"Wait here." I put my hand in front of Jonathan to prevent him from stepping any further. "I'll check if they are back already."

He obeyed and remained in the street while I entered the Institute's property. It stood quietly under gray clouds that were typical ornament of the sky above London. Luckily, it didn't rain.

While approaching the door of the Institute, I noticed four figures standing in front of it. Even from the distance I could see two black, one blond and one red head. When they noticed me, they all started to walk towards me.

"Are you okay?" Isabelle asked me when we got near each other.

I nodded, but commented nothing else about it. I had more important things to think about.

"What did you find out?" being evasive was never my strategy. I asked everything I wanted to know.

"Not much." Alec answered. "Xavier said somebody had visited him and offered him money for summoning few demons."

I nodded again, putting that information somewhere alongside the ones Jonathan and I had found out at Emily's.

"And?"

"He said he had refused. He heard what had happened to Jeff Goldmayer and didn't want to interfere with it."

I didn't speak for few moments. There was something suspicious about his answer. I just needed to see what it was.

If Jonathan was here, he would see it sooner. I sighed. He's the master of riddles and he likes to think before acting. I, on the other hand, am not so good at the thinking part.

But, then, it dawned upon me.

"He knew about Jeff's death?" I asked sharply.

They looked at each other.

"Nobody knew about it until Amelia and Thomas found his body." Alec said slowly, finally understanding what I was aiming at.

"And that was yesterday." I pointed out. "He knew about Jeff's death before us. Maybe he caused it. He could be working for the mysterious guy."

"Guy?" Jace interrupted me. "How do you know it's a guy? And that the warlock didn't work on his own?"

It was time for my story to be told. I retold them our conversation with Emily, mentioning every detail I remembered ( except for her date offer to me ). When I was done, they exchanged gazes and then looked at me again.

"But, Xavier has black hair." Isabelle said. "And I see no reason why he would be uncomfortable with being seen in front of another warlock's house. He could always say he wanted her help with some new spell or something like that."

I agreed with her. There wasn't any logic.

"But, we don't know how much time passed between Jeff's murder and discovery of his body." Jace mentioned. "News travel fast among Downworlders and they don't like to share them with us. Xavier could have found out about the murder before us without committing it."

"But, somebody would report it to us, surely." I said, though knowing I was getting to the dangerous part.

They all looked at me in disbelief, like I was speaking in foreign language.

"Why would they?" Jace laughed. "The last thing they want is to let Shadowhunters do the investigation about death of one of their own. It's no wonder ..."

"They would have done it because Jeff Goldmayer was killed by a Shadowhunter." familiar voice interrupted Jace.

By the Angel, Jonathan, what are you doing? I turned around to face my parabatai who had obviously listened to our conversation.

He looked relaxed, even though I could feel hatred that rose around me. New Yorkers were holding their breaths, like they couldn't believe their worst enemy had shown up right in front of them. I heard sounds of Seraph blades coming out of their gear.

"Jonathan." it was Jace who spoke.

"Jonathan." Jonathan replied, his voice indifferent as if he was in a boring business meeting.

I wasn't sure at first whose name my parabatai had mentioned, but then I realised 'Jace' was probably just a nickname, and Jonathan was Jace's real name.

"You have been hiding here all this time?" Isabelle's voice was shaking a bit, like the hatred she felt was too massive for her body and started to pour out of her.

"Here? Yes." Jonathan glanced at her now. "Hiding? Hardly. I don't find you scary enough to hide from you."

"Then, what are you doing here?" Clarissa asked. "Planning a revenge on us? It seems to me like you're succeeding."

Jonathan laughed. I couldn't understand how come he was so relaxed. Four people here wanted him dead. I realised he probably relied on my protection. I had no problems with that, but why had he shown himself in the first place? Nobody had asked anything about him, we were too busy with the talk about warlock's words.

"You're funny, little sister." his eyes shone with true amusement. "I've given up on revenge few months ago. I have something better to do and I was completely willing to forget everything about you. And now you forced me to talk to you again."

"Nobody asked you to talk to us." Alec growled.

They all held Seraph blades in their hands, whispering names of the angels. The blades shone like diamonds, waiting for the fight. Jonathan still didn't move, but his eyes were fixed on me. I was the one who had to calm them down, because they will believe none of his words.

"Sam, I have a request for you." Jace said to me, though he was standing behind my back. "Help us to get him to the Clave. You have no idea what he has done or what he has in his veins. We must take him to Idris."

"Or kill him." Isabelle added with poison in her voice. "We'd do the world a favour."

It had to come to this, I knew it. Since the day they had come, Jonathan and I had been trying not to let them see him. We had managed until now. Now I had to choose of whom I saw in Jonathan. Did I see a murderer with demons' blood in his veins or my parabatai? His black eyes looked at me, calmly and almost interrogatively, like he wondered what I would do, if I truly trusted him.

He didn't lie to me. He had done a lot of things in his past, but he was fair with me. He had killed their brother, but he protected me from death. And he trusts me. I realised that somehow, maybe from the way he looked at me right now, without any mocking or eagerness. He was serious and calm, trusting me with responsibility to choose what I thought it was right. I can't leave him at their mercy. They'll have none.

I turned around and faced the four of them. I looked at Jace mostly, because he was the one who asked me for help.

"I can't do that." I said firmly, staring at golden eyes.

Four of them were stunned.

"Sam, he was on Valentine's side in the war!" Jace yelled. "You have no idea who he is, what he has done in Idris, but ..."

"But, I do, Jace." I made few steps back and soon stood next to Jonathan. "I know who he is and what he's done in Idris, because Idris was where I met him."

"What do you mean?!" Isabelle shouted. "He came here with you? That means ..."

In a second she was silent, as well as the rest of them. They were shocked and their gazes didn't move from my face. They looked at me like I was a mental patient who had no idea what she had done.

"Yes, Isabelle." I nodded, knowing there was no coming back. "This is Jonathan Morgenstern. And he's my parabatai."