She moved quickly once in her room. She tore off her old clothes and yanked on the only clean pair of pants she had, black leather. She vaguely remembered wearing them to Pandemonium to bait a demon one night in June. They were a little tight, but they'd have to work. She slipped on a black t-shirt, tucking the front into her pants. She quickly pulled her boots onto her feet.
Pulling open the third drawer of her dresser, she pushed aside the useless trinkets and pulled out two seraph blades, shoving them in her belt. She slammed the drawer shut and dropped to her knees. She lifted the creaky floorboard, throwing out the straw she had placed there to cover her pack of throwing knives. She took out the pack and unfolded it.
"Beautiful." She murmured. Looking down at the braces, she didn't particularly want to put them on, but they were necessary. They wouldn't help the burns from the runes. "Heal." She muttered at her wrists. She cuffed the braces around her wrists and slipped two knives in each one. She put the floorboard back and stood up.
Sword. She needed her sword. The Inquisitor had confiscated it upon entering the Institute. That and her cell phone. She'd need those back.
She moved to the vanity, making quick work of her hair. Instinctively, her fingers laced through her hair, weaving and knotting until she had two very short braids. Good enough.
"Liz." Jace was standing in her doorway. His golden curls were ruffled, hanging on his forehead. He could have been an angel. A very bad one, but an angel. "We've got to go." The tension in his voice was enough to move her.
"I need my sword." She told him. "Where'd that damn woman put my sword…?" She muttered. If she had confiscated it for the Clave, Eliza was going to murder her.
Jace pulled something from behind his back. He held the sword out to her, blade pointed to the floor. "Swiped it from the main office by the library. Thought you might like it back."
She took the sword from him, balancing it in her hand. She couldn't fight the grin. "I could kiss you." She breathed. Silence filled the room as they looked at each other. "But I won't. Because that'd be weird."
"Because we're siblings."
"And I have a boyfriend." She added.
He echoed her words thickly. She followed him from her room down the hall to Isabelle's. Alec was lying on the floor, Izzy and Max standing over him.
"Well, this was about what I was expecting." Jace sounded a little too amused about Alec's predicament.
"Jace!" Izzy squealed. He pulled Eliza into the room and kicked the door shut. Max barreled into Jace, engulfing him in as big a hug as he could managed. "What happened? What did the Inquisitor do to you?" She bombarded.
"Just locked us up in the training room." Jace told her, patting the top of Max's head. "Alec helped us get out, though."
Izzy looked at her older brother with an incredulous expression. "Really?" Alec said yes, really. "You should have said something." She spat at him. "I wouldn't have knocked you on your ass if I'd known."
Alec made a face at her. "Izzy, I need weapons. And bandages for my wrists. Now." Jace told her. Izzy took out her stele and offered to use healing runes to fix the burns. "Those won't help." He said. "These are from runes."
Izzy put her stele back away. "Bandages and then weapons." She looked at Eliza. "Do you need some too?"
She said no sternly. "I made a pit stop to my room." She showcased the knife braces around her wrists and the two seraph blades she had swiped from her emergency weapons drawer.
"I meant bandages." Izzy said dully. Eliza said it couldn't hurt, just to be safe. Izzy went into her bathroom in search of medicines.
Eliza undid one of the braces, looking down at her wrist. She was bracing herself to see the black place from the Inquisitor's cuff, bloodied and chafed. But her wrist was fine. It looked good as new. There wasn't even an indicator that it had been hurt in the first place. She cuffed the brace and checked her other wrist. It too was perfectly fine.
Izzy came back out of the bathroom with a basket of bandages, gauzes and ointments. She held up a pack of gauze to Eliza. She shook her head. "Mine aren't that bad, actually. Just make sure Jon- Jace is okay."
He looked over at her. She gave a quick nod. They were okay.
"Alec, can you grab Izzy's phone?" Jace asked as Izzy bandaged his wrists. Izzy told him it was on the dresser.
Alec walked to her dresser and looked it over. Eliza could clearly see the problem. There was no phone on the dresser. "Iz, it's not here." Alec told her.
"Damn it." She hissed. She was placing an iratze on Jace's bare back. "It's in the kitchen. I forgot I left it down there."
Max jumped off the bed. "I'll go get it!" He suggested. "The Inquisitor doesn't care that much about me anyways."
Both of his older siblings looked back at him. Jace even managed to turn his head. "Are you going to text Magnus something stupid?" Izzy asked her older brother. Max, clearly interested, asked who Magnus was.
"A warlock." Eliza said. "And a friend."
Max looked confused. "He's a sexy warlock." Izzy giggled. Alec looked absolutely infuriated with his sister.
"Aren't warlocks bad?" Max asked them. Eliza said no in a very firm voice. "I'll be back." Max told them. He was out the door in the blink of an eye.
Eliza saw Jace putting his shirt and jacket back on. He began pawing through Isabelle's items, searching for any weapons. "So, what's the plan? Are we all getting out of here?" Izzy asked them. "You know the Inquisitor is going to send out a trillion search parties when she realizes you two aren't in her little cell anymore. She'll lose her mind."
Eliza quipped that she seemed as if she had already lost it. "She'll lose whatever is left when Valentine turns down her offer." Jace supplemented.
"What offer? What're you talking about?" Izzy asked.
Eliza leaned against her dresser and took out one of her knives. She spun it between her fingers, looking at Izzy. "The Inquisitor was planning on using Jace and I as bait. She was going to offer Valentine a trade. Us for the Mortal Instruments. We told her he'd never go for it, but she's a very proud woman."
Isabelle's face lit up like a bonfire. Eliza had never seen her so upset. And Isabelle got upset quite a bit. "She can't do that!" She yelled.
Jace shrugged. "She doesn't know that yet."
Eliza slipped the knife back into the brace and pushed off the dresser. She pushed a wisp of hair from her face. "It doesn't matter what she knows and doesn't know. The only thing that matters is that we've got to get out of here." She told them.
Jace continued to dig through Izzy's belongings. Half of her stuff seemed to be strewn across the floor. "It won't be easy." Alec said. "This place is on lockdown. Half the Conclave is guarding the Institute right now."
Jace grinned boyishly. "Well, Lizzie, Inquisitor Herondale certainly is afraid of us."
She smiled back.
"I think she has a right to be." Izzy said. "You guys jumped thirty feet out of a…what's it called?" She asked Eliza.
"Malachi Configuration. Not a fun place to be." She said heavily. "I won't be going back a third time."
"Third time?" Alec asked quietly.
She shrugged but gave him a look that said the conversation wasn't going to happen. Jace found a ten-inch dagger, speared through one of Isabelle's bras. She took the bra off. Izzy asked how they managed to do it and Jace told her that they just jumped. He pulled two chakhrams from underneath her bed, spinning them. Izzy asked what he meant, that they just jumped.
"I think the Seelie Queen was right." Jace got to his feet, brushing his pants off. "Maybe she was right when she said we have powers or abilities or whatever. Clary does."
She did? Eliza hadn't exactly been around to see whatever had happened. "She was right." Eliza told them. "The Seelie Queen. I don't have the time now to explain it, but I know she was right. Valentine didn't lie to her."
Jace's eyes darkened. "Jace, is your vampire cycle still on the roof?" Alec asked suddenly. Jace said that even if it was, it wasn't very useful since it was daylight. Isabelle noted that not all of them would be able to fit on it.
Jace put the chakhrams on his belt and sheathed the dagger on his belt as well. He pocketed the seraph blades he had found. "You aren't coming." He stated. "It's just me and Liz."
Izzy started to speak but Max ran back into the room. He shut the door quickly, heaving for breath. She glared at Jace as she furiously dialed the phone. "Clary, right?" Eliza confirmed. It was a tense few seconds until Isabelle spoke again. "It's Izzy…What do you mean?" Her face paled as she looked back at Eliza. Her dark eyes stood out, wide and concerned. "How did he even…"
"Iz, what's going on?" Jace asked.
Isabelle took the phone from her ear. "Valentine…He took Simon and Maia. For the Ritual."
Jace reached to grab the phone from her but Eliza got it first. She gave him a dangerous look, her eyes darker than green. He took a step back. She put the phone to her ear. "Clarissa, it's Eliza. Come to the Institute." Her words were even and stern. "Do exactly as I tell you. Do not come inside. Jace and I will meet you outside. Don't let anyone see you. Do you understand?"
"Yes. Eliza-."
"Fast, Clary. Get here fast." She hung up, handing the phone to Alec. There was a determined look in her eye. "Call Magnus. Tell him he needs to meet us by the waterfront in Brooklyn. Somewhere no one will see."
Isabelle asked what she was planning on doing. "We're going to Valentine." Jace informed her, casting a wayward look at Eliza. Isabelle asked who he meant. "Me, Liz, Magnus, and Luke. We need you guys to stay here and deal with the Inquisitor. You need to convince her to send everyone she has after Valentine." He explained.
Alec asked how they planned on getting out of the Institute. The Inquisitor had guards all over the place. There was no way they were sneaking out without being caught.
"Same way we got out of the Malachi Configuration." Jace assured him. A look of horror crossed Alec's face. Jumping out of a window was not the same as jumping up to rafters. Jace climbed up on Izzy's windowsill and pulled Eliza up next to him.
Isabelle was making a strangled noise in her throat and she could hear Alec about to protest. Jace's hand was warm against her own, his fingers wrapped tightly around hers. She looked over at him, relieved to see he was already staring at her.
Their heads turned at the same time, down towards the ground far below. And then they were falling.
She didn't particularly enjoy being on the roof of the Institute. She would have fallen, if it hadn't been for Jace. Well, and the Equilibrium rune. She grabbed onto one of the crumbling gargoyles for support, focusing her eyes on anything but the ground below them. She trained her eyes on Jace. He was moving swiftly in front of her, jumping from turret to turret. His hair shone brass in the light of the moon.
He was the sun, her sun. Bright and burning, dangerous if you strayed too close, if your eyes happened to linger for too long. He was golden and warm, the light on her darkest days.
She was the moon. Distant and cold. Dark, silvery, pale, not quite reachable.
The best days, their good days, were dusk and dawn. The sun and moon coexisting perfectly in the sky. That had been before Valentine came to New York. Before he had ruined everything. Now, he lived in the day and she lived in the night. There was no longer a dusk or a dawn.
He glanced back, making sure she was still right behind him. That was the moment she decided that if they defeated Valentine and recovered the Mortal Instruments, she would let the truth spill from her like a waterfall.
Jace dropped down to his stomach, gripping the roof with his hands. With unnatural ease, she did the same. The grate of the roof scraped against her front side and she grimaced. "We've got to jump." He told her.
Not wanting to, she looked down. The ground was a terrible way away from them. If they didn't land correctly, they'd die. But maybe, even if they stuck it, they would still die. Getting out of the Malachi Configuration and Alec's window were not the same as jumping from the roof of the Institute.
"Liz. It's okay." How could she worry about anything if he was assuring her? His words strong, sounding so sure of everything. "You said it yourself. We're special." He reminded her. She swallowed, nodding. He was right. They were special. "Look, I'll go first. That way I'm there to catch you. Okay?"
"What if you don't make it?" She asked quietly.
He shrugged to the best of his ability. "Then, make it back inside. If anyone can sneak out of the Institute, it's you. And if anyone can stop our father, it would be you."
She took a deep breath. "Don't die." She told him. "I don't think I can do life without you, Jace." She said in soft voice.
His expression changed to one she hadn't seen in a long time. Tender eyes, warm smile. "Don't worry 'bout me, Liz." He murmured. "I'm not going anywhere."
She gripped onto the stones of the roof as tight as she could. Her eyes snapped shut as he turned, standing on the precipice of the roof, face turned down. She couldn't watch.
Someone screamed.
She waited a good ten seconds before she managed to peel them open. Shaking, she peered down. Jace was standing straight up, perfectly fine. Clary was next to him, both of them looking up in her direction.
"If Jace can do it, so can you." She whispered to herself. "You're the best Shadowhunter of your age." Or so Hodge had said. And even though he was a traitor, she didn't think he was wrong. She and Jace were the same caliber. He was the best because losing his father had made him stronger. She was the best because she had been stuck with her father.
The same man had bred them and built them into what they were.
She turned herself around and inched to the edge of the roof. "It's not even that high." She told herself. "He's there to catch you, but you don't need him." Before she could think twice and turn back around to climb into the Institute, she stepped off the roof.
It was mere seconds before her feet landed firmly on the ground. Clary and Jace were staring at her, astonished and open mouthed. "What?" She asked, exhaling lightly.
"Your eyes." Clary whispered. Jace's eyes were slanted, as if he were trying extremely hard to discern something. "They're bl-." Clary's word ended abruptly. Her younger sister blinked several times, rubbing her eyelids.
"Never mind. Must have been the shadows or something." Jace said quickly.
Clary nodded along with him. "How did…how did you guys do that?" She asked.
Eliza stared past Clary. Luke was standing beside his truck, hands behind his head. He wasn't looking at them but looking past them. She turned her head to see two of the Conclave guards running towards them. She recognized them from the Silent City massacre. Malik and the woman with silver hair.
"We've got company." She muttered. "We need to go. Now." She told her sister and Jace.
Jace nodded, grabbing Clary's hand. The three of them raced to Luke's truck. By the time they got there, Luke was already in with the truck running. Clary slid in next to him, Jace next to her. Eliza stopped. No room.
"Liz, get in!" Jace's hand wrapped around her wrist and he yanked her into the truck onto his lap. She pulled the truck door shut and Luke sped off. The truck drove by the two Conclave Shadowhunters.
Malik pulled out a knife. The metal blade shone in the sun. Eliza slipped a knife from her brace, gripping it tightly.
"You can't kill him!" Clary told her.
She rolled her eyes. "Just the hand." She promised. Clary said she could miss. "I never miss, little sister." She rolled down the window and leaned out. She focused her sight on Malik's right hand, the one with the knife. As he drew back his arm to throw, so did she.
Right as she was about to let the knife loose, the silver-haired woman threw herself on Malik, knocking him off balance. She wrestled for the knife in his hand. Eliza slid back into the truck, looking in the rearview mirror.
Luke rounded the corner, merging into traffic. She rested her head on the edge of the window, taking a deep breath. She looked over at Jace. "That was fun."
Jace and Clary both gawked at her. She knew that if he could, Luke would have given her the same look. "You're starting to sound like Isabelle." Jace muttered.
She grinned.
"Are you going to tell us how you jumped off the roof of the Institute or not?" Clary demanded to know.
"You answered your own question." Jace said, voice weary. "We jumped." He turned to Eliza. "Did you notice that my motorcycle is gone? The Inquisitor probably stole it and she's joyriding around, telling herself how smart her plan is."
She cracked another smile. "Clary doesn't care about the jumping part. She wants to know about the not dying part, more than likely." She told him. Clary said that was exactly what she wanted to know and said thank you. "What happened? When I left Luke's earlier, after you went for your sketchbook?"
Clary and Luke shared a look. Clary looked back to Eliza. "I created a Fearless rune." Eliza frowned, muttering that there was no such thing. "I know." Clary nodded. "But Jace suggested it and I just…drew it. And then we used it on Alec and he was about to tell his parents that he and Mag-."
"That's all I need to know, I think." Eliza stopped her. She didn't know for sure how much Jace knew about the situation or how much Alec really wanted out in the world. "Then, I guess it's time to tell you where I went."
Jace leaned up, putting her in an uncomfortable position. "You said the Hotel Dumont. Weren't you with Declan?" His voice cracked over Declan's name and she pushed that away. She said no. "Why the hell were you there?"
"It's about what the Seelie Queen told us. About Valentine experimenting on us."
Before she could say anymore, Luke cut her off. "Are we joyriding or going somewhere in particular?" He asked.
Jace and Eliza glanced at each other. Luke was not going to like their answer. "Valentine's boat. He has Maia and Simon and he's going to use them for the Ritual. We're going to stop him." Jace said in a matter-of-fact voice. A voice that said he didn't want to be argued with. Luke immediately said no. "I said we. As in, me, you, Liz, and Magnus. Clary's going to stay on land, where it's safe." Well, Clary objected to that.
"That isn't what it's about, Jace." Luke said sharply. "It's too dangerous." Jace said that Luke didn't need to worry about them. "Of course I'm going to worry about you." Luke told them.
For a moment, Jace lost his words. He didn't respond, sitting in silence and staring at the traffic in front of them. "Don't. It's a waste of time." He said suddenly. "Valentine is going to slaughter anyone who comes after him. He'll kill your friends and then he'll call an army of demons so powerful, even the Clave won't be able to stop him." Luke said that the Inquisitor would put a stop to it.
"We tried." Eliza looked out the window. "We told her what he has planned and she didn't believe us. She thinks her grand plan is going to work, even though we insisted it wouldn't." Clary asked what the Inquisitor had planned. Eliza's fingers danced along the window. "She wanted to trade Jace and I for the Mortal Instruments. She really believes that he'll give her the Sword and the Cup in exchange for us." She laughed quietly.
"We left Isabelle and Alec to inform the Inquisitor and the Conclave about Maia and Simon." Jace continued on. "I don't think she'll go for it though. She's really invested in her plan, so I don't think she'll give it up for two Downworlders." He told them.
"We don't have that kind of time anyways." Clary stated. "We've got to get there now, before he hurts either of them."
Luke tapped his fingers against the steering wheel. He weaved in between cars, speeding through traffic. "The boat is in the middle of the East River. We need another boat to get there. And, well, I don't think any of you can walk on water." He reminded them.
Clary's phone went off, signaling a text message. Jace peered over her shoulder. "Isabelle texted me." Clary's voice was unsure. "Why did she send me an address?" She asked.
Jace recited the address to Luke, telling him to get there as fast as possible. "That's where we're meeting Magnus." Luke swerved the truck into a U-turn, going south. "We need Magnus to get us across the water to the boat and then onto the boat. It's warded. The only reason we got on last time was because he wanted to be found. It won't be so easy this time." Jace said.
Luke groaned, his finger tapping becoming more incessant and fast. His eyes were trained straight ahead. "I still think the two of you should stay behind and let me go alone." He said.
Jace leaned his head back on the rest. "It has to be us. We know what to expect." Luke asked what he meant. "Valentine is using a fear demon. I think he's been using it to kill things. The Silent Brothers, the warlock, that werewolf outside the Hunter's Moon, and the fey child." Jace informed them.
Eliza shuddered. Even if she knew what to expect when she stepped onto that ship, she didn't ever want to see it again. Jace, lying lifeless on the floor. Blank eyes staring back at her. Jonathan in front of her, Jace's blood on his hands. The image made her nauseous.
"The demon gets inside of your head." She murmured. "He shows you your worst fear and waits for the fear to kill you. And if it doesn't, he kills you himself." She squinted back the salty tears.
"He's using Agramon." Luke's face was pinched in concentration. He looked a little grey. She said yes, the Great Demon. "He's summoning Greater Demons with the Soul Sword?" She said yes again, in a quiet voice. "A warlock wouldn't have an easy time binding the Great Demon, especially outside of the pentagram."
Eliza's eyes slid over to him. A singular tear rolled down her cheek as he glanced over at her. "I think that was the point." She said roughly. "The kid's greatest fear was that the demon would break through the pentagram. Pretty convenient for my father."
She felt a spot of warmth on her back and quickly looked at Jace. He had placed his hand just on the middle of her back, invisible for anyone else to see. "He's using the Sword to summon demons and the Cup to control them." Jace added.
Luke groaned again, leaning closer to the steering wheel. "This makes me want to let you go even less." He strained. "The two of you can't take on a Great Demon."
Jace shifted and she leaned against the truck door for support. "If Clary puts the Fearless rune on us, we don't have to worry about Agramon. We'll be better equipped to take him down." Jace told Luke.
Eliza stared back at him. So that was why he had asked Clary to create a rune for fearlessness? To fight Agramon?
Clary said no loudly. "It might not work." She told them. "Then you guys could get hurt."
Jace told her that it had worked before, on Alec. Luke took the exit off the bridge to get back into Brooklyn. Eliza could see the waterfront in between the shutdown factory buildings. The water sparkled in the sunlight. Her stomach rolled at the sight of it.
"What if I mess up?" Clary asked softly.
Both Eliza and Jace looked at her. Green eyes. Golden eyes. Green eyes. "You won't." They both said.
Luke frowned as he kept driving. "That was creepy. Don't do that again." He told them. Eliza heard him mutter something about twins under his breath.
If he only knew, she thought.
She took out one of her knives, twirling it between her fingers absent-mindedly. Jace nudged her lightly. "What are you thinking?" He whispered.
She stopped, the knife perfectly balanced on her middle finger. She tipped it, catching it carefully and slipping it away. "Which eye I'm taking from Father first." She replied coolly.
The factory in front of them looked like it had been in a battle against a fire and been on the losing side. In the worst way. Eliza threw open the door of the truck, disregarding Luke calling her name. She stepped outside and shut the door.
She didn't see Magnus anywhere. The world was quiet around the waterfront. The only sound was the waves lapping in the water. Birds chirped as they flew above. Goosebumps covered her arms as the breeze blew through. She chided herself for not bringing along a jacket.
She heard the truck door open and shut again twice more and turned. The others had gotten out of the truck, all looking around. "If he told Alec he was coming, he'll come." Clary assured them. She watched Luke hand Clary a pair of wool gloves and she slipped her hands into them, smiling gratefully.
Jace walked right past her to the waterline. He knelt down on his knees, head bowed. Eliza adjusted herself and strode over to him. She knelt down next to him. "Little sister." Jace greeted her, his voice as jovial as he could force it to be.
She smiled tightly. "You're going to milk that forever, aren't you?" He laughed, saying maybe. Soon, she thought, you'll know the truth. And then dawn will come again.
He took something from his jacket pocket. It was small and white, small enough she didn't really know what it was. He tossed it in the water. She watched whatever it was disappear in the depths of the murky river.
"What are you two doing?" Clary called.
Jace stood and turned to look at Clary and Luke. "Only sending a message." He told her. Eliza got to her feet. A message? Who the hell to? What other backup was he calling in? Clary asked who he was sending a message to. "No one. Doesn't matter." Jace said sternly.
He stalked away from the waterfront and laid his jacket out along the pebbled beach. There were old soda cans and dirty glass bottles strewn everywhere. He laid out the seraph blades he had swiped from Isabelle's room and lightly touched the chakhrams on his belt. "These were all the weapons I managed to get. I didn't have the time to sneak into the armory." He told them.
Eliza sighed, tossing down her two seraph blades. "I've also got four throwing knives and my sword." She said.
The seraph blades were still beautiful, even without their names, without their glowing seraphic power. Jace ran his hands over each of the angel blades, a serene look on his face. He picked one up, named it Abrariel, and offered it to Luke. Luke said no, showing him the kindjal on his belt.
Jace handed the seraph blade to Clary. "Be careful." His voice was intimidating. For just that moment, he sounded like the man who wasn't his father. He named his other two blades Camael and Telantes.
Eliza picked up her two blades. She tossed one in the air and when she caught it, she called out "Atheed!" and the blade began to shimmer and change color. She did the same with the other, naming it Jahoel as her hand wrapped back around it.
"Show off." Jace muttered. She stuck her tongue out at him.
"Are we allowed to use Raziel's name?" Clary asked.
Jace added his two seraph blades to his belt and shrugged his jacket back on. "No." Luke told her. Luke was staring past them, no doubt looking for Magnus.
Clary's phone went off, buzzing loudly in her pocket. She tossed the phone to Jace. Jace had an amused look on his face when he looked at Eliza. "The Inquisitor gave Valentine until sundown to make a decision. Us or the Mortal Instruments." He informed her. "Izzy says that Maryse and the Inquisitor have been fighting for hours and no one knows we're gone yet."
Eliza put her seraph blades on her belt. She crossed her arms over her chest. "Lucky us."
Jace handed the phone back to Clary. He looked at Luke next. "The Inquisitor's son. Eliza said she thinks he died. Is that why she hates us so much?"
Luke shoved his hands in his coat pockets, kicking some of the pebbles. With a sigh, he turned to Eliza. "How did you know?" He asked lowly.
She shrugged, letting her arms fall to her side. "Valentine used to show me his book of the Circle. It was the only time he actually seemed to enjoy having me around. He was reliving his glory days. I used to flip through it when I was younger, recite the oath so I could please him. I remember seeing the group photos. And Stephen Herondale. He was handsome." Luke asked how she knew that he was dead. "She looks like she's in pain when someone says his name." She told him. "And she told us that Valentine didn't deserve to have us returned living. He deserved to hold the bodies of his lifeless children and know that there was nothing he could do to fix it."
Luke whistled darkly. He adjusted his glasses. "Stephen's death took its toll on her." He finally said. "He was the apple of her eye, everyone's golden boy. Stephen was probably one of the best people I knew. Good at everything, but humble. Nice, but still interesting enough to talk to. He was, as you put Eliza, handsome." Luke laughed under his breath. Clary asked if Stephen had gone to school with them. "Not exactly. Back then, the Herondales ran the London Institute and Stephen went there. He moved back to Alicante after he graduated. I saw him a lot more once he got married." Luke said wistfully. His eyes were on the East River, his gaze far away as if he were remembering another life. Maybe he was.
"He was in the Circle with you." Clary stated.
"No." Luke said thickly. "After I was turned, Valentine needed a new lieutenant and he chose Stephen. You can only imagine how hysterical that made Imogen." He explained to them. Eliza said it probably drove her mad. "She tried everything to get him out but he eventually cut her off. He wouldn't even speak to his father after. He became Valentine's second shadow." Luke's voice cut off. His eyes darkened. "Your father didn't like Stephen's wife. He didn't find her suitable for his second in command. He didn't find her family ties very…fitting." He sounded pained, as if the memories physically hurt him. Clary drew closer to him. "Under Valentine's influence, Stephen divorced Amatis and remarried a member of the Circle. Céline was only eighteen, but she was undyingly loyal to Valentine. When Stephen was killed in a vampire nest raid, Céline killed herself. She was pregnant, around eight months if I remember correctly. And then Stephen's father died, of a heartbreak, they say." Luke's words became estranged and too pained to listen to.
As much as she hated the Inquisitor, Eliza sympathized for her. Her entire family wiped out in one fell swoop. Her husband, her son, daughter-in-law, and grandchild. All because of Valentine.
"The Bone City wouldn't accept Céline or the child's ashes because she had killed herself." Luke continued on. Imogen buried them at a crossroads just outside the city. She was offered the Inquisitor position after the former was killed during the Uprising. I don't think she has ever spoken of her family since." Luke finished the unbearably sad tale of the Inquisitor's tragedies. "Eliza, you were right. It explains why she hates Valentine so much. And the two of you."
Jace's face hardened. "He poisons everything he touches."
Luke, very thinly, said no. "He has sinned, perhaps more than anyone, yet he still has his son and his daughter, his children. And she has nothing." Eliza said that he had two daughters, glancing at Clary. "Imogen doesn't count Clary. She doesn't bear the stain of his influence the way the two of you do. He didn't raise her. She blames him more than anyone for Stephen's death." Jace said it was Valentine's fault. He had sent Stephen on the vampire raid. Luke shook his head. "Valentine only accepted those who were absolutely willing into the Circle. He never forced anyone to do anything. He offered choices and some chose wrong."
Clary said it was free will. "It isn't." Jace countered her. "He-."
Luke stopped him. "Gave you a choice?" He asked sharply, turning to Jace. "When you snuck off to see him, dragging your sister. He offered you the choice to stay with him or to leave, didn't he?" Jace locked his jaw, saying yes tightly. He turned to the water. "And you said no, didn't you?"
"I'd give anything for people to stop assuming that."
Eliza's mind tingled just as Luke paused his words. "Magnus." She said quietly. She turned from the water to look back at the factory. Magnus was walking towards them, his dark hair slicked back behind his ears. He wore a dark colored suit and a black frock coat.
"Why do you all look surprised?" Magnus asked. Jace said that he was late. "I had to prepare. This isn't easy and I'm a little drained, I may admit." He asked Luke how his arm was holding up and Luke told him it was doing fine and thanked him again for the help.
Luke and Magnus left to go to the truck. Jace's jacket was on the ground. His shirt was lifted up and Clary was etching a rune onto his shoulder blade. Her heart constricted, her stomach swirling.
"What are you doing?" She asked, clearing her throat.
Jace half-turned his head to look back at her. "Clary is putting the Fearless rune on me." He winced in the middle of his sentence.
"Done." Clary said, backing away. Jace let his shirt fall back down.
Fearless. For Agramon. She thought of that…that scene. Jace. Jonathan. The blood. The cold of Jace's body and the dead of his eyes. "Put it on me." She ordered Clary. Clary looked uneasy. "Do it."
She strode over to Clary and put Clary's stele back in her hand. "Where?" Clary asked quietly.
She thought for a moment. Runes were stronger the closer they were to the heart. Jace had placed his on his shoulder blade. "Right here." She pointed to the open spot on the undamaged side of her neck. Close to the chest.
She turned her head to the side as Clary got to work. Her hand was a little heavy on the stele. Eliza winced as the stele burned into her skin. She cast her eyes to the sky. The sun was setting, the sky turning shades of red and pink.
"Finished." Clary backed away from her. She put her stele away.
Eliza's fingers danced over the new Mark carefully. She didn't feel different. But she supposed the time to tell would come when she faced Agramon again. "Mark her." She told Jace, pointing to Clary.
She watched Clary roll up the sleeves of her shirt to show her bare arms. Jace took out his stele and went to work. Clary had a newly made Mark on her left arm. It wasn't any Mark that Eliza had ever seen before.
"What is that?" She asked, pointing to the Mark.
Clary said she didn't know. "It came to me in a dream." She admitted.
Magnus was walking back towards them. "'And the Lord said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a Mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.'" Magnus' voice wafted over her, eerily cool. His black coat billowing back in the light breeze.
"You know the Bible?" Jace asked, his voice only slightly amazed.
Magnus nodded. "I think that Cain wore the first Mark." He said. "It protected him the way yours protect you."
Clary said that Cain wasn't an angel, he had killed his brother. Eliza smiled cruelly, her eyes glinting dark. "And I'm planning to kill my father. The only difference is that he deserves it and Abel didn't."
Luke's truck drove towards them, parking on the pebble beach. Luke didn't get out. "Get in. We're going." Magnus told them.
Clary frowned. "Are we driving to the boat…?" She asked slowly.
Magnus didn't answer her question. He told them to get in the bed of the truck. He got in the cab with Luke and shut the door. Eliza rolled her eyes and climbed into the bed. She helped Clary up and waited for Jace to get in.
"Interesting." She murmured. Magnus had placed a black pentagram on the truck bed, demonic runes swirling all around it. She sat down close to the window of the cab. Clary sat up against the spare tire. Jace sat at the far end away from them. Clary was staring intently at the pentagram, trying to read the runes. "They're demonic." Eliza told her. "We can't read them because we don't know them. But warlocks use them for magic."
Before Clary could put together an answer, Luke leaned out his window to look back at them. "Just so we're clear, I don't like this plan." He reminded them. They all said that they knew that. "Clary, you're staying in the truck with Magnus. Jace, Eliza, and I are going to go up to the ship."
Clary said she understood. Jace mumbled something she couldn't quite hear. Luke started the truck again. The tires squealed against the pebbles and started into the water. As the truck lurched into the water, Eliza's head banged against the cab window. She cursed under her breath, clutching the back of her head.
When she looked at the cab, she saw that it was filled with bright blue columns of light. The truck felt as if it drove over a speedbump and then it felt like they were flying. She felt as if she were on a demon bike again, flying through the city. She looked over the edge of the bed.
The truck was gliding over the water. The tires were barely touching the water's surface.
You never fail to amaze me, she told Magnus.
In her mind, she heard him chuckle. I am eternally amazing, little dove.
She leaned her head against the cab window. The sunset on the river turned the water gold. Right in the middle of her sight was Jace. The sun itself. The beauty of it almost made her forget that she was about to kill her father.