Eᴘɪsᴏᴅᴇ 2 ~ A Dᴏᴏʀ Iɴᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ Dᴀʀᴋ
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Alisha is still sitting in her cell, her legs pressed to her chest as she rocks back and forth slightly. Suddenly, she sees Jace and Valentine step through the portal. The girl quickly wipes her tears, not wanting to show any weakness, and turns around to face them. She sees the arrow embedded in Valentine's arm and smiles properly for the first time in weeks. Jace looks around and sees Alisha standing in her cell. He quickly goes over to her after noticing her red puffy eyes.
"Are you okay?" He asks the girl and she looks at him.
"Yeah, you?" She asks while scanning his body for any injury's. He nods and they look back at Valentine.
"You gonna let her out of here?" Jace asks coldly and Valentine huffs. Alisha puts her boney hand through the bars and places it on Jace's shoulder telling him she's alright. He nods shortly. "You set me up to kill that vampire." He says, getting back to the point. What? Jace killed a vampire? Alisha thinks but she doesn't say anything.
"You killed her because it was the right thing to do. The world's a safer place without that thing wreaking havoc." Valentine winces as pulls the arrow out of his arm and throws it on the ground. "Would you rather turn her over to the Clave to stand trial?"
"That is my job!" Jace states firmly. "'The Law is hard, but it is–'"
"'The Law.'" The two male shadowhunters say together.
"Yet the Clave does nothing, nothing to enforce that. Downworlders multiply with a bite or a scratch, while our numbers dwindle year after year." Valentine activates his healing rune. "If we don't do something, a den like that one is gonna be on every corner on every street in the world. This is the only way." Alisha glares at him.
"You're wrong." Jace states, thinking of all the downworlders he knows and how none of them will hurt shadowhunters unless it's necessary.
"Like I was wrong about your mother?" Alisha looks down at the mention of Jocelyn. "I know you even better than you know yourself." Valentine says.
"You..." he looks back at Alisha, looking for some sort of comfort. She nods and smiles at him. "you don't know me at all."
"You saved my life. You could've Portaled me anywhere, handed me over to the Clave in Idris, but did you? No, because deep down inside, you know that I'm right." Valentine states and Alisha frowns.
In the training room, Alec is boxing. After Jocelyn explaining to Clary about why she shot at Jace, the ginger shadowhunter is going to look for Alec. When she walks into the training room, she sees a visibly annoyed Alec taking his frustrations out on the punching bag.
"Alec, are you okay?" Clary asks, slightly scared for how hard he was punching.
"Bold of you to show your face here." He spits, not bothering to look at her.
"I can explain." Clary sighs but Alec scoffs.
"Unless your explanation can bring Jace or Alisha back, save it." He punches the bag again, even harder than before.
"Alec, Alisha is like my sister and Jace is my brother, too." Clary says softly. Alec swiftly turn to the shadowhunter in front of him.
"You barely know him. I grew up with him. I fought by his side. He's my brother. He's my best friend." Alec states.
"And you barely know Alisha!" Her eyes widened when she realises she shouted. "Look, I've lost someone too and I want her back too."
"I plan on getting to know her but I can't when she's with some crazy lunatic!" Alec shouts back, just as annoyed.
"Alec..." Clary says quietly and places her arm out slightly but Alec pulls away before she can touch him. "Alec, I want Jace and Alisha back as much as you do. I... I am not my mother."
"How well do I even know you? I mean, you show up out of nowhere, you convince my brother, you convince me to search for you mother. And the next thing I know, Jace and Alisha are gone. And your mother is the one trying to kill Jace, maybe she'll try and kill Alisha to. Who knows!?"
"I had nothing to do with that, Alec. I would never hurt Jace." Clary tries again.
"Since you've arrived, you've caused nothing but problems. My family lost their birthright. Izzy was almost deruned. And now Valentine has my parabatai. And it's all because of you." Izzy walks in just as Alec finishes.
"Alec." She scolds.
"I'm sorry." Clary whimpers slightly and she looks down.
"Alec, this isn't her fault." Izzy says seeing the Fairchild's sad expression. Alec ignores his sister.
"When are you gonna realize you don't belong here? You never have." He continues and quickly storms out of the room. Izzy takes one last look at Clary, giving her an apologetic smile before she rushes after her brother.
Two werewolves stand side by side as they look out on the pier for any hope of Valentine's ship. Jason and Isaac have bags under their eyes because they've been searching all night for their sister. Each second, the pair grow more worried. Gretel was searching as well but she insisted on going alone. Isaac looks up at his older brother and sees the tears silently falling down his face.
"She's strong." Isaac states looking back at the sea. Jason looks at his brother. "Valentine won't break her, you know that, everyone knows that." Jason scoffs slightly. "Remember when we were kids, she broke your arm because you made fun of her hair." Both Lotova brothers smile at the memory.
"Luke was pissed." Jason states and Isaac laughs in agreement. "Remember when she attacked a fully grown werewolf?"
"Yeah," Isaac laughs. "we had to get Luke to break up the fight." Jason smiles and pulls Isaac into his side after seeing tears roll down his cheeks. The two remain their, telling stories to one another until Jason gets a call from Clary.
"Hey, Jason are you with Isaac?" She asks after Jason answered.
"Yeah, what's up Clary?" He asks and she sighs.
"Remember the institutes new head?" She doesn't wait for an answer. "He wants to interview you and Isaac. When can you get down here?"
Jason sighs and looks at his brother who also heard what she said. He nods at the older Lotova. "10 minutes. I'll see you soon." He ends the call and the brothers walk off in sync towards the institute.
The brothers sit opposite Victor Aldertree as they sit in his office. The shadowhunter wears a fake sympathetic smile, acting as if he cares about how their sister is missing and with the most dangerous man in the whole world. Jason just glares at the man while Isaac looks around the room.
"Before we start, I want to send my sincerest apologies to you both about your sister. It must be horrible." The shadowhunter says looking at the brothers. Isaac, being the politer one, nods as a thanks but Jason growls slightly at the man. He looks amused at the older werewolf.
"Why are we here?" Jason spits, already done with this man.
"I wanted to talk to you about your sister. We need to know if she may still be alive." Aldertree says emotionlessly.
"May still be alive." Jason repeats. "You really don't care do you?"
"Mr. Lotova..." Victor starts but the werewolf stops him.
"Alisha is still alive." He spits and Isaac nods.
"Shouldn't you still look for her, even if she is... dead." He chokes on the last word slightly but the shadowhunter doesn't seem to notice.
"Yes, but I also wanted to find out about how she was the only one whose shadowhunter side survived the transformation." Aldertree states and the brothers scoff simultaneously.
"We don't know." Jason says coldly. "Now can we go? We're trying to find our sister."
"I understand that, and I am doing everything in my power to help you." Jason scoffs making Isaac nudge him harshly. Aldertree pretends to not hear the older Lotova. "But I can't help until I know everything."
"Like my brother said before, we don't know." Isaac says and the two werewolves storm out of the institute.