I'm so sorry it took so long for this chapter to come but I was experiencing the worst block ever! I really tried but nothing was good enough. Finally, in the metro I had a spark lol.

So here it is!

Also I have re-updated the first five chapters corrected by my beta lilianneherondale. Thank you for helping me and for your support. I'll post the others with the next chapters.

Love you all guys and I hope you'll forgive me!

Lilly.

Chapter Fifteen: Hide and Seek

Two weeks later

Clary was supposed to be thousands of miles away from New York, lying on the beach of an earthly paradise but frozen with the fear of losing the man she loved. Isabelle was undoubtedly going crazy, not knowing if she was okay, not knowing if she was alive.

Magnus would lie for her, she knew. He would lie to Aline and pretend she was somewhere out of reach on the island, far enough so that she couldn't answer, but she also knew Aline wasn't stupid, and was bound to figure out that she never was on the plane that left for Idris two weeks ago.

Her life incognito in the city was both frightening and exhilarating. It was frightening because she could almost feel Valentine and Jonathan's presence at every street's corner, but it was somehow lessen by the thrill of doing something you weren't supposed to do.

Like follow your husband for instance.

Jace and Alec, she had time to notice, were a lot closer that she had initially thought and she guessed that on the battlefield they never let go of each other. So, when Jace had sneaked out of the safe house that morning, looking over his shoulder as if to make sure Alec wasn't following him, Clary had grabbed the cup of coffee next to her on the bar stool in front of the coffee shop's window facing the building, slipped her sunglasses on and followed him, staying as far away as she could without losing him from sight.

He walked in a hurry, as if he was late, his blond hair floating around his head in tousled halo of golden light, wearing only black. Clary had to suppress the urge to run up to him and confess the truth.

Clary didn't have any idea of what exactly she was doing. She had no plan.

Well, that's not entirely true, she thought. I know exactly what I have to do, I'm just not sure I have the balls to do it.

Lost in her thoughts, but still hot on Jace's heels, she didn't realize they had walked all the way up to Harlem.

The street was eerily calm and she silently thanked Magnus' idea to dye her hair a more common shade of brown. Jace would have recognized his red-headed girl everywhere. Her eyes, hidden behind her dark glasses, had also changed color, although the blue contacts were making her want to scratch her eyes out and she was wearing that insanely short tight-fitting-leopard-printed dress –borrowed from Isabelle's dresser (Clary was pretty sure she had seen Izzy wear it as a top but she was never entirely certain: Isabelle did love to feel sexy and desired). Even if Jace turned around –which she hoped he wouldn't because her reaction would probably betray her right away– he wouldn't recognize her.

He turned right and entered a small garden. Clary stopped at the entrance and found a spot where she could hide, between two rose bushes with a perfect view of Jace walking toward a woman who didn't look familiar at all. She had long blond hair with long stripes of gray here and there, she sat on a graffiti-tagged bench with her hands properly folded on her thighs. The strong contrast between her regal-like appearance and the ill-kept garden felt like something Clary could have painted or drawn. She took a mental picture before concentrating again on them.

"I'm glad you could make it Jace," the woman said. He was standing in front of her and his height made him look like he was looming over her, like a predator ready to jump on its prey.

"How could I refuse you dear Reyna," he answered, taking her hand in his. He bent down and grazed it with his lips. Reyna smiled, shaking her head.

"You haven't changed," she laughed. "Always the charmer."

Jace took a seat next to her, his hand still wrapped around hers. Clary was too far to see, but her hands seemed to be shaking.

"What can I do for you?" Jace asked, his voice calm and soothing.

"It's what I can do for you," Reyna corrected and he frowned. "But before I have a story to tell you."

"About what?"

"About Valentine Morgenstern."

Clary froze and crouched further down as she listened to the woman's tale.

Jace didn't understand why Reyna was so secretive, why Jules had insisted on keeping this little rendezvous off-record but if it was about Valentine, he would listen.

"I was quite young when I arrived at the Agency, though perhaps not as young as you were. It was my dream you know, being a spy, a story coming right out of a novel. They send me to Langley after I passed my final test at the Farm," Reyna paused and smiled at the memory. "I was so excited. Every pain, every fight with my parents, every humiliation in high school was worth it. But I quickly realized that, although the Agency had recruited me, being a woman was not an advantage. Thank God things have changed since but we were never men's equals. Do you know Archibald Aldertree?"

Jace nodded. "Of course, he's the DCS, I don't like him."

"He was the head of the DPD when I started. He put me in charge of the Walkings."

"The nut jobs? Seriously?" Jace asked. The Walkings were people coming to Langley with some theories of conspiracies. He had done it once. The first man he had met that day was convinced the country was being slowly taken over by man-like robots. "How long did you have to do it?"

"Two years." Jace gasped. "I know. And do you want to know why? Because I had refused to sleep with Aldertree on my first day. That pig was punishing me. I was proud then. So at first, I would do my job with a smile and pretend everything was okay, pretend that I was enjoying myself. But after two years I had enough.

"Luckily, Aldertree got transferred to the New York Office and the new DCS, Norman Bellefleur appointed me as his PA. He was such a nice man, told me that he saw my 'true potential' that I had nothing to do with the Walkings. I started to feel hope again. Working for Bellefleur, gave me a look of how our operative worked, how they were implanted everywhere, how much intelligence we were gathering every day."

She looked down at her fingers tangled into knots. "That's when I first heard of Valentine Morgenstern. He was a new agent at MI6, the kind that only exist once in a lifetime. Beautiful, mysterious, gifted. He was MI6 perfect weapon, and now that I think about it, a bit like you and Alec. Only I know your heart is good, Jace Herondale."

Jace shrugged. "Sometimes it doesn't feel like it is at all."

"I helped Bellefleur and Aldertree's replacement as head of the DPD –I forgot what his name was– monitor Valentine's movements."

"Why? Isn't MI6 our ally?" Jace asked.

"Oh sure it is," Reyna answered. "But the Agency was scared of Valentine's … talent. So they put surveillance on them. I don't think he knew at first. I'm surprised MI6 didn't put surveillance on you.

"Anyway, he went rogue that year. Vanished during a mission. We found bones of a man that matched his description so we all believed he had been killed by one of the Russian agents, or that the fire he had set had trapped him. Of course we were wrong. He reappeared six months after during one of the mission I was supervising, Norman had promoted me as a field agent in charge of small operations. He killed three of my men during one of them.

"For me, that's where it all started. It was personal. He was a lot harder to spy on but every bit of intel we were getting was another proof of his treason. Even with our forces and MI6's combined we couldn't catch him.

"That's where you decided to go in," Jace finished.

"It was just an idea at first, a nagging thought that it was our best chance, and I wasn't sure I could do it you know."

"But you did." Reyna nodded.

"I went undercover, throwing myself in his path. He actually saved my life. We went to dinner, he took me to Argentina, Thailand and India. He would always pretend to have an errand to run and disappear. I don't think he ever realized I was following him everywhere he went. More than once I thought he would uncover the truth about me but I think his –she seemed to be looking for the right word– affection was clouding his judgment. As I grew closer to him, he started revealing pieces of himself, of the truth to me. And of course, in each of the country he brought me to, there was a handler of the Agency waiting for me to pass on the information I was gathering. The more time I was spending with him, the less I hated him. There was something, about the way he talked, the way he looked at me that was appealing. I found myself in that tricky position where you know what you have to do but you're not sure it's the right thing to do anymore.

"I found out I was pregnant a year and a half after we met. He was ecstatic but also afraid. He believed his enemies would use me and the baby against him to get what they wanted. So we went back to New York and found an apartment in Brooklyn. I didn't really know what I supposed to do, but I sure as hell didn't want this baby. It was his, Valentine's, and if it meant that this tiny thing growing inside me would be like him –a heartless, cold-blooded murderer a traitor– then it shouldn't exist. I know it was an awful thing to think of such an innocent creature but I believed it was better if this baby never saw the light of day."

Reyna burst into tears and Jace hugged her gently. She knew about Jonathan, he thought. It was the worst thing that could happen to a mother, realizing that the fear that haunted you –that your own baby, your flesh and blood was as evil as his father– was real. She took deep breaths, sobbing into Jace's shirt.

"I tried to get it out of me." She touched her belly with the tip of her fingers and pulled the hem of her shirt up. There was a scar across it, old but still neatly carved into Reyna's skin. "When Valentine came home that night, he was– he got so angry. He rushed me to the hospital. 'Your baby is safe,' the nurse told me and I cried. Valentine bent over the bed's railing and whispered 'Don't you ever try to hurt my son again.'

"That night I didn't sleep. We came home and he locked me up in my room, tiding me to the bed. I had a bathroom and the TV but not much else. He would bring me lunch and dinner and check how the baby was doing every day.

"One day, his phone rang. He thought I was sleeping but I wasn't. He was talking about a USB key. As I listened I understood that it was a device he had stolen from the Japanese. A virus so powerful that it could crack every code, open every door. Victoria, he called it. He named it after the Queen. He was arguing about the price at which he was ready to steal it, laughing that it could bend every nation on their knees."

"You stole it," Jace realized, twinkle in his eyes. "That's why you ran away."

"Yes," Reyna nodded. "But I don't know how it works. Jonathan. He was so small when I left."

"Why didn't you take him with you?"

"I couldn't –I couldn't look at him without seeing Valentine in his eyes, without seeing the restraints his father had put on me for nine months. I wasn't a prisoner, it was worse than that I was –a slave. I hated myself, for blaming my baby for something he hadn't done but I couldn't help it. I know that it's too late now but I'm tired of hiding, of being scared. And if there is a way to save him, I have to try."

"And the key, do you have it on you? Is it the only copy?" Jace urged her.

"Yes," Reyna said, searching inside her purse for a few seconds. She handed him the key.

"Why did you ask to see me?" Jace added. "We barely know each other."

"Because you're the one who knows best. I was maybe away from the Agency for long but I kept tabs on Valentine. And I know there's no one as determined as you to bring him down once and for all."

There was a short silence. Jace meditated Reyna's words. Her story was close to his. He thought about Clary, about how much he missed her. Reyna was right, he would be the one to put an end to Valentine's reign because his life and more importantly Clary's were on the balance. Her smile was all the motivation he could need.

"Do you have any idea what we could do with it?" He whispered. "I have to call Aline."

"What do you want to do with it?" Reyna asked. "You don't want to use it, do you?"

"Valentine thinks this is all a game, and I think I'm going to play," Jace smiled crookedly.

Clary sighed. The more she learned about Valentine the more frightened she was. Even if he wasn't there, her fingers were shaking violently. She wasn't especially brave, but when it came to Jace she would have done anything if it meant that he wouldn't be hurt.

The resemblance between Jonathan and Reyna was striking. It was clearly visible in the shape of their eyes, or their mouths and the way they stood. They were both beautiful; Jonathan in a darker way than Reyna was though.

She had no idea what Jace would do with the Japanese virus (Victoria? What a weird name for a virus) but she thought that maybe she could help.

Reyna wanted to save her son. Clary understood that, despite the fact that she didn't have any. Moreover, she didn't believe Jonathan was as evil as Jace made him to be or as cruel as the memories of his smile that was carved in her brain from the night on the roof.

If there was a way she could convince him to help them, locking Valentine away then she had to try. Jonathan liked her, and according to Jace and to Reyna's story she was probably the only girl he'd ever liked, which gave her a considerable advantage compared to Jace and Reyna. Besides, she looked harmless so he would probably never think twice about trusting her.

Finally, Clary knew she had to do it because she was the reason all of this was happening to her friends, to her family, to the ones she loved.

Read and Review!

Once again I am so sorry for the late update! And there will be Clary/Jace parts in the next chapter.

See you soon!

Lilly.