He was dressed impeccably, wearing a fitted gray suit and a matching tie. "How did you find me?" He asked.
She wanted to hit Jace, to punch him so hard she broke either his nose or his jaw. Maybe even knocked out a tooth or two. It had been by his deliberation that they sat in front of Valentine. It was his doing. Being on the ship was not by chance.
"You told me where the heart of the Raum demon is." Jace replied. "I threatened one you sent to Luke's and it told me most of what I needed to know." Oh, she was so going to kill him. "It said you summoned it and it had come from a ship that was on the river."
Valentine looked proud of him for torturing a demon. He leaned forward closer to them. "You should call next time you want to drop by. It would save you the trouble of dealing with my guards."
What guards? They hadn't run into….demons. He meant demons. Whatever monstrous creature of hell he had summoned had been the one to show her that awful hallucination of Jace in the stairwell.
"You're summoning demons with Maellartach." She stated.
He said yes. "Those werewolves decimated my army of Forsaken. I didn't have the time to create another. Demons are quicker to summon now that I have the Mortal Sword."
She swallowed. Even after years of training herself against it, her hands still shook in his presence. The scars on her back burned. "What was the demon in the stairwell?" Jace asked. "Eliza was right next to me and then…then she wasn't."
She felt his eyes on her but forced herself to stare straight ahead. She focused on the strips of water she could see through the railing. "You saw Eliza?" Valentine asked, his voice stringent.
"Why wouldn't I?" Jace asked simply.
Valentine leaned back, clasping his hands in front of him. "It was Agramon, the Demon of Fear." He told them. "It takes the form of your greatest terror and then it feeds off it, then it kills you if you live beyond your fear." Agramon? Agramon, much like Abbadon, was a Greater Demon. Where was Valentine finding so many Greater Demons? "Both of you are incredibly strong for lasting as long as you did."
Her mouth felt dry and too small. She couldn't escape the image of Jace lying on the ground, bleeding out and Jonathan standing above him, admitting to the crime. What had Jace seen of her? What picture of her could strike deadly terror in his heart?
"How did you come to acquire a Greater Demon?" Jace questioned.
Valentine shrugged. "I paid a very young and very proud warlock to summon it. How very misfortunate he was though, since his greatest fear was that the demon would break his pentagram and attack him." Jace asked if that was how the warlock died.
"Were you planning on using him for the Ritual of Infernal Conversation?" Eliza interrupted. "Or was he just collateral damage along the way?" She demanded.
Valentine looked mildly impressed. He had never looked at her that way before. "You've been busy. I assume this means that you know the purpose of the Raum demons?"
Both she and Jace said yes. "You wanted Maia's blood for the Ritual. She's young and she's a werewolf." Jace told him.
Valentine nodded. He said he had sent the Drevaks to report anything of interest at Luke's-he never referred to him as Luke, always Lucian- and one of them had told him about Maia. "You wanted to hurt him." Eliza said. He asked what she meant. "Maia and Luke are close and you needed the blood anyways. Why not get the blood and hurt Luke at the same time, right?"
She saw the anger light in his eyes. He smiled, a smile unlike one he would have given Jace or Jonathan. They were his boys, his pride and joy. Jonathan, his protégé, his apprentice. Jace, defiant, soft, but his. Just their being there meant Jace was still his.
"You never fail to surprise me, my girl." He stood up, brushing off his pants. He held his hand out to Jace and helped him to his feet. He moved to help Eliza but Jace stood in front of him and helped her himself. Valentine gave him a perplexed look, but said nothing. "Let's walk. I want to show the two of you something."
Show them something? Surely he wouldn't show her anything of importance. He didn't trust her, he had no reason to. Valentine took out his stele and offered to heal them. "We're fine." Jace said, drawing away.
Valentine said nothing as he began to walk. Jace and Eliza shared a look, but began to follow him. Valentine walked with the air of grace. His hands were clasped behind his back and he stood tall. He never turned to see if they followed; he knew they would. Or rather, he knew Jace would follow and Eliza would not leave him alone.
"Both of you are familiar with Paradise Lost? By Milton?" He asked them.
Jace said yes, he had only made him read through it several times. Eliza replied that she had read it once or twice. "Something about it being better to reign in hell than serve in heaven?" Jace asked.
Valentine nodded once. "Non serviam." I will not serve. "Lucifer had printed the words on his banner when he rebelled against the host of Heaven".
"Are you playing devil's advocate or are you the devil in this situation?" Eliza asked him. They were drawing close to the front of the ship. Her father walked slowly to the guardrails and leaned against them. Jace joined him at his side and glanced back at Eliza. His face was drawn together as if there were something he wanted to say.
She looked out at the city as they passed through it. Manhattan was beautiful at night, lights shimmering through the dusty sky. Nothing like Alicante but just as beautiful in its own way. Alicante had the regality of fantasy, glistening glass towers and rolling green hills. Manhattan was industrial, metal skyscrapers and crowded streets.
Valentine asked why they had come, specifically why Jace had come. There was no question as to why she was there, but a thousand for Jace. "I had given up on you. Both of you, after leaving you in the Silent City. I thought you were lost forever."
"We spoke to the Seelie Queen." Jace replied. The tone in his voice let her know exactly why he had sought out Valentine. The Seelie Queen had planted some seed of curiosity in him with her comment about their blood. Granted, Eliza had also wondered what she meant but not enough to seek out her father. "She wanted us to ask you about our blood. Specifically, what kind of blood it is."
She saw the look of surprise cross Valentine's face. "The Seelie Queen." He spoke slowly. "You spoke directly with her?"
Eliza said yes. "A few days ago. She's a delight." She said dryly. "She referred to us as your 'little experiments.' Any idea what she meant by that?"
Her father stared at her. She didn't think he had actually ever looked at her. He had raised her, made her his weapon, forced her to make her life a lie. There was Jonathan, the one who did everything right. Living in his shadow was cold.
In over seventeen years, she knew that her father had never truly seen her.
"Her words should not trouble you. I thought you were smart enough to remember that the Fair Folk speak riddles. You'll do well to tell the Seelie Queen that the Angel's blood is your blood."
Jace replied that Raziel's blood ran through the veins of all Shadowhunters. "You wouldn't lie to the Seelie Queen. Right?"
Valentine gave him an exasperated look. "Would you come all the way here just to ask one question? Would you drag your sister to the place you know she least wants to be just for one question?"
Jace glanced over at Eliza and their eyes met. His face softened as he realized what he had done. As much as she hated Valentine, Jace knew that she was still afraid of him. And he had brought her there, delivering her to the slaughterhouse like a pig.
"No. I-There was someone I needed to talk to." Jace managed to spit out. "I'm not good. For anyone. Not the Lightwoods or Luke or Clary. Not for anyone." Her heart clenched at the pain in his words.
"What about Eliza?" Her father asked. "Surely if you aren't good for anyone else, then you aren't good for her either."
Eliza looked at Jace. He was staring down at his boots, the way an embarrassed child would. When he rose his head, he avoided her gaze. "I need you to tell me why." Valentine told him to be more specific. "Why take the Sword and kill the Silent Brothers?" His words came to a sudden halt, as if he had more to say but no time to say it. Or maybe not enough courage.
Valentine put his hands in front of him, clasping them together. "The Clave is corrupt and must be eliminated. Idris must be rectified. Earth must be made clean from demons."
Made clean from demons? She snorted. "You cannot preach about cleansing demons from the world, and then continue to call them to you and use them for your bidding." Eliza told him. "You've made servants of Greater Demons like Agramon and Abbadon and those of much lower status." She glanced around. "Your actions do not match your words."
He nodded wordlessly, eyes settled on her. "Your mind has never ceased to amaze me, always working and observing. I must tell you that a patriot does not ever have to agree with his government. A patriot, a true man of that stature, must rise up, he must recognize and make known his strong love of his country and beliefs. No matter what, I shall always be Nephilim."
She looked over at Jace. His sights were set on the water of the river, his jaw locked firmly.
"Jonathan, is that how you feel?" Valentine asked quietly.
Jace looked up quickly. "Yes. Forever, I will be what you have made me."
Valentine smiled, clapping him on the back. "Exactly what I wanted to hear." He pulled away to lean against the railing and look up at the sky. "I have started a war, children. What side will you choose?"
When he looked back at them, he was staring at Eliza. "We are all on the same side. The side against demons." Jace stated.
"That isn't what he meant." Eliza told him quietly. Jace looked over at her, his eyebrows knitted together. She wondered when he would understand that this wasn't a game. That Valentine was not the father he remembered, not the one he wanted. The world wasn't what Jace wanted it to be. "He wants to know if you're going to choose him or the Clave."
Him or me, she wanted to say. She would not, she could not, follow him to Valentine. No matter how much she loved him, she would never return to her father.
"Son, why would I fight against the Clave if I truly believed they were doing the best they could?" Valentine asked him. Jace didn't say anything. "The Clave is weak and the demons can sense that. The Clave is continuously preoccupied by the degenerate races and will fall at the attack of the demons."
Degenerate races. She knew exactly what he meant. The Downworlders. Werewolves like Luke and Maia and their pack. Warlocks like Magnus. Vampires like Simon. And Declan. She bit down on her lip, looking up at the sky. She didn't know for sure if her father knew about him or not, but she could only assume that he did. And if he did, that meant that Declan wasn't safe.
"Not Luke." Jace struggled to say.
Valentine gave a thoughtful nod, but not such a reassuring one. "Lucian was once a Shadowhunter. But, this is not about the Downworlders. This is about the world and its survival. We, the Nephilim, were created for a reason. We were chosen to be the best and to save the world. We must save the world from its end, no matter what it costs to us."
No matter the cost. She swallowed, glancing at Jace. The look on his face, the way he stared at Valentine…It unsettled her. He would be the end of them. More importantly, most importantly, he would be the end of Jace.
If she didn't yank Jace from his grasp, make him see reason, Valentine would be the death of him.
"Do you plan to send the demons against the Clave?" Jace asked him. Valentine did not hesitate before he said yes.
That was when she knew that he thought he had Jace exactly where he wanted him. He could tell him anything, trust him with whatever. Jace was his. Which meant, she was his. She would go wherever Jace went.
He could reveal his entire plan and it wouldn't matter.
"The Clave has proven that they will not see reason. Even with the Cup, even by creating an entirely new army of Shadowhunters, I do not have the time I would require. No one has that time. I can use the Sword to call an army of demons, an army completely compliant to my orders. Once I am finished with them, I will order them to destroy themselves and they will have no choice but to do it." Valentine explained. There was a sense of finality in his voice, the kind that brought the sense that this was what he had worked towards his entire life. This was the goal he had always worked for and he could see it there in the distance. It was close enough for him to see, almost enough to touch.
"What you're talking about…it's genocide. You can't kill every single Shadowhunter." Jace told him.
Valentine shook his head. "I know that. And I won't. The Clave will surrender." He sounded sure of this. "There are those who support me, those who will choose the right side when the time comes."
Eliza raised her eyebrows. There was no way he had supporters in the Clave. "They hate you. You don't have as many supporters as you believe you do."
Valentine's hand went to the hilt of the Angel's Sword on his waist. She wanted to take it and thrust it through his heart. He drew the Sword, the metal of the blade glittered dully.
Eliza drew in a slow breath. Maellartach was the most glorious of all Nephilim weapons. The silver of the blade was darker than any other Shadowhunter blades. In the middle of the hilt was a fiery engraved rose. The perfect weapon to kill her father.
"Here." Valentine offered it to Jace. "Hold it." He held it out, hilt facing Jace. It was the same way he had taught her to hand a sword to someone. All Jace would have to do would be to shove the hilt and the blade would go right through his chest. Jace began to object but Valentine thrust the sword into his hand.
She watched the way the sword lit up in his hands. Her eyes narrowed and she looked at her father. Valentine's face was blank. Jace's head jerked up to the sky. He jerked, his body bending over the railing of the ship.
"Jace?" She called to him.
The Sword clattered to the deck of the ship, the sound ringing her ears. She started towards Jace but Valentine grabbed her by the bicep, stopping her in her tracks. She set her jaw, glaring up at him. She jerked away and went to Jace's side.
She put her hands on his cheeks, forcing him to look at her. "Hey, look at me." She whispered. He opened his eyes, dark tawny. She pushed his hair from his face. "What happened? Are you okay?"
He looked past her, his wild gaze focused on Valentine. "What was that I saw? Are those all of the demons you've called?"
She looked at her father, not dropping her hands from Jace's face. Valentine picked the sword up and sheathed it. "No, what you saw are the demons that have been drawn to our world. Here, where we are now, the lines between dimensions are thin. They wait for me to call them to my army." He looked at Eliza, his dark eyes hard. "The Clave will resign."
She wanted to take the Sword, to see what Jace had seen. "The Lightwoods won't. Not again." She told him.
The look he gave her was fierce. "Your brother will convince them." His words brought chills to her skin. She knew exactly who he meant and it wasn't Jace. Wherever Jonathan was, it wasn't too far from them.
"I don't want anything to happen to them." Jace murmured. "Not after all I've done already."
She knew him, better than anyone. Jace would do anything to protect the people he loved. He would sacrifice anything, everything, even himself.
"I know, my son. I understand." Valentine said softly. She looked between the two of them, a man and the son he had fostered. She knew he cared about Jace, maybe even loved him. He had spent more quality time with Jace than he had probably ever even thought about with Jonathan and herself. She wasn't jealous of Jace for that, she pitied him. She knew how much it was to try and please him, the be the perfect child. She pitied the connection they had. It would hurt Jace more when Valentine ripped it apart.
"Everything is my fault." Jace told him. "All of the pain and the hurt they've suffered. It's all because of me."
Eliza frowned. "No, it isn't." She assured him, making him look at her again. "None of this burden is yours to bear." It was hers. Valentine's. Not Jace's, never his.
"But it is." Valentine told them. Both of them snapped to stare at him. Eliza's mouth fell open in shock. "You and I are similar, my son. We both poison and destroy everything we love." Her hands fell from Jace's face to her side. "It is not without reason." Jace asked what reasoning there could be. "The two of us are meant for a higher order, Jonathan. When we become distracted by the vices of the world, we are punished as so."
She couldn't believe what she was hearing. "If the punishment is meant for us, then why does it affect the ones we love?" Jace asked.
"No one ever said fate was fair." Valentine replied easily. "You cannot struggle against the current without dooming yourself and others. You must swim with the current to survive." Jace glanced at Eliza. He opened his mouth but Valentine spoke before he could. "Don't worry, son. I will never let anything harm your sister so long as you join me. I would give my life for hers."
Bullshit, Eliza thought. She knew better. He would let her die. If she died, Jace would be undeniably his. Pliant and easily controlled.
"I'll take her to Idris and she will be safe there." Valentine continued. Translated: the real Jonathan will take care of her. For good. "All of your friends will be under my protection, Jonathan. This I promise you. I assure you that joining me is the only way to save them."
She watched him close his eyes. She turned her attention to Valentine. His face was pleasant, his dark eyes bright. He wanted Jace to say yes, he expected it. Their eyes met. He had that triumphant look on his face. He had won. They both knew it.
"Jonathan, have you made your decision?"
She saw Jace open his eyes. His eyes slid over to her and he didn't even need to speak for her to know his answer. The look on his face said everything: I'm sorry.
"Yes, I have, Father."
She felt wrong. She felt off.
She didn't sleep that night. Instead, she paced her room at Magnus', biting down on her fingernails as her thoughts ran rampant. Chairman Meow had given up on her around three in the morning, abandoning her room to find somewhere that wasn't inhabited by a pacing madwoman.
Alec had retrieved her from her room around eight to get breakfast and go back to Luke's. They and Jace stopped by a coffee shop and got coffee and donuts.
Jace looked ragged. The circles under his eyes were greyish, but his body was tense as ever. They hadn't spoken a word to each other since returning from the ship. She could have easily cut through the tension between them with a plastic butter knife.
When they walked into Luke's, the scene was drastic. Maia was crying on the couch. Magnus was fresh from the shower, his un-styled hair at his shoulders. Luke was sitting on the couch next to Maia. Clary was standing near Magnus, a distressed look on his face.
"Glad to see everyone is in good spirits." Jace quipped. Maia muttered something about crying in front of Shadowhunters. "Go to another room then. We need to talk anyways." He told her.
Maia stood up from the couch and stormed out of the room. "We aren't talking." Clary told him.
Jace sat down at the piano and began to stretch his limbs. "Soon enough." He responded. "Magnus is about to start yelling at me." He looked at the warlock.
Magnus agreed with him, promptly looking away from Alec. "I explicitly remember telling you to stay in the house. Where the hell did you go?" Clary asked why Jace was able to get away if he had to be where Magnus was. "My magic was depleted after last night's incidents. My resources are not infinite." He turned back to Jace. "You swore to stay in the house. Those nasty little Shadowhunter vows aren't worth much, I see."
Jace shrugged. "I didn't swear by the Angel. That's the only oath with any sort of meaning." He reminded Magnus.
"He isn't wrong." Alec agreed half-heartedly.
Jace reached over and picked up a full coffee mug. He took a long sip and his face contorted. "Are you going to tell me where you were or not?" Magnus asked Jace. "Were you with Alec?"
Eliza snorted. Jace narrowed his eyes at her before looking back at Magnus. "I went for a walk. Couldn't sleep. I got back this morning and saw Alec hanging around the porch."
Magnus looked at Alec. "Did you sleep on the porch?" Alec said no. He had gone home and come back that morning." Eliza frowned. Alec seemed to be wearing the exact same outfit combination as the previous day: a dark sweater and jeans.
Clary asked what was in the box in Alec's hands. Alec opened it, displaying donuts. "Anybody hungry?" He asked.
Everyone, actually, was hungry. Jace, overzealous as always, took two and ate them quickly. Luke sat up. "I'm confused about something." Luke told them. Jace asked what that was. "The three of you," he pointed at Jace, Clary, and Eliza, "came out after me when I didn't come back to the house." Clary told him that Simon went as well. "Right. Whatever. There were four of you and none of you killed either of the Raum demons?"
She stifled at the thought of both of the demons still running around. "The one that attacked Clary ran back into the water. I didn't see what happened to one Jace was fighting." Eliza told him. "I got it pretty good with my sword, though."
Magnus whistled. "It didn't get far, then. The sword has the blood of a Prince of Hell in it. It can be quite painful to other demonic creatures, potentially fatal even."
Their eyes met. She had never told anyone else about the nature of her sword. "The blood of a Prince of Hell?" Luke asked. She said yes. "Which one?"
"Lucifer." She said stiffly. "My father's doing. The reasoning, I couldn't tell you. I have never understood the workings of his mind."
"Do you think they ran because they felt outnumbered? I mean, four of you and only two of them." Alec suggested.
Magnus said no. "The only two out there with any chance of successfully fighting were Eliza and Jace. A new vampire and an untrained Shadowhunter were no threat to them." He explained.
Eliza stifled a yawn, rubbing her eyes. Her hours of endless pacing were catching up with her. "It was me, I think." Clary said. She raised her arm, showing them a Mark. "This, anyways." Eliza moved closer to her sister, grabbing her arm. She inspected the Mark.
She looked back at the others. "I've never seen this Mark before." She told them. "It isn't in the Gray Book." She had read through the entire book at least twice and had never seen it once. Clary said she wasn't sure what the Mark meant.
"Liz, all of our runes are in the Gray Book. That's where we get them from." Jace reminded her.
She was about to reply with a smart-ass comment, but Clary's spoke first. "I saw it in a dream." She said.
Eliza dropped her arm. "What does that even mean?" Jace asked fiercely. His face was tinted red, his mouth drawn in an angry frown.
Clary licked her bottom lip. "When we were in the Seelie Court-," Eliza peeked at Jace to see that he was staring right at her, "the Seelie Queen called us 'experiments', remember?"
"Vaguely." Eliza muttered. Her father had dismissed the claim last night, but she knew better than to believe him. She wasn't sure what the Seelie Queen had meant when she called them experiments and she didn't know if she wanted to find out.
"She said that Valentine did things to us." Clary reminded them. "He wanted to make sure that we were different, that we were special." Eliza looked at Magnus. He wore a worried expression on his face. "She said that mine was a gift of words unspoken, Jace's was of the Angel and yours, Eliza, yours was Edom itself."
"Lies." Jace wrote it off.
Eliza shook her head. "The fey don't lie." She said. He told her that they could be lied to. He had that look in his eyes, the argumentative one. And she was in the mood to argue. "He did something to us. You know that he did. Look at what he did to our grandparents and to the real Michael Wayland and his son and tell me that you honestly believe he was above experimenting on his own children?" Her words shot out the same way she threw knives at a target.
"Words unspoken, she meant runes." Clary started again, giving Eliza an unsure look. "We don't speak them, we draw them." Jace's expression was anything but agreeable. He looked like he was seriously considering suggesting therapy. Clary gave up on him, turning to Eliza. "When we rescued the two of you from the Silent City, I only used a basic Opening rune to get into your cell."
A basic Opening rune? The cell door had all but imploded on itself, ripping off the hinges. "Are you sure that's all it was?" Alec asked. "It looked like a Forsaken had gotten ahold of the door by the time I got down there."
Clary nodded. "But it didn't just unlock the door to the cell. It unlocked Jace and Eliza's manacles, too. I think the Seelie Queen meant that the runes I draw are more powerful and I could maybe even create new ones." Jace said no one could make new runes.
"Was this before or after she made you make out with your brother?" Magnus inquired. Everyone's heads snapped up. Luke looked like he was going to be sick and Alec seemed as if he had already swallowed his vomit. Jace looked pissed as ever.
"Magnus!" Eliza hissed. He shrugged, half-heartedly saying it was a legitimate question.
"How do you know that?" Jace growled.
Eliza bit down on her lip. "It's my fault." She admitted. "The link between us is stronger when my-." She stopped herself before she could finish her sentence. She didn't need everyone to know what she felt, how she felt. They were supposed to believe Jace was her brother.
"It could be true." Alec said thoughtfully. Eliza was surprised that Alec was so quick to agree with Clary. It was no surprise that Alec wasn't her biggest fan.
Luke agreed. "Go get your sketchbook." For a few moments, Clary and Luke just stared back at each other. As close as they were, Eliza assumed that they had some sort of unspoken language between them. They could communicate with looks only. Clary said she would be back and disappeared into the kitchen.
As her gaze traveled the room, she noticed Jace was staring at her. He nodded his head towards the front door, proceeding to walk outside. She gave the room a quick look around and then followed him out.
He was leaned against the railing of the porch, arms crossed over his chest and head ducked down. "Why did you leave last night?" He looked up, tawny eyes vulnerable and wide. His curls fell into his face.
Was he serious? He had to be joking. "Do you not understand what you did, Jace?" She asked him. "You asked me to trust you and I did. I've always trusted you, more than anyone else. And last night, you broke it."
He stood straight, letting his arms fall to his sides. "Liz-."
"Don't 'Liz' me, Jace!" She yelled. She heard the inside of the house still. She stepped off the porch, walking a little way down the drive and beckoning Jace to follow her. "How could you do that?" She asked quietly. Hot tears sprung in her eyes. She squeezed them shut to keep them from falling. When she opened them, the tears rolled down her cheeks. "How could you take me there, to him? Jace, you know…You know what he did to me. And then you looked me in the eye and you took his side. After everything, all he's done and all we've been through." She shook her head, looking down at the ground.
"He's my father, Liz. You don't understand." He said softly.
Her face was hot. She squeezed her hands into fists at her sides, so tightly wrung that she felt the crescents of her fingernails digging into her skin. "Bullshit!" She shouted. "I understand more than anyone! Do you think that I was three years old when I decided to hate him? I tried for years to please him. All I ever wanted was to be good enough for him, to be better than you, better than-." She stopped herself. Better than Jonathan. But to her father, no one was better than Jonathan. He was perfect. "I'm done." She told him.
His mouth fell slightly. "What? What do you mean?"
She swallowed, staring right back at him. Her heart burned just thinking of saying the words. She took a deep breath. "This. Us. Everything." She sighed. "After last night, I won't do it anymore. I can't. I thought I ruined this, but I was wrong. It was you."
She hated the way he looked at her. Like she had just ripped his heart from his chest and torn it apart with her teeth. Maybe she had. But he had done it to her first.
"You can't do this, Lizzie. I need you." He whispered.
She said no, he didn't. "If you did, you wouldn't have done what you had. We both know it." Her legs felt as if they would collapse underneath her. She couldn't stay there, she had to go.
She started walking, going opposite of Luke's house. Alec or Clary would just have to fill her in later. She passed by Jace, moving aside as he tried to reach out and grab her arm.
"I know you, Liz. You won't fight me." He called after her.
Without turning back, she said, "Yes, I will. And I'll win." She kept walking, her hair blowing out from behind her ears in the breeze.