Love and War ✴ Shadowhunters

Chapter 5

Before anyone could even begin to come up with a response to that, she looked around the group and noticed that there was someone missing.

"Where's Simon?"

"He got kidnapped by vampires." Clary said anxiously.

Celeste realized that her assumption for why Clary seemed so upset may have been incomplete. While she was certainly upset about who her real father was, the majority of her panic was probably geared more towards her missing friend.

"He was what?" Celeste's eyes widened and she turned towards her friends for a more complete answer.

"They left Simon all alone in a van." Clary spat angrily. "Great job guys. You rock."

"There is some truth to the idea that human beings should have a modicum of common sense." Alec drawled.

Celeste hit him once again. "Al!"

Jace scolded him too, seeing his girlfriend getting pretty worked up about it. "Alec, not now." He turned to Clary and tried to reassure her that her friend would be fine. "Look, they won't do anything to Simon. They just wanted to draw you out. They want the Cup, and they think you have it."

"But why do they think that? Why does anyone think that? What, my mom lies to me my entire life except, 'Oh, by the way there's this magic cup I hid on like, the planet Bongo, but don't tell anyone'." She sighed heavily, slumping a little with the weight of the situation. "What am I supposed to do now?"

"We have to report to the Clave." Alec said.

"Great." Jace said sarcastically.

"They have to know what we've learned about Valentine." He continued, as if he hadn't heard Jace.

"What, that he's my father? Great. Fine. Tell them. What good does that do Simon?" Clary asked quickly.

"Clary, it's all connected." Jace explained, trying to get her to see the big picture. "The vamps want the Cup."

Clary was still confused about the vampires' reasoning. "Why? It creates new Shadowhunters."

"It's the most important object in the Shadow World. The Downworlders don't trust Shadowhunters to keep track of it since they almost lost it to Valentine once already." Celeste said, being one of the few people to actually look at the situation from the vampires' perspective.

"Nobody wants Valentine forming an army loyal to himself." Alec said.

Izzy nodded and added, "Plus it controls demons."

"They'll propose a trade." Jace summed up. "Simon for the Cup."

"So vampire will trade Simon for the Cup, and Valentine will trade my mother for the Cup. Either way I lose someone I love." At this point, Clary was so emotional that she wasn't thinking logically and just threw out the first solution she thought of. "What if I just toss it up in the air and let them fight it out amongst themselves?"

Celeste's eye immediately shot towards Alec, knowing that he wouldn't take that very well.

"So this doesn't matter to you?" He demanded.

"Yes, of course it matters." Clary closed her eyes trying to get herself together again. Each word she said next was meticulously thought out, knowing that if she were to say the wrong thing, Alec would just get even more upset and he would be less likely to help her find Simon. "Listen... When you saved my life... I put my trust in you. Now I need you to put your trust in me. I can't turn into what you are overnight."

Celeste nodded and looked to the others with pleading eyes, begging them to agree to help her.

Izzy was the first to give in. "It's true. She was raised as a mundane."