𝑶𝑭 𝑩𝑳𝑶𝑶𝑫 𝑨𝑵𝑫 𝑩𝑬𝑻𝑹𝑨𝒀𝑨𝑳

ᎠᏘᎽ ᎧF ᏘTᎧᏁᏋMᏋᏁT

The Fairchild girl calmed down as the effects of the Iratze cleared her mind, enabling her to finally recognize the people around her.

"Jace." She said, turning her head to look at him. The blond Shadowhunter nodded and then let go of her, seeing that she was fine now.

"Yeah." Clary looked back around and noticed Antonio looking at her, concerned.

"Antonio." She said, looking relieved that both her companions were indeed fine and alive.

"Looks like we're both chopped liver." Alyssa muttered to Izzy, who chuckled and nudged the hybrid. "Yeah, we're here too, Clary." She said, causing all of them to chuckle at her. Jace smirked and walked over to her, putting an arm around her and kissing the side of her head.

After this, the five of them made their way through the forest with Jace leading the way, looking for the cabin where Jace suspected Valentine could be.

"Haven't been to this cabin in years, but I'm pretty sure it's just past this hill." Jace said to them as they came to a stream. They rounded an overgrown patch of bushes to see a wooden cabin not too far from them. "There it is." Alyssa noticed smoke coming out of the chimney and went to say something, but Izzy beat her to it.

"Someone was just here." She said. The five of them, needing no further prompting, hurried into the house.

Jace led them downstairs to a basement, him, Izzy, and Clary with their weapons ready, only to find it empty. Jace noticed a chair near the back of the room. He walked closer with Alyssa to see some chain restraints wrapping the back of the chair and trailing to the ground, indicating that someone had been strapped to the chair before their arrival.

"We're too late." Jace said, putting his seraph blade away. Alyssa took in a deep breath, trying to catch a scent that she could track.

"He wasn't here alone. Someone else was here with him." Alyssa said, walking closer to look around.

"Who, Duncan?" Clary asked.

"No, but it was definitely someone with a lot of anger issues, probably towards Valentine. The scent of his anger is almost overwhelming."

"You can smell anger?" Izzy asked, to which Alyssa nodded.

"Among other emotions. Chemosignals. But I can't tell who is it though and I can't track them. Whoever they are, I either don't know them or they're able to mask their scent. I could smell only the bastard as we walked in."

"So how did you know there was another person here?" Clary asked.

"Mostly the Chemosignals and then there was this." Alyssa said, kicking the chair with chains lightly. "I highly doubt Valentine would escape then chain himself to a chair."

"Question is, if it wasn't Duncan, then who was it?" Jace said.

"Tony, can you get anything? Can you see anything?" Alyssa asked, looking up at her French-raised friend. Jace and Izzy were confused again. They looked towards the French Shadowhunter to see him shaking his head. Even Clary was slightly confused since he hadn't gotten around to explain after they found Simon.

"Nada. It's all hazy. I can only see Valentine, but whoever's with him is blurry." Antonio said.

"Which usually happens when a powerful demon is involved. Great." Alyssa said.

She looked around, then down where something caught her eye. She was a bit confused to see what looked like scorch lines and burns in the floor woodwork. She also noticed that the scorch lines looked like unusual, like they were forming something.