𝑶𝑭 𝑩𝑳𝑶𝑶𝑫 𝑨𝑵𝑫 𝑩𝑬𝑻𝑹𝑨𝒀𝑨𝑳

ᎠᏘᎽ ᎧF ᏘTᎧᏁᏋMᏋᏁT

She picked up the chair, putting it aside and backed away to get a clearer view, pulling Jace who didn't understand her actions, back with her. Finally seeing what they'd all missed, Alyssa let out a sigh.

"Well, whoever they were, they were ready to send Valentine on a one-way trip to Hell, literally."

The rest of the group looked down to see what she did, a pentacle burned into the floorboards.

The Institute - Library

Jace was sitting at a table, reading some books that he'd taken from the cabin in Idris.

Alyssa entered and went to stand behind him, placing her hands on his shoulders, alerting him to her presence.

Jace tilted his head back as she leaned down and placed a kiss on his lips. "Hey." He said.

"Hey. You ready to go home yet or are you gonna stay and do some light reading first?" Alyssa asked, eyeing the spread of books on the table. "Or are you planning another adventure trip to somewhere else?" She asked teasingly.

Jace chuckled and took hold of her arm, pulling her to sit on his lap. "Not at the moment." He said, pressing another kiss to her lips.

"Well, the next time you do, take me with you so I don't have to worry about your ass. At least then I'd have your back."

"Yes, ma'am." Jace replied with a grin, pulling her head down to capture her lips in yet another kiss. They continued to kiss until Antonio's voice from the doorway made them pull apart.

"Ugh, this is a library, you two, not a make-out spot." He said, as he and Clary walked in.

"Oh, didn't you know? Most libraries are popular make-out spots. Some even try to take it further if you know what I mean. A fact that if I remember correctly, you used to be familiar with back in Paris, at least the make-out part." Alyssa said with a mischievous smirk.

Antonio glared at her for revealing this, though she knew he wasn't really angry with her.

"And how do you know that?" Jace asked curiously, more for the benefit of Clary, who was wondering the same.

"Oh, I used to walk in on him and one of ex-girlfriends almost every time I went in there." Alyssa revealed, still smirking at her friend. "I wasn't the only one who did, though."

"Are you done airing my dirty laundry?" Antonio asked.

"Don't dish it if you can't take it, hon." Alyssa said.

"Don't worry, Tony. I've caught them making out in the training room a lot of times and sometimes in the greenhouse. Izzy told me she once caught them about to get it down in her room." Clary said, trying to help Antonio. Antonio turned to her in surprise then at the couple.

Alyssa shrugged at them with a smirk, not caring. "I'm not afraid to indulge in my husband every now and then anywhere we feel like." She said, then looked down at Jace, who grinned at her, then kissed her.

"Unbelievable." Antonio muttered, making Clary giggle while the couple chuckled at his expense. "Ok, changing the channel, Jace, did you find anything in Valentine's books?"

At the subject change, Jace sighed. "These aren't books. They're journals." He said. Clary walked closer to the table and looked down at one of the open journals while Alyssa looked down at the one he'd been reading. "Valentine used to keep these on the highest shelf in the cabin. I remember trying to read one once to see what the fuss was about. He got to me before I could even open it. That was the last time we went back to the cabin." Jace recounted. "Now I know why." Clary noticed a name in the journal she was looking at.

"'Jonathan Christopher'." She said. "These are about you."

"That's your full name?" Antonio asked.

"As you can tell, it's a bit of a mouthful, which is why he shortened it to Jace. But now I can see the real reason why Valentine did." Alyssa said.

Jace already knew what she was talking about, but the other two didn't, so she showed them what she had seen in the book. There were two columns on the page, which with a similar name at the top, only the surnames were different.

"Morgenstern. Herondale." She pointed to each of the names.

"You were opposite ends of the same experiments." Clary said softly in realization.

"That's seriously messed up." Antonio said, looking over one of the journals himself.

"This is the same Valentine that experimented on me before I was born and did the same to his own son. I don't think messed up begins to cover it." Alyssa pointed out, getting up from Jace's lap to walk over to Clary's side to check some of the other journals.

"There are hundreds of pages of notes. Years' worth of research." Jace said, closing the journal in front of him and getting up as well to pace slightly. "These... these journals are...they're all that's left of my childhood."

Alyssa gave him a sympathetic smile and walked over to him, placing her hand on his back as he leaned slightly against the table on his forearms.

Clary shook her head in sympathy and then looked back at the journal. Her breath hitched as she noticed something.

"But...wait, Jace, this was ten years ago." She said but only got a blank look from Jace. Alyssa, on the other hand, understood what she was saying.

"That's not possible." She said, going back over to Clary to look at the journal.

"I know, but look at the date." Clary said.

"Ladies, could you clue us less intelligent males in here? Why is a journal entry being dated ten years ago impossible?" Antonio asked.

"It's not supposed to be possible because, according to my dad, Jonathan Morgenstern died on a fire at Fairchild Manor when he was a child, an infant. A fire that Valentine himself set." Alyssa explained.

"Exactly. So, how could Valentine still be studying him if he was already dead?" Clary added.

"Unless he isn't." Antonio said, making a realization dawn on the girls.

"Ithuriel wasn't talking about Jace." Clary said, making the others look at her, and she looked up at them. "He was talking about my brother."

"He's still alive." Alyssa said, continuing her thought. The four of them all looked at each other, worried.