A/N: I swear, my chapters just get longer each time. Anyways, here's chapter 3. Enjoy!

"You need me for what?"

"Just come already."

"Okay..."

"And bring Simon!"

"Isn't he your boyfriend?"

"Yeah, but he's your best friend."

"Okay, I'll be right there." Clary hung up the phone.

"Come on, we need to go to the Institute," she said.

Simon paused his video game. "I can't go there, remember?" He bared his fangs.

The red headed girl sighed. "Jace and Alec are missing and Isabelle wants our help finding them," she said, taking Simon's arm and dragging him out the door.

Simon was still protesting in the car. "Why do they need us?" he asked.

Clary looked up at the ceiling. Simon could be impossible sometimes. "Shouldn't you be happy? You can impress your girlfriend this way."

Her best friend smirked. "Please," he said. "My sexy vampire mojo is already at work."

Clary rolled her eyes. "There is no such thing as vampire mojo."

Isabelle was waiting for them in front of the Institute, standing next to Magnus Bane.

"Sup?" Simon greeted. Isabelle ran to hug him.

"So, Jace and Alec are missing?" Simon asked.

Magnus smiled slightly. "You have no idea," he said.

Alec had an awkward habit of clinging to things in his sleep. So the next day, when he woke up, he found out that his parabatai had been awake for hours but couldn't move since Alec had practically been sleeping on Jace's arm.

"Sorry," he mumbled, his tongue swollen from sleep.

Rubbing his arm, Jace sat up, his hair sticking up wildly in different directions. "Dude," he said, "you nearly cut off the circulation in my arm. I don't know about you, but I'd rather not find out about how well the faeries can perform amputation."

Alec frowned. "Amputation?"

"Cutting off a limb, typically by surgical operation, the act of severing, dismember -"

"Okay, okay, I get it," Alec said, waving his hand dismissively. "No need to elaborate."

Suddenly, the golden boy in front of him sprang up. "You still remember our deal, right?" he asked.

Alec feigned confusion. "What?"

Maybe he hadn't said it with enough conviction, or maybe his face had given him away yet again, but Jace immediately picked up. "I know you know what I'm talking about," he said.

Alec sighed, realizing it was futile to argue. "Fine," he said. "When do you want to do it?"

"After breakfast," Jace said, smiling victoriously and rubbing his stomach.

"I don't know for sure," Clary said slowly. "But I can try."

Simon looked at the sparkly warlock dubiously. "Is it possible to bring back just Alec? And leave Jace there?" He looked meek as Isabelle swatted him on the arm. "Sorry!" he yelped. "Of course they can both come back."

Isabelle smiled sweetly at him and cuddled up next to him.

The warlock rolled his eyes at the public display of affection. "We need paper, pencil, and something to write on," he ordered.

When they got all those things, Magnus handed everything to the red-headed girl. "Work your magic," he muttered under his breath. "Because mine's not working too well."

Clary took a deep breath and touched the tip of her pencil to the blank white surface. She focused all her thoughts on Jace, her former boyfriend. On Alec, the boy who had fallen in love with Jace and nearly killed her when she had too. On their bond, their parabatai connection, and Jace's golden hair, and his tawny luminous eyes that -

The pencil moved.

Clary urged the thoughts to come faster. She poured her emotions into it - the way she'd kissed Jace before, the way he'd held her in his arms like she was his life source, like she was the most precious gem in the world, the most precious pearl in the sea. She thought about how they'd broken up, how Jace's eyes had never once come up to meet hers, like he was embarrassed to do what he was doing. Her eyes flew open as the pencil stopped moving. She looked down.

A rune, a swirling matrix of lines and curves and flourishes, lay on the paper, freshly inscribed.

"Wow," Simon breathed next to her. "What just happened?"

Clary grimaced. "I think - I think I just fell in love all over again."

"Ready."

"Set."

Go was never said. Instead, the two boys started to spar immediately. The fight was unbelievably fast. That is, both Alec and Jace were fast. The actual sparring lasted almost half an hour. For Alec, he had too much to lose. For Jace, he had too much to hope for.

They fought without weapons. Just punching and kicking, ducking and rolling, flipping and twisting, hands and legs and limbs flying everywhere in an almost malevolent dance, until finally, finally, Alec had Jace pinned down.

"Ha," he gasped out. "I've got you."

Jace only grinned. Then, so fast that Alec barely had time to register that he had moved, Jace was the one on top, and Alec was the one pinned underneath. False hope could truly be heart breaking sometimes.

"Come on," Jace said, his face uncomfortably close. "Let's hear it."

Alec could feel his face flush alarmingly. His ears reddened. And Jace, the bastard, was only making it worse by growling at Alec to hurry up, his golden hair brushing the tip of Alec's forehead.

Jace proceeded to sit on Alec's chest. "Come on," he said. "You're not going anywhere until you tell me. A deal's a deal."

His heart beat loudly, thumping so hard that it was a miracle that Jace couldn't hear it. Or maybe he could, by the way that he was smirking at Alec's chest.

Alec took a deep breath. "Okay, so -"

There was a huge crash. Several trees came pounding down, and would have flattened them both had it not been for Jace's quick wits. Possibly faster than lightning, the golden boy yanked Alec up and ran away from the spot, the taller boy spluttering in indignance behind him. Rolling his eyes, he dove for the river again.

Sadly, whatever magic had brought them to the realm of Faerie last time had disappeared. Alec and Jace only got wet.

The older boy bodily yanked his arm back, scowling at Jace.

"You have no reason to be upset," Jace yelled, over the continuous crashing noise. "You weren't just cheated out of a - oh crap."

Alec looked to where Jace was staring. Looming over the clouds was the hundred foot tall giant. What's more - over night, he seemed to have grown another head.

Isabelle gathered the short girl into a hug, snatching the paper out of her grip and shoving it into Magnus's face. "See?" she said. "Let's do it."

The warlock only frowned. "If this is a rune," he started, thoughtfully rubbing his chin, "then who do we put it on?"

Everyone turned to Clary, who shrugged. "I don't know!" she said helplessly. "My talent didn't come with an instruction manual, you know."

Isabelle turned back to Magnus. "What if it's a map maker?" she asked. "What if we write it out on paper?"

He shook his sparkly head. "Clary just did that," he said. "It would have worked."

The tall raven-haired girl turned to Clary. "What about someone's arm?" she asked. "Will it lead me to them?"

There was a hand on her shoulder. It was Simon. "It's too dangerous," he said, nodding his head slightly.

Angrily, Isabelle shook of his hand, ignoring the hurt expression on his face. "Well, we can't just leave them wherever they are!" she half-yelled. "We have to do something."

Magnus cleared his throat. "I have a friend," he said quietly. "Her name's Catarina. She might just know something about this."

"I'll go talk to her," Clary said, nodding. "There's something else I need from her too."

"Who's Catarina?" Simon's head was tilted slightly to the right.

"She's a warlock," Clary said. "She works in the hospital where my mom was -"

Magnus broke her off. "She's an old friend of mine," he said, turning his gaze back to Isabelle. "I'm not promising anything, or making any guarantees, but I think she may have some helpful information."

Reluctantly, Isabelle handed the sheet of paper to Magnus wordlessly. She watched as Clary and Magnus walked out of the library silently. And the most infuriating thing was, they had the rune. They just needed to figure out how it would work.

"We'll figure it out," Simon whispered, stroking Isabelle's hair. He sat down on an armchair and pulled Isabelle on top of him. "Don't worry."

And for once, Isabelle let herself be held, sobbing tearlessly into Simon's chest.

Alec liked to believe that he hadn't screamed like a girl when the giant (or giants? what did you call a two-headed giant?) turned to glare at him and said, "You."

The effect was made a lot more creepier since there were two voices saying it, not one. The single word echoed through the entire forest.

"Don't run," Jace hissed. "We have to kill it."

"Kill it?" Alec asked hesitantly. "Do we really have to do that?"

"Well, does it look like it wants to strike a deal with you?" Jace inquired.

"Jace -" Alec started, but he never got to finish his sentence. His idiotic parabatai of a brother had gone charging into the direction of the giant. Without a weapon, too. Sighing, Alec followed after Jace, wondering why he always ended up being the one to save his sorry half brother's ass.

"So, what's the verdict?" Isabelle asked, standing up as soon as the warlock was in sight. Clary was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Clary?" Simon asked suspiciously. "You didn't offer her up as a sacrifice, did you?"

Magnus gave him a pointed look. "I most certainly did not, Sherlock."

Isabelle waved her hand dismissively, accidentally hitting her fingers on the table. Swearing, she looked up at the sparkly warlock, who's face was a mixture of worry and amusement. "Well?" she asked. "How do we use the rune?"

"Catarina already figured it out," he said. "She put the magic to work in front of us and figured out where they are."

"Where are they?" Isabelle didn't understand why Magnus wasn't giving her a straight answer.

"They're trapped in a forest."

"So let's get them out."

"That's the problem right there," Magnus said, shaking his head apologetically. "The forest they're trapped in? It's called Everend Forest."

"So?"

"Everend Forest was charmed," Magnus said quietly, "by an old warlock thousands of years ago. Legend has it that those who go in never find their way back out."

"So?" Isabelle repeated. "Can't you just magic them back out?"

Magnus shook his head. "I wish I could," he said. "I wish I could."

Then suddenly, the full force of Magnus's words hit her. People couldn't come out of Everend Forest. Jace and Alec were people. Jace and Alec were trapped in a never ending forest. All because of a stupid idea she'd had.

In a burst of self inflicted rage, Isabelle picked up the nearest book, flung it at the wall, and stalked out of the room, uncaring of the spine ripping into half or Simon's weak protests. Those things didn't matter now.

Jace's brain usually worked pretty fast. His muscles, too. He could figure out the trajectory of a blade coming at him in a matter of milliseconds. He could run a mile in about a minute and a half. He could come up with witty remarks before the person speaking to (and normally insulting) him could finish their sentence.

But for some reason, it was only until he'd reached the giant's gigantic purple foot that he'd realized Damn! I don't have a weapon! Thankfully, Alec was at his side.

"Jace!" the raven haired boy yelled as the giant bent over to peer down at them. "Stop being a stupid! How the hell are we supposed to fight the giant?"

He thought for a moment. The giant above him was almost tumbling over in an effort to see the humans by his large - and rather disgusting - feet. A lightbulb went off in his head.

"Hey, ugly!" he yelled.

Alec groaned.

The giant, large and strong as it may have been, was incredibly dumb as well. He looked between his legs. Jace, having known the giant was going to do this, aimed a well-placed kick at the giant's head (or at least one of them). However, he hadn't counted on the giant being experienced. The great beast had worked out that that was what Jace's plan was, and grabbed Jace by the waist with green sausage-like fingers. Apparently, the giant was smarter than it looked.

Jace was getting dizzy from the lack of oxygen reaching his brain, his thoughts became unfocused and his eyes blurred. Suddenly, something snapped him awake. A piercing howl was let loose by the giant. Jace blinked hard and looked down. An arrow was lodged in the giant's hand.

The giant released his hold on him and Jace, having been injected with Angel's blood, landed neatly on a branch of a nearby tree that hadn't fell yet and worked his way down. Alec was waiting for him at the bottom.

"Thanks," Jace said, stretching out his body. He felt as though he'd been squashed by one of Maryse's cooking utensils.

Alec gave him a weary grin. "What are parabatai for?"

Simon finally found Isabelle in her bedroom, angrily staring out the window. Softly, he knocked on the open door. "Can I come in?" he asked.

Without turning around, Isabelle nodded. "Close the door behind you."

He did as he was asked, and then sat next to Isabelle on the windowsill. They both just watched their feet dangle from high up for a while, neither of them talking.

It was Isabelle who broke the silence first. "I'm sorry," she said.

Simon was honestly surprised. "Why are you apologizing?" he asked.

Isabelle looked at him through tear stained eyes. "Look at me," she said, pointing to herself. "I'm a mess. I'm sitting depressedly and crying, for crying out loud."

Simon resisted the urge to smile at the last sentence. Gently, he lifted a hand and brought Isabelle's chin to face him. "Isabelle," he said. Not Iz, or Izzy - Isabelle.

"You just lost a brother. Now you've lost two more, and god knows how long it'll take for them to come back. It's okay to be a wreck."

Isabelle's eyes were suspiciously bright, and Simon could see the self-control she was imposing on herself right now, willing the tears back into her head.

"When I lost my dad, I couldn't believe it," Simon continued. "I thought about things I never got to tell him, or do with him, or -" His voice cracked.

"Simon, it's okay, you don't have to -" Isabelle started, but her boyfriend put a hand up to stop her.

"What I'm trying to say is, they're still alive. We know where they are, and we can send a message to them, too. We'll get them back. I promise."

Isabelle sighed, and gripped Simon's hand tighter. Had he not been a vampire, his hand would have been crushed already.

"Let's go back downstairs," Simon suggested.

Numbly, Isabelle followed Simon out of her room.

They hid in the trees until the giant left.

"Now," Jace said, turning on Alec. "Your dream."

Alec threw his hands in the air in surrender. "Hey!" he protested. "I just saved your life. Doesn't that count for anything?"

Jace shook his head, ringlets of gold bouncing everywhere. "Do I have to pin you down again?"

Alec took a deep breath. "It was a nightmare," he said.

Jace rolled his eyes. "No duh."

Alec glared at him. "This is taking a lot of courage, okay?" he snapped. "Try and be supportive for once?"

"I'm waiting..."

"How in the world is that supportive?"

"It wasn't meant to be."

"But -"

"Stop stalling! Was your dream really that bad?"

"Fine, fine. It was a nightmare. I dreamt of spiders. Millions of them. And you. You were in the middle of all of them."

Jace raised an eyebrow. "You're scared of me?" Inside though, he felt a little disappointed. The reason he'd broken up with Clary when Magnus had broken up with Alec was because he thought he had a chance with Alec. A chance to fix everything he'd been doing wrong for the last seven years - to fix every opportunity he'd given up, all the emotions that he'd ignored.

Alec looked at the ground, a blush coloring his cheeks darkly.

Gently, Jace cupped the taller boy's face with his hands and brought them up. Alec still refused to meet his eyes, although Jace could feel the other boy's pulse beating loudly. "Why are you scared of me?" he asked. "Is it something I've done, or -"

Alec shook his head miserably. "It's my fault," he whispered hoarsely. A single tear drew it's way down his face. Impatiently, Jace wiped it away with his thumb. "Ever since we were ten, when you first came to the Institute, I -"

Suddenly, Jace felt a wave of guilt wash over him. Here he was, forcing Alec to admit something apparently so terrible that he still had nightmares about it. "It's okay," he said. "You don't have to tell me."

"No, I - I want to finish this." Alec looked up miserably. "I fell in love with you," he said quietly. "And now I have nightmares about -" He couldn't finish his sentence, despite wanting to. Looking up at Jace, though, he could tell the other boy had gotten his message.

Jace's eyes were - well, what were they? He was so used to seeing his parabatai's eyes show either pain or determination or courage or worry or laziness, but never this. Jace had never looked at him like this before. With a start, Alec realized that this was the look he'd seen Jace give Clary when he thought she wasn't looking, but ten times as strong. The other boy looked as though he didn't know what to do, but then finally embraced Alec in a hug. Alec closed his eyes, letting the other boy's hair brush against his face, allowing the other boy's hands to wander his muscles. Very slowly - so slowly that Alec didn't even know how it happened - the hug turned into a kiss. Feverishly, the golden boy pressed his lips firmly on Alec's. Alec was in heaven.

That night, Jace took first watch, despite Alec's protests. He watched as the raven haired boy slowly drifted off into a peaceful looking slumber. Jace wished he could lie down next to Alec like that. Screw this, he thought, and, abandoning his post, he tucked himself next to Alec.

A/N: So, what did you think? I actually liked this chapter a lot more than the first two. Anyway, please, please, please review!