Disclaimer: I DO NOT own the Mortal Instruments nor any of the characters besides my own made up ones! All rights go to Cassandra Clare, her publishers, and the other rightful owners!

Chapter 3: Jace's POV

Jon and I follow Clary and Izzy down the hall. Jon's mentioned Clary's studio before, but I've never been. And from the way Izzy's eyes lit up when Clary agreed to go there, I thought that there's more to this studio than just art and supplies.

We are led into the west wing, the least used one. We go down a hall and Clary pulls out a key. She inserts it into the lock of a set of heavy oak double doors. She then swings them open.

Light is everywhere. It's a medium-sized room, with an entire wall devoted to weapons. Two other walls are completely open, except for some easels that are pushed up against them. The last wall is covered in cabinets and different storages, with a big painting of the Lightwood family propped up against it. There are many different granite and wood islands scattered across the room. Some are covered in paints, others have sketches, others sketchbooks, and some with other types of supplies. More easels are placed randomly throughout the room.

Izzy goes over to the big painting of her family and stares at it. She extends her hand but Clary rushes over. "I'm not finished with that yet," Clary says. Izzy retracts her hand.

Jon wanders over to another easel, one with a long blade painted on it. I recognize Jon's sword, Phaesphoros. Clary goes to an island with dozens of papers covered in weird symbols. They look like Marks, but not ones if seen. She must've created them, I think.

I look around, glancing at different drawings. I land at an island with sketches. I flip through them. All the sketches are people, ranging from Jocelyn to Robert to Mom to Jon. Valentine's in there, his coldness impeccably imitated. Izzy's there, her electrum whip sparkling while in the middle of unfurling. I come across a picture of me and I almost, almost gasp.

In the sketch, I have black gear on. The gear seems to outline my broad shoulders with talent beyond ordinary. The Herondale dagger is dazzling in my grip. I'm crouching, my heels off the ground. The gold in my hair glints faintly, a reflection almost making a halo.

"Admiring ourselves, are we, Mr. Herondale?" Clary asks as she passes, a mocking smile on her face.

"Who wouldn't admire me?" I smirk. She sticks her tongue out at me.

Izzy joins me at the island and picks up a picture of Max. "How do you do this, Clary?"

Clary's at the other end of the room, inspecting different colored pencils. "I don't know. It could be the angel blood, but I've just always been able to draw like that."

She walks over to an easel with the Circle insignia on it. She begins to finish it up.

Jon, Izzy, and I watch Clary paint. It's like magic; the colors just seem to flow from the brush and into the desired shapes. In other cases, the bright and dark colors would've clashed. But here, they work together seamlessly. Everyone is in a trance; even Clary, herself. When she's finished, the painting looks too good for the Louvre.

Clary's breathing hard, almost like she was running. I stare at her in wonder. I've always known Clary to be easily annoyed, short-tempered, sarcastic, and rude. But this is a whole other side of her, one where she's at peace, one where she could face Lucifer himself and she would only smile. She's one of those artists that can paint her feelings perfectly.

"Clary…" Izzy starts but trails off. She too is mesmerized.

Clary whips around, a slight smile on her face. "Yes?"

"That's so good," Izzy finishes.

Clary giggles, a soft bell sound that reverberates in my bones. "Thanks."

A hard thud lands against the door. Jon and Clary laugh. Izzy and I send them weird looks.

"That's Seb's way of telling us something big has happened or we're needed," Jon explains. Clary goes over and opens the door. Seb's standing on the other side, his eyes impossibly dark with despair.

He skirts around Clary, who's watching with worry as she closes the door, and heads to his twin. He crashes into Jon with so much force that I'm surprised Jon didn't topple over.

Silently, the twins seem to have a conversation as they stare into each other's eyes, black meeting green. Izzy, Clary, and I wait in a tense silence.

Jon beckons Clary over abruptly and whispers something in her ear while Sebastian leans against one of the islands heavily.

Clary darts out of the studio. Jon walks over to me. "Go with her, she might need help with this," he says.

I sprint after Clary, putting in effort to catch her. She's small but as fast as a bullet. I almost crash into her when she stops abruptly in front of the basement door. She yanks it open and flies down the stairs.

The basement is dank and dim, with dust lining all of the knick-knacks cluttering the enormous space.

Clary shoots through the piles of stuff, nimbly jumping over things she can't dart around. She comes upon a door, which seems like it's freshly painted, bright in its dirty surroundings.

Slamming the door open, she enters. The room is filled with armor, ranging from light patrol gear to heavy fight gear to dusty metal from the 1600s. Clary rushes over to a table pushed against the farthest wall, where a black glove is placed inside a glass dome. It looks ancient and heavy but after Clary places a rune on the glass and it fades, she picks it up like a feather. A delicate feather, to add.

"I'm going to hand this to you, Jace," she says. "But if you damage this in any way, both you and I will be brutally tortured by my father and brothers. Got it?"

"What is it?" I hold both of my hands out and she carefully places it in them.

"One of the first articles of gear ever crafted. My father started this collection when he was younger and Sebastian is adding to it. Jonathan doesn't really do anything with it, but you know how he is with Seb. If that glove - well, if anything in this room were to be damaged - my dad would be angry and Seb would really...almost kind of depressed. Then, because Seb is sad, Jon would get angry." Clary goes over to another table and puts another rune on another dome. This one contains a knife sheath that looks like it belonged to one of the pharaohs, it was that old. She picks it up after shoving her stele back into her pocket. She jerks her head toward the door. "Let's go."

I gently shoulder the door open and close it. We slowly make our way through the over-crowded basement toward the stairs. An impatient Izzy is waiting at the top.

"What were you two doing down there? Having pre-marriage sex?" she demands as we ascend the steps.

Clary laughs. "Izzy, this isn't Heaven, you know that right? Jace isn't dead yet."

I roll my eyes. "Please, little girl. I'm not dead, but you are. After all, a man as gorgeous as your truly only belongs in Heaven, doesn't he?"

She snorts. "No, you belong in Hell with all those demons. I'm pretty sure that you need demon pox to even look the least bit attractive."

Izzy laughs. "Jace, don't even try to respond to that. Not even you can counter that roast."

We reach the top of the stairs and Iz closes the door behind us. "Come on. Alec joined us and he didn't look very happy either."

What do you expect? He's gay and he's getting married off to a woman. Is he supposed to be all happy like a kid in a candy store? I think bitterly.

Our little trio starts off toward Clary's studio. Izzy is speeding ahead, clearly unaware of the delicacy of the items in our hands. Every once in a while, she'll look back and chastise us about being so slow.

We reach the doors and for once in her life, Izzy walks in without a peep. But I can see why - the scene laid out before us is heart-breaking. Seb is clinging to Jon, his face buried into the crook of his brother's neck. Alec is staring coldly up at the identical image of his father's face in the life-size picture against the wall. Max, I guess, is still in the office.

Slowly, Clary places the knife sheath on a clear spot on one of the islands. I place the glove right next to it. "Seb?" she calls out.

Sebastian turns from his twin and he looks horrible. His knuckles are bruised and red and raw, his eyes are red and puffy, and his cheeks streaked with tears. But he lights up when he sees the sheath and the glove. Clary didn't explain to me what these objects meant to him, but clearly they mean a lot.

Jon pulls the two of us aside as Izzy goes to her brother. He brings us to the opposite side of the room from Seb. "Seb's engaged to Zara Dearborn," he says.

Clary gets really angry. I, frankly, have no clue who "Zara Dearborn" is, and I don't care. Though, from the look on my fiancée's face, she isn't nice.

"That bitch?" Clary sounds so mad, it's scary. I can tell that her tone terrifies Jon a little too by the way his hands inch up a little.

"Uh, yeah." He pauses and takes a deep breath. "And she's arriving tomorrow to meet him again."

Clary looks like she's ready to scream. She turns to storm out but Jon catches her shoulder. "Kendra Whitelaw's coming, too, though. With Xavier. And Aline Penhallow, Alec's betrothed, is accompanying the group," he reports.

I know who the last three are though. Kendra and Xavier are my distant cousins and Aline is the Consul's daughter. The Circle, now the leading Shadowhunter-law-enforcement (we monitor Shadowhunter activities), is very respected. So we are constantly interacting with the Consul and Inquisitor, reporting daily Shadowhunter violations and actions. Imogen Herondale, my grandmother and my cousins' great-aunt, is the Inquisitor. Jia Penhallow, Aline's mom, is the Consul.

Clary visibly relaxes. "Seems like Aline and Alec made out like bandits on this deal, unlike the rest of us."

Jon shakes his head. "Izzy, Jace, you, and I don't have it nearly as bad as Seb, however. You have to admit that."

Clary shrugs. "Yeah, yeah. Did Kendra and Xavier get married off?"

"No. They were both already engaged by the time Dad made this decision, though I think he would've paired them up anyways."

"Are they coming with their partners?"

"Yeah. At least, I think so," Jon responds.

Clary releases a deep breath. She steps back. "I'm going to the training room. Jon, don't follow me. Stay with Seb." Jon nods as Clary dashes out the door.

I go to follow her but he stops me. "Alec needs you. Don't go. She needs time to cool off."

"Ok."