The Mortal Guardians

Chapter 7

"Well she didn't swear me and Ava to secrecy Luke did." Alec said as Luke glared at him and his sister hit him on the arm. "And we thought you'd hate us." Alec said the last bit softy, almost a whisper. 

"Not possible." Clary countered. "Okay... the last few days, I have not had all of the information."

"And you still don't." Luke interrupted the red head. Then paused before he continued. "But you need to know everything. It'll help you find the Mortal Cup."

"How?"

"You're just gonna have to trust me. Trust us." Luke motioned to Alec and Avalon as he said this.

"I do, more than anything. Nothing you say is ever gonna change that. Okay, but you have to trust me, too." They all nodded in a agreement. 

"All right, we, me  Alec and Magnus told you about the uprising and about the Valentine who murdered all those people." Avalon said as she crossed her legs and stand up straighter and breathed in then looked at Luke who continued with the conversation.

"The reason he became that man was our fault... mine and Jocelyn's." he looked down ashamed. 

"I don't believe you."

"He thought we betrayed him, Clary, He thought me and your mother were having an affair."  

"Did you?" 

"No! my heart" Luke paused for a second before he continued. "My heart belonged to some else. It still does." Avalon grabbed Luke's hand and Luke gave him a brief smile. " Valentine was my parabatai. We both loved him. But as his rhetoric got more violent... and he became more combative with the Clave... we started to worry. We tried to help him, tried to temper him, but that only drew him closer to the edge." Clary looked at Luke with understanding in her eyes. She walked closer, playing with her fingered as she sat down, before Luke carried on. 

"For love, he was willing to do anything... even compromise his own principles. He became fixated on becoming a better soldier. That led him to do the unthinkable... experiment with Downworlder blood.  Once he crossed that line... we never got him back again." 

"Which led to us." Alec muttered to himself no realizing Clary heard what he said. Avalon turned to her brother. 

"Hey you know Magnus probably needs help cleaning up." Avalon said with a wide smile and jerking her head to the door way. "Go"  She whispered through their bond. 

"Thanks"  Alec replied, he smiled as he walked out of the room. Clary opened he mouth to question  it. 

"I'll explain later." Avalon said and Clary nodded and tuned her attention back to Luke. 

"In the end, the thought of me and Jocelyn having an affair did more damage to Valentine than anything anybody else could have done. We broke his heart." Luke looked down at his fingers, feeling ashamed of how one little thought , turned his best friend his parabatai into a mad man. 

"At least now I know he had one... before his crazy, distorted world view set in." Clary said gently seeing the state Luke was in as he told the story of her father. "What was he like back then? Before he, you know.."

"In the early days of the Circle?Oh... he was honorable. Idealistic. He was charismatic."

"He almost sounds normal." Avalon joked trying to lighten the mood.

"Just Mom's type." Clary smiled at the thought of her mother once being happy with Valentine, and having to hide from him. Luke smiled then moved on with the story.

"He was a leader. Devoted to protecting us from dying pointless deaths."

"And you believed in him?" Clary questioned.