Hi, hi, hi!

So, quick announcement. Updates for all of my stories are going to be less frequent than they have been (yeah I know, collective sigh) but I just am finding it a lot more difficult to find time to write than I used to.

Anyways, this chapter is pretty short, but it is kind of dramatic like promised, so you may enjoy it, may hate it...

I don't know.

Enjoy!

- EasyIsTheDescent

Disclaimer: I could never pull off the name Cassandra.

I don't think I'm pretty enough.

I instinctively whirled around, shielding Max, and then Isabelle sprang into action. She yelled something to a dazed Sebastian, and she jumped through the window, out of sight, going to save Aline, who wasn't in the room.

I lifted Max up in my arms, and he struggled harder now, but I dragged him to the staircase, hiding him at the top.

"Stay here," I ordered through my teeth.

I ran downstairs, and the two people I looked for first were gone.

"Ethan? Liam?" I called, and the voice that answered was not only the wrong voice, but one that I had dreaded hearing for a long time.

"No, Liam ran outside to help Alec fight, and Ethan insisted he go with him," Sebastian explained, and I felt my heart drop.

"I have to go get them," My voice was strained, and suddenly his cold hand was on my arm. I shook it off violently.

"Liam will take care of him, help me board up the windows," He ordered, and I didn't reply, still glaring at him bitterly.

Isabelle and Alec walked in a minute later, and I ran over to them, absentmindedly checking for wounds.

"Where's Aline?" Sebastian asked, and I noticed her absence.

"She ran off. It was my fault. I should have been-"

She was cut off by Alec, who objected, and a minute later, the two disappeared.

"Rosie. Rose?" Max's voice brought me back to reality after I froze, and he looked concerned, worry crinkling his nine-year old face.

"Yeah?"

"Help me with the Marks," Sebastian spoke up, and I nodded, holding Max to my side as I grabbed my stele out of my boot, which was by the front door.

I shoved my feet into the boots, ignoring just how ridiculous I looked in my denim shorts and these shoes, and I dragged Max with me to the window. As idiotic as it was, I liked the idea better than having him anywhere near Sebastian.

When we walked back into the other room, I knew that something was wrong. Whether it was my necklace, pounding intensely, or my Shadowhunter instincts, I would never know.

"Sebastian?" I called, and I held onto Max a little tighter.

"I'm sorry, Rose." I heard someone say, and I spotted Sebastian's tall, skinny figure from the other side of the room.

"What do you mean?" I asked, my voice wavering.

"I liked you the best, you know," Sebastian said, and it was in those seven words that brought the doom.

I was going to die today.

"Sebastian, what are you saying?" I asked, and I pushed a silent, shivering Max behind me, who wrapped his thin arms around my waist tightly.

There was no response.

I grabbed the dagger that was currently in the waistband of my jeans. It wasn't my family dagger, but it was a sharp weapon, all the same.

I had two options.

Option 1: Fight Sebastian. Probably lose.

Option 2: Get Max out of here alive, my fate undetermined.

With one glance at my little brother, I knew what I had to do.

One smooth flick of my wrist, and the dagger was sailing across the room, embedding itself into Sebastian's arm.

It wasn't the shot I had hoped for, but I heard a yell of pain, and I knew it would work.

I grabbed Max by the arm, and I ran, sprinting out of the room, and I stopped at the staircase. The front door was useless. We had boarded that up.

To be fair, we had planned for outside danger.

And yet it wasn't the demons killing me in the end, was it?

"Max, listen to me." I ordered, whispering rapidly.

He gulped, nodding.

Max was a smart kid, mature for his age. He could handle this, right?

"You are going to stay here, and you are going to play dead. I don't care what happens, don't you dare move, okay?" Another nod.

"I love you, Max. Don't listen to a word I'm about to say," I motioned for him to lay down, and he obliged silently.

I stepped up the stairs, and I let out a strangled scream, praying that I had good acting skills. I rolled down the stairs painfully, resulting in the desired thud.

"Max! Max, wake up!" I yelled. Please have listened to me.

Max didn't budge.

I felt a shiver run down my spine as Sebastian walked in, an evil grin on his face.

"You! Y-you k-killed him!" I stammered, and he glanced at Max's limp form.

"You were the one that let him stumble, were you not?" He asked rhetorically, and I spat at him.

It didn't affect his posture.

"It's a shame to waste something so beautiful," His eyes raked over me, as if he were observing a painting, "But yet, you were ruined already, weren't you?"

I just glared at him.

He made one more step forward, and I lunged forward, hitting him across the face.

He grabbed me by the hair, and I yelped, noticing the object in his hand.

It was the knife I had hit him with.

My struggles were as good as useless. He plunged it into my chest, near the top of my stomach.

And meant to scream out in agony, but no sound came out.

I had never been stabbed before, as crazy as it sounded. There was the sharp, agonizing pain you would expect, mixed with a familiar burn I couldn't quite pin down.

I stumbled backwards as he pulled the knife out of my torso, falling to the ground near Max.

In my last attempt to protect him, I crawled to his side, praying that all I had done was enough.

And the last thing I heard was pounding footsteps.

Liam's POV

Ethan and I ran up the steps to the Penhallow's house, and when I tried to open the door, it wouldn't budge.

"They must have boarded it up, let me see," Ethan said, and with a couple strokes of his stele, he had carved an Opening rune into the door, and it burst open.

I walked in before Ethan, and he followed suit, the witchlight from our seraph blades lighting up the empty house.

Or it had looked empty.

"Liam, Ethan!" Someone said, surprised.

Sebastian stood before us, blocking our view from something near the staircase, and I didn't move from my defensive state.

Ethan didn't either.

"Where's Rose?" He asked, and his cool voice didn't quite mask the anxiety beneath it.

Sebastian's face darkened.

"If only the kid had been a little less curious," He was murmuring, "If only she hadn't been so protective…"

"What the hell are you talking about?" I interrupted, and he met my eyes, and the evil look within his features made me hold the blade in my hand up in warning.

"If only, and they may not be dead."

Before I knew what I was doing, I had lunged forward, but Sebastian was gone.

I was looking for him when I realized what he had been blocking.

Two crumpled figures, one tall and skinny, her long hair draped over her shoulder, and one shorter figure, young, with his glasses laying a little ways away.

Rose and Max.

"Rose," I kneeled next to her, rolling her onto her back, and I cringed, while Ethan let out a strangled sob.

There was a good amount of blood on the floor, and I now knew where it came from.

There was a large, gaping wound in her chest, blood soaking the front of her shirt, and her eyes fluttered open when I moved her.

"Liam?"

"Shh, it's okay, I got you," I murmured, pulling a stele from my belt.

"Max, wake up," Ethan sobbed, and I glanced over, to see that the younger child was sitting up, bringing a sigh of relief to the two of us.

"S-she told me not to m-move…" He was stammering, his eyes wide as he noticed the wound in Rose's chest.

"You did well, Max," Rose whispered, "You did well."

"Liam, draw an iratze!" Ethan yelled as she coughed, and something dark trickled down her lip.

Blood.

"It's not working," I groaned, motioning towards the Mark I had drawn just below the ugly wound.

"It w-was S-S-Sebastian," Max sniffled, and I glanced at him.

"By the Angel, Ethan, don't let him see her like this!" I ordered through my teeth, and Ethan held Max to his chest, cringing.

"Liam, I-I love you," Rose stammered, and I forced a smile to my face, shaking my head.

"Don't say that, you sound like you're saying goodbye," I scolded, "And then I will be making fun of you later."

She laughed, but the sound was choked, and the three of us flinched in unison.

"I told you one of us was going to die," She murmured, "I should have bet money on it."

"Yeah well I've always been a kick ass gambler," I replied distractedly as I tried drawing another rune unsuccessfully, "So I wouldn't have been the one to bet with."

"Liam," She grabbed a handful of my shirt, "You have to take care of them, you have to-"

"Stop," I ordered, my voice slightly strained, "Don't you dare."

She nodded, and I lifted her into my arms as Ethan helped Max climb onto his back, and we ran into the direction of the Hall of the Accords.

Clary's POV

The second we barged into the Hall, I knew something was wrong.

Jace and Alec looked for the Lightwoods nervously, and we saw them soon enough.

There was a group of people huddled in the center of the room, and the crowd of Shadowhunters and werewolves had formed a wide circle around them. It broke apart as Alec and Jace sprinted forward.

My arm still clutching Simon tightly, I edged forward, peering over random shoulders, which was difficult to do with my height.

In the center of the room, Liam was holding someone in his arms, someone strangely familiar, but my shocked mind couldn't process her.

Isabelle stood bawling beside them, Isabelle, who never showed pain, and she was clutching the younger boy, Ethan, close to her, his face buried in her shoulder.

Maryse, Robert, and Max were on the other side of Liam, holding Max, Maryse whispering soothing words into his ear as he cried. I noticed in dismay that there were tears running down her cheeks, and Robert didn't look much better, his face grim.

Alec was stopped by Magnus, who had been standing nearby.

"I'm sorry, I tried, but it was too late," He was saying, and Alec shoved past him roughly. Magnus didn't move, just watched him with eyes that held not just sorrow, but grief for the friend that was motionless on the ground.

I noticed in the corner of my mind that there was a man near the edge of the circle, not quite next to the Shadowhunters that were watching grimly, but not a part of the group in the center either. He had golden blonde hair and green eyes that were similar to Liam's, and there was a blonde woman at his side, cradling a young toddler in her arms.

Jace and Alec had slid across the floor, and were kneeling next to Liam and the girl he held in his arms. Alec looked as if he were trying very hard not to cry, and Jace just look lost, as if he were caught in a dream.

Alec was holding onto the girl's hand, but she didn't move.

"The runes aren't working," Maryse explained, her voice cracked.

Everyone was silent.

"I guess there's nothing else to do then," Jace said in a cold, lifeless voice.

"Don't you dare say it Jace," Alec hissed through his teeth, but Jace didn't hear him.

My mind blurred the next thing he said, which resulted in Alec holding back a strangled sob, Isabelle bursting into an even harder round of tears, clutching the sobbing boy tightly, Maryse and Robert wrapping their arms around Max as he wailed unintelligible words, and Liam just sat there, watching the lifeless form with an unreadable gaze.

I focused on the girl before him.

She had a large wound in her chest, blood coating her shirt and making it stick to her. Her skin, normally tanned, was sickly pale, and her brown hair, purple at the ends, was stiff with blood.

I heard a hoarse yet grotesquely melodic voice ring in my head. I think we're going to be good friends in the near future.

But it was too late for that.

I realized what Jace had said.

"Ave atque vale, Rose Nightlock."

So...

I don't really know what to say.

...How 'bout that Super Bowl?

- EasyIsTheDescent