**Merry Christmas my loyal reader and responders. Are you ready for your present? ;) All I have to say about this chapter is...Ah. Revenge is so sweet. Enjoy, my dears...oh and a special thanks to OmgAdot for inspiring me to write and post this before Christmas =)**
Jonathan slowly pulled his hand back and let the door of the dinning room swing closed. Jace stood there for two seconds before turning and striding away towards his room. Jonathan followed after him.
"Wait, Jace. Slow down. Who do you think Jocelyn Fairchild was?" he asked as he caught up with him. Jace didn't answer as he took the stairs three at a time.
"I don't care." he said.
"Well obviously she's somebody important…I mean shouldn't we find out-" Jace had stopped suddenly, and Jonathan had to nearly throw himself around his body to avoid crashing into him. Then Jonathan turned back around to face him.
"You know what…" Jace raised his eyes up to Jonathan's. "I think I remember reading that name in one of the books in father's study that night he caught me. I bet it's still in there." Jonathan raised his eyebrows curiously.
"You think?"
"Yeah why would he move it?" Jonathan didn't have an answer for this. Jace made his face carefully blank.
"Wanna go check it out?" Jonathan looked at him like he was crazy.
"What right now?"
"Well yeah, now would be the best time since he's distracted with the Circle." Jonathan deliberated for a second.
"Yeah, alright." Then he turned and started to walk back down the hall in the direction of Valentine's study.
"Well wait we can't go back that way, what if they see us?" Jonathan turned back.
"Well then how are we going to get into his study?" Jace grinned.
"When you can't go through the house…go on top of it." Jonathan didn't look convinced.
"So you think we should go across the roof and break in through the window?"
"'Break' is such a harsh word. We'll just be entering. You still have my stele," he pointed down to it, looped in Jonathan's belt.
"If it's locked we can just unlock it. Then we'll be in and out before he even notices. He's so busy right now anyways…" Jace could tell he still wasn't entirely convinced.
"And I think you're right. I mean, obviously this Jocelyn person was somebody important. We should figure out who she is. But quietly." Jonathan hooded his eyes.
"Duh." Jace smiled.
"Well come on then." he turned and continued on to his room. "We'll go out my window since it's right here." After a second, Jonathan followed him.
Jace pushed open the door of his room and then left it open for Jonathan, feeling a twinge of annoyance when he entered despite the fact that he had invited him. Jonathan shut the door behind him. Jace walked to the window and heaved it up.
"Okay, you go first," he said as he turned away. "I'm gunna grab my witchlight so we don't have to turn any lights on once we're inside."
"Good thinking." Jonathan said as he put a booted foot up on the sill and heaved himself out onto the flat roof outside of Jace's bedroom.
When he was outside, Jace turned to look at his fireplace with a sinister smile that was so small it barely changed his expression.
Out on the roof, Jonathan stopped and looked out over their darkened fields.
Far in the distance, he could see the edge of the forest, so dark now that it looked straight out of a children's fairytale. The forest that the parents warned their children to never enter, because a witch lived in their depths or a clan of hungry goblins who feasted on little kid flesh.
Jonathan smirked; he'd love to see a fae try to eat him.
He heard Jace come out of the window behind him, and turned to ask him what had taken so long, when he saw a flash of blonde and iron, and felt a horrible crack in his side.
Jonathan fell down to the roof with a loud yell, clutching his ribs in agony. Jace stood over him, holding an iron fire poker in his hand.
"Wow...after all that's happened, Jonathan, you trust me enough to be alone with me?" he asked, a look of humorous disbelief on his face.
"How stupid can you be?" he asked before he aimed a hard kick at the ribs he knew he had cracked.
The force of it sent Jonathan rolling down to the edge of the roof, where his long legs whipped over, and if he hadn't frantically clawed his hands on the shingles like a drowning cat, he would have gone over the edge entirely.
As it were, he managed to grip the side of the roof tightly, stopping himself from plummiting three stories down to the hard concrete below.
Jonathan gasped and tried to pull himself back onto the roof, but couldn't, as the pain of his broken ribs made it impossible.
He groaned and looked down, thinking about whether it would be better for him if he just let go. With the thought of a three story drop to a hard surface with already damaged ribs in his mind, Jonathan looked back up at Jace.
Angel Boy wouldn't really let him fall. He was just trying to scare him.
But as Jace slowly ambled over to the edge of the roof, twirling the iron lightly in his fingers with a charming smile on his face, Jonathan had to admit that it was working.
He tightened his grip on the edge, not able to stop the groan of pain that the movement caused his ribs.
Jace dropped down onto the roof facing Jonathan, crossing his legs in front of him as he sat down while running his eyes over the length of the fire poker in his hand, that angelic smile still on his face.
Then he flicked his eyes over to Jonathan's, who felt a flicker of trepidation when he saw the laughing malice in them, like the whole situation was very funny to him.
Then, still looking at him, Jace set the tip of the poker down onto the back of Jonathan's hand, holding it in his fist like he would a spear.
Jonathan met his eyes; and to his horror, gave Jace a scathing look that said, 'you wouldn't do it…you don't have it in you to be cruel'. The look seemed to happen on reflex, and as soon as he threw it at him, Jonathan immediately regretted it.
Something dark seemed to come forth in Jace's eyes and as Jonathan was staring, trying to wrap his mind around the idea of an evil twin of his younger brother, Jace flipped the iron in his palm and raised it high over his head before bringing it down onto the back of Jonathan's hand with all the strength he could manage.
Jonathan cried out as the iron struck him, breaking the bones of his fingers and the knuckle above his pinkie. Jace flicked a glance over his shoulder at his open window, before bringing his slow, amused gaze back to Jonathan's face.
Jonathan groaned loudly as he gripped the edge of the roof with his broken fingers, knowing that he would be hurting much worse if he let go.
Jace then leaned forward with his elbows on his knees and spoke to him, mere inches from his face.
"Close your eyes, Jonathan…." he said in a soothing voice, though the bright cruel anger in his eyes did nothing to soothe Jonathan. Jace raised the iron again. "Pain is only what you allow it to be…" he said in a ironic voice, tinged with humor.
And then he brought the iron down onto his broken hand a second time, with somehow more force than he had the last.
Jonathan cringed; his hand releasing the edge momentarily seconds after the blow, before he quickly gripped the roof again, feeling like his aching fingers had turned into tubes of toothpaste with marbles shoved in them.
Jonathan quieted as Jace raised the iron to his lips, a slow gesture that said, 'Shhh…'.
Then, dropping the iron down away from his smiling mouth, Jace leaned forward on his elbows again.
"I know. It doesn't really help much does it?" he asked him in a confiding voice.
Jonathan stared up at him, wondering again just how bad the drop to the ground would be.
"I found, that when you repeat something over and over and over to yourself, it just looses all meaning." His eyes seemed to sparkle. "What do you think?"
Jonathan wouldn't answer him.
Jace smiled and dropped his eyelashes before leaning his cheek down into the cup of his right palm, the poker raised in his left. Then he dropped the iron back down onto Jonathan's hand, now rapping each broken finger, one after the other, like a child playing the xylophone.
And it was true that when he raised his eyes back up to Jonathan's and smiled, now hitting his shattered fingers so hard Jonathan's arms were shaking, he looked very playful indeed.
When he had finished tapping the beat to 'Jingle Bells' on his fingers (ending the final 'sleigh' with a hit so hard Jonathan punctuated it with a gasp), he turned his attention to Jonathan's other hand.
"I wouldn't want this one to feel left out." he said with a smirk as he lazily swung the iron over to Jonathan's right hand.
He raised it up over his head, saw Jonathan wince at the coming pain, and then stopped. Jonathan opened his eyes.
Then, still looking at those black eyes that had been filled with so much child-like joy as he had cut into Jace like he would a birthday cake, Jace flipped the iron over in his hand once more, so that he was again holding it like a spear.
Jace reached down and gripped Jonathan's wrist tightly, holding it in place while he raised the point of the poker high above his head…
"Wait, Jace don't, please don't…" Jonathan gasped. Jace looked down at him with narrowed eyes.
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't skewer you like a fucking fish." he whispered with deadly calm.
Jonathan eyed the tip of the poker, no longer believing that Jace didn't have the guts to stab it through his hand.
"Because it's what he wants you to do, he wants you to hurt me." Jace only stared back at him.
"I know that." he said.
And the look in his eyes told Jonathan that he didn't care either. That he was far past the point of caring if he did what Valentine wanted, especially if it meant that he would get brief satisfaction in the process. Jace raised the poker up higher.
"So you're just giving up?" Jonathan asked, surprised at the way it had come out sounding like he wasn't at all panicked, but instead like he was genuinely asking, and that he was even a little disappointed. Jace lowered his eyelashes.
"You did. So why shouldn't I?" he asked back quietly, though his voice was now edged with anger.
Jonathan ignored the ache in his arms from holding himself onto the side of the house, ignored the sick feeling of his broken hand, and ignored the pain in his ribs that made even breathing hurt…
"Because you're better than that." he said.
Then he looked away and continued in a tone that was somewhat bitter. "I mean, why do you think I call you 'Angel Boy'?"
"To spite me." Jonathan rolled his eyes.
"Because it's true, Jace." He even told me it was…
For a long time, Jace could only look at him. And then, finally, he lowered the iron and set it behind him on the roof.
Jonathan couldn't stop the small relieved sigh that escaped him. Jace smiled at him, all traces of cruelty gone from his eyes.
Then he sat up onto his knees and reached his hand down to Jonathan, while gripping the wooden beam of the edge of the fancy widow's walk that ran along down the roof to his left.
Jonathan stared at his hand, not knowing if he should trust him after all that happened. But Jace's eyes were clear, and if you couldn't trust an angel…
Jonathan gratefully released the edge of the roof with his left hand and quickly reached up for Jace's outstretched hand.
Jace gripped it tightly, making Jonathan's broken fingers hurt even more, before he began pulling him up.
It was difficult though and no progress was made because Jace wouldn't let go of the wooden beam for fear that Jonathan would pull him down, and Jonathan wouldn't let his good hand release the edge of the roof for fear Jace would drop him.
"You're gunna have to trust me, Jonathan." Jace grunted as he kept trying to heave him up.
Jonathan kicked his legs, thinking that it would give him the boost he needed so he could get high enough to pull himself up, but all the motion did was slam his ribs into the house.
"Come on," Jace said as his brother cried out in pain. "Just let go, I won't let you fall."
Not being able to take hanging helplessly off the side of his own house anymore, Jonathan let go of the roof and reached his hand out.
Jace let go of the post and grabbed it, and was able to pull him up.
Just as soon as Jonathan's knee was balanced precariously on the edge of the roof, Jace stopped pulling.
He slid down onto his knees in front of Jonathan and leaned close, practically hugging him, and whispered into his ear.
"Haha…"
Then he drew back just far enough to see Jonathan's eyes, so he was able to witness the emotions his brother was feeling as soon as he felt them.
First there was the confusion at his whisper, then the dawning realization as he saw in Jace's dark eyes what he intented to do next.
And then, finally…there was that bitter look of betrayal that Jace had been so longing to see in the black eyes of the boy who had so cruely and mercilessly reminded him that they were not brothers…
As soon as Jace saw it, he yanked his arms away from Jonathan's and shoved him backwards with both hands.
Time seemed to slow down then, just between the two of them.
In the second before Jace's hands connected with Jonathan's shoulders, he saw an emotion he had not bargained for.
It was a look of still resignation; a look that said, 'I know I deserve this."
And then Jace's hands connected, and the deep black eyes flew wide with surprise at being out over empty open air, and he heard the small gasp from him that was as quiet as a breath, but still so loud in the calm night around them…and then Jonathan was gone.
Jace stared out at the place where he had been, his heart thudding inside his chest like it never had before.
He gripped the post again, so tightly the wood groaned, and slowly leaned over to look down.
Jonathan was on his back, three stories down on the hard pavement.
He groaned once and then immediately started coughing. And even from his position on the roof, Jace could hear the wet sounds his coughs made, and knew that it meant he was bleeding somewhere inside.
Jonathan's coughs subsided and he looked up at Jace, red blood lining the inside crease of his lips.
And looking up at Jace, crouched on one knee and high above him, where Jonathan thought he belonged, he still couldn't help but think that he looked like an angel.
Even with his eyes bright like this, with so much anger and regret in them, he knew Jace was still the closest thing to an angel that he would ever see.
Sure, Jace's wings were a bit darker than most's...but he was an angel nonetheless.
