I had to work pretty damn hard to compose myself after reading the note. My mother is alive and well, and she's in contact with Simon. That means that the resistance groups are working with her too. More importantly, Valentine is not holding her captive. This whole time he's made me believe that he had her hidden away somewhere, when she's been safe all along. Why would he lie though? To seem more powerful? For more leverage over me? No matter what the reasons are, she's safe; but for now, I can't let him know that I know about her.
I fix up my makeup since I took my little purse with me to the bathroom and sit there for a few minutes, mulling things over. I have to tell Jace as soon as possible; but I don't see how until this party is over and we're back in our rooms. He knows that Simon left me a note, so he knows that we're not alone in this. That's something, at least.
I rip up the note to shreds and flush it down the toilet. Valentine can't find this or I'll be in big trouble and that's the last thing I need right now.
With a big breath, I unlock the door and step outside into the hallway, clearing my face off. That facade drops when I see Simon in the long hallway, seeming to be waiting for me.
"Simon!" I whisper yell. He nods to his right, where a door sits cracked open and I go towards it, stepping in and finding a supply closet. Cliche, but they do always seem to be great secret meeting places.
"We don't have time for everything right now. We're working on a way to get you out of here," he whispers, leaning in so we won't be overheard. "The resistance is planning a big invasion; it's practically impossible to mess up. One week from today there will be another party just like this; at eight o'clock you and Jace need to be far from this ballroom. I'm going to be hanging around with the staff for the week, so don't try to talk to me then."
I know I don't have time, but I need to know more. How am I supposed to prepare if I don't?
"Where do we need to be? And what about my mom and Isabelle? Are they-"
"Clary, no. Stop. I have to go. Just try to get to the lowest basement level in this place. It's the least guarded place and we're going to try to get a portal there. Just stay away from the ballroom, please," he rushes out. Before turning to go.
"Tell Isabelle and my mom that I love them, please," I say. He nods before holding up a finger for me to wait. He disappears and closes the door. A second later I hear a tapping on the door and exit to see Simon already turning around the corner. When has he even gotten this secretive? It's weird to see Isabelle's weird dorky soul mate acting so shady; in a good way, of course, since he's on our side.
I have to prep myself again, relaxing my tense body and trying to breathe normal. I straighten my posture and step back out into the party, going straight back to my father's table of colleagues and Jace. He gives me a concerned look but I shake my head.
"Lady problems," I whisper, loud enough for my father to overhear. He stiffens and turns away from us, taking an extra long swig from his wine. He definitely heard me. I smirk and pick up my fork, carefully testing the weird colored dessert they brought out while I was gone. It looks like a sort of ice cream with cockroach sized raisins- at least it looks like raisins.
I try some of the ice cream- sans cockroach raisins- and it actually tastes pretty good. Sweet, that's for sure.
"What are these?" I ask no one in particular. A creepy man sitting across the table from me answers; I think Valentine said his name was Pangwell or something.
"Dates, my dear girl. Have you never had one?" he asks with a grin. I set my spoon down and force myself not to gag at the table. Jace's hand covers mine and gives a squeeze. Still, that's creepy sounding and his eyes aren't too friendly either.
"Would you like to dance, Clary?" Jace asks suddenly, turning to face me and Valentine for permission.
"Sure," I smile and stand, taking Jace's hand and walking away from the table.
"Better?" he asks me when we are far away from the table, in the middle of the dance floor. I nod in thanks. "So…?"
I shake my head to signify that I can't tell him right now; there are way too many people around. He makes a childish whining sound and pouts at me. Instead, I roll my eyes and lean up to give him a kiss on the cheek, whispering a hint in his ear.
"We're going to make it out of here," I say and he smiles at me with a goofy grin.
Much later, after the gala was over, Jace and I are roaming the hallways of the building to kill some time before turning in. Overall, the event wasn't too bad. It definitely could have been worse, but at least the food was good.
This morning, my father had mentioned that I needed to start training; basic cardio and strength and whatnot. Yippee. But, that also meant that Jace needed to begin training again. He already knows just about everything that there is to know about combat and self-defense. But, he needs to 'stay conditioned in order to protect me properly,' according to my father.
"Let's go to the roof," I suggest. "It's supposed to be clear tonight, maybe we'll see some stars." Jace smiles and takes my hand, dragging us up the elevator to the highest floor we could gain access to. Then we had to get out and had to use the stairs for the last five floors. That's where we think all of the top-security type stuff is.
We walk up the stairwell slowly, me carrying my annoying high heels in one hand and Jace's hand with the other. It's nice and all, but Jace stopping and yanking me back all of a sudden kind of put a damper on the serenity. I almost yelled at him for scaring the shit outta me, but he held a hand out in front of us with his palm facing outwards. Okaaaaaaay, so we stay still and be quiet, or what?
He holds his finger to his lips and goes up a few steps onto the landing where a closed and locked door sits, leading to what is the twenty-third floor or so. I quietly follow him and move closer to the door, pressing against the cold metal to hear whatever he is hearing. His years of practice have made his ears a lot more perceptive than mine.
"-damn rebels keep recruiting more mutts," one guy says with a snort.
"A physical attack won't do too much damage," the other guy says. "Let 'em come at us, we'll just pick them off and lower their numbers."
I look at Jace with wide eyes; Simon just told me that the rebellion was gathering and training to attack in a week. If they don't even stand a chance against these guys then...That's bad, very bad.
Jace points at his wristband, tapping it a few times before turning back to listening in again. The sound of the elevator doors opening and the two guys stepping in causes me to relax and step back from the door.
"We need to tell Simon," I say quietly when I hear the elevator moving. Jace nods and pulls me up the stairs with him. We make it up to the top and go to the end the farthest from the stairwell where we usually hang out. Jace sits down near the low ledge and I sit next to him, turning to see him better.
"We need to talk to Simon," I say again. "He's in contact with the rest of our group, he needs to tell them!"
"Clary, I know, calm down," he says while pulling me under his arm. "We'll tell him as soon as we can."
"Don't tell me to calm down," I mutter. "Didn't your parents teach you better than to tell a woman to calm down?" He chuckles lightly but I feel him shake his head no.
"Do you remember back when we were all on that train? Alec and I had just figured out that you're a Morgenstern," he whispers.
It suddenly dawned on me. How could I be so stupid? He was about to tell me something about his family...but them the Clave infiltrated the train. Here I am with the man that I love, but I don't know anything about him. Am I insane?
No. I know I'm not crazy for loving him; he's done so much for me and he's just- he's just Jace. He's witty and confident and annoying, but he makes me happier than I've ever been. Especially with the 000 always on my wrist, reminding me that I don't have my perfect match. But now I do.
"You said something along the lines of family not having to be blood-related. You didn't get to finish…" I let the sentence hang for him to answer.
"Yeah, I did. Well, when we met, I introduced myself as Jace Lightwood. I've been with the Lightwood's for a few years, hiding from my father. When the Clave tried to smoke us out of the forest and surrounded us, one of the soldiers was mocking me. I'm surprised you didn't ask sooner, honestly," Jace says, giving me a second to recall it all.
"You ready to go back to daddy?"
"Your father was rather upset when he learned of your betrayal."
How could I not remember? They were trying to egg him on so that he would make the first move, so they could lash out at him. I guess I was too focused on the guy who called me out on being a Morgenstern.
"You told me your father was Stephen Herondale, right?" I asked. The name sounds familiar, but I don't know if it's just from Jace mentioning it or from something else. "How do the soldiers know about him?"
"He's their commanding officer," Jace sighs, tugging me closer and wrapping both arms around me. "He's pretty high ranking in the Clave. I ran away when I was old enough to know the difference between good and bad; I knew my father was bad."
"Well, he works with my father, after all." I nudge Jace at the half-assed joke, trying to lighten the mood; he smirks down at me.
"What about your mom?" I ask.
Jace's face lights up at the mention of her, and it makes me happy to see him smile like that among all of this crap.
"Celine Herondale. She was amazing. Loving, caring, and stronger than any woman I've ever seen. She's the best mom I could've ever asked for," he said with the smile still in place. "She passed away before I left my family. I guess she was part of the reason why I left. It was a wake up call, that's for sure."
"She sounds… amazing," I said with a smile.
"She was. She really, really was." His voice is dry and hoarse, like he's getting choked up, but he quickly shook it off because he seems just fine a minute later. I can't tell if it would be a burden or a blessing to be able to hide my feelings that easily.
"Jace?"
"Hmm?" He kisses my head and looks down at me.
"Can you tell me more about her? Your mom?" I ask, looking down sheepishly. It seems to make him happy to talk about her but I don't want to upset him at all. "If you're okay with that."
"Of course," he chuckles. "Well, I got my amazing hair from her. I think that she was the only person who had hair comparable to these gorgeous locks…"
He told me everything about her. How she took care of him when he was sick; how she tutored him in daemonology and runes, along with mundane things like math and history. She would read him a story and sing to him every night before bed, and in between shadowhunter classes, she would teach him how to play the piano. I didn't even know he could play the piano…
"She sounds like the perfect mom," I whispered, my head somehow ending up in his lap, my eyes slowly closing. It could be the sleep, or the stress, or the intoxicating boy rubbing my back as I fall asleep, but I think he says something.
"Some day when this is all over and we're safe… you will be too."
Hai hai hai again! Here ya go, kind of a filler, kind of not a filler, i don't really know what you'd call it. I liked the fluffy ending personally (; Hopefully you all had a nice holiday, so Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah and whatever other holidays take place around now! And Happy almost New Years, guys!
Does the spacing of paragraphs look off to you guys? Like too big? I used this new program to edit this and when I copied it over it looked different. Lemme know if it does on your end too! Thanks again guys, love you all bunches and sorry for the wait Dx
Disclaimer: Cassie Clare owns all characters, and LuminousFishy is the original author, I have adopted this fanfiction and shall be completing it (:
-Emily