"Raphael Santiago; you have been charged and found guilty of crimes against your master by not successfully carrying out the assignments given to you. Before your execution, do you have any last wishes?"
"To not die would be a start".
Magnus watched with dismay as Raphael was forced to his knees in front of the dais. He and Max had been dragged out of their prison cells and forced to watch all of this, and during this time he had figured out what was going on. Raphael wasn't being executed for failing to kill the Shadowhunters, but because he was the vampires' leader. For some reason in this reality the four Downworlder groups had individual leaders that were meant to embody their entire species.
Raphael led the vampires (although as they were all prisoners, including himself, it didn't give him much responsibility), the Seelie Queen led the faeries (but had been murdered by one of her most trusted guards months ago, suspiciously), Ragnor fell led the Warlocks (who had also been murdered; I guess some things never change) and, if Magnus was lucky, the werewolf leader would even now be attaching herself to the Shadowhunters and forming a plan to save them all.
The villain on the dais with something entirely different to those four groups, and so it made sense to execute their leaders to give the villain's own band of a creatures a fighting chance in this world; they might even get the added bonus of all the leaderless Downworlders rallying to their sides now that they had no one else to turn to. It's okay, the werewolves are still safe. Still, Magnus wished he could save Raphael from execution so that at least the vampires were safe from this horrible wrath.
He was too busy in his thoughts to pay attention when the sword separated Raphael's head from the rest of his body.
"Where exactly are we going?" Aline asked breathlessly. They wanted to reach the airport before the next flight left for New York and unless they ran they weren't going to make it.
"Because of you and the Lightwoods and the recluse and Raziel knows who else we've got to find our rebellious brothers and their ... erm ... acquaintances? And help them find whoever the Lightwoods have been questioning all this time!" Jace huffed.
"The Lightwoods have probably killed them by now" she replied, "and then they'll have gone straight to wherever that guy lives and killed him too, or taken him to the contact".
"Who exactly is the contact?" asked Clary.
"I never met him, or her, or whatever it is. I don't think the Lightwoods did either; we were either sent written messages or met with someone who worked for the contact"
"So you don't even know what species we're dealing with?"
"I'm guessing not human. And before you ask I don't know anything about the guy they were questioning either, not even his name. The only thing I can tell you is that he gave the Lightwoods a message for you, Clary".
"Me? Really?"
"Yes. Apparently he said 'the missing piece is the circle'. Does that mean anything to you? Clary!" Aline and Jace stopped in their tracks and bent over Clary, who had fallen to the floor unconscious. All she saw was blackness, but many words whispered through her head.
"I hereby render unconditional obedience to the Circle and its principles ... I will be ready to risk my life at any time for the Circle, in order to preserve the purity of the bloodlines of Idris, and for the mortal world with whose safety we are charged"
"She was Valentine's wife"
"What you saw you would forget, even as you saw it. No image of pixie or goblin or long-legged beastie would remain to trouble your blameless mortal sleep"
"Do they bloom every night?"
"Only at midnight"
"Happy birthday Clarissa Fray"
"Clary! Wake up! What did you say to her, Aline? What's wrong with her?"
She tried her best to look like an average Shadowhunter citizen as she strode through the city. Whoever the Penhallow girl had entrusted with the task of letting the demons in, they had done a good job. When she'd arrived at the borders, not only was she able to pass easily into the city but there were no Nephilim on patrol to see her do so. She was smug.
Stop it she told herself, you have a job to do. Raphael was stupid enough to get them all imprisoned by that monster, but she had been given the opportunity to prove that the vampires were loyal to the cause; whatever that cause is. She thought it would be daunting, the task of murdering the consul, but she felt oddly calm as she made her way into the woman's bedroom. Jia Penhallow was fast asleep, her husband lying next to her, which meant that both of them would have to die; more for me then. As she bent over the bed the breathed in the scent of blissful ignorance, but it was disturbed when the couple suddenly woke up.
"Who are you?" Jia urged, before nail marks clawed their way painfully down her cheek, "run!" she begged her husband. Stupidly, he stayed where he was and watched hopelessly as the blood and life were draining from his wife. She moved straight to him next, and within minutes their pale white bodies were sprawled next to each other, motionless. Both their unconscious last wishes were for Aline to be safe.
Now it was time to leave. As she made her way through the streets her bitterly regretted the fact that Helen Blackthorn was no longer in the city, having run off with the other young Shadowhunters, as she would have loved to pay her a visit. After all, no one could call her fat, even go to the length of wearing a fat suit to impersonate her, and live to tell the tale. Let's just hope that Alexander and his sister save her for me; perhaps I'll go find them now.
She was long gone from Alicante before the bodies of the Penhallows were discovered hours later.
"Sorry Lucian I'm a bit busy at the moment; this whole Penhallow tragedy is just ... I don't even know where to begin" Jocelyn said, sighing from exhaustion. Everyone had been up half the night reeling from the disaster that took place at the Penhallows' house apparently only a few hours before the bodies were discovered by a neighbour. She was furious at everyone; all everybody could think about how was horrible it was that the Clave had lost their Consul, when more importantly (as Jocelyn and a few others had argued) they had lost two incredible people and a girl had lost her parents.
"I understand it's a terrible time to be dragging you away, but I don't know who else to turn to; it's Celine" Lucian replied. At this Jocelyn told the others that she needed to step outside for a minute and quickly followed Lucian to the house where he and Celine lived.
"What's wrong with her?"
"I don't even know. She just suddenly collapsed to the floor and when she woke up she was talking nonsense; she's done this before but it's never been this bad". When they entered the house they found her sitting cross-legged on the floor, rocking back and forth and hissing words into the air.
"What's the matter, Celine?" Jocelyn asked
"Eight, eight, I'm one of the eight" she replied incomprehensibly.
"I- I don't understand-"
"I died, did you know that? I died when I lost my poor husband so that the poor baby wouldn't have to live without his father".
"Celine" Lucian said, "you've never been married. And these words, they make me worried about our baby".
"The baby in me now won't be here much longer. Not if the little children stop the big badness from keeping me alive. Oh hello Jocelyn! Have you met my husband? He died tragically and I just couldn't live with it". Lucian and Jocelyn stood off to the side and whispered worriedly to each other.
"When did she start?"
"This particular incident started a few hours ago"
"You don't think that-"
"I know it seems coincidental but she's been here all night; she never would've killed the Penhallows". They moved closer so that they could listen to her again.
"They are eight of us you see. The friend, the grandmother and the boy who died makes three, you see. Then there's the big bad wolf and him with the eyes; FIVE! FIVE!"
"Can you make any sense of this, Jocelyn?"
"I'm sorry; I've no idea what she's going on about".
"Only three more to go! Let's start with Persephone-"
"You're not making any sense!" Lucian screamed.
"Then the madwoman; THAT'S ME! Although number eight is a bit loopy too. I call him the French Snake-" there was a long silence, followed by Celine looking right at them with a serious and genuinely sane expression on her face. "Take some of my blood; you'll need it, take some before it's too late". She heaved a great coughing fit and fell forward, no longer breathing.
"Lucian I'm so sorry". Jocelyn conformed that she was dead, tears in her eyes, while Lucian fumbled around in a chest of draws looking for something. When he came forward with a syringe she gained control of herself, "what're you doing?"
"Carrying out her last wishes".