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Going back to the Institute after visiting William was always hard for Jace. Neither him nor Clary were allowed to hold their child, or even talk to him, they were just allowed to spy on him, to look at him playing, eating, sleeping. And after that single hour they were forced to leave, to go back to their empty lives, heartbroken once again and destined to suffer alone, because they couldn't tell anybody. Their families couldn't know and while Clary could just walk home and spend the rest of the day crying alone, Jace was forced to go back to the Institute and pretend everything was fine. Like now.
He breathed deeply in the elevator and when he stepped out he was once again prepared to be his usual self, so nobody would suspect anything. He walked to his room wanting to change before heading to the training room; he needed to work out, to lash out, to lose himself doing something physical.
"Jace!" He heard a voice behind him and frowned as he saw Isabelle. "Where were you? I've been calling you all morning!"
I was visiting my son, who's prisoner in the Seelie Court. Sorry I didn't bother to bring my phone, in my once a month visiting hour.
Jace swallowed the instinctive reply and forced his face to a neutral expression. "I was out and I left my phone here. Did you need anything?"
"Yes." She nodded vigorously. "Come with me, I need to show you something."
"Can't this wait? I was going to change and train."
"No, it can't. Come on, it's important."
Jace shrugged and followed her, trying to welcome the distraction. It wasn't the same as working out, but maybe he could ease the pain by concentrating on something else. As he walked in the library, he was mildly surprised: Isabelle never was a book worm, what could she possibly have to show him there?
"What's going on?" He finally asked as he caught sight of the small reunion around one of the library tables: Alec was there, and Magnus and Simon. Isabelle closed and locked the door behind him and he noticed that her previously friendly expression now changed to a very serious one. An angry one, even.
"Jace, come here." Alec called, taking a step towards him.
"What's this, some kind of Intervention? I get it's the fashion of the moment, but I don't really need one." He was starting to be irritated.
"We have something to tell you." Isabelle told him, still at his side. He noticed she was armed and she was holding her whip. She looked like ready to strike.
He raised his eyebrow, looking around. Simon and Alec didn't look armed, and Magnus was as casual as always, but he could feel it in the air: something was wrong. "I thought you were going to show me something."
"Yeah, well, I lied." She smoothly replied, putting a hand on his back and slightly pushing him forward. "Come on."
He stopped and took a step away from Isabelle. "I don't think I want to hear any of this."
"That's too bad, because you will anyway." Simon told him, surprising Jace with his venomous voice. Yes, something was definitely wrong.
"Angry, Lovelace?" He asked mockingly. "Did Izzy beat you at training, again?"
"You're an idiot, Jace." Now Simon was walking to him, so furious he looked ready to kill. "When did you plan to tell us? When did you plan to tell us?"
"Tell you about what exactly?" He asked, his heartbeat rapidly increasing. It just couldn't be. They couldn't have found out.
"Clary." Simon growled, making his heart stop. "We know everything. We know about what she's doing."
"And what is she doing?" He asked again, hiding behind his well built walls. He had to bluff. He had to deny.
"Jace," Alec walked to him as well. "Simon and Izzy heard her talking to Jiliel yesterday evening."
"What has this to do with me?"
"Maybe this will help jog your memory." Magnus said, handing him the book he brought from home, the one with the Kohl poison description. "And just so you know, if you try to leave I'll turn you into a toad. I always wanted to do it to someone, sooner or later."
The book was familiar to Jace. Six months earlier he found it in his desperate research of a way to free William and looking at it he felt sick all over again. They knew, they really knew. They heard Clary and somehow they connected the dots.
When he didn't say anything, Alec came closer and put a hand on his arm. "Jace, we can help. We know the Seelie Queen is forcing Clary to spy for her. We know she's threatening you or maybe all of us. We know you're trying to get Kaelie to help you. Let us in Jace. You don't have to do this alone."
The book fell on the floor and suddenly Jace felt all his strength abandon him. He wanted nothing more than to confide in his siblings, to allow them to support him, but he couldn't. "Whatever you think you know, you can't do anything about it. Just leave me and Clary alone."
"Jace, we have to stop this." Isabelle didn't move, but her voice was gentle now. "It's dangerous. If the Clave finds out, Clary could die."
"They won't find out unless you tell them about it." He wasn't looking at any of them, his eyes fixed on the ground.
"We can't let this go on." Alec told him quietly. "The fairies are obviously getting ready for war. We have to warn the Nephilim. And you know we're more than ready to face any threat on our lives. Will—" his voice broke for a second, then he composed himself. "He was a child. We're not helpless like he was, we can protect ourselves."
When Jace didn't say anything, Simon stood directly in front of him. "Do you even know what Clary is going through right now?"
"Yes, Simon, I know." Jace answered through clenched teeth. But he just knew it since the previous night. And he could understand Simon's anger all too well.
"Really? Because I don't think you get it. The bastard is raping her. Since months. And where were you all this time? Why didn't you do anything? Why did you let your wife—"
"I didn't know! She just told me last night, damn it!" Jace grabbed Simon by his shirt, growling in his face and letting some of his anger and frustration out. "Do you think if I knew I would have let her move out of here? Be at his disposal? And now Clary wants me to do nothing about it! I can't do anything to spare her!"
"To hell with that, if you won't then I will! I won't let my parabatai be blackmailed and raped while her husband is watching and doing nothing!"
"You talk to anybody about this, you try to approach Clary or Jiliel and I'll kill you Simon." He was as pale as a ghost now, but his grip on Simon was firm.
"Jace, are you crazy?" Isabelle cried, grabbing his arm and trying to make him release her fiancè. "Why would you—"
"Because they have my son!" He shouted before being able to stop.
Everybody looked at him wide eyed and when he realised his mistake he let Simon go and turned away.
"What?" Alec whispered, taking a step to him.
"William is alive." Jace told them, his voice empty of emotions. There was no use in lying to them now. "He's alive but he's prisoner in the Seelie Court."
Isabelle sat down, shocked. "But—the funeral—"
"That's why Clary and I insisted on not burning his body. There was no body. You saw an empty coffin."
"He's dying Jace, we are losing him."
Clary was crying, sitting beside her sleeping son. William was pale, his head resting on his mother's lap, his blond hair dump with sweat. "I can't let that happen. I'll go to the Seelie Queen and ask about the message she sent us."
"You know it's a trap." Jace was sitting on the floor, his back leaning against his son's bed, the sleepless nights showing in the dark circles below his eyes.
"What choice do we have? Nobody knows what's killing Will. I won't let our son die!"
There was really nothing Jace could say to make her change her mind and deep in his heart he didn't want to. He didn't want to lose his kid.
But of course it had been a trap. With the Seelie Queen there was always a catch.
"Jonathan Herondale and Clarissa Morgenstern." She greeted them when they were escorted into her throne room.
"My son. Tell me how to save him." Clary said with determination.
The Queen merely smiled like she was expecting the bluntness and the question. "You can't save him. Your son isn't ill, he was poisoned."
There was a stunned moment of silence, then Jace lunged forward, ready to strike. The Queen stopped him, raising her hand. "Injure me, kill me and you won't leave the Court with the antidote. There is no medicine save what I can give him."
Jace stopped dead, his seraph blade already out of the sheath. "There is always an antidote."
"What do you want from us?" Clary asked, her fists shaking in fear. The Queen couldn't lie. If she said there was no antidote, then all hope was lost.
The fairy looked at them with hatred now. "You are the reason my people is disgraced. You are the ones who killed Sebastian Morgenstern. You killed my lover. And now you'll pay."
"Then save my son and kill me." Clary told her, not afraid to die. "I'm the one who killed Sebastian. I'm the one who should pay for that."
"I don't intend on killing you, Nephilim." The Queen looked at her and smiled. "Death is easy. Death is final. You die and then you're at peace. No. Your punishment will be worse than that."
"I can threaten you as well, my Lady." Jace said, taking a step to her. "I can point a blade at your throat before any of your knights can do anything about it. And I can kill you, if you don't cure my son."
"Then go ahead and kill me, Jonathan Herondale. Kill me and kill your son as well because I swear that if I die, so will he. I want my revenge and I'll have it, one way or the other."
She would do it, Jace realised while paling. She would really die just for the sake of knowing them in eternal pain over William's death.
"I offer you a bargain." The Queen said. "Accept and the child will live. Refuse and he'll suffer in agony." When they didn't reply, she continued. "The antidote to the Kohl poison must be taken daily, every day of your life, to keep the poison at bay. While you take the antidote, you're perfectly healthy. You stop it, you get sick again. I'll cure the child if you give him to me. I claim Sebastian Morgenstern's nephew. He'll live here with me from now on. He'll be mine."
"No!" Jace shouted, raising his blade again. "I'll never give you my son!"
"Then he'll keep suffering till the end." The Queen replied. "You can look in all the world for a cure, but you won't find it. Warlocks can't help. Your Silent Brothers can't either. I'm the one who can. And I won't, unless you give me the child."
"But—" Clary weakly started but the Queen interrupted her.
"I'm not done. I demand to be back under the Covenant, I demand my seat back in the Council. I demand you to vouch for me, Clarissa Morgenstern. You'll be my eyes and ears and you'll report to me every Council meeting, every progress you make. And while you work for me, I command you and Jonathan Herondale to be apart."
"What?" Jace whispered, paling even more.
"You are no more husband and wife. You're mine to command now, and I wish you to suffer. You won't hold her again. You won't be able to love her or protect her. I want you to see each other every day and know you can't be together, ever again. Sebastian wanted her and he died because of this. Now, nobody will have her again, for the rest of your lives."
The Queen rose up from her throne and looked at them with triumph. "These are my requests, Shadowhunters. Meet them and your child will live, healthy, happy and cared for. Deny me, and you'll watch him waste away until the poison runs its course."
"She gave us two doses of the antidote to prove us it would work. She told us Will would be safe for two days but then he would get sick again. She told us there wasn't much time left."
Jace was sitting down now, his eyes fixed on the far away wall of the library. His voice was empty as he was telling everything that happened.
"She was right, of course. Will got better for two days, then he got sick again. I searched everywhere for an antidote but every book kept saying the Kohl poison couldn't be permanently cured and that the plant only grew in the fairy world. In the end we had no choice but to give in to the Queen's demands. She placed Jiliel with Clary and Kaelie with me, so she would be sure we were keeping our end of the bargain: be apart. She forbid us to leave New York, she said she wanted us to keep seeing each other, to enhance the pain. She allowed Clary to live out of the Institute just so we wouldn't be under the same roof at night, when Jiliel or Kaelie couldn't check on us. I had to see her every day, to act cold in front of you all, to resist touching her, holding her—it was Hell. And then the Queen allowed us to see William, once a month, for an hour. We wouldn't be able to touch him, to talk to him, he wouldn't see us at all. But we would, we would know he was alright. And of course, we would see him grow up, knowing he wasn't ours anymore, knowing we could never hold him again. That's our punishment for killing Sebastian: be apart, our son torn from us forever. A punishment worse than death."