Final chapter! It's a short story, because that's how I always planned if to be. I might write some one shots set in the storyline though...

And for the last time: I do not own TMI.

Sebastian Verlac tentative raised his dark eyes to meet the identical ones of his father. The expression of fathomless rage distorting the older man's face was one familiar to him.

"Well done," he hissed bitterly. He raised his hand and Sebastian flinched, bracing himself for the strike, but it never came. Instead the older man simply ran his hands through his black hair, jaw clenched as he tried to contain his temper.

"You had one job," the Duke continued, "one job: securing Clary Fray's hand in marriage. The rest you just had to leave up to me. And yet you. Messed. It. Up."

They stood in the chambers generously loaned to them for the duration of the Morgensterns' stay with the Herondales. The party - with the newly found Princess - was due to travel home the next day.

"I'm not the only one at fault here," Sebastian snarled back. He saw the shock on his father's face at his forwardness. "You're the one who hired inadequate fighters to stage the attempted murder of King Valentine. I-"

"How was I supposed to know the girl would turn out to be King Stephen's assassin?!"

"-had to take the initiative and tell the King that there were assassins around."

"I know," his father said, taking him by surprise. His father dragged his hand across his cheek and fiddled with his bottom lip, looking worried. "And I applaud you for that, and the fact that you were subtle enough not to direct the finger of suspicion at the Herondales, and let the distrust do it for you.

Sebastian drew in a breath as the expected deprecation finally came. "But even if we never managed to begin a war that would end with the Morgensterns winning and ruling the Herondale kingdom as well, you could still have gained the Morgenstern crown through some good timing. If only you'd been more seductive-" Sebastian looked at his father in disbelief "-and talked about less politics to confuse the little girl, then we could have secured a marriage, then 'discovered' who she was after the union. After that, we just needed to stage an unfortunate incident where the hot-headed Crown Prince slaughters his father. Then the path would have been clear for you and Clarissa to ascend to the throne."

Sebastian nodded, staying silent. Without words, he couldn't lie. "Do you understand that? We've been through this, and you agreed to it."

"I did," he said shoving all emotion out of his voice.

"And now that plan's foiled." His father sighed, then clasped his son's hands. Said son hoped he didn't notice the shiver of repulsion that went through him."But make no mistake, my boy. We will take care of the Morgensterns and Herondales, and we will see you sitting on those thrones. I'm not letting all these years of work going to waste. This branch of fate has been in motion since we first hired Hodge Starkweather to kidnap Clarissa so long ago and to dump her on the Lightwoods doorstep. It does not end here."

Sebastian squeezed his father's hands. "It won't." He assured, but his heart wasn't in it. He told himself he was loyal to Jon, and would someday betray his father, but when would Someday come? He'd been walking the line between loyalties for years, and the line was as thin as a razor's edge, so in his wake he left a trail of blood no one realised was his own.

The creak of a floorboard outside brought them to their senses. The Duke paled; if anyone had heard, told the King...

But when they looked, no one was there. They slept easily that night, Sebastian's mind guilt-ridden, and his father's mind scheming, until the very end.

Neither of them woke when the tall prince with bright hair who had heard their earlier conversation snuck into their rooms, or when the cool knife slid across the elder's throat, and the noble blood he prided himself on stained the sheets.

Even when the maids who came to wake them in the morning screamed at the sight of him, the elder slept on, leaving his son to leave for home with a shaken sense of relief. He kept dreaming, and possibly scheming, for the rest of eternity.

But since none of his schemes would ever come to fruition, no one but his son and that prince would ever remember him as the villain.