Clary

Despite the nagging in my stomach for Isabelle, I remain with the party. I don't want to cause a commotion and have someone find out—that would be bad. I have to trust that Jace will figure something out for us. For Izzy.

Dinner comes and passes with me hardly able to eat my food. Jace stays next to me the entire time, his hand on my knee under the table. He tries to smile and make conversation with everybody, but I just can't do it. The thoughts of something going wrong keeps running through my head, suffocating all reasonable thoughts trying to get through to me. It makes the worry settle into my chest and labor my breathing.

"Clarissa, are you feeling unwell?" Valentine leans in on my other side, sounding concerned. I glance up in shock; I've been so lost up in my head that I didn't realize he had taken notice.

"A little bit. I think I just need some air. May I go up to my room to change now?" I ask, making my face a model of pained innocence. He nods curtly and pats my back gently.

"Hurry back," he tells me. I scoot out from my chair and stand, resting my hand on Jace's shoulder and squeezing. He smiles up at me, his teeth dazzling. If I didn't know him better, I'd take him at face value, but his eyes are marred with worry, much like my own.

"I will."

Rather than going to my room to change, I end up on the roof. I don't realize it until I even reached the stairwell leading up the last few flights. Up the winding stairs I race, desperate for fresh air. My chest is tight and my head is pounding. The pressure is so heavy it's unreal.

I gasp as I shove the door open, making sure to prop it open with the big rock Jace and I keep near the door so that it doesn't shut and lock me out here. It's dark and the air crackles with electricity at the impending storm. The cool stormy breeze envelopes me, kissing my clammy skin softly. I lift up the mass of hair hanging down my back, letting the breeze cool me off.

My chest loosens ever so slightly, but the knowledge of what is to come still leaves an anvil on my shoulders. I sit down on the ledge of one of the protruding air ducts near the edge, looking out over the beautiful city, just beginning to wake up for the night. I lay my head down on my knees, breathing deeply and wishing Jace were here to ease my thoughts. They make me second guess everything we've planned out. How will we even make it to the basements without someone noticing?

"Crap," I mumble, looking up at the darkening sky. I need to meet Jace in my room, soon. Hopefully he's figured out where they're keeping Isabelle. I hear a crunch in the gravel lining the rooftop and glance behind me, seeing nobody. "Jace?"

Maybe it was a bird. I turn forward once again, only to be met with a chilling pair of nearly black eyes. I jump to my feet, my eyes wide.

"Jonathan, what are you doing up here?" I ask incredulously. He should be down at the party, with everybody else.

"What are you doing up here?" he sneers as I back up, towards the door. He steps forward, invading my personal space and making my stomach turn. Something's not right. His hands are in his pockets, trying to look unmenacing, but his face… It's screwed up in a mixture of hatred and rage.

"Getting air," I tell him evenly. "Like I told father."

"Oh, of course. He doesn't see what you are doing, manipulating him, calling him dad to bend him to your will. He's such a gullible old fool.

"He's always wanted a daughter, you know? Growing up, he always moaned on and on about how he wished he had a little girl. Someone who would look up to him and love him. Someone he could walk down the aisle to their 'perfect match.'"

"Don't you look up to him?" I ask, stalling him while I consider my options. I can't run for the door, he'd beat me for sure. "Love him?"

"Love?" He scoffs, throwing his head back and laughing harshly. "I'm hardly human. Love is not in my hard-wiring, little sister. I guess he should have thought of that before he took a perfectly normal baby boy and injected him with everything bad in this world."

"What do you mean?" I ask, my eyebrows coming together in disbelief. "He—he experimented on you?"

"You'd think that creating the perfect killing machine would be enough for one man, wouldn't it? I could easily crush anybody. Even you," he muses, reaching forward and taking a strand of hair that has fallen forward, and smoothing it back with the others. It takes all that I have in me to keep my chin held high and not flinch away from him. I wish I would have. His hand resting on my cheek quickly moves to resting on my throat.

"Such a pretty little thing," his disgusting breath fans down on face, making me still. His hand squeezes lightly and I gasp. "I could kill you right here, right now."

His voice is so soft, almost relaxing. Like a lullaby that will only transform into a nightmare.

"Let me go, Jonathan. Valentine will never forgive you if you kill me," I tell him, playing on his ego. "If there is any chance left of him loving you, you're killing it right now."

His hand loosens on my neck, and I take a deep breath, watching his face flicker from disbelief to confusion. His eyes are downcast, thinking.

"He only wants you to rule this kingdom he's made," he says after a moment.

"What? What do you mean?" I ask. Ruling his kingdom? I don't know a damn thing about ruling anything; hell, the hamster I had in the fourth grade didn't even make it a month.

"The toast. He was going to name you as his successor. Train you for the next year, until you're eighteen when he would step down and advise you," he scoffs.

"But you were here first. You know more than I do," I tell him, coaxing his ego. "You should be the King of this empire. I would happily step down for you. It doesn't have to be this way."

His head snaps up and his hand tightens once more. It's now or never, I couldn't talk him down.

"It's always going to be this way. I'm simply better than you," he laughs, and I snap my foot against the ground, feeling the blade slide out. He doesn't even notice over his ramblings. "I'm going to kill you now."

"One more thing," I gasp as his hand tightens. With all the force I have left in me, my foot swings back and I ram the sharp blade into his leg, slicing open his suit pants and shins. He stumbles backwards and falls. "Screw off."

And I run, I run like a bat out of hell towards the door. When my hands touch the knob, I nearly sob. It's shut. Locked. I glance behind me, and the only thing left in the spot where Jonathan was is a pool of crimson. Shit.

I take the knives out of my heels and hold the small handle in my fist, ready to punch or swipe out at him. Think. You can think of a way out of here.

"Oh, little sister, that was a bad idea," he laughs from somewhere among the ducts and electrical sheds. I can't pinpoint where he is, it just echoes around making my skin crawl. Thunder crashes in the distance, and I'm moving towards a small shed, using the sound to cover my footfalls. Seconds later the sky lights up in an array of electric blues and purples.

I can hear him walking around just on the other side of the small building, so I take one of my heels and chuck it as far as I can away from me. It skids across the rooftop, and when I peek out from my hiding spot, I see him running towards the noise with a blade out. I try the knob on the small shed, my heart leaping when it opens. I enter and shut the door, sitting against it, thinking. What now? I search the small shed for something to use as a better weapon, but it's so dark in here.

My stele! Bless Maia's heart for having one sewn into the boning of the corset in this damned dress that keeps getting in the way. I feel along the dress, counting the rods until I find the correct one. I sigh in relief as I cut the dress and slide out the stele. We learned all about Shadowhunters and demons in school, including runes. I wrack my brain for the ones that I need. I used to doodle them all the time.

As they come back to my memory, I grit my teeth and slowly trace the rune over my forearm, wincing at the burning sensation, like it's being branded into my skin. Vision. Soundless. Strength. When I look up, I can see everything hiding in the shadows. It's a tool shed of sorts with bags of dirt, seeds, and shovels. By the Angel, there's a blueprint layout of a garden tacked up on the wall. My father is crazier than I thought if he's taking time out of his day to have the roof landscaped.

I spot an axe hanging among all the other tools, and I take it into my hands, stuffing the retractable blades into my dress for safekeeping. I might just have a chance.

With the new weapon in hand, I open the door just a crack and scan the area. I don't see him anywhere, but that doesn't matter. He's searching for me, and he'll find me eventually. I have to find him first, or get out of here.

I creep out of the shed, my feet not making a noise on the gravel. My eyes continuously dart around the rooftop. Like a cornered animal waiting to be met with their predator, my heart hammers in fear. The weight of the axe in my palms reassures me that I have a fighting chance—if I can get the slip on him.

The sky opens up above me, sheets of rain soaking through the long dress and weighing me down. I shiver as the thunder and lightning crackles up ahead, lighting up the rooftop. It's as if he's not even here anymore; but that's not realistic. He wants me gone, he wouldn't just leave.

It's when the deafening thunder passes that I hear it—movement, and a clashing sound like metal on metal. I turn towards the way that I came, turning the corner around the network of ducts and seeing them both—Jace and Jonathan. My heart drops into my stomach as I watch their struggle unfold before me; it's obvious who is winning.

I leap forwards, wanting to help, but trip up in my stupid dress. I take out my knives and slash at the dress, tearing the bulk of it off at my knees. When I glance up in between my hacking, I see Jonathan deliver a powerful punch straight to Jace's head, and he goes reeling. I scream and lurch forward, swiping up the dropped axe and swinging it behind me, my momentum gaining as I near my brother. He looks up, shock and then amusement flickering across his face as I bring the axe down on him—just for it to sink into the ground, my momentum throwing me off.

I skid to a stop and glare at him, sparing a glance back at Jace who is gathering himself to his feet. Jonathan looks all too amused at the two of us having at him, or attempting to at least.

"You really could do better, little sister," he grins manically, nodding towards Jace who is standing on his own feet, and swaying. I take out my stele at toss it at him, and he barely catches it. I turn back to Jonathan and brace myself, ready to fight him off as long as I can.

"You could as well. You're better than this petty monster you've become, living with Valentine," I sneer back, poking at the ego that I tried to soothe earlier when I was trying to deescalate him. If there's one thing that I know about confidence, is that people lose themselves when you question and badger them about it. It blinds them and makes them more vulnerable, and if I don't have the physical strength to take on Jonathan then I'll sure as hell try to get into his head. "It's pathetic."

"You don't know that half of what I've had to do, Clarissa," he nearly growls, his voice as low as the thunder, barely audible over the pelting rain.

"Oh I'm sure you've done so much, growing up in this cushy resort of a tower that he's built. You've probably been handed everything by him, never working for it," I taunt, adjusting my position when Jonathan tries to circle in closer.

"I've always worked for what I got. I earned everything I have, and then you come in pretending to be daddy's little girl. He's so ignorant to the fact that you've been planning this the entire time," he roars, his voice pitching higher and higher, the stress in his voice obvious. "I deserve the empire he's built, not you!"

He's so absorbed in his emotions and screaming at me that he hasn't noticed the way that I've led him, in a circle so that he's closer to Jace who has recovered and looks ready for a real fight.

"So come and get it," I tell him, raising my arms open wide. "If you want it, you're going to have to take it from me."

I watch with a smirk on my face as Jace launches himself at Jonathan's back, slashing out with his blades and making him fly forward into the wet gravel, blood seeping from the wounds, making long trails along his back and splattering in the puddles of rain. He doesn't move, and Jace takes the chance to lunge again, restraining him.

"You didn't want it that badly, did you big brother?" I muse as Jace uses binding runes on him, rendering him completely immobile. I push him over onto his back with my foot, and he's smiling.

"And when father finds out about this, you're done. He may care about you a fair amount, but he doesn't tolerate traitors. He'll kill you and your little boyfriend," he laughs, laying his head down and closing his eyes. "So enjoy your little moment of victory, because there's not a chance that you're making it out of this building alive."

Jesus I'm the worst at making promises I cant keep!

I have no excuses except school and all my other stories I'm trying to wrap up. Dx

I hope you all enjoyed it though! Don't forget to drop a review, lemme know how horrible I am for the sporadic updates, or you know, if you actually liked the chapter xD

I'm planning on going to 25, so only 3 chapters left!