Chapter Nine: When Heaven gets one more angel
The day Max was diagnosed with Cholera was very dismal, but it didn't even compare to the day after. The house was full of noises that weren't pleasant. Maryse sobbing, Max getting sick, Robert shouting at everyone in sight, and of course Clary screaming the most at everyone.
Maryse tended to overreact when anything went into or out of Max's room. Clary still wouldn't let anyone in the room for she had experience with Cholera and though it was contagious through food and water, it was still very messy in Max's room.
Her rules were very clear. No one past the doorway of Max's room except Simon, Amatis, and herself. This caused conflict in the house. Maryse often ignored Clary's rules and Clary got extremely ticked off.
And after the eleventh screaming match of the day between Maryse and Clary, Alec separated the two woman and sent Clary to her room and Maryse to hers, banning them from coming out for the rest of the day.
Clary sat on her bed criss cross and crossed her arms, fuming. Alec couldn't do that! I mean, technically he was her master, but still! What about Max! He was going to die without her to take care of him!
How could Max get Cholera in the first place? Cholera only came with infected water. Like when Clary was at the Gray Manor, the first house she'd worked at, her master, Nathan, made sure to use the slaves' water source as the spot to empty his chamber pot. Almost everyone got sick from that water, because it had been infected and passed on from every person drinking the water. Clary had gotten it and heaven knows how she lived through it. Practically everyone else except for a few slaves like Jem, Tessa, and Will died!
Clary had an inkling who gave Max the disease, but she honest to goodness, hoped it wasn't who she thought it was.
That's it. This room detention just didn't work for her.
Clary stood from the bed and tried the door knob first. As expected, it was locked. So she tried another approach.
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Several minutes later, Jace walked past Clary's room, it was silent. That would have been completely normal on a normal day, but today was different. He had seen the fight with Maryse, heard the punishment Alec had given them. And Jace knew Clary. She would be throwing a fit right now, throwing things and all.
So what was up?
he said tentatively. He knocked on her door, and the room remained quiet. He grabbed the key from the hole above the door and clicked the door open. Empty.
He looked to his right and saw nothing out of the ordinary but when he looked right he saw a very distinct, Clary-sized hole in the floor. Jace rushed over to the hole, but knew he had no chance of making it in that hole.
It remained silent. So Jace got off his knees and walked into the next room- Maia's room. A hole about the same size as the one one the other side of the wall. Piles of dirt were scattered all around it and right next to the hole laid four fingernails.
Jace sat back in horror. She'd ripped off fingernails, digging a hole, only to seen his brother? That made no sense, considering she was only going to get caught again.
Still, Jace rushed back to Max's room and when he got there, he saw Clary sitting next to him, holding his hand. He was smiling weakly and they whispered to each other. Jace stood outside his door and strained to hear them.
Clary gasped.
Max began to sob softly and Jace felt fury go through him. Why didn't she lie and say he would live? She may have crushed his dreams. He was about to walk in and talk to her about it when Clary spoke.
Max must have nodded, and Jace couldn't see because Clary kept talking.
Max sniffled. Clary giggled and Jace's jaw dropped. Alec was with the slave, Magnus? Since when? And Clary knew about it?
And since when was Alec close with Max? Jace never knew they were close, Alec must confide in Max very quietly and secretively.
Clary giggled.
Then Max gagged and Clary gasped. A scrape across the floor later, Max had to be puking into the Chamber pot.
It only lasted a little while though, because then it became silent again.
Clary sniffled.
She took a deep breathe, but the paused.
Max struggled for breathe.
The Clary began to sing. Her high, soprano voice filled the room, slightly shaky.
By the last part of her song, Clary's porcelain voice was shaking. Then Jace began to hear her cry.
Then Jace heard her kiss Max, probably, and then he realized. He should duck out of the way, so she doesn't feel eavesdropped on. He didn't have enough time though, because Clary was already on her way out the door. She stopped at him and her eyes were eerie looking. Her cheeks were red and puffy, her lips cracked from biting them.
Meant for what to happen? She couldn't change the fact her brother caught Cholera, could she?
Then she walked off, leaving Jace and his dead brother, Max, alone in the room.