I must have fallen asleep at the kitchen table. It was really the only explanation for why it was suddenly less dark outside when I opened my eyes. There was a pain above my right eyebrow from where my circlet had dug into my skin as I slept. Yet another thing to add to my list of reasons I strongly dislike faeries. I took the offending headwear off and turned it over in my hands. It was pretty – designed to look like intertwining vines – but it was still a crown thing and I didn't like it.
The rest of the house seemed to be quiet, so I did my best not to wake anyone up on my way to the bathroom. It was incredibly early but there was no use attempting to sleep at the table again, might as well feel like a real human and wear my own clothes again.
Twenty minutes later, I was fully clean and dressed in a cozy long sleeved shirt and a worn pair of skinny jeans. My weird faery outfit was cleaned – as best as I could – and folded neatly in my bag. I would need it later when I had to do the whole official visit to the Institute. In the meanwhile, however, I was going to feel like myself.
As I left the bathroom, I ran into Clary who had just woken up.
"Good morning," I said with more energy than I felt.
"I hope you didn't use all of my soap," was her response.
I laughed. No one had ever called Clary a morning person. "I'll go make some coffee."
As it turned out, Luke wanted coffee too and I played the role of the barista, taking orders and then dropping them off. Once Clary, Luke, and Magnus were all settled in with a mug of bitterness in hand, I found a perch for myself on the coffee table.
"Where's Maia?" Luke asked over his coffee.
"She's asleep in your room, remember?" said Clary. "You said she could have it."
"I don't remember last night all that well," Luke admitted, rubbing his eyes. "I remember going out to the truck and not much after that."
"So, you missed the part about me being kidnapped by the Seelie Queen?" I asked.
Luke stared at me for a moment. "That's a joke, right?"
I flashed a fake smile. "Nope, nope it's not."
"Then how are you here if you've been kidnapped?"
"I'm on leave?" I suggested.
He shook his head slowly as though it would help him understand the five hundred levels of crazy that was everyday life. "What else happened? I'm coming back to you," he added.
"There were demons hiding outside," Clary piped in. "Jace and Jaci took care of them."
"You killed them both?" Luke returned his attention to me.
"Jace killed his, I just sort of… chased mine off." Don't ask why I was still trying to keep the fact that I could do magic a secret, I just was.
"Who chased what?" asked a new voice.
So this was Maia. Gosh, she was pretty. Why did it seem like every single person I met was pretty? Probably because they were.
"Want some coffee?" I offered.
The werewolf girl hesitated for an instant. "Who are you?"
"Jaci," I responded. "Clary's adopted sister."
"Oh, sure. With milk and sugar!" she added.
And like an obedient little child, I trotted off to the kitchen to fetch yet another cup of coffee. Hey, if the demon hunting thing didn't work out for me, at least I could always work at Starbucks, right?
"Well, you did try to kill him," Clary was saying when I reentered the room. "Maybe that's it."
"You tried to kill who?" I asked Maia as I delivered her coffee.
"Simon," she barely whispered. "I'd forgotten. He's a vampire now. I didn't mean to hurt him," she said. "I was just…"
Clary and I waited for her to go on.
"You might want to lie down," Magnus suggested. "I find that helps when the crushing sense of horrible realization sets in."
And the werewolf girl started to tear up. Clary and I exchanged alarmed looks but we were all saved from the awkwardness by the door flying open to admit Jace closely followed by Alec.
"Would it kill you to knock?" I joked.
He flashed me a quick smirk. "Everyone in a good mood, I see," he commented, jerking his head towards Maia. "Keeping up morale?"
"Crap," Maia rubbed at her eyes, "I hate crying in front of Shadowhunters."
"So go cry in another room," Jace suggested.
"What's your problem today?" I snapped. He wasn't the only one short on sleep.
But Maia was already on her feet and out into the kitchen.
"What the hell, Jace?" I got to my feet to follow after Maia and see if there was anything I could do.
"Jaci, wait. We need to talk. All of us." He flopped down on the piano bench. "Magnus wants to shout at me, don't you, Magnus?"
The warlock slid his eyes away from Alec to glare at Jace. "Yes. Where the hell were you?"
"I thought Jace had to be here," said Clary. "You switched him out for Jaci so I thought that meant he couldn't leave."
Magnus was positively glowering. "Normally, yes, but last night, after everything I did, my magic was – depleted."
"And you knew that?" I asked Jace.
He shrugged. "I guessed."
"Where were you all night anyway?" Magnus snapped. "With Alec?"
Jace hesitated momentarily. "No. I went to the Institute and then tried to find Valentine."
The room fell dead silent and I grabbed Maia's untouched coffee and took a huge sip, burning my throat and almost bursting out in a coughing fit.
"Well," Luke said finally, "did you?"
Jace nodded. "He has a ship out on the river."
"We have to tell the Inquisitor," Alec said, speaking for the first time.
"Well she's not here right now so that plan will have to wait," I pointed out. "Alec, what's in that box?"
He glanced down at the slightly squashed box he'd been holding under his arm. "Oh! Doughnuts, actually. Does anyone want one?"
While it did seem a little odd and out of character for Alec to be randomly offering doughnuts to anyone, I was not about to turn him down. Nor was anybody else.
"There's one thing I don't get," Luke announced after finishing his doughnut.
Jace said, "Just one thing? You're way ahead of the rest of us."
"The three of you went out after me when I didn't come back to the house." Luke looked at Clary, Jace, and myself.
"Actually, Jace, Clary, and Simon went out looking for you," I pointed out. "I was just getting here when I heard them fighting by the river so I went to investigate."
Luke frowned but let it go. "So there were four of you and two demons but you only killed one. What happened to the other one?"
I shrugged. "It must've valued its life. It just swam off."
"But why would it do that?" Alec asked. "Two of them, four of you – maybe it felt outnumbered?"
"No offense to anyone involved," Magnus drawled, "but the only one among you who seems formidable is Jace. A couple of untrained Shadowhunters and a scared vampire…"
"I am not untrained," I pointed out with perhaps a touch too much sass. "What do you think I've been doing at the Seelie Court? Painting pretty pictures?"
"Then you should've been able to kill it," Magnus pointed out.
I sighed heavily. "It's sort of a long story?" I suggested.
Clary, meanwhile, looked terribly confused. "You were talking to it," she said. "Or did I imagine that part?"
"Have we all forgotten the crazy things Clary can do with a stele?" I looked at everyone in the room in turn. "Remember how she got the Mortal Cup out of a painting for goodness sake! And when I was in the Silent City, she managed to blow all of the cells apart, not just mine."
"You remember that?" Clary cut in.
"It's kind of hard to forget that bit." Or… to at least not remember it from having read it in a novel! "Come on, Clary. Think of any time you've done something with runes without any training!"
"Okay, fine," Clary snapped, growing upset by all the attention or something. "But that doesn't make me special!"
"The Seelie Queen, though, she said your gift was of words that cannot be spoken," Jace pointed out.
Clary's eyes went wide. "She meant runes. You're right," she said, turning to me, "I just used a regular opening rune in the Silent City and it didn't just unlock the door, it unlocked the manacles too. I think the Queen meant I can draw runes that are more powerful than ordinary runes. And maybe even create new ones."
Well, I knew she could create new ones but for everyone else in the room, it did seem to come out of absolutely nowhere.
"No one can create new runes," Jace said, voice oozing condescension.
"Maybe she can, Jace," Alec cut in. "It doesn't sound impossible."
Luke looked thoughtful. "Alec's right. Clary, why don't you go and get your sketchbook?"
Clary looked frightened but nodded and went off through the kitchen to fetch her sketchbook. Figuring that she could use some support, I followed after her under the pretense of clearing away and refilling empty coffee mugs.
Maia and Clary were both in the kitchen and they both looked surprised to see me.
"Just getting refills," I said, holding up the mugs. "Ignore me."
"It's all right," Clary comforted Maia. "Jaci's my sister."
Awe, she didn't even add the "adopted" bit in!
"All right," Maia took a deep breath, "look, I'm sorry about what happened with Simon. I was delirious."
"Oh yeah? What happened to all that werewolves are destined to hate vampires business?"
Don't mind me, just getting some coffee…
"We are, but – I guess I don't have to hurry the process along."
"Don't explain it to me; explain it to Simon."
"I don't think he'll want to talk to me."
"Don't say that," I cut in. "At least, not until you've tried."
"He's pretty forgiving," Clary added.
Maia cocked her head to the side. "Not that I want to pry, but are you two going out?"
Little Clary turned red. "Why do you want to know?"
"The first time I met him he referred to you as his best friend, but the second time he called you his girlfriend. I wondered if it was an on-off thing."
"Sort of."
Sort of? It's only an "on-off thing" if you've been "on" or "off" more than once, which in my knowledge, they hadn't.
"It's a long story," Clary admitted.
I raised an eyebrow at her. It really wasn't a long story, she just didn't want to talk about it.
It then occurred to me that I should've just stuck with getting coffee and getting out instead of listening to them banter.
"Well you're lucky, that's all," Maia said to Clary. "Even if he is a vampire now. You must be pretty used to all sorts of weird stuff, being a Shadowhunter, so I bet it doesn't faze you."
"It fazes me," Clary snapped. "I'm not Jace."
"No one is. And I get the feeling he knows it."
Um, what? What sort of strange turn was this conversation about to take.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Clary demanded.
I turned to see Maia as she answered this, very much curious.
"Oh, you know. Jace reminds me of an old boyfriend. Some guys look at you like they want sex. Jace looks at you like you've already had sex, it was great, and now you're just friends – even though you want more. Drives girls crazy. You know what I mean?"
Um, what? "Maia…"
"I mean, aside from the fact that he's a complete ass," she continued on, "he is pretty hot-"
"Maia!" I cut her off, trying my best to look annoyed when really I was internally laughing. "Jace and I are dating."
She turned pink. "I'm sorry, I-"
"I should go be a nice hostess," I said, holding up the coffee mugs and trying (and failing) not to laugh.
The atmosphere in the living room had shifted a touch by the time I got back.
"Why did you think it would be a good idea to visit Valentine?" Alec snapped.
"Because I knew he would talk to me," Jace retorted.
"Well, as long as the Inquisitor doesn't know you went," I pointed out. "It should be all right.
Jace made the suggestion that the Inquisitor make an attempt to impregnate herself.
"Jace, that's enough," Luke said in a very firm voice.
Clary chose that moment to make her entrance, successfully disrupting the warpath or whatever Jace was about to hop on.
"I got it," she announced, holding up her sketchpad. "My sketchpad."
"So you think you can draw new runes?" I asked. It wasn't in a mean way, after all I knew that she could. I sat next to her one the floor as she got settled in at the coffee table. I always liked watching her draw, even when she was frustrated and felt that she couldn't draw anything.
"Maybe," she hedged, carefully choosing a pencil. "Remember that night at the hotel?"
"How could we forget," Jace drawled dryly.
I shot him a glare. "You're not helping.
"When we were on the roof, I started to picture a rune. I don't know why or how," she said, cutting off any possible questions, "just that I did. And it wasn't one I recognized so I think it might've been something… new."
"Well, how about you try to draw a new rune," Luke suggested gently.
Clary nodded sharply and held her pencil poised and ready. I could hear my heartbeat pounding in my ears. Why was I so nervous about this?
We all waited for Clary to move, even in the slightest, but it felt like we were waiting for an eternity before she threw her pencil down.
"I can't just do it on command. Not without an idea! And not with all of you staring!"
"Fearless," I said immediately, ready to get this all over with. There was so much tension in the room, I felt like I was drowning in it. "Try and draw a rune for fearlessness."
I received many looks of concern for that one and an appraising on from Jace.
"What?" I demanded. "Do any of you have a better idea?"
"There are already runes for bravery," Alec argued.
"But is there one for a complete and utter absence of fear?" I countered. "I'm not saying it's a good idea to have in regular use or anything, just that it might be… interesting if it existed."
Jace leaned forward to show his active participation in the conversation. "She's right."
Clary glanced towards me and I nodded reassuringly. She could do this.
"Fearless," she muttered and moved her pencil quickly but cautiously. "Fearless," she said again and now she began to draw with more confidence, as though drawing the rune gave her the property of it, as well.
Was that possible? Once, when I hadn't been paying much attention and at the beginning of my training, I'd said the rune for light and actually made myself luminous. Caelia had told me that it'd happened because I hadn't separated myself from the magic. No one was there to teach Clary and guide her. Was creating new runes even magic? What even were the laws of magic? Besides complicated. It was almost logical, then, that Clary's runes – especially in a situation like this where she thought only of the rune and not what she was applying it to – affected her slightly.
"Done," Clary announced. Her pencil made a rather final sounding snap as she laid it on the table.
"It kind of looks like a bird," I commented.
"Cool," Alec noted.
"But does it work?" Jace asked. "For all we know, you just drew a pretty picture."
Clary looked hurt but I definitely saw Jace's point. It had to be tested first. Even though I knew it was real.
"Clary, I believe you can create new runes," I said. "But we still need to test it out, just to be five hundred percent certain."
"Not satisfied with one hundred percent like the rest of us mere mortals?" Magnus asked, raising his eyebrows at me.
"I like to be very, extra certain," I said. "And you're not a mortal anyways so, put your eyebrows down."
That, of course, only made him raise them further.
"I'll try it," Jace offered, already getting to work taking off his jacket.
Luke stood up. "No. Jace, you already behave as if you've never heard the word 'fear.' I fail to see how we're going to be able to tell the difference if it does work on you."
Alec laughed at that and I tried my best not to smile. Luke had a very legitimate point.
"I've heard the word 'fear,'" Jace said with all of his snark fully intact. "I simply choose to believe it doesn't apply to me."
Except I noticed the brief pained expression that crossed his face as everyone else turned their attention to Alec volunteering.
The dark haired Shadowhunter snagged the piece of paper with the rune on it and handed it to Jace. "Here. Mark my arm."
And so we all watched with bated breath as Jace carefully traced the new rune onto his parabatai's arm. I couldn't help but wonder how Jace knew which lines of the rune to draw first. Did it matter? Maybe there was a class on it? How to Draw Runes: 101?
"It's pretty," I commented before Alec could roll his sleeve down self-consciously.
"So how do you feel?" Clary asked him eagerly.
But Alec didn't look very impressed. "I don't feel any different."
"Wow," I said sarcastically. "Sitting in a warm, cozy living room with friends doesn't activate your new fearless rune? Weird, it's almost like there's nothing here to trigger it."
"I don't recall anyone asking for your sass," Magnus pointed out.
"Oh, you don't have to ask. It's a free service."
Luke was looking at me as though I'd somehow managed to sprout an extra appendage. "Have you always been this sarcastic?"
"Pretty much, yeah."
"And why did I never notice before?"
I located the nearest coffee cup – still Maia's from earlier – and took a sip to avoid responding while shrugging innocently at Luke. I knew he was joking with me, though his exhaustion made it all sound rather serious. The truth was, we were all sort of dancing around the matter of Jace having gone to visit Valentine.
Our mass reverie however, was cut short by the ringing of the doorbell.
"See, Jace," I said. "There are some people in the world who know how to ask for permission before barging in."
"Simon?" Clary suggested.
"Daylight," I reminded her.
"Oh, right." She made a face and I internally cringed. "Do you want me to get it, Luke?"
"No, I'm fine. It's probably someone wondering why the bookstore's shut."
Here it was, the moment of truth. Or the moment where everything was about to go crazy seeing as Luke was on his way to open the door which meant that just on the other side was…
Maryse, Isabelle, the Inquisitor, and the man who could only be Robert Lightwood all filed through the door. The Inquisitor looked unfortunately pleased which meant something awful had either just happened, or was about to.
It was like a scene in a play where one character has an aside and the rest all freeze in their positions. Alec was the one with the monologue.
He stepped forward to face his shocked mother and the rest of us stared, almost transfixed.
"Alec, what on earth are you doing here?" Maryse gasped. "I thought I made it clear-"
"Mother. Father. There's something I have to tell you." The poor boy looked genuinely excited. His parents did not. "I'm seeing someone."
"Alec," his father said with an impressively deep voice, "this is hardly the time."
"Yes, it is. This is important. You see, I'm not just seeing anyone. I'm seeing a Downworlder. In fact, I'm seeing a-"
And he dropped to the floor like a load of bricks. I suspected Magnus.
"Alec!" Maryse cried.
But Izzy was already on the scene, dropping down at her brother's side – who was already recovering.
"Wha – what – why am I on the floor?" he asked.
Isabelle looked a touch angry. "That's a good question. What was that, brother?"
I got to my feet so that I could help Isabelle get Alec up off the floor. The magic seemed to have made him a little unsteady.
Across the room, Magnus spoke with a pained expression. "Alec's been delirious. Side effects of some demon toxins. Most unfortunate, but he'll be fine soon."
"Demon toxins?"
Congratulations, Magnus. You've managed to freak out an already high-strung, stressed, overprotective mother. What are you gonna do next?
"No one reported a demon attack to the Institute," Maryse continued. "What is going on here, Lucian? This is your house, isn't it? You know perfectly well if there's been a demon attack, you're supposed to report it!"
I quickly stepped in front of her, seeing as she was literally advancing on Luke. "He was injured. So was another werewolf. We figured making sure they survived took precedence over paperwork."
Maryse looked like she was about to argue with me, but never got the chance.
"How very like you, Jaelyn Morgenstern." The Inquisitor had decided to swoop in.
I tried my hardest not to sigh with exasperation. We had been over this. "I'm not a Morgenstern."
"Regardless of what you are," she snapped, "you are now under arrest."
"Why are you taking my Shadowhunter?" Magnus demanded, snapping to attention.
"Do not get involved, warlock," the steel-grey woman warned. "You failed in your duty once; you won't get another chance."
"Failed in my duty?" Magnus demanded. "By bringing her here when I was called to heal her family?"
"No." There was a terrible sort of grin on her face. She seemed to be the only one in the know and she seemed to enjoy it. Was it possible she knew that I'd been at the Seelie Court for the last few days? "After bringing the girl to the Institute, I placed a tracker on her. No sooner were you out of sight then she went off on her own."
Now I was very much confused. I hadn't been back to the Institute since going to Magnus's. Clary, however, looked pale and Magnus appeared to be frozen.
However, he thawed out rather quickly. "That, I'm afraid, is an issue you'll have to take up with the Seelie Queen."
"What?" The Inquisitor, Maryse, and Robert all asked simultaneously.
Time to be honest, I guess. "It's true." And to be the object of scrutiny, apparently. All eyes were on me and I desperately wanted to say something clever that would both irritate them and disrupt their intense gazes.
"Explain," ordered the Inquisitor.
"I'm not Valentine's child," I began, "but he did do experiments to me, according to the Queen. Whatever he did, he did with the help of the Fey and in return he was supposed to give them me, but somewhere along the way that plan got disrupted. Valentine never turned me over to the Queen and therefore further betrayed the Seelie Court.
"The Queen was eventually able to find me and – since under faerie law I'm technically her property – bind me to the Court, where I've been for the past few days. It seemed imprudent, at best, to inform the Clave of the situation until any form of certainty had arisen."
I swear, if it were physically possible, the Inquisitor's will would have caused me to spontaneously combust.
"You are not in the position to decide what is prudent and what is not!" she shouted. "You have broken Clave law and are now to be taken into custody and tried in Idris!"
Actually, I'd been prepared for this in one of my many awful lessons. "That would be unwise," I admitted.
She strode forward, clutching her stele menacingly. "No, your actions to betray the Clave were unwise."
"No, really." I backed away from her. "If any harm comes to me – including imprisonment – you will have effectively initiated hostilities between the Clave and the Seelie Court. As the ambassador of the Seelie Queen, I have diplomatic immunity."
She paled.
"I'm their bargaining chip." Even though my heart was pounding, I was able to keep my voice calm. Would she really risk war in order to prove a misguided point?
"Their bargaining chip," she echoed stiffly.
What even. I was counting it as a victory.
"Should you chose to make a move against Valentine, you will have the support of the Fey provided you respect the status of diplomatic immunity to which I am entitled as the Queen's ambassador."
The poor woman looked as though her entire life was a lie.
Unfortunately, she recovered quickly. "Nevertheless, the Seelie Court cannot protect you, Jonathan Morgenstern."
Jace didn't respond.
"Oh, didn't think I would know that you went to see your father last night?"
This really wasn't a surprise to everyone sitting in the room.
"Jace told us he went to see Valentine," Clary argued.
"So he admits it!" The Inquisitor seemed to be glowing with her new victory even after her recent defeat. "I put a tracking rune on your ridiculous motorcycle," she gloated. "I knew it would pay off."
"Imongen," Robert Lightwood interrupted, "you're saying Valentine is – was-"
"On a boat in the middle of the East River," she said happily. "That's correct."
Jace finally spoke. "You've been spying on me. Is that what the Clave does, invade the privacy of its fellow Shadowhunters to-"
"Be careful what you say to me." Her grey gaze swept over every single teenager in the room. "You are not the only one who's broken the Law. In releasing Jaelyn from the Silent City, in freeing her from the warlock's control, you and your friends are all guilty."
"Jace isn't our friend, he's our brother!" Isabelle declared.
"I'd be careful what you say, Isabelle Lightwood. You could be considered complicit."
"Complicit?" Robert Lightwood spoke up again. "The girl was just trying to keep you from shattering our family. For God's sake, Imogen, these are all just children-"
"Children?" the Inquisitor echoed. "Just as you were children when the Circle plotted the destruction of the Clave? Just as my son was a child when he-" She cut off suddenly.
"So this is about Stephen after all," Luke said softly.
"This is not about Stephen!" she snapped. "This is about the Law!"
"And Jace," Maryse stepped forward, looking anxious, "what's going to happen to him?"
"He will return to Idris with me tomorrow. You've all forfeited your right to know any more than that."
Except for me, 'cause I had the sparknotes version of life in my bag. No biggie.
