"Valentine has a clear pattern. Young, strong, highly-skilled fighters all abducted from boxing clubs, dojos and gyms." Lydia stated. She was holding a briefing with the Shadowhunters of the Institute to inform them of the new information she collected. "Valentine must've realized that even with the Cup, creating Shadowhunters isn't easy. He needs mundanes who are more likely to survive the conversion."
Clary, who hasn't been informed that Lydia was holding a briefing, showed up when it was almost over. When she saw Izzy and Alec at the back, she quickly realized that no one had told her about this meeting, intentionally.
"Your job is to stake out the potention targets..." Lydia continued. "...and catch the Circle members when they try to abduct them. We capture a Circle member, we have a shot at Valentine."
"And Jace and Leila." Alec whispered to Izzy. "That's how we get to them before they try and kill them."
"Just keep your cool in front of the boss." Izzy whispered back.
"You have your orders. Dismissed." Lydia ended.
As soon as the briefing ended, Clary called for Lydia. She walked towards her, while Aldertree and Jocelyn were watching them from behind.
"Lydia, please. You need all hands on deck. Let me help." Clary suggested.
Aldertree took a step forward. "Absolutely not. Your lack of training is a liability." he told her. "Besides, you're too close to this."
And just like that, Aldertree was the second person to make Clary feel like she wasn't of any help in the Institute.
Aldertree turned his attention on Lydia. "The Lightwoods are also too close to this. With Jace and Leila still out there, it clouds their judgment." he added.
"Izzy and Alec are the best we've got. They stay in." Lydia answered before she walked away.
When she heard that Izzy and Alec were again, allowed to look for their friends, Clary walked towards them.
"Izzy. Izzy, please. You wouldn't want to be benched on this. Let me come with you." Clary asked her.
"Did you not hear me before ? There's no place for you here." Alec intervened. "Izzy, let's go."
Izzy sighed, and looked at Clary apologetically before she followed Alec to fulfill their mission.
They went to a boxing club where the best fighters in the city came often. No one has disappeared yet, but when Circle members would come to abduct one or several fighters, at least they'd have a chance against them.
But unfortunately, it didn't go as expected.
When the session was over, one of the best fighters in the club was left behind. As he was getting himself ready to go, the lights started to flicker. Before he could even process what was happening, a Circle member tried to abduct him, but Izzy and Alec caught him first.
"Tell us where Valentine is !" Alec ordered with his seraph pointing towards the man.
Izzy took her whip and hit the man's hand with it. The man dropped his seraph blade, but instead took a smaller knife out of his pocket and sliced his own throat with it, before Izzy and Alec had a chance to stop him.
~~
On an other side of Brooklyn, Clary, who wasn't allowed to help in searching for Jace and Leila, started to realize that she wasn't wanted in the Institute. That everyone blamed her for what was happening.
She missed the life she had before her 18th birthday. Although she had been lied to her whole life by her own mother who made her believe that she could live a normal life, if she had been aware of her purpose sooner then maybe none of them would've been facing this kind of situation.
Not only did her mother try to kill Jace, but she was also Valentine's daughter. Not a lot of people in the Institute were trusting her.
She wanted to get back to her mundane life. The life she was missing the most at the moment.
So she decided to go to Brooklyn's Academy of Art, to practice what she was best at. Drawing.
But suddenly, someone she thought was dead was standing in the middle of the crown of students who were walking in the Academy. The students avoided that person because of how she looked. She was pale, and black veins were visible on her face and on her body. As all students were walking away from her, Clary on the contrary walked towards that person.
"Dot ?" Clary called her. "I thought you were dead. What happened to you ?"
Dot didn't answer. Out of nowhere, she opened a Portal, grabbed Clary's hand and they both Portaled to the place Dot wanted to lead her to. Valentine's ship.
~~
Clary was missing.
That was what Jocelyn found out when she walked in her daughter's room and only found her stele on the bed. When Jocelyn grabbed Clary's stele, she realized that Clary didn't activate her anti-tracking rune which gave her a chance to find her. However, she knew that Clary wouldn't listen to her, so she turned to the person who could have a better chance at talking to her: Luke.
Both of them went to Brooklyn's Academy of Art when Clary was still there, but before they could do anything about it, they saw Dot abducting Clary and disappearring through a Portal.
"Those veins on Dot's face, I'd know them anywhere. They're from Valentine's injections." Jocelyn stated as both her and Luke went back to the Jade Wolf.
"He must have used her to grab Clary. That means Jace and Leila are nearby." Luke said as he walked towards a cat statue that was in the restaurant. "We find Jace, we find our daughters."
Suddenly, he threw the statue on the ground in order to break it. Among the broken pieces, there was an Adamas which came from the Adamas Citadel. Luke got it from his mother.
"The Adamas can track Jace, but not by itself." Luke said.
As Jocelyn looked closely at it, she found the Parabatai rune on it. If they wanted to find Jace, they had to go through Alec.
Jocelyn went back to the Institute, at the same time as Izzy and Alec who came back from their failed mission. While the Lightwoods didn't bother her, Jocelyn attracted their attention when she told them that she had a way to track Jace.
"How did you get that ?" Izzy asked Jocelyn when she saw the Adamas Jocelyn was showing them. "Only the Iron Sisters have access to adamas."
"Luke's mother is an Iron Sister. She told him about an ancient way to communicate through the parabatai bond. Through your linked spirits."
"Oh, I see." Alec finally spoke as he looked at Jocelyn suspiciously. "So you want me to help you find my brother so you can try and kill him again ?"
"No, I want to find Clary. She was kidnapped by Dot." Jocelyn announced to them. "Valentine must be behind this. And I will do anything to get my daughter back."
~~
I was brought back to my cage, which was supposed to be my home, when I saw someone new in the cage beside mine. Not only did I recognize her red hair, but also Dot whose body was marked by Valentine's experiences on her.
Dot had her hands on both of Clary's temples and Clary's eyes were entirely black.
"Dot ? What is going on ?" I asked her, but it didn't look like she heard me. Or maybe she was just ignoring me. "Clary ? Can you hear me ?" I asked again but nothing.
"Jace." she suddenly said.
The way she said it... It didn't sound like she was dreaming or something. It sounded like she was calling for him, as if she was talking to him directly.
She paused for a moment, before she spoke again. "It's me." she said, but this time her breath was shortened. As if someone was strangling her. "Jace, it's me, I swear. Remember when you taught how to see through the glamours ? I got encantoed by that vampire. And then, you took me on my first motorcycle bike."
Her body suddenly relaxed after she spoke.
That was when I thought about something. Was it possible that Valentine was using Clary as an hallucination ? Was Dot giving Valentine Clary's memories to sound more convincing in front of Jace ? I didn't know. Was that even possible ? But again, with magic anything could be possible.
"Dot brought me. She's not dead, contrarily to what we thought." Clary spoke again.
Jace probably asked her how she got here, which I was also curious about.
"She wanted me to see something. Jace, I know this sounds crazy but...I can see the future."
What was she saying ? I've never heard of a Shadowhunter being able to see the future. That was impossible. I wasn't even sure that warlocks could do it.
"Well, I guess I'm not your ordinary Shadowhunter. Neither are you." Clary said as she moved forward. "I never wanted any of this Jace. And you know that..." she paused. "the Downworlders...they slaughtered the mundanes, one by one until there's no one left. And Jace, with your demon blood, you're the only one who can stop them."
The more she talked and the more I couldn't believe her. This definitely wasn't Clary, I was sure of it. Luke and Simon were Downworlders. She would never suggest to anyone to kill them. She would've tried to find another solution, right ?
And saying that only Jace's demon blood could arrange everything didn't make any sense to me. How different was my blood to his ? Why couldn't i do it then ?
Deep down, I hoped Jace wouldn't let himself be fooled by Valentine's strategy. Who knew what Valentine has been telling him since we first got on that boat. Who knew how he managed to get his way inside Jace's head.
Jace was stronger than that. Which could be the reason why Clary was here. Since Valentine couldn't convince Jace in his true form, he was using Clary as one of his last chances to convince him.
Suddenly, Dot let go of Clary's head and she fell unconscious on the floor. As she looked at Clary's unconscious frame, Dot suddenly turned towards me. Her face looked at me with pity, but determination was seen in the way she walked towards me.
"I'm sorry but you can't remember this." she told me as she suddenly grabbed both sides of my head with her hands.
Before I could do anything, my vision became blurry until everything went pitch black.
~~
"If Luke had the stone all along, why didn't he say anything when Jace first went missing ?" Isabelle asked Jocelyn.
Back at the Institute, Alec took off his shirt and lied down on a mattress, as he waited for the whole process to begin.
" I'll be honest. There are some serious risks involved." Jocelyn answered. "The parabatai that initiates the contact can be taxing on his body, on his mind..."
"Izzy..." Alec interrupted her. "It's fine."
"I'm not liking the sound of this. Taxing how ?"
Jocelyn shook her head. "We're not sure. Of the few people who have tried it, not many have come back to talk about it."
"Forget it. He's not doing it." Izzy decided.
"Don't listen to her." Alec told Jocelyn.
"No, Alec. I've already lost both parents to Idris, a brother and a friend to Valentine. I'm not gonna lose you too."
Alec, annoyed because of the time they were wasting to make a decision, sat up on the bed. "Izzy, you said it yourself. We have no choice. Jace needs me, Iz. And I can't..." he sighed. "I can't live without him."
Seeing how determined Alec was, Izzy knew that whatever she tried to do or say, wouldn't change anything. She sighed as well, and stepped aside to let Jocelyn approach Alec, in order to begin.
"According to Luke, you need to stay near the surface. If you go too deep, nothing can bring you back." Jocelyn explained to Alec which he answered with a nod.
Jocelyn then proceeded by giving the stone to Alec. As soon as he touched it, the parabatai rune on the stone shined.
Alec inhaled deeply before he closed his eyes and grabbed the stone with both hands.
~~
Clary came back to herself first. As she opened her eyes, she stood up on her feet with the strength she had left, and looked around her. Dot wasn't there anymore, and when she looked towards the cage on her left, she saw Leila who was unsconscious.
"Leila. Leila wake up."
"It won't take too long for her to wake up."
Clary looked at the cage where the unknown voice came from. It was the one behind Leila's.
He was sitting calmly in his cage, as he was used to being experimented on, and not being able to do anything to get out of this situation.
"You must be Valentine's daughter. I'm Toby." he talked again.
"Unfortunately I am..." she sighed. "Clary." she introduced herself. "When do you think she'll wake up ? I gotta get her and Jace out of here."
Tobias scoffed. "Good luck. The only ones I've seen get out of here, were dead." he said. "If it would've been Valentine experimenting on her, or his minions like she likes to call them, beating her up, I would say she would wake up in a few. But magic took her out right now, so I don't really know."
" Not really helping."
"Well, with time, you lose track of time so this is the most precise explanation I could ever give you. You'll understand later." Tobias said as he shrugged his shoulders.
Clary fully turned towards him, and grabbed firmly the bars of her cage. "There is no later. I'm getting them out of here."
Tobias didn't do anything, but laugh at her which made her roll her eyes and turn around. As she looked in front of her, she saw Dot coming in.
"What did you do to me ? Why don't I remember anything ?" Clary asked her as Dot came closer to her.
"Valentine made me cast a spell on you, so that you'd do as I'd say. I had to use, and I have to do it again."
Dot went to grab Clary's head between her hands again, but Clary quickly got out of her hold. "No, stop. You don't have to do this. Dot, you're like a big sister to me." Clary reminded her. "You've always had my back, no matter what."
"Then why did you stop looking for me ?"
Clary felt guilty. She saw the appearing black veins on Dot's face and how obedient she became to Valentine. "Magnus couldn't feel your magic anymore. We thought Valentine had killed you."
"No...he did worse than that." Dot answered as she thought about all the experiences she's had to go through until now.
"Dot, please, help us. We may not be able to go back to the way things were but it doesn't have to be like this."
"You don't understand. He will find us."
"We will stay with Magnus. Hide behind his wards."
Before Dot could say anything, they heard ruffling sounds next to them. Leila came back to herself again. She quickly got up, and looked towards Clary's and Dot's direction, in confusion.
"Please Dot, help us." Clary begged her.
~~
On the other side of Valentine's boat, Jace and another Shadowhunter who was one of Valentine's creations, brought a young woman with white hair to Valentine. Her hands were tied behind her back, while she was pushed forward.
"There you are." Valentine said as he stared at the young woman and then at Jace and the other Shadowhunter. "There's only one last thing for you to do. Kill her."
Jace frowned.
"No, please !" she begged.
"She's our prisoner. She can't hurt anybody here." Jace reminded Valentine.
"After what she did, we're letting her off easy." the other Shadowhunter answered. The young wolf looked at him in total confusion. "Five years ago, my father was mauled to death by a white wolf."
Jace grabbed his seraph blade and put it against her neck.
"You did that, didn't you ?"
Feeling the seraph blade against her neck, the fear of being killed at any moment scared her. Her eyes became tary as she denied the facts.
"Please, don't kill me." she repeated. "I've obeyed the Accords. I'm part of Luke's part. We don't hurt anyone. We're not like that."
While Valentine, Jace, the new-born Shadowhunter and the young wolf were dealing with the issue, Clary, Leila and Tobias, accompanied by Dot, were watching the scene from afar.
Clary managed to convince Dot to let them free. Her plan was to take Leila, find Jace, and escape with Dot, but as Dot freed Leila, she asked her to free to Tobias as well. Clary wanted to escape quickly, so when Leila asked to free Tobias, she was reluxtant at first, because she thought that it would slow them down, but Dot used the little bit of magic she had left to open his cage.
The cages were not sealed by keys, but by magic. Leila knew that asking that favor from Dot was risky, but she couldn't let him stay behind.
As Tobias was weak due to the recent experiment he had to go through sooner, Leila supported him with one of his arm around her shoulders. Since Leila was the one who suggested to try an escape and get him involved, he became her responsibility. If something messed up, it would be her fault, and she was aware of that.
"A wolf will say anything to go free, but she can never change what she is." they heard Valentine tell Jace as he kept his blade pressed again their prisoner's throat. "You let her live son, and she will kill again and again and again..."
"Jace !" Clary called him as she walked towards the scene while the rest stayed hidden.
"Clarissa, how nice of you to join us. Maybe you can convince your brother to finish what he started."
Clary ignored him, and only started at Jace.
"Jace, I need you to listen to me. I don't remember what I said to you, but everything I said was a lie. I was under a spell."
Jace and Clary exchanged glances, and he noticed her eyes look at her left. Jace followed his gaze, and saw Leila, Dot and Tobias, still hiding. He knew it was time.
"Run !" Clary told him as she grabbed his hand and run towards the end of the boat.
They heard Valentine call Jace's name, as more and more Shadowhunters were starting to come towards them to stop them.
Dot, Leila and Tobias came out of their hiding spot, when Clary and Jace got closer to them. While Dot was in charge of opening the barrier that kept the boat hidden and protected, Leila and Tobias jumped in the water first.
Suddenly, Jace stopped in his tracks. Clary, who didn't understand why they were stopping when they were so close to escape, looked towards Jace's direction. He was coughing, and his nose started bleeding due to the parabatai bond that linked him to Alec. It was weakening both of them. Not only was he getting weaker, but Dot as well.
"Jace, let's go." Clary reminded him as she supported him before they both jumped out of the boat."Valentine has a clear pattern. Young, strong, highly-skilled fighters all abducted from boxing clubs, dojos and gyms." Lydia stated. She was holding a briefing with the Shadowhunters of the Institute to inform them of the new information she collected. "Valentine must've realized that even with the Cup, creating Shadowhunters isn't easy. He needs mundanes who are more likely to survive the conversion."
Clary, who hasn't been informed that Lydia was holding a briefing, showed up when it was almost over. When she saw Izzy and Alec at the back, she quickly realized that no one had told her about this meeting, intentionally.
"Your job is to stake out the potention targets..." Lydia continued. "...and catch the Circle members when they try to abduct them. We capture a Circle member, we have a shot at Valentine."
"And Jace and Leila." Alec whispered to Izzy. "That's how we get to them before they try and kill them."
"Just keep your cool in front of the boss." Izzy whispered back.
"You have your orders. Dismissed." Lydia ended.
As soon as the briefing ended, Clary called for Lydia. She walked towards her, while Aldertree and Jocelyn were watching them from behind.
"Lydia, please. You need all hands on deck. Let me help." Clary suggested.
Aldertree took a step forward. "Absolutely not. Your lack of training is a liability." he told her. "Besides, you're too close to this."
And just like that, Aldertree was the second person to make Clary feel like she wasn't of any help in the Institute.
Aldertree turned his attention on Lydia. "The Lightwoods are also too close to this. With Jace and Leila still out there, it clouds their judgment." he added.
"Izzy and Alec are the best we've got. They stay in." Lydia answered before she walked away.
When she heard that Izzy and Alec were again, allowed to look for their friends, Clary walked towards them.
"Izzy. Izzy, please. You wouldn't want to be benched on this. Let me come with you." Clary asked her.
"Did you not hear me before ? There's no place for you here." Alec intervened. "Izzy, let's go."
Izzy sighed, and looked at Clary apologetically before she followed Alec to fulfill their mission.
They went to a boxing club where the best fighters in the city came often. No one has disappeared yet, but when Circle members would come to abduct one or several fighters, at least they'd have a chance against them.
But unfortunately, it didn't go as expected.
When the session was over, one of the best fighters in the club was left behind. As he was getting himself ready to go, the lights started to flicker. Before he could even process what was happening, a Circle member tried to abduct him, but Izzy and Alec caught him first.
"Tell us where Valentine is !" Alec ordered with his seraph pointing towards the man.
Izzy took her whip and hit the man's hand with it. The man dropped his seraph blade, but instead took a smaller knife out of his pocket and sliced his own throat with it, before Izzy and Alec had a chance to stop him.
~~
On an other side of Brooklyn, Clary, who wasn't allowed to help in searching for Jace and Leila, started to realize that she wasn't wanted in the Institute. That everyone blamed her for what was happening.
She missed the life she had before her 18th birthday. Although she had been lied to her whole life by her own mother who made her believe that she could live a normal life, if she had been aware of her purpose sooner then maybe none of them would've been facing this kind of situation.
Not only did her mother try to kill Jace, but she was also Valentine's daughter. Not a lot of people in the Institute were trusting her.
She wanted to get back to her mundane life. The life she was missing the most at the moment.
So she decided to go to Brooklyn's Academy of Art, to practice what she was best at. Drawing.
But suddenly, someone she thought was dead was standing in the middle of the crown of students who were walking in the Academy. The students avoided that person because of how she looked. She was pale, and black veins were visible on her face and on her body. As all students were walking away from her, Clary on the contrary walked towards that person.
"Dot ?" Clary called her. "I thought you were dead. What happened to you ?"
Dot didn't answer. Out of nowhere, she opened a Portal, grabbed Clary's hand and they both Portaled to the place Dot wanted to lead her to. Valentine's ship.
~~
Clary was missing.
That was what Jocelyn found out when she walked in her daughter's room and only found her stele on the bed. When Jocelyn grabbed Clary's stele, she realized that Clary didn't activate her anti-tracking rune which gave her a chance to find her. However, she knew that Clary wouldn't listen to her, so she turned to the person who could have a better chance at talking to her: Luke.
Both of them went to Brooklyn's Academy of Art when Clary was still there, but before they could do anything about it, they saw Dot abducting Clary and disappearring through a Portal.
"Those veins on Dot's face, I'd know them anywhere. They're from Valentine's injections." Jocelyn stated as both her and Luke went back to the Jade Wolf.
"He must have used her to grab Clary. That means Jace and Leila are nearby." Luke said as he walked towards a cat statue that was in the restaurant. "We find Jace, we find our daughters."
Suddenly, he threw the statue on the ground in order to break it. Among the broken pieces, there was an Adamas which came from the Adamas Citadel. Luke got it from his mother.
"The Adamas can track Jace, but not by itself." Luke said.
As Jocelyn looked closely at it, she found the Parabatai rune on it. If they wanted to find Jace, they had to go through Alec.
Jocelyn went back to the Institute, at the same time as Izzy and Alec who came back from their failed mission. While the Lightwoods didn't bother her, Jocelyn attracted their attention when she told them that she had a way to track Jace.
"How did you get that ?" Izzy asked Jocelyn when she saw the Adamas Jocelyn was showing them. "Only the Iron Sisters have access to adamas."
"Luke's mother is an Iron Sister. She told him about an ancient way to communicate through the parabatai bond. Through your linked spirits."
"Oh, I see." Alec finally spoke as he looked at Jocelyn suspiciously. "So you want me to help you find my brother so you can try and kill him again ?"
"No, I want to find Clary. She was kidnapped by Dot." Jocelyn announced to them. "Valentine must be behind this. And I will do anything to get my daughter back."
~~
I was brought back to my cage, which was supposed to be my home, when I saw someone new in the cage beside mine. Not only did I recognize her red hair, but also Dot whose body was marked by Valentine's experiences on her.
Dot had her hands on both of Clary's temples and Clary's eyes were entirely black.
"Dot ? What is going on ?" I asked her, but it didn't look like she heard me. Or maybe she was just ignoring me. "Clary ? Can you hear me ?" I asked again but nothing.
"Jace." she suddenly said.
The way she said it... It didn't sound like she was dreaming or something. It sounded like she was calling for him, as if she was talking to him directly.
She paused for a moment, before she spoke again. "It's me." she said, but this time her breath was shortened. As if someone was strangling her. "Jace, it's me, I swear. Remember when you taught how to see through the glamours ? I got encantoed by that vampire. And then, you took me on my first motorcycle bike."
Her body suddenly relaxed after she spoke.
That was when I thought about something. Was it possible that Valentine was using Clary as an hallucination ? Was Dot giving Valentine Clary's memories to sound more convincing in front of Jace ? I didn't know. Was that even possible ? But again, with magic anything could be possible.
"Dot brought me. She's not dead, contrarily to what we thought." Clary spoke again.
Jace probably asked her how she got here, which I was also curious about.
"She wanted me to see something. Jace, I know this sounds crazy but...I can see the future."
What was she saying ? I've never heard of a Shadowhunter being able to see the future. That was impossible. I wasn't even sure that warlocks could do it.
"Well, I guess I'm not your ordinary Shadowhunter. Neither are you." Clary said as she moved forward. "I never wanted any of this Jace. And you know that..." she paused. "the Downworlders...they slaughtered the mundanes, one by one until there's no one left. And Jace, with your demon blood, you're the only one who can stop them."
The more she talked and the more I couldn't believe her. This definitely wasn't Clary, I was sure of it. Luke and Simon were Downworlders. She would never suggest to anyone to kill them. She would've tried to find another solution, right ?
And saying that only Jace's demon blood could arrange everything didn't make any sense to me. How different was my blood to his ? Why couldn't i do it then ?
Deep down, I hoped Jace wouldn't let himself be fooled by Valentine's strategy. Who knew what Valentine has been telling him since we first got on that boat. Who knew how he managed to get his way inside Jace's head.
Jace was stronger than that. Which could be the reason why Clary was here. Since Valentine couldn't convince Jace in his true form, he was using Clary as one of his last chances to convince him.
Suddenly, Dot let go of Clary's head and she fell unconscious on the floor. As she looked at Clary's unconscious frame, Dot suddenly turned towards me. Her face looked at me with pity, but determination was seen in the way she walked towards me.
"I'm sorry but you can't remember this." she told me as she suddenly grabbed both sides of my head with her hands.
Before I could do anything, my vision became blurry until everything went pitch black.
~~
"If Luke had the stone all along, why didn't he say anything when Jace first went missing ?" Isabelle asked Jocelyn.
Back at the Institute, Alec took off his shirt and lied down on a mattress, as he waited for the whole process to begin.
" I'll be honest. There are some serious risks involved." Jocelyn answered. "The parabatai that initiates the contact can be taxing on his body, on his mind..."
"Izzy..." Alec interrupted her. "It's fine."
"I'm not liking the sound of this. Taxing how ?"
Jocelyn shook her head. "We're not sure. Of the few people who have tried it, not many have come back to talk about it."
"Forget it. He's not doing it." Izzy decided.
"Don't listen to her." Alec told Jocelyn.
"No, Alec. I've already lost both parents to Idris, a brother and a friend to Valentine. I'm not gonna lose you too."
Alec, annoyed because of the time they were wasting to make a decision, sat up on the bed. "Izzy, you said it yourself. We have no choice. Jace needs me, Iz. And I can't..." he sighed. "I can't live without him."
Seeing how determined Alec was, Izzy knew that whatever she tried to do or say, wouldn't change anything. She sighed as well, and stepped aside to let Jocelyn approach Alec, in order to begin.
"According to Luke, you need to stay near the surface. If you go too deep, nothing can bring you back." Jocelyn explained to Alec which he answered with a nod.
Jocelyn then proceeded by giving the stone to Alec. As soon as he touched it, the parabatai rune on the stone shined.
Alec inhaled deeply before he closed his eyes and grabbed the stone with both hands.
~~
Clary came back to herself first. As she opened her eyes, she stood up on her feet with the strength she had left, and looked around her. Dot wasn't there anymore, and when she looked towards the cage on her left, she saw Leila who was unsconscious.
"Leila. Leila wake up."
"It won't take too long for her to wake up."
Clary looked at the cage where the unknown voice came from. It was the one behind Leila's.
He was sitting calmly in his cage, as he was used to being experimented on, and not being able to do anything to get out of this situation.
"You must be Valentine's daughter. I'm Toby." he talked again.
"Unfortunately I am..." she sighed. "Clary." she introduced herself. "When do you think she'll wake up ? I gotta get her and Jace out of here."
Tobias scoffed. "Good luck. The only ones I've seen get out of here, were dead." he said. "If it would've been Valentine experimenting on her, or his minions like she likes to call them, beating her up, I would say she would wake up in a few. But magic took her out right now, so I don't really know."
" Not really helping."
"Well, with time, you lose track of time so this is the most precise explanation I could ever give you. You'll understand later." Tobias said as he shrugged his shoulders.
Clary fully turned towards him, and grabbed firmly the bars of her cage. "There is no later. I'm getting them out of here."
Tobias didn't do anything, but laugh at her which made her roll her eyes and turn around. As she looked in front of her, she saw Dot coming in.
"What did you do to me ? Why don't I remember anything ?" Clary asked her as Dot came closer to her.
"Valentine made me cast a spell on you, so that you'd do as I'd say. I had to use, and I have to do it again."
Dot went to grab Clary's head between her hands again, but Clary quickly got out of her hold. "No, stop. You don't have to do this. Dot, you're like a big sister to me." Clary reminded her. "You've always had my back, no matter what."
"Then why did you stop looking for me ?"
Clary felt guilty. She saw the appearing black veins on Dot's face and how obedient she became to Valentine. "Magnus couldn't feel your magic anymore. We thought Valentine had killed you."
"No...he did worse than that." Dot answered as she thought about all the experiences she's had to go through until now.
"Dot, please, help us. We may not be able to go back to the way things were but it doesn't have to be like this."
"You don't understand. He will find us."
"We will stay with Magnus. Hide behind his wards."
Before Dot could say anything, they heard ruffling sounds next to them. Leila came back to herself again. She quickly got up, and looked towards Clary's and Dot's direction, in confusion.
"Please Dot, help us." Clary begged her.
~~
On the other side of Valentine's boat, Jace and another Shadowhunter who was one of Valentine's creations, brought a young woman with white hair to Valentine. Her hands were tied behind her back, while she was pushed forward.
"There you are." Valentine said as he stared at the young woman and then at Jace and the other Shadowhunter. "There's only one last thing for you to do. Kill her."
Jace frowned.
"No, please !" she begged.
"She's our prisoner. She can't hurt anybody here." Jace reminded Valentine.
"After what she did, we're letting her off easy." the other Shadowhunter answered. The young wolf looked at him in total confusion. "Five years ago, my father was mauled to death by a white wolf."
Jace grabbed his seraph blade and put it against her neck.
"You did that, didn't you ?"
Feeling the seraph blade against her neck, the fear of being killed at any moment scared her. Her eyes became tary as she denied the facts.
"Please, don't kill me." she repeated. "I've obeyed the Accords. I'm part of Luke's part. We don't hurt anyone. We're not like that."
While Valentine, Jace, the new-born Shadowhunter and the young wolf were dealing with the issue, Clary, Leila and Tobias, accompanied by Dot, were watching the scene from afar.
Clary managed to convince Dot to let them free. Her plan was to take Leila, find Jace, and escape with Dot, but as Dot freed Leila, she asked her to free to Tobias as well. Clary wanted to escape quickly, so when Leila asked to free Tobias, she was reluxtant at first, because she thought that it would slow them down, but Dot used the little bit of magic she had left to open his cage.
The cages were not sealed by keys, but by magic. Leila knew that asking that favor from Dot was risky, but she couldn't let him stay behind.
As Tobias was weak due to the recent experiment he had to go through sooner, Leila supported him with one of his arm around her shoulders. Since Leila was the one who suggested to try an escape and get him involved, he became her responsibility. If something messed up, it would be her fault, and she was aware of that.
"A wolf will say anything to go free, but she can never change what she is." they heard Valentine tell Jace as he kept his blade pressed again their prisoner's throat. "You let her live son, and she will kill again and again and again..."
"Jace !" Clary called him as she walked towards the scene while the rest stayed hidden.
"Clarissa, how nice of you to join us. Maybe you can convince your brother to finish what he started."
Clary ignored him, and only started at Jace.
"Jace, I need you to listen to me. I don't remember what I said to you, but everything I said was a lie. I was under a spell."
Jace and Clary exchanged glances, and he noticed her eyes look at her left. Jace followed his gaze, and saw Leila, Dot and Tobias, still hiding. He knew it was time.
"Run !" Clary told him as she grabbed his hand and run towards the end of the boat.
They heard Valentine call Jace's name, as more and more Shadowhunters were starting to come towards them to stop them.
Dot, Leila and Tobias came out of their hiding spot, when Clary and Jace got closer to them. While Dot was in charge of opening the barrier that kept the boat hidden and protected, Leila and Tobias jumped in the water first.
Suddenly, Jace stopped in his tracks. Clary, who didn't understand why they were stopping when they were so close to escape, looked towards Jace's direction. He was coughing, and his nose started bleeding due to the parabatai bond that linked him to Alec. It was weakening both of them. Not only was he getting weaker, but Dot as well.
"Jace, let's go." Clary reminded him as she supported him before they both jumped out of the boat.