⟨«I Love You»⟩ ▪︎M.B▪︎

CH 13: Morning Star

We both then pulled away from the kiss, catching our breath. We looked at each other and smiled.

"Now, as much as I'd love to kiss you again, we have to go thank Lydia. We owe her that much," I told Magnus while interlocking our hands together. He nodded and we both entered my Dad's office only to find Lydia passed out on the floor.

I widened my eyes as I pulled my hand out Magnus'. I then ran to Lydia.

"Lydia!" I bent down beside her as Magnus was on the other side of Lydia. Magnus then checked her pulse before looking at me and giving me a slight nod, indicating that she still had a pulse.

I then grabbed her arm and pulled up her sleeve. I grabbed my stele and ran it over her healing rune. I then looked at Magnus.

"Go get help." He nodded before running out of the room.

Lydia then opened her eyes slightly. "Hey, you're going to be okay," I said. Lydia looked at me before muttering one word,

"Hodge..."

~THE MAIN AREA~

"How's Lydia?" Clary first asked as I made my way towards her, Izzy, Jace and Alec.

"She's," I took a small pause, "better. Magnus is doing all that he can for her, but I have to admit, it's bad." I then looked at the rest of them. "And the Cup is missing."

Jace sighed, "so is Hodge."

"Maybe he was attacked too," Izzy said as she pulled up the security footage, trying to find out who attacked Lydia.

"Yeah, I don't belive that. What if Hodge was the one that attacked Lydia?" I said. Izzy scoffed and looked at me.

"Hodge? No way, we've known him our entire lives. Why would you say that, Tris? He's basically our family."

I scoffed while crossing my arms. "So? He was a former Circle member, Iz. I'm not surprised if he did this. Plus, I never trusted him in the first place."

Izzy rolled her eyes and turned back to the computer. We all looked at the screen as the footage played out.

We see Hodge backslapping Lydia hard, then she falls to the ground, unconscious. He then walks around her and picks up the Cup.

"I fucking knew it," I whispered to myself.

"I led him right to the Cup," Jace tells himself. I rub his back a bit to calm him down while reassuring him that it wasn't his fault.

"We treated him like family. How could he do this to us?" Alec told us. Nobody answered him as we looked at the screen again.

Hodge could be seen standing over Jocelyn's unconscious body. He seemed nervous, like he's waiting for someone. We then see him put on a ring.

"That's how," Iz says to herself before pausing the footage.

"What is that ring?" Clary asked while pointing to it.

"It looks like he's talking to someone," Iz tells us.

"And I can bet who it is," Jace says. Alec, Jace, Clary and I all smirk at each other, all of us knowing who it is.

"Valentine."

Alec then sighs, "well, that explains how he deactivated the Punishment rune, but it doesn't explain where he got the ring."

"You think someone smuggled it past the wards?" Clary crosses her arms.

Jace shrugged, "maybe. Hodge wasn't the only ex-Circle member around here." Jace made eyes contact with Alec and I, him thinking the same thing we're thinking.