton disappeared from the living room and then reappeared again, my brother's blade in his hands. On it I recognized the tint of dried blood. So he had injured Jonathan in the fight.
Magnus took the blade from waving his glowing blue hands over it. The blood lifted from the blade, producing a floating mass of now liquified blood in the air until the sword was clean. Handing the blade back to Ashton he produced a vile from his pocket. The blood floated inside, filling it before he capped the lid on.
"I'll be able to create a ward with this to block Jonathon from entering," Magnus informed us. "He won't even be able to teleport in while this is in effect."
"What about the rest of them?" I asked. What was stopping any of his henchmen from entering as they were still Nephilim.
"I can create a ward for each person should I have their blood but that will take time and energy," Magnus told us. "I suggest you keep on your toes and defend the Institute like you would against any other threat."
There was a knock at the door and entered Luke carrying a suitcase. "Sorry I'm late," he apologized.
"Now that everyone's here we'd better get going," Magnus said. "The faster I get working on this anti-Jonathan ward the better."
"Luke? You're coming with us?" I asked him. He nodded to me. "What about Gwen and the kids?"
"They'll be fine here in Idris," Luke said and stepped closer to me. He placed a hand on my shoulder. "I wasn't there for your father when he was killed. I wasn't there for your mother either. But I promised myself I would be there for you and your brother. If I can't protect my Parabatai then I'll protect his children."
Despite everything I found myself genuinely smiling at Luke as Izzy ran upstairs to grab our stuff and Magnus opened up a portal in the kitchen.
"Clary." Ashton stood behind me, holding out Phaesphoros. "You probably want this back."
I shook my head at him. "You gave me a witchlight. Now I'll give to you something my father gave to us, or well Sebastian in particular. I'm sure he won't mind." My brother was too lost in his own head to even know what a sword was.
Ashton smiled as he drew the sword back. "Thank you, Clary." I nodded to him as Izzy reappeared handing over my bag and suitcase.
With Ashton to my left and Izzy to my right we stepped into the portal and the Morgenstern manor house whipped away.