Hey everyone. I'm sorry this is so long, but I think it might be worth it! I really hope you all enjoy this, and remember, there's one chapter left! Thanks for reading!

For All Your Dark

Clary staggered toward the sound of the voice, but Jace caught her up and swung her back against him. He could feel the energy coursing through her, the straining of her muscles, the pounding of her heart; he wanted to squeeze her tighter and tighter until she was more a part of him, but she was struggling.

That's my mom, Clary thought frantically. It's my mom coming here to rescue me and Jace after we ran off in the middle of night. It's my mom coming here and Lilith is waiting!

Jace clamped both her wrists in one hand and used the other to brace her. Stop struggling, Clary, stop before Lilith-

"Mother?" Lilith asked slowly, and she took a few steps closer to the bookshelves and the sound of tentative footsteps. "There wasn't a mother…"

"Mother, no!" Clary cried again. "Mother, she's here, Lilith's here-"

"Silence!" snarled the demon woman, and she flicked her hand, and a gust of air rushed over and struck both Clary and Jace.

"Clary!" cried Jocelyn and her boots echoed off the stone floor as she hurried toward them.

Lilith's eyes snapped back to them once, and then she darted to Jonathan's side, looking up at him with her beautiful pale face and dark, glassy eyes. She blinked at him imploringly, as if Jonathan could protect her from his mother. Clary, who had fallen back on the floor, watched Lilith, confused. What was she hiding from?

Before Clary had much time to wonder at Lilith's curious behavior, Jocelyn arrived on the scene. She skidded into the opening of the bookshelves, a sword in each hand, glancing in the light of the burning city. Her face was pale and strained, but her eyes were alive and bright, and they flicked from Clary and Jace, huddled on the floor, to the woman, and then stopped on Jonathan.

Something in Jocelyn seemed to crumple then, and the air left her. She tightened her grip on the blades, but there was a hungry look on her face and in the stance of her body. Jocelyn was leaning toward him, like something was pulling on her, dragging her to her son. Her lips parted ever so slightly, like she was going to say something, but Lilith spoke first.

"Who is this woman?" she asked haughtily, giving Jocelyn an impolite look. "Jonathan, tell me who she is?" Jonathan was staring at Jocelyn, his face inscrutable, but his eyes clouded. His gaze slipped to Clary for a fraction of a second, and she saw that he was confused. When he didn't answer, Lilith turned her attention to Jace and Clary. "Who is she?"

Clary swallowed, but Jace spoke for her. "This is Jocelyn Morgenstern. She's Jonathan's mother."

"Impossible," laughed Lilith, tugging his sleeve, and smiling up at him. "I am your mother."

"What?" snarled Jocelyn, and she whipped around to face Lilith. Her teeth were bared in a snarl. "How dare you."

Lilith grinned. "Dare? I don't need to dare, it's the truth; in Jonathan's veins run my blood. In his mind and in his heart."

"Jonathan is my son," hissed Jocelyn, and she looked again to Jonathan. "Listen to me, Jonathan, please. You know who I am; I am you're mother, the woman who loved you-"

"The woman who left me!" Jonathan said sharply, and his eyes seemed to turn a shade darker. "You abandoned me after Valentine changed me; you just ran off like it didn't matter. Like I didn't matter."

"I didn't run from you," Jocelyn pleaded. "Believe me, Jonathan, it wasn't you I was afraid of. Your father was the monster, your father was the one I feared."

Jonathan eyed her morosely. "Well that was your mistake, wasn't it? Because you should be afraid of me."

Jocelyn blinked. "I'm not afraid of you; you're my son, and I love you."

"Liar," whispered Lilith to Jonathan. "She's lying to you. How could she love you if she fled from what you were?"

"Lilith is right," Jonathan said, and his hand strayed to the jagged knife he had used in the ceremony. "You're lying to me like everyone else. You've come here to destroy me with your pathetic Clave and your Angel children. But you're wrong!" Jonathan sliced the knife through the air and Lilith circled behind him, her face alight with madness. "You'll meet your end here tonight, Jocelyn, you and all your shadowhunters! No one can stop me now that I have my mother with me. No one can stop us now!"

Jocelyn eyes met Clary's for a moment, and the two shared one meaningful look. It was clear as day what they had to do; it was as if every breath and every step the two women had taken had been leading them here all along. Clary gave a sharp nod of her head and Jocelyn returned her attention to Jonathan and his knife.

We have to stop Jonathan, Clary thought. If she can't, than I will.

"Jonathan, I'm not here to stop you," said Jocelyn consolingly. "I'm here to help you."

"Well, I don't need your help!" Jonathan snarled back at her, and then smirked when he saw her blades drawn. "But you might need some."

It was clear then that Jocelyn doubted her ability to fight, and she looked ill at thought of crossing weapons with her son. "Jonathan, hear me out, it doesn't have to be like this. We can just talk about this, I can speak to the Clave-"

"The Clave is useless!" Jonathan laughed manically, and then took a few steps toward her.

"Jace, we need to stop him," Clary whispered, but his eyes were on Jonathan and Jocelyn. "She can't stop him-not alone. We need to help her."

Jace saw Jonathan twirl the knife in his hand lazily, but there was look on his face like a feral dog. He's got Lilith behind him, literally, now. How are we supposed to reach him if his own mother can't?

"Fight him?" Jace rasped. "Clary, I don't think we can."

"I don't want to fight him," she said back, and saw that Jocelyn and Jonathan were now circling each other, and that Lilith had perched herself on the windowsill, a horrible smile plastered over her face. "We need to find a way to break the grip Lilith has on him. I think-I think if we can remind him of who he is maybe it will help separate him from her. Now that Lilith has left him this might be out chance to stop him."

At that moment, Jonathan lunged forward with his frightening speed, and Jocelyn spun away, just barely avoiding his knife. She fell against a bookshelf and a few tombs toppled from above. Jonathan stepped on one of the books, and the cover cracked. Jocelyn lifted one of the swords and Jonathan met it with the edge of his knife, which he dragged down the sword, toying with her.

"You seem a bit out of practice," Jonathan observed. "Were you hoping that I would be gentle because my father loved you?"

"I don't want to hurt you, Jonathan," Jocelyn repeated, and she loomed scared for what she might be forced to do.

"Then I don't know what you plan to do," Jonathan said sweetly in return, smiling like an angel, and he flicked his wrist.

His actions seemed mundane, even placid, but the effect they had was like that of an attacking lion. He sent the blade Jocelyn was holding soaring from her hands, through the air, where it lodged in the nearest wall. He made to lunge at her again, she parried his blow with her spare sword, but she looked shocked at his speed and strength. As he drew nearer and nearer to her, Jocelyn seemed to collapse in on herself.

"Jonathan, you don't have to do this," she said softly, trying to reach him with nothing but her voice.

"Of course I don't have to, but I want to," Jonathan chuckled, and then started at her.

Clary felt, in that moment, watching her mother frantically dodge Jonathan's furious blows that none of the past and the pain mattered. Her mother had left her, yes, but here she was now, risking her life. It almost all seemed like a pointless little argument now, something Clary should have forgiven her for long ago.

She made a mistake, Clary thought sadly. She made a mistake with me and with Jonathan, but she doesn't deserve to die like this.

Clary stumbled up onto her feet, Jace right behind her. At that moment, he managed to slip past Jocelyn's blade and slam his shoulder into her chest. She gave a muffled yelp and then collapsed to the ground. Her sword went skidding from her hand across the room, under the table. Jonathan towered over her, looking like some terrible fallen angel. At the windowsill, Lilith gave a playful cheer.

"Well done, Jonathan, well done, my boy!" She sat up straighter, and her eyes pinioned on Jocelyn; she was taking horrible pleasure in her rival's helplessness. "Quickly now, my dear, end it. Finish this woman, this liar, this usurper; she wishes to sit in my place, to steal you from me."

"I would never let that happen, Mother," Jonathan said so quietly is seemed almost like a prayer.

Lilith smiled, all her black teeth glittering, at Jocelyn. "You should have known, woman, not to threaten that which is mine. You should have known never to challenge a mother for her son."

"Jonathan is my son!" Jocelyn cried so passionately and so furiously that even Jonathan was taken aback.

Lilith sensed his faltering nerve. "Go, Jonathan, go now and end her!"

"Jonathan, no!" Clary cried, tugging free of Jace and toward her bother. Jonathan's face whipped toward hers. "You can't do this."

"I will do whatever I please," he answered evenly, and she saw how empty his gaze was.

Clary shook her head. "No, Jonathan, because you gave me your oath, that you would spare her life."

"I never-"

"Luke's wife," Clary said gently, and she cast her mother a silencing look.

Jonathan's eyes narrowed to slit and Jace drew up to Clary's side protectively. "You have betrayed me, little sister."

"I couldn't tell you," Clary said honestly, "because I knew you would never believe me, and because-" Clary cut off when she felt Jonathan's, Lilith's, and Jocelyn's eyes on her. "-because I knew you would never agree to spare her. I knew you would kill her, and I love her."

Jocelyn looked stricken at that statement, but Jonathan recoiled like she snarled at him. "You love the woman who abandoned us? You love her after everything she did?"

Clary looked away. "I do, Jonathan, and I'm asking you-begging you-to honor your oath and spare her. Not for her own sake, but for mine."

"Jonathan," began Lilith, but he shot her a hard look.

"You have used me, Clary," he said slowly. "You abused my trust to further your own ends…but my word is my word. I will spare her, but remember, you gave me your oath too. You and Jace swore to help me."

Jace, who had been shocked by the power Jonathan seemed to exert over Lilith realized that there victory was within reach. They needed Jonathan. They needed Jonathan to trust them enough to send Lilith and all her armies back wherever she came from.

"We'll stand with you, Jonathan," Jace said with as much encouragement as he could.

"You had better," Jonathan warned, and then spun on Jocelyn, striking her over the head with enough force to leave her unconscious.

"They keep coming!" Isabelle cried as another of the demon people came swarming up to meet its end at her blade. "How many did Jonathan have?"

"A court worth," Magnus answered, and a ball of flame as bright as the sun exploded from his hand and exploded in the stairwell. There was a screeching sound as a few of the demons caught flame and rushed away. "We'll have to keep this up all night if something doesn't change."

Alec was with Simon, both of them standing a bit back. They had both been hurt when a demon man had come crawling along the ceiling and dropped down on them. Alec was bleeding from a gash that ran up the length of his arm and Simon was gasping for breath, having received a bad acid burn on his shoulder and neck. They watched in horror as another demon lunged forward, its jaw wide and its fangs out, but Isabelle's dagger spun through the air and lodged very deeply in its eye, and it gave a cry and fell to the floor withering in its death.

"But we can hold them off," Alec said, determined, casting around for a weapon and seeing the bow and arrows Isabelle had cast aside. "It might be possible, there's been at least ten, and the court couldn't be more than thirty."

Magnus grimaced and threw up a brief wall of light that held the demons back. "Even if we get through this, we need to find Jace and Clary, and that means finding Jonathan. I don't think any of us will be ready for whatever he has planned."

Isabelle and Simon's eyes met. "I made a promise," she said and saw that he was shaking his head in agreement. "I don't care if I'm dragging myself to them with my last dying breath, I am going to find Clary and Jace."

Brave words, Simon thought, and knew the reason he had fallen so in love with her was her fire and determination. When he shifted his gaze to Alec, now aiming the bow and arrow, he smiled a bit. It must just be the Lightwood Fire, the Angel knows I'll never have that nerve.

Magnus looked from Isabelle to the stairwell, echoing with the sounds of demons. "Alright, twenty left. We can handle twenty."

It was a promise all four of them seemed to make to one and other. As the demons continued to pour in, Isabelle and Magnus redoubled their efforts, Alec, with his injured arm, stood behind, trying to blind the demons, catching them in the eyes with his arrows. Simon had rejoined the fray after an awful moment of indecision where he chose to drink some of the blood from the one of the corpses to heal his wound.

For them, minutes and hours didn't seem to matter; they were constantly, unrelentingly throwing themselves back against the demons the poured into the room. Every one of them met their end on a blade, in fire, on fangs or with an arrow, and the corpses of the dead men and women piled up around them. There was no end, but that didn't seem to matter, all that mattered was killing everything that came down those stairs.

Finally, the demons began to fail and it seemed that they were either running in fear or had really died. None of them dared to hope, but they felt that renewed vigor that came with the possibility of an end. At last, Isabelle jumped forward, buried her blade into the chest of a demon, and there no more.

"Are they gone?" Alec panted, looking ill, clutching his arm to his chest. "Is it over?"

"Perhaps?" Magnus said uncertainly, and dared a few steps closer to the stairs.

"Be careful-" Simon called, but his voice was cut off when, out of the dark, a furious looking demon creature emerged.

Magnus threw up his hands, light already bursting from his tired fingers, but it wasn't in time. The demon knocked him out of the stair well, into the room where he crashed into the wall. Alec gave a cry, already moving to his side, and Isabelle and Simon screamed in rage, but just as the demon was within reach, it too went crashing forward.

A huge, snarling, snapping wolf landed on top of the demon, tearing at its flesh, shaking the flecks of black blood off its snout. The demon howled in rage, but it was hopeless, for the wolf had its bright, white fangs deep in its throat. After a moment where the two struggled, the demon slumped and the wolf continued to worry its neck, snapping it back and forth.

"Luke," Simon rasped, stumbling over to him. "Luke, what are you doing here?" The wolf clambered off the demon, and dropped onto his haunches, panting. When Simon continued to stare in disbelief, he flicked his ears and lifted his huge snout. "Where's Jocelyn?"

The wolf shook himself and slowly, changed back into Luke. He stood before them, breathing heavily and clutching a stitch in his side. "I don't know."

"You don't know?" Isabelle demanded, looking him over. "I thought you two took off together? Weren't you going with her to find Clary and Jace?"

"We were separated," Luke said, his eyes going to Magnus, who Alec had managed to wake up, and was checking his eyes. "We entered through the main doors and met a group of these things. She had to get to Clary, so I helped her fight her way through than remained behind to deal with the stragglers and give her time. By the time I'd driven them all off, she was long gone and I didn't know where to go. I came through the Great Hall, heard the noise, and followed it."

"Well, it's good to see you, anyway," Magnus called, using Alec to stand up. "Nice timing, as usual."

Luke grinned through the muck on his face. "I was going to say the same about you lot."

"Do you know where they are?" Isabelle asked, assuming that Jocelyn was with Clary and Jace. "Any idea where Jonathan's got them?"

At that moment, a loud explosion overhead thundered down through the many levels of the castle, and was followed by a deadly silence. "My best guess?" Luke asked, his eyes traveling up.

"Keep up, you two, keep up!" Jonathan spat, tugging both Clary and Jace by their arms. "We haven't got time for you two to lag behind."

What exactly for we need the time for anyway? Clary wondered, eyeing both Jonathan and Lilith, who seemed to be sharing some secret meaning with each other. What is she making you do now?

"Jonathan, my dear," Lilith said soothingly. "Why don't we just leave them here? We don't need that Angel children, it just has to be you and me."

Those words were enough to concern bother Clary and Jace, who shared a look. Why does she want Jonathan alone? they both wondered. Jace gave a forceful tug on Jonathan and made the other boy look at him.

"You want us to help you, then we need to be with you," he said firmly.

Lilith glared at him, and Jace knew that the demoness wanted nothing more that to throttle the life from him. "He doesn't need you," she said calmly.

"He wants us," Jace reaffirmed, meeting Jonathan's dark eyes with a solid look. "You want us with you, because we're all in this together, aren't we? Brothers and sister?"

Jonathan's look flickered and Jace swore he saw a glimpse of the boy he had seen weeping for his sister so many weeks ago. "I want them there," said Jonathan with certainty and Lilith look sourly away.

"Well, we must go fast, son," she said quickly. "We need to open the portal to the other world."

Open the portal? Clary shuddered.

We'll stop them, Jace thought.

It took the two of them a few seconds after they set off again with Jonathan to realize that they had answered each other's thoughts. They had finally torn down whatever barriers had been left between them and could reach other both physically and mentally for one and other. Clary felt the rune burn on her arm, but didn't have much time to think on what this meant; they had arrived at the doors to the tower room where Magnus had once lived.

"Onward and upward," Jonathan said darkly, and Lilith led the way, up the stairs and into circular room.

When they arrived, Clary feigned a stumble and pulled both Jace and Jonathan to a stop. Lilith had charged onward, snapping her fingers and lighting all the candles in the room. She hurried about, drawing circles and runes on the floor, not paying them the slightest attention, speaking to herself in a low, melodic voice.

"What is it?" Jonathan demanded, looking between Clary and Lilith. "What happened?"

"Jonathan," Clary gasped, clutching at her leg like it was hurt. "I can't do this, Jonathan."

He bit his lip and Jace took the chance to spy on Lilith. She flicked her wrist and runes and the circle caught fire. Jonathan was speaking in a low voice. "You don't have to do anything, Clary, I just want you here with me."

Clary took this chance to spring. "I don't want to be here, Jonathan; please, don't make me do this."

"Clary." His voice was surprisingly ragged with emotion. "You promised to be by my side."

"But by your side in this?"

Clary and Jonathan looked around and saw the room was doused in the black flames from the runes Lilith had crafted, emitting toxic smoke. She was standing in the center of the circle her arms raised, the lower half of her body covered in a smoke. She turned her face then to the three of them, and that cold, bitter beauty was gone. The skin was hanging off her face like wax, her eyes were popping, and her mouth had gone oddly slack.

"This is my past, my future." Jonathan looked resigned. "This is who I am."

"Jocelyn!" Luke cried, shouldering his way into the library. "Jocelyn, where are you?"

There was silence, and Luke felt tension stringing through him, like he was about to snap. Behind him, Isabelle, Alec, Magnus, and Simon were searching the hall. It looked as though a torrent of fire had burned its way through and was leading away, toward the tower. Magnus followed the scorch paths with his eyes and cringed; they looked recent and very hot.

"It's a safe bet to say they went that way," Magnus said in an undertone to Alec, who nodded and shifted his weight as he was supporting Magnus. "At least it won't be hard to find them."

"If we wanted to find them," Simon said darkly. "What did this?"

"Probably Lilith," Magnus guessed, and they all shared a rather concerned look.

"Jocelyn!" Luke cried again, and staggered into the library.

"Why can't he stay put?" Magnus gave a long-suffering sigh. "Follow him."

They all hurried after Luke into the library, and were confronted with utter chaos. The shelves had been destroyed, and books splayed across the floor, loose pages papering the floor, most of the candles had been upended, and here and there, small fires were sputtering out.

"Jocelyn!" Luke cried one last time, and this time, a small voice answered him.

"Here! She's here!"

The group hurried over to the sound of the noise and found none other than Aline crouched over Jocelyn's prostrate form. She looked half terrified half surprised to see them there, but when she spotted Isabelle and Alec, her eyes widened and she clutched Jocelyn's hand even tighter.

"Ms. Isabelle," she gasped.

"Aline?" Isabelle pushed past everyone and dropped to her knees. "What are you doing here?"

She blinked, looking around at everyone's tense faces. "Jonathan took us here for the summons, but this woman arrived to stop him. They fought and she fell."

"Fell?" Luke rasped and rushed to Jocelyn's side. He checked her pulse and let a little of the tension in him go. "Jocelyn, please wake up." He felt around for her stele and quickly drew a rune. She moaned and her eyelids fluttered open. "Jocelyn."

"Where's Jonathan?" she asked at once, trying and failing to sit up. "Where are Clary and Jace?"

"Gone," said Aline softly, and Isabelle quickly held her. "They left with Jonathan and the demoness."

"They went with him?" Isabelle asked, incredulous. "Why?"

Jocelyn pushed Luke off her and sat up. "He said they had an oath, Jonathan said they had made an oath."

"What type of oath?" Magnus asked sharply.

"I don't know, but it hardly matters. If Clary and Jace went with Jonathan, they might be able to stop him."

"Jocelyn-" began Luke, but she silenced him

"No, Luke. He was going to kill me, Jonathan was going to kill me because Lilith wanted him to, but Clary stopped him, and he stopped Lilith. Whatever oath they made, whatever power they have, it made Jonathan stop Lilith. I didn't think that was possible."

Luke looked down but Jocelyn turned to Magnus. "It's possible," he said, "that maybe now that Lilith has left Jonathan, he might be more amendable to Clary and Jace. He might…change."

Jocelyn shot another look at Luke, as if daring him to deny it. "I know it, Luke, I know that something has changed in him. Clary changed something in him."

Luke bit his lip, but he glanced between the small group, between Magnus holding onto Alec, Simon slouched and worn looking, and Aline clutching onto Isabelle. "Should we follow them?"

"I'm going to see this through till the end," said Isabelle determinedly. "We'll follow the trail Lilith left, and wherever it leads, I'll go."

"Even if it's Lilith?" Alec asked her, knowing the answer.

"Especially then."

Clary gave Jonathan a sharp pull, holding him down by her. "No, Jonathan, it doesn't have to be like this. Can't you see it? Can't you see that it can change?"

His eyes flashed dangerously. "Why should I have to change for you to love me? I am your brother, and yet you despise me."

"Can't you see how she has lied to you?" Clary pleaded, but Jonathan pulled himself free of her grasp, tossing her and Jace aside. "Can't you see that she's using you?"

As if on cue, Lilith began screaming in an awful language, and the wind that had been left behind returned, swirling around them with such fury that it seemed the very walls of the castle were being pulled apart. All of the light but the flames from the runes on the floor were extinguished and darkness fell around them like a blanket. Lilith reached out to Jonathan and said something, but above the din of the wind, they could not hear her.

"My mother loves me!" Jonathan cried, his eyes frantic and glowing with an unearthly light, and he turned to face Lilith and the flames and madness now consuming them.

"No, no, that's not love!" Clary shouted over the furor, while Jace tried to drag her away, but he felt his knees shaking under the pressure of the wind. "You asked me once, Jonathan, what makes my love so right, and your love so wrong." Jonathan jerked, like an electric currant had passed through him and he looked away from the roiling mass of dark and was now watching Clary, listening. "It's because love is about freedom. The freedom to choose who to love, when to love, what to love. You can't hold the things you love captive, because that's not love! And don't you see? Don't you see that's what Lilith has done? She won't let you go, Jonathan, and she says she loves you, but how can she when she won't love the thing that you are?"

Jonathan blinked slowly, considering Clary. "What I am?"

Clary took another step forward and she felt dreadful cold in her limbs. "You are my brother! You are Jonathan Christopher Morgenstern, the son of Valentine and Jocelyn Morgenstern." The sound of his mother's name made him flinch. "Yes! You remember Jocelyn don't you? Our mother, Jonathan, the woman who loved us, cared for us, and always will."

Jonathan shook his head, his eyes wavering. "No…no, she left me! When Valentine gave me to Lilith, she abandoned me!"

"No, Jonathan, she never left you. She loves you still, I have seen it!" Clary pulled herself one step closer. She could almost reach him. "She kept a lock of your hair, tied in string, in her room, and all your child clothes, and even the paintings you did. She loves you Jonathan, but it's real love, not this thing Lilith has said."

"She can't love me," Jonathan argued, looking aghast. "I am the son of Lilith; I am the Demon King. I am darkness."

"She loves you, Jonathan, just as I love you." With a ragged breath and a final burst of energy, Clary threw herself forward and caught Jonathan's wrist. "I am light for all your dark."

"You can't be…" he murmured, and there was a terrible, painful confusion in his eyes. "You can't know how dark I am."

"I don't need to know," Clary whispered, and she felt another hand touch hers. Jace had managed to take hold of her wrist. "I know you're my brother, and that I wouldn't lose you for all the world. Can't you look at Lilith and see what she's done is wrong?"

Jonathan's gaze slipped away and he shook his head. "You don't know how much pain there in this world, Clary."

"So you would burn it all down?" she demanded fiercely, and she turned her eyes on Lilith, almost completely ignorant of their speaking, more concerned with her summons. She poisoned you against us, against the light, and she convinced you that you were alone and abandoned. She blinded you and showed you only her world, all of the dark and none of the light. All of the hate and none of the love.

"I don't have a choice," Jonathan answered despondently. "This is the only way I know to be."

"Then let us help you." Clary gave Jace another tug and he was standing before them too. "Jace and I can show you, we can teach you; there are other ways to be."

"I have been so alone." For the first time, Jace had managed to see Jonathan's face, and his eyes looked less black, or maybe just less empty. It was like something in them was breaking, and behind the blank, black gaze was another set of the eyes, searching.

"You don't have to be," said Jace. "This world isn't so full of dark as you might think."

Jonathan was shaking and Clary grabbed his arm, and the burning that had been emanating from her rune, flared to life. She gasped and felt a great dark hand pull her, and Jace, and even Jonathan down. For a moment, the three seemed to hang suspended, and then another burst of light and images swirled past her gaze, like watching a play of a jumbled life.

There were two children, one with hair as red as rubies, the other hair as white as snow, chasing each other through a sloping meadow of high grass, laughing. A woman with a round, soft face, and eyes the color of fresh, spring grass, her face split in a wide smile. Rain failing against a dark window, and two small children, curled up against each other in bed. Paint smeared hands. A horse grazing in a meadow. A doll with raggedy hair and button eyes.

But there was more, more Clary didn't recognize. A lonely manner perched on the edge of a great precipice, and beyond, a thick wood. A small boy, glowing golden, sitting alone in a field, playing with a wooden sword. A woman approaching him, her eyes the color of the sun. She swung the boy up and he laughed. A stern faced man with grey eyes and a lost look. An older man with a scar on the side of his face, watching a small, gold-haired boy draw runes carefully, smiling just a little.

Jace? Clary had time to wonder, before more memories pulled her under.

She was dancing with Jace, but she was seeing herself from Jace's perspective. The way the light caught her skin and made it glow, the sadness and the joy in her eyes, the look of wonder on her face. She was riding a horse now, chasing a stag, feeling the fierce joy and freedom that came with it. She was curled in bed, pressed against Jace's warm body, feeling his hands gently brush her hair.

Isabelle was standing before her, smiling that playful little smile, her dark eyes glimmering. She was holding Max, and then passing Max off the Clary. The weight of a small boy, his heart beating in time with hers, his chest rising and falling in innocent sleep, in her arms. Magnus laughing. Alec looking uncertain. The two of them sharing those deep, meaningful looks. Simon as a little boy sitting with her in the library.

But there were too many, too fast.

Laughter. Crying. Luke's face with his tired smile. Jonathan's white hair tied with string in Jocelyn's study. The faces of the children Clary had been tutoring. Aline watching her expectantly. The sounds of music and the swirling lights from their night dancing in the Glass City. The taste of sweet, red wine. The feel of the sun brushing her skin. The wind gently battering her face. The kiss of snow. The cool distance of the stars.

The world was expanding before Clary and she had no way to stop it. She didn't have the power to control herself anymore, and she felt herself burning up with it. Desperately, she clung to anything she could, and felt Jace's wrist in her hand, and heard his voice, from so long ago.

I'd love you no matter what you are…

Acceptance, that was what it was. Knowing all the dark and all the light of a person, and still loving them in the end. With that thought, the vision ended and Clary, Jace, and Jonathan were slammed back into their bodies. For a moment, they simply stood there, the three of them bound by some secret, some oath much deeper than words.

"Don't you understand, Jonathan?" Clary asked breathlessly. "Can't you see that there is more to this life than fear and darkness and pain? There's love and light and people to help you. People like me. People like Jace."

For a single second, Jonathan looked lost, then he reached past Clary, to Jace's pocket where the stele was still waiting, and held it before them. "I want to stop this."

Before Clary or Jace could stop him, before they knew what he was doing, Jonathan had turned and was darting toward Lilith's dark cloud. They must have been gone for only a second, because Lilith still had not opened the doorway to the other world, and was still screaming. She saw Jonathan coming toward her and reached out a hand of grey, cracked skin. Jonathan's head gave a sharp jerk, and he slashed the stele across her palm, opening up a gash much deeper and wider than normal.

Lilith screamed and Jace swung Clary against him, while she struggled to run after Jonathan. The stele drenched in her blood, Jonathan made for the rune in the center of the circle, the one where Lilith was standing, but she caught him in the side, howling in her own agony. Jonathan tumbled to his knees, blood gushing out of his side, but he hardly cared. Clary was begging Jace to let her go, to go after her brother, but she knew he wasn't going to let her. This wasn't her battle.

Lilith whipped around to face Jonathan, doubled over at her feet, and she snarled at him. "You've betrayed me, Jonathan."

He shook his head, still bowed over himself. "No, no I never betrayed you, because I was never your son. You used me like your demons used my court, you never cared what happened to me."

"I would have loved you like a son."

Jonathan lifted his face up to her and spat a mouthful of blood on her feet. "You never knew what love was."

With the speed only Jonathan possessed, he lifted the stele, drenched in Lilith's blood, and drove it into the rune ring. There was an awful, horrible wailing sound, and Lilith screamed. The wind that had been whipping things about suddenly turned around and began pulling everything to the center, to where Lilith was standing. She tried to move, but the ring she had bound herself in was now a prison, pulling everything into a gaping dark hole in the floor. Candles, tables, chairs, books, all of them were consumed by the black hole, and then Lilith went too. First, it was just her skin, being pulled off her very bones, and then the flesh, and then her bones, sucked down into the black hole with a final, tortured cry.

It was over then. The wind stopped, the screaming ceased, even the vibrating of the walls was gone. Clary and Jace had collapsed against a wall, pressed against each other, wrapped in the other's arms, and when they finally peeked out, they saw Jonathan now slouched alone in the ring of dead runes. He was panting, gasping, clutching at his side, now bleeding profusely. The silence was broken by Clary's rasping breath.

"Jonathan!" She managed to find her feet and tumbled along like she were on new legs until she reached him. She took his face in her hands, and it felt cold. "Jonathan, no."

"Almost perfect," he said with a quick smile, and then held up his hand, covered in blood. "Suppose it would have done Valentine proud?"

"Would have done any of us proud," said Jace, arriving a moment later. He assessed the wound from his place beside Clary; even from there, it didn't look good, it was gushing blood, and black acid was eating away his flesh. "You saved our lives, Jonathan, you saved everyone's lives."

He chuckled and spat out more blood. "No good deed goes unpunished, huh?"

"I can fix this," said Clary frantically, touching at his side, slapping his hand away. "I can fix this."

"I don't think so, Clary," Jonathan said weakly.

"I can make anything!" Clary snarled at him. And she looked around at Jace desperately. "Give me a stele. Help me!"

Jace plucked the stele out of the circle of runes, but Jonathan met his eyes, and they were resigned. "Clary…it's too deep…" Jace said gently.

"No, it's not!" Clary sobbed, trying an iratze. It had no effect. "I can make this better."

Jonathan caught Clary's wrist and forced her to stop. She looked into his face, now open and oddly happy. "It's time to let it go, Clary."

"I won't," she said, tears leaking down her face. "I have all this power, and what's the point if I can't help you?"

"You did, Clary. You saved me from Lilith, you saved me from doing something awful. And now it's over." Jonathan gestured for Jace, and he carefully took Clary in his arms.

"It's not over," Clary pleaded, crying now. "I can help you-"

"You already did."

"Don't!" Clary cried, and she sank into Jace's arms, watching her brother's blood pool on the floor. It can't be like this, it can't end this way. I have all this power, this amazing gift, and I won't let it end like this. In her hand, the stele shook, and a soft, gentle voice answered her.

It's what's best, Clary. It was Jace. He was still there, he'd always be there now…

The rune…Clary thought.

She flicked the stele once more and managed to free herself from Jace's grasp. Jonathan was lying down now, his eyes closed, his breathing coming in irregular gasps. When Clary grabbed his arm he stirred and opened his eyes lazily; when he saw her bent over his arm, he licked his lips.

"What are you doing, Clary?" he asked.

"I told you it's not over," she said fiercely, and revealed the rune on his wrist. It was the same one she and Jace had, the same one that bound their lives to one and other.

Jonathan's eyes widened, but before he could respond, both Clary and Jace gave a horrible gasp, and bent over. Clary keeled over and curled into a tight ball at Jonathan's side, and Jace managed to lever himself up on his arms, looking toward Clary and Jonathan. Clary had passed out, and was panting in her sleep. Jonathan was twitching, and, as Jace felt darkness pull him under, he glanced once more and saw the wound on Jonathan's side slowly closing up.

And that was how Isabelle, Simon, Alec, Magnus, Luke, Jocelyn, and Aline found them. All three, curled against each other, all three breathing the same deep, heavy breaths, all three bearing the strange, circles on their wrists, their arms crossed, interlinked.