Jace raised his eyebrows at her.
"Wow. I can't even begin to explain to you how much that simple statement offends the very essence of my being, sweetheart."
However, before Jace could say anything else, the girl advanced on him, swinging the crowbar in a manner that resembled a vengeful angel armed with a sword of justice. Jace ducked the crowbar, dropped to the ground, and swept the girl's legs out from underneath her with one of his own. The crowbar flew out of her hand and hit the opposite wall as the girl hit the ground with a surprised gasp.
Suddenly, as Jace stood up again, his eyes on the dazed girl, the boy ran at him and slammed into him with bruising force. They crashed to the floor of the loft and the boy rolled on top of Jace, trying to pry the knife out of his fist with both hands. Jace yanked the knife away, accidentally slashing the blade across the boy's forearm. The boy yelled out in pain, blood streaming down his arm.
"Alec!" the girl yelled. She rolled to her feet and ran to where the boys were struggling, perilously close to the edge of the loft. Jace rolled them so that he was on top, raising the dagger high as he did so. Confusion crossed his face as he stared down at the boy, who was eying the knife warily.
"Alec? Alec Lightwood? But…that's impossible.." The boy stared up at him, his blue eyes very bright.
"Your family tries and tries but they can't seem to get rid of me." he said.
Just then, the girl ran up behind him, crowbar in hand. Alec looked up, eyes wide.
"Izzy, no!"
Jace stood up and spun around as Isabelle hit him hard with the crowbar. Jace stumbled to the side, tripping over Alec's body before teetering on the edge of the loft. Alec scrambled up, reaching for him desperately; but it was too late. Jace fell over the edge, his body limp with unconsciousness.
Alec cringed when he heard the sound of Jace hitting the ground, or rather hitting a bunch of wooden crates and then the ground. He sat back on his heels with a sigh, then turned to look at his sister. She was peering over the edge of the loft, the crowbar resting on her shoulder like a baseball bat, with a cocky grin pulling up the corner of her mouth.
"That'll teach him. Just wait till he wakes up-"
"Izzy."
"Then I'll really show him. He's going to regret the day-"
"Isabelle!"
She stopped and looked down at him.
"What?" Alec shook his head.
"That wasn't Jonathan." Isabelle looked confused.
"What do you mean? This is the house you were being kept at right?"
"Yes but-"
"And you said the little bastard that tried to kill you was Valentine's son right? We're just lucky Magnus was around-"
"Yes but Izzy, Valentine has two sons. That's what I was trying to tell you. You just knocked out the good one." Isabelle peered over the edge of the loft with a frown, the crowbar still perched on her shoulder.
"Nobody tells me anything."
Jace woke to a throbbing at the back of his head and annoying whispers that sounded like an argument. Keeping his eyes closed, he strained his ears and listened.
"No, this isn't safe Alec. We should just get out of here while he's still out of it."
"Don't you think we owe it to him to explain what's been going on?"
"No! If he wants to know he can ask his crazy, homicidal family and they can tell him."
"Oh, and you really think they'll say anything if he asks? Isabelle, I doubt they would do anything except get really mad. You've heard the stories about Valentine…imagine having that man as your father."
Jace clenched his fists. What were they talking about?
"Obviously he's tough enough to deal with it. If you hadn't distracted him, Alec, I don't know if I would've been able to hit him with that crowbar. You saw the way he fights, how fast he is…that's not normal for even a Shadowhunter. There's something different about him…and that brother of his. I say we leave now before he wakes up and decides to tell his father that we're here. Do you wanna be around if he decides to just say 'to hell with it' and kill us himself, I mean his brother already tried it with you so I doubt he's much diff-" Isabelle broke off when she looked over and saw that Jace was awake and staring at her. Alec, who had been facing away from her with his hands on his hips turned and looked, and then, seeing Jace, raised his eyebrows. Jace sat up.
"Oh go ahead. Don't stop on my account." Alec threw his sister a look before approaching Jace, who fixed his dark gaze on him.
"Sorry…she's not very tactful." Alec said to Jace. Isabelle sneered at him.
"Oh whatever. I'm honest. I can't help if people don't like it."
Alec sat on the bales of hay that they had put Jace on. He looked at the blonde boy, his eyes full of curiosity.
"How's your head? The iratze should have helped." Jace looked down at his forearm at the swirling black lines that had not yet begun to fade.
"My head's just fine." he said dully as he looked over at Isabelle, who was examining her nails. "Thanks for that by the way." She looked up at him.
"You were going to hurt my brother. What would you have done in my situation?"
Jace laughed humorlessly.
"What would I have done?" Jace stood up and ambled away towards the row of horse stalls, knowing that their eyes were on him, captivated by the tone of his voice as well as the easy way in which he moved, just as he himself had so often been captivated by his own father when he was very young. Looking back, it seemed like another lifetime entirely to Jace. "That's real easy. If it were my brother…I probably would've handed you a bigger knife."
Alec laughed; which surprised Jace. He had expected to shock them.
"Well I don't blame you. Anybody with a brother like that must feel the same way."
Jace turned around, his eyes glittering. The smile slowly faded from Alec's features.
"Why are you here?" Jace asked as he crossed his arms, his golden eyes bright and intense. "Or I should say, why are you still here? You found your sister. Great. Now I really think you should leave before you don't have the option of leaving." Isabelle narrowed her eyes at him.
"Are you threatening us, Morgenstern?" she asked quietly. Jace turned to her and smiled lazily.
"Oh no, Princess, you'd know if I was. Trust me." he looked back at Alec. "I'm not kidding though. You should really leave. You see, my father has this…ability, I guess you could call it, of showing up when you least want him to. And unless you want to be formally introduced…I suggest you get lost. Now." Alec looked over at Isabelle. She raised her eyebrows.
"I've been wanting to leave for ten minutes now. Let's go." Alec stood and looked at Jace, those blue eyes that so intrigued him dark with confusion.
"But don't you want to know what's been going on?"
Jace looked at Alec. He had always wanted a brother. Which was absurd because he already had one. He guessed what he meant was…he had always wanted a better brother. One that didn't despise him for reasons Jace didn't really understand. There was the jealousy, he suspected…the times were it seemed like Valentine really did prefer Jace to Jonathan. However, deep down, Jace knew that his father did not love him. At least not the way that a normal father would. At the very most, he thought that his father valued him. He valued him like he would a possession, because that's really all that he and Jonathan were to him; his possessions. But more importantly, Jace believed that his father valued him as his little soldier, obedient to his every commands.
With every passing day, Jace swore he could feel the bonds around his throat tightening, suffocating the life from him as he fought to release them and only succeeding in making them tighter. It was like being contained in a collar and his father was the one holding the leash; yanking it back and choking him when he didn't listen or started to have a mind of his own. At that moment, Jace wanted nothing more than to rip away all the bonds his father had placed on him and find a new family... for what could possibly enrage his father more?
Jace smiled, and Alec, seeing him smiling, grinned as well. "What's so funny?"
Jace looked up at him, and all his thoughts of getting away seemed to vanish as he came back to reality. What had he been thinking? Of course he couldn't get another family. He was Jace Morgenstern…
He focused on Alec, making his golden eyes hard and his voice emotionless, knowing that the other boy would believe him because he was just that good at deception.
"No. I don't want to know what's been going on. And I don't know if you're slow or what but you must really not get what my father is capable of because you're still here, acting like you and I are going to be BFFs."
Alec's face fell and the sight of it only made Jace's eyes grow even colder. Isabelle gave Jace an icy look of her own before taking her brother's arm and hurrying them out the barn door.
"Come on Alec. It's not your fault he doesn't want our help. I guess I was right though: he is like his family."
