Black || Jace Wayland [1]

| 12. the silent brothers

"Wait," Clary started. "Are your parents buried here?"

Asher nodded whilst Jace shook his head. His eyes flickered around the tunnel. "Circle members are considered traitors. They forfeit their right to be buried here."

"Your father was a Circle member too?"

"My father tried to do the right thing and leave the Circle." Jace clenched his jaw. "And it cost him his life." "That's why you're doing all of this," Clary concluded softly. She moved closer. "Why you're helping me." "Valentine and his people need to pay." Jace was so close to Clary that she could feel his breath on her face. "I'm gonna make them pay."

"For, um, for what it's worth," Clary reaches for his hand, holding it gently. "I'm sorry." Jace looked down at their intertwined hands with a blank expression before pulling away. "No more 'I'm sorry's. You're a Shadowhunter now." Clary nodded awkwardly and shifted her attention to Asher as they all started walking again. "What happened to your parents?"

"That's a story for another time."

The brunette left Clary's question unanswered, not wanting to relive that part of her past. Jace remained quiet as he walked in front of the two females. Asher's eyes flickered to his shoulders, noticing how they seemed more prominent than earlier. Hi walk seemed tense as a result from the previous conversation . A thought popped into her head and she acted on it before she could prevent herself from doing so.

Asher made her way ahead until she stepped in sync with Jace. Her eyes gazed down at her hand as it bumped against his. She looked back ahead of her, heart beating rapidly, and slowly snaked her arm around his, intertwining their fingers together. Asher gave his hand a reassuring squeeze, similar to what he did earlier. She released her hold completely, not wanting to make him uncomfortable as he brooded over his own past.

Asher moved to pull away when Jace's grip brought her back close to his side. She tensed up in surprise and looked up at his face. Jace's blank gaze remained fixated ahead of them as his thumb slowly caressed the back of her hand. His small gesture indicated that he didn't want her to let go just yet. Asher felt unsure with Jace's change in behavior, but complied by relaxing into his grip.

The three of them continued down the tunnel until it opened up into a circular room. Asher scanned her surroundings, noticing skeletons either bunched up in piles or laying down to rest within concavities built into the walls. Moonlight filtered in through an oculus in the ceiling, illuminating a symbol in the middle of the floor. It protruded from the ground inside a stone circle surrounded by human bones facing outward, resembling a morbid symbol of a sun.

Clary stepped closer to inspect the symbol. "I've drawn this before, but I don't know what it means." Asher released her grip from Jace's hand to get a closer look "It means 'clairvoyance'."

All of a sudden, torches exploded to life around the room. One by one, they illuminating the room with their fiery glow, revealing the Silent Brothers that stood around the room against the wall.

Shadowhunters.

Asher gasped in surprise as a deep voice resonated inside of her head. All of the stories and books that she read describing the Silent Brothers did not compare to what it was actually like. The voice sounded like there was someone behind her speaking directly into her ear. It was cold and uninviting.