Emily felt like time just stopped. Magnus was just standing in the doorway, looking as shocked and angry as if he saw Alec making out with Camille – which was physically impossible considering she's dead, but that's irrelevant. She'd never seen him like this. Magnus is always the one that was cracking jokes, making people laugh with his sexual endeavors that would make Alec blush and slap him. Emily wished that that Magnus was here right now, but as always, different sides of people were coming out with all the stress, and Emily was actually scared for Chase's life.
"Magnus," Chase said hesitantly. Emily slowly pulled herself up, following Chase as they came to sitting positions. He moved like he was facing off against an angry lion, one that was ready to strike if he moved too fast. So he was as slow as a turtle instead, or even more like a snail.
Magnus's hands sparked again, getting brighter. "Chase, you're pushing a fine line between me liking you and me killing you. I just want to know what the hell is going on."
Emily pushed herself passed Chase, shielding him behind her as they fully stood up. His hand came up to grip her bare waist, which was more distracting than it should've been, but she somehow was able to concentrate. "Magnus, you have to understand that Chase was only doing what he had to do."
"I didn't know about Alec," Chase added. "I swear on the Angel, I didn't know that Leviathan would involve Alec or Simon. I thought that they were safe."
At least the swear seemed to dial Magnus's anger down a bit. The fire at the end of his fingertips faded as he closed the door behind him with his foot. Emily finally noticed how tired he actually seemed. In the past few days, she hadn't really focused on anyone in particular, other than Chase and Conan. Magnus looked awful though. His glitter was gone, and he was actually wearing a pair of black sweatpants with a gray t-shirt. There was no make-up, no socks, no shoes, nothing.
Emily finally realized how much of a mess he was.
"You don't know the whole story," said Emily. "Chase only did what he had to do. Magnus, it's best if you just leave. It's nothing that you can know. It'll only make things more complicated than they already are. Please, just go."
She felt like a magnifying glass was suddenly placed over her and Chase. Magnus didn't move or even flinch. He just stared, and Chase's hand on her hip was the only thing that was keeping her from screaming. Magnus sighed and stepped back, just one step but it was enough. "This isn't what I came to fight with you about. Your brother found information on Jonathan, which turns out, he isn't who he says he is. As for you," he pointed to Chase, who tensed behind her. "If I find out your lying about Alec, your head will be a platter before you can even pray to the Angels, understand?"
Chase just nodded, and Magnus, after glaring at both of them, turned to storm out of the greenhouse. Emily collapsed as soon as the door shut, falling back against Chase.
"Whoa, you okay?" he asked as his arms wrapped around her waist. She was acutely conscious of his hand, spread out, sliding across her flat stomach, and even more conscious of the effect it had on her.
"That was too close."
"I've had closer," he said casually. That hurt, knowing that he'd been up to this for years and Emily never had a clue. She twisted in his arms, wrapping her arms around his neck. The better view gave way too many of his appealing features. She could see now why so many girls at Pandemonium always threw themselves at him: The way he always seemed to stare right into her eyes, instead of down at her chest like most guys did. The way he'd rub circles on her bare back with his thumb, or grab her hips with just the right amount of pressure. The way his hair tickled her when he pressed his forehead against hers. It was like he took her to a totally different place, one that she'd never experienced with anyone else. She wanted to touch him, to feel him, to experience what he could do to her.
But she pulled back when he leaned in to kiss her. "Chase, we still have to talk about some things."
He pouted playfully, sticking out his bottom lip. She remembered what it felt like to have that lip between her teeth and had to hold herself back from attacking him on the spot. Thank the Angel she was gifted with restraint. "About what exactly? Magnus?"
"Well, for starters, my mom and dad."
Even though this was the last conversation she wanted to have, she had to say it. Chase cocked his head to the side. "Uh, what about them?"
No, this really wasn't the conversation she wanted to have. "First of all, what are we going to do to keep Leviathan away from them? Second, my first priority is them, and I'm sorry about that, but it's true. And third, that's the reason that I don't think we should tell them about what just happened between us."
Chase was quiet for a while. Then, just like a candle, the light in his eyes faded from a fire to a low burn until it completely disappeared. His arms fell from her. "You want to keep this a secret?"
She suddenly couldn't stop herself from tightening her grip around his neck when he tried to back away. "Chase, just listen, please." He stopped struggling, but he didn't seem too happy about it. "They're dealing with enough. My dad is worried to death about Alec. My mom is trying her best to deal with losing her best friend along with comforting his girlfriend. They don't need to know that their teenage daughter intensely kissed the guy that is now living with us and is secretly plotting against them."
"But I'm not doing that anymore. I'm done with Leviathan."
"I know that but then again, you can't just be done with him. You're going to just let your family die? Won't he kill them if you don't show up to those meetings?"
Chase reached up, pulling her arms from his neck and backed up. Each step was like a stab to the chest. "This isn't about my family." He said it like he came to a realization about something. "You don't normally think about other people, so I know it's not about them. This is about the fact that your dad hates me."
She hadn't even thought about that fact all night. Jace actually, for once, had nothing to do with this. "My dad hates Conan too."
Chase shook his head as he started gathering the blanket and the pyxis. "But this is different. Emily, since you feel like I have to be kept a secret, maybe it's best if we just avoid each other altogether."
"But Chase, I didn't–"
Chase just held his hand up and looked her dead in the eyes. "Look, I'm heading to my room. I'll talk to Michael about whatever news this is later, and don't come looking for me." He pushed past Emily in a hurry, but she couldn't even turn to stop him. She merely heard the door open and close as she stared at her shirt on the floor.
Jace sat impatiently in the drawing room in silence, Clary next to him. She cuddled into his side with her legs crossed, playing with her fingers in her lap. He glanced across the room to find Magnus and Isabelle, consulting near the fireplace quietly. Karrie and Kadan had headed back to the library, eager to find out more. As for Michael, he headed up to Emily's room to get her when she never showed up after Magnus told her the news, but he seemed to be taking forever.
It wouldn't have bothered him much, considering Emily liked to close herself off more than most people, if it wasn't for the fact that Chase wasn't here as well. The idea that the two of them were alone anywhere at all was uncomfortable to say the least. And if Chase even thought about touching his daughter in any way…
"Babe," Clary whispered as she placed her hand on his knee. Jace responded instantly and pulled her closer into him as they leaned back on the couch. "You need to relax."
Jace sighed, dropping his head back to stare at the ceiling. "Clary, I know you told me to give both those boys a chance. But two people are missing from this room who should be here: Chase, Conan, and Emily. That is a little suspicious, isn't it?"
"Magnus said he found Chase and Emily separately in their rooms. You don't need to worry about anything."
He shook his head and Clary reached up to push the hair out of his eyes. "I don't believe it. Chase is an eighteen year old boy, and nothing good happens when he lives with a seventeen year old girl. When we were that age, Emily showed up nine months later."
That was the truest statement he felt like he had ever said. If Chase was anything like he was, like Simon was, or even like Alec was, he has needs. Chase wants what he wants for whatever reasons that he doesn't even understand. And Emily was the last person that Jace wanted in the middle of all that confusion.
Clary's fingers pulled his chin back down so she could look into his eyes. "So, you think they're together? You think Magnus is lying now?"
His eyes darted towards the warlock at the fireplace. He seemed to relax a bit since the lunch time. His shoulders were so slumped, although he wasn't at his most upright posture. But his usual spark was gone. In fact, everyone's spark was gone nowadays.
"I think he'll do anything to get Alec back," Jace said with malice. "And that includes lying to us about stupid things. Same goes for Isabelle if she could get Simon back. You see how lost she is without him. She's ignored Chase for days, can barely talk to you and me. It's like she's a ghost."
Clary fell silent with Jace's arm wrapped around her shoulder. He just stared around the room, trying to find anything to keep his mind off of his daughter. But between the curtains, the stained-glass windows, the chandelier, and even Clary, nothing could keep his mind off it. He saw Emily's face everywhere. She was his baby, his first child, one of the three most important things in his life. And the fact that Chase, that punk who was too frightened to even live at the Institute last week, want to have his hands down her pants…
He shook his head to clear it just as Michael walked in, looking determined. Jace was always proud of his son, for many different reasons. Michael was brilliant, strong, and he was a decent fighter even if he didn't like to do it. But he was best at solving riddle and puzzles, ever since he was little. And with just one look, Jace knew that Michael solved the puzzle of Jonathan's return.
"Emily was on the greenhouse roof, without Chase I might add," he said as he looked right at Jace. "So you can stop clenching your fists before you make them bleed."
Clary helped Jace do exactly that, but it still didn't calm his nerves. Jace wouldn't be happy until both Chase and Conan were either dead or across the ocean in Europe, where Chase was originally from. Michael took the rocking chair for his own, and waved Isabelle and Magnus over, who crowded around him on both sides of the chair.
Jace weaved his fingers through Clary's, mainly to keep him calm. A temper tantrum wouldn't be a good thing at this point. "So, what is the big news that had to interrupt my time with Clary? Because I don't get that a lot of that nowadays."
"You couldn't finish in over an hour?" Magnus asked when he approached. His heart wasn't in the insult, but at least he was trying.
Jace just snorted and smiled at the warlock. "Round three, Maggie."
Michael's face turned up in disgust. "Ew, can we please get back to the matter at hand?" When no one objected, he continued. "We figured out how Jonathan had returned, or somewhat returned."
"Somewhat?" Clary repeated. "What does that mean? Either he's dead or he's not."
Michael shook his head and glanced up towards Magnus. The warlock simply nodded and grabbed Isabelle, heading out of the room and shutting the door behind them. Michael was quiet for a while, gathering his thoughts. "Mom, Dad, do you remember when Valentine was still at large, and you thought you were still brother and sister?"
Jace nodded as Clary just looked to the floor. He kissed her hand for reassurance. "Michael, you know that your mother doesn't like talking about it."
He nodded, but didn't back down. "But you used to tell Emily those stories all the time. She asked you to do it for some reason, and you told her all those stories like they were bedtime stories. I heard them through the walls sometimes when I was little, and they weren't always good. But the stories that she hated the most were the ones about Jonathan, when he tricked you all into thinking he was Sebastian and everything after it. Those stories scared Emily half to death, and yet, she always asked you to tell her those specifically."
"What's your point, Michael?" Clary snapped. Jace looked down at his wife, but didn't comment.
"My point is that Jonathan has been permanently glued to Emily's brain since we were little. Those books she read, all the history ones, were from the time of the war. Every chapter that she read over and over again was of Jonathan. She saw pictures, memorized the stories. Jonathan. Terrifies. Her. More than anything else in this entire world."
"Michael, get to the point!" Clary repeated and her hand tightened on Jace's with a force that almost hurt.
"Agramon came to Emily in the form of Jonathan." He said slowly, enunciating each word so that his parents would understand. It didn't help. Jace blinked. And blinked again. And then blinked one more time. Agramon couldn't… shouldn't be able to…
Clary suddenly stood, heading out of the room in a whir of emotions that Jace couldn't even imagine. He watched as she ran out, grabbing her stomach like she was going to be sick. Before he knew it, she rounded the corner and was gone through the door before he could even register what he had just been told.
Michael didn't move and just stared down at his hands. He took a deep breath before finally looking up to Jace. "Dad, it's the only explanation."
"I know," Jace said quickly. He was just trying to understand. Agramon had come to Jace in the past as two different people, Clary and Valentine himself. And once more in his normal form in the Silent City as just a mass of gas. Either way, each encounter only got worse and worse. The feeling of having so much fear take you over, that feeling of being scared, horrified even was worse than any physical pain that he ever experienced. And this coming from a guy who was stabbed by the love of his life with a sword that came from Raziel. Emily had faced off against Agramon without a Fearless Rune. He knew that she was strong, but Agramon messes with your head, and Emily's head doesn't like being messed with.
"It's a lot of information," Michael said slowly. "And Emily took to it pretty well when I told her. Actually, I think it made her feel better knowing that her worst nightmare wasn't actually real."
Jace made his way to his feet, hands on his hips as he paced back and forth. He didn't speak for a while. Emily was more than likely just saying that. There had to be something else she was hiding under the surface. "Michael, Agramon can't touch people, not in a physical form. He doesn't even have one. It's the terror that he puts into people that kills them."
Michael jumped to his feet. "I figured that one out too." He pulled out something from his jeans pocket. It was just a piece of paper with ancient writing on it. The page was old, wrinkly, and torn at the edges. He handed it to Jace, who took it, unfolded it, and began reading.
Lilith has many abilities, in the physical and ethereal forms. Being the mother of demons, she has the ability to change them, transform them. It was thought for years that demons just evolved on their own, slowly over the centuries, but news has been passed down for generations that leads to the possibility that Lilith can transform demons if she is strong enough and they are weak enough. It normally occurs right after a demon, greater or lesser, dies and Lilith is stronger than them at the time peak. If, or when something like this occurs between demons, they're more dangerous than ever before, but only for a short time, less than a century.
"You're saying that Agramon is even stronger than before, and can now physically hurt people?" Jace asked as he lowered the page. "He really did pick up that bow and shot Conan in the back?"
Michael simply nodded, shoving his hands in his pockets. "That's not the only thing. Turns out, it made his other abilities, the fright for example, weaker. But it's still strong enough to really do some damage, considering he got to Emily. Mom's fearless rune is the only thing that can really help when fighting him, especially now."
Jace's hand went to the back of his shoulder, where Clary placed that rune so many years ago. The t-shirt was in the way, but he could practically fell the faded rune, even though that was pretty much impossible. It had saved his life, made him stronger. If it wasn't for Clary, who knew what would've happened that night.
"I've dealt with him once. It isn't easy facing someone like him." Jace dropped his hand and tossed the paper back to Michael, who caught it without a problem. He glanced towards the door, and he knew what was next. Clary. "I have to go find your mother and explain."
Michael nodded and stood as well. "While you're dealing with that, I'm heading to the library again. Maybe I can find something on Lilith's whereabouts before Conan gets back."
The screams continued. The ropes still held her back. The lights were still too dim. She could only see shadows outside of the cage that held her apart from the world. Her body was shivering from the cold of the metal under her. The shorts and bra they dressed her in didn't do much for warmed in the bar cell.
"Stop it, please," begged Simon. He crouched on the ground, eyes closed, crying. His hand covered another body, one that was unrecognizable. "I'm begging you to just stop it."
"That's not what she wants," said a voice from the shadows. Emily pulled at the ropes as the figure turned from Simon and approached her cage, but the ropes that bound her hands behind her back were too strong. Simon begged and pleaded but just one look from the hooded figure shut him up as he clung to the body below him.
Emily scrambled backwards clumsily. She felt an overwhelming urge to sink into a black hole where she could never be found. Her back in the bars, and a sharp pain went through her chest, making her cry out. Broken rips, maybe some internal bleeding, and when she looked down she noticed that her ankle was twisted in a wrong way – all that led to the realization that she'd been here a while. The pain was excruciating, but nothing that she hadn't felt before.
The hooded figure stopped a few feet from the cage, and Jonathan's face was revealed when he pulled the hood back. He was smiling, his evil, terrifying smile that made her sick to her stomach. "You've looked better, Little Herondale."
She whimpered, her breathing more difficult after she registered the pain. With one glance to her right, she realized just how bad everything really was.
Jace, Clary, Jordan, Maia, Luke, Jocelyn, Rebecca and Conan were chained to the walls, their feet dangling just above the floor as their hands bound them to the concrete. They were all stripped of their clothing except for undergarments, and gashes and bruises covered them from head to toe. Emily felt like throwing up at the sight and had to choke it back. Clary lifted her head suddenly, meeting Emily's eyes through the bars. She mouthed something that Emily didn't understand, and suddenly Jonathan was crouching in front of her, inside of the cage. His fingers gripped her chin painfully, turning her to look into his eyes.
"Scared?" Emily closed her eyes, willing herself to not look at him. The small thought passed through her head that maybe if she couldn't see him, he couldn't see her. "You should be."
"You're not here," Emily choked out in a broken voice. "You're not Jonathan."
"Maybe not to the rest of the world. But I am to you." His hand clenched around her throat, and her eyes shot open. Jonathan's black eyes were sparkling as he squeezed her windpipe shut. "And you're parents get to watch as you scream under my grip, until every last breath you've taken it over, and you've suffered the point that you'll wish you were dead. Simon can't do a thing about it. And you're parents can't help you."
"You're – you're not–"
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" Emily was barely able to turn her head to the left, where Chase was standing. Unlike the others, he was unharmed and dressed. In fact, he didn't seem to have a scratch on him. But his eyes were wide as he stared at the scene in Emily's cage.
Jonathan laughed as his grip around Emily's throat tightened, if that was even possible. She started to see dots in her vision as he leaned down by her ear, laughing softly. "Not even Chase can save you now."
"Emily!" Chase yelled as he suddenly realized what was going on. He started running for her catch as he vision faded to black. His words just kept repeating in her ear. "Emily! Emily!"
Emily bolted upright, breathing hard. She was still on the roof surrounded by flowers with the moon high overhead. No one else was around, and it was scary quiet except for her heavy breathing.
Her hand went to her throat, to her chest, and finally her eyes went down to her ankle, but nothing was broken or injured. She might have been fine physically, but mentally she was losing it and she knew it. The nightmares about Jonathan were just getting worse and worse. New information even fueled it, considering that what Michael said really didn't make her feel any better. It only made it worse knowing that some demon was getting in her head worse than before.
Agramon is Jonathan. Jonathan is Agramon. Jonathan isn't real. Jonathan is not real. Repeating it didn't help much either. Everywhere she looked, Jonathan was there, smiling down at her with his evil grin. The stars arranged in his face. The leaves on the plants, the patterns of the tile floor under her, it all looked like him, like Jonathan. He was everywhere in her head, making her paranoid. But there were bigger problems going on than her mental issues of a greater demon. Talking about it with her parents would only worry them, and none of the other members of the house could do anything. Magnus might be able to give her a sleeping potion, but stooping to the level that she can't handle herself wasn't something that she wanted to do.
So instead, she just fell back down to the floor, closing her eyes as the floor cooled her. She didn't realize that she had sweat covering her body until a chill ran up her spine.
Telling her parents was out of the question. She decided that it was best if they just didn't know about this, about any of it. They couldn't find out about her dreams, about Chase, none of it. It was up to her to figure this out.
"Angel, I need a break."
And she knew just where to get one.
I AM EXTREMELY GRATEFUL FOR REVIEWS AND YOUR OPINIONS. THINGS ARE STARTING TO GET INTERESTING ;)