Light Shadows • Alec Lightwood

Twenty-Four

Talia scrunched her face up in disgust of the man before furrowing her brows in confusion, "Where was I in all this?"

The blonde shrugged his shoulders, "I have no idea, I don't remember much from when we exited the portal but I know that you practically disappeared until now. I guess you must have been unconscious this whole time for them to get that on you."

Jace eyed the device attached firmly to her neck warily as Talia reached down and attempted to pull it away. A sudden electric shock stung Talia's fingers, causing her to yelp and move her hands to the ground. Her widened eyes met Jace's as he stood defensively from where he was in response.

"That can't be good."

Talia's ears picked up the sound of footsteps approaching and just before she could say anything the other Downworlders across from her began making loud noises of protest, also sensing the oncoming presence of Circle members.

Jace turned to Talia, his face stoic, "Stay down, don't try anything, you promise me?"

She looked at him uncertainly but before she could reply, the metal doors flung open and slammed against the walls, booming loudly across the open space. Jace gave her one final warning look before turning to those that had entered.

Three tall, bulky men entered and stood before Jace, sneering at his figure. Two held buckets of what Talia assumed was freezing cold water whilst the other cracked his knuckles, showing their malicious intents.

Talia ducked her head slightly as Jace had instructed, to make it look as though she were still unconscious but also in a position so that her leg didn't obscure her view.

The man in the centre suddenly lashed out, punching Jace across the mouth twice. Blood poured from his lips and down his chest as he motioned for the other man to throw the water onto him causing the blonde to scream out in agony before the Circle member threw hard punches across his torso, ripping the skin.

Talia's eyes widened as she decided she would not listen to Jace and stay down as a bubbling anger rose in her chest. Her breathing grew heavier as she pulled herself off of the ground, the adrenaline causing her body to shake as her teeth gritted against one another before she slammed her fist into the metal of the cage, shouting, "Enough!"

The Circle members turned, the echoing sound causing them to jump. Expecting such an authoritative tone to come from their leader, they were surprised to see the woman behind them glaring menacingly down at them, her teeth bared and a seemingly bone chilling growl emanating from her.

Their eyes widened as they looked to one another not knowing what to do as Jace stared up at her in astonishment. Not expecting so much anger to come from Talia as he eyed the fist like dent in the metal that was easily noticeable from where he stood.

Suddenly, a loud chuckle echoed through the room. Talia twisted her head to see Valentine grinning up at her widely.

"Don't mind her, that's just the werewolf side finally coming through."

The blonde's eyes widened as her expression faltered, remembering that Magnus said there was Downworlder blood in her. Most likely he had injected all species of Downworlder into her.

She held her ground on where she was standing when he came close to the bars.

"It's nice to see you awake, Talianna. We can now test out everything we made specifically for you."

Talia glared at him before pushing her hands out, a blue blast of her magic shooting out in his direction before it bounced off the cage, rippling against a dark force field like barrier and reflecting back onto her. Her eyes widened in shock as her magic threw her back against the other side of the cage.