"Jace?" I walked into the Ops Center, confused on why he was still up, as he was standing alone, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah." Jace stammers, and sits down in his seat again, looking through the footage, "I'm- I'm good."
"Jace, it's four in the morning." I didn't approve of him being up this late, sitting on the desk, looking down at his messy hair, "I just got back from patrol- why are you still up?"
"I have to go through the rest of this surveillance footage." Jace sighs, grabbing out his stele and running it over his Stamina rune.
I scoff, crossing my arms, "By using your Stamina Rune?"
Jace sighs and tosses his stele onto the desk.
I exhale deeply, "Jace, at some point, you've got to get-"
Jace cuts me off, "I can sleep when I find him."
"You also have to take care of yourself." I crouch in front of him, grabbing his hands, "Or I will go all mother on you- and I really don't want to."
Jace stares at me as my voice got quiet, "Please?"
"Seven mundanes have been murdered in the last 48 hours." Jace lets go of my hands and sat up straight, looking at the footage with a glare, "I think I know who's responsible."
My eyebrows furrowed as I stood back up, "You ID'd the Owl?"
"The Clave has no record of an owl-faced demon." Jace's gaze never left the screen, "Or a demon that possesses people that way, that face has to be a glamour."
I place my hands on my hips, "Well, who'd want to hide themselves?"
Jace's next words shock me, "I think the Owl is Jonathan."
-
"You sure this is what is looks like?" I asked Maia, looking through the Gray Book that day.
Maia looked over my shoulder, stood behind where I was seated, "I mean, I know I'm no Picasso, but-"
"Actually, Picasso was an abstract-" Simon began from next to me then clears his throat, "Never mind."
Maia points to the drawing on the napkin, "This is what I saw on his forehead."
"Well, it's not in the Gray Book, which means it's not a Shadowhunter rune." I shut the book, "And Magnus has never seen anything like it."
Simon sighs, "And the Seelie Queen said only a Daylighter can withstand it."
Maia looks up at the aisles of books, "Does this library have a Daylighter section?"
"I'll see what I can find, but this may be more of a vampire question." I fold my hands and looked at Simon, as he understood what I was implying.
Simon looked at me, "Remember back in fourth grade when Tommy Weismann kept picking on me?"
I nod, "Until you knocked him out."
Maia chuckles, "What?"
"True story- I was king of the nerds for a day." Simon points at her, then looks at me, "What I never told you was that that knock out was actually an accident- I ducked to shield my new glasses, and my elbow caught him in the face."
I gasped playfully, "You were eating all of the acknowledgement up."
Maia laughs, "I had a similar showdown with Cindy McCallahan but my knock out was intentional."
Simon exhales deeply and looks down, "I guess I miss the days when our biggest problems were 90-pound bullies and the threat of being suspended."
Before I could reply, Jace walks in.
I fold my hands and looked at him, "Oh, would you look at that- it's my sleepless, dehydrated, stubborn boyfriend, Jace."
"Hey." Jace exhales deeply, "I need to talk to you."
I opened my mouth, not knowing what to say, looking at Simon, "I'm a grown vampire, Young- I can handle this."
I slowly got up, my eyes squinting at him in suspicious, "With Clary's help?"
"Yeah- pretty much." Simon nods, as I softly laughed and excused myself, following Jace into his room.
I cross my arms, watching Jace as he grabbed his tablet, "Did you get any sleep?"
Jace ignores my question and hands me the tablet, "This is Morgan Young, the Owl's latest victim, except she escaped before he possessed her."
"Young, huh? We could be sisters." I sarcastically remark, then look through the phones, "Anyway, how'd she manage that?"
Jace crosses his arms, "She got him in the face with pepper spray."
"Pepper spray?" I repeat, looking up, "That wouldn't affect a demon."
"No, it wouldn't." Jace shook his head, "It means the Owl is part human, the same as Jonathan."
"Jace, we've tried so many times already." I sigh deeply, "There's been no activity on the Connection Rune."
Jace walked over to the desk, reasoning, "They never found his body."
"Because he's probably in the middle of the ocean somewhere!" I scoff, putting down the tablet and taking a few steps closer to him, "Jace, you killed him yourself- you saw him in that river- he was dead."
"So was I-" Jace faced me, "Until you brought me back."
"That was different, Jace, you know that-" I inhale sharply, then place my hands on my hips, "Do you think this is because of the wish?"
Jace sighs, "Ever since Lake Lyn, I've been having dreams about Jonathan."
"They're probably just dreams, Jace." I put my hair behind my ears, "I mean- it's normal for someone to be- hung up on what happened- a lot happened those few days-"
"Like your dreams about the Mortal Mirror?" Jace shot back at me, "They all ended up being true."
I sigh, "Jace."
"Maryse wants to have dinner with Alec, Izzy and I later on tonight, but- I think this is more important." Jace pulled out what looked like a flyer.
I walked over to him, grabbing his face, caressing his cheek with my thumb, "I think- what's important right now is that you get some sleep, and some food in you at that dinner."
Jace shook his head, "No, I want to go."
"Jace, I will go- okay?" I moved my hands to his arms, "Please- I just want you to rest a bit."
"Like hell will I let you go alone." Jace shot back, being stubborn, "I'm going with you."
I sigh, "What even is it?"
Jace places the paper down, "Morgan is throwing a fundraiser for disaster relief. If I know anything about Jonathan, he will be there to finish what he started."
"Then we should tell the others." I cross my arms.
"No- he had spies in the Institute before, I don't want anything to tip him off." Jace denied, "When he attacks again, we'll be there to stop him."
-
I knocked on Isabelle's door, dressed in a black lace off the shoulder dress, that ended mind thigh and was backless, it being sleeveless except for the lace, black heels to go with the outfit. My hair was done in a low bun that looked effortlessly messy.
"Wow." Isabelle smiles at me when she looked away from her mirror while doing her makeup, "Look at you."
"It's not easy finding something cute that can accommodate a weapon." I pulled up the hem of my dress a little, showing her the thigh sheaths that were attached to my legs that held my kindjals.
I clear my throat, placing my hands on my hips, "Izzy- uhm, have you have noticed anything different about Jace?"
"No-" Isabelle began, then smiled at me, "Well, you do see him a lot more than I do."
I don't reply to this, my expression remaining the same; worried.
Isabelle turned in her seat and looked at me; concerned, "What's wrong?"
"I'm really worried about him." I confessed quietly, walking over to her, "He thinks the Owl is Jonathan."
"What?" Isabelle's eyes widen, "Why?"
"He keeps having these dreams about him." I pinch the bridge of my nose, "He thinks they're prophetic."
Isabelle stares at me, "What do you think?"
"Jace hasn't been sleeping- or eating." I place my hands on my hips, inhaling sharply, "All he's been using his Stamina Rune to stay on mission."
Isabelle softly nods as I leaned against the table she sat in front of, "When you don't sleep, your mind can play tricks on you."
"I mean- we all saw Jace kill him that night." My voice fell quiet, "He was dead."
Isabelle questions, "Has he told Alec?"
I shook my head, "He's afraid that once word gets out, it'll tip off Jonathan."
"I'm coming with you." Isabelle set her makeup brush down, getting up.
"Iz." I looked at her with wide eyes, "What about your family dinner?"
"If the Owl is Jonathan, we've way got bigger problems than missing dinner with Mom." Isabelle places a hand on my shoulder, "There's no way I'm letting you guys go out there alone."
-
"The Owl could be anyone." I looked around when we had entered the setting, music blasting and different colored lights flashing."
"Remember, he might not look like Sebastian Verlac." Jace reminded us, "Keep an eye out for anything suspicious."
Isabelle nods, "Let's split up."
"Yeah." Jace walked away, "Don't let Morgan out of your sight."
As we spilt up, we kept eye on Morgan from different sides of the club, all while blending in.
Except soon enough, Jace wasn't anywhere to be found and neither was Morgan.
I push through the crowd of people dancing and drinking, cheering and jumping to the music.
I looked around, trying to find Morgan, but I had lost of her.
I only looked away for one second.
I push through the crowd and walked over to Isabelle, "Where's Morgan? I can't find her-"
Isabelle shook her head immediately, "Did you at least see where Morgan went?"
"No-" I shook my head right back, "I hope Jace has her."
"Isn't that Morgan's phone?" Isabelle points to the stairs, "Oh, no-"
Isabelle and I rush through the crowd and over to where the phone was, going down that hall and being less outside where Morgan's screams sounded the night, "Get away from me!"
"Morgan!" I almost gasped when Isabelle and I skid to a stop at the corner where the Owl was on Morgan.
Isabelle whipped her whip towards the Owl, pulling him off Morgan as I pulled out my kindjals.
Morgan gets up, snarling as my eyes widen, "Izzy, watch out!"
Morgan grabbed onto Isabelle but she was quick, letting go of her whip and knocking her to the ground.
Morgan runs off as Isabelle shot me a look, as I nodded, her going after Morgan as I stood in front of the Owl.
I swung my kindjal at him, as he grabbed my arm and twisted it. I swung my other kindjal at him but soon enough after a effort filled fight, he knocked them both out of my hands and had me against the wall, his hand to my neck.
My hands were on his wrists as I grunted, my face completely direct to his, "Is it really you?"
"Coward!" I raise my voice when he doesn't do anything, only tightening his grip on my neck, "Show me your face, Jonathan!"
He tilts his head towards me, before leaping up onto the roof, leaving me be, my hand immediately going to my neck as I gasped for air.
-
"Poor Morgan." Isabelle sighed deeply as her and I gazed at the crazed looking Morgan in the cell, "She's the last person who deserves to be locked up."
I cross my arms, "It's for her own safety."
Silence fell for a few moments, before I broke it, not being able to help to, "Where is Jace?"
Isabelle crosses her arms as well, "Still no word?"
"I'm starting to get really worried- as if I already wasn't worried about him." I rub my temples stressfully, "He should've been back by now."
Isabelle lightly shrugs, "Maybe- he went to look for the Owl."
I shut back at her, "Without checking in with us?"
"Well, one thing is for sure, The Owl is definitely not Jonathan." Isabelle told me.
My eyebrows furrow, "How do you know?"
"I got him with my whip." Isabelle mentioned, "The electrum didn't react."
I exhale deeply, speaking the question that burned in both our minds, "Well, if the Owl's not Jonathan, then who could it be?"
authors note:
bro I can't
zee's such a caring girlfriend smh
go read redamancy !!!
thank you for 10k !!!
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