The Herondales' living room became their base of operations; they had quickly learned that planning to escape from Alicante at the moment was very difficult to do, and not something that could be executed in a day. Ella and Lucie had reported Aline's whereabouts today, as well as those of the recluse Starkweather, who yesterday Lucie had seen Aline talking to. Lucian was in the middle of giving a detailed description of the patrol patterns at the city exits, while Amatis took notes and Stephen pulled funny faces at the others to lighten the mood.
"It basically means that we need to cause a major distraction in the middle of the city; a distraction so big that calls all the guards away from at least one of the exits so Clary and Jace can get through" Lucian finished with.
"What sort of distraction could achieve that?" Stephen asked, turning serious.
"Demon attack!" Ella screamed, pointing out the window.
"Ooo that's a good idea"; Stephen.
"No I mean a real demon attack! They're in the street and everything!" They all ran to the window and looked out, shocked to see that Ella was right; there was a whole mass of varying demonic species causing terror outside their very house.
"Alert the Clave, if they don't already know" Stephen commanded, looking at his wife; "Lucie and Ella stay here and barricade the doors after the rest of us leave". The girls started to protest towards this, but Amatis took them into the next room with her. "I'll run on ahead and clear the path to the north gate; Lucian, will you see these two out of the city?"
"I'll protect them with my life"
"Good; let's move!" Clary and Jace grabbed the bags they had packed days ago in the event of an emergency, and they all grabbed an array of weapons (not a single seraph blade was left behind). The neighbours were already fighting off the demons when they'd finally left the house, and Clary had the strangest sense of déjà vu; it can't be, there's never been a demon attack inside Idris before. Before she let her thoughts distract her, Clary swung and stabbed with her seraph blade, easily taken out at least two opponents with every movement.
"I bet I kill more than you before we reach the gate" Jace said with a wink, having dispatched his first demon.
"I don't know if you can handle it; I'm already on four". They altered their stances into a twin battle formation; they moved in canon and used each others' strengths to improve on their individual weaknesses. At one point, they linked arms so that when Jace bent to the ground Clary could propel herself off the ground and kick at their attacks; this way they were stunned enough for her to move in for the kill when she was lowered back to earth.
"Hold up the blade of your strongest sword" Jace ordered, and used the reflection to aim at targets behind him with a bow and use the strength of the blade's surface as a bouncing mechanism that sent his arrows into their skulls. "Impressed?"
"Hardly; if you faced your enemies instead of trying to show off you'd be able to kill twice as many in half the time" she laughed, and he did too despite the remark. Within minutes, with the help of Lucian and the neighbours, they had emptied the street of demons and sheathed their weapons once it was clear there were no more hiding in the shadows.
"What have you done?!" a high-pitched voice was yelling indignantly, "they were supposed to ride through, not harm anyone!" The voice came from Aline and she was yelling at a cloaked man with his hood turned up.
"Arrest them!" someone shouted, "they're the ones responsible for this!" but as the Shadowhunters moved forward, a new wave of demons came hurtling past the buildings towards them.
"Clary, Jace" Lucian urged, "believe it or not you're lucky there are more of them. We need to get you out of here now while everyone is preoccupied with the fighting". They ran through the streets behind Lucian, but when they passed Aline Clary grabbed her from behind and dragged her along with them.
"What're you doing?" she hissed, but not too harshly.
"Keeping you from getting arrested, and you will be arrested once all the demons are killed, and giving you a chance to redeem yourself. You're coming with us to find our brothers and the others who went with them".
"No I can't-"
"Oh yes you will" Jace argued, catching up with their conversation, "you've committed the worst of crimes so either you help us and get welcomed back into the city or you help us and live in exile without being punished. You don't have any other options".
"But the poiso-"
"The coast is clear!" Stephen shouted across the final clearing to the north gate, "get going, now!" Aline reluctantly ran behind them without having to be dragged along, and together the three of them (after Jace gave a farewell hug to his father and Clary the same to Lucian) made it past the borders well before the commotion in the city centre was over.
"Who are your tears for, Nephilim? Nobody who cares is here to comfort you! Now answer me again; who are the Shadowhunters he described?!" The dark-haired boy with the glasses looked terrified, and it showed in the way he stuttered when he answered.
"T-the only one I-I know b-by name is J-jocasta Trueblood; we're related. I remember s-some of the others f-from before, b-but here were n-never allowed to visit the c-city so we never g-got to meet other S-shad-"
"Enough! What's the point of having you as a prisoner when you don't even know about your own people! I should just kill you both now and then show your corpses to Alexander and Isabelle once they've dispatched of these delinquents!" The other prisoner stepped forward, using his body to shield the other's from their torturer's wrath.
"Is that it, then? When your plans don't work you just murder and threaten others into submission? You want everyone to think you're a good leader but your plans never work. Isn't that why you started all this? Because you couldn't protect your own-"
"I did not give you permission to speak, Bane!" the figure was even angrier, if that was possible. "I think I'll keep you alive until they return, then I'll make Alexander watch you die to pain".
"Yeah well guess what? He doesn't know me in this world, does he? So who's going to look like the whiny asshole they've always been when I'm killed and he doesn't even react?" It pained him to say it, but it was the truth.
"Oh but it's for your benefit, Bane. I want your last moments to be of dying in pain whilst the person you love most watches expressionless. Perhaps I'll even tell him something horrible about you, maybe get him to believe you're the one who brought his dear brother here? Then he'll even smile with delight as your worthless life drains from you".
"They took care of the Lightwoods at the airport and are currently on a pane heading directly for New York. It looks like your next interview will have the questions asked by much more pleasant Shadowhunters"
"That's good to know". They were again meeting in Central Park, but at this time there were more people than usual strolling along the footpaths so they had chosen to rendezvous in the safety of the trees to make sure no one heard them. "Still no word from-"
"No word from any of the eight that we know of, if that's what you were going to ask"
"So nothing else to report then?"
"Actually, there is. Three more Shadowhunters have escaped from Alicante, so I've been told, in the midst of a demon attack. I'd suggest they're following their friends".
"More of them? That sounds like more of a burden than anything else".
"Well in that case you'd might like to know that she is one of them, him too". There was a long silence between them, followed by a hug and a lot of tears before the two unlikely friends parted ways yet again.