Chapter 9
They've deiced to make a liquid poison. One that we could dip our swords and arrows in. One that was put into foods and made into a spray. This was released immediately, some soaked their sheaths with it, others carried it around in small glass bottles, and some even drank it and hopes that if the creature scratched their skin their blood would burn them. It wasn't a bad idea, to do these things, except I had the intention of not killing her. I soaked one dagger with the poison, but that was it. I had left my other weapons clear.
It didn't take long for them to find a match of the picture that was scratched into the granite. It had been a picture of the Atomium something known to be very famous in Belgium. They had considered this to be on Clary's part, taking my theory that she was still alive in there somewhere, that she had sent the message. They had taken this to mean that this is the place where she had escaped to.
Belgium was very big, and we mapped it out for days. We decided to start looking in areas that weren't so populated. There were a few abandoned places in Belgium that haven't seen the human flesh in years, places such as Château Miranda, in Celles. I was appointed there along with Isabelle and other people that I hadn't known the names of. Others would poke around in other parts of Belgium, and some would stay to guard the borders.
Even if Clary was even more powered than the shadowhunters in strength and skill, there couldn't be much of them. Only five, six at the most, have been taken and have never returned. Only six stood up against all of us, and if we are to find them, the battle wouldn't last.
"Jace? Are you ready?" Isabelle stood with her whip poised on her forearm, her dagger damp with poison. The rest of them, Isabelle, Simon, Alec, Clary's parents, have only dipped one weapon in poison, the rest are clean like I had done. They were eager to find her before anyone else, just as I was.
"Yes." As ready as I could ever be.
"We'll find her." She grabs my arm before I can exit the room, her voice low. "We'll get her back, Jace. Do you trust that? Do you trust us?"
"I trust you." I leave the room.
We go in groups, once again. Magnus, Caterina, and some other warlocks man the portals that shoot shadowhunters through to Belgium. I go through first, letting the rest of the group catch up. Jocelyn's face is pinched, and Luke is torn between reassuring himself and her. Izzy and Simon both just looked tired.
I don't know how I look, nor do I care.
The rocky cliffs crowned the small town nicely, but I don't pay attention to anything else really. We meet once again to finalize our destination.
"There are some empty places that have been abandoned for years now. These seem the most typical of places where she would be. Once we've cleared these, than we can split up and start looking elsewhere."
Not an hour later we found ourselves on Noisy Street, of all names, looking upon a huge castle like constructed building with pointed top towers. It's deteriorating stone walls spilled here and there in shattered piles.
"This they could hole up in here?"
"Maybe."
"Let's check it out." I unsheathe a sword and flip the familiar hilt in my hand, mentally preparing myself for what's ahead.
We walk up the long driveway, kicking the rocks up in anticipation. Isabelle wiggles the door, it's closed obviously, and I shoot her an incredulous look.
"Just wanted to see." She shrugs.
I lift my leg and kick as hard as I can, not bothering with runes. It come apart on its hinges and lands with a thud on the ground, sending dust spiraling up into the air.
We wind our way down stairways, keeping together in a small group. Each of us check rooms and all the doors come open with ease, except one.
"It won't open," Isabelle reports. "Not like the others. I'll try a rune, but I wanted everyone to be ready."
"Open it." I grip the sword tight.
She sets a stele to it, letting the hot spirals burn into the thick door and imprint a charcoal colored-rune. The door knob begins to shake and then the whole door starts to crack. In less than five seconds the door is wood shards and I am bursting through it before they all have begun to fall. Some fall into my hair and eyes and I shake violently to clear my vision.
Inside is a white room. Completely white, with the exception of a food tray and a half eaten pizza. Dirt smudges lay here, as do splatters of blood and there but Clary is nowhere.
"This might be somebody else's room..."
"No. It was hers."
"Jace, she might have put up a fight. She could have escaped, you never know-"
"We would have seen her. This blood is fresh." I smear it and rub it between my fingertips. It had to be hers. It had to be.
"Let's search more, maybe she ran into the forest-"
A buzz in my pocket slices the silence in half and quiets Isabelle. It takes a lot for me not to crush the stupid phone in my hand as I pull it out. Jocelyn was adamant about these, everyone had one. In fact, it was Jocelyn on the line now.
"Yes?"
"Jace... Now... They're...Idris..."
"You're cutting out, what's going on?" I press the phone closer to my face.
"Jace!" She was screaming now.
"Jocelyn? Jocelyn! What's going on?"
"Clary! Demons, they're portaling into Idris..." The phone drops and I hear the familiar swish of swords and a shrill cry from a dying demon. "Come back to Idris, they're here! Come back!" The phone cuts out and along high pitched beep rings instead.
"Jace?" Isabelle wonders.
"We have to get back, now!"
"Clary is the only one who can draw a portal!" She shouts back at me. "The one where we came from is probably still open, let's go."
I growl from losing time, but follow her and Alec and Simon anyway. I feel bad for Simon, because even though this isn't his first fight, it will be his first shadowhunter fight.
We burst into Idris but instead of seeing busy streets and tall buildings we see demons running mad. But not just demons. I see shadowhunters too, but they don't look right. They don't give me the chills as Sabastian's army had done, but rather just a sensation of something being off. I couldn't spot Clary anywhere, so I dived right into battle.
My blade swinging left and right, skimming black clad leather and landing in the sticky flesh of demons. Few shadowhunter who were possessed were actually attacking the real shadowhunters, mostly they were standing there frozen. They were fighting themselves, just as Clary had done. I took out my dagger and circled one of them. I couldn't believe I was taking time to even look at them, but they were so fascinating.
Their eyes moved back and forth as if they were lucidly dreaming. I grabbed at his wrist and he flinched but didn't struggle. I slit his arm with the soaked dagger and watch blood trickle down his wrist. His eyes flood open and he sinks to his knees in a piercing scream that catches some stares from other fighting shadowhunters.
He crouches down and his body ripples. I fend off demons who advance on his vulnerable figure. He continues to shutter for minutes at a time, until I was able to turn back to him and see that his eyes were completely normal, but he was confused.
"I-" He began, and then looked up at me. "Jace Herondale?"
"Yes." I spin and slice a Demon down from its head to its sickly tail and turn back to the poor man.
"I-." He starts again. "I didn't kill anyone, did I?"
"No." I grunt as I stomp the body of another hellish being. "But it would help to wake others." I grab a sword out of his belt and run over to a bucket full of the Midnight Flower liquid. I dip it in and carry it dripping to the man and press it into his palm. "Cut people, those who are possessed, with this." He grips it and I turn to fight more.
The number of demons are dwindling. I see Simon and Izzy back to back, and Magnus and Alec fending off a large group. I catch up with Alec and help me, me and my parabati in sync as we cut them to pieces.
"Close the portals!" Someone shouts and Magnus drops his hands and sprints over to the portals. I take his spot with Alec and fight almost as if it were old times and it was just me, him and Izzy.
The last few spouts of demons were killed by the remaining shadowhunters who were still fighting. Others were cutting down the number of possessed shadowhunter, which turned out to be more than expected. Each time I looked for a small red head, but I could not find one. I could not find her.
"Jace!" A shout, a cry, pounded my ears and I spin on my heel.
Her red hair blows as ashes spin in the air. Her lips are parted in a devilish grin as she lands a final blow to young shadowhunter who slumps to the ground, his life draining from his eyes.
"Are you scared?" She smiles as blood drips from the dagger that she clutches. The word around her slows, it's just her that I can see. Like a slap, like someone had stabbed me. She saunters her way towards me, her hips swinging with a sexual confidence that you could only find in Isabelle. "Didn't you want to see me, Jace? Aren't you here for me?" She stops to finger the engagement ring. "It's sad really. You gave me so much of yourself and you made it so easy for me to crush you." She shakes her head a slow does a grin slid onto her white face. She walks closer and closer...
My hands snake out and grip her wrists and I pull them down to reveal huge onyx eyes that shine with venom. She growls and swipes at my face.
I doge her attack, and counter it with fist full of her shirt. She struggles for a second but reaches and crushes my fingers and swipes a foot out to cup my ankle. She uses to weight against me, just like I had taught her, and slips me over her back. She grabs my arm and twists, but I flip under her and grab back at her. The dagger is squished between the two of us, and it is a test of strength. Usually I would trump her, but her newfound demon strength builds against me.
"Stop struggling." She spits at me, her voice so poisonous that it takes me off guard. I flip her off of me and roll on top of her.
"Clary!"
"I hate you! Do you realize that? I hate you!" Her voice turns coarse and I hesitate from all the emotion that pours from her. "You didn't come for me! I stood there, broken and beaten, they beat me!" She screams, it's louder than the shrieks of dying demons. "I hate you! I don't want to marry you, you horrible-" I pinch the dagger out from between us and slice her collarbone open. It flinch, as if it were I that had been cut, but watch her eyes pop.
"I love you. I really do."
Her grip loosens and she parts her lips, completely stunned. Her body shakes and I get off of her and pull her into my lap, taking the chance to cradle her into myself, as close as I could get her. I bury my nose in her hair and crush her face into my chest.
She screams into my fighting gear and spasms, but I hold her as still as possible.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Clary, I'm sorry." Blood pours from her wounds, and even though it's saving her I feel torn inside that her screams echo real pain. "Clary, please, stop."
"Jace." I look down to see her eyes shining with new tears. It wasn't often that I saw Clary cry over pain. "Jace," she repeats.
"Right here, I'm right here."
"Jace, did I kill someone?"
I look up and over at the body of a young shadowhunter boy who is curled in a pile of blood and lifelessness. He was no older the fourteen. And I look back down at Clary, my fiancé, someone who I could never lie to.
"Yes." She sucks in a horrified breath.
"H-how many?"
"I don't know. It doesn't matter, Clary, it doesn't matter. Not now."
"It does." She clutches at my shirt. "It does, Jace." She swallows. "Jace." My name in her mouth, without malice, was a cold rain that washed over me and filled me with hope. She leaned her head on me and fought the drowsiness that pulled her lids down.
"Sleep, it's okay. I'll handle everything, Clary. Sleep, I won't let you go.
"What's his name?"
"Huh?"
"The boy I killed, what was his name?"
"I don't know."
"Can you give him a name?" I pinched my lips together and thought.
"Jason. That's his name, for now, that's his name,"
"Jason." She shook her head and began to sob, but before she could choke on her grief, she passes out in my lap.