Jace jerked himself out of the dream, so violently; he fell out of his bed and landed on the floor with a thud. He sat up, but stayed there for a minute, breathing hard and trying to rid his mind of the images. The blood and horror. Clary, her body broken and lifeless, green eyes staring at him with no life left in them. Everything he'd ever loved, simply gone.
The pain the sight brought him, even if it had just been a dream, was almost unbearable. Seeing her like that, gone, murdered by the evil that had taken her, it made him feel so helpless, useless, destroyed. What if he never did see her again? Never again got to hold her, or see her smile, or hear her laugh?
He got to his feet and crossed his room, opening the window and breathing in the fresh air, trying to clear his head of those thoughts. They wouldn't get him anywhere. If he was going to find Clary, and he was, he couldn't allow himself to be reduced to that.
He hadn't intended to fall asleep the night before. Or really, that morning. He hadn't even felt very tired, despite having gone over twenty-four hours without rest. He didn't dare try. He knew the nightmares would come. And they had.
The sky was starting to lighten outside. The sun would rise soon. Jace took a deep, steadying breath and turned from the window. It was time to face the day, and hopefully, by the end of it, he would have Clary back with him.
He showered and dressed before leaving his room. He hadn't decided where he wanted to go yet when voices in the library as he walked by caught his attention.
Maryse was standing to the side of Hodge's old desk, speaking to a Hologram of Jia Penhallow. Maryse looked to have been woken up, wearing a robe overtop red pajamas and slippers, her hair tied back. Jia was wearing Consul robes. Neither looked happy.
"…few minutes ago," Jia was saying, "I'm dispatching as many fighters as are willing to go. We'll portal over in no less than half an hour if everything goes as planned."
Maryse nodded. "Thank you, Jia. We'll see you then." The Consul nodded and the hologram disappeared.
Maryse noticed Jace standing there then, arms crossed. He wasn't about to apologize for eavesdropping, and Maryse didn't seem inclined to make him. "Jace," she said, "Good, you're up."
"It's starting, isn't it?" he asked, voice void of emotion.
She nodded. "The wards picked up a huge demonic presence entering this realm less than half an hour ago. There's likely only one thing that could mean."
"An army," Jace supplied. Magnus had been right in assuming that was how it would work.
She nodded again. "It doesn't seem to be a particularly organized one, being as it isn't here yet, which is good for us, but if it is who we think it is, it's only a matter of time. The Consul is sending as much help as she can. In the meantime, we need to prepare. Go wake the others and tell them. I'm going to call Alec. He's with Magnus." Jace nodded and turned to go, satisfied that justice would be served today. At least he wouldn't be sitting around anymore. He had no doubt that Asmodeus was the reason Clary was missing, and he intended to make him, and every other demon involved, pay heavily for it.
Isabelle was beside herself. Everyone kept telling her that what had happened to Clary wasn't her fault, and maybe they were right, but if that was true, why did she feel so guilty? She hadn't been able to sleep. She hadn't been able to do much of anything, really. She felt beyond awful. She knew, logically, that there wasn't anything she could have done, but she felt like there should have been.
Simon didn't help. He was kind and comforting as always, but he had looked absolutely lost since they'd come back without his best friend. He didn't blame her like she blamed herself, but seeing him like that broke her heart even more.
She was lying on her back, staring up at the ceiling of her bedroom, and had been for a while, when Jace came in to tell her what was going on. It was the first time she'd heard him speak since he and Alec had found her in the street the night before, and while Simon looked lost, Jace looked like a ghost, like his whole world had shattered and he was now stuck trying to rebuild it after the wind had blown all the pieces away.
"Jace," she said when he finished explaining.
"Just get ready, Izzy," he'd said, letting her get no further before walking back out the door and leaving her alone again.
Simon had just fallen into a fitful sleep, exhaustion getting the better of him after he'd lain awake all night, when a voice had woken him up again. "Get up, Newbie. We have demons to fight."
Simon sighed heavily before opening his tired eyes, expecting the other Shadowhunter's words to carry the same meaning they had every other time he'd been woken up to fight demons for the past month, something he was quite the opposite of motivated to do right now.
He still couldn't believe it was real. Clary couldn't be gone. She'd always been so strong, so capable of taking care of herself. He'd always been the one that needed saving. But she was gone; kidnapped, and they had no idea where she was or who had taken her. They were temporarily out of moves. He didn't know how to deal with it.
When Jace explained what was going on, Simon caught a bit of a second wind. They'd been waiting for something to happen with Asmodeus for over two months now, and it finally was. When they were all at their weakest, most exhausted, and most emotionally distraught states. Of course. Simon had to hand it to him; the Greater Demon knew how to play these things. Simon just hoped the Nephilim did too.
Jace passed Alec as he made his way from the weapons room-Alec was on his way there now. Jace nodded half-heartedly in greeting, and he nodded back, looking pale and like he'd rather be doing anything but what they were. Jace knew why. This was it. Alec was out of time. He would most likely be losing Magnus today, and he clearly knew it. Jace felt slightly bad that he wasn't in on Clary's addition to the plan; that would at least give him some semblance of hope, but Magnus didn't want him to know. He didn't want him to get hurt even more, which, Jace supposed, was understandable. And Clary had been right; the fewer people that knew, the better.
He clasped his parabatai's fist in his own, trying to look as encouraging as possible. He knew it probably wasn't convincing. At all. Jace was just as miserable, and Alec was the only one who knew what he was going through right now. And based on the look in his blue eyes, Alec was thinking the same thing about him.
"See you down there," he said as they let go. Jace nodded and continued walking.
Maryse was again in the library when he arrived, though she wore fighting gear now. Maguns was with her, wearing jeans and a purple T-shirt, as if it was just another ordinary day and he wasn't about to participate in a war that could potentially end all of their lives. Frankly, it wasn't surprising; he was Magnus after all.
The warlock met Jace's eyes, his question obvious. Jace nodded infinitesimally. It was up to him now to make sure Clary's plan succeeded. If Jace could do nothing else, he owed her that much.
"The Clave is going to meet us in Central Park," Maryse said informatively, noticing his entrance.
Jace stared at her. "Central Park," he repeated dully, "You mean the one that is filled with mundanes every day? That's a great idea. What did you plan to do, exactly? Just go through with this war with them there and simply hope the collateral damage is kept to a minimum?"
"Jace, it's the biggest open area around, and we don't have much time. The demons are going to come to us, and they certainly can't come here. We'll have to put up temporary wards to keep the mundanes out and hope they last."
"Hope they last? What do you intend to do if they don't?"
"They'll be fine. It's our only option. Now we need to leave in ten minutes. Is everyone ready?"
Jace shrugged, spreading his arms dramatically. "Logistics is your job. I'm just here to kill things."
Maryse sighed exasperatedly, rolling her eyes, and stormed past him, out of the library, leaving Jace alone with Magnus, who managed to look amused.
"You are the epitome of an insufferable teenager. You know that, right?" the warlock asked after she had gone.
"It adds to my charm," Jace said blandly.
Magnus snorted, and then grew serious. After a few seconds, he said, "I am sorry, Jace, but she's strong. She'll be okay. We will find her."
Jace raised an eyebrow, ignoring the pan that shot through his chest at the thought of her. "Is that assuming you don't die today? That we all don't?"
Magnus visibly flinched, and, normally, Jace probably would have felt bad, but at this point, he had walls built so high up, he didn't know if they could come down again. But if he wanted to survive today, they were necessary. He couldn't be breaking down in the middle of a war. "Ever the optimist," the warlock muttered, and louder, said, "Fine. If you wish to be that way, I'll leave you to wallow in misery by yourself. I'd like my potential last day on earth to be spent with more hospitable company." With that, he also left the room, and Jace was alone.
The first members of the Clave had already come through the portal, which stood open in the center of Central Park, by the time they got there. Jace guessed the wards had also been put up, judging from the vast emptiness of the place. He'd never seen it so unoccupied, but it did make him feel slightly better about all of this. It was bad enough Shadowhunters could be hurt and maybe even killed today. Innocent humans didn't need to be in danger too.
Fiddling idly with a Seraph blade to keep his hands occupied, he looked around at his family, friends, and fellow Shadowhunters. Simon and Isabelle stood hand in hand, not speaking. They both looked awful-upset and sleep-deprived, but Jace knew he didn't look any better. Maryse stood by the Portal, greeting the Clave members as they came through.
Alec and Magnus stood off to the side of everyone, facing each other, both hands entwined with the other's, speaking, though their words were lost in the space separating them. Jace didn't need to hear though to know they were saying goodbye. Magnus looked to be saying I love you. Alec looked like he was barely holding it together. Looking away from the scene he knew he had no right to be privy to, Jace hoped Alec would get it together enough to fight. He didn't want to lose his parabatai. He'd already lost Clary.
Minutes later, the portal closed and the Clave members-way too small a group considering how many lived in Alicante-readied themselves to fight. Jocelyn and Luke had shown up, and with them, Maia and the werewolf pack, which made their assembly slightly better fit to face what was coming to them. Even so, there was no telling exactly what awaited them all today. Maybe they would all make it out alive; maybe none of them would. Either way, this ended today.
Clary couldn't remember ever being in pain like this. And she prayed to never have to again.
Yanluo had wasted no time with pleasantries. He'd gotten right to the point. "We're going to have some fun," he'd said, his smile menacing in the dim light, stretching across his sickly-looking face, "Or, at least, I am. Remember how I mentioned earlier that you are my first victim in some time? Well, last time, I was interrupted, right when I was immensely enjoying myself too. It was because of those pesky Shadowhunters, your people, that I couldn't finish last time. However, I have graciously been given a chance to right this wrong done to me. I am going to finish with you what I started on him, and this time, I will not fail."
"Who's 'him?'" Clary had asked, restrained in the metal chair as the greater demon towered over her. She'd read about Yanluo. She briefly remembered that something had happened involving him a long time ago and that he had supposedly been destroyed. Not that it helped much now. That wasn't the only thing she knew about him though, and the other information was what had set her skin crawling and heart racing in fear before anything had even happened. Yanluo was known for torturing his victims before he killed them.
And he hadn't disappointed. "No one you need concern yourself with. He's surely been dead for quite some time. Humans are so fragile, so easy to break. A twelve year old, even if he was a Shadowhunter, is no match for me." A second later, he had produced some kind of vile, which held some kind of dark liquid, hard to make out in the darkness. "This," he'd explained, "is called yin fen. It was very popular back in the day, though is much harder to find now. Lucky for you though, I have my connections." His grin had broadened, "Or, maybe, not so lucky." And then, he'd injected it into her arm, so fast; Clary hadn't had time to even process what was happening, much less try to move.
She knew the second the stuff, whatever it was, was in her, because it set her veins on fire, her heart beating way too quickly, carrying the blaze throughout her entire body until she saw red, even in the dark, and she was sure there should have been flames coming off her body. She'd screamed unwillingly, unable to keep quiet, struggling, with all her might, to break free from her restraints, not even really noticing when they cut deep into her wrists. Yanluo had laughed the whole time.
It could have been minutes or hours later, but just when she thought she might be starting to get used to the excruciating pain, or at least that it couldn't get any worse, the demon stepped forward again, another, what she know knew to be a needle, in his hand, and shot it, too, into her. It brought with it a whole new level of agony, and after that, whether from the poison or the pain, Clary didn't know, came hallucinations, on a new scale of awful than anything she'd ever known before.
After that, she'd lost all concept of time and space, floating endlessly in a sea of agony and nightmares, wave after wave of pain flooding through her and no end in sight.
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