CHAPTER EIGHT
Clary's plan was perfect, all she needed was a stele. She was going to send a message to anyone in the Lightwood house, signaling that they needed help. The tricky part was acquiring the necessary tool. She thought of many different ways she could get it without directly interacting with Sebastian, but she ended up at a dead end each time. There was no way she could pickpocket the stele without him noticing.
So, instead, Clary decided to give him a spark of hope. When she woke up that morning, she showered and dressed herself in her normal, casual attire, then began to bang on her locked bedroom door. "Sebastian!" Clary exclaimed, her voice sounding more convincing that she expected.
She heard the lock one the outside turn a few seconds later, revealing a very curious Sebastian. "What is it?" He inquired, cocking an eyebrow.
"The rune, I saw it." Clary told him, her chest heaving as though she had run to him.
"My rune?" He asked. Clary watched his hand fly to his belt. "The one to replace the Mortal Cup?"
When Sebastian first told Clary about the rune, he described it as the most powerful rune to exist. He wanted a way to turn his prisoners into his devout followers without needing them to drink blood from the Mortal Cup. Clary instantly refused, claiming that she would never create that, and even if she could, the Angels would never send her a vision for it.
"Yes, give me your stele." She said, placing her hand out flat. The action itself caused Sebastian to raise a noticeable eyebrow, but Clary tried to ignore it in hopes to lower his suspicions.
"Why can't you just draw it on paper?" He asked, offering a safer alternative, but Clary shook her head in denial.
"That's not how it works, I can't create it without the stele.
After a moment of weighing his options, the stele was placed in Clary's hand, and immediately after she took it, Sebastian wrapped his fingers around her arm.
"Don't try to create a portal." He warned her.
"I wouldn't leave Jace." Clary said softly, then shook his arm off of her. "I can't focus if you're touching me."
Sebastian took a step back, giving Clary the space she needed. She raised the stele in the air, closed her eyes, and paused for a moment, making it as believable as possible. After taking a deep breath, Clary extended her arm out and let her elbow collide with Sebastian's stomach, causing him to double over. The ginger took no time in running out of the room, slamming and locking the door behind her, then dashing towards the basement. As she ran, Clary scribbled some fighting and stamina runes on herself.
She kicked the basement door open and pushed it closed in one movement, startling a pale Jace. He wasn't used to not getting his 3,000 calories in daily, so he had become quite ill. Clary ran to his side and scribbled runes on him, hoping to aid him in a fight that they might need to participate in, then used an unlocking rune to open his shackle. Jace seemed to gaze at her in awe, giving Clary a boost of confidence. She stood a bit taller.
"What's going on?" He asked her quietly, a smirk growing on his face as he felt himself become stronger with the help of the fresh runes.
"You think you're going to get away again?" Sebastian's voice boomed through the house.
Clary pushed Jace back so he would hide behind the door, then anxiously stood in the middle of the room, allowing herself to be bait for Sebastian. She knew that Jace understood her plan, because he made himself flat against the wall, his eyes directly on Clary.
"Sister, how naïve do you think me to be?" Sebastian huffed as he entered the room. Although he stalked towards her, he was not taken off guard when Jace threw himself out from behind him. Sebastian fought Jace with ease, which wasn't shocking to Clary; they had learned their brutal fighting techniques from the same man.
Clary watched in horror as her brother and her boyfriend punched and kicked one another, neither of then making any sounds to indicate weakness. The room was silent until Sebastian drew a seraph blade from his belt.
"Wait, stop!" Clary announced, but neither of them looked away from one another. They had stopped fighting, however, allowing themselves to catch their breath. The stele was still in Clary's hand, steady as a rock. She lifted the stele to her skin and allowed her hand to move freely, but the tingling sensation stopped, and Clary saw that Sebastian now held both the stele and his blade. Immediately, he reached out for Jace, who ducked and weaved around him, avoiding the glowing blade to his best ability.
"Did father never teach you how to fight honorably? Come now, brother, we both know that I'm stronger than you, but there's no reason to draw your weapon." Jace smirked cockily at Sebastian, tilting his head to the side as he continued to anticipate every movement that his counter was making.
They continued to just miss one another until Clary saw Jace find the confidence to reach around and grab the blade by the hilt. He yanked the sword from Sebastian and tossed to the side, muttering Clary's name as he did so. Clary took his hint and scrambled towards the blade but stopped in her tracks when her brother spoke.
"I wouldn't do that, Clarissa." Sebastian warned. Clary dared to look over her shoulder and see that Sebastian had managed to restrain Jace. It looked almost humorous to see the lanky boy with his arm wrapped around his slight shorter, much more muscular, brother. The tip of the stele was pressed against Jace's arm, while he was shouting for her to get the blade, but then Clary noticed Jace's body go limp in Sebastian's arms. Her brother simply dropped the boy he was holding and stalked towards Clary.
Clary turned and darted towards the blade, but tripped over an extended leg, and fell straight to the ground, managing to catch herself before her chin hit the concrete. Sebastian's hand curled around her ankle and yanked her back, causing her shirt to ride up and her skin to scrape against the rough, dirty ground. She felt her skin break, but the pain didn't follow. Clary extended her arm as far as it would go, trying to somehow will the sword to make its way to her, despite the growing distance between them.
Sebastian easily flipped Clary over and straddled her hips. She felt a sense of panic overcoming her, kicking in her new instinct to fight. Her legs began to move, pushing her hips up in hopes that it would knock Sebastian off balance. He simply put more pressure on her narrow hips, pinning her firmly to the ground. All while that was happening, Clary was pounding her fists against his chest, aiming for his groin, anything to get him off of her. Sebastian's hands moved to grab Clary's next, squeezing her airway to the point of making her vision go spotty, but Clary continued to fight. She felt panic trying to excrete into her veins, but she remembered to stay calm, just like she had learned from Jace when they first met. Clary's arms threaded between her brother's and she tried to get him to bend his elbows by forcing her arms against the nooks in his arms, but she had no luck.
Just as an oxygen deprived Clary felt her head get heavy, Sebastian's hands loosened from around her throat and he slumped forward over her. In an attempt to gasp for air, she ended up making an ugly, guttural noise.
"Jace!" Clary heard a familiar voice from a short distance away. Alec, Clary felt happiness for the first time in days.
"Alec!" Jace shouted back, his voice weak.
Jace is okay. Clary told herself. He was okay, she was okay, they were safe.
However, Clary felt her brother twitch from on top of her, noticing how his muscles tensed when he reached behind him. Suddenly, her brother was off of her and yanking her off of the ground by her arm. Her vision was blurry due to the lack of oxygen she had just experienced, but she could still head Jace warning Alec to stop, and a sharp pinch at her already tender neck.
"Ah, Isabelle Lightwood." Sebastian growled. Clary blinked a few times until she could make out the figures just meters in front of her.
"Simon," Clary whimpered, her voice coming out more desperate than she expected. She was so relieved to see her friends scattered on the stairs at the entry of the room, even though Alec, at the head of the group, had an arrow pointed directly at her.
"What a nice surprise," Sebastian continued on. "Did you come to play house with my siblings and me? We could always use another woman around here."
"Don't speak to my sister." Alec grumbled, taking a sidestep to block his younger sister from view.
"If I can't speak to your sister, then you aren't allowed to speak to mine." Sebastian bargained, earning a collective eye roll from everyone in the room. How could someone so admittedly intelligent be so immature?
Clary felt Sebastian squeeze her upper arm even tighter, causing her to try and pull away, but then she felt the pinch at her neck again. Connecting the dots, Clary figured that Alec had shot Sebastian, causing him to fall over her, then he took that arrow and was holding it to Clary's neck.
"Do it, Alec!" Clary shouted, staring at the arrow that was already loaded and pulled taut in the bow.
"Alec, don't!" Jace shouted adjacent to her. She knew that Jace was only worried for her, but she wanted to be rid of the nuisance that was Sebastian.
Clary could see the obvious conflict on Alec's face. He wanted the same as Clary; to stop Sebastian, but it was so hard for him to ignore his parabatai. After thinking for a moment, no longer than a moment, Alec let the arrow fly. Sebastian used Clary to block the arrow, and she felt it lodge in her shoulder, but she couldn't find the energy to let herself shout in pain. Immediately following the first arrow, a second one flew, then a third one. Those struck Sebastian in his shoulder and thigh, and his attention moved from holding Clary tightly to trying and appease the newly found pain. Clary fell forward, not being able to hit the ground before Simon had grabbed her. He didn't give her a second to adjust, but instead pulled her towards the rest of the group.
"Get your hands off of her, Daylighter!" Sebastian screamed, his hands still coddling his arrow wounds. Isabelle stepped out from behind Sebastian and used her silver whip to wrap around Sebastian's torso, holding his arms in place.
"Jace," Clary breathed out, her body exhausted. Simon looked up to Alec, who had his eyes on his sister. Clary observed him quickly cross the room, heading straight towards Jace.
"Cut the damn rune." Jace grunted, and Clary saw exactly what he was talking about. Sebastian had drawn a messy paralyzing rune on his shoulder. Alec took a dagger and sliced through the rune, earning a soft hiss from both of them at the pain.
It took Jace a second to move, but when he did, he was quick as ever. He placed a thankful hand on Alec's shoulder, then rushed to the entry way where Clary was sitting with Simon.
"I told you to not fly the arrow." Jace said, turning towards Alec after observing the arrow the punctured Clary's fragile skin.
"I'm fine," Clary insisted, then watched Jace pull the stele out of Alec's belt and turn back towards her. He gave her only a nod of his head as warning before yanking the arrow out of her flesh. Clary hissed in reply, but the instant burn of an iratze being drawn evened out her sensation.
"Clary, don't leave." Sebastian shouted as Simon and Jace assisted her in standing.
"After everything that's happened this past week, you expect me to stay with you?" Clary asked, staring Sebastian down with a genuinely confused look on her face.
"Magnus, will you please contact Jia and ask her to send the Silent Brothers to the Morgenstern manor?" Alec asked his boyfriend quietly, but loud enough for Clary to hear.
"You can't hide from me; I will always find you. You can't get away." Sebastian warned her, but Jace was already leading Clary up the stairs.
"Simon, please stay with her." Jace muttered, leaving Clary with her best friend, then turned back to stay and assist his siblings if they needed him.
Simon led Clary up the remainder of the stairs, then brought her to a couch, allowing her to sit and relax. She saw the door to the room she was staying in had literally been busted down.
"You're okay, Clary." Simon muttered, wrapping his arm around Clary's shoulders, bringing her into his chest. She hadn't noticed that she started crying, but when she felt the security of Simon, she let herself weep, grabbing onto his shirt. She had no idea why she was crying; her body was too numb to experience the sensation of pain. Maybe she was just exhausted, but too anxious to sleep. Whatever the reason, she let Simon comfort her until she had ran out of tears.