Alec reached for his phone, growling in frustration. He put it on speaker and Jace picked up after three rings.
"Where the hell are you?" Alec demanded.
"I'm going after Valentine," Jace's voice was muffled but his message was received loud and clear. "Go help Clary."
"You're acting crazy," Alec responded, "All right? Whatever Valentine's telling you, it's not true."
There was a pause on the other end of the line, "That's just it, Alec. It is true. He's my father, he taught me how to fight, not to be weak."
Alec looked to me helplessly and I took the phone from him, "You can't let him control you like this, Jace," I said firmly, "This isn't you!"
"It is me," He sounded defeated, "It's always been me. He raised me to be a killer. Now I'm gonna make him regret it. Go help Clary, she needs you."
"No, you don't have to do this. All right? You're not a-" The line rang dead. "Jace?"
"Dammit!" Alec cursed.
The sudden ringing of Alec's phone made us jump. Half expecting it to be Jace again, Alec picked up. "Jace you- Izzy?" He looked between Luke and I confusedly as she spoke into his ear, but the pair of us just shrugged. "Okay, we're on our way." He shoved his phone into his pocket, "Izzy said they've 'sort of' found the Book of the White, but they need our help."
"Where are they?" I asked.
"Magnus' apartment, headed for the Upper East Side, come on, lets go," Alec and I broke out into a run after agreeing that Luke should go and look for Jace.
"How's your shoulder feeling," Alec asked as we hauled ass up the stairs of Magnus' building. He had a strange tone to his voice - almost angry at the fact that I'd been hurt.
"Fine, fine, you can't blame Jace for it - he probably thought I was Hodge; it was reflex," I waved him off, trying to defend Jace. We reached the top and burst in, out of breath.
"The fuck is she doing here?" My comment slipped out in my surprise and Alec, Magnus and Isabelle tried to hide their amusement while Camille looked less than impressed.
"Where's the book?" Alec asked.
"I have it," Camille declared.
"And she's graciously offered it in exchange for her freedom," Magnus added.
Alec took a step forward shaking his head, "We don't negotiate with prisoners."
"Prisoner? I beg to disagree," Camille mocked, "You see, I'm your only chance at saving the world. You need me."
"Where's Clary?" I asked, rolling my eyes.
Magnus pointed to the hallway behind him. I found Clary and Simon in one of the bedrooms, sitting on the bed talking. "Sam!" Clary stood up when she saw me, "Did you find Hodge?"
I nodded, "Yeah, but Valentine has the Cup."
"What?" Clary exclaimed, "We're too late." She looked from Simon to me before asking, "Where's Jace? Is he okay?"
"He went after Valentine by himself. It's like he's totally lost it. Alec and I tried to stop him, but he wouldn't listen," I answered.
Clary looked stricken, "We need to find Jace. He's in a dark place, we don't know what he's gonna do." She started to run for the door but I grabbed her arm.
"Luke is out looking for him, Jace wants us to stay on mission," I looked at her pointedly, "That means we have to find the book."
Simon stood up and agreed, "She's right. We have to wake up your mom - it's our only way to stop Valentine."
Camille walked in brandishing a piece of parchment, "Ready to sign?" She thrust it in Simon's face.
He shook his head, "Take us to the apartment, give us the book, then you can have your pardon."
Camille rolled her eyes but led us from Magnus' home all the way to the Upper East Side. Clary drove while Simon and Camille stowed in the back of the van, hiding from the sunlight, the female vampire shouting directions as we went.
The block had underground parking, so Simon and Camille joined us as we climbed out of the van. We all cramped into the elevator and let me tell you - the place might be posh but the tiny elevators were not built for seven people. I felt Alec's hand close around mind before I realised that he was next to me. I smiled up at him and he brought my hand to his lips, placing a gentle kiss on it.
The lift doors sprung open and we all but toppled out. I heard Simon mutter to Clary, "I thought the underground parking was nice." Camille took us through to a library room. "Wow. You've got a lot of books," Simon commented.
"I've got a lot of time on my hands," Camille shrugged.
"Let's check the perimeter," Alec said, reaching for his seraph blade.
"Good idea," Magnus agreed, "If I know Camille, she'll have a trick or three up her sleeve." He and Alec headed out of the room.
"I still don't get it. Why do you have this place if you live at Hotel DuMort?" Clary asked, eyes scanning over the hundreds of books.
"The DuMort has too many rules," Camille replied, "Think of it like Gracie Mansion. It's the official residence, but it doesn't mean I have to live there. This place gives me the freedom to indulge in certain... proclivities."
She uncovered a quill and walked over to Simon, "You know, the mayor has the same problem," He was saying. Camille stabbed him in the hand with the sharp end of the writing tool. "Ow! Hey."
"Come with me," She demanded. On the table lay the parchment she had Magnus draw up for her pardon. She pointed at it, "On the dotted line."
Simon looked at Clary, unsure, but took the quill and signed his name anyway.
"He did what you asked," Clary said, descending the ladder she was using to browse higher books. "Now give us the Book of the White."
Camille sighed, "I'd love to... but I can't - I have no idea where it is."
I grit my teeth, "Dot gave it to you."
The old vampire nodded, "That she did, and I'm sure it's here somewhere - but if the idea was to hide it, telling me would defeat the purpose no? Dot must have put it somewhere when I wasn't looking."
"So we have to search the whole apartment?" Clary asked angrily.
"See? That's the spirit," Camille jeered. "Although I'd start now. I've got four more rooms just like this one." Without another word, she vanished.
Clary's phone started to ring for the fourth time in as many minutes. She sighed and walked into another room to answer it.
"I wish my mom had left us something," I murmured to Simon as I started looking over the lower level books, "Some sort of clue."
"Maybe she did," He replied, "Did she ever say anything about a book?"
I sighed, "I don't think so, and if she did, she erased my memory of anything to do with the Shadow World."
"Well, there's got to be something," Simon continued. I rolled my eyes to myself at his incessant rambling. "Maybe the clue has something to do with colour, you know?" He pointed to a shelf of books with colourful spines, "White is the absence of colour, so... or is that black?" My eyes widened as I spotted a familiar book and pulled it off the shelf. "Samara, that's a cookbook."
"Simon just," I held up my hand at him, closing my eyes trying to salvation my patience, "Just go and look with Clary in the other room or something."
He nodded and disappeared after my sister. I looked down at the faded recipe book in my hands and laid it down on the table. I'd seen it before. I realised that it was where my mom had got the recipe for chicken cacciatore, a meal that we used to have all the time. I leafed through the index, finding chicken cacciatore and flipped to the indicated page. My heart nearly stopped beating when I found a torn shred of the bookmark we collected from Ragnor Fell. I retrieved the other half of the fabric from my jacket pocket and rested it on the page.
The two pieces glowed gold for a moment before magically sealing them together again. Once the bookmark was intact, the pages of the cookbook started to shimmer, before returning to a stagnant form. Only once it had stilled, the page looked different. The measurements and directions for ingredients were replaced by Latin words that I couldn't understand. I gasped.
This was the Book of the White.
I heard somebody coming up behind me and I went to turn around, "Look! I found it-" I was cut off by a blade to my throat. I turned my head and could just make out a Circle rune on the neck of my attacker. I struggled against him, but he held the blade tighter against my skin. He dragged me, still holding the book, through into the next room where I saw all my friends in very much the same position as I.
"No! Let her go," Alec grunted, thrashing against his captor as soon as he saw they had me too.
Valentine's voice interrupted him, "See, you are strong, but they make you weak." He was talking to Jace, who I just noticed wasn't being held by anyone and was instead pointing his own blade at Valentine.
"Let us go," Clary tried. I couldn't help rolling my eyes at her pathetic attempt at bargaining, "You can have the book. We won't be able to stop you without it."
"Ah, Clarissa, so like your mother. Willing to do anything for those that you love. I'm touched, but the book was never part of my plan - I want you to wake up your mother. I know that you'll both join me eventually," He smiled wickedly, "It's fated."
Valentine turned back to face Jace, "You ready?"
Jace looked at all of us before lowering his seraph blade. "If I go with you, promise me you won't hurt them."
"You have my word." I heard sincerity in Valentine's voice, a foreign sound that sent shivers down my spine.
"This is insane," My sister objected.
"I'm sorry, Clary," Jace whispered.
She shook her head, not accepting it, "Jace what are you doing? You can't be serious! Valentine is wrong. You- You're not like him."
"You don't know that, Clary. You don't know that," Jace's voice broke.
"Let them go once we've gone through," Valentine instructed to his henchmen, "Except- her." He pointed at me.
"What? You said-" Jace started.
"NO!" Alec shouted at the same time.
"Yes," Valentine grinned, "The Parabatai and the Amortai, two of my children connected to the same person."
"What?" Alec's eyes went wide with a mixture of emotions flashing behind them – surprise at the discovery, concern for me, and fury towards Valentine. I take it Jace never told him then.
"Oh," Valentine smirked, "Oh you didn't know? How touching that I be the one to inform you."
"You said you would leave them be-" Jace lunged for Valentine but one of his followers grabbed him and ducked through the portal.
"Jace!" Clary screamed, but to no avail - he was gone.
Alec thrashed against his captor again, more persistently, "Let her go, let her go!" He shouted.
"My, my, well, goodbye for now," Valentine cackled. He glanced at me, took a step backwards, and vanished through the purple glow.
I felt myself being dragged backwards too. "Clary!" I tossed her the Book of the White so at least they would have a chance at waking mom up. The man holding me grew ever closer to the portal.
"No! No! Samara!" Alec's voice sounded broken and desperate as he twisted and writhed in the iron grip of the Circle member.
A new wave of terror washed over me as my henchman took his final steps. The movement of my throat around the words I next spoke, caused the blade to break the skin on my neck, and a trickle of blood dripped down onto my shirt.
"Alec," I uttered my final words, before Alec and the others disappeared from my view and the portal consumed me. "I love you."
-
That's it my lovelies! Thank you so much for reading!! I will post an authors note tomorrow to wrap this up and let you know about a sequel!
I could not have written this book without all your love and support and your beautiful DM's, thank you so so much!! ❤️
NOS x