The ship's deck was freezing.

"Funny," I muttered to Caelia who had landed lightly beside us, "I always associated demons with heat. You know, fires of Hell and whatnot."

"Hell is frozen," Caelia responded. Apparently faeries don't do light banter in the face of danger.

"We need to find Clary." Apparently Luke wasn't into banter either.

"There's a door that leads into the ship somewhere," Jace said quietly, looking around. "We just have to walk around the deck until we find it."

Luke started to move forward.

"I'll lead," Jace said, stepping in front of Luke.

Luke looked at me for some sort of explanation but I just shrugged. Sometime Jace just acted very… Jace-like.

"What did your father say when you saw him?" Luke asked instead. "What did he promise you?"

"Oh, you know. The usual. A lifetime's supply of Knicks tickets." Jace glanced back briefly and made eye contact with me. I wasn't the only banterer! "He said he'd make sure no harm came to me or anyone I cared about if I'd leave the Clave and return to Idris with him."

I heard Luke sigh. "Do you think he'd hurt Clary to get back at you?"

I decided to answer that one. "He wouldn't hurt Clary to get back at Jace. He might to get back at me, but not Jace."

"I think he took her to make us come onto the ship," Jace admitted, turning to look at Luke. He was going to say more but Luke cut him off.

"Stay quiet." Luke had drawn his dagger and it was easy to see why.

Ahead of us, there was a huge hole cut into the deck of the ship and from it poured all sorts of demons. There might have been thousands, I was just amazed that we hadn't heard them. How could that many demons be so quiet? I quietly drew my sword. Jace, I saw, was also taking out weapons.

"Stop!" Luke ordered to the both of us. "There're too many. If we can get back to the ladder-"

"We're surrounded," Caelia said almost sweetly. She seemed to be enjoying herself as she twirled the knife in her hand playfully.

Luke glanced behind our little group and swore beautifully. "You three, jump over the side. I'll hold them off."

"Fat chance," I snapped as Jace said, "You jump. I'm fine here."

"I'm going to find Clary," I announced, eyeing the two approaching demon hoards and searching for the sounds of the runes that would conceal me even from demons.

"I'm coming with you," Caelia said simply.

I shook my head. "You need to stay here and help."

The faery slowly blinked her black eyes. "I'm coming with you. I came to help you, Shadowhunter, and that's what I'll do."

"Good luck," Jace said without looking, already preparing for the first demons.

Muttering runes for protection and concealment, I ducked my head and ran straight for the mass of demons emerging from the dark whole in the ship.

Was it stupid?

Yes.

Did it work?

Also, yes.

The demons parted like water around me and Caelia stayed directly behind me, striking out now and again with her knife. Before being aware of it, we had reached the hole in the ship and suddenly I found myself tumbling through space before Caelia caught me.

"Lucky I came with you," she said with no small amount of self-satisfaction.

I scowled and spoke the runes for light, projecting them just over our heads. I felt the magic slowly taking my energy and found myself relieved that Magnus had stripped most of the wards before Caelia had brought me to the ship or else I wouldn't've been able to sustain even the tiny light that bobbed above us.

A glance at our surroundings showed that the inside of the ship had been gutted. Somehow, I'd rushed into the ship in between waves of demons. For a moment, the coast was clear but I could see unnatural movement in the depths as the second wave was preparing itself.

"Over there," I said, pointing with my sword towards a network of catwalks. That would give me something to stand on and a starting point.

Caelia set me down gently on the catwalk and landed gracefully behind me. "Perhaps its best we split up. The ship is large."

I nodded and before I could say anything, she was gone.

Even without casting any sort of tracking spell, somehow I knew I needed to go down. Where the demons were coming from is where Valentine would be and where Valentine was, Clary was. I was just going to have to trust Caelia to find Simon and Maia.

I looked around for some sort of ladder but saw none. I knew there was another catwalk beneath the one I stood on and one below that and my options seemed to be letting myself fall to the next level and hope for the best. Only a few feet away, the second wave of demons began to pass. It might've just been wishful thinking, but it seemed like the surge of monsters wasn't as thick as the first one.

The demons were all ignoring me so I sheathed my sword and climbed over the railing of the catwalk and lowered myself down so that I was hanging just by my hands. Slowly, I swung my body and when I thought my momentum was right, I let go.

My timing was off. Instead of landing solidly in the middle of the catwalk below, I slammed into the opposite railing, nearly falling headfirst over it. The rusted metal groaned in protest of my sudden weight but miraculously held. Shaking slightly, I steadied myself. The light above me still glowed with the same intensity as when I'd first cast it.

I was still alive.

A terrified giggle found its way to my lips and I welcomed the rush of adrenaline my near-fall had given me. Knowing full well I would have bruises in horizontal stripes across my body from the railing, I climbed over and started the process all over again.


Caelia's tracking spell led her along the same catwalk she'd deposited Jaci on. For the first time, the faery found herself grateful for her human heritage which made her less sensitive to the iron parts of the ship.

Quietly, she ran along the catwalk, her gleaming silver dagger held before her. She wasn't one of the knights of the Court, but she could fight very well. Particularly since the faery child Valentine had murdered had been her brother.

Soon she saw why her tracking spell had led her the way it had; Clary's stele was lying on the catwalk with no apparent why for it to have gotten there. The faery bent to pick up the stele but froze, hearing a slight noise. And then she smelled it: werewolf.

"Maia," Caelia said, remembering the name.

There was a snarl from the darkness ahead. "Who the hell are you?"

"I'm Caelia," the faery said simply. "I'm a… friend of Jaci's and I'm here to help. I'm trying to find Clary, do you know where she is?"

Maia edged closer. Caelia could just make her out and saw that her ears were long and pointed and her teeth had grown into fangs.

"Valentine took her," the werewolf girl growled through her teeth. "Why would you want to find her?"

"Valentine murdered my brother." Caelia's voice shook just the smallest amount. Maia didn't even notice. "I want to do everything in my power to destroy him."

"I don't know if we can destroy him," Maia said quietly. "He killed Simon."

Caelia's stomach felt uncomfortable. Simon was on the list of individuals she had come to save because Valentine wanted them dead. "That is unfortunate."

Maia scoffed. "Faeries."

"I cannot save him," Caelia admitted, "but I can save you. There are Shadowhunters on the deck along with a wolf named Luke-"

"Luke!" Maia cried with relief. "But where's the rest of the pack?"

"It is my understanding that Luke, Clary, Jace, and Magnus came on their own with the objective of saving you and Simon. The plan has changed since they first set out. Come," she ordered, handing her dagger to Maia. "Valentine will be looking for you. He will not find you."


Jace and Luke had been backed into a corner, about to be drowned by the sea of monsters when the Shadowhunters had arrived, giving the pair the chance to regroup and stay alive. They were sadly low on weapons and Jace could feel the burn of the activated Fearless rune on his shoulder.

"It took you long enough!" Jace shouted to the Shadowhunter who engaged with a demon nearest him.

Before Jace could get a response, a cloaked Shadowhunter was pulling him aside. "Come with me."

Jace recognized her voice immediately.

"I need to get to Luke; he's hurt," Jace replied, stone faced. All around, demons were crawling, Shadowhunters were fighting – some of them dying, and the Inquisitor wanted Jace to calmly follow her?

"This is important," she insisted. "I need to talk to you."

Jace stared at her for a moment. She had to be joking. "Now?"

She nodded. "Now."

"You're insane," he informed her. "There's no way – we're in the middle of a battle!"

"Now." She grabbed his arm and pulled him back into the corner where he and Luke had been fighting from. She pulled out two seraph blades and stuck them into the ship's deck – Jace was impressed they stayed – and a wall of light appeared between them, cutting them off from the battle.

"You're joking."

"This isn't a Malachi Configuration. You can get out if you want." She swallowed briefly before she went on. "You were right about Valentine. He wouldn't make the trade."

"He told you to let me die," Jace said matter-of-factly.

"The moment he refused, of course, I called the Conclave together and brought them here. I – I owe you and your family an apology."

"Noted," Jace growled. "Alec and Isabelle, are they here? They won't be punished for helping me? And what about Jaci?"

"They're here, and no, they won't be punished. As for Jaci… what she can do… The Clave won't punish her but they will want to see her. No one's ever been able to do that."

Of course. Magnus had called her a Mage. A shiver went down Jace's spine that had nothing to do with the temperature.

"I can't understand Valentine," the Inquisitor said, searching Jace's face. "For a father to throw away the life of his child, his only son…"

"Yeah," Jace agreed while trying to see through the protective wall to what was happening in the battle. "It's a conundrum all right."

"Unless…"

His head snapped around to face her. "Unless what?"

"Unless you're not Valentine's son."

"You're not making any sense, woman," Jace said harshly. "All that energy looking for an excuse to lock me up because Valentine's my father and now you're saying maybe he's not?"

She was staring at him and there were tears in her eyes. "Of course. You look so much like him…"

"Like who?" Jace demanded.

"But the curls… your mother had curls."

Now Jace didn't know what to say. This was all very, very strange.

"Otherwise, you could be your father."

"I look nothing like Valentine."

"Not Valentine, Stephen."

Jace blinked. Stephen like her son? "You're not making any sense." And with that, he kicked over one of the seraph blades making the gleaming wall with every intention of joining the battle.

"Jace!" The Inquisitor called. "You don't have a weapon, at least take-" She cut herself off as a demon lumbered out of the darkness towards Jace. It looked something like a giant monkey but with the tail of a scorpion and as soon as it appeared, it prepared to strike Jace with its barbed sting-

-but the blow never landed. The Inquisitor had moved faster than Jace had imagined she could, knocking him out of the way and throwing a knife at the same time. The blade cut off the tail of the demon, sending its stinging shot off course and instead of the barb being buried in Jace's head, it hit the Inquisitor's shoulder. She stumbled for a moment but drew a second blade and threw. Her aim was true and Jace stared in amazement as the demon folded in on itself, hissing.

He was frozen only for a moment before rushing to the Inquisitor's side, catching her as she fell. She pressed her remaining seraph blade into his hand. He eased her to the deck before carefully working the disembodied sting out of her shoulder. The Inquisitor grimaced but didn't make a sound. Jace was glad to see he'd been able to get the sting out before most of the venom had been released into her system. She still wouldn't have much time without a healer. Magnus.

Moving quickly, Jace picked her up. She hissed as the movement jostled her shoulder. Ignoring the sounds of her pain, Jace picked his way through the fight and to the edge of the ship. He glanced down and saw that the water was full of Nixies; the Seelie Queen had received his message and had decided to help.

He whistled and one of the Nixies broke the surface of the water. "Take her to the truck," he called and then had the singular joy of tossing the Inquisitor overboard.