𝑶𝑭 𝑩𝑳𝑶𝑶𝑫 𝑨𝑵𝑫 𝑩𝑬𝑻𝑹𝑨𝒀𝑨𝑳

ᎽᎧU ᏘRᏋ ᏁᎧT ᎽᎧUR ᎧᏊᏁ

"The great warrior in the flesh. Your reputation precedes you." Sebastian said, then turned to Clary. "As does yours. You must be Clary, Valentine's daughter." He said, shaking her hand.

"Yeah. Don't hold it against me." Clary said.

"Well, we don't choose our parents." He said before his eyes landed on Alyssa. "And you must be..."

"Alyssa, his wife." Alyssa responded, gesturing towards Jace.

"Yes, also known as L'Hybride at the Paris Institute, The Hybrid." This earned looks from the others who hadn't known this fact.

"Wonderful, now that we all know each other, can we get back to the subject at hand?" Alyssa said, looking away from Sebastian.

"Yes. Tell us about Azazel, Sebastian. How do we take him down?" Jace asked.

"The only way to banish him is to puncture his demonic core. In corporeal form, it's between the T8 and T9 vertebrae." Sebastian informed. "But it's not that simple. The core is about the size of a pea."

"So the entry point's right below his sternum?" Jace asked to which Sebastian nodded. "If I can get close enough, I can kill him."

"Easy there, hotshot. Like your twin blondie over there said, it's not that simple. You'd need a certain amount of velocity to hit the core and if you get too close, you wouldn't be able to gain that velocity; too far and you might just miss it." Alyssa said.

"She's right. And even if you did, the defeat is only temporary. The nasty buggers always find a way to break out of their realm and come back." Sebastian added.

"Yes, thank you for stating the obvious." Alyssa said, surprising the others with her almost hostile tone.

"Thank you for the intel. We'll take it from here." Alec said in a dismissive tone.

"If I can, I'd like to help." Sebastian said.
"We appreciate that but you don't have clearance to go on mission. Not at this Institute."

"Alec, you can't be serious." Izzy said with a scoff.

"Hey, Alec. Look, he clearly knows more than us about Azazel. We could use all the help we can get." Jace said.

"Now, as far as tracking is concerned, we should really think about..."

"We have a very capable warlock for that." Alec said, shutting Sebastian down then turned to the others. "You do what you want. I'm gonna work with Magnus." He said then walked away.

"Jace, I'm gonna go get some coffee. Let me what's going on." Alyssa said. Jace nodded and kissed her cheek before she also walked away.

Unnoticed by the others, Sebastian watched her as she walked away with an unexplainable look in his eyes.

Imogen's Office

A guard let Jace, Alyssa, and Clary into the office where Imogen was seated at her desk. Letting Jace and Clary go first, Alyssa hung back.

"You wanted to see us?" Jace asked.

"Yes, I told you I would decide what was next for you once Azazel was vanquished, so here we are." Imogen replied.

"You can do whatever you want with me, but leave Alyssa and Clary out of this." Jace said.

"Well, that's not possible. The Clave wants to have both you and Miss Morgenstern tested to get a greater understanding of your unique angel blood abilities."

"No. We'll pass on being lab rats." Jace said, moving to leave but was stopped by Clary.

"No, Jace, I want to do this. I haven't been able to use my rune since we summoned Azazel. I...I want to understand why." Clary said.