City of Shattered Glass

Part 2: Loss and Sorrow

"Clary!" Jace screamed again as her and Sebastian—Jonathan—disappeared into thin air. He reached out, his hands only gripping air, not Clary. Not the girl with the bright red hair and smile that blew him away every time he saw it. Not the girl that consumed his thoughts every waking moment, the girl that flooded his dreams unbeckoned. Not the girl that gave him so much joy yet brought him so much sorrow. Not the girl that even in the darkest moments never gave up, the smallest girl who could make the biggest impact. Not her, not his Clary.

Jace stared at his empty hands, the hands that hadn't been fast enough, that had failed her. Now she was gone, Clary was gone, and he had no idea how to get her back. Jace felt a hand on his shoulder and didn't need to turn around to see it was Alec. Jace closed his eyes, seeing her face behind his eyelids. She wasn't his sister, he wasn't her brother. All this time, all that pain, and he had still been to late to save her. If he had been one second quicker, one foot farther—

"Stop that." Alec said from behind him.

"Stop what?" Jace snapped, his emotions losing all control.

"Blaming yourself. Don't think I can't tell you are. It's not your fault, none of us could have known that Sebastian would betray us."

"But I should have known Alec. I should have—"

"Jace." Alec crouched down in front of him, catching his gaze, "you can't help her if your sitting around sulking. We may not know where to start but we will find her I promise. You're not alone in this, wither thou goest I will go."

Jace looked down at his hands, his heart deeply thudding in his chest. Alec's and his parabatai vows rang through his head, knowing Alec would help him through this. But how could he ask him to help him if Jace didn't even know what he was helping him with. He trusted Alec, in every way, but he still wasn't sure how fond he was of Clary. Jace didn't want Alec to sacrifice anything for him, but he was desperate, so desperate, to find Clary.

"Alec I—" Jace paused then scrambled to pick up something two feet away from him. He sucked in a breath. He cradled the small portion of cloth in his hands. She was clever, so clever. He cried out as he noticed the blood on the cloth, the image of the arrow shaft protruding from her leg flashing in front of him. Jace knew this wasn't Clary's blood, this blood was dried and crusted while if it were Clary's it would have still been wet. Sebastian would have blocked him from tracking her somehow, but would he have blocked them from tracking him? Jace shot to his feet. He could find her, he would find her, "Alec! Look."

Alec leaned over and stared at the cloth in his hands, his eyes wide with surprise, "Is that—"

"It has to be. We can find her Alec, we can find Clary."

"Then we will."

Jace looked over to the concrete where Clary had stood only minutes before. Not one drop of blood stained the sidewalk, Sebastian hadn't stayed there long enough for the blood from Clary's wounds to flow to the ground. Horror filled his aching chest. What would they do to her? What if he was too late? There was only one person that could want Clary, and that was Valentine, but why did he want her? Jace felt the lightheadedness before he staggered into Alec, leaning heavily against him. He struggled to draw breath, knowing that with each of his own breaths, Clary might be drawing her last. A stabbing pain pierced his heart. Clary. Clary. Clary. He needed to save Clary, she was all that mattered, nothing else mattered.

Until he heard the shriek from the Accords Hall.

Isabelle's scream rang throughout the heart of the Hall like a wailing siren. Alec glanced, horrified, at Jace before bolting into the building. They ran through the large crowd, Alec's panic clear in the set of his shoulders. When they cleared the crowd and emerged to an open clearing, the rest of the Lightwoods were huddled in a corner.