Hey guys here's the next chapter! I promise to make this one longer! I apologise in advance for any mess up of the sequence of events, I have a pretty bad memory for words in books unless it is significant ( Like Magnus'and Alec's kiss in the hall of accords XD)

Ches

Disclaimer: I do not own The Mortal Instruments.

Chapter 3

"Clary? What are you doing here?" I heard the startled voice from the hallway and looked up from my book to see someone rush past the room in a blur of dark red and green. "Clary!" I breathed. I slammed my book shut, scaring Max, who was also in the room. I raced out of the room, my feet flying up the stairs to find Jace and Clary quarrelling. I stayed hidden from view as they shouted at each other. I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from gasping at some of the things Jace said and to think he was supposedly our brother though our real brother was Sebastian, no Jonathan. When Clary finally exited the room, on the verge of tears, I knew she would expect answers.

"Ash? What are you doing here?" She exclaimed looking at me, her eyes ablaze despite the tears. "Clary? I thought Jace said you had changed your mind about coming? How are you here?" I answered. "Why didn't you tell me you were going? Jace was Lying he didn't want me to come and now I wish I didn't." She snarled. With that, she stomped off down the stairs. I fingered the bladed darting my pocket. Jace was so going to pay for making my sister cry.

I barged into the room, ignoring the startled exclamations from Alec and Izzy. "How could you do that to our sister?" I shouted at Jace, shock clear in his gold eyes. "It was the right thing to do." He shrugged it off. I glared at him. When I no longer could withstand his arrogance, I threw the dart, just perfectly, to nick his ear. "You broke her you idiot!" I shouted over my shoulder as I barged past Izzy. I raced downstairs to find Sebastian and Clary gone. "Oh fudge-cakes…" I cursed under my breath. I heard the voices of Jace and Alec rising. "Oh great we have another problem." I thought, thinking about how Jace was reprimanding Alec for leaving Simon alone with the Inquisitor. I headed to the kitchen to calm down. Jace was such an arrogant son of a – "Hey, Ash." The smooth voice interrupted my thinking. I turned to see someone bending over to look inside the fridge. The person straightened up and in his hand he held a brown paper bag. "Oh, Alec." I murmured, blushing at how I had blew up upstairs. "Here, something to cheer you up." Alec smiled, sitting down across from me. He opened the bag to reveal those sinful pastries. I squealed slightly and snatched on up before tearing into it. Alec chuckled and took a bite of his. When I had finished, I sat back in my chair to watch Alec eat. My eyes trailed over his pale face, blue eyes, feathery black hair until I realised he was looking back at me curiously. I blushed, I must have been staring. "Hey you got a little something…" he trailed off reaching out his hand. I froze as he hand just barely cupped the side of my face as he wiped something off the side of my mouth. He licked his finger and grinned at me. "Chocolate cream." He explained. I smiled at that.

"Gah!" came the loud shout. Alec and I started at that and raced to the front door to see Aline wrestling a demon that just carried her off, Izzy chasing after the thing. "What, how did a demon get into Alicante?" we looked around to see clouds of smoke billowing around with tints of orange. "Holy macaroni…" I breathed utterly dumbfounded. Alec cast me a puzzled glance before he raced back into the house to retrieve his bow and arrows. "Let's go." Alec said briskly before we broke into a run to catch up with them.

We only found Izzy looking distraught. "Aline just rushed off after I saved her arse." Izzy said. Alec raced off to find Aline as I helped Isabelle back to the Manor. Then I suddenly remembered the sequence of the story. Alec would meet Magnus and save his life around that time. I suppressed a sigh. I guess the odds were stacked against me to prevent me from loving Alexander Gideon Lightwood.

The only ones in the house were now Sebastian, Max, Izzy and myself. I was keeping watch in the hallway when I felt something hard hit the back of my head. The last thought in my mind was Max being killed.

"Ashleigh! Can you hear me?" came the melodic voice. I opened my eyes wearily and found a pair of gold eyes staring back at me. "Jace… Max…" I mumbled, weakly raising a hand to point down the hallway. Jace nodded. "We know…" he trailed off as I heard sobs coming from the kitchen. It was Isabelle. "Alec, you help her, I'll get Max's body."Jace said getting to his feet, his voice choking. I could see the pain in his eyes. I suddenly felt a hand slip around my waist and help me to my feet. I turned to see Alec looking at me bleakly. His bright eyes were now dull with grief and glossy with tears. He offered me a wry smile. I did the only thing I could do, wrap my arms around him and bury my head in the crook of his neck, to offer some comfort. "I'm so sorry. This is all my fault." I murmured into his shoulder. As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I felt guilt shoot through me painfully. If I had remembered that Sebastian was going to kill Max, I could have stopped him. The point was that I knew what was going to happen and I did nothing to stop it. "It's not your fault." Alec croaked, his voice cracking as the tears ran down his cheeks. Man the pain was killing the both of us.

Again apologies for any errors in the sequence of events! Do review!

Ches out