"Izzy!" Alec dropped his bow before he even realized he was doing it. He shouldn't have, they were in the middle of a fight, but he couldn't take his eyes off of his sister. He skidded onto the forest floor beside her, catching a rock against his knee as he went. The pain shot up to the base of his spine, but he ignored it. His stomach was already twisting anyway. He dragged her further away from the others, the curses and the hiss of blades through air, and barely registered it any of it.

She wasn't moving.

"Iz?" The sound of his own voice was sharp and brittle in his ears. He could hear the panic in it. Usually this would have bothered Alec. He was not one to parade his emotions out for everyone to see. In the moment, nothing mattered but his sister. "Isabelle please!"

His fingers felt numb as he tugged the stele from his belt, pushing away her long, black hair with his other hand so he could see her face. There was so much blood and her hair stuck to everything, tangling around the shaft of the arrow. Alec felt his whole body shudder when he managed to peel away enough hair to see the damage. The arrow had entered her left cheek at an angle, lodging into the back of her throat at the opposite side. Her cheek, where the shaft peirced through, was swollen to what might have been a comical level, if it weren't so sickening. It was a bulbous, angry red that made her head seem twice the size it should be. His fingers shook as he gripped the arrow shaft, moving as if he were a robot. He barely even felt as if he were real. How could he be? How could any of this be real? How could he have shot Isabelle? Alec grit his teeth, blinking through tears, and yanked the shaft out of his sister's face.

A high, keening sound peirced through the fog in his brain. It was Isabelle. She was screaming. He felt her body convulse in his lap and lurched into motion.

"Don't move," he told her, fumbling to get his stele against the side of her neck. He had to peel away more blood drenched hair to make a clean space. "Don't move Iz. I'll fix it!"

Alec was usually so careful with runes. He applied them slowly, precisely, but now he scrawled the iratze into her neck as quickly as his hand would allow. The familiar shape of the mark poured out of him easily, and then so did the next two that he applied to her sternum and arm. He saw her hand slap down into the earth beside her, her fingers clawing into the dirt, but she remained still enough for him to finish, holding herself in place. Slowly, as the marks began to take effect, her grip loosened.

"Alec!" The timber of Magnus's voice cut through the bubble that had swallowed the siblings. He felt his head snap up to find the warlock clutching an unconscious Clary in his arms. His face was drawn and tight as he gazed back at them. "Is she..?"

"She's ok!" Alec smiled through tears as his sister let out a shuddering breath and reached up to grip his sleeve, spitting out a mouthfull of blood. Slowly her eyes opened and he practically body slammed into her to wrap her in a hug. Behind them, he could hear the dull, wet sound of steel rending flesh, but even revenge didn't turn his gaze just yet. He had nearly killed Isabelle. He'd nearly killed his sister, and the feeling of her breathing against his neck was the only thing that mattered.

You were supposed to protect them. Protect all of them. You can't fail again.

"I'm sorry," he gasped out the words like he was choking on them. Choking on what he had almost done. "Izzy I'm so sorry!"

Muffled in his shirt, she replied with a soft laugh. "I'll forgive you if you stop crushing me. I'm recently healed here!"

Alec jumped back, his blue eyes full of sorries that she smiled and waved away.

"Alec. It's ok. I'm ok." They stared at one another a moment, smiling and panting when Micah Bellfast let out a sharp curse and stumbled back into the grass beside them.

"Name of the angel..." he hissed, his eyes wide and terrified. He had dropped one of his daggers in shock.

Alec and Isabelle both turned to the gruesome scene in the dirt. Some part of him felt triumphant at the sight of it, the fall of a monster he had hated for so long. The rest of him, the present him currently crouched a yard away from the thing that used to be his enemy, felt nothing but sickness. It was not the body of Sebastien Morganstern now. It had turned to a pile of meat; mangled and torn and splattered across the ground as if the nephilim had been splashing around in his corpse like rain puddles. He looked like he'd been run over by a truck, and then the surly driver reversed a couple times to make sure the job was done. It was. He was utterly unrecognizable. Even his face was all but caved in by Luther's axe; left as a sticky pile of red and grey slop, mixed with the jagged, white fragments of bone.

At first, Alec wondered if Micah was balking at the savagery of what they had all just done, lost to bloodlust and revenge. Micah hadn't seen much of battle or death before Valentine's rise to power. He stared at the steaming remains like they had just squirted him in the face. Only, Alec realized as he continued to look at the mess of a corpse, it seemed to have done something far worse than that. It moved.

The severed left hand in the dirt by Luther's foot spasmed, and the large man jumped back, swearing under his breath. Saanvi, clutching her halberd with white knuckled fingers, began to shake her head, backing away. As the mass of bone and blood and flesh began to twich and undulate, Saanvi started to pray.

"What is..." Isabelle gasped beside him. She was gripping the sleeve of his sweater, unconsciously pressing closer. "What's happening?"

"I don't know." Alec's voice sounded far away. He couldn't take his eyes off the shifting flesh. It was sliding itself back together, bubbling back into shape. It was like every part was a living thing. He was...

"Alexander! Get away from it" Magnus managed to cut through the fog of shock and Alec scrambled to his feet, dragging Izzy up with him. She moved behind his outstretched arm, backing quickly away as he did. As they all did. The group of Shadowhunters stood in horrified silence, watching as Sebastien Morganstern's mangled corpse literally pulled itself back together.

"What the hell is happening?" Alec demanded, looking at Magnus. The warlock was watching the body mend itself with narrowed eyes. Clary was on the ground, still unconscious, behind him and his fingers were twitching, shooting off blue sparks. He looked unnerved, and Alec only rarely saw that on the immortal's face. When someone as old as he was got unnerved, it meant very bad things.

"Well Alec, I think Hell."

"What?" He frowned in confusion. Magnus didn't look at him.

"This magic is dark, and far too powerful to have come from a child like Kesidorma. This is the work of greater demons."

"But how could he..." Alec couldn't get his brain to accept it. It wasn't possible. People that damaged did not become whole again, they were hauled away in buckets. "How is it even..."

Before Alec could stammer out anymore useless questions, Sebastien sat up, sucking in a breath. Saanvi sank into a defensive stance with her halberd pointing at his head, but she was nearly twenty feet away from him by now. Luther gripped his axe, but he too seemed reluctant to approach the boy who had just reshaped himself out of a chunky puddle of flesh.

"Holy shit!" Sebastien exclaimed to no one in particular. His hands moved wildly across his body as if checking to see that it was still there. "That was...I didn't know it would be so...whoa."

His eyes were wide pools of obsidian as he gazed around the gathered nephilim. His clothes were in tatters. The shirt was all but strips and his leather gear pants were tattered down his left leg. The one Edward had been happily chopping into pieces before. Sebastien took a couple deep breaths before his head tipped back and he began to laugh. The rest of them were silent, watching him in absolute horror. Alec felt his own stomach twist at the hideous sound of that laughter and his hand slipped back to Magnus, twinning their fingers. The blue sparks faded and Magnus squeezed his hand, though he kept his eyes on the demon in front of him. Alec couldn't believe it. Sebastien really was a demon.

Micah took a sharp breath when Sebastien pushed himself up to his feet and shrugged off the remnants of his shirt and gear jacket. He inspected the tattered strips a moment, his eyes flicking momentarily to Saanvi who grit her teeth and glared back. He smirked at that and tossed the ruined clothes down into the dirt. He gave the waist of his pants a gentle tug to make sure they were secure, and gave a resigned sigh when he found at least that was still in one piece.

"Well," he said suddenly. His black eyes scanned them. "You all certainly went for it, didn't you? I hope you got that out of your systems."

"It's impossible." Micah was shaking his head. His face was ghost white, sheened in sweat. His eyes were glassy with unshed tears. "You can't be standing. You can't be."

Sebastien appraised the youngest Shadowhunter with a dismissive look, arching a brow and slowly holding out his arms. "You can come over here and check if you want. Better yet," his black eyes snapped to Isabelle. "Send mia bella. She can come touch me and make sure I'm solid."

Isabelle stiffened behind Alec. His jaw clenched and he narrowed his eyes.

"What did Valentine do to you?"

Sebastien laughed again, hands on his hips like some twisted version of Peter Pan. His skin was healed without even a mark, but it was still covered in his blood. It smeared across his bare chest and splattered across his face. It was vivid red, matted against the stark white of his hair. He shouldn't be laughing like that. He shouldn't be standing at all.

How did you fight an enemy that couldn't be killed?

"Valentine might have ensured I was imbued with Lillith's blood, but she is the one who has shown me real power."

"Lillith?" Isabelle scowled. Alec wasn't sure she'd meant to ask the question aloud. Sebastien winked at her. "The Lady of Edom herself." His eyes moved to Magnus. "You must know of her. She and your father go way back."

"Magnus?" Alec questioned softly, but the warlock shook his head.

"Focus Alexander."

"Yes," Sebastien agreed with a clap of his hands that made Micah jump. "Let's all focus. Let's focus on how completely your situation has changed. Five minutes ago you thought you could turn me into mincemeat, and yet here I stand. Unbowed. Uninjured. Sort of thirsy..."

"What do we do?" Micah all but squeaked. Alec was beginning to regret letting him come along, but numbers were thin these days. He didn't have many choices. He was beginning to realize choices were thin across the board.

"Take him down." Alec called out to them. His voice was far more steady than he felt. Sebastien squinted at him like he had just grown a second head.

"Really Lightwood? I rise from the dead and you're still going to fight me? Are you high?"

Alec ignored him. "Attack him. He won't stay down but we can subdue him long enough to tie him up.

"I would suggest chains, actually." Magnus held up a finger. "Lots and lots of big, magical chains."

"Just take him down!" Isabelle shouted, drawing her last dagger and pointing it at Sebastien. The others glanced at one another, then at their weapons, and all seemed to aggree. He'd gone down once. At least they could do that. And now he didn't have his sword. Sebastien looked around at them all with a scowl as they began to approach, before letting out a heavy sigh.

"Seriously?" He sounded more annoyed than anything else.

They were absolutely serious.

*

"It's true. He's really..."

Kesi swallowed, managing to school her expression into something flippant and almost bored by the time Asher looked over at her. It wouldn't do to have the evil minions see her looking shaken. Not that it would be her fault really. What she had just seen would make anyone pause. Piles of slop were not supposed to reshape themselves into half naked, wintery princes.

"You doubted him?" She asked, more out of mild curiosity about his bond with Jonathan than any real need to know his feelings. She wasn't sure he could doubt.

"No," Asher shook his head, confirming her theory. "But it's one thing to believe, another entirely to see it with your own eyes. He's more powerful than I ever imagined."

Kesi recalled suddenly a journal Jonathan had once shown her. One of his father's, spirited away from the ruins of Wayland manor while he was supposed to be patrolling Brocelind forest. It was full of notes on Valentine's experiments with his children, both blood related and stolen. It was the first time Jonathan had told her about who his demonic parentage really came from. She remembered the vision Jonathan told her Lillith had given him of her exchange with the old Shadowhunter.

The child born with this blood in him will exceed the power of the greater demons of the abysses between worlds.

Kesi hadn't put much stock in the words. She'd assumed it was flowery demon talk. Just bragging from a demon wannabe-mother. My spawn is more powerful than your spawn. He'll subjugate way more worlds then yours ever could!

Now there was a cold pit settling in her gut. She hadn't known what to expect either, but this...A young man that could cheat death so spectacularly...What had she helped Jonathan make of himself? What would he become?

"Should we be...stopping this?" Asher sounded conflicted. "I mean, he said not to interfere but...that guy with the axe is really going to town."

Kesi waved her hand, making the window that displayed the violent scene suddenly vanish. She didn't want to see it anyway. Even she had her limits.

"Jonathan wants them to take him. You saw it. Whatever they might plan, they can't kill him."

"I hardly think this is worth it for a few extra soldiers." Asher rubbed a hand over his trim beard, looking thoughtful. "We could have just taken them in that clearing. They drink from the cup, bing bang boom..."

She didn't appreciate his finger guns.

"It's not just about the soldiers," Kesi sighed. She was feeling suddenly, incredibly exhausted, which sucked, considering how much work she had ahead of her. Jonathan was a serious task master, all things aside. "I mean, yes, it is about the soldiers. The soldiers that they didn't bring to the obvious trap. We don't just want a handful you idiot."

"Now, there's no need for name callin' Miss Kesidorma." Asher smiled in a way that made the slight southern twang in his pronunciation of her name less annoying than it normally was. His eyes weren't black anymore, as they had been when he first drank from the cup, but there was a flatness to the blue orbs that made Kesi a little uneasy. It also made her a little excited, but that was a thing she would have to contemplate later when she actually had free time. She scowled at him and the way he smiled back like he had a private joke and pointed toward the wall that had housed their magic viewing window.

"We need all of the nephilim they have. When Jonathan is taken to their camp, or hidey hole, or whatever, I can track him. We did a thing."

Asher snorted a laugh, bending over the small, wooden table with her alter to Lillith and poking at the skull of a bird. "Yeah, I've heard that about you two."

Kesi slapped his hand away from her bird skull. "That is in the past. And shut up."

The tall, large Shadowhunter -and she was just realizing, now that he only wore a thin, plaid shirt and tight blue jeans, just how large and muscular- turned to her and leaned his hip against the edge of the table. The contents of her alter scattered, but she was sure he'd done that part on purpose. She watched him cross his big arms over his chest and flash her a slow, lazy smile. Evil wasn't supposed to seem this relaxed.

"I get all that," he said, though she wasn't sure that was entirely true. "But why let them do all this...violence. Not that I'm opposed to violence, mind you. I find it pretty thrilling. Even more than I used to, and that's sayin' something. I just don't get why he'd let them take him in like...that."

Kesi stared at the wall a moment, recalling the Shadowhunters as they swarmed Jonathan. It had made her gut twist to watch, and then there had been Clary, screaming in the background, fighting to get to him from Magnus Bane. Clary, who he wanted more than anything else.

Kesi unclenched her jaw and flashed Asher what she hoped was a flat and dangerous smile. His blue eyes seemed to glint, so she thought she did a good job.

"That part is more of a personal project. Just be ready with the others when the time comes to take them. We really do have a schedule to keep, regardless of the red headed wrench that likes to toss itself into the gears."

Asher chuckled, eyeing her with his head tilted to the side. All he needed was a cowboy hat and a piece of straw poking out of his mouth to complete the picture. Kesi had the oddest urge to ask him to shout Hi-Ho Silver!

"You know, Miss Kesidorma, usually when one wants to subtly mock their rival, they do it...well subtly."

Kesi gave him an arched look and rested her hand on her hip. "Well I guess I'm not a subtle person."

Asher gave her a long, far too casual, looking over. He started at her red boots, the heels like silver spikes, and trailed unhurried up along her fitted, black jumper to the thick silver belt around her waist, glittering with chains. His eyes moved steadily up the split in her bodice that started from her navel and only contained her breasts through a series of thin, silver, crisscrossing chains. When his gaze settled on her face, Kesi realized she'd been holding her breath. She let it out as subtly as she could, which it turned out, was not that subtly. Asher's face split into another lazy grin, and he winked.

"No, you aren't." And somehow, he made it sound like a compliment. Kesi swallowed. Suddenly her throat felt dry.

"Ok, cowboy. Out. I have work to do." She shooed him away from her alter toward the door. It took more shoving than she had anticipated, and he chuckled to himself the whole way, and dropping his weight so she practically was crushed beneath him. Once he was outside the door, she tried to shove it closed in his face, but Asher slapped a hand on the wood and leaned his large mass against it to keep it open and invade her space a bit.

"What kind of work?" He asked with what would have passed for innocent curiosity if not for the stupid grin. "Aren't you just waiting for Jonathan to call in the cavalry, like the rest of us?"

"We don't have cavalry, that requires horses."

"We could ride horses. They could be demon horses." He shrugged one massive shoulder. Seriously, did this guy bench press trees?

"We are not getting horses." Kesi fixed him with a frown. "Will you go do something useful please? I have to maintain a very complicated spell that keeps Jonathan from being tracked by any of Valentine's warlocks or Shadowhunters. Which...actually I really need to get back to like now, so if you would kindly fuck off..."

Asher's eyebrows rose in amusement and he finally stepped back out of her workroom. "Well since you asked so nicely." He lifted his hand up to his head, like he was tipping an imaginary hat at her, and nodded a goodbye with a wink. Why was he winking at her so much? And why was it making her cheeks so hot? This was incredibly annoying.

"Evening, Miss Kesidorma."

Kesi shut the door in his face, but she could still hear him laughing on the other side as he left. She really didn't have time for evil, flirting cowboys, she reminded herself. She needed to focus on her work because she was a professional, and definitely not in any way distracted by large, muscular, flirting cowboys. Like, at all.

Kesi shook her head clear and returned to fix her alter, grumbling under her breath as she glared at the bird skull. It's hollow eye sockets gazed back up at her in judgement. Kesi decided she didn't actually need a bird skull. It had been mostly for esthetic anyway, so she smashed it and began the process of renewing her wards around Jonathan. No eyes on this plane of existence could spy on him through magic or rune. Not so long as Lillith granted her gifts to Kesi for her service to her son. If she had to extend that shield to the annoying red head, then so be it. Everyone made sacrifices.