When Isabelle and Simon caught up with Jace they found him on the stairs of the entrance into the Silent City pulling at his hair in frustration. The Brothers were outside as well, huddled up together seeming to be having a mental conversation. Night had fallen and the moonlight cast eerie shadows all around the desolate cemetery. Simon and Isabelle slowly approached Jace, the rustling of leaves under their feet causing him to raise his gaze. If Simon hadn't known better he might have assumed he had been crying.
"What happened?" Isabelle asked, inspecting the place with a keen eye.
"She's gone." Jace muttered.
"What do you mean she's GONE ?" Isabelle shrieked, throwing her hands in the air.
"I MEAN SHE'S NOT IN THE CELL !" Jace roared, getting up from the stairs and throwing a dagger at the nearest tree with the preciseness of a killer.
"How could this happen? The Silent City is the safest place other than Idris ! Who is behind this?!" Isabelle yelled in frustration, nervously touching the parabatai rune on her chest. "At least we know she's alive." she murmured.
"How could anyone get past the Silent Brothers?" Simon asked in a low voice so as not to be heard.
"They said they didn't hear or sense anything. The cell is still locked. It was as if she was never there. They assume she escaped somehow. They're going to inform the Clave." Jace replied, pacing through the damp grass.
"They're going to make her a wanted fugitive? She wanted to be cured, she would never have run !" Isabelle defended her.
"You know as damn well as I that the Clave does not care about such details. There is no proof of any breaking in or of a struggle. Anyone would assume she had escaped by herself." Jace added in a bitter tone.
"You don't believe she ran, right?" Simon asked.
"Of course not. Clary is anything but stupid. Running away from the Silent Brothers is stupid. Utterly stupid." Jace spat.
"Well, what are we going to do? Are we going to stay here and braid each other's hair while Clary could be in the hands of an obsessed lunatic?" Isabelle requested.
Simon and Jace exchanged glances and nodded at each other.
"We're going to find ourselves a warlock." Jace spoke. The three of them soundlessly retreated from the Brothers who were still not paying attention to them, directing their steps towards the busy streets of New York.
"So, you might wonder why I have done all this.." Aline stated thoughtfully playing with a small throwing knife, balancing it from one hand to another and running the tip of her index finger down its sharp blade. Clary was strapped to a chair in the middle of an abandoned warehouse outside of New York, while Aline circled all around her like a predator around its prey. The street lights barely illuminated the inside of the warehouse, thus Clary was left to stare into complete darkness without the aid of a night vision rune.
"The thought might have crossed my mind once or twice." Clary spat, straining to manage to see anything through the pitch black.
"Sarcasm won't help you when you're dead." Aline retorted, smacking Clary's head from behind, causing her to tilt forward and release a string of profanities. She struggled and writhed in the ropes she had around her but it was no use. They might as well have been chains.
"Jace will find me, Aline. And you're going to regret this." she warned, staring straight ahead where she had last heard Aline's steps.
"Oh, but I'm counting on it, sweetheart." Aline replied and Clary could practically feel her smug malicious smile though she could not see it.
"Why are you doing this?" Clary asked, forcing herself to keep her tone calm and not scream at the top of her lungs. Being in complete loss of control made her blood boil in her veins.
"Well, it is quite simple. You and your husband disrespected my husband and I. Therefore, you must pay. And a pact with a demon proved to be the best way to do it. Oh, it was so fun making you freak out over your stupid inexistent baby." Aline mocked her, her laugheter echoing through the hollow area.
"We disrespected you? Sebastian tried to rape me ! And you were shamelessly hitting on Jace !" Clary shrieked in frustration.
"Yes, well, it was clear that we had been paired with the wrong people. If you had just let go of Jace and given him to me, we could have avoided all this mess." Aline explained nonchalantly.
"Given him to you? He's not a lost puppy that I could just hand to you ! He's a person, and he's not mine to give away ! What kind of sick twisted mind do you have?"
"Well, he clearly wanted me as much as I wanted him, but you just stood in the way. So, now I am going to remove you from the equation."
"What about Sebastian?" Clary inquired.
"Sebastian tried to stop me when he believed the situation had gotten out of hand. He was a coward, afraid of some demons. He was deadweight. So I got rid of him." Aline spoke in a stragely calm way about committing murder.
"You killed him? How are you not behind bars?!" Clary yelled, writhing once again in her chair, fear creeping up on her more than ever. If Aline had been capable of murdering her own husband, who knew what she would be capable of doing to her.
"Not exactly. I am not stupid. I made a demon do it. Then played the devastated wife, blah, blah. Now I'm ready for my new husband, Jace."
Clary's eyes almost burst out of their sockets at hearing all that Aline was confessing to her. She realised that if she confided in her like this, she was more than sure that Clary would soon be dead and, therefore, not in any position of telling anyone what she had heard. The question was how much time she had left, and if it was enough for someone to come for her. She tried to send mental signals to her parabatai, though she knew it was impossible. Jace, Simon and Isabelle were her last grain of hope. She squeezed her eyes shut and focused on breathing steadily, feeling like she could retch at any time.
"So, what are you waiting for?" Clary asked, gulping nervously.
"I'm waiting for Jace. I have no idea what's taking him so damn long." Aline stomped her feet impatiently.
"It's not like you left him trail of bread scrums." Clary spat.
"No, but I didn't cloak us. You can be tracked, smartass." Aline replied.
"And why are you waiting for Jace again?" Clary kept asking questions, hoping to stall enough for the others to get there.
"I'm going to make him kill you."