For those of you who don't know, my computer was down for the better part of a month. Which is why this took so long to upload. So I'm sorry. Really, really, really sorry. Blame AT&T.
Let me know what doesn't make sense. Please. If you don't, it'll stay senseless forever.
The Unseelie Court was beautiful in a strange, terrible way. Nestled in the hollowed belly of a hill, dirt walls sloped around the massive room, laced with ghost pale roots and snarled thorns. The floor was neatly tiled in housewife-standard black-and-white linoleum, the bordering grout stained crimson with old blood.
Gorgeous grotesque fey churned around him with the sounds of pattering slippered feet and inane animal chatter. A dwarf with a snow-white beard and pebbly eyes cradled a silvery bowl of blood between his arms, a line of faeries stretching across the room before him. As each approached they sampled the blood, dipping in a finger and licking it clean or burying their faces in the bowl like dogs. One whizzing sprite--about the size of a Barbie doll--zipped in a tight circle and folded her crepe-like wings, dunking her entire body into the blood. She came out sheathed in red and grinning as she licked her lips.
A selkie tossed her long waterlogged hair; her sandy brown pelt draped over one arm. Trolls sulked along the walls; green skin and jutting jaws making them look like some bizarre Cro-Magnons, clubs clutched in their meaty hands. Everywhere fey danced, blurring into a mix of light and sound.
But Jace's eyes invariably strayed back to the tall woman--more beautiful than any of the lesser fey--seated atop her tree-woven throne. The seat looked uncomfortable, riddled with knobby roots and pointed branches, but her lovely face held no hint of pain.
"How do you know my name?" Jace asked, suddenly horribly glad he had decided to wear the fruity smelling clothes. Feeling gay was better than being naked in front of the most stunning woman he'd ever seen.
She smiled a smile loaded with devious kindness. "I make a point of knowing my guest's names," she said, settling her temple on her bone-pale knuckles. Her hair rustled, letting him glimpse pointed ears pierced with a riot of silver studs and hoops. In another setting and another outfit, Jace might've thought she was an inexplicably gorgeous Goth girl. "It would be impolite not to."
He nodded, more for an excuse to hide his awe than to allude consent. It was written all over his face, and they both knew it. "The Unseelie Queen, right?" Jace said, trying to keep his voice from shaking. He remembered the stories he'd heard about the Unseelie Court, about the terrible, cruel fey who hid themselves in the crawlspaces of existence, emerging only to extract merciless amusements from unwilling and oblivious humans.
"How lovely," she breathed, raising a single ribbon-slim eyebrow. "A boy with brains."
Jace glanced around, a fairy meeting his nervous gaze just long enough to make him shudder and flinch away. Tiny and stick-thin, her flaming red hair and bottle green eyes made her look like Clary's long-lost immortal twin. He didn't need any reminders of just how much he was going to lose if this conversation went awry. "Where am I, exactly?" he asked, careful to exude the pinnacle of politeness.
"Didn't I just say it?" Her laugh was glass crunched underfoot, grating and violent. "The Unseelie Court."
"I--"
The Queen held up her free hand, jeweled rings glittering rich colors on her fingers. "I understand," she soothed, every gesture ushering him to stay calm. "You are in Faerie, a realm apart from what you know as the world, and yet of it."
Reaching over to a table crouching alongside her throne, her spidery hand selected a sandwich, with glistening pink deli meat curling over the edges of the pristine white bread. It looked out of place in this magic kingdom, better suited for Saran wrap and a Star Wars lunch box.
"Think of it as this sandwich." She fingered the slices of bread, idly peeling away the dark crusts. "These two pieces of bread are a block in New York City, and Faerie is the meat inside." With a quick flick of her wrist, she peeled back the bread, showing damp white underbellies resulting from too many hours left out.
"There is a street that if you walk along it you will pass entirely through Faerie in one second without any knowledge of it. When the Seelie knights crashed the van and picked up the other Shadowhunter and the warlock, they simply dropped you here to keep you out of the way, figuring I would have you killed on the spot. When that girl came looking for you, she wound up on the street I mentioned. The GPS said you were there, and you were, but she couldn't see you, even when you could see her."
Jace bobbed his head, only half-listening. Part of his brain was registering the information, but the rest was thinking of Isabelle abandoned in the warehouse, and picturing the worst. "I appreciate your hospitality, Lady, but there was a girl with me, my sister, and she was gravely injured. I must return to her."
The smile she gave him was full with knowing.
She raised a hand and snapped her fingers twice, the sound cutting through the mumbling undertones.
The fey fell silent as a fairy with short silver hair and hard untouchable eyes melted from the crowd, one arm cinched around a girl's waist.
Isabelle's head whipped up, her loose hair cracking like a banner on a windy day. Her pale face broke into a dazzling smile, her dark eyes sparkling.
"Jace!" she cried, relieved. The fairy peeled back his arm and she sprinted forward, crushing her adoptive brother in a hug.
She smelled like rotting leaves and the sharp cut of new ice.
"Isabelle?" Jace said, holding her at arm's length. She looked completely intact, her skin fresh-scrubbed and her sweeping floor-length dress obviously new. Jace made her spin a couple times, scouring her for any kind of damage. "I thought you were hurt."
She grinned and tucked her hair behind her ears. "Not anymore, the faeries gave me a drink and now I'm all better. There's not even a scar." Holding up her unhurt arm for him to see, she laughed at his expression of utter horror.
"You drank something the faeries gave you?" he scoffed, considering smacking her across the face to unravel whatever enchantment had been smothering her better judgment. But then he remembered that it was Isabelle, and the words "better judgment" were not compatible with trendy boutiques and a new pair of shoes. "Are you mentally instable?"
It was the Queen's turn to laugh. "Calm, Shadowhunter, the girl is free to go when she pleases. I simply needed a bargaining chip, so I had her healed."
Jace quirked an eyebrow, subtly shifting himself between the fairy woman and his slaphappy sister. "A bargaining chip?"
The Unseelie Queen took a bite of the ham sandwich, a blob of mustard tickling her lower lip. She caught it with a quick lizard-like flick of her tongue. "See, my sister is the Seelie Queen," she said, swallowing. "Centuries we have fought, pitching our faeries against each other of battles of wit and blood. And always she has won, through trickery or sheer brute force. I intend to undo that. I intend to have my revenge."
"A bargaining chip?" he repeated, his grip tightening on Isabelle's arm. Angry red half-moon marks erupted on her wrist.
"I need your help Jace," she said, polishing off the sandwich. She licked her fingers one by one, taking her sweet time. "I'm not ashamed to admit it." A shrug. "I needed you to owe me."
"She's already healed," Jace said, knowing even as he said it that it wasn't worth saying. "What's stopping us from walking away?"
A wicked gleam surfaced on the Queen's smile. "Every faerie in the Unseelie Court, including Rot. You met him, did you not?" An image rose in Jace's mind, of yellowed bones and oozing dark sores. He couldn't help but shudder.
"Besides," she continued, absently braiding her ebony hair with one hand. It shimmered as she moved, glowing inky blue-black. "If you assist me in overthrowing my sister, I will grant you a boon. One wish of your choice, as long as it is within my power. Anything."
Jace closed his eyes, and let out a long, slow breath.
Isabelle, Alec, Magnus.
"I'm going to need a phone."
I really hope that cleared up a lot. For anyone still a bit confused, let me clarify.
Everything that happened to Jace and Isabelle was because of a silly feud between two sisters.
If more clarification is needed, tell me about in a review. Next chapter will be back to Alec and Magnus, and I promise it won't take so long this time.
Sorry again.