Light Shadows • Alec Lightwood

Five

Jace turned to Alec, accepting her statement, "And what's your problem with her, anyway? Your family always used to welcome strays."

"You were never a stray," Alec answered in a hushed and calm tone, Jace gave a slight dismissive nod turning his head away from his Parabatai's calculating eyes.

"The point is, nothing's changed, we're in this fight together, there's just..." Jace wandered as looked over to Clary then back to Talia, "Two more of us."

"Except I'm the only one of the two that is trained, I can train her but it'll take time," Talia tells them, looking between the three siblings, not feeling any intimidation from any of their questioning looks.

"And how are you going to do that?" Jace asked her, not thinking that she'd had as good a training as he had, his smugness playing out on his face as a smirk rose onto it.

Her faced stayed neutral, not reacting to any insult that could have been meant by that, "You'll just have to wait and see, Golden Boy."

She turned away from Jace and started towards the City of Bones, Alec and Izzy in tow, Jace turned, "Clary, come on it's all clear."

When they neared the entrance, Alec, Talia and Izzy slowed to stand behind the group, positioning themselves to protect the others from any attacks that might mysteriously be thrown their way.

"I can do this," Clary sighed as she looked up at the skeleton that adorned the wall next to the small black gate that lead to the narrow steps that sunk into the City.

"Yeah, you can," Simon backed up, "You're Clary freakin' Fray, you can do anything."

Debatable, but Talia kept that thought to herself as she watched Simon try to encourage the girl he had been crushing on. Clary looked at the boy doubtfully as Simon moved to enter the gates, Jace held out his arm to stop him advancing any further.

"All right, hold up."

"Surprise, surprise," Simon commented, not seeming very surprised, "No mundanes allowed, just like in the training room, right? Wrong! I've seen every horror movie ever made and the funny best friend who gets left behind...dead man."

Izzy laughs at the statement whilst Jace looked mildly annoyed, turning his head to look elsewhere, "You're not that funny. But by all means, go ahead."

Simon exchanged a look with Clary as though he had accomplished something before he started to move forward again only for Jace to add, "Of course, the minute you enter, you'll die."

Simon stopped in his tracks and spun on his heel to face Jace once more, his expression showing that he was mildly annoyed, not enough to lash out though, "Problem is, now I don't trust you."

"He's not lying," Alec deadpanned as he began to step forward, his bow already in hand, not even turning to look at the mundane and instead focusing on his footing, trying not to slip on the wet ground.

"Now," Izzy added, a grin lifting her face as she watched her brothers movements which led to him standing nearer to Talia, not that he knew this as he had his eyes set on the ground.

"He was before," Talia finished, crossing her arms across her chest to keep some warmth in the leather jacket she was wearing.