Til The Bitter End | Alec Lightwood

3

"Lena—." Her eyes watered again. "I—I'm sorry." 

I clenched my jaw but nodded. I didn't say anything so she let go of my hand as I walked with Alec.

"I'm going to admit, seeing you in actual daylight is new." I joked. He smiled faintly.

"Is this the Lena?" A man asked moving toward us. He was around middle age. A giant circle scar on his neck. He was probably ten to fifteen years older than me. 

"The Lena?" I looked at Alec, but he shook his head.

"My name is Hodge, I'm a caretaker here. I looked after the other shadow hunters," He smiled. I nodded my head.

"My name is Lena Fray." I introduced. Both of them looked at me funny. "What?"

"Lena Fairchild?" Hodge asked once more.

"We have to tell the Clave," Alec muttered.

"Get her settled in first, I will handle the stuff with the Clave," He patted Alec's shoulder as he walked away.

"Fairchild?"

"It's your real last name," Alec nodded. 

I followed him onto a platform. There were a lot of other people walking around in similar gear. Several monitors and screens everywhere. Isabelle smiled as she looked at my clothes.

"Fabulous."

"Iz, other things," Alec shook his head. I gave her a tight smile. "Alright, the mortal cup. Do you have any idea where it could be? Did your mother ever mention it to you?" I let out a long breath.

"Yeah, she's mentioned it multiple times. Although, I didn't know what she meant when she was talking about it. She would never tell me exactly where, but she's told me what it looks like. She never answered my questions if I would push further." I rubbed my temples grimacing slightly as the pain started behind my eyes.

"Don't push yourself you feel from the second story," Isabelle said. I shook my head.

"Um."

"We think members of the Circle took your mother," Alec added as he pulled up pictures of a few people. A red circle was tattooed on their neck. It was similar to the one Hodge had, but his was faded. "They serve Valentine."

"And that is?" I looked at Isabelle.

"He's a former shadow hunter. He was trying to start a war against the Downworlders. He wanted complete control over everything. He needs the cup to do that," She explained. 

I stayed with them for several more minutes. They explained more things to me about this world. Even though I knew more than Clary, apparently I didn't know as much as I thought. My phone started buzzing. I pulled it out of my thin pocket seeing Simon's name.

"Alerts are going off," Alec turned. A camera showed a person standing outside. I answered the phone.

"Where are you?!" Simon yelled. "I swear Lena if you dragged her into all of your shit, I will never forgive you for that! She isn't like you! She is normal, she still has passion and hopes! Where are you?! She's not answering and I'm worried—."

"Stop fucking screaming at me," I hung up.

"Why is the mundane outside?" Isabelle asked.

"It's Clary's best friend/boyfriend," I walked off the platform moving toward the doors.

"Lena!" Clary yelled.

"Get your man, he's screaming at me," She grimaced as we both walked outside.

"There you are!" He threw his hands up. Jace followed us out. "I've been looking everywhere. Let me take you home." He took off his coat wrapping it around Clary. He didn't glance at me once.