𝑶𝑭 𝑩𝑳𝑶𝑶𝑫 𝑨𝑵𝑫 𝑩𝑬𝑻𝑹𝑨𝒀𝑨𝑳

ᎠᏘᎽ ᎧF ᏘTᎧᏁᏋMᏋᏁT

Alyssa's Apartment

Morning sunlight streamed into the bedroom from the window, waking Jace up from his sleep. He groaned and put his arm over his eyes, trying to shield them from the light. He opened one eye tentatively and looked to see that they'd forgotten to close the curtains last night.

At the reminder of last night, Jace grinned as he moved his arm from his face and looked up to the ceiling, reveling in the memories of the previous night. He turned to his side, only to frown upon seeing that side of the bed empty. He wondered where his dark-skinned beauty had gone. Getting up from bed, he pulled on a pair of sweatpants and left the room.

Yawning as he entered the kitchen, he found Alyssa leaning against the island counter, with her forearms resting on the counter and holding a mug of coffee in her hands. She seemed to be lost in thought, which was confirmed when she didn't react to Jace walking close to her.

Placing an arm around her, Jace leaned in and kissed her cheek, bringing her out of her thoughts. She snapped out of it to see Jace looking down at her with a small, soft smile.

"Hey." He said softly, his voice deep and husky from sleep.

"Hey, good morning." She responded, turning her head to kiss him. "Coffee?" She said, giving him the mug of coffee in her hands at his nod.

"Thanks, but weren't you going to drink that?"

"No, I've already drunk a lot since the sun rose."

"Speaking of which, you didn't come back to bed. Why?" Jace said. Alyssa looked down at her hands.

"Yeah, I couldn't sleep anymore. My head was heavy."

"Does it have to do with the call you got from Tessa?" Alyssa nodded. "What did she say?"

"That I'm basically a ticking time bomb," Alyssa said with a sigh. Jace frowned in confusion at her choice of words.

"What?"

"Yeah, isn't my life just amazing?" Alyssa said sarcastically, throwing her hands up in the air. Jace placed the mug on the counter and grabbed her hands, turning her to face him fully.

"Hey, babe, hey. Tell me exactly what she said."

Alyssa sighed. "She told me that all the different sides of me are basically out of balance and having a power struggle. And guess what, my angel blood, not the nephilim blood but pure angel blood like yours and Clary's, is making things worse." Jace was shocked.

"I don't understand."

"It's like when you get a transplant and your body fights against it, treating it like a foreign substance. That's how the wolf, Seelie, and demon are all seeing the angel blood on top of their own struggle for dominance. Hence why I said I'm basically a ticking time bomb."

"That part I understood, but what I don't get is how you have pure angel blood like me and Clary."

"I think we know, darling. It's the same way I got my werewolf and demon blood."

"No, no, I know that. What I mean is..."

"You don't get how no one, not even Magnus, figured out that I had it. The way he figured it out with Clary. I don't know."

"So, how did Tessa know?"

"She scanned me yesterday with her magic. I also told her about the precognitive drawings. You know, the ones I never know about until after the event. Anyway, she realized after her scan that I had angel blood and that the drawings are my gift, like how you and Clary have your rune thing going."