predestined | jace herondale

46

"May I see it?" Jace pulled his head away from me a few seconds later to look down at me, his voice quiet.

"Yeah-" I nodded lightly and let go of his middle.

Jace's hands touched my skin delicately, his fingers glazing over my chest, his other hand gripping my shirt and lightly pulling it to the side, setting his eyes on the rune, his movements followed by silence.

My eyes scanned the look on his face when he looked back into my eyes, "Jace, what is it?"

Jace swallowed, "I think I've seen it before."

-

"It has to be somewhere in one of these books-" I set another pile of books down on the desk, opening one quickly, skimming through the pages to find the rune that was carved on me.

Jace's eyes watched me skim through the many pages of the book I was going through, his stare making chills run up my spine, "Listen, this could take a while-"

"I know- that's why I'm helping you," I didn't glance at him and kept going, my eyes fixed on trying to find the rune.

Jace pauses for a few seconds, before speaking again, "Why don't you get something to eat?-"

"I'm not hungry-" My eyes scanned a page, "I can eat when we find some intel on the rune-"

"Zee, you've been going nonstop since you got back." Jace continued to watch me, "You need to take a minute-"

"I already had a minute earlier, when I reunited with everyone-" I tried my best to stay focused while still having this conversation with him, "I don't have any more minutes-"

"Hey-" Jace grabbed my arm gently and stopped me, "Listen, I thought I'd lost you forever."

I looked into his eyes, my expression softening, "Jace-"

"I missed you- so much." Jace rested his hands on my shoulders, "And now that I have you back, all I want is to stop, just for a minute- no Jonathan, no Lilith- just you and me."

"I missed you so much more." I felt guilty, huffing lightly and looking down, "I'm sorry- I know, I've been- terrible, but- Jace, I can feel him."

This made Jace go quiet.

"Whatever he does- whatever he feels, I can feel and it's so infuriating- because I don't want to feel him-" I slowly wrapping my arms around his middle and laid my head on his chest, holding onto him tightly, my voice quieting down, "I'm trying so hard to push him away- but, it won't work-"

"I'm sorry, I'm- I'm trying to remember." Jace held me back tighter, looking away for a few seconds, trying to put his finger on where he had seen it, "I was young- I was a kid."

I looked up at him, "Well, if it's something you learned at the Institute, it would be here."

"But- I didn't just study at the Institute." Jace suddenly looked at me, realization dawning on him, "We've been looking in the wrong place."

-

"Paradise Lost?-" I watched Jace as he set the book on the desk, in front of us.

"This edition was illustrated by a special sect of the Silent Brothers, Seers." Jace began telling me, opening up the book, looking through the pages, "Valentine made me memorize it."

I looked at the book, "Why?"

"He was obsessed with Lucifer's war on Heaven, and his clash with his brother, the Archangel Michael." Jace opened up to the page and pointed to it.