Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chapter One

(Clary’s Pov)

Clary woke up in a brightly lit room making her scrunch her nose and grimace, who had their lights this bright in classrooms. Her eyes flutter up after adjusting and takes in her surroundings, noticing she is in fact not in the classroom. There are a lot of beds around and a table next to her with some medical supplies and pen-like object with weird symbols on the sides. She sits up and tenses, what does she do in this situation? She doesn’t know how she got here, she could just bolt but this place looks huge and she would probably get lost. Just as she turns she bumps into something or more like someone.

“Owe” The girl says with her eyes closed and tensed from the smack Clary just gave her, she opens her eyes back up. I blink slowly at the girl, her hair is long and dark, she is wearing bright red lipstick that compliments her tan skin tone. She looks like the type of girl Clary would draw.

“I don’t know you.” I stammer, making distance between me and the girl wanting to run.

“I'm Isabelle.” She says with a smile her eyes lighting up, as she leans into Clary.

That doesn’t help Clary at all, why is she in this random place? She looks around some more. Maybe if she runs now she could make it out.

“I've never seen Jace so curious about a mundane before-” She trailed off before looking at Clary, staring at her like she’s some alien or foreign species. Like she had never seen another girl before.

“Or distracted. Like you saw earlier, distractions are dangerous in our line of work.” She softened her tone informing Clary of this event like she knew what she was talking about. She doesn’t remember a thing.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Clary stammers out nervously before turning back to the girl- Isabelle that was her name.

“Who’s Jace?” Clary asked

“You really don’t know much do you.” She stated. Clary frowned looking at the girl, of course she knew nothing.

“All I know is some psychos took my mom and now you people have taken me.” She looks up at the girl, Isabelle smiles politely, Clary can’t tell if she’s upset at her or not.

“By taken I assume you mean saved your life.” she clarifies, Clary blinks at Isabelle’s words again stunned, who was this girl and why was she telling her all of this.
But Clary didn’t really have time to figure that out before she heard a loud knock as her eyes flew open. She’s back in class, she must have fallen asleep again. She sighs noticing everyone was closing her books. She closes hers and shoves it and her sketchbook in her bag and gathers her stuff and gets out the classroom as quick as she could before her teacher could scold her for falling asleep again.

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Clary practically ran out of the school, her face getting hit with the unforgiving harsh cold winter air. Normally she wouldn’t mind being in school longer. She loved her school, but with that weird dream she had she needed to leave and do something- anything to get it out of her mind . She had been craving a hot cup of coffee from her favorite café down the street since she left her apartment this morning for class. Maybe that would help her stay awake so she doesn’t have anymore dreams. She starts to walk towards the café and huddles in on herself cursing at herself for not wearing something warmer.

The crowd of people is bigger today, it normally is at this hour but it's worse right now, so she's having to push her way through trying to be as polite about it as she can while still moving fast. She finally makes it through the large crowded parts of the sidewalk and she can see the café in sight. She sped up and made her way to the coffee shop when she got stopped and smacked straight into someone.

She goes to gather up her bag and look up to see a beautiful taller brunette girl with bright red lipstick. She can help but get stunned in her beauty, she can feel her cheeks flush on her already pink cheeks.

“Um- sorry I wasn’t paying attention.” Clary stammers out finally.

The girl looks just as stunned and maybe confused by her presence. She looks as if Clary was a ghost or angel from heaven. Clary knew she seemed invisible sometimes but this was different, she was legitimately confused of how she could see her.

“I'm sorry I should be more careful.” Clary mumbles to herself embarrassed.

“You can see me.” She says carefully the confusion and awe in her voice is apparent.

Clary scans around her then back to the girl. Of course she could see her, she probably should’ve seen her a block away with how stunning she was.

“Of course I can see you” Clary starts softly trying to not scare the girl since she seemed scared.

“Are you okay I didn’t like to hurt you or anything did I?” Clary rambles out, she didn’t even think about the fact she could have hurt her.

“No I'm fine.'' The brunette answered quickly, the girl’s brown eyes slowly scanned over Clary.

She felt like she was art at a gallery under her intense gaze. She didn’t know whether to take that as a compliment, or feel exposed and vulnerable like she’s being judged harshly.

“I'm sorry I’m just in a rush too and wasn’t expecting anyone to see me.” She spoke slowly, not making eye contact.

Clary can’t help but be entranced by the girl she seemed so familiar and comforting. Like she could feel these intense emotions wanting to jump out of her.

“Do I know you from somewhere?” Clary questioned the girl as she looked at her more closely, noticing the tattoos covering the girl’s body in familiar symbols.

She can see the girl freeze in place, at this point she is afraid she said something wrong. She really wanted to know more about her and maybe be friends. There was something about her that entranced her like she was always meant to be with her, like they had spent many lifelines together.

“No I don't think so.” She answers quickly, going to move away and walk away, Clary steps in front of her, blocking her from moving.

“No, I definitely do.” She could feel it, this girl was important and special. then why can’t she remember her. Then it hit her, the dream she had in class today. She was the same girl that was in that dream.

“You're Isabelle.” I start slowly looking at the girl more closely, noticing her familiar warm brown eyes as they widen--.

The girl nods and I can see her eyes slightly water up as she smiles fondly at me.

“I'm Clary It's uh nice to meet you” I stammer out. She laughs and Clary would do anything to hear that laugh again.

“I mean again since uh- we have met before but I just can’t quite place when.” Clary ponders as she goes closer to Isabelle. She seems taken back by this but doesn’t move.

Clary reaches up and lightly touches one of the tattoos on her arm. She can feel a spark of energy when she does that's both unnerving but comforting and safe like she was always meant to feel that buzz of energy flow through her. It was like she could hear the brunette girl's heartbeat in her ears. She meets the Isabelle's warm eyes taking all of her in like she's sketching her out on a paper in her brain. She doesn’t want to forget her again; she makes Clary feel happy and safe even for just these few minutes, something she hasn’t felt in months.

“Would you uh- want to go in and get some coffee with me? My treat of course payment for accidentally running into you.” She offers as an excuse to keep being with Isabelle; she can’t lose her yet not after just remembering her name. She wants to know more and keep feeling these things escaping out of her. She seems unsure about it checking her phone and her eyes darting around.

“Please I want to get to know you. You seem so familiar yet not at the same time. Plus I could really use the company.” Clary smiles softly at the girl letting her cheeks flush as she can hear her heart beat faster in her ears. Isabelle sighs and gives in to the girl's bright and hopefully hazel green eyes staring at her.

“Okay fine but only like an hour then I have to get back before my brother throws a fit I’ve been gone too long.” She remarks with a playful huff.

“Brother?” Clary questions feeling like she remembers her having a brother just can’t place the name.

“Yeah he's a pain in my ass but you know that's a brother for you, he's a bit overprotective of me.” She says going to the door and opening it for Clary.

“Thank you.” Clary beamed as she practically skips through the door feeling like she's on cloud nine. Not only does she get to talk and be with the prettiest girl she’s ever seen, she feels at home, safe- at least more safe than she feels anywhere else right now.

Maybe this was going to be the start of something good, maybe she can start to place these dreams and emotions she’s been having for a while now by being around Isabelle, someone clearly from her past. At Least that was her hope in all of this.

Chapter Text

Chapter Two
(Isabelle’s Pov)

Isabelle waits at the table by the window for Clary ordering their coffee. She stares out the window and can feel herself fidgeting with her bracelet. I can't believe I not only got to see and talk to Clary but she remembers me, well not fully but she knew my name and when she touched my accuracy rune it felt like she was pouring more angelic energy into me, like she could feel her whole soul connect with hers. It was like she never left, wishful thinking I guess, but if she's getting any memories back and may be regaining the sight what does this all mean. Did the angels forgive her, and why does it all seem so sudden to happen after a whole year.

She hears a small tap and turns to see Clary. She put their cups down on the table and sat on the chair on the other side of the table and set her bag down. It looks so much like the one she first came to the institute with.

“There you go, one latte for the lady.” She smiles, holding back a giggle, just as cheerful and witty as before.

She can’t help but feel bad for her if she is getting her memories back and the sight. She seems so happy and to be reintroduced into the shadow world again would ruin that.

“Thank you, Clary. I swear I can pay you back if you need.” She already feels bad enough with all of this much less Clary buying coffee for her.

“Nonsense, I told you it was my treat, it's okay.” She says with a soft smile and sips her coffee.

Isabelle notices it’s black coffee. She remembers she only drank black coffee on rough days like their all nighters after patrols they’d pull together.

“You drink black coffee.” Isabelle teases, raising her eyebrow.

Clary laughs and pushes back a strand of hair that was in front of her face. Isabelle wishes she could reach out and touch her. She is just waiting to wake up and for this to be a dream, her brain giving her false hope for something she can’t have.

“Yeah, not all the time just when I need an extra pick me up.” She starts shifting in her seat.

Isabelle notices she's trying to warm herself up by rubbing her hands together. That’s right it must be freezing to a mundane right now, Izzy didn’t even think about it because of her heat rune she had activated. Isabelle notices she was wearing a jacket not a normal for her sometimes so she hesitates before taking it off.

“Are you cold? You can wear my jacket if you want to, you look freezing.” Noticing her pink nose and cheeks.
Clary shakes her head fast and closes herself off more and chews her lip. Isabelle remembers that being a nervous tick or hers she would do when she was lying or wanting something but not wanting to ask for it.

“No No it's okay I’m fine.” Clary stammers and gives a reassuring smile. Isabelle only chuckles at this and stands up and puts the jacket on her lap.

“You're a horrible liar.” Isabelle teasing with the biggest smile on her face.

She can’t remember the last time she felt this happy. Clary always had that effect on her. She always knew what to say and how to make Isabelle’s days better even if she didn’t realize that's what she was doing.

Clary smiles and reluctantly takes the jacket and puts it on. She immediately smiles more and nuzzles in it, Isabelle found it the cutest thing in the whole world she couldn’t help but feel herself smile more if that was even possible.

“Thank you, I promise I’ll give it back before we leave.” She promises and takes another drink of her coffee. Isabelle notices her sketchbook sticking out of her bag when scanning the room out of habit for any threats.

“You take art classes right? How are those going?” Isabelle questioned.

Izzy already knew she took art classes at Brooklyn art but she didn’t want it to come across that she was stalking the girl or something if she made it seem like she already knew. She can see Clary’s eyes light up as she straightens in her seat from slouching over the table.

“I do! I go to Brooklyn Arts.” She exclaimed, Isabelle can see how excited that made Clary.

Clary always loved art and is extremely talented. It's something Isabelle always admired about Clary as Isabelle can barely draw a straight line, the only reason she knew how to do runes is because she grew up learning and failed many times. Clary chews her lips slightly; she's obviously wanting to ask something but isn’t wanting to say it. Isabelle was about to speak before she went for her bag.

“Would you want to see some of it? I've been working on an assignment and could use an extra opinion.” She says rummaging through her bag before pulling out the sketchbook.

Clary then moved her cup to make room for it before setting it down. Isabelle smiles brightly as she becomes more comfortable moving her head to rest on her hand.

“Sure I would love to.” Isabelle beamed at the girl as she opened her sketchbook.

Isabelle first noticed before anything was the sketches as she flipped through pages. They were runes, just like before when she first got to the institute where she was drawing runes before learning about the shadow world.

Clary flips to a drawing of what she assumed was the assignment Clary was talking about except that just left Izzy more shocked. It looked like Edom, it was the ruin they were at when they destroyed Lilith. She even drew Lilith in her demon form, it was so vivid like she was literally drawing the moment itself but without people it was just the ruin with Lilith hovering over it with a fireball shooting out.

It was beautiful of course and it was so detailed but that's what was concerning, it was the fact it was so detailed. Clary was reliving her memories, Isabelle can’t be sure on how but she was remembering things and in detail too.

“It's beautiful, is there any inspiration behind it at all? It looks so detailed.” Isabelle questioned. She wanted to know more and how she knew if she could remember or know how she got the inspiration of it at all.

“I dreamt it, it was a dream I had a couple nights ago. I couldn’t sleep afterwards because it all felt so surreal. So I drew what I saw, my mom used to tell me when I was young and would have nightmares or needed a distraction to draw. It helps me calm down and control my emotions.” She explained while tracing her fingers over the drawing slowly.

Isabelle can’t help but feel bad for her as she gives a sad smile, but if Clary can remember something good about her mom maybe she only remembers the good parts with her mom, not the bad parts towards the end. That’s Isabelle’s hope because she didn’t want her grieving her mom by herself.

“Well it's amazing either way, I'm sure you’ll get an A on the assignment.” Isabelle reassured Clary.

Clary smiled softly; she can see her cheeks flush a soft pink when she does which makes Isabelle have a small smirk ignoring the fluttering feeling it gave her in her heart.

“Sorry I feel like I’ve been talking all about me and I haven’t asked about you, what do you do?” Clary asked, drinking her coffee with a pleased smile. Isabelle almost choked as she was drinking hers, cause what does she tell her. She can’t tell Clary what she really does; it's not safe.

“Sorry that was kind of blunt, you don’t have to answer I was just curious- someone like you I wouldn’t be surprised if you were a model or jewelry person because that bracelet is crazy cool.” She pointed out looking down at Isabelle’s snake. Right jewelry I mean if that one guy believed her surely it’s believable.

“A model huh?” Isabelle teased smirking at the redhead’s eye widening and pink cheeks, Isabelle thinks Clary would be a good model, she's pretty and she could pull off anything. It was a shame she dressed so modestly. Isabelle forces herself to look away at the fact she is staring at Clary.

“But no, I'm a Jeweler and this is my latest piece. I'm glad you like it, I was test running it today.” Isabelle smiled fidgeting with it, Clary hand slowly reached out and looked up to Isabelle then back down.

“Could I touch it- sorry if that’s weird I've just always been fascinated with this kind of stuff.” Clary asked, hovering her hand over Isabelle’s arm. Isabelle can feel her heartbeat faster as she stares blinking slowly.

“Uh yeah sure it’s okay.” Isabelle manages to get out in an even tone despite her running thoughts of how close Clary is gonna be as she leans over the table.

She can smell her honey sweet perfume and the way her hair falls in front of her face. She looks up one more time making sure, Isabelle nods and sucks in a breath. Clary leans in, she can feel the girl's soft breath on her skin making her shudder. Isabelle was pathetic. It's just Clary why she was so nervous about her look at her jewelry.

Clary gently touches her arm and quickly moves to the bracelet and Isabelle swears she stops breathing. As Clary is busy looking at her bracelet so she sneaks up a look to Clary. It was a mistake when she saw the soft but intense stare looking at her bracelet like she’s figuring out a puzzle noticing the way she chews her bottom lip in thought. Isabelle swallows tickly, staring at the girl's lips then the freckles scattered across her cheeks. Isabelle wonders if she just never paid attention before or whether they have just come out more than before. Isabelle thinks she can die now and be happy after today. But of course all good things end as she feels a ring in her pocket making both of the girls jump and look at her phone. Clary looks back at Isabelle, her eyes widening with how close they are, her face flushes bright red as she backs up and sits back down.

Isabelle huffed when opening her phone knowing who the text was probably from. She looked and she knew it, it was Alec texting her asking if she was okay, she may be okay but she may hit him in the head when she sees him later. She looked at the time noting it had been two hours. She grumbles and puts her phone away. Isabelle hadn’t even noticed how much time had gone by. She knew she should go back to report before she has patrol later, but she hated leaving Clary. She only just got her back and what if she wakes up tomorrow and she doesn't remember her anymore.

“You okay?” Clary questions worry lacing in her words. Isabelle looked up and she could see Clary’s eyebrows furrowed softly as she looked at her with kind gentle eyes.

“I'm okay It’s my brother.” Isabelle grumbles out.

She didn’t want to go but she was a Shadowhunter. She still had a job to do and it doesn’t stop for anything. Plus she could talk to Alec about everything to help her get her mind to stop racing as it was still reeling with everything going on.

“I should probably go, I have to go to him before he comes and finds me himself.” She jokes to lighten her mood with the situation. Clary frowns at Isabelle's words as she traces her cup of coffee.

“Thank you for the coffee though.” Isabelle starts and grabs it slowly putting the lid back on the cup.

Just as she was about to get up she gets stopped by Clary grabbing her hand that doesn't have the Latte in it. It was warm and soft, her hands used to be like that even when she started hunting. It made Isabelle want to hold them for hours, but that was a foolish thought.

“Sorry um- would you want to do this again. I liked talking to you, it was fun.” She rambled out, letting go of her hand immediately, not making eye contact.

Clary’s face had a light pink flush to them as she chewed on her soft pink lips. Clary eventually looked back up, Her eyes looked up into Isabelle’s. Those bright green eyes will be the death of Isabelle one day.

“I would like nothing more than that.” Isabelle replied, giving a reassuring smile.

She wants to see me again. I didn’t think she would want to, that's good at least. Isabelle knows she wont lose her again right away unless this was a cruel dream she was gonna wake up from. Clary beamed at this and pulled out her phone and handed it to Isabelle.

“Here, put your number in and we can work out when we're both free” She offered.

Isabelle gladly took it and put her number in new contact before handing it back to her. Clary smiled brightly. It was nice to see Clary so happy again, Isabelle hoped this wouldn’t make her miserable again if she joined back into the shadow world. Isabelle got up and stood up about to walk out before turning back around.

“See you around Clary.” She winked smirking at the redhead’s cheeks flushing bright pink, before she gave a shy wave and Isabelle walked out of the café her the bell ringing as she walked out.

Isabelle immediately felt a wave of loneliness wash over her, she felt so empty now knowing she had to return and act like nothing happened. Clary was so warm and comforting to be around. It was like nothing ever happened but that was naive of Izzy to think that way. Isabelle now had to make her way to the institute to be engulfed by the coldness and loneliness it caused her most days.

She needed to talk to Alec about this. If Clary was reliving memories through dreams she was gonna start gaining more of the sight she didn’t need to be alone though that again like she was at the beginning last time. Isabelle wasn’t gonna let Clary go through anything alone; She pulled out her phone and sent a quick text to Alec.

Izzy:
Where are you at I'm heading to the institute we need to talk about something

Alec:
I'm in the office looking for a report, are you okay? Do I need to come help you?

Izzy:
No I'm fine it’s nothing like that, look I'll explain when I get there see you soon xx

Chapter Text

Chapter Three
(Isabelle Pov)

Isabelle was right the second she entered the institute she felt cold and empty. It had felt that way since Clary left. When she left it was like the spark and life went away. Maybe it was just her though because everyone was able to move on eventually, even Jace and Simon. I swear some days it's like people never even cared and that nothing happened. Clary saved all their lives and sacrificed everything and no one seems to care. It’s just hard to believe that someone that changed and brought so much good can be forgotten and moved on from so quickly.

Maybe Isabelle got attached to the mundane lifestyle after being around Clary and Simon and became naive but she just missed the way things were. She’s happy for everyone but she just feels like she’s been left behind, stuck in the past like she’s still at the wedding that night crying her eyes out in Clary’s old room.

It took all of Isabelle’s strength and will power to walk through the institute and smile and make small talk as she makes her way to the office. She was normally a very sociable person and would sit and answer anyone's questions and make time for it but right now she had way important matters.

Isabelle stares at the door of the office for a couple minutes. She never hesitates going into the office and talking about stuff. I mean it’s her office now but it still didn’t feel like it most days, she's glad Alec still helps her with it all when she feels lost in the position. She shouldn't be hesitant to talk to Alec; she wasn't even when she and Simon broke up a couple months ago. So why is she now? She takes a deep breath and grabs the door knob and opens it. She sees Alec on the phone and she can tell it's just Magnus or Jace since his facial expressions are more open and not tense like he is with work

“Yeah I got to go.” He says looking at Isabelle and motioning for her to come in and sit. She closes the door behind her and goes to sit in the chair. Not noticing the way she's picking her at her skin by her nails.

“No It’s just Izzy she wanted to talk about something.” He says smiling with a soft pink dust on his cheeks. So it's definitely magnus, he has the stupid in love look on his face.

“Yeah I'll tell her you said hi.” He chuckles as Isabelle rolls her eyes fondly at the conversation.

“Okay I’ll see you tonight, bye love you.” He smiles sheepishly as he hangs up.

It's cute really, she's always been happy for her brother and that he found someone he loves as much as he does Magnus. She’s also always envied it, she's looked high and low for that pure love and affection like what Magnus and Alec have and just haven't found it. She thought she did with Simon and she was happy for a while, but when Clary left it put a huge dent in the relationship and it just didn’t feel right anymore.

“Hey, sorry about that I thought you would be a bit.” He gives an apologetic smile as if he knows what Isabelle was thinking. I guess siblings are funny like that, always knowing even if you don’t say it. He always knew her better than anyone else.

“It's okay but I have one thing to do first off.” Isabelle gets up and gets one of the report files on his desk and smacks Alec’s arm, not hard but enough to get her point across.

“Hey what was that for?” He looks furrowing his eyebrows, he doesn't look upset to Isabelle though just confused and concerned.

“You deserved it, you’ll see why when I talk, but first you have to promise me something.” She ----starts walking back towards the door forgetting the rune and draws a silencing rune of the door to drain out anyone that may eyedrop, because that's the last thing she wants happening. Alec raises his eyebrow suspiciously at the rune.

“Of course, are you okay?” He asks, narrowing his eyes examining Isabelle’s movement. Isabelle goes back over and sits on the chair before going to take her jacket before feeling nothing.

“Shit.” She curses grumbling to herself, Alec sees this and only makes him more suspicious.

“Did you leave with a jacket?.” He asks, raising his eyebrows as if it’s not obvious that’s what happened.

“Yes thank you for stating the obvious.” Isabelle huffs and slums down in the chair.

“Okay Izzy you're worrying me what’s wrong? Did you get hurt?” He says moving all of his things away gives Isabelle all of his attention putting his hands together infront of him.

“It's Clary.” She mumbles, she really doesn't know how to begin all of this. How do you explain the fact that your best friend that got her memories taken from her and you thought would never see again not only saw you through a glamor but remembered you.

“I'm sorry Iz but you’re gonna have to speak up.” he says softly like she's a glass bottle he’s trying to break. She feels pathetic for feeling so overwhelmed by this that she’s being treated like she’s fragile.

"It's Clary alright.” She finally lets out yelling, throwing up her hands in frustration covering her face.

“Isabelle.” He starts slowly and softly getting up from his chair, she tenses up as she can hear him sit in the chair next to her.

“What about Clary she's been gone for a year Iz.” He states apologetically.

“I saw her today.” Isabelle mumbles out as she moves her hands away from her face and looks down at the wood floors while she fidgets with her ring that Magnus got her a few months ago, twirling it around her ring finger. He said it would help with stress and anxiety that she’s been struggling with, it was a silver band ring with a Amethyst crystals, he suggested Amethyst as he considered it the best crystal for anxiety.

“You what?” He yells being a lot louder than Isabelle wants standing up straight, sure she placed the rune but it’s no warlock magic it won't cover everything.

“Shhh.” she shushes aggressively.

“I didn’t mean to, I didn’t go to her or anything, it just happened okay.” Isabelle rambles out crossing her arms.

Alec seems like he wants to be loud and be upset but he just sighs and sits back down. She doesn’t want to look at him, because she knows the look he has and she doesn’t want to seem more weak than she already feels.

“I'm sorry that probably was hard to deal with.” He softly starts the voice that he used to use when Isabelle would have her panic attacks when she was younger. Isabelle takes a deep breath in and out, she finally moves feeling like she can without breaking down moving to finally look at Alec. He gives her a small smile as if to say continue.

“I was going to the hunter’s moon to follow up on that lead with the werewolves, when she bumps into me-.” She lets out slowly looking at the floor again not wanting to look at him to see her weak.

“She shouldn’t have seen me. I was glamoured I- no other mundane ever saw me until I unglamored myself when we talked.” She rambles out again.

“You talked to her?” He questioned softly with a hint of curiosity in his voice making her feel more at ease to continue since he didn’t seem mad like she thought he would be. She thought she would never hear the end of it and he wouldn’t let her leave the institute for weeks like he did with Jace when she first disappeared and he kept trying to see her

“Yeah.” She smiled softly letting out a soft chuckle.

“She remembered me Alec- she remembered my name and when she touched my rune it was like.” She stops mid sentence, she doesn’t want to sound stupid or anything, giving herself false hope like that.

“Like she never left.” He finished her sentence for her. To this she gave a small nod as she looked up. He had that soft lopsided smile that he does. It helps ease the butterflies that she feels like are eating her insides.

“She showed me her drawings, she is still so talented, I can even see improvement if that was even possible to begin with since she was already so talented.” She smiled and fidgeted still.

“But that’s the problem, in her sketchbook there were sketches of runes. Just like the ones she did before when she first got the sight two years ago.”

“But that shouldn’t be possible, the angels took away her sight, memories, everything.” He questioned, confused, almost trying to convince himself.

“I know! I've been trying to tell myself that for the past few hours, okay?” She lets out in a huff crossing her arms.

“Then for her latest drawing she showed me it was Edom, like when we saved Magnus that ruin we were in. Lilith was there in her demon form like the one she drew before. It was all there Alec and I don’t know what to do.” She lets out a frustrated sigh, wanting to cry in frustration.

It seemed like a cruel joke of the angels to give her false hope to probably take it away again. She didn’t even do anything wrong, she kept her distance and did everything she was told why were the angels doing this to her. She didn’t even realize the tear that slipped from her eyes that she quickly wiped away.

“What do I do? If she’s getting the sight back and her memories in dreams like she said she got that one from I don’t want her to be alone and scared Alec she doesn’t deserve that.” She covers her face.

“Hey it’s okay just take some breaths okay? We’ll figure this out together okay I can talk to-” Isabelle interrupts him quickly.

“No.” She demanded sitting up straight with a sniffle to get rid of any more tears that are trying to come out.

“We can’t tell anyone. At least not right now, especially Jace and Simon. They are just beginning to make progress within these couple months. I'm not ruining that for them.” She explained looking up at Alec, he was frowning at her. He opened his mouth to say something but she interrupted him before he could get the chance to protest.

“She wanted my number so I gave it to her. She wants to meet again, would you consider coming so I can get a second opinion. I just don’t know what to do Alec. I don't want to screw this up and make things worse for her.” She rambled out.

“Hey of course I’ll always have your back. If we can do something tomorrow I don’t have meetings and we can go and see where to go from there, Okay?” He offered with a small smile.

“I’ll have Magnus do a magic scan of her apartment just to make sure no one is doing anything if that would make you feel better.” He offers.

As much as she doesn’t want to get Magnus involved as he was affected about her disappearance for a while too because of how close he was to her that would help her feel better.

“Yeah okay, you don’t think he would mind?” She questioned sniffling.

“Of course not, this is Clary we're talking about he would do anything for her.” He explained.

“How about you come to the loft tonight and we can talk about it over dinner where we won't have to be so cautious okay?” He offers. Isabelle smiles at that she always liked having dinner at the loft plus she really doesn’t want to be here right now.

“Yeah that would be nice, it’s kind of hard being here right now when I can’t do anything to help her and just feel her all around you know.” She tried to explain. It felt like Clary’s ghost still lived in the institute despite not dying.

“Yeah I get it, why don’t you go train for a bit to distract yourself and I’ll finish up your paperwork that you have” He offers. She hesitates, she didn’t want her to have to do her work for her. But also didn’t want to make any stupid mistakes and to give a clave a reason to suspect their institute .

“Okay- Thank you” She spoke softly, he knew how hard she was on herself so he just gave her a pat on the shoulder as he got up.

“No problem.” He sat in the office chair, and got the reports in front of him to organize and fill out.

She would be okay, they would work everything out and get Clary back and her life can begin to feel normal again.

Clary <3: Hey it's Clary just wanted to text you to say I really enjoyed today :)

Izzy: I did too! Would you happen to be free tomorrow at the same time if you still wanted to of course.

Clary <3: Omg yeah of course I would love to! That time is perfect for me.

Izzy: Great I'll see you then xxx

Clary <3: See you then :)

Isabelle smiles at the text rumbling her thumb against the phone as she makes her way to the training room.

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Isabelle leaves the training room now drenched in sweat leaving her hair sticking to her forehead and her skin glistening. Realistically she shouldn’t have trained that hard but once she got started she couldn’t stop herself. It helped get all the bent up frustration and confusion that was bound to bubble over or explode if she didn’t let it lose. Her phone vibrates as she's wiping off her forehead grimacing at her arm.

Alec: Hey I’m gonna be done in like 10 minutes to leave. I’ve already told Magnus you’re coming over so don’t worry.

Izzy: Can you give me 20? I just got out of the training room. I'm gonna clean up.

Alec: Okay just meet me in the office when you’re done.

Izzy: Okay xx

Isabelle goes to turn around before bumping into someone.

“Woah hey you okay Iz?” questioned Jace as Isabelle looked up at him, seeing him look down at her his eyebrows furrowed together with a frown.

“I'm fine, I just got back from training.” She gives a small smile in reassurance. This is the last person she wants to be talking to right now. She loved Jace but she felt bad having to keep information like this away from him.

“I can see that, what’s got you all worked up?” He teases tilting his head with a sly grin on his face.

“Get that smirk off your face. I just wanted to train and got into it.” She answers hoping that would be enough of an answer for him. He frowns slightly and looks at her, but lets it go anyway.

“Well alright, but if you need to talk you know I'm always here for you.” He reassures me as he puts his hand on my shoulder and pats it.

Before she can say anything else he gets a text on his phone that he immediately checks and gets glued to, which is unusual for him to be like that with anyone unless it was important. He stares at his phone with a small smile almost like he forgot she was there and they were having a conversation. He looks back up and his eyes widen some and he lets out a cough looking away.

“I'm sorry Iz, I have to go but I’ll see you later.” He says hastily playing with his hair and fixing his jacket.

“Hey wait a second” She questioned curiously with a small smirk looking him up and down. He’s dressed up nicely not like full on date style but more than just a t-shirt and jeans with his normal worn leather jacket.

“Where are you off to this late? I didn't think you had patrol tonight.” She asked with a raised eyebrow crossing her arms. He lets out a chuckle fidgeting with his phone.

“It’s nothing Izzy I'm just going to Simon’s he wants me to have one of his stupid movie nights with him.” He says with an almost fond voice despite the statement seeming to be implying he’s annoyed by it.

“Uh huh sure well, have fun.” She laughed as she went to turn but looked back.

“But not too much fun.” She teased with a wink and smirk, making Jace’s cheek flush lightly from embarrassment.

Isabelle felt satisfied with it and walked away. It was nice to see them hang out together, they seemed to gravitate to each other after Clary left. I'm sure they probably understand each other more than anyone else, which Isabelle was glad each of them had. They deserved to have someone to understand and help work through all of that with.

Isabelle made her way to her room and picked out the first outfit she saw in her closet and gathered her things to take a shower as quickly as she could to not keep Alec waiting.

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Isabelle and Alec are walking through the bright and ever busy New York City. It had been silent the whole walk as Isabelle hadn’t said a word and Alec hadn't pushed her. Which she was thankful for as she needed the time to think and process everything not talk.

“What took you so long to get ready.” Alec started brushing her shoulder to get her attention.

Isabelle looks up from the sidewalk she had been staring at the whole time which was strange for someone like her. She loved the city and always found looking around and talking fun, but right now all she wanted to do is crawl in bed and hide from the world.

“I was on my way out of the training room when Jace walked by so I talked to him for a few minutes.” She answers looking straight ahead fidgeting with her ring.

“You didn’t like- tell him anything did you?” He questions with a quiet tone to not have eavesdroppers.

“No of course not, I meant it when I said I wasn’t gonna get anyone involved.” She snapped at him quietly dismissing the question.

“Right, sorry.” He apologized seeing her still on edge despite the hard train session that normally helped her. Isabelle immediately regretting her tone sighs and turns to him slightly.

“No It's not-” She lets out with a huff trying to reel in her thoughts.

“I'm sorry It’s not you, I just have a lot on my mind.” She confessed as they got outside of Magnus’s building.

Alec grabbed her arm with a firm but gentle grasp to have her look at him. His eyebrows are furrowed as he looks at her. She tries looking away, She really didn’t want to have to deal with this and have this conversation right now.

“I know, it's okay to be affected by all of this, you know.” He starts and rubs circles on her arm. Isabelle looks up at him carefully, his eyes are gentle, not judgmental at all. She knows he just wants to help but she feels suffocated like she can’t breath or think, and she didn't want to breakdown in front of him or much less on the middle of a sidewalk in the city.

“It’s a lot for anyone to handle, but we're going to get through this and work out a way for her to come back as smoothly as possible. I promise.” He gives a small nod at the end.

Isabelle gives a small smile quickly and looks away. He lets go of her and they both walk into the building feeling the small tingle of Magnus’s magic protecting the building. It's warm and welcoming to them both, it felt like a warm hug calming her nerves as she gets closer to their loft.

They get to the door to knock before he gets opened by Magnus’s magic. They both step in taking off their jackets and putting them up by the door. The smell of freshly cooked pasta and steak fill the air. Alec makes his way to the kitchen to greet Magnus. While Isabelle goes to sit on the couch taking off her boots and curling up in a ball in one of the blankets as she stares outside at the city lights giving Magnus and Alec a minute alone. She then hears someone come out of the kitchen and towards her.

“Hey Iz dinner is done.” Magnus beamed as he went to the table and snapped his fingers, blue sparks coming out, moving the food to the table setting it perfectly.

Chapter Text

Chapter Four
(Isabelle’s Pov)

Isabelle goes back to the couch getting in her previous spot curling up. Isabelle fidgets and checks her phone hoping maybe Clary messaged her. Nothing. Of course there was nothing she wasn’t expecting Clary to say anything but she had hoped for it I guess, she felt stupid for thinking she would, she feels like she's going crazy. She lets out a soft sigh and looks out the window looking out at the people.

Isabelle can see a couple outside they were holding hands and laughing, she felt her stomach twist into a knot at it and how much she wanted that with Clary, but surely all bestfriends feel like that, she wouldn't know because she really hadn't had one before Clary. She had never felt this intense about someone before and it terrifies her, to feel so much about a person it's a death wish, in her field it makes you dangerous and weak. Isabelle originally thought it was just happiness from seeing her again and it would die down but it’s only gotten stronger as time as gone by, she felt sick.

She doesn’t know if she’s always felt this strongly about her or whether it’s just because it’s been so long since she saw her last and she doesn’t know how to find it anymore. Whatever happened and shifted she didn’t like it, she could think about anything or anyone else besides Clary and her stupid perfect pink lips and red hair that fell perfectly around her face and complimented her fair skin. Isabelle had a life and work to get back to and she couldn’t do it in this state of mind. She was about to get up before she felt someone tap her leg as they sat down beside her.

“Hey pumpkin, how are you feeling?” Magnus asks as he sits down. Isabelle shrugs, turning to back to sit down facing him, not making eye contact just fidgeting with her phone in her lap.

“Alright I guess, better now being out of the institute.” Isabelle replied softly.

She knew Magnus and Alec meant well and she did really appreciate all of this but it was hard not to feel like a burden to them or like she was weak for needing help. She was Isabelle Lightwood; she didn’t get stuck in slumps like this over people, much less a girl that used to be her best friend- is her best friend.

“Thank you for dinner by the way, it was really good, as always.” She lets out with a weak chuckle trying to lighten her mood. Magnus lets out a chuckle and he puts his feet up on the glass coffee table in front of their couch.

“Well thank you darling, you know you're always welcome here.” Magnus reassured with a bright smile his eyes crinkle when he smiles like that Isabelle always found in endearing and could understand what Alec saw in him.

Isabelle offered a small tight lip smile in return. Magnus glances at her and sighs softly. She felt her jaw clench. She hated everyone had to do this be so cautious around her, being looked at like she was fragile but It was either this or she went to Jace and had to see him probably breakdown in front of her like what would happen whenever Clary was brought up for months after she left. She hated lying to Jace earlier and that she’s keeping this from her. At least with this option she can try to just not look at their faces of pity they are giving her.

“So do you want to talk about what’s got you in this slump.” He offered letting Isabelle guide the conversation and how to begin.

“Did Alec tell you anything yet?” Isabelle asked, not knowing if Alec let anything slip. She wouldn’t blame him for it she knows they tell each other pretty much everything.

“Not much, just saying that you wanted to talk about something important that was bothering you.” Magnus started

“I know Alec isn’t really the best with these kinds of talks so that’s probably why I am here.” Magnus said with a chuckle. Isabelle laughed in return, a real laugh not a fake when she had been putting on for people right now, Magnus was someone that could get anyone to laugh no matter the mood of the room or the person themselves.

“Yeah you could say that.” Isabelle giggled still.

Isabelle finally took the plunge of looking at Magnus, he didn’t have quite as pitiful of a look as Alec does, he just looked almost curious looking at her titling his head at her like a cat. She could do this, Magnus has lived for so long he would know what to do or at least where to start.

“I need help with something and I know it may be hard to believe or to deal with at first, and you could totally say no if you don’t want to- but Alec said I should probably ask you and-.” Isabelle rambled on nervously picking her nails. She then felt a firm hand get placed on top of her knee.

“Woah slow down there, whatever it is I can help. If It’s gotten you this stressed I’ll help in any way I can.” He assures.

“It's Clary.” Isabelle admitted letting out a breath harshly, she felt like she couldn't breath. Magnus raised an eyebrow looking at her.

“Clary?” He questioned her in a confused tone, making Isabelle grumble.

“I ran into Clary yesterday, I was going to the hunter moon and was fully glamoured, like nobody mundane without the sight saw me. Then she bumped into me going into this Coffee shop. I didn’t know what to do.” She rambled out again frantically barely allowing herself to breathe between words.

“Iz you need to breathe I can barely understand you.” He explained with his eyebrows furrowed.

Isabelle hadn’t realized how much she was on the verge of another panic attack with how rapid and deep her breathing got. She took a minute feeling like all of her oxygen got sucked from her lungs, Magnus just patted her leg as she caught her breath, After a few minutes of sitting there Magnus waiting patiently she finally could think straight and breathe.

“I saw Clary yesterday, I was on my way to the Hunter’s moon and she bumped into me.” Isabelle started with a soft tone slowly this time.

“She shouldn’t have seen me or been able to do anything I was glamoured but-” She struggled as Magnus rubs her leg reassuring her to go on, she let out a breath slowly like he had taught her to do when she had a panic attack before.

“I didn’t know what to do at first I was stunned, but as I was about to go away she remembered my name.” Isabelle muttered.

“She remembered you?” Magnus questioned her, observing her.

“Yeah she remembered my name and when she touched my rune It felt weird, it was like we connected for a moment or something. It sounds stupid but I don’t know how to explain it.” Isabelle explained, glancing at Magnus.

“You don’t sound stupid Iz, just keep going.” Magnus comforted her with a warm smile.

“She invited me to have coffee inside. I was going to refuse but something in me just told me to stay so I did. We went inside and talked for hours. Mainly about her school work and her life. It was nice.” Isabelle smiled at the memory, by the angel she missed her already how is that possible.

“Then the kicker is I know she’s remembering other things because she showed me her sketchbook.” Isabelle added as she turned to Magnus, finally feeling more frustrated than upset now. Magnus stopped in his tracks of rubbing circles on her and looked up at her.

“There were rune sketches all on the first page just like the ones before. Even the ones that most regular Shadowhunters wouldn’t know. They were the ones she used, Magnus.” Isabelle explained, staring at Magnus.

“Just like before.” He muttered in disbelief.

“Exactly expect there's more,” She started sitting up from slouching, so Magnus sat up straight and gave her his full attention like he was ready to make mental notes.

“She said she needed a second opinion on her new one for an assignment and it was a drawing of Edom. When we were fighting Lilith getting you back in that ruin. Everything was there down to details. Lilith was also there in her demon form, exactly like the one she drew for you.” Isabelle tried to explain without rambling too much. Magnus was in deep contemplation just as stumped with this as Isabelle she could see his eyebrows furrowed as he stared off in his apartment to his bookshelves.

“This should all be impossible, the angels made it clear with their intentions. Why would they give her memories and sight back now?” Magnus pondered as Isabelle heard footsteps come out of the Kitchen.

Alec comes in to bring a mug for Isabelle and a martini for Magnus. Isabelle takes the mug, getting hit with the smell of honey and lavender. She smiles at this while taking a sip, it’s the tea mom used to make her and Alec as kids when they were sick even though she wasn’t exactly sick she appreciated the gesture and gave him a soft smile he returned one to her and sat down in the chair. Magnus takes his glass and takes a big drink from it making Isabelle snort.

“So I assume you’re here to see how to figure all of this out then” He assumed while sitting up drinking more of his drink. Isabelle nods as she sits up to set her drink down on the coffee table following behind him as he goes to his book shelves.

“I know this probably a lot and I really didn’t want to put this on you but I just- I don’t know what to do I don’t want to make this worse for her.” She stammered as she clamps her hands together, to stop herself from picking her nails until they bleed.

“No no I'm glad you came to me, this is a lot for just you to handle pumpkin.” He assures turning back to pat my shoulder with a smile before turning back to his bookcase rummaging through it. Isabelle observes behind him but mainly paces behind and around him.

“Clary said that the drawing was based on a dream she had. If she’s getting memories from her dreams and is starting to see stuff It’s only a matter of time before she could end up seeing something she shouldn’t and getting hurt like last time. I don’t want it to get to that point again.” Isabelle rambled out again leaning against the bookshelf with a sigh. Magnus turns back around with several books setting them down on the coffee table. Isabelle raises an eyebrow and goes to the table to look at the books he brought out.

“And we won’t, we're going to do something and figure this out. We owe her that much after everything she did for us.” Magnus agreed as he picked up one of the books.

“So what do you suggest we do first?” Isabelle questioned glancing at all of the books. A couple she recognized as spell books and others she wasn’t as familiar with.

Magnus ran his finger along the page he was reading in the book he picked up. It was one of his spell books Isabelle could make out from the little of the language she knew on the front, maybe he was looking for a protection spell that would probably help Clary, she really hoped so cause she really needs it in case anything is trying to feed on her or demons come close to her. Isabelle couldn't stand the idea of something happening to her, she would go back to any dimension of hell and kill a prince of hell herself if it meant Clary would be safe.

“First I want to go scan her apartment for demonic energy just in case it’s some kind of demon latching on to her while she is sleeping to show her these things.” Isabelle looked to Alec he was deep in thought tilting his head at the books he placed down.

“You and Alec will stay here to look through these books for any protection spells and things revolving around Shadowhunters getting magic back after being deruned. Warlock glamours are stronger than Shadowhunter ones so it’s less likely for her to see through mine right now hopefully.” Magnus instructed closing the book and gathering his Jacket and picking up a couple potions on his work desk in the other room. Isabelle sighed out of relief as Alec looked up, his eyes following where his husband was in the other room.

“Thank you so much Magnus, you're a lifesaver.” Isabelle thanked, feeling a lot more relaxed than before. Magnus chuckled as he came over and kissed Alec on the cheek making him flush pink and scrunching up his nose. Isabelle giggled at this.

“Any time darling, I'm gonna go, you two be safe.” Magnus instructed at them, pointing them out scolding them like children as if they are the trouble maker ones in the first place. Alec rolled his eyes.

“We got this covered Magnus, Love you be safe please.” Alec said looking at Magnus walking away, eyes glued to him the whole time.

“I will Alexander her apartment isn’t far from here it wont take me long I promise.” Magnus assured with a smile before leaving the door opening and closing behind him with his magic.

Alec sighed and scanned the books as Isabelle yawned looking at them too. Alec glanced up at her before picking up a couple books. She was too busy scanning through the books to notice him watching her closely. She felt it but was trying to ignore it, she loved Alec but she didn’t need to be protected and hovered over.

“I got this covered. If you want to take a nap you look a little tired.” Alec offered just after she had rubbed her eyes to focus. Isabelle straightens up from leaning over and looks up at him.

“I'm okay, I promise I need to do this.” She said determinedly picking up a book on Shadowhunter history and angelic powers before taking it to the couch so she could drink her tea. Alec rolled his eyes at this but didn’t say anything knowing Isabelle would protest anyways.

Isabelle sits on the couch and takes a drink of her tea. It's only a little warm now but better than nothing, as she sets it back down and opens the book. As she’s reading out of the corner of her eyes she can see Alec take a couple of books off the stack and sits down at the chair and starts reading his book. The room falls into a comfortable silence as they both read. Before Isabelle notices she begins to feel herself relax and curl up feeling more comfortable. She could feel herself struggling to keep her eyes open as they fluttered open and closed slowly, she tried to fight away her sleepiness but next thing she knew she fell asleep the book was still open on top of her.

Chapter Text

Chapter Five
(Isabelle’s Pov)

The mid morning sun rays shine in the living room making the room lit up and warm golden glow. The smell of fresh bacon and pancakes fill the air. Isabelle can feel a light hit her face making her face scrunch up and cover her eyes groaning turning over into the couch.

“Well good morning to you too, sleeping beauty.” Alec teased, making Isabelle groan again already on the verge of wanting to throw something at him. Alec chuckles as he shakes her softly but enough to jolt her. Isabelle grumbles and sits up and scrunches her face at the light again glaring at Alec for waking her up.

“Magnus made breakfast before he went out on a supply run.” Alec says walking back over to the table where Isabelle can see there are still books and papers at.

She must have fallen asleep while reading, she can’t even remember what she was reading. Isabelle can’t help but feel guilty like she already failed Clary but she did feel better now that she has slept. Isabelle hums acknowledging what he said and gets up making her way to the table to see a plate there for her and some juice. She smiles happily and sits down and takes a drink of it. The juice was just like she liked it, it was a bit tangy with some plump but not enough to make it weird to drink, she smiled at this knowing it was probably Magnus’s idea since he is one of the only people that know that besides her mom. Isabelle takes a big bite of the crispy bacon sitting in front of her savoring the maple flavor melting in her mouth.

“You seem better now that you’ve slept.” Alec observes as he scans the books in front of him with furrowed brows.

Isabelle does feel better, she feels more at ease that she’s at least not alone dealing with this. As much as she hates to admit it they both know what she needed to make her feel better even if she hated feeling taken care of sometimes it was also nice.

“Yeah I feel better, I guess I was more tired than I thought.” She chuckles as she continues eating her food with a pleased smile.

“I told you so.” Alec points out with a smirk as he picks up the books and walks into Magnus’s office. Isabelle scoffs and rolls her eyes playfully.

“Yeah alright Mr. who never takes care of himself.” she counters with a knowing smile, Alec knows she’s right so he can’t argue that he doesn’t. Isabelle takes his silence as a win with a growing smirk.

She’s about half way done with her food when she remembers that she was supposed to meet Clary today. She almost chokes as she sits up straight and wipes her mouth on the napkin set out. Isabelle hastily gets up and scrambles to the couch searching for her phone. Alec is taken back by this and raises his eyebrow.

“Are you okay? Did you lose your phone?” Alec questions as he finishes with the books walking out of Magnus’s office with a raised eyebrow.

Isabelle doesn’t even answer his question at first going straight for the phone when she finds it buried in the cushion of the couch. Isabelle immediately checks the time.

1:30pm

She grumbles, she was gonna be late, she told Clary two. Isabelle scrambles to find her shoes as she struggles unzipping them and putting them on in a frantic mess.

“What’s wrong, did something happen at the Institute?” Alec asks, taken back at Isabelle’s panic.

His voice just melts into the background of her racing thoughts, she didn’t want to be late and to make Clary think she didn’t care. She feels stupid for letting herself oversleep knowing they were going to meet up.

“I'm supposed to meet Clary in 30 minutes and I still have to get ready.” Isabelle manages to get out as she zips up her shoes and rushes to the doorway. Alec fumbles to get his phone and shoes too as he follows in her footsteps.

“Iz it’ll be fine we have plenty of time to get to the Institute and to the café.” Alec tries to reassures.

Isabelle doesn’t respond being in a rush, just grabs her jacket and tosses Alec’s his as she opens the door and walks out. Alec hastily follows behind her, locking the door and pulling out his phone, Isabelle assumes it’s to message Magnus that they left the loft so he doesn’t come back to them.

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The streets are a little less busy than normal making it easy to walk through people unlike normal. Isabelle has been keeping a faster pace with Alec practically running behind her trying to keep up with her.

“I don’t get why you are in such a rush. I'm sure Clary will understand and won’t be upset.” Alec reasons as he finally catches up to her since she darted out of the institute, his voice breathy and uneven from the running.
Isabelle keeps walking, she honestly doesn’t know why she’s so worried about being late and even being there in the first place, and she doesn’t feel like trying to explain all of what she’s feeling. Not that she would know how to explain it anyways, logically she knew It’s Clary, she won’t be upset at her being late by a few minutes but she panicked she never panics like that.

Isabelle just grumbles she should do the logical thing and text Clary they still have a ways to go so they won’t be there until a few minutes after 2, she pulls out her phone. She fumbles with it, staring at it for a few minutes. What if she comes off as clingy or desperate if she texts only to say she’s gonna be a little late? She never cared before about being on time to things like this before. Isabelle needed to work out whatever is wrong with her brain to make her constantly overthink like this, maybe she was cursed or poisoned. She sighs and gives in to text her. Isabelle is at a full stop to text her, making Alec stop in his tracks with a confused face before seeing Isabelle pull out her phone and typing.

Izzy: Hey sorry I may be a few minutes late I woke up late and had to get ready

Clary <3: It's no problem I just got out of class so I was actually about to text you the same thing haha

Izzy: Oh Okay cool, well I’ll see you in like ten minutes then.

Clary <3: See you soon :)

Alec looks over at her texting with a small smirk before looking away before Isabelle would notice being glued to her phone with a bright smile and she runs her thumb along the side of her phone. Isabelle puts her phone away; she can’t help but sigh out of relief, giving her a minute to calm down leaning against the wall of a shop. She didn’t even take the time to put on a stamina rune or anything before running out of the institute.

“Everything okay?” Alec questioned as he looked at Isabelle raising an eyebrow. Isabelle chuckled at her stupidity of this situation before fixing her hair and jacket. This was so stupid why was she making this such a big deal.

“Yeah I’m okay, sorry I kind of freaked out there. I honestly don’t know why I’m so nervous.” She confessed starting to walk at a normal pace with Alec following.

Alec bumped her shoulder with his softly, he did this often when he wanted to show his support but not knowing what to say. Isabelle smiled softly doing it back.

“You know, not to be overbearing cause I know you hate it, but whatever is happening and you are feeling it’s okay to feel.” Alec starts, Isabelle scrunched up her face and looked at him.

“Don’t give me that, I’m your brother, I know you better than anyone.” Alec spoke firmly, she rolled her eyes. He is right they always know each other better than the other, Isabelle should have known Alec would know more than she has told him or lead on.

“Look I get it, having all these feelings and emotions and not knowing how to deal with them so you take them out on other people. I've been there, but as someone that has done what you are doing it doesn’t make it any better.” Alec explains slowly as they walk at a slow pace, she glances at him for a second noticing how he’s looking to see if overstepped his eyes scanning her slowly, she sighs and looks up at him slowly.

“I just don’t want you to make the same mistakes I did Iz, I can tell you’re going through something and I just need you to know I'm here and I understand what you’re going through okay?” He offers with a small smile, she looks at him then back towards the sidewalk.

“I know, thank you I just don’t know how to even begin to explain what I’m feeling.” Isabelle admits quietly fidgeting with her ring.

“I know, and I’m not saying you have to just don’t run away from it, sometimes it’s better just to run straight into it and face it head on.” Alec spoke with his hands as he does a lot pointing forwards dramatically, Isabelle laughs.

“Is that what you told yourself when you decided to kiss Magnus in front of all those people.” She jokes with a snort.

“Yeah I guess you could say that, Though to be fair I think at that point I was not thinking at all I just saw him and knew the only thing I wanted to do is kiss him.” Alec confessed with a sheepish smile. She can’t help but laugh at him, it was a stupid thing to do, but the situation itself was stupid to begin with and that he ended up almost marrying Lydia. She couldn’t help but also be proud of him.

“Thank you.” Isabelle spoke softly, she didn’t think she had to elaborate on just why she’s thanking him but she thinks he knows, he smiles with a nod.

“No problem.” Alec replies, they speed up their pace as they continue to walk to streets.

They walked the rest of the way in comfortable silence. Well comfortable was a stretch for Isabelle right now, but more comfortable than before. Sure she was less stressed knowing she wasn’t gonna be late and had gotten a little bit of her emotions out but she doesn’t know why Clary is confusing her right now. She used to be the person Isabelle could go to and talk about anything with. By the Angel they were gonna be parabatais. Isabelle tried to swallow all the butterflies swarming inside of her, making her want to be sick.

They finally get to the café after what seems like an eternity of walking. Isabelle walks to the door and she can see Clary in the window at the table they were at last time. She wore a lavender long sleeve shirt with a black leather jacket- it was her jacket that she forgot to get back from her. It was a little big on her but Clary bodied that jacket better than she ever had, but maybe she was biased since she always liked how Clary looked. By the angel she needed to stop thinking about Clary, she was gonna be the death of Isabelle.

“Is that your Jacket?” Alec smirked, making her cheeks flush, cursing how fast they did. She can hear him chuckle to which she shoved him only making him laugh more. She crossed her arms with a huff looking back at the window, Alec was never gonna let her live this down was he.

She tries to push away all of her thoughts, staring into the window almost dazed when she notices Clary smiling brightly, she must have noticed Isabelle as she waves to her. Isabelle couldn’t help the bright smile that came out as she waved back ignoring how everything seemed to melt away as soon as she saw her.

“Alright I’m not standing out here for hours while you gawk at her, come on.” Alec ordered ushering her towards the door, she didn’t even have time to protest before he opened the door for Isabelle borderline shoving her in. Isabelle stumbles in and turns around glaring at him, he just smiles innocently then waves to Clary like he didn’t just embarrass the life out of her. She groaned as she watched Alec walk towards the table, she was severely questioning her decision to bring him but it was too late now she just had to hope he would behave for her behalf or else she may die from embarrassment.

Chapter Text

Chapter Six
(Pov Clary)

Ten Minutes before Isabelle and Alec Arrived

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The wind brushes between Clary’s hair making a chill run up her spine as readjusted her beanie. She could feel her fingers begin to numb turning a light blue color, she rubs her hands together before putting them in her pockets along with her phone. She was glad she wasn’t the only one running late, she was worried Isabelle would think she ditched on her or something. Her professor was taking their sweet time with their outro, if it wouldn’t be put against her she would have run out.

When Clary had woken up this morning she swore she had dreamt the whole thing with Isabelle but she hadn't had her contact, it took everything in Clary not to message her too much. Ever since she talked to Isabelle yesterday she felt different, not bad like she had been feeling but she finally felt normal like she wasn’t just this weird girl with memory loss anymore, like someone actually saw her for her. She didn’t really feel like she belonged with many of her classmates, especially after it came out she had memory loss. So it was nice to have someone treat her like a normal girl.

When she came up to the café and walked through the door, the bell ringing as she walked through she could see the guy at the counter turn his head and smile at her waving. There was something about him that made a chill run up her spine, it was almost like his smile was too sweet and innocent. There were so many creeps in New York City so she just tried to ignore it. She gave a polite smile to him and made her way to her normal table to wait for Isabelle.

Clary checked her phone just to make sure she didn’t miss anything new but there was nothing. She could feel herself chew on her lip looking around, she had never felt this nervous before. She didn’t know why she was acting like it was a big deal, it's not like it was a date or anything, not that someone as pretty and smart as Isabelle would ever date a girl like her. Clary sighed she needed to buy some time before she siked herself out and walked out, so she put her phone away and decided to pull out her sketchbook to draw while she waited.

As she drew she let her mind wander letting her brain shut off and just draw. When she was young her mom used to call her a daydreamer because of her ability to block out the world with her art. Art has always been Clary’s rock, she always had it to go to if she needed. She gracefully sketches turning off her reeling thoughts focusing on the light movements of her hand, the smell of cedar and lead of the pencil that some people wouldn't like but to Clary it was comforting and grounding. She tilted her head, her hair falling to the side, she brushed it away quickly snapping her out of her focused mind state. She blinks a couple times slowly looking down at the paper before her eyes widen, she drew Isabelle. Jesus she was hopeless, what is it about this girl that has her going crazy.

She couldn’t help but stare at the sketch of Isabelle. Her long flowing brunette hair and stunning brown eyes that look like they were warm and reminded her of black coffee her favorite drink, she could stare at her for hours and not get bored. Clary even drew her tattoos that covered her body, there was something about the ink black symbols against her tan skin that Clary found so appealing like she wanted to paint more on her. She titled her head to the other side and furrows her eyebrows, she notices that she drew Isabelle with what looked like lasso, or maybe like a whip of some sort she couldn't quite tell. That was weird. She's never seen her with one or remember her talking about her, but I guess it just felt right like it suits her it made her look strong and powerful which fit Isabelle.

She was about to continue when she noticed a pair of bright red heels walk by, she snapped her head up to see Isabelle come into view outside with a guy. He was tall and had brunette hair just like her wearing a black leather jacket kind of like the one Isabelle had worn the first time they met but his was more worn than hers, plain grey t-shirt, and black cargo pants.

Of course Isabelle had a boyfriend, how can a pretty girl like her not have one. Clary sighed, they even had matching tattoos, she was doomed how could she compete with that. She tried to push those thoughts away and bring her eyes back to Isabelle, she noticed they looked at her so she gave them a wave smiling at them. She could see Isabelle give her a bright smile at her waving back her cheeks a light pink probably from the cold, she can see the guy lean towards her and say something Clary can’t make out, she shoves him lightly as she laughs, he only smirks walking towards the door opening it for her. They seemed so close and sweet, she swallowed thickly to bottle up the intense jealousy she just got. Clary decided to go up and greet the guy as he waves and walks towards her.

“Hi I’m Clary, it's nice to meet you.” She managed to smile at him, he returned one as Isabelle walked next to him with a glare at him. She furrowed her eyebrows at them, examining both of them. She seemed to be upset at him, I mean couples fight so maybe they were just fighting. Clary just hoped it wasn’t about her because she didn’t want to be the cause of a couples problem especially if she wants to be friends with them.

“I’m so sorry we were almost late, but anyways sorry about my brother. This is Alec, my older brother I told you about.” She introduced Alec, noticing the way she pushed at his side to jolt him from him staring at Clary to look at Clary more directly, he still seemed to be in some kind of state of shock and awe but maybe he just wasn't that much of a people person unlike his sister who was more outgoing.

But of course they were siblings, that made much more sense seeing them up close they looked so similar. She felt stupid now and kind of embarrassed but she wasn’t gonna say anything, she just smiled as Alec held out his hand giving a small smile. Clary took the hand and shook it with a giggle, finding it funny how formal he was but that made sense with the way Isabelle talked about him. I wonder when I’ll see this other brother she mentioned, Clary wondered. This is when she realized they were still standing in the middle of the Café.

“Oh right come on, I have a table for us so we can sit.” Clary offered as she walked away leading the way, almost skipping with all the negative emotions washing away only feeling an overwhelming sense of happiness to be with Isabelle.

She heard the other two follow behind her, they all sat him and Isabelle sitting on the other side of the booth and Clary on the other side where her bag was waiting.

“Alright let me go order our stuff because I’ve been waiting to get my hands on some coffee but I was waiting for you to get here to order. Do you want the same thing Izzy? And do you want Alec, the same thing as Izzy or something else?” She questioned. Alec’s eyes widened as he turned to Isabelle and then back to Clary shrugging. Not a coffee or café guy I see, I can change that Clary smirks at the thought. Isabelle interjects saving Alec.

“I’ll have the same thing last time, yes and just give him a red eye with milk, It's what I normally get for him.” Isabelle smiles and goes into her jacket before Clary stops her.

“Don’t you dare pull out that wallet I'm paying, I offered to bring you here so it’s on me.” Clary said firmly as she looked at the girl with those bright hazel eyes Isabelle couldn't resist.

Isabelle looks to Alec for help but he does nothing but give a smirk and shrugs making Clary chuckle. Isabelle lets out a sigh and pouts as she looks back at Clary. Clary beams and takes this as a win turning to get up and walk up to the counter to order.

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Clary picks up the coffee, the cups warming her cold hands pink hands. She tries to give the guy a polite smile as he stares at her, she gives him the cash trying to walk away. Before she could walk the guy spoke to her she sucked in a deep breath and turned slowly.

“Did you want your change?” He asks Clary, already reaching to get the change. She couldn’t really be bothered to get it from him, mainly wanting to get back to Izzy and Alec.

“Keep it, consider it a tip.” She offered quickly putting her wallet avoiding eye contact. The guy chuckles and smiles down at her. She swallowed and backed up a little putting space between them.

“Well thank you, may I ask your name, you're here quite often.” He asks with a sickeningly sweet tone that made Clary want to grab back the money and run, it sent a chill down her spine.

Clary has seen the guy regrettably a few times recently since she spends most of her days here instead of at her place, but he had always left her alone. She had seen him talk to other girls; she had always just hoped he would leave her alone.

“I'm Clary. ” She replied slowly, regretting giving him her real name.

“Well Clary thank you for the tip, I hope you have a good time with your friends.” He says with a glance to them and back at her with a grimace. She just gives him a nod with a weak smile walking away.

Clary walks back to the table setting the drinks down her hands untensing from the firm grip she had on the cups. She looks up to see Alec looking at the guy with an intense glare before looking back at Clary, his eyes softening some at her and taking his coffee, giving her a small smile. Isabelle beams as she takes hers her eyes lighting up at the drink. She takes a sip, Clary notices the way he red lipstick stains the lid and smears her lipstick, she got the overwhelming urge to lean over and fix it but she shoved it down quickly. She noticed Isabelle gaze go towards the guy at the counter and back at Clary with a frown noticing the way Clary tensed under his gaze.

“You okay? That guy didn’t do anything did he?” Isabelle questioned her eyes becoming more intense by the minute as she turned to guy at the guy. Clary tries shrugging it off not wanting to worry them about just some random creepy guy.

“No, I mean I've seen him here before because I come here all the time but he’s never actually talked to me I guess.” Clary cursing at herself for fumbling over her words, she couldn’t help but get the feeling she was being watched like eyes are burning in the back of her head. She shifted and tried to ignore it. She hated creepy guys like him.

“He’s probably just a creepy guy, it happens here a lot you know.” Clary tries to dismiss and drinks more.

She notices Isabelle glaring at the guy again before turning away back to Clary, she looked like she wanted to punch the guy and Clary would stop her. It made Clary feel safer though it probably shouldn’t but it does, she doesn’t know why but she feels like she could trust her with her life and she would do anything to protect her. Alec makes a quick glance to the guy then around almost scanning the area.

Just when Clary was about to say something she noticed her sketchbook was still by the other chair wide open with the sketch, she quickly grabs the sketchbook and tears out the page covering it. She could feel her heart race beating in her ears as Alec smirks at her, she glares at him. He knows- he definitely knows, she goes bright pink feeling the heat. Isabelle raises her eyebrow at this smirking slightly, her eyes slowly go down to Clary’s hands seeing the sketch. She looks up into Clary’s eyes, her eyes are playful with a smirk.

“Whatcha got there?” She teases as she leans forwards on the table making her closer to Clary. Clary blush worsens if that was even possible as she struggles to look anywhere but Isabelle big doe brown eyes and red lips, she stared at them for longer than she would like to admit. She can see the lipstick has smeared slightly from drinking her coffee, it makes her stomach twist as she chews on her lip. She blinks slowly realizing she is waiting for an answer as she titles her head looking at Clary with an intense gaze, she enjoying this too much.

“It’s nothing really- just um- a project I'm working on.” She stammers out trying to divert her attention away, but looking down did not help with her low v cut dress. She looks away quickly, she wants to crawl into a hole and die, Alec is not helping as he is trying to hide a smile and takes a drink of his coffee. She glares at him for this before he raises an eyebrow at her teasing. Clary huffs and crosses her arms trying to gain some dignity.

“Fine but if you want to draw me just ask me next time I'm more than willing to model for you.” She winks with a smirk as she drinks more of her coffee.

Clary’s eyes widen as she tries her hardest not to fold right there in a café in front of her brother. Isabelle chuckles leaning back slowly, her intense but playful gaze never leaving Clary. She swallows and looks away quickly her face feeling like it's on fire, She hears Isabelle sit back down and runs her finger on her cup of coffee in thought.

“Anyways how are you doing today, Classes going okay?” Isabelle questioned.

“Kind of- I mean I’m getting good grades and my teachers are fine but, I don’t know, a lot of people don’t talk to me or like me.” Clary mumbles as she fidgets with the sleeves of the jacket. She can see Isabelle frown at this.

“Because of my Amnesia disorder I have, they kind of make fun of it and the fact I don’t really have any family.” she admits with a mutter as she puts her hands in the pockets to stop herself from fidgeting. Isabelle grumbles something as she rolls her eyes, Alec turns to Isabelle with a shake of the head. She doesn’t want them to worry about her, She could handle herself.

“Plus not to mention when a girl mentioned how my mom probably hated me and left me because I was annoying, I may have punched her.” Clary says like it's nothing, making Isabelle spit out her latte as Alec tries not to laugh almost proudly at her. It makes Clary laugh at his reaction as she shakes her head.

“Yeah I kind of got suspended for a week, but after that they haven’t mentioned anything about my family. She had a broken nose and bruises. They were shocked that one punch did that. I don't know how I did either but you know it shut her up. Though to be fair she pushed me and shoved me against a wall so it was self defense.” She gave a small smirk proudly as she drank more of her coffee. Isabelle also smirked with a laugh.

“What about your dreams? Have you been sleeping any better?” She asked furrowing her eyebrows as her eyes scanned her face. Clary freezes as she bites the inside of her cheek, she hadn’t slept all but a couple hours here and there if that within the last couple days maybe even this week.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it but I'm always here for you if you want to talk.” She assures.

“We’re always here if you need something.” Alec adds enunciating on the we with a shove, Izzy rolled her eyes at him.

Clary chews her lip, her dreams have been getting worse and even happening during the day. She can’t deny how weird and realistic they feel, she doesn’t know how but maybe telling someone would help.

She gives in and fumbles in her bag to grab her sketchbook, pulling it out and flipping through a couple pages before landing on one and passing it to Isabelle as Alec scoots over to look at it. Both of their eyes widen as they glance at each other and back at the page. She must look like she's crazy or like she’s making stuff up but she hasn’t been able to sleep well in like a weeks. Isabelle fumbles with the page before placing it on the table with a frown.

She can remember the dream so vaguely, she remembers being in an alleyway with some sort of sword she remembers clutching on it for dear life as she looks in front of her to see this owl creature hovering over a dead girl. She remembers wanting to scream but with some luck she tries to attack it before it tries to escape.

I guess dream me was braver than me because she ran after it. She was left on the rooftop with it, she’s trying to reason with it like it's still part human. But it just growls and grabs her. She can feel herself choking, struggling to breathe. She thrashes around as she tries to get it to let go but all it says is “I don’t love you.” as it drops her off the building and that's when she wakes up out of breath still gasping for air.

She can feel Isabelle reach out and grab her hand, she didn’t even notice she was shaking while holding in tears. She sniffled, whipping her nose on her sleeve.

“I'm sorry you probably think it's pathetic that dreams are affecting me so much but they just- I don’t know they feel so real like I'm in them.” She manages to get out swallowing thickly, Isabelle rubs circles in her hand and squeezes it.

“You’re not pathetic Clary, sometimes dreams and illusions can be scarier than anything real life can throw at you.” Alec says honestly, she can feel some hesitation through that statement as he fumbles through the last part she looks at him, he looked like he really understood her. He gives a soft smile as she sniffles again and wipes a tear that came down.

“Thank you.” She mumbles not trusting her voice to speak much louder. Alec nods as Isabelle smiles at her. Clary returns a soft smile, Isabelle strokes her hand as Clary squeezes it, Clary stares at it with a smile. She gets snapped out of her daze when both Isabelle and Alec's phone go off. Alec furrows his eyebrows as Isabelle groans, grumbling something under her breath. Clary lets out a soft chuckle.

“I assume that’s not good.” She joked, Alec shakes his head as Isabelle squeezes her hand again before letting go. Her hand was left feeling cold and empty, the heat going away instantly as she frowned.

“That would be work.” Isabelle huffs out as she puts her phone in her pocket as Alec puts his jacket on.

Clary sighs as she traces her finger on her cup. She doesn’t want them to go. She feels so lonely and scared, but she doesn’t want to seem pathetic or clingy. She just nods and puts her sketchbook away. Isabelle is looking at her with a sad smile as she looks down, Alec shoves her softly and glances between the two before giving a look to Isabelle. Isabelle nods slowly going towards Clary.

“Hey I can’t imagine how you may be feeling but, I’m kind of a night owl so If you ever need someone to talk to if you can’t sleep or wake up from a dream you can call or text me. I promise you won’t bother me.” She says with a reassuring smile as she pats me on the shoulder. Clary returns a forced smile.

“Thanks, I'll try to do so.” She manages to get out quietly. Isabelle looks hesitant as her eyes roam Clary.

With most people this would be Clary’s worst nightmare but she doesn’t feel that way with Isabelle. Isabelle finally mutters something under her breath and steps forward closing the space between them into a big hug Clary melts into, practically jumping into it letting Isabelle's warmth surround her. She squeezes as she nuzzles into her shoulder feeling safe and warm. She looks up from Isabelle’s hair to see Alec look at them with a smile of a proud dad making Clary laugh that gets muffled making Isabelle laugh as she lets go slowly looking at her, Isabelle eyes are soft and gentle, she wanted to get lost in them.

“Duty calls, but I hope to see you soon, Red.” Alec says with a soft smile looking between the two, Isabelle looks at him snapping her gaze away from Clary. Isabelle sighs as she walks towards Alec standing next to him.

“I’ll text you later okay?” Isabelle offers turning back with a smile that sends butterflies straight to Clary's stomach as she feels heat go to her cheeks, she nods not trusting her voice to contain her excitement. Isabelle gives one last look to Clary from the door as she and Alec wave while walking out Clary waves back. They walk out the bell ringing she sighed and grabbed her bag and cup and walked out herself. She can feel that guy's eyes on her as she walks out but tries to ignore it by walking out a little faster.

The streets are just as cold and crowded as it was when she went to the café. She pushes her way through as best as she can being on the shorter side she can squeeze her way through a little better and faster than normal.

Even blocks away from the café now she couldn’t help but feel watched, she tried her best to ignore it but she just felt like she had eyes on her from all the darkest corners of the streets. She huffs and tries to push those thoughts away clutching onto her bag. The wind is making it near impossible to see sometimes as her hair blows into her face, but she didn’t have time to stop to put it up, she needed to go home fast where she can feel safe.

After what seems like eternity and her stopping constantly to look behind her Clary could see her apartment building in sight now, she let out a sigh of relief when seeing it. She still felt watched but at least in there she could hide and lock her doors. She made one glance around just to see if she could see anything. She really shouldn’t be taking chances right now with her current state of insomnia. Just when she was about to head in she saw a flash of green, it almost seemed like eyes but it was too quick to make out.

That was her sign to run into her building which she did clutching onto her bag as she slams open the main door and runs in and closes the door and runs upstairs to her apartment. She doesn’t know what that was but she wasn’t sticking around to find out.

She fumbled in her bag to find her keys as she looked around. She knows she’s probably being paranoid now due to her lack of sleep but the whole day has been unnerving to her. She finally unlocks the door and walks in and immediately locks it behind her taking a deep breath. She took off the jacket- she was supposed to give that back to Isabelle. She groans at her stupidity and takes off her shoes and makes her way to the couch to curl up in a ball and watch tv and hope to feel some sort of comfort.

Before giving much thought to overthink she felt the need to pull out her phone and text Izzy to let her know she got home. Clary wants to think it's coming off too clingy or too much but Isabelle did say to text her if she needed her, so Clary let herself indulge in texting her.

Clary: Hey I just got back home just thought I would text you to let you know I really enjoyed today and I hope work goes okay for you :)

Izzy <3: Awe thank you, I'm glad you got home safe. I had fun today too.

Clary: I won’t keep you but I really appreciate all that you’ve done for me even if it doesn’t seem like much it means the world

Izzy <3: Of course Clary anytime ill talk to you later xx

Clary finally lets herself relax smiling at her phone, she puts it away and curls up and puts on some movie that was on the current channel of the tv, it was a typical rom com that normally she didn’t like much but she felt herself watching it as her eyes grew heavy. She let out a yawn as she gave in to the comfort and closed her eyes feeling comfortable and safe for now.

Chapter Text

Chapter Seven
(Clary Pov)
The dark forest is slowly lit up as we approach the lake. The moon reflects on the lake, making it crystal blue and giving it an almost mesmerizing and mythical look. Clary runs through the forest to the lake, her footsteps heavy behind her as she feels the dirt kick up and land behind her and on her legs. She has a strong, tight grip on the sword handle in her hand as she turns around to look back.

“Are we too late?” Clary responds concerned, her eyebrows knitted, and her hand around the sword tightens. As she scans the dark woods surrounding her, she wonders how they were even able to navigate through that forest, given how dense and dark it seemed.

“No- No If he raised the angel, we would know it.” The man with dirty blonde hair replies as he runs around looking for something or someone.

“We beat him here. We can stop him.” He runs to me, gazing into my eyes with hope and reassurance.

His eyes are beautiful; one is brown and one is bright blue. They were so calming to look at, and he looked at me so softly, like I had created the stars and hung them. Just as I was about to respond to him, I saw a shadow behind him grab him. I try to scream out to warn him, but I can’t before seeing a knife cut through his chest, piercing his skin. The shadow figure mummers something before she can see him drop him and run off. Clary logically should go after them, but she runs to the guy instead, kneeling next to him.

She drops to her knees, dropping her sword, not caring about the mud that will most likely stain these pants. She frantically tries to find the entrance wound to stop the bleeding, her hand covered in blood as she tries. She can feel her eyes welling up with tears as she lets out shaking breaths, refusing to let him go and tightening her grip on him.

“I'm sorry, Clary.” The guy says this, strained, as he looks at her. She can see tears forming in his eyes, and she tries to wipe them away.

“Save your breath; it's going to be okay.” She tries to reassure him as she holds on to him tightly. She can feel his breathing slow under her hand as she rubs his neck. She feels tears running down her cheeks, but she can’t bring herself to care as she continues to try to calm him down and stop the bleeding.

“I love you.” He says it softly, using his last strained breaths, as another tear falls from his cheek onto her hand. She tried to keep him awake, shaking him frantically with her shaky hands.

"Jace, don’t close your eyes." She begs, more tears forming in her eyes as she shakes him again. Clary can feel his body give out in her hands. She can feel his heartbeat slow down to the point where she questions if it's there.

“Please don’t leave me.” She begs, her voice breaking as she tightens her grip on him. She doesn’t want to lose him; she can’t lose him. The blood on her hands smears on his jacket as she tries to stop the bleeding but with no use. She can feel tears run down her face as she stares at Jace’s body.

"Please, please stay with me.” She stammered between shaky breaths as she cuffed his cold face, stained with tears.

“It's okay. It's okay.” She's not sure if she’s talking to him or herself as she strokes his face before running her hand down to his leather jacket. Jace’s eyes are closed; she can’t feel his heart or his breathing anymore; his body goes limp and is still in her arms. Clary's heart breaks like glass shattering to the ground as she grabs onto his jacket.

"No, no, please no." She pleads, trying to wake him up, but to no avail. He's gone. Clary can feel herself screaming as she sobs, falling to the ground before being jolted.

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“Jace.” She yells, opening her eyes and looking around, her breathing unsteady with tears running down her face.

Clary frantically looks around, blinking away her tears to clear her blurred vision. She was in her apartment; it was another dream. She feels her face, feeling the tears that stained her face. Her dreams are becoming more and more realistic; everything feels so real, like even her body is reacting to it. She can’t keep living like this. Why was this happening to her? She should tell someone about them, but she doesn’t want to sound any more crazy than she already seems to doctors. I mean, how do you explain that you dream of things like monsters and angels and not expect them not to think you are crazy?

She sniffles, wiping her face as she gets up. Her apartment is dark as she readjusts her eyes. She walks over, turns on her lights, and looks up to see that it’s already 8 p.m. At least that's more sleep than she’s gotten in the last week. She yawns as she stretches her arms. She knows she probably should just go to bed and try to sleep again, but her body is still all tensed up, feeling like pins and needles as her head is also pounding. She sighs and goes to the kitchen to see what she can find to eat.

She opens her fridge, seeing that her hands are still shaky. It's probably because she’s still reeling from the dream, but she also hasn’t eaten much at all today—has she eaten anything? She honestly can't remember if she had anything before school or went to see Izzy. As she scans her fridge, she doesn't see much but a couple of yogurts, milk, an apple, and a couple of cheese sticks. Clary groans and closes the fridge. She knew there was something else she was supposed to do today after she left the cafe. She forgot to go to the store today like an idiot; she was too distracted by the creepy guy. She grumbles and grabs her bag and jacket before leaving, locking the door behind her.

She leaves the building and puts her jacket on as she walks, already getting goosebumps as she shivers. Clary tries to walk the far less crowded streets of New York through the few shortcuts she knows; it works for a few blocks, but as she's walking, she gets the sense she's being followed.

She needed more sleep. As she walks, she makes a note to keep turning to look back, but she always sees no one, so she just tries to keep walking, ignoring the feeling while having one hand in her bag next to her phone in case of an emergency.

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She gets close to the market but sees that there's some kind of big crowd of people leaving the club nearby. She groans. She doesn’t want to have to deal with a bunch of drunk idiots. So she decides to take the back way through the alleys she sometimes goes through during the day. She would normally not go during the night, but she was desperate, so she just kept her bag close and tried to walk fast through it.

As she stepped into the alleyway, her feelings got worse. It was like she was being watched from every corner of the alley, making her skin crawl. She knows she’s probably just sleep-deprived and still tense from her dream. Maybe she should try melatonin gummies like her doctor recommended. Clary makes a note to herself to get the gummies in the store.

She clutches onto her bag and makes a note of her surroundings, being super careful. The alleyways were grungy, with trash cans with overflowing trash, the smell of beer, and some other metallic smells. All Clary knew was that she felt like she was like cheese in a mouse trap right now, and something or someone was just waiting to attack.

Clary can see the lights at the end of the alleyway, letting out a breath of relief as she walks faster, and she hears a snap of something behind her, making her head spin around. She couldn’t see anything, but then she saw something glowing. She knows she should run forward into the streets, but instead, her body takes her in the opposite direction, running deeper into another alleyway connected to the one she was in to get away from whatever noise she just heard.
Unfortunately for her, it seemed to track her easily and was following fast behind her, the footsteps heavy and fast. She needs to think fast to get out before she gets lost, as these alleyways can quickly become a labyrinth.

She looks and tries to find a piece of wood or something, but she can't, so she scrambles through her bag while running to find her phone, rummaging through the bag as her breaths come out as harsh pants. Clary feels like her heart is going to explode as she hears the footsteps get close to her. She hopes this is another hyperrealistic dream that she will wake up from.

She ends up finally finding her phone as she smacks her knee onto a trash can, making her knee buckle as she hits the concrete. Clary quickly gets up, not caring about the sting and blood that are probably on her knee and hand. She can hear it getting even closer now that it has time to catch up. She fumbles, trying not to drop her phone while running; she tries to find Isabelle’s contact information as if going on impulse to go to hers first. She can feel its breath now as it steps closer. She manages to get out a text before she gets thrown onto the ground as something stands over her.

It's one of the monster things she had dreamt of before, so surely this is a dream and she’ll wake up. She can feel an intense pain in her chest, making her scream out. As her vision becomes blurry and dazed, she tries to push whatever is off of her, only to feel a burn develop on her hand, making her wince.

Everything around her just becomes a blur, like the world is spinning. The only thing she can feel is a sharp pain in her chest and feels her chest move letting out harsh and uneven breaths.

Normally her dreams would have ended by now, but she honestly can’t be sure what is a dream or real sometimes, as it all merges so perfectly. She can feel her body give out as it becomes weak when she hears distant screaming and heavy footsteps. She can’t even bring herself to speak or scream out when everything goes black.

Chapter Text

Chapter Eight
(Isabelle Pov)

5 Hours Before the Attack

Isabelle and Alec walked back the whole time in silence, the only white noise being other people, the busy streets, and the tap of Isabelle’s shoes on the pavement. Isabelle should have known she couldn’t leave the institute that long with only Jace and Andrew without something happening. Andrew was great but sometimes got too into his head, and Jace is, well, he’s Jace; he can barely take care of himself, much less the whole institute of shadowhunters. Isabelle hopes it’s not a huge crisis, so she can still work on a plan for Clary later. She needed to come up with one fast before something happened and caused more problems for everyone.

She must have been zoned out for a long time, lost in her thoughts because she looks up and sees the institute in sight. Before they get in further, Alec reaches out and grabs her arm to look at him. She turns hesitant towards him, looking up at him, his hazel eyes scanning her face as his eyebrows furrow.

“Are you going to be okay?” He questions his soft voice soft, spoken almost as a whisper between them. Isabelle lets out a huff, breaking her arm from his grip, and frowns at him.

“No, not like that. Look, I know I can be overprotective and overbearing, but it’s just because I care about you; you're my sister, Iz I just want to make sure you're okay.” He explains that Isabelle knows he means well, but she doesn’t know what to feel. She may not be okay, persia but she still has a job to do, and she’s not gonna let her emotions get in the way of that.

“Alec I love you, but I just need time to process everything. As for right now, I’ll be fine. We still have a job to do. We're shadowhunters; we can’t just put everything on hold because I'm a little upset.” Isabelle said it with the best smile and assurance she could give Alec. She needed to do this; if anything, it would distract her from everything, which may be good. Alec frowns but nods and goes to walk in, with Isabelle following.

Isabelle walks in and is met with Jace and Andrew at the command center, talking closely with worried faces as they fumble with papers. Isabelle sighs as Alec shakes his head with a slight chuckle.

“Can’t leave them alone for a few hours without the place going to shit can we?” Alec joked with a smirk.

“Nope.” She laughs and shakes her head as she walks down to them, Alec following. She can practically see Jace jump with happiness, his eyes lighting up as Andrew sighs in relief and some color comes back to his earlier pale face.

“Don’t look too excited to see us.” Isabelle jokes as she looks at the table. Jace pouts as he crosses his arms.

"Hey, I did what I promised; the institute isn’t burned down, so you're welcome.” He said with his charming smirk-like smile that Isabelle rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

“So what’s going on? What's with the signal?" Isabelle starts as she looks at the alerts. Alec wordlessly starts looking at the files scattered across the table.

“There have been reports of two demon nests, one in Queens and one in Brooklyn; the one in Queens hasn’t caused any casualties yet but injured a mundane,” Andrew explained, but upon hearing Brooklyn, all of Isabelle’s logical thoughts went out the window. She became light-headed, her head filled with white noise buzzing in her brain. She couldn’t think; their voices were all becoming merged and muffled then distant. She grips what she assumes is the table, trying to ground herself feeling a sting of pain as she does. She can only think of one coherent thought that is screaming at her like her name is written in big, bold red letters imprinted in her brain.

Clary

Her head was buzzing; she was just there. If she had known, she would have stayed there. She left Clary alone with angels knowing what demon or demons were there. She could be—no, she can’t think like that. Clary was smart and strong, and even if she didn’t realize it, her Nephilim insights were still in there. Her heart seemed like it was going to pound out of her chest; her grip on the table tightened; she could feel a light press against her hand; it was soft and gentle but firm. She squeezes her eyes and refocuses, trying to focus on the pressure of the touch.

The room is starting to become less blurry, and the spinning has died down. She blinks slowly, looking at the table, then backs up at her surroundings. She turns her head to her hand and then up to see Alec looking at the guys, nodding before he turns, gives a small smile, and squeezes my hand before looking back at the guys. Despite everything, no matter how much she wanted or tried to push him away, he was always there and understood her like no one else did, not even herself. She gives a small smile and looks back at Jace and Andrew now, as their conversation is less muffled in her pounding head.

“The one in Brooklyn has had multiple reports of them escaping and killing a few mundanes; the families are being talked to and set up for funeral arrangements.” Andrew continues as he brings up the map and pinpoints the attacks and nests on the map.

Isabelle and Alec share a look as they view the Brooklyn spot. It’s not far from Clary’s apartment and the area she hangs out in. She chews the inside of her cheek. She shouldn’t go; she had been taught that emotions cloud her judgment, but all of her instincts tell her to go. She has to protect Clary; if she's becoming vulnerable, she can’t risk her being attacked right now. They have to move quickly if this is happening right now.

"Alright, so here is what we will do, Andrew: we will get you and a team to go to the one in Queens and get rid of it before they escape and cause any deaths. Me, Alec, and Jace will go to the one in Brooklyn and get rid of that one.” Isabelle orders as she stands up straighter and makes a note of the location. She looks back up to see Andrew look at Jace and Alec slowly before looking back at Isabelle. He seems hesitant to do so, but regardless, he nods at her orders.

“Of course, we will be on it, boss; I’ll update you when we have handled things and any updates on our end.” Andrew responds with a tight smile as he gathers his things and goes to get his gear.

Jace raises an eyebrow and furrows it, walking from the other side of the table to be closer to Isabelle and Alec.

“I’m going to go get some more arrows in the weapon room. I'll be back.” Alec says, quickly stepping away, probably sensing the tension thickening in the air between Jace and her.

"Iz, you know I love you and believe in us, but only us three going into this is pretty reckless.” Isabelle scoffs at this with a frown.

“Jace You are one to talk about recklessness; we’ll be fine; it's just a demon nest; we deal with them all the time. Just do what I say, okay?” She snapped at him with a bit of a bite at the end, and Jace furrowed his brows.

“What is this about? I can tell it’s about something. You’re my sister, Izzy; you can tell me anything.” Jace offers as he steps towards her, and she backs up quickly. She didn’t need another person’s pity right now, especially Jace. She already felt guilty enough as it was; she knew if she told him, he would either shut down like he normally has been doing when people bring her up or run into this and risk not only his but Clary’s life.

“Jace I’m fine It's just a demon nest; it’ll be fine. There's nothing weird about it, just another job. Are you in or not I can find someone else if your-"

"No, I'm in. I just- you've been acting weird, so I just wanted to make sure you're okay, but if you are sure and this is what you want, I’m in. I've been itching for a good hunt anyway, and patrols have been boring.” He jokes with his smug smile at the end as he grabs his sword beside him. Isabelle smiled at him; he let that go better than she thought he would.

His earlier concerns were reasonable, and she should be taking it into account that it’s only three of them, but she also just wants it to be done right and make sure nothing is left behind, and she trusts Alec and Jace will do that. Not to say she doesn’t trust Andrew’s team; she just wants to be more thorough to make sure Clary will be safe. She’s doing what she thinks is right. It's selfish; she knows, but she doesn’t care. Clary would do it for her.

Alec comes out of the weaponry, giving a glance to Jace and Isabelle. Isabelle nods as a wordless confirmation that they are okay. She goes to grab her jacket, which she had set down on the chair when putting it on. She sticks her hand in her pocket to make sure her stele is in there when she feels a piece of paper in there too. She furrowed her eyebrows and fumbled with it as she pulled it out. She smiled; she forgot she had stolen the sketch Clary had sitting out on the cafe table.

To be fair, it was of herself, so she felt she had the right to look and take it. She just wanted something to remember Clary by and ground her through this whole thing. Not to mention, it's extremely well done and makes Isabelle happy, so if Clary ever wants it back, she would have to mention it, which probably won't happen since she got so flustered when Isabelle mentioned it. Isabelle always found it adorable. When Clary got flustered, her nose would sometimes scrunch, and Isabelle found it endearing. Isabelle’s thoughts get stopped when she feels a touch on her shoulder.

“Earth to Izzy.” Jace jokes, shaking her arm. With this, Isabelle flushes and pulls away, looking away and quickly shoving the sketch into her pocket.

“I thought we lost you there; your cheeks were pink and you weren’t responding; I knew something was wrong. You aren't sick or anything, are you? "Jace asks, his eyebrows furrowing as he checks her forehead. Isabelle shoves his hand away, her face probably becoming more red. It was rare that she blushed like this, making her more flustered. She can hear Alec chuckle, which only makes it worse, knowing he knew what made her blush in the first place.

“She's fine; she just has other things on her mind.” Alec covers for her; Jace still seems unsure but trusts Alec’s judgment and shrugs it off.

"Alright, if you say so, let’s get going so we can get rid of the nest before we have to run around all of Brooklyn, finding them all like a morbid Easter egg hunt.” Jace jokes as he walks toward the door. Isabelle and Alec follow before Isabelle hears Alec mutter something just low enough for only her to hear.

“More like who you have on your mind.” He teases with a smirk, clearly proud of himself. Isabelle jammed into his side, making Alec grunt, still wearing a stupidly smug smile. Jace looks behind him, raising an eyebrow, before Isabelle just innocently smiles, hoping he’ll drop it.

"Okay, either you two are acting weird or I may have been hanging out with Simon too much, and everyone else is just weird to be around now.” Jace trailed off at the end slowly.

“You know, Simon has that effect on people; I just never thought it would happen to The Jace Herondale.” Isabelle said with a smirk before laughing.

“You know, I did catch you making a Star Wars joke the other day; if I didn’t know any better, I'd say he’s making you into a nerd.” Alec adds with a chuckle.

“Haha, very funny guys." He stops in his tracks, freezing. “Wait, you don’t think that, do you?” Jace questioned. Alec shrugs with a smug smile as Isabelle only gives an innocent smile as she pats his shoulder and she walks past him towards the doors.

"Hey, wait, no, you don’t think that.” Jace runs after them, his voice sounding desperate and drawn out. Which made Isabelle laugh more, and Alec let out a snicker at how dramatic he was being.

She honestly doesn’t think it's bad if that were the case. Simon is a good guy and has been there for Jace. Isabelle thinks it’s sweet, but she thinks they may have just made Jace realize how much it’s been obvious to everyone else how much they are around each other and rub off on each other. Knowing Jace, he’ll probably flip out and not want to talk to Simon for a few days, but that’ll never happen with Simon’s persistence.

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They all walk up to the origin of the recent demon attacks, where the nest is suspected to be. It's an old abandoned warehouse—the perfect spot for one of these to sit and go unnoticed for a few days or longer. All the windows are either broken or boarded up, and the door is already broken off the hinge, so they wouldn’t have to worry about finding a way in. Jace grabs his sword and gets into a fight position, going in first, while Alec gets his bow ready, putting an arrow in, holding it up, and going to the left side. I take my point, pull out my blade with a tight grip, and clear the right side.

The place is silent—almost too silent for one of these warehouses with a supposed nest. Normally, there would be some sort of indication of demons being here, like blood or more destruction. Isabelle clears all of the windows and empty boxes around her, looking up towards the ceiling to make sure they aren’t crawlers that are just waiting to attack from above. She sees none; she’s starting to wonder if the location they got sent was wrong before she hears a snap and turns to it immediately. In front of Jace is a shax demon.

He quickly moves and slashes it, killing it immediately, but they all know that's the raindrop before the storm. Alec holds his bow out and holds the left still, while Jace keeps his stance in front. Isabelle grips her sword tighter as it lights up and holds the right, glances back to Jace, and sees what looks like at least 20 shax demons come out of the room in front of Jace.

Jace's eyes glow gold as his runes activate as he jumps over the hoard and gets behind them, clearing the back ones. This gives Alec and Isabelle the advantage of getting the front ones. Alec kills the ones off to the side, lurking with his bow, as Isabelle runs in and kills the ones in front of the ones Jace is killing. She kicked one that was coming from her right, sending it into the boxes to slash the ones in front, dodging one going to lunge at her. She slashes that one as the one from the boxes comes out. She quickly runs to it and stabs it, pulling up on the sword and watching it turn to ashes.

“Izzy Watch out,” Jace yells as she hears a scatter to her right making her jump back, turn in her heels, and see one on the wall that was ready to attack her. She kills it by stabbing it into the wall with ease, watching the blood splat onto the wall as Jace and Alec kill the last of the other ones.

Isabelle huffs out of breath as she wipes her forehead, tasting the sweat that got down to her mouth.

“We have to move quickly; if there are more, they will smell these and us.” Alec states quickly getting more arrows out of his quiver and putting one in his bow, jestering to the door they came from.

Jace and Isabelle ready their swords and walk in, with Jace going to the left and Isabelle to the right. They immediately get hit with the smell of rotting flesh and ichor blood, making Isabelle grimace as she looks to see bodies that look like they have been here for a few days from the amount of decay. Just because she’s seen it for years doesn’t make it any easier to see and smell.

They get met with ten more lurking out, clearing them out with ease, falling into the rhythm they did when they worked together, as well as slashing the eggs that they laid. They check the corners for more eggs before not seeing any more. Jace and Isabelle lower their swords as Alec lowers his bow, wiping off blood from his cheek with a grimace.

“That looks like them all; we should check out the remaining area before reporting back.” Isabelle orders as she drops the last box with her sword, seeing nothing.

Jace and Alec both nod as they walk out. Isabelle follows behind them, double-checking the warehouse as she goes. She knows she is being paranoid now, but she couldn’t risk it with this warehouse not being far from Clary’s apartment.

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Alec and Jace both huff as they watch Isabelle clear another alleyway. Isabelle rolls her eyes and frowns.

"Iz, we’ve been at this for two hours, and there hasn’t been a trace of another one.” Jace lets out an exasperated sigh, crossing his arms. If he knew why she was doing this, he would be thanking her. She merely scoffs and moves her hair out of her face.

"Oh, I’m sorry. Am I keeping you from your boyfriend, my bad Romeo." Isabelle jokes with a slight edge to her voice. She knows she shouldn’t snap at Jace for something he doesn’t know or didn’t do, but you can’t blame her for being careful.

“Boyfriend? You mean Simon?” He lets out an exasperated breath, like she just said the most unbelievable thing, with a scoff uncrossing his arms. Isabelle chuckles as she turns to him.

"Funny, I didn’t even say it was Simon.” She smirks as she walks ahead of the two boys as they exchange glances.

“Come on, let's go; we need to report back.” Alec finally says, breaking up whatever was happening. Jace is still pouting since Isabelle’s comment goes first, leaving Alec and Isabelle behind him.

“Thanks for putting up with me being so paranoid. I'm sorry. I know I am. I just can’t stand the idea of her being hurt while she is struggling so much as is.” Isabelle admits in a hushed tone that she is not drawing much attention for Jace to hear as he plays with his stele, flipping it between his fingers.

“I get it. Iz you're good, I would do the same in your position. I'm honestly surprised we weren’t here longer. I was afraid I would have to tell Magnus I wouldn’t see him till morning. Alec jokes with a smug smile, shoving her.

"Oh, shut up. I promise I won’t keep you from your clingy husband." Isabelle chuckles as she feels her phone vibrate. She groans, thinking it’s Andrew with another report or another alert, but it’s worse.

“Clary.” mutters out as her eyes widen. Alec’s head snaps up, and he looks at her and then her phone in her hand. She was surprised she didn’t drop as her grip on it loosened. Isabelle quickly spams her with messages but with no response. She grumbles, grabs out the sketch she remembers she still has and starts to track her, walking off towards her apartment, acting on impulse, her heart still racing from the adrenaline from the hunt.

This makes Jace turn in their direction and let out a confused yell, running towards them.

"Hey, where are you going? Did you hear something?” he questioned, immediately tightening his grip on his blade. He looks around, scanning, before his eyes snap back to Isabelle and then drop down to see her tracking with the sketch.

“What are you tracking with that?” Jace asks again, getting on Isabelle’s nerves with all the questions.

“Shhh.” She snaps, focusing her mind as she tightens her grip on the sketch, trying to focus on Clary.

"Shit," she grumbles as she runs towards her apartment. She can hear Jace yelling something as Alec follows, running with him.

She can barely feel the connection, which is worrying as she can feel it. It's there, just weak. She scans around the busy sidewalk, chewing the inside of her cheek. She can’t see anything unusual, and as she scans the area, she goes to try again, getting a jolt.

“Gotcha.” She murmured as she ran towards the connection, leaving the boys running after her, more confused as she wouldn’t say anything. She can’t risk stopping to explain, especially to Jace, because he doesn’t know anything. She has to cross the bridge later once she finds her and ensures she's safe.

For now, Clary is all that matters. The tracking leads her to an alleyway that is behind a lot of the markets and shops around here. She must have been trying to find a shortcut because of the hectic crowd of drunk idiots outside the club, a few buildings down.

Isabelle grabs her blade with a tight grip and it lights up coming to life as she makes her way around the corner to find Clary cornered by a Shax demon as she lies on the ground with it hovering on top of her.

Chapter Text

Chapter 9
(Isabelle Pov)

“Clary!” She yells out as she runs full sprint, pushing the demon off of her and slamming it into the brick wall beside her, stabbing her sword into it. Ignoring the burn in her hand, she drops her blade, hearing the clang echo in the alleyway, and kneels in front of the redhead’s limp body.

When Isabelle grabs a hold of Clary, she can hear her mumble out something, but she can’t make sense of it; it was all slurred as she blinked slowly. Isabelle looked down to see Clary’s shirt and jacket covered in blood. She quickly stripped her jacket and put the jacket on the wound on her chest to stop the bleeding.

She’s already lost a lot of blood, evident by it staining Isabelle’s hands as she tried to keep her shaky hands steady to keep pressure on it. She has to hold herself back from doing what her instinct was, which was to reach for her stele and go to her Iratze and activate it, but she quickly remembers Clary doesn’t have one anymore, and she’s not going to risk putting one on her. So Isabelle worked fast to feel her forehead; it was ice cold and sweaty as she placed her hand on it. All Isabelle can do is lift up the redhead girl and hold her to calm her down until the boys catch up. Clary’s body is melting into hers feeling low pulse against her racing one. She tried to move the jacket to keep pressure on it, but Clary winces and grabs Isabelle's arm. Isabelle brushes the girl's hair, now stained with ichor, away from her face and cups her cheek, stroking it softly.

“I know, I know it's okay; you're going to be okay. Just stay with me.” Isabelle reassured as Alec and Jace caught up. Jace freezes and stares at Isabelle and Clary. The guilt hits Isabelle immediately for keeping this from him, but she can’t focus on that right now. She can curse herself for it later, when Clary is safe.

"Alec, call Magnus; there was a shax demon; she’s lost a lot of blood and may be poison; luckily, we were too quick for it to drain her, but we're going to have to take her to her apartment; it's the closest.” Isabelle orders as she lifts up Clary. As she whines at the pain tucking her head into Isabelle, she shushes her softly. At least she knows she is still conscious and aware of something, even if it was pain that Isabelle so desperately wanted to take away. Jace is still standing there in shock, staring at the concrete, now stained with Clary’s blood.

“Jace I know this is a lot to process, and I promise you we can talk and you can process this later, but we really need to get her to her apartment and help her so she doesn’t die. Can you do that?” She asks, trying to snap him out of it. He snaps up to her voice and looks up to her; his eyes were glossy and lost, like he saw a ghost. He blinks slowly, then swallows as he nods slowly. Isabelle sighs softly and tightens her grip on Clary. Jace picks up Isabelle's sword and Clary’s bag, which she must have dropped along with her cracked phone.

"Clary, you're still there; you've got to stay with me.” Isabelle asks, trying to keep her conscious as she starts to move towards her apartment, with Jace following behind her. She can hear Alec on the phone in the distance, with Magnus a little further behind. Clary lets out a mumble as she holds out her arm like she is trying to grab something.

“We got your bag and stuff; it’s okay; you're going to be okay; you're with me.” Isabelle reassures her as she looks down at her; her eyes are cold and distant, losing the bright green they normally had. Isabelle’s jaw clenched; she had to think positively that Clary was going to be fine. They were almost there, as she luckily wasn’t far from her apartment.

She feels Clary’s slow breathing get even slower. She looks back down and sees her eyes fluttering closed and open. Shit-- no she can’t lose concussions, not now when they are so close.

“Clary, Hey, don't close your eyes; please, you have to stay with me. Stay with me.” Isabelle tries to keep her voice even, but Clary blinks, mumbling something again. Isabelle looks up to see where they are. She scans the area quickly to see Clary’s building in sight. She is so glad she sneaked a quick peek at Magnus’s stuff to find her address. It was not her proudest moment, but it came in handy in this situation.

They walk up to the building. Isabelle can’t feel her arms anymore, but she’ll be damned to drop her. Her stamina and strength runes she activated while they were looking before were still active, luckily. Jace comes up and looks at Clary slowly, then at Isabelle; he looked a little less dissociated but definitely not good.

"Clary, is your key in your bag?” Isabelle spoke slowly in a soft tone, hoping her words were making sense to her. She mumbles something out again that can’t be understood, squeezing Isabelle’s arm weakly.

"Jace, can you see if her keys are in her bag, please?” Isabelle asks. Jace nods and looks through the bag, rummaging through it quickly.

Isabelle frowns, looking down at the half-conscious girl. She merely blinks at Isabelle's slowly before they start to flutter close.

"Hey, no, don’t close your eyes. Okay, you have to stay with me. Please don’t close your eyes.” Isabelle pleads

She can feel a tear she had been keeping falling down her cheek; she just got her back. She can’t lose her like this. She can hear fast steps come up as Alec finally catches up and hangs up the phone.

“Magnus is on the way.” Alec states, out of breath, then he immediately goes and makes his way to the building door, opening it for Isabelle as he and Jace follow behind her.

Jace fidgets with the key the whole time as they make their way up the couple flights of stairs. Of course Clary would have to live on one of the highest floors, but Isabelle manages to keep her grip; the only thing grounding her was Clary's slow breathing against her.
They finally make it to her floor. Isabelle goes to Clary’s apartment so Jace can open the door. He makes sure to open it wide for Isabelle as she walks through, stepping carefully through the apartment to carry Clary to her bedroom. Luckily, the door was already wide open as she went through and put her onto her bed.
Isabelle grabs the chair in her room and puts it beside her bed, sitting in it almost practically and falling into it with her legs feeling like jello. She grabs Clary's hand, squeezing it. It was ice cold, but Isabelle couldn’t bring herself to care. She can feel her pulse; it's weak but there.

“Clary, please stay with me. I- can’t lose you, please.” Isabelle pleaded out between shaky breaths, holding back more tears that wanted to fall. Isabelle has never felt this way before. She has witnessed and been around many accidents, but she has never felt that much fear or heartbreak like that before.

It was like Clary held onto a piece of her soul even now, and she could feel it break away when she saw her in that alleyway. Isabelle felt like she needed Clary to live to survive, like her lifeline was directly attached to hers; if Clary dies, so does she. She had already lost her twice; she can’t lose her again; it may ruin her. Clary was like her sun; if she didn’t have her warmth and her light that practically radiates out of her, she would be nothing. She would have no light and no purpose;

Isabelle leans over the redhead; she can hear her shallow breathing leaning forward, but at least she’s still breathing. Isabelle brings her hand forward and softly brushes her matted hair away from her face, then to her forehead. Her face was still cold and pale, with a hint of yellow. She can feel herself frown as she tries to not panic about how long it’s taking Magnus; she knew he probably had to get blood or something, but she doesn’t know how long Clary has. She can feel a tear run down her cheek as she looks at the unconscious girl. She hears the door open and close behind her, and footsteps get closer.

She wipes the tears immediately and straightens her back to act like her world is not falling apart right in front of her. She manages to turn around and look at Magnus; to this end, he offers a sad smile, which suggests she’s not doing the best job of looking alright.

“Hey pumpkin, how is she?” Magnus asked softly, setting down some books and a bag before making his way to Clary to check her over.

“She um- lost consciousness when we got to the building, so she's been out for like- ten minutes, I don’t know.” She struggles to speak, finding words hard to process with her racing thoughts filling her brain; she can barely catch her breath between the shaky, harsh ones she has been doing. She can feel her voice strain, feeling a burn as if it’s given up on her too.

“Hey- It's okay, you need to breathe, okay? She's going to be okay, I promise.” Magnus reassures, squeezing Isabelle's shoulder as he starts examining Clary, his magic flaring to life running over Clary’s still body. Isabelle takes a deep breath and tries to focus on the color of Magnus’s magic to ground her, following the blue waves.

How could she let this happen to her. She was supposed to protect Clary, that she wouldn't let something like this happen to her. She feels like she’s already failed her again. Isabelle hated the idea of failing the people around her, especially when they meant as much to her as Clary does. She squeezes her hand again as Magnus furrows his brows, focusing on the wound on her chest.

“Iz.” She hears Alec’s voice calling from the doorframe. She turns to slowly feeling another tear run down her cheek. His face softens at her, but he eyes her to come to him. She turns back to Clary and Magnus. Isabelle knew she was in good hands with Magnus; she just hated leaving her in case she noticed she was gone.

"Izzy, she’ll be okay. Go talk to your brothers. I promise you can come straight back afterwards; she won’t even know you're gone.” Magnus reassures her, as if he can read her mind. She lets out a sigh and lets go of her hand, softly squeezing it before she does. She swallows and nods, standing up slowly and walking towards Alec in the doorway.

“I know; I need to talk to him.” She said before he could even bring it up as she slowly looked up at him; he looks at her apologetically but nods. They both glance over to see him sitting on the couch, staring into the fireplace, his leg bouncing. She chews the inside of her cheek as she looks away.

“I’ll watch over her while you talk; you need to talk to him. It'll do you both good.” Alec said she looks up and tries to regain her composure to face Jace. Alec reads her face, grabs her shoulder, and pulls her into a hug she didn’t know she needed so desperately right now.

“It’ll be okay; he’ll understand, you know.” Alec reassures her as she sniffles, pushing back more tears and trying to spill them as she pulls away. He gives her a soft smile and jesters her out. She takes one more look at Clary before pulling her eyes away and towards the living room.

She swallows thickly and walks towards him. She can hear the door shut behind her to give them space. He doesn’t look up, but his leg stops, so he knows she's there. Isabelle sits on the other side of the couch, laying her hands on her lap and fidgeting with her ring. This is torture; she would rather be on ichor duty for a month than be in this situation right now. The air feels so thick that it could swallow her whole.

“Hey.” She starts softly glancing towards him. She could see his face was stained a little with tears, and his eyes looked red. She stiffens; she feels guilty for keeping it from him, but she was afraid of seeing this.

“Hey,” he mumbles, his voice sounding rough. She takes a deep breath, turns towards him, and looks at him. He looks so broken, like when she found him that night at the wedding. She understands the feeling all too well from when she first saw Clary again outside that cafe. The weight of it all crashing onto you.

“I'm sorry.” She apologizes as a start; she doesn’t fully know what she is apologizing for besides the obvious, but it felt like a start. She can hear him sniffle and clear his throat as he shrugs dismissively.

“What for? You didn’t do anything.” He replies, his voice emotionless, with his eyes not leaving the fireplace.

“That I kept this from you.” She starts letting out a shaky breath. “For letting this be the way you find out, I-- never wanted to hurt you, Jace. I was just scared.” She explains her voice breaking at the end. This gets his attention as he looks up and glances at her quickly, then back at the ground, shifting in his seat.

“For how long?” He asks, her eyebrow furrowing as she pounders on what he meant. How long she knew, how long she remembered things, how long she'd had the sight. There are many things he could be asking about this.

“How long have you known about this?” he elaborates, sensing her silent confusion as he rubs his hands together nervously.

“A few days ago, she, uh- bumped into me on the way to a coffee show. I never meant for this to happen, Jace. I didn’t break any rules or go after her like they told us not to. I don't know how or why this happened. I was just scared and didn’t want to hurt you." She rambles out as her voice becomes more strained and sore from crying and wanting to cry again.

She can feel Jace move after a few minutes of deafening silence and looks at her, his eyebrows softening at her face as he looks like he’s about as broken as she is.

“I know, Izzy; I'm not upset at you.” He reassures, fumbling with his hands. She looks down at them and then up at him.

“I know you never meant to hurt me, and yeah, I’m upset and hurt, but not at you, just- the situation itself. It’s unfair that after all these months over a year, suddenly they think it's okay to just throw her back in and act like it not only affects our lives but hers.” He rambles out, sounding more angry as he speaks. She lets out a weak chuckle and sighs.

“Tell me about it. She's already been through so much, which is why I didn’t tell anyone besides Alec because he saw my breakdown. Then I told Magnus to get help from a magic perspective. But you need to know how much this has been bugging me that I haven't been able to tell you; you deserve to know and try to fix things with her.” Isabelle explained. Jace stiffens, making Isabelle frown. She thought that would be what he wanted—to fix things and be together again.

“What if I don’t want to fix things?” He confesses in a soft tone, making Isabelle’s heartbreak; she hated seeing him upset. He was always so strong and stubborn, and she admired him for that, so to see him like this breaks her. She simply puts her hand on his leg, stopping the bouncing that had started again midway through the conversation, and gives him a soft smile to continue if he wants.

“It’s been over a year. I mean, I've changed, and I'm sure she has changed. What if we just don’t click anymore? and it's all weird and akward.” He explains softly, speaking barely above a whisper and staring off again. Isabelle nods. She gets it; she wondered if Clary would still like her or connect with her now after everything.

“I just—what I had with Clary was amazing. I loved her. I may still love her, but I don’t want to force things and make things weird.” He starts and glances over to the door and back at Isabelle.

“She deserves to be happy and have a fresh start; I’ll always be there for her, and I want to be close with her again—maybe just not in that way or right away if it happens at all, and I would want it to be natural for it to not be weird, and I don’t know if that will ever be the case.” He squeezes her hand and drops it off to the side, making Isabelle’s eyebrows raise in confusion.

“I mean, it would be weird on both ends; I would have all these memories, and she wouldn’t; it wouldn’t be fair to her.” He explains slowly and stops, like he’s holding back on something. She tilts her head and furrows her brows.

“She needs someone like you, Isabelle; you always made her happy and were the constant in her life when the rest of us maybe weren’t. Even when you guys fought, you always pushed it aside and helped her. I think you need her too; I’ve seen how you’ve been since she left. You may not have realized I knew, but I did.” Jace admits his gaze is soft and gentle, like when they were kids and he would comfort her.

“Jace.” Isabelle is already choking on her words. She could do this; she had never said them out loud, but maybe if she did, it wouldn’t be as scary. Jace turns to her and furrows his brows.

“Yeah? What’s wrong.” He said this, placing his hand on hers and stroking it. She smiles a little like that and takes a deep breath.

“I need to tell you something. I’ve never told anyone this, but I need to tell someone, and I feel like this is the right moment.”

“Hey- It's okay; whatever it is, we can figure it out, and it’ll be okay. I promise you, nothing you say will make me upset at you.” Jace reassures her, bringing her hand up and squeezing it; his eyes are gentle and patient. She chews the inside of her cheek. It's easy; it's just a sentence. Just some words—you know it's safe, it’s okay—she tries to reassure herself.

“I like girls; I like girls and guys-” She rambles out, and in realizing how fast she said it, she tries to slow her mind down and take a deep breath in and out. Jace was patient and waited for her to compose herself.

“I'm pan, and I never told anyone because I never thought I could. I mean, you know how mom was and dad is. I just never felt like I could have anything like that with a girl, so I never said anything.” She had squeezed her eyes shut and looked down halfway through the sentence. This was Jace; he wouldn’t be upset.

“Izzy, look at me.” He requests softly, squeezing her hand, and she looks up slowly. He softly smiled at her as she felt a tear run down her cheek. He lifts up his free hand and wipes it away.

“I'm proud of you. I’m glad you felt like you could tell me. You know I’ll always love and accept you, no matter what. That’s what we do; we’re always there for each other, me, you, and Alec." He offers her a smile, and she lets out a soft laugh in relief as she thinks of how stupid she felt for thinking he would be weird about this.

“Is this a good time to mention I’m bi?” He laughs, and she also laughs as she fixes her hair, pushing it away from her wet face from crying.

“I had a feeling.” She jokes, making him laugh more.

"Yeah, well, you know they’ll accept you. All of us will, and if anyone says anything about it, I’ll personally beat the shit out of them.” He smirked, and she shoved him away playfully.

“Thanks; I'm pretty sure Alec knows—and if he knows, Magnus definitely does." She laughs; they couldn't keep anything away from each other if they tried. Jace shakes his head with a smile. Isabelle sighs softly, feeling a huge weight being lifted off her chest. She turns to the door and frowns at it, remembering Clary is still in there and she can’t do anything to help her. She notices Jace also looking over to the door, then back at her. He holds back a smile and goes to get up.

“You should go be with her, Iz; I’ll go report back for us. Just text me when she wakes up, okay?” He offers picking up his jacket and blade. Isabelle stands up and goes to say something, but her mouth just closes back shut. Jace just smiles and pulls her into a hug, squeezing her tightly.

“Thank you for talking to me.” Jace whispers as he puts his head on top of hers.

That was her breaking point; she could feel her throat close up as tears fell down her face as she buried her face in his shirt. Once it started, she couldn’t stop the sobbing coming out. Jace softly played with her hair, shushing her and telling her it was okay. She could feel his shirt becoming stained with her tears and probably makeup. Her grip on him tightens as she feels herself become weak.

“It's okay, I got you; let it out.” Jace reassures, stoking her hair while then putting a gentle kiss on the head like Alec does to her as he hums. She lets out a choked laugh that sounded like a cry as she sniffles her tears, slowing down.

Jace just keeps humming the song their mom used to sing to them and stroking her hair until he can feel her breathing slow down to match his. Isabelle lets go slowly and looks up at him. He looks calmer now, too. She thinks they both needed that, like everything was out in the open now for them, and she felt more at peace with her feelings about everything—not perfect but definitely better. She can hear the door creak as Alec peaks his head out, and Isabelle immediately jolts towards him.

“Is she okay? Nothing happened, right?” She panicked, and Alec shook his head immediately.

“No, everything is okay; she is stable; she took the blood transfusion well; and Magnus is just going to observe her for tonight to make sure she stays that way and wakes up okay.” He explains, looking between the two. Isabelle looks over to Jace; he gives a smile and nods.

“I’ll go send reports in for us like I said I would. Take care of her and Isabelle; get some sleep; no offense; you look like you haven't slept in weeks.” He jokes with ease after everything. She rolls her eyes. Smiling, Jace puts on his jacket, gets his sword, which he had set down, gives a nod to Alec, and walks out.

“Me and Magnus are going to stay out here for tonight while you stay there with her.” He is already moving to the couch to shuffle things to make it comfortable.

“Are you sure? I mean, I don’t want you two to be uncomfortable out here.” She frowns. Alec chuckles and flops down dramatically.

“Trust me, I think we’ll be okay. I doubt Magnus will sleep much anyway since he’ll be on high alert.” He reassures her as he looks at the table, seeing the remote to the TV.

“We’ll probably just watch some boring, mundane movies, but you go get some sleep. I agree with Jace that you need it.” He says as he turns on the TV as it turns into a cheesy rom-com that he grimaces at making Isabelle giggle.

“I'm going to pretend I don’t take offense to that.” She joked, making Alec roll his eyes.

“But thank you; I’ll try.” She smiles as Magnus comes out of the room and comes and flops down next to Alec dramatically, making Alec groan. She assumes Magnus landed on him. Isabelle chuckles at them fondly.

"Alright, lovebirds, control yourself out here; no funny business.” She warns. Alec scoffs as Magnus smirks.

“No promises, pumpkin.” Magnus teases, making Alec’s head snap to him, and shoves him. Magnus smirk grows clearly proud of making Alec flustered, his cheeks turning pink. Isabelle rolls her eyes, turning to Clary’s room.

“Let me know if something does happen, though we’ll be here.” Magnus assures, making Isabelle smile and hum in acknowledgment, and goes into the room, closing the door but leaving it cracked in case of an emergency.

Isabelle lets out a sigh of relief; she feels like she can finally find some peace knowing Clary is in their hands and safe. She feels herself look around her room; it's a little bare, but a couple things stand out, like some paintings she most likely painted. Some fake plants—one taller in the corner and one shorter on her desk—along with some scattered papers and books. Then just some shelves with candles and other miscellaneous decor, most likely from the thrift stores nearby. Clary had mentioned she went to those with her mom when she was younger. She smiles looking around; it's a lot more bare than her old room in the loft, but it definitely has some of the same aesthetic to it.

Isabelle walks towards the bed where Magnus put her under her covers and tucked her in. It's sweet how much Magnus cares about Clary. It makes sense since he’s known her since she was a kid; it’s like she has her own Alec looking after her all these years; expect hers to watch her from the sidelines.

She can’t imagine how hard it was for Magnus to do nothing to help Clary from her mom. I have no doubt Jocelyn cared for Clary, but it's no secret she could have done it in better ways than constantly clearing her memory. Isabelle can’t imagine having to take memories from a girl year after year and get attached only to know it’s for nothing and she won’t remember you.

At least Magnus can take care of her now again, like he did when she first got her memories back. She needs someone who will look after her in that regard. Not that Alec won’t do that for Clary, whether he admits it or not. Alec grew very fond of Clary and would do anything to protect her, even if he groans in the process of her making stupid decisions. She has all of us again, and Isabelle will be damned if the angels try to take her away from them again.

She softly brushes the hair away from her face; she looks so at peace that it's possible Magnus gave her something to help her sleep. Probably for the best with the lack of sleep she’s been getting. Isabelle sits on the chair next to her bed that she left there. She huffs when sitting down, putting her head in her hand and staring at her.

It reminds her of when she watched her the first time she got demon poisoned when Jace saved her and brought her. Isabelle remembers kicking them out because Jace kept pacing and Alec was asking too many questions and pissing Jace off. She laughs fondly at the memories as she reaches out and grabs Clary’s hand, gently stroking it.

“You probably can’t hear me right now, but I made a promise to you a long time ago that you would always have me.” She starts squeezing her hand and softly smiling down at her.

“I'm here now. I swear to the angels that I'm not leaving you again.” She declares. The angels would have to smite her down themselves before she let it happen again. She grabs the blanket on the bottom of her bed with her other hand and sets it on herself as she curls up in the chair and grabs hold of her hand again. She can feel her eyes begin to grow tired and heavy as Isabelle gives into the sleep with ease as her body gives out a feeling of peace with Clary next to her sound asleep.

Chapter Text

Chapter Ten

(Isabelle’s Pov)

Isabelle feels like she's finally getting some sleep but wakes up and feels her arm getting pulled as she gets jolted off the chair. She jolts awake, ready to grab her blade Alec put next to the chair, but instead just sees Clary sitting up and panting like she is out of breath. Isabelle drops the sword and goes to her side, sitting by her on her bed.

"Shhh, it's okay; you're safe. I got you.” She reassures softly with a murmur. She flinches and goes to fight Isabelle, swinging at her. Isabele doges to swing easily and takes hold of her arms and strokes them as she shushes her more, trying to snap her out of her dream. She sees that her face is stained with tears, and as her eyes dart all around the room, Isabelle softly brings her face to hers and brushes her hair away from her face, which is matted with sweat.

“Hey, look at me. It's okay. It's me- It's just me. No one's going to hurt you.” She tries to explain calmly, cupping her face and stroking her cheek softly, wiping the ears away as her eyebrows furrow. She seems to react slowly to her movement as her eyes train on her blinking.

“Izzy.” She mumbles out as her eyes soften. She looks like a wounded puppy. It makes Isabelle want to kill whatever made her that way in her dreams.

"Yeah, it's me. It's okay. You're safe.” Isabelle reassures with a smile. She thanks the angel she wasn’t screaming or anything where she would have woken up Magnus or Alec. She can see Clary look around, then back at her with a soft smile as she sinks back in, flopping on her. Isabelle catches her quickly and moves her slightly to be in a more comfortable position.

Isabelle strokes her hair as she looks around to find her clock; it reads 4:33 a.m. She sighs and lets herself relax, noticing her muscles were tense. Clary hums as she leans into the touch and curls up. Isabelle smiles softly; she can feel Clary’s heartbeat slow down as her breathing syncs with hers. It reminds her of the time she couldn’t sleep once, getting a nightmare not long after her mom died, and she came to Isabelle in a cold sweat and crying. It took Isabelle a few hours to calm down and fall asleep again.

"Clary, you should go back to sleep; it's still late and you haven’t been sleeping well.” She suggests in a murmur as she stares at the half-asleep girl in her lap. She shakes her head quickly.

“I can’t.” She spoke softly, which wouldn’t have been heard if there was any other background noise. Isabelle frowns, brushes her hair away from her face, and looks at her.

"Clary, it's not going to be any good if you keep skipping sleep; I'll be right in that chair, I promise you.” Isabelle reassures as she goes to get up, untangling herself from the redhead. Isabelle feels her hand get pulled back. She turns to see Clary holding her hand as she looks up at her with glossy red eyes. Isabelle winces at the expression, feeling like it just shot her in the heart.

“Stay.” Clary says softly as her eyes gaze into Isabelle’s. Isabelle frowns as she looks around. She doesn’t want to make Clary uncomfortable if she wakes up later with Isabelle here.

“Please, I don’t want to be alone.” She pleads, her voice strained. Isabelle sighs and immediately gives in, shushing her.

“It's okay, you're not alone; I’ll stay if you really want.” Isabelle agrees as she gets back on the bed. Clary smiles softly as she curls back up under the covers. Isabelle chuckles at this and lays down next to her on top of the covers. Clary pouts at this as she pushes her and offers the blanket. Isabelle wants to argue against it, but she fights back a yawn that gets let out. Clary nods again, reassuring her it's okay. Isabelle groans, giving in to the girl, as Clary giggles and smiles foundly at Isabelle. Isabelle rolls her eyes dramatically; she really just got played. It's almost pathetic how easily she gave in to Clary, but she can’t help it. Clary had a trance on her, it seemed, and she would do anything to see her happy right now.

Clary curls up and looks at Isabelle softly as she yawns. Isabelle chuckles and gets comfortable, then turns to face her. Clary looks a lot calmer as the moonlight glistens on her, making her fair skin glow like she's an angel sent to Isabelle from heaven. Isabelle reaches over and strokes her hair, making her eyes close with a hum. Isabelle has learned Clary likes that, and it calms her.

“Go ahead and sleep; I'll be right here.” Isabelle murmurs softly as her own eyes fight for sleep as she yawns. Clary hums again as she melts under her touch and into her bed.

“I can’t.” She spoke quietly as she stared at Isabelle; her eyes were distant again. Isabelle wishes she could do more for her and take these dreams away that are haunting her.

“You should try; I’ll be right here.” Isabelle reassures with a smile as she strokes her hair still. Clary stills and chews her lip before speaking.

“Do you ever get scared?” Clary mummers between them, and Isabelle frowns at her. Of course she does; everyone gets scared.

"Yeah, I do; why do you ask?” Isabelle asks as she straightens to look at Clary more closely. She furrows her eyebrows as she opens her mouth to say something but closes it.

“It’s okay; whatever you want to ask, you can.” Isabelle offers; she really shouldn’t offer that given what happened, but screw the rules and suggestions. Clary has a right to know what’s happening to her.

“It’s just that—you seem so strong and confident; I mean, you killed whatever that monster thing was with no hesitation. You must think someone like me who is terrified and scared of her dreams is pathetic.” Clary stated, slowly avoiding eye contact with Isabelle. Isabelle frowns, brings her head back towards hers, and holds it.

“You may not realize it, but you’re stronger than you think.” Isabelle starts as she looks at the redhead. “And as for me, everyone has something that scares them.” Isabelle said as she stroked her face softly. Clary offers a small smile.

“So what is it? What scares you?” Clary asks, and Isabelle stiffens. The first thing that came to her mind was to say losing you, but she can’t say that. Clary doesn’t feel that way about her; she’s just scared, and I’m just here and convenient to her. She chews the inside of her cheek.

“I don’t know—rats are kind of scary.” She jokes, and Clary chuckles and shoves her playfully. Isabelle laughs softly.

“Come on, I want a real answer.” She pushes, and Isabelle sighs and looks back at her.

“Sometimes.” Isabelle starts slowly, and Clary lays back down and looks at her with a reassuring smile. “I’m scared of getting close to people; I’m scared that if I get close to someone, I’ll lose them or I can’t appreciate them in the way they should be appreciated.” Isabelle confessed slowly and in a quiet tone. Clary frowns and grabs her hand.

“I know we’ve only been around each other for a few days again, but I’m not going anywhere. I'm afraid you’re stuck with me now.” She said it with a small smirk as she squeezed her hand. Isabelle chuckled softly and looked at their hands intertwined. Clary can say that, but Isabelle has lost her before, and she is scared of losing her again. She can’t lose her again.

“Hey, whatever happened in the past that I can’t fully remember right now is in the past; what matters right now is what is happening now, and I’m here; you are here; we’re together. Isn’t that enough for now?” Clary offers, gazing into Isabelle so softly, She had never had someone treat her like this; look at her like this. Simon was great; he was the best relationship she had ever been in, but as Isabelle always does, she pushed him away when Clary left, and he deserved better than that. Maybe Clary would be different; maybe this was fate. Isabelle used to think fate- destiny, all of that was fake and for suckers that were dumb enough to believe stuff like that actually happens, but Isabelle can’t think of a logical reason that Clary ended up in her life again. If this was the angel's way of making it up to Clary and to her, then she would be a fool to mess it up.

“Yeah-” She whispers slowly with a growing smile, looking back down at their hands still intertwined. “I think it can; at least I would like it to be.” Isabelle curses under her breath for stumbling over her words, but Clary doesn’t seem to mind as she breams.

“Good. I know I’ve said this, but I’m happy you’re here. Thank you for everything.” Clary replies, and Isabelle offers a small smile and squeezes her hand.

“Always.” Isabelle says as her cheeks flush, she hopes Clary can’t see it. Clary then lets out a yawn as she blinks slowly.

“We should sleep; we both need it. We can talk more in the morning.” Isabelle suggests, as she also lets out a yawn. Clary smiles as she slowly lets go of Isabelle’s hand and curls up.

“Good night, Iz.” She can hear through a mumble as her eyes fall close. Isabelle smiles as she goes to brush the hair away from her face before lying back down in a comfortable position.

“Good night, Clary.” She says before noticing she is already fast asleep. Isabelle sighs. She couldn’t help but look at the girl, now fast asleep; she looks peaceful. She's glad she could give her peace for the time being. Isabelle was about to close her eyes when she heard the door move slightly. Her eyes strain trying to focus from the lack of sleep; she then sees Alec poke around the corner and stands there looking around.

“Everything is okay in here. I thought I heard something.” He says his voice is rough, so she can tell he was just asleep. Isabelle shushes softly and points to Clary. She literally just got her to sleep, and she swears to the angel that if Alec wakes her up, she may kill him herself. He stares as his lip curves up into a small smirk. Isabelle grumbles at him as she glares; he merely chuckles at her.

“My apologies if I almost woke up your girlfriend; next time I'll leave you to be dead.” He said it dramatically. Isabelle rolls her eyes; she swears she would kill him if she could, but she feels her arm get pulled as Clary pulls her close to her. Isabelle's face flushes bright red as Alec’s smirk grows. She forgot Clary was a cuddler; she glares at him as he puts his hands up defensively, probably seeing the near murderous look on her face as he backs up. He gives a final look around before giving another small smirk of a smile as he walks out. Isabelle is never going to live this down now. From Alec of Magnus.

But nonetheless, she feels herself melting into Clary’s touch as Isabelle sighs and gets back comfortable. Clary’s bed is way more comfortable than the one Isabelle has, or maybe it’s just because of how tired she is; anything would feel like that. She feels her eyes become tired as she falls asleep, feeling Clary’s warm skin against hers and listening to her steady heartbeat.

Chapter Text

Chapter Eleven
(Clary Pov)
The sunrise glow is shining through the windows as the busy streets and crowds can be heard faintly in the distance. Clary’s eyes start to flutter up as she grimaces at the bright sun coming through the window. She was about to move to stretch when she felt arms around her, and through her hazy memory, she could remember Isabelle getting into bed after a nightmare. She turned her head and saw Isabelle still sound asleep. She looks so peaceful and calm, with the warm glow of the sun illuminating her, making her skin look golden, and her long black silky hair glistening. She wants to run her hands through it.
She shakes her head as reality crashes down on her. She is in bed with Isabelle; she’s sharing a bed with a pretty girl like Izzy. How was she supposed to go around this? She doesn’t want to wake her up, but she also doesn’t know what she would say to her if she woke up with herself still in bed with her. She can feel her face flush as her eyes examine the best way to get herself out of bed without waking her up. Clary slowly takes away her arm that is under Isabelle, careful not to wake her, and slowly moves away, making her escape.

She looks back to see that she hasn't moved an inch and still seems perfectly asleep. Noted Isabelle is a heavy sleeper. Clary can still feel her cheeks flush as she stares at her with a small smile creeping up on her. She realizes she shouldn’t stare at her because she doesn’t want Isabelle to think she's a creep. So she sighs and goes to walk out before she can. She hears Alec’s muffled voice coming from the other side, as he seems to be talking to someone. She opens the door quietly and peeks her head around to see him walking from the kitchen with his phone against his ear. Oh, so he's on the phone; that makes sense. She quietly closes the door behind her when Alec turns his head towards the noise, sees Clary, and gives a small smile.

"That's Clary now; she just woke up, so you can come here if you want.” He answered the phone as he motioned to the couch to have her sit. She can feel nerves bubbling up inside her, thinking about having to talk about last night, but she sits anyway.

"Yeah, I’ll tell her, don’t worry,” Alec reassures the person on the other end. Clary's eyebrows raise in curiosity. She doesn’t know who he’s talking to, but they seem like they’re going to be here later, so I guess I’ll find out.

“Alright, thank you.” He starts with a smile. "Yeah, I love you too. See you soon.” He replies with a small blush on his face. Clary giggles at this, but he doesn’t seem to notice.

“Hey, you slept longer than I thought you would.” Alec starts as he puts his phone in his pocket and sits down on the chair by her couch. Clary chuckles at this and feels her nerves ease up slightly.

"Yeah, me too, but whatever you and Isabelle gave me was good. I haven't slept that well in weeks.” Clary replies honestly, making Alec frown as he looks at her.

“How much sleep have you been getting then?” He questioned her. No one had worried so much about all of this before Izzy and Alec, so she was taken back by all of their concern but tried to play it off.

"Wow, Isabelle wasn’t kidding about the overprotective thing.” She jokes with a smile, hoping he won’t push. Alec merely rolls his eyes dramatically before crossing his arms.

“Nice try, Fray, but that isn’t going to get you out of this,” Alec responds with an authoritative tone that she can only assume he uses at work. She lets out a huff, crosses her arms, and avoids his gaze.

“Like, I don’t know. Maybe 3 hours some days-- Sometimes none at all for a couple of days…” She trails off as she picks at the skin around her nails.

“What? Please tell me you're joking.” He says his voice is thick with concern; all Clary does is shrug and look over, but he avoids his face.

“It’s not that big of a deal; I just have sleeping problems.” She muttered weakly.

“It is tough, but I get you are having bad dreams. I went through a stage like that; I had an experience that left me with nightmares for weeks.” He confessed slowly as he looked at her closely. She looks back down; she hates feeling so vulnerable like this; she hates the idea of worrying someone. Alec lets out a sigh and shifts in his seat.

“Just promise me you’ll try to get more. It won't help your mental state if you keep not getting sleep.” He says it with a calm and gentle tone. Clary looks back up and chews the inside of her cheek. She nods in return as she looks up at him.
His gaze is soft despite his frown, so she knows he's only trying to help, but she already feels bad enough that he had to help with whatever happened last night.

“There's some breakfast in the kitchen for you. We got it at dinner down the road; it's coconut pancakes. I remembered you liked them.” Alec added as he checked his phone again, hearing a ding. Clary smiles at this. She can’t believe he would remember something like that, but she’s glad he did because she was starving.

“Thank you.” She beamed excitedly as she got up quickly and walked towards the kitchen to get them. They were still a little warm, so she decided to just eat them as they were. Just as she was rounding the corner, she saw the door open as a guy walked in, and she could recognize him. He's tall and Indonesian, and he has a streak of blue in his hair and neatly done eyeliner. He sees her and immediately smiles brightly at his eyes, looking at her fondly.

“Hey biscuit, you're up. How are you feeling?” He asked as he closed the door and set his jacket down along with a bag he had. Clary smiles as she turns her head at the nickname; it's cute, but she doesn’t quite remember it. Yet again, she doesn’t remember much or anything, so she dismisses it.

“I'm okay, feeling better with some rest." She trails off, trying to remember his name. It's right there, but she can’t place it. She doesn’t want to seem rude and just outright ask him, though. As if reading her mind, he chuckles.

“You don’t remember me yet, do you?” He observed that he didn’t look upset at all—if anything, quite understanding—but guilt still bubbled up in her as she bit her lip nervously.

“It's okay if you don't; we aren't expecting you to remember much of anything right now, biscuit.” He assured her with a smile, and she then noticed a small blue spark come out of his hand as he went to move his bag. It clicked. She had a dream a couple of weeks ago about when she was a kid, and she saw this guy who looked like him and had yellow cat-like eyes and blue sparks coming out of his hands. Her eyes widened as she snapped back up.

“Magnus.” She answered, looking at him. She could see him smile as his eyes softened and looked like they could tear up, but he looked away. Alec smiles at this and looks at her with an intrigued look.

“How did you remember?” Alec asks, his eyes widening some as he sits up. Magnus only takes his bag over and sits down on the couch, close to the chair Alec is sitting in. Clary walks towards the couch with her food, sets it down at the table, and sits down.

“I had a dream about you a few weeks ago; I was a kid, but I remembered your, uh, sparks. I don’t know quite what it is, but.” Before she can finish, he does it again, swirling a blue orb around his hands. Clary looks at it in awe, which makes both Magnus and Alec chuckle.

"Cool, right, and the word you're looking for is magic.” He starts as he beams brightly at her. She giggles. She had always read and watched things with magic, but she had never expected it to be real. She had almost convinced herself the monster thing wasn’t real last night, but now she was almost positive it was.

"That's so cool—is it weird if I ask how it feels? I've always found magic intriguing in the movies I watched.” Clary rambles off as Magnus just smiles at her.

"Here, come here.” He offers the seat next to him, and Clary quickly goes over and sits next to him without hesitation.

“Do you trust me? I know that sounds like I'm going to hurt you, but--”

“I trust you; I don’t know why I do, but I trust you.” Magnus seems so taken back by her immediate trust, but I mean, if she knew him as a kid, surely she could trust him.

“I'm a warlock; I can create portals, teleport things, heal wounds, basically anything you have probably seen I can do. Here, give me your hand.” She puts out his hand immediately, he takes it, and he turns over her hand to have her palm out, he snaps as the blue sparks come out and he swirls his hand over mine. He looks up at her just to check with her, Clary smiles at him in assurance and nods. He snaps again to have a pen-like object placed in her hand. She tilts her head in confusion furrowing my eyebrows as he moves back; she retracts her hand and examines the object closer.

“That was your mother's, and then it was yours, but you had lost it, so I’m giving it back to you now,” Magnus spoke slowly. She could feel some kind of energy coming off of it that she couldn’t place; it was nothing like holding one of her sketch pencils.

“What is it?” Clary asks as she runs her finger along the engravings on the side.

“It’s a stele; think of it like one of your sketch pencils; it's a tool that shadowhunters use; it's given to you normally when you're younger as a new shadowhunter, but not always like your case,” Alec explains

“A Shadowhunter?” Clary questioned, furrowing her eyebrows. Sure, she always felt not normal, but to be part of their world, is that really who she was? Clary always felt like something was missing when she woke up outside of an old church in that party dress. She felt odd; maybe that connects to all of this.

“A Shadowhunter, we are like the protectors of the shadow world; we protect humans from demons like the one that attacked you last night. Do you remember that at all?” Alec asked.

“A little, it's fuzzy, but I can remember it chasing me and Isabelle picking me up and carrying me while I think you had my bag.” Her face flushes at the memory and her nose scrunches up as she tries to remember the events.

“That wasn’t me; that was my brother Jace. I was a little further behind to talk to Magnus so he could come help you.” Alec explains. The name Jace pops out to her as that dream she had yesterday hits her all over again. Magnus’s eyebrows furrow at this as he looks at her.

“You okay?” He questioned her, as he looked like he was preparing for her to pass out.

"Yeah, no, I'm okay; it's just that I remembered the name Jace. I had a dream with him yesterday before I left my apartment." She trailed off as she remembered the events, making her nerves go into overtime again as she shuddered.

“Did something bad happen in this dream?” Alec observed, based on her reaction. She nods, swallowing thickly, to regain her composure. Magnus was about to intervene to probably stop her, but she needed to face whatever this was.

“It's okay. Um, we were at a lake, and it was dark. We were getting chased by this shadow guy or something. I couldn’t make out a face, but he was older, I could tell. We were after something, and so was he, but we got to it first. I don't know what it was, but it seemed important, but just as we were about to leave, the shadow guy snuck up on us and stabbed Jace.” She started gripping her sweatpants to ground her. This makes both of them tense up, but they don’t say anything.

“I had to watch him die in my arms and I--” She swallows again, trying not to cry; her eyes are probably turning red from it. She can feel Magnus putting his hand on my knee to reassure me.

“I couldn’t do anything. I felt him die in my arms, begging for him to stay. It all felt so-- real. Then I woke up crying and shaking.” She muttered softly. Alec frowns at this as Clary still tries not to cry or get pulled back into that state. Magnus squeezes her knee, which makes her look at him.

“It’s okay; we're both here for you. I can assure you, we won’t let anything happen to you or Jace.” Magnus reassures her with a small smile.

"Wait, so he's alive; he's not dead?” Clary asks, her eyes widening. She always assumes, since everything in her dreams is coming true or feels real, that one would too.

"Yeah, he's alive; remember, he was here last night,” Alec mentioned. Right, he was the one with her bag that she couldn’t see or remember that well. She wants to ask what her dreams mean and if they know anything because they seem like they do, but they seem hesitant about what they mention.

“So can I ask, um, all my dreams seem to come true; are they like my past life?” She asked hesitantly. She knew it was a sore subject, but she just wanted closure to know if they were real or not, and their reactions proved enough that they knew as they both looked at each other hesitantly.

“I just—these past months I've been getting small dreams, but the last two weeks have been dreams and nightmares all the time. I even get them during the day. I just—I've always wondered if they were real because they always felt so real.” She rambles on as both Magnus and Alec just listen.

“Ever since I woke up outside this abandoned church over a year ago, I felt like, well, I got abandoned. I felt all these emotions, and I didn’t know why. From then on, I felt so lost, like I had my whole life ripped away from me, and I didn’t know why.” She explained as her voice became more distant as she talked because she realized she never told anyone this, not even doctors.

“The doctors said I had PTSD and memory disorder, caused by a trauma that left me abandoned; they said it was some kind of accident. They found me passed out outside Central Park that night because I didn’t have anywhere to go.” Clary mumbled as she felt a tear fall that she wiped. This makes Alec’s eyebrows furrow and his jaw clench. Magnus tenses and frowns, trying to suppress his reaction.

“When I went to the hospital to get checked out, they found information on me that was old, but they could still use it. This one nurse took me in for a couple of months before she helped me find this place and get into Brooklyn Arts on a scholarship after seeing my art.” She explained. Alec and Magnus exchanged a look as Magnus mumbled something under his breath Alec hid a smile. Clary tilted her head, Magnus looked back at her with an apologetic smile and sighed crossing his hands.

"Well, I can tell you that yeah, your dreams are most likely real, at least the ones you told us and the ones that Alec and Isabelle told me you told them.” Magnus started slowly like he was walking on broken glass.

“I can’t explain or tell you why on anything right now, but I can tell you that those are memories, and you are one of us; you come from our world; you're a shadowhunter like Alec and Izzy.” He explains that scribbling something on a piece of paper, he pulled out of his bag and threw it, vanishing into fire. Clary’s eyes widened at this; this was all so much she didn’t know what to think, but she was also relieved and oddly happy she didn’t feel so alone anymore like she could have somewhere she could belong—have a purpose like she had been striving for.

“So if I'm one of you, shouldn’t I have the tattoo things like you and Izzy have?” Clary asks Alec, her eyebrows furrowing as her brain tries to wrap around everything with no use.

“You used to.” He says his voice is wavering; this just makes Clary even more confused.

“I'm going to be honest, something happened, and now we don’t know what we can say or what to do. We thought we would have more time to figure it out, but then last night happened, and I know for a fact that Isabelle is not going to leave you now.” Alec explains most calmly but also cautiously. Clary frowns and looks down, so it seems she’s not going to get answers anytime soon. She just wants answers and wants her life back, whatever life it was.

She could hear movement as the door opened from her bedroom Isabelle walked out hastily and then grumbled something, making Clary turn around immediately. She sees Isabelle with a sword that she can partially remember seeing last night, which makes her giggle.

“Did you run out thinking I was gone or got hurt?” She teases her with a small smirk, which makes Isabelle pout and set her blade down. She can hear Magnus chuckle as her smile gets bigger.

“You know next time I'll just leave you for dead.” She says it's supposed to be a threat, but they both know it's not based on her small smile forming.

"No, you wouldn’t.” Clary teases with a giggle; she can see Isabelle roll her eyes and look away as Clary can see her face flush.

She turns towards Alec and walks toward him, he has a small smile that gets wiped away as Isabelle smacks him lightly on the back of the head, making his eyes widen as he looks at her with the most offended expression I've seen out of him. Making Clary giggle as Magnus tries to stifle his laugh for Alec's benefit.

“You guys are traitors.” Alec pouts, looking at Magnus, which makes Clary laugh more as Magnus lets out a chuckle between them. Alec goes to pout, but after seeing Magnus and Clary laughing, he instead gets a small smile on his face. They both compose themselves as Clary goes to get her food and opens the takeout box.

“By the way, Pumpkin, there's some food in the kitchen for you.” Magnus offers. Isabelle replies with a hum as she goes in there.

Clary watches her walk into the kitchen as she pushes her hair out of the way watching it sway. What is it about this girl that has Clary acting like she is in middle school again with her first crush? She hears someone clear their throat making her turn. She sees Magnus with a smirk on his face, she rolls her eyes looking away as her face heats up.

“Not a morning person, I assume,” Clary spoke trying to avoid the fact she was blatantly staring at Isabelle as she took a bite of her pancake. She smiles as the warm buttery coconut taste enters her mouth.

“No, definitely not,” Alec responds, looking in the bag Magnus brought and rummaging through it.

“I can make you some coffee if you want, Iz,” Clary asks loudly, leaning over so Isabelle can hear it. Isabelle peaks her head around the corner, her eyes lighting up.

“Really? Yeah, that would be nice.” She answers in a soft voice towards the end. Clary chuckles, gets up and walks into the kitchen, putting her food and phone on the counter.
“Do you two want coffee?” Clary asks, hoping they can hear her.

“We're good; thank you, Biscuit,” Magnus replies. Clary hums as she rinses out the coffee pot pitcher from the coffee she made last night and empties the coffee filter.

“Hey, so how are you feeling?” Isabelle starts as she leans on the counter, looking at her.

“I'm feeling much better; Magnus’s magic must have helped a lot, so that's good,” Clary answers as she fills up the pitcher and dumps it into the pot.

“So I assume they’ve told you some things about your memories and us,” Isabelle replies warily as she fidgets with her ring. Clary notices she does it a lot when she's nervous. It's cute; Clary has thought about getting one for her anxiety.

"Yeah, just that my dreams are real, at least the ones I've said and drawn, and that you're a shadowhunter along with Alec and Magnus is a Warlock, and that's about it. Alec said they don’t know what they can say, so I have to wait, I guess.” Clary replies softly, turning to look at Isabelle, her voice trailing off at the end. Isabelle frowns at her as her eyes look at her, full of guilt. It must have been something that Isabelle felt bad keeping from her.

“I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you, and I wanted you to be able to get more information when you found out about us, but we ran out of time.” Isabelle apologizes. Clary shakes her head as she puts some coffee grounds in the filter, shuts the lid, and starts the coffee, then turns to Isabelle again.

“It's okay; you don’t have to apologize. I’m sure you have your reasoning, so don’t feel too bad.” Clary reassures Isabelle with a small smile, looking at her.

“At least I’m not alone, which is nice, so I’ll take what I can get,” Clary replies, trying to at least make it seem like she is remaining positive.

But on the inside, Clary feels even more confused than ever. I mean, if what Alec said is true—that they are like protectors and fighters—could she even do that, be part of a magical world, and hold up the expectations to protect humans from demons? She wasn’t even that strong, and it didn’t seem like she would be good at that kind of thing. What if she lets them all down by not being as good as they all are? Clary was so entranced by her thoughts that she didn’t notice Isabelle get close and stand beside her, putting her hand on top of hers. Clary looks down at it and smiles a little, looking up. Isabelle’s eyes are soft and gentle as they look at her. She’s never had someone understand her and look at her with such gentleness; it was nice and comforting.

“I can promise you I won’t leave you again unless you shove me out the door, and even then I will wait outside till you get sick of my company.” She jokes, making Clary chuckle softly as she chews her lip, feeling her face heat up.

“I could never get sick of your company,” Clary admits, making Isabelle's eyes widen in surprise. She wasn’t expecting her to seem so surprised, which makes Clary frown; she wonders who told Isabelle otherwise. Clary wonders why anyone would not want to be with Isabelle when all Clary wants to do is be with her forever.

Isabelle strokes her hand softly as Clary looks back down and back up. Clary has always found Isabelle pretty since she first bumped into her, but she’s just as pretty close up, if not more. Clary couldn’t help but take all of her in. She stared down at her long, shiny hair, which somehow looked perfect even after sleeping. Clary then looked up to Isabelle’s lips; her lipstick was smeared, as she must not have taken it off yesterday, but they looked soft. What was Clary doing? She was probably straight, but she can’t help it. She can feel Isabelle's breath hitch as Clary moves before the coffee pot goes off, making Clary jump.

They both separate quickly as Isabelle looks away with a blush. Clary hates how much she finds it cute. She shakes those thoughts away as she shuffles to get a mug for them both from the cabinet. It's a struggle because one got pushed to the back, but she did it with a huff, making Isabelle giggle. Clary pouts at her, putting her mug down.

“I swear to God if you make a short joke." Clary starts seeing Isabelle burst out into a fit of giggles, obviously not taking Clary seriously. Clary grumbles as she pours coffee into the cups.

“I'm just kidding; I would never do that—well, I wasn’t then,” Isabelle smirks, proud of herself, as she goes back over next to Clary. Clary wants to stay mad, but she can’t help the smile that comes out when Isabelle stands next to her again. She can feel her heart flutter almost beating out of her chest; she tries to ignore it and pulls the container of sugar towards the cups.

“How many?” Clary asks, putting a spoon of sugar in hers and stirring it.

"Two, please, and do you have cream?” Isabelle asks, and Clary hums and opens the fridge, revealing the cream in there.

It was all oddly domestic, but Clary also enjoyed the company and the peacefulness of it all. Clary puts the cream down and pushes Isabelle’s cup to her as she picks hers up and takes a sip, forgetting how hot it would be and burning her tongue slightly, making her grimace. Isabelle giggles at this when she pours her cream into her cup, puts the cream back, then comes back to leaning on the counter as she pushes her hair away from her face and she stirs her coffee.

Clary stands there and admires the girl stirring her coffee. The sunlight is lighting up half of her from the window making her glow like the sun, Clary wonders how she got so lucky to even be in her presence. She can feel herself smile like an idiot as she turns around. She then notices Isabelle still wearing the makeup from the night before.

“Um, I have some makeup wipes in my bathroom, if you want.” Clary offers, hoping it doesn’t come off rudely, but Isabelle's face flushes in embarrassment as if she forgot she still had makeup on.

"Yeah, uh, thank you. I must look horrible with half-smudged makeup.” She chuckles, tracing her finger along the rim of the mug.

“No, not even close; I don't think you could look bad in anything, though, to be fair,” Clary admits being a little too honest for her liking, making her eyes widen as she feels her face heat up. Isabelle's face is dusted with pink as she looks away. Clary hears her phone ding from the counter on the other side of the kitchen.

“I’ll get it; I’m closer.” Isabelle offers as she walks over and picks it up. She can see her freeze for a second as she stares at it.

“You okay?” Clary asks hesitantly. Isabelle looks up, then backs down as her jaw clenches, but she walks up to her and hands her the phone.

“I’m fine,” Isabelle says coldly as she takes her coffee and takes a sip of it. Clary frowns and goes to turn to her to push; she hears the door creak as Alec peaks in.

"Hey, I need to tell you guys some things I have updates on,” Alec spoke, looking between them. Clary was about to suggest giving them a minute, but Isabelle pushed through them both. Clary tries not to take it personally, but she frowns as Alec looks at her suspiciously. Clary shrugs and goes to run after her.

Chapter Text

Chapter Twelve
(Clary Pov)

Clary walks out quickly with Alec trailing after her; she freezes in place, seeing Magnus and Isabelle talking. Magnus looks up at Clary and Alec and smiles. Isabelle turns and looks at Clary briefly before looking away and crossing her arms. Clary could feel her heart break; she doesn’t get it. They were fine; they were talking, and she was happy; they both were. Clary tries to look at her again, but Isabelle doesn't even glance at Clary again. Clary swallows harshly as she manages to look away to see Alec glancing between the two before clearing his throat.

“So I’ve been talking to a friend of mine in the consul to get me and Clary into a meeting to start Clary back on training if that is what she chooses to do. They want to run a couple tests on your memory and make sure you are protected, but after you are cleared, you could start.” Alec announces. Clary can briefly see Isabelle glance up at Alec, saying she could stay, but that was all Clary could get out of her reaction; otherwise, her stance and demeanor are cold and distant.

“That’s great news, isn't it biscuit?” Magnus asked, snapping Clary out of her gaze.

“Oh yeah! No, that's great; I would, uh-” She makes a quick glance at Isabelle. She wants to stay, but what if Isabelle doesn’t want her anymore? She’s finally realized Clary is pathetic and broken—just a charity case for her to fix.

“You don’t have to answer right this second if you want; you can give me an answer by tonight if that helps. Whatever you decide, we will be here and support you always.” Alec offers with a soft smile.

"Thank you. I really appreciate everything." Clary said, and Magnus smiled at her. Isabelle’s phone dinged, and she checked it. She could see an unreadable reaction on her face; it was at least different than the cold one before.

"Oh, I also have another surprise, Jace, and someone is going to be coming by here in a bit. They wanted to see you now that you are feeling better.” Alec said Clary stiffened some; she really didn’t want to upset anyone if she saw them and didn’t remember them. She already felt bad enough with Magnus. Not to mention, Jace is a whole other bundle of nerves.

“Don’t worry, Biscuit, if it’s who I think it is, they will just be happy to see you; they won’t be upset at you at all for anything.” Magnus was reassured. Clary looked at him and gave a tight smile. She looked to Isabelle again, seeing her texting someone. She turned off her phone and went to the back of the couch that her jacket was on.
“I wish I could stay, but I have some paperwork to get back to at the institute.” Isabelle spoke slowly, not making eye contact. Alec raises his eyebrow and glances at Magnus as he looks at Isabelle.

"Guys, I’m fine I just need to get some stuff done, no biggie; I’ll see you later.” She replies before gazing at Clary. Clary freezes and stares; this is the most she has looked at me since she stormed out.

"I'll, uh, see you later.” She dismissed herself quickly, going to walk away, breaking eye contact. Clary was quick to go to her feet and grab her wrist. Isabelle freezes and stiffens under her touch.

“Can we talk?” Clary spoke softly between them, and Isabelle turned slowly, looking down at their hands. “Please.” Clary pleaded as she stroked her arm slowly. Isabelle slowly looks up at Clary; she can see her eyes are red and she has a tear stain on her cheek. It makes Clary feel overwhelmed with guilt; she doesn’t know what she did, but she would do anything to fix it.

"Please, I just want to talk about fixing whatever this is. Please let me fix it.” Clary doesn’t try to hide her desperation in her voice; she can see Isabelle’s eyes train on her before looking back down and pulling away from Clary slowly.

“I’m sorry, I can’t.” Isabelle starts as she puts on her jacket, shoving her hands in it. “I’m sure you have more important people you want to be around.” Isabelle grumbles out before she walks out. Clary lets her hand drop as she stares at the door. She can feel Alec come up beside her and go to touch her, but she runs and goes into her room, closes her door, not realizing it was cracked, and sits on her bed and curls up in a ball. She doesn’t care if she’s being dramatic or too emotional; she just wants to cry and sink into darkness. She can hear a soft knock on the door as she sniffles, looking up to see Alec leaning in the doorframe.

“Hey.” He spoke softly, looking at her with an apologetic smile. She wiped a tear that came down and sat up.

“Hey.” She managed to get out weakly, looking back down at her bed. She can hear Alec move and make his way to her bed, sitting at the edge of it.

“Do you want to talk about it, about whatever happened?” Alec offers, and Clary shrugs and fidgets with her hands.

“I don’t know what to say; I don’t know what I did.” Clary replied quietly, not making eye contact. She can hear Alec sigh a little before shifting on her bed.

“Izzy is pretty stressed right now; she has a lot on her mind. She probably isn’t upset at you.” Alec tries to explain, but she shakes her head.

“But she is; I know she is. She wouldn’t even look at me when you were talking about me starting training. She’s upset about something I did, or maybe she just got tired of putting up with me and my problems.” Clary trailed off.

"Okay, well, one thing I know is that Isabelle cares about you more than anyone in the world. She would never get tired of you.” Alec starts, and Clary just stares as she chews the inside of her cheek. She doesn’t see how she’s been so patient with her up to this point. Clary felt like she didn’t deserve Isabelle and how nice and welcoming she had been.

“I know you probably don’t believe me, but she cares. When you left, she was heartbroken for days or weeks. Even though she wouldn’t do anything, we had to force her to make sure she was taking care of herself, which isn’t like her at all, because one thing you haven’t noticed about Isabelle is that she hates being taken care of and being vulnerable, but when you first left, she wasn’t even fighting us with help.” Alec explained, and Clary looked up slowly. She didn’t know if that made her feel better or not. To be honest, she hates that she would be that upset about her leaving, but at least she does care.

“Then why is she acting like this? I just want to fix it. I care about her. I-” Clary stops herself; it’s too soon for her to say that she loves her, but she thinks she could love her. It would be so easy and feels right to love her.

“I need her.” Clary let out a weak cry. Alec frowns at her and puts his hand on her leg, patting it.

“I know she’ll come around. Maybe if you tell me what happened before she shut down, you can figure out what caused it.” Alec offered.

“I don’t know Alec. I mean, we were talking; I was making coffee for us, and we were happy.” Clary trailed off, slowly staring at the floor. “She told me she wouldn’t leave me.” Clary spoke so quietly that she wasn’t even sure he would hear her.

“Clary.” Alec spoke; his voice was thick with pity, and I'm sure he looked at her with the same look, but she didn’t want to see it. If she wasn’t so upset, she would hate it, but she couldn’t bring herself to focus on it. She just kept replying to the moments in her brain.

“We just don’t get it; it’s bad enough. I have not so straight feelings for a girl who is totally straight and completely out of my league.” Before she could even finish, she heard Alec snort at her. She looked up and could not help but laugh.

“What was that for? You know, I swore I would never fall into that event that all queer people do about being in love with a straight person, but here we are.” She groaned, burying her face in hers; she didn’t know whether to cry or laugh at her stupidity in the situation.

“I wasn’t laughing at that, although it is pretty funny and happens to a lot of people, even including myself. But I was talking more about the fact that you think Isabelle is completely straight.” Alec explained with a broken-off laugh at the end. Clary sat up, quickly wiping her face.

“What.” Clary managed to get out between her now-racing heartbeat, which was thumping so loudly that it vibrated in her ears.

"Well, she’s never fully told me, but I know my sister better than anyone, probably even more than herself sometimes. She was with Meliorn; he’s a Seelie, like a fairy, and they are more gender non-conforming, at least from what she has hinted at, and I've seen her flirt with girls under the excuse of it being for a mission.” Alec continued. Clary was trying to wrap her head around it; she had always assumed she was straight and was setting herself up for failure by developing feelings for her.

“Not to mention how I watched her with you; I meant it when I said she cares about you and that you’re probably the most important person in her life, and I'm her brother.” He let out the last part in a dramatic gesture, making Clary chuckle.

"Obviously, I can’t tell you what she feels; I'm not her, but I can tell you that if you care about her even half as much as she does, you should take that chance. You won’t know until you try.” Alec said with an almost fondness to his voice; she had a feeling that wasn’t at her, and more so his loving husband, whom he seems to adore with all of his heart.

“Thank you, but I can’t even get her to talk to me. Much less do anything in that direction.” Clary let out a huff. They were going in circles at this rate, and she was going to be here for hours racking her brain about it.

"Well, what was the last thing you guys did or talked about? It seemed like I walked in right after it happened.” Alec asked, setting his hands in his lap and looking at her patiently. She chews her lip, trying to recall the events. She remembers them talking—Clary talking about how pretty she was. Then the coffee pot went off and interpreted whatever moment was happening. She went and got their mugs, and they fixed their coffees. She remembers staring at Isabelle because of how beautiful she looked in the sunlight; she could even feel herself blush at the memory now. She shook her head and focused. Then she remembers her phone going off, scaring them again, and she says, Oh my god.

Clary quickly scrambled up and went out to the living room. She could briefly hear Alec get up off her bed and follow her, clearly confused by her sudden moment. She went and fumbled through the couch, and then around at the tables; her phone had to be here somewhere.

“Clary? You okay?” Alec asked, raising his eyebrow at her. She threw her hands up and let out a heavy sigh. “My phone; I need to find it.” Clary said, looking around frantically. Alec then began looking around for it. She remembers Isabelle giving it back to her, but she is certain she put it somewhere after that after coming out here.

“Found it.” Alec yelled from the other side as he held it up. She ran to him with a sigh of relief. Thank God, whatever set Isabelle off, it was when she looked at her phone. She doesn’t know what would be on her phone that would upset her. I mean, her lockscreen is literally a picture of a stray cat she found and thought was cute. She could feel Alec hovering over her as she looked at her phone, scrolling through things; she then remembered her messages. Of course, that’s probably what went off. How could she be this stupid? She quickly went to her messages; no one really messaged her much besides that nurse who helped her and a couple of classmates she worked on with random projects. She then saw it; she had a notification at the top, making her freeze in place.

“Who’s Sarah?” Alec asked, growing more confused. She rolled her eyes. Of course she would message at a time like this. “A girl that doesn’t know how to take a hint.” Clary groaned. Alec looked over and looked at the messages; she didn’t really care about him looking; she knew she could trust him weirdly enough to speak; they had only just met again.

Sarah: Hey Clary, You weren’t in class, so I thought I would check on you. I miss you :( 10:34 pm
Sarah: Come on, you can’t avoid me forever. It was a couple of mistakes, and I said I was sorry. 10:55 pm
Sarah: I miss seeing your cute face. We had fun together when we used to hang out. I want to do it again. Just give me one more chance. 11:27 pm
Sarah: Good morning Clary! I was wondering I know you said you didn’t want to talk, but I was wondering if you wanted to go for coffee. 7:17 am

"Wow, you weren’t kidding. Talk about coming on strong.” Alec said she could see his jaw clench at the messages. They only got worse if you looked up, so she took the phone again and turned it off. “Yeah, we used to be friends; we even went out a couple times.” Clary stated distantly, staring at her phone. “But then she got weird and possessive. Then I figured out it was her that started the rumors of my history.” Clary broke off as she fidgeted with her phone.

“She what?” Alec practically yelled. She shushed him immediately; it wasn’t even that she was most upset about; it was the way she was acting like her behavior was fine because she was pretty and popular and thought that everyone liked her. At first, Clary had been happy that she had even looked in her direction, much less found interest in her. Then, to find out she was just using her because Clary was good in classes and she wanted good grades, it all hurt and still stung.

“She’s done a lot of stuff—a lot of stuff I don’t even want to think about right now.” Clary began slowly, and Alec frowned at her. “She didn’t like- hurt you or anything, did she?” He said that, and she could practically feel his anger building. “No, not like that anyways; she never touched me; besides kissing me once, I pushed her off and ran away, but since then I’ve avoided contact with her and even tried to block her, but she conveniently got a new number.” She couldn’t help the anger that slowly began to build. Even when she thought this girl couldn’t mess up her life more, she upset the one person who began to like her for her.

“What do I do? I mean, Isabelle only saw the last message; she is going to think I want to hang out and be with her, which I certainly do not.” She huffed as she shoved her phone in her pocket. “Just talk to her; when she cools down, hopefully by tonight, talk to her and show her the messages; they themselves speak for themselves that you want nothing to do with her.” Alec explained that he was right; there were many messages from Clary telling her no and to leave her alone.

"Yeah, alright, do you think she’ll listen?” Clary asked weakly, and Alec gave a sad smile and put his hand on her shoulder. "Yeah, I do; I think she’s just stressed and taking on too much; you guys will be fine.” He assured her, and she gave a small smile as she heard a phone go off. She was tempted to throw hers in case it was Sarah again.
“Relax; it's just mine; no need to throw your phone.” He said it as if he could read her thoughts.

“If you want, we can get you a new one tomorrow.” Alec offered, but she wanted to refuse. She hated people buying her stuff, but it could be the only way to get her off her back. She just nodded, and he smiled at her and answered the phone before walking off. She sighed and flopped on the couch as she stared at her phone. She could block her again, but it would be no use; she would just get another number.

She could distantly hear Alec talking; she let herself zone out to it as she laid her head against the couch. She wanted nothing more than to fall asleep again, but she would be afraid of having another dream; they only seem to be getting worse. She doesn’t even know who that guy was in her dream last night, but something about the way he looked at her sent shivers down her spine and made her uneasy. She felt herself jump out of her daze as Alec walked towards her. She sat up and looked at him.

"Hey, that’s Jace; he’s on his way with the other person. If you want to get dressed and ready, we may take you over to the institute later.” Alec stated that Clary looked down and realized she was still wearing clothes from last night that had dried blood and other things on them; she did not want to know what they were. She quickly nodded, headed into her room, and closed her door.

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Clary hears a knock at the door shaking her out of her thoughts; she had already gotten changed, but she’s been pacing, not knowing what to think. Clary’s whole life is changing again; granted, it seems for the better, but it’s still all so overwhelming. Clary lets out a deep breath as she hears Alec up the front door. She can hear two guys' voices; she recognizes the one from last night as Jace. She shakes her hands to push all the bad energy out, opens the door, and peaks out. She could recognize him immediately. He may not have glasses, but she knows those bright eyes and narrow but soft facial features that she spent many nights studying and sketching for practice all too well.

“Simon?” Clary says softly, trying not to try feeling her eyes water. His eyes snap to her voice immediately as he looks at her. He seems to be in just as much disbelief as her.

“Hey Fray.” He says it softly with a smile as he holds back tears too, but she notices them. Clary says screw it; she couldn’t hold back. She runs up to Simon and hugs him; he seems taken back at first but melts, wraps around her protectively like she always remembered, and spins her, making her giggle while she sniffles.

She can feel tears fall down, trying not to sob into his arms as she pulls away. She can see he has some too, but he gives her a smile, wiping her tears softly. He was always so gentle with her that it made her feel like she was normal for a minute, like they were kids.

“I thought you were dead," she muttered softly, still not believing her best friend was standing right in front of her. Simon chuckles softly as he brushes her hair from her face. “They told you I’m dead.” He replied, his brows furrowing. She sniffles and wipes her face again, probably making it red.

“Yeah, they said you got into some kind of accident and you died, and then I had dreams of you being dead. I remember burying you.” She stammered as she’s still shaking. She was so happy to see him, but she mourned him for so long and thought he was dead that it's still hard to believe she's not dreaming.

“I'm here; I'm alive; it's okay.” He assures her, pulling her into another hug, stroking her hair, and putting a small kiss on her forehead. She giggles into his chest, pulling away and looking at Alec.

“Good surprise?” He asks with a small, proud smile, and she nods happily.

“Yeah. The best surprise, thank you.” She replies, making him smile more with a nod. She then looks behind him, seeing Jace hiding behind him, staring out the window. He seems to be avoiding her more than she’s avoiding him. Simon and Alec both exchange a look, and Jace eventually turns around to see Clary looking at him.

“Hi.” Clary starts staring at him. She didn’t know what to say to him, but she thought that was better than nothing. He stiffens, but Simon gives him a nod as he backs up from Clary.

“Hey.” Jace replies, not really making eye contact but looking at her at least; he doesn’t seem upset or angry, just distant. Alec shuffles in the background and gently pulls Simon aside.

“How about we give you guys some space? You guys should talk.” Alec Insisted directed his statement at Jace. Clary looks at Simon; she doesn’t want to mess anything up with Jace if he’s already having problems being in the same room; she hates making him uncomfortable. Simon frowns and stops for a second by her side to whisper just within Clary’s hearing but no one else's.

“It’ll be okay. It's just Jace; he'll understand. Just talk to him. He just wants to see you and wants you to be happy.” Simon explained and walked away again as he and Alec walked into the kitchen. Clary freezes and fidgets with her hands before huffing. She could do this; she needed to get over the awkward stage, and then maybe it would be better.

“Would you, uh, want to sit down so you don't have to stand?” Clary offers to go to the couch herself and sit. He looks around warily; he's fidgeting with a necklace that has what looks like a ring on it. He eventually walks over, sits on the chair, and puts his hands on his lap.

“That's a nice ring you have on your necklace.” Clary complimented me for trying to start a conversation; she wasn’t always the best at talking in these situations, especially when it seems like Jace would like to be anywhere but here, despite Simon saying he wanted to be here.

“Thanks, it was my grandmother’s.” He said, looking at the ring, then dropping it and rubbing the back of his neck.

“Look, I know that you were important to me because, well, I've seen it in my dreams, but I just don’t want to disappoint you if I'm not the same person as I was then.” Clary started; she probably shouldn’t be so blunt, but she hated this awkward tension between them and just wanted to rip the bandage off, hoping it would help. She stared at him to see how he would react. He turned and looked at her. He seemed scared but also somewhat relieved by what she said. He threw his hands down and huffed in frustration.

“Clary I’m not upset at you or expecting anything; it’s just hard, I guess, seeing you again. It was kind of made apparent that I probably wouldn’t ever get to see you again, and it hurt a lot.” He started as his voice trailed off at the end.

“But I’m getting through it. I was scared to talk to you because I didn’t want you to think I was going to want you to be that person you were when I knew you and to force you into a relationship or whatever.” His gaze softened as he looked at me, which made me give him a small smile. “I just want you to be happy, whoever and whatever makes you happy. I’m just glad you’re back.” Jace says honestly, making Clary’s worry melt away into nothing.

“Thank you; I really appreciate that, and I want that for you too.” Clary replies that she can see his shoulders ease up some. Jace looks off into the kitchen, and you can see through the small opening in the door that Alec and Simon are talking about something.

“You and Simon seem close.” Clary observes, and this makes Jace chuckle as he rolls his eyes dramatically.

“What is it with people pointing it out lately and acting like it's unbelievable?” He jokes, making her laugh.

“But yeah, you could say that when, well, you know, we were both heartbroken.” He started making Clary frown. “But it got easier; we talked a lot. About you and about other things, we have more in common than we would have thought.” Jace smiles sheepishly at the thought.

“First meeting Simon, and then now I would have never thought I would call him a close friend, but he really has been there for me as I have for him. I owe that to you in a sense, as I wouldn’t know him or be close to him if it wasn’t for you, so, uh, thank you.” Jace added.

“You know, when I was thinking of this conversation, I didn’t think it would have a part where you thanked me for leaving, but, uh, you're welcome.” She laughed, making Jace laugh too. It was nice and comforting compared to what she was expecting. There was still a lot to work on, but this was a good start, and she was okay with that.

Chapter Text

Chapter Thirteen
(Isabelle Pov)

The city was quiet—well, as quiet as you can get in New York City—as she and Magnus walked the streets of New York City to the institute. It was weird for it to be quiet between them as they talked and grew quite close since he’s been with her brother. It made her feel guilty for hiding stuff and not trying to talk. Although he doesn’t seem to be bothered just walking the streets, I'm sure it can be nice to be quiet with his busy job as a high warlock.

“Thank you for walking me to the institute, but you didn’t have to," Isabelle says this, breaking the silence. To this, he looks at her, tilts his head, and gives a soft smile.

“Nonsense I don’t mind; it's nice to just go for a walk every once in a while, especially with it less crowded like right now.” He starts reassuring her, but she is still unconvinced, frowning.

"Plus, your brother would kill me if something happened to you, especially since you forgot your blade.” Magnus points this out, making Isabelle look around and grumble. She was in such a hurry that she forgot her blade.

"Well, thanks; I appreciate it.” Isabelle thanks Magnus as he shakes his head in gratitude.

“Of course, Pumpkin,” Magnus replied.

They fall into a comfortable silence, but it still throws Isabelle off sometimes, no matter how affectionate Magnus is. I mean, when you grow up with parents who aren't exactly the most touchy-feely people, it's hard to get used to someone doing it to you without thinking it’s to get something out of you. Isabelle found it endearing, though. The nickname came up not long after Magnus and Alec got married. Magnus went out to a cafe in France that Magnus liked, and Isabelle didn’t know what to get, so he told her to get this pumpkin coffee since it was in season and that it seemed like something she would like. She trusted him, and she ended up loving it and therefore starting her addiction to coffee. At least it's not bad like Yin Fen, that's what Magnus also told her, which made her laugh. It has kept those cravings away for the most part. Alec disapproved of it at first, but seeing as it was something she bounded with Magnus about, I think he gave up.

"So, can I ask what happened between you and Clary?” Magnus started slowly, and Isabelle tried not to stiffen at the question. I mean, it’s a pretty good question with the whole mood shift she had with Clary, but she also didn’t want to get into the fact that she's jealous of a girl she doesn’t even know.

“Just stuff, nothing to worry about,” Isabelle explained, realizing how unconvincing that sounded. She could feel his gaze on her as she tried to keep looking forward. “I get it. I mean, I can’t speak for you, but I know what it’s like to have feelings you don’t know what to do with. To have all these sudden feelings you didn’t think you could feel anymore.” Magnus spoke softly between them; she knew a little bit about how Alec was the first person he had let in after years of closing himself off to relationships. She fidgeted with her ring, trying to come up with an explanation for everything.

“I saw a message on Clary’s phone—I went to get it for her in the kitchen and saw the notification.” Isabelle blurts out, and Magnus seems a bit taken aback by her sudden burst but slowly nods. “It was a girl,” Isabelle confessed, looking at the ground. “She asked Clary to get coffee with her.” She managed to explain in an even tone.

“Izzy--” Magnus tried to explain, but Isabelle shook her head. “Don't—I know it's stupid that I'm jealous; I don’t even know why I am.” That was a lie; she knew why she just hated to admit she had feelings for a girl she tried so hard not to have feelings for.

“I don’t think it's stupid; being jealous is a normal thing in moderation. Everyone gets jealous at some point.” Magnus said, and Isabelle raised an eyebrow at him.

“Even you?” Isabelle asked, and he chuckled a little. "Yes, even me, although don’t mention it to Alexander because I swore to him I wasn’t.” Magnus joked with a soft smile, and Isabelle laughed.

“Magnus,” Isabelle said quietly. Magnus lifted his head, turning to her. "Yes, pumpkin,” Magnus replied. She quickly scanned his face; she knew he wouldn’t judge her logically. I mean, it’s Magnus, but after years of seeing her parents disprove her already and then they disapproved of Alec’s sexuality, she had learned to hate that part of herself and close herself off to the idea until the stupidly cute, feisty redhead girl came and screwed everything up.

“I think I like Clary.” She muttered quietly. Magnus didn’t seem to react at first before she could see a fond smile on his face. “You think?” Magnus asked genuinely, and she let out a harsh breath. “I know. I’ve always known.” She admitted.

"Well, Biscuit is an amazing girl; I can see why you would,” Magnus said she could feel butterflies swarming in her stomach while thinking about Clary again. She wanted to stay mad at her, but she knows she can’t if she sucked it up enough seeing Jace, then Simon, and then Jace again. She could do it now too.

“I know she’ll never share those feelings, though; she's straight, and even if she wasn't, why would she want me?” Isabelle said, much to a lot of people's dismay, Isabelle was not as confident as she sometimes made it seem. Especially when it comes to love, random hookups, and fun flirting, she always seemed to ruin relationships when they got serious.

“You know, when I met Alec and my flirting seemed to not be doing much, I questioned the same things,” Magnus said Isabelle couldn't contain the little snort that came out that made Magnus chuckle. “I’m serious; obviously, it wasn’t for long because, in no way, your brother is anything but gay, but I had this voice in the back of my mind saying he was too good for me and that it would never work.” Isabelle slowly looked at him; he looked genuine, which was weird because Magnus always seemed so confident when it came to flirting and trying to date Alec in the beginning. Yet again, she puts on a confident facade as well to find the fact she's scared of commitment and opening up.

“Did it ever go away?” She asked, and Magnus nodded with a small smile. “Yeah, it went away as soon as he kissed me at the wedding, the first one. Before I stepped in the room, I had to convince myself many times to even step in the room, but it was all worth it when we finally kissed; all of those doubts and worries were washed away.” Isabelle smiled a little at the memory; she remembered being so proud of Alec and Magnus.

“I can’t promise it’ll stay away; me and Alec always had our problems, as with every relationship, but I know you and I know Clary. I wouldn’t be too sure about shutting down the idea of her not having feelings for you.” Isabelle couldn’t help the small smile she tried to push away from spreading on her face. It then hit her: she wasn't going to the institute to just check on things she had a plan; she was going to do something today, she had gotten so distracted she had almost forgotten.

Maybe Magnus was right; maybe he wasn't, but she was tired of running away from love and her feelings. She looked up to see the institute come into view Isabelle blew out a deep breath as Magnus patted her on the shoulder.

“Thank you for talking to me and trusting me. I’m always going to be here for you if you need me." Magnus reassured her, and Isabelle smiled. “Thank you; I appreciate it,” Isabelle said as she went to walk to the institute door.

“I’ll see you later at Clary's, alright?” Magnus asked, she turned back to look at him with a nod. "Yep, I’ll see you later," Isabelle answered as she fidgeted with her ring, turning back and walking forward.

She can hear a portal open up as Magnus gets inside and goes off to run whatever errands he has to do. She walks in and immediately goes towards the weapons room before seeing Andrew come in her direction. She lets out a sigh. She knew it was her job, but she didn't want to have to deal with it right now.

"Hey, I was just coming to let you know that the mission went well last night and we got rid of all the shax demons. Also, I got the paper reports sent in that Jace did.” Andrew stated that she was glad that he was just coming over to check on things she untenses.

“Are you okay, by the way? You’ve seemed stressed the past few days, and I just wanted to check.” He asked; it was sweet, but she already had so many people asking the same question that she almost wanted to slam her head into a wall. She composes herself as she gives her best reassuring smile.

"Yeah, I’m good; just a lot on my plate, nothing I can’t handle.” She said she was trying to sound like her normal, confident self. He seems to buy it pretty easily, or he just doesn’t want to push her.

"Alright, well, if you ever need something or a break, let me know how I can help.” He offers.

“Thank you; I appreciate that. Oh, by the way, have you seen Luke anywhere? I wanted to talk to him about something.” Isabelle almost forgot to mention the second half, despite that being the reason she’s here.

“Oh yeah, I just saw him; he just got back from patrol; actually, he’s probably in the weapon’s room.” Thank the angels; he's exactly where she was going anyway.

“Thank you, Andrew; I'll see you later,” Isabelle replies with a smile before walking away and towards the weapons room.

She can hear a conversation from the other side; it seems like Luke is talking to one of the newer shadowhunter recruits about weapons. She walks in, standing in the doorway, to get Luke’s attention. It takes a minute, but he notices and finishes up his conversation.

“So I think that would be a good fit for you, and I can talk more about it later, but I just remembered I have something to do,” Luke explains as the shadowhunter nods excitedly.

“Thank you so much, Lucian; I appreciate it.” The young girl smiles as she holds what I assume is a new dagger.

“Of course, and I've told you, you can call me Luke.” He assures.

“Right, thank you.” The girl thanks him again as she turns and smiles politely at Isabelle as she walks out.

"Hey, sorry to bother you, but Andrew said you were here.” Isabelle apologizes as she walks in and closes the door behind her.

“It’s no problem; you probably saved me from the girl rambling my ear off; she's sweet, but you know how younger shadowhunters are when they are excited,” Luke remarked, making Isabelle chuckle.

"Yeah, I was like that when I was younger.” She reminisces before shaking her head and getting back on track with why she’s here.

“I need a favor, but you can’t tell anyone, not my mom, Alec, Jace, Magnus, or anybody else." Isabelle insisted on making sure it was clear how much she didn’t need the others to find out because they would stop her.

“Alright, is everything okay?" Luke replies slowly as he frowns.

"Yeah, it’s just—I can’t tell you everything here; could we go outside or something?” Isabelle requested, realizing that although it was unlikely anyone would hear, she wasn’t going to take a chance.
"Okay, now you're worrying me; you're not in trouble, are you?” Luke spoke, lowering his voice, which Isabelle was thankful for.

“I'm not in trouble; I'm fine; I just need your help with something, and I don’t exactly want to do it here.” Isabelle’s voice trailed off to a softer voice at the end. Luke’s eyes narrow as he raises an eyebrow, looking around before looking back at her.

"Sure, yeah, let me just finish this real quick, and I'll meet you outside,” Luke responded, making Isabelle let out a sigh of relief. She’s sure she’s going to get loads of questions outside, but at least he agreed to hear her out.

“Thank you; I'll wait outside,” Isabelle said as she turned to leave, before picking up a blade from the storage and walking out.

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Isabelle stood outside the institute for what felt like a lifetime but was probably only ten minutes. It was still sunny out, but the wind didn’t make it feel very warm. She grabbed her stele in her boot and ran across her heat rune to warm up from the cold air without having to go get a jacket.

She stared off into the streets, watching as mundanes talked and lived their lives. Isabelle used to feel pity for them and think they were missing out, but sometimes, like today, she longs to have the domesticity and predictability that she would have with a mundane life. She honestly wouldn’t blame Clary if she didn’t want to become a shadowhunter again, especially since she didn’t have a choice the first time, which is why now she wants Clary to have a choice. Isabelle wants to make sure she can feel safe and comfortable if she becomes a shadowhunter again.

Isabelle noticed two girls walking by, holding hands and giggling at something. They looked happy and like they were in their world as if the rest of the world didn’t matter. She noticed how the blonde looked at the brunette like she had created the world itself, admiring her like a ruby. While the brunette would only look at her when she wasn’t looking, she stared at her with stars in her eyes. Isabelle always longed to have something like this; time and time again, she thought she had found the "one,” but they were never really the one.

She wanted to blame herself for that; maybe she was just that high-maintenance or unlovable, as one of her exes put it. She knows that she's not, and well, she wants to believe she’s not because Alec and Mom told her so, but family is supposed to say stuff like that, so she always chooses not to believe it. Then Clary came, and just like the first time, it changed her life. She can’t remember the last time she felt so happy and yet nervous; it made her head spin. She didn’t get nervous; she was normally the confident one, but sometimes when Clary looked at her, she felt like she was just a mundane girl with feelings she couldn’t control. The girls are long gone based on how long Isabelle was thinking so much that she didn’t hear Luke come up behind her.

“Hey sorry It took me a minute, and Andrew wanted to talk about something,” Luke spoke, making Isabelle jump.

"Hey, woah, someone is jumpy. Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” Luke apologizes as he looks at her, his brows furrowing. She was sick of people looking at her like that, she knew they only worried about her but it's something she's always hated since she was young.

“It's alright; I was just deep in thought, I guess.” Isabelle trailed off as she looked back out at the streets, fidgeting with her ring.

“It seemed like it; do you want to talk about it?” Luke is speaking slowly and calmly. Isabelle realizes after being around Luke some why Clary loved him so much and always thought of him as her dad; he’s always so calm, gentle, and understanding, unlike her dad most days.

“Maybe later, but right now, there's a bigger problem than me right now.” She started seeing him tense at this, as if ready to fight anything that may appear.

“It's not like that; you’re going to have to trust me with this because I know you won’t believe it, and it’s going to be hard.” Isabelle rambles.

“Whatever it is, I'm sure we can handle it; what’s wrong?” He reassures untensing to give her all of his attention. Isabelle takes a deep breath in and out, as Magnus told her when she felt anxiety coming.

“It’s Clary. She’s getting some of her memories and her sight back. I was out the other day going to talk to Maia about something with the werewolves, and she bumped into me—fully glamoured.” Isabelle spoke, trying not to speak as fast as her thoughts were right now.

“But I thought—why would she get those back now?” Luke pondered, not really to her but just aloud. Then his eyes snapped as if reality had set in.

“Is she okay? She’s not hurt, is she?” He stammered as his protective instincts took hold.

"No, no, she's fine. I mean, she got attacked last night, but she’s at her place right now with Alec, Jace, and, I think, Simon. But that’s not important; okay, I’m here because I want answers and I know how to get them, but you aren’t going to like it.” Isabelle replied, and Luke’s eyebrow raised at the last statement.

“And I know you’re going to try to stop me, but I’ve already made up my mind that I need to do this and that Clary is worth any sacrifice as long as she’s safe. I thought if anyone would understand that, it would be you.” Isabelle spoke softly.

“Isabelle—of course, Clary is worth it, but I also need to make sure you aren’t going to kill yourself in the process.” Luke’s voice was hesitant, but it wasn’t a no, so she would take it.

“I need you to talk to your sister to meet with us; I need her for a favor.” Isabelle finally spit it out.

“What do you need Cleophas for?” Luke replied, definitely gaining more suspicion of her.

“Please just trust me; I need to do this. I’ll be okay.” Isabelle pleaded as she tried to reassure him. Luke’s gaze only became narrower.

“If I bring her in, you have to promise me you’ll let me help, and you won’t get yourself hurt.” Luke offered; she knew she couldn’t completely promise what she was doing was safe, but she wouldn’t know until she did it.

“Okay.” Isabelle agrees to this, and Luke sighs and hesitantly sends out a message.

They waited a few minutes, Isabelle not wanting to speak in case he changed his mind. Within a few minutes, she heard a ding, and she snapped her head toward Luke. He must have gotten a message back.

"Well, today’s your lucky day; it looks like she’s free today,” Luke announced, making Isabelle sigh in relief.

“She’s going to meet us here in a few minutes; do you need to get anything?” Luke asked. She looked at her sides; she had her stele, phone, and a seraph blade.

“Nope, I think I’m good. Did you need to get anything?” She asked in return, only noticing he had his phone and stele.

“I’ll be okay. I told her to bring me a blade so I didn’t have to go inside and raise suspicion and why I needed a blade after already coming back from patrol.” Luke reassured me.

“Smart, thank you for doing this. I appreciate it, and I am doing this for Clary’s benefit. I just needed you to trust me.” Isabelle tried to explain without making him concerned.

“I trust you, Isabelle. I know you wouldn’t do anything to hurt her or anyone; it's you hurting yourself that I’m worried about.” Luke lectured her; she knew she would never live this down, but it would be worth it.

“I’ll be okay,” Isabelle spoke softly as she sat on the bench and waited.

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After about 30 minutes of waiting Luke spoke about the latest with him and Mom and about the werewolves since he saw Maia last night, Isabelle just sat, listened, and smiled. She then noticed Cleophas in the distance. She then sat up as Luke turned and waved to his sister.

“Hello Lucian and Isabelle, nice seeing you.” Cleophas greeted them calmly as she looked back at Luke.

“What was the emergency that you needed me for? I hadn’t seen any major alerts or attacks.” She spoke again, looking confused.

“Isabelle told me to bring you in; she didn’t tell me exactly what she needed, just that she needed you,” Luke replied, turning his attention to me as Cleophas also turned back to me.

"Ah, I see. What can I do to help you with Isabelle?” Cleophas questioned her as she set down the blade she brought for Luke.

“You helped Clary before when summoning Ithuriel, right?” Isabelle was already getting a look from Luke. "Yes, I did, but it didn’t exactly end the best last time. If you recall, he recovered, but it was dangerous. Why do you ask?” She questioned.

“I need you to do it again, but with me. I need to speak to him about Clary.” Isabelle said it firmly.

Luke immediately stepped in, as he was in no doubt about to warn her and lecture her. “I know the risks, but Clary was attacked last night and is having nightmares. With her sight coming back, she could be in danger. I need to talk to him because the angels deserve to give not only me but her answers so she can come back if she wants,” Isabelle explained as her eyes burned bright and fierce. I think Luke got the point that he wasn’t going to be able to stop her.

“Isabelle, I can do it, or I can at least try to, but I must warn you that he may not talk to you or be happy to see you, especially because of what happened last time.” Cleophas reminded.

“I’m aware, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take,” Isabelle replied, looking at Luke, pleading with him to do this for her.

“Okay, I'm not saying I like this, but I can tell I’m not going to be able to stop you. We can do it at my farm like we did last time; it's away from everything.” Luke offered reluctantly. Isabelle nodded her head firmly.

Chapter Text

Chapter Fourteen
(Isabelle's Pov)

They finally make it to the farm about an hour later, after we dropped by Luke's place to get some things. Isabelle could tell he was being cautious, and she couldn’t blame him after what had happened to Clary, but dragging this on is making her nerves worse. She knew this was what she wanted to do; it’s what she had to do, but there are very few Nephilims who talk to angels and don’t get hurt. They often lash out if they are summoned; it’s something you learn fairly young in the academy. This goes against everything she’s been taught and trained to do, but Clary makes every sacrifice to protect others around her, including herself, in the end. It was time for Isabelle to repay that for her sacrifice. If she ensured Clary’s safety, then everything else didn’t matter; she would be willing to die if it meant what happened to Clary never happened again.

Isabelle looked around, and Luke said he owned this whole place; honestly, if Isabelle owned a place like this, she would never leave. She loves the city; she grew up in New York, unlike a lot of Nephlims who grew up in Idris. She grew to like the chaos of the city, but there's something so domestic and nice about a place like this, a cute little farmhouse on acres of land. She wonders if she could come back here with Clary after everything; it would be nice to have a break from everything. Isabelle shook her head to keep her focus; she couldn’t daydream about whatever domestic daydreams she wanted to live with Clary; she had to think straight to plan for the summoning.

They make their way into the house and set their stuff down. It's a nice little house, which is what you would expect from a farmhouse. “So you used to live here?” Isabelle questioned herself as she looked around. “Yeah, when I got turned, I wasn’t exactly the most stable, so I stayed here to think and learned to accept that being a werewolf wasn't going anywhere and that I’d just have to learn to manage it,” Luke spoke wearily of the memories; Isabelle can imagine it was probably a horrible time for him. Isabelle nodded slowly and looked around, trying to seek out a good spot.

“Not to rush this at all, but it's almost three, and you know it gets dark earlier this time of year, and I wouldn’t want to do this in the dark for Isabelle's safety,” Cleophas mentioned.

“It’s good; I would rather not drag this out anyway," Isabelle replied as she made sure her stele was in her pocket.

"Isabelle, you don't." Luke started, and Isabelle knew he was going to tell her she didn’t have to do this and he would be wrong if she needed to.

“Luke, I appreciate your concern, but I'll be fine. I’m not expecting this to go easy, and I know the risks, but I have to do this for Clary.” Isabelle spoke with all the confidence she could muster to appear more confident than she feels right now.

“Isabelle is right though; it’s strange what's happening to Clary. If she can make sure Clary is going to be protected, I think it’s worth it. Plus, it's not foolproof, but I can try to protect to circle a little; it may be enough to maybe lessen some of the damage if he attacks.” Cleophas explained that Luke seemed skeptical, looking between the two.

“How about this? Give me 30 minutes. If I don’t come back, you can come look for me. You're a shadowhunter this time, so he wouldn’t immediately hurt you like he probably would have last time when you were a werewolf.” Isabelle reasoned; she seemed like it was a good compromise. It would give her plenty of time to do what she needed but still give Luke the peace of mind that he could come after her if, for whatever reason, this went wrong.

"Alright, fine, just do whatever Cleophas tells you to do, get your information, and get out, okay? You have 30 minutes, or I’m coming, and you stop then.” Luke agreed. Isabelle nodded and looked at Cleophas.

"Alright, let’s go do this.” She offered now that Luke agreed.

Cleophas and Isabelle walk out of the house and off into the land to create enough space for the summoning circle. After walking a decent distance from the house to ensure no damage will come to it, they come across an opening in the trees with a very flat patch of land. Isabelle sets her swords down and turns to Cleophas, standing straight, trying to settle her nerves.

“So I can create the circle and put a protection rune on it, but it will only protect you so much if it's a large attack. I have managed to gain my connections a little bit more with the angels within these last months, so I couldn’t really give him a message more of a feeler that you are coming, so hopefully that’s enough that he won’t attack also.” Cleophas explained.

“Reassuring,” Isabelle said as she trailed, looking at Cleopha's work.

When Isabelle was younger, she always wanted to be an Iron Sister; they were always so badass and strong; it’s what inspired her to always train to become the best fighter and her interest in weaponry. So if anything, Isabelle can try to focus on the strength and confidence that she has to get through this. Ithuriel never hurt Clary and Jace; of course, they share his blood, so maybe that’s why, but if she can show she's important to them, maybe he wouldn’t hurt her. That was her hope and first thought to do anyway.

"Alright, the circle is ready; are you ready, Isabelle?” Cleophas asked. Isabelle took a deep breath and nodded.

“Ready as I'll ever be.” Isabelle managed to get out.

“I can help you summon him, but then after I’ll leave you and come back only with Lucian later if we need to. Just make sure you're direct, but show how much you care about Clary; he shares a connection with her and seems to show some form of care, as much as angels can towards her, so if you're here because of her, he will most likely be willing to listen.” Cleophas instructed.

“Okay, so what do I do?” Isabelle replied.

“Go ahead and pull out your stele and activate your angelic rune,” Cleophas explained, and Isabelle followed immediately.

“And repeat after me,” Cleophas instructed.

“Ignis aurum probat.”

“Ignis aurum probat.”

“Ita probat me.”

“Ita probat me.”

As Isabelle spoke her last words, the circle lit up with angelic fire. Isabelle stared in awe and looked up.

“He has heard you; here's the part where I have to leave,” Cleophas spoke wearily.

“What do I do? Just wait here or-” Isabelle rambled out nervously as she held onto her stele tighter.

“You have to hear him now. Trust me, once I leave, he’ll come.” Cleophas spoke calmly to reassure Isabelle, but it did nothing as she looked at the ground and back at her and shook her head.

“May the angel be with you.” She prayed to Isabelle as she left, leaving Isabelle alone. She didn’t know if to prepare for an attack or what the attack would even look like. She looked around; what was she even looking for? Maybe she should have researched some, but she didn’t have time to. Plus, people would have gotten suspicious, and it would have been too much of a risk. Isabelle took a deep breath and tried to focus on the leaves crunching under her feet or the gentle wind wishing the branches of the trees were anything other than what she was doing.

Isabelle closed her eyes and focused her energy on it. She began to feel a light vibration and a bright light through her slightly closed eyelids. She opened them slowly to see a light coming down slowly. Isabelle sucked in a breath as she felt a huge wave of energy that almost knocked her off her feet, making her shut her eyes and tighten her hold on her stele, preparing for the worst, but nothing else. Yet she turned around slowly and opened her eyes, blinking slowly. She saw Ithuriel hunched over; she couldn't help but gasp softly a little. She was standing in front of an actual angel. He stood up slowly and looked around then meeting her eyes. He was narrow as he stepped forward, she swallowed thickly and glanced around, he was upset, so if he was going to attack she had to think fast.

“You shouldn’t be here; it's not safe for us.” He spoke firmly, frowning at her foolishness.

“I'm sorry, Ithuriel. I know I shouldn’t have summoned you, especially given the circumstances. I'm sorry if I have angered you.” Isabelle managed to get out evenly, staring at the ground, but she could feel her hand shaking as she swallowed harshly. He lets out a sigh and shakes his head. Isabelle thinks that's a warning and stiffens.

“I'm not going to hurt you, Isabelle,” Ithuriel spoke more gently this time. She managed to glance up at him. His gaze had softened some, but he was still guarded.

“You know my name?” Isabelle muttered, her eyes widening as she moved her hand slightly more to her sides. Most angels don’t care about nephlims enough to remember things like their names.

“I do; you’re Isabelle Lightwood. You were a big help in the war with Valentine and Jonathan. Your assistance was very much appreciated.” Ithuriel replied to her with his gratitude and a smile. She let out a polite smile.

“Of course, Valentine and Jonathan got what they deserved in the end.” Isabelle acknowledged that she thought they deserved worse, but she wasn’t about to ruin the good start she had with Ithuriel.

“I assume you’re on behalf of Clary Fairchild,” Ithuriel asked, and Isabelle nodded immediately.

"Yes, I have; I assume you know what is happening to her.” Isabelle began cautiously; she felt like she was walking on invisible glass, not knowing where to step to not get stabbed in the foot.

“I do; I was the one that suggested giving her memories and sight back.” Ithuriel started stepping closer to her, which made her stiffen, but she didn’t move since she couldn't move anywhere with how small the circle was.

“It’s okay, child; I’m not going to hurt you,” Ithuriel spoke calmly, his eyes gentle and reassuring. Isabelle gets why Clary described him so much now, looking at him.

“Why only now did you suggest it, or why is it happening now?” Isabelle questioned him, her eyes always examining his every move in defense.

“Isabelle I didn’t even intend on them doing it in the first place, but I had no choice; it took me months for them to even consider the idea of giving the memories and sight back to her,” Ithuriel explained Isabelle frowned after everything it took them months to consider. Ungrateful bastards, she saved the world from her psychotic brother, and she got punished for it.

“I just saved the world. I know she disobeyed the orders of the angels to not create another rune, and I truly get that, but Clary did it to protect and save people. She had to kill her brother, no matter how evil he was. He was her brother, and it hurt her.” Isabelle tried to sound polite, but she could hear the bite she had towards the end. She knew she shouldn’t snap like this with the progress she had been making, but it was unfair.

“When Clary used her runes, she was never selfish with her use of the power she had; she could have done so many things, but she always did things for everyone else to protect and do what she thought was right. If it weren’t for the circumstances, she would not have done that, but she knew it would save people, and that’s why she did it. Isn’t that what we were created for? To protect and save people.” Isabelle ranted; the angel didn’t look upset at her, which she was expecting; he looked impressed.

“I know, which is why I spent every day fighting for her like I see you have. You never gave up on her, did you?” Ithuriel observed.

"No, and I never will; she was a hero and saved mine and many lives. She deserves the world and all the good things she had before it was taken away from her.” She tried not to sound bitter, but she was.

“So I called upon you to promise me that you’ll protect her and that you won’t let this happen again. She doesn’t deserve it after everything. She should be able to have her life back if that’s what she wants.” Isabelle spoke firmly.

“I admire your loyalty and strength, Isabelle; you knew I could have killed you or worse, and you sacrificed everything to protect Clary.” Ithuriel praised Isabelle and couldn’t help but feel herself smile.

“Yes, I know it was foolish, but I had to try for her.” Isabelle rambled, fidgeting with her stele in her hands.

“You care about Clary, don’t you?” Ithuriel observed, seeming almost shocked at this. I guess from what she read, angels aren't as in touch with human emotions; they don’t feel as strongly when it comes to things like sadness, fear, and love.

“Of course, I do, she's-” Isabelle trailed off. There are many things she could say about Clary, all things she doesn’t want to admit to anyone, but she can’t break in front of him; she got this far. She needs to push through her own emotions; this wasn’t about her; it was about Clary.

“She’s my best friend. I would do anything for her—we were going to be parabatais, but we can’t exactly anymore, but I still feel connected to her in that way.” Isabelle explained that by letting go some to show how much she cared, she needed to prove to him that she was worth it, that she cared about Clary, and that Clary was worth his protection.

“I see, so you believe you share a connection with her like your brothers Alexander and Jace do,” Ithuriel questioned, to which Isabelle furrowed her eyebrows, tilting her head.

“I guess so yeah—I mean, Jace and Alec, although different in so many ways, are perfect for each other when it comes to combat. They get along with each other and are one of the most powerful duos in battle.” Isabelle replied. To this, he shook his head, stepped close, and walked around her as if observing her in a glass jar. She realized how much of a prey she felt trapped in a circle like this.

“But you and Clary share a more personal connection; you guys were close and worked well out and in combat,” Ithuriel remarked, Yeah, he has a point. Clary and her got close before Clary started training much. What was he trying to get out of her? He was searching for something out of her; she didn’t know what, though.

“Don’t most parabatais have that kind of connection?” She questioned him; he simply raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t know, do they?” He threw the question back at her like they were throwing a ball. Isabelle was beyond confused.

“I mean, I haven't seen many parabatais other than my brothers, but I mean, most share emotional connections too,” Isabelle spoke, her eyes trained on where he was moving. Ithuriel lets out a sigh, getting tired of going around in circles.

“Most only share that after because they are connected, not before, at least not as strong as what you appeared to have with her.” He explained, and I guess that makes sense. Jace and Alec were close before, but they were even closer after the rune.

"Isabelle, let me get to the point some since I don’t have much time on earth anymore since they limited me because of the last time I was summoned,” Ithuriel explained.

“Clary is important to you; I want you to understand how important she is to you. If you can explain how important she is to you, your wish will be granted, and she can be a shadowhunter again.” Ithuriel offered, going back to standing in front of her. Isabelle raised an eyebrow; she didn’t know why this mattered all that much.

“I don’t understand,” Isabelle muttered, examining the angel's features. “I need to make sure that Clary has someone looking out for her to ensure that she is following the rules and that she is safe. Although it may seem strange to you, she does share my blood, and I protect my blood. I need to know that someone is looking out for her when I can’t.” Ithuriel explained, and Isabelle slowly nodded.

“Of course, I would do anything for her, and I will make sure she follows the rules.” Isabelle started, but Ithuriel didn’t seem entirely pleased with that answer; he wanted her to explain how much Clary meant to her; she couldn’t even begin to understand that herself, much less tell that to anyone.

“Why don’t I show you? We can figure it out together.” Ithuriel said as if he were reading her thoughts: could angels do that? Isabelle stiffened when she saw him offer his hand. She looked down on it in suspicion, chewing on the inside of her cheek.

“It’s not going to hurt, is it?” Isabelle felt stupid for asking, but she hadn’t exactly heard much of this happening. She doesn’t know what exactly he is going to do; she remembers Clary and Jace saying he showed them visions and memories before, but she thought that could only happen with a blood connection.

"No, I promise. You can trust me; if I wanted to hurt you, I would have by now, but I trust you, and I just need you to trust me.” Ithuriel reassured. She glanced back up at his face after looking at his hand. He seemed genuine, but she also knew that even angels can be deceiving. Wait, she doesn’t have much time until Luke gets here; she has to do this now or never. Isabelle sighed, gave in, and shook her head, holding her hand out.

She only had to prove she cared about Clary; this would be easy. He would surely be able to tell how much he cared if he looked at her memories. She touched his hand and immediately felt a spark come through her as she jolted. He held on tighter, and she could help but wince as she screwed her eyes shut at the feeling. Her whole body was tingling as she felt herself be raised off the ground. She then felt her body drop, and she saw a white light before everything went black.

Chapter Text

Chapter Fifteen
(Clary Pov)

The group sat in the living room around the coffee table with a bunch of sketchbooks scattered as the sun cast through the windows. They had been there not long since Magnus and Isabelle left after Simon got curious about how she was remembering things. Jace and Alec went along with it, bored at first, but seemed to find it interesting after a while. Clary was looking at a sketchbook Simon was holding; it was a sketch she drew a week ago of her and Simon in what Simon told her was a boathouse he used to live in; apparently, it was outside of where Luke lived. Clary’s attention got moved to Alec, who was looking at the painting she painted for her art exhibit a month ago for school. She smiled fondly at it since she was very proud of it and a lot of people liked it.

“Do you like it? I painted it for an exhibit for an art night at my school.” She explained with a smile, as she could see him looking at it so intently. "Yeah, I mean, it’s really good; your art always has been; it just reminds me of something,” Alec spoke softly, staring at it.

“You can look at it closer if you want.” Clary offered to get up, take it off the nail on the wall, and hand it to him. Alec grabbed it from her gently so as to not touch it harshly and ruin it. It was nice how gentle he was, and she realized he’d been like that with all of her art. She wasn’t used to someone being so respectful of her art. He brushed his fingers across the strokes as his eyebrows furrowed at it, almost tilting his head. It was like a curious cat looking at water and playing with it for the first time; she couldn’t help but chuckle at it. Jace then peered his head around, abandoning looking at one of the books with Simon.

"Dude, that kind of looks like the backdrop of your wedding, the one with Magnus,” Jace stated as he looked at it closely. “He’s had more than one wedding?” Clary asked with a laugh, and Alec grimaced at this as Jace laughed, ruffling his hair. Alec shoved him away with a small smile.

"Yeah, this idiot got himself into an arranged marriage with our parents even though he's extremely gay and was in love with Magnus,” Jace explained as Alec glared at him. Clary laughed; she couldn’t ever imagine Alec with anyone other than Magnus from the little she had been around them together.

“To be fair, your mom used to be scary, and you were trying to protect Izzy and Jace, but still, it was pretty stupid.” Simon jokes, getting another glare from Alec as he sighs.

“Real helpful, Lewis, but I mean, yeah, it happened, not my proudest moment, and now that you mention it, I never really talked about it then, and you don’t remember it now, but you were a huge part in getting me out of my head about not getting married that night and to follow my heart to Magnus, so, uh, thank you; if it wasn’t for you, I may be stuck in that marriage,” Alec said to Clary with a genuine smile, looking at her. She smiled at him back and looked at the painting and back at him.

"Well, you're right. I don’t remember it, but I probably will one day, for now, you're welcome; you deserve to be happy, and you seem happy with Magnus.” Clary replied, making Alec flush some, looking away from the painting with a fond smile.

"Hey, why don’t you keep that? I mean, if it reminds you of your wedding with Magnus, it probably was, and I would be more than happy with you having it. Think of it as a late wedding present.” She smiled, and he looked up at her, his eyes widening with a certain sparkle to them. “Really? I mean, you seem proud of it, and I wouldn’t want to take it from you.” Alec trailed off. “Please take it; it's fine. Trust me, I have another one I could put there from that night that’s in my room. Take it; I'm sure Magnus would want to see it, and hopefully, he likes it as well.” Clary reassured.

"Oh, he’s going to love this; he’s always loved your art,” Alec admits making Clary blush and look away; it was odd for people to like her art even if she’s been told she’s talented multiple times. Jace smiled at the two as he sat back down next to Simon. They sat close together as Jace looked intently at the sketchbook. She could see Simon jump a little before relaxing, seeing it was Jace. It’s sweet how close they are; they seem so comfortable with each other. Jace puts his arm on Simon’s leg as he points to something with a chuckle. Simon looks at Jace with a fond smile and chuckles at him.

“It’s sickening, isn’t it?” Alec whispered beside her. Clary giggled, looking at them, then back at Alec. “How long has it been going on?” She asked, and he sighed heavily, crossing his arms. “Months, at least three, Izzy, and Magnus have a bet on when they finally realize what’s going on,” Alec said, despite trying to sound annoyed, looking at them with a small smile. She could tell he was just happy to see Jace happy. I mean, he’s his brother, and I’m sure he wants Jace happy, even if he has to look at them being like lovesick puppies.

"Well, if Simon is anything like he was, he is the most obvious person in the universe to those kinds of things. There was this girl who had a huge crush on him, and he never even noticed even though she was practically throwing herself at him.” Clary laughed softly, and Alec chuckled. "Yeah, that sounds about right,” Alec agreed.

“Oh Fray I forgot to ask,” Alec said a little louder, stepping away gently, setting the painting down, and going to grab his phone. “While we are here, we do need anything out, so you don’t have to get it. I wouldn’t want you to have to go out by yourself again and risk getting hurt until we can get you set up again.” Alec asked as he unlocked his phone, typing something in there.

"Oh, I mean, I wouldn’t want to make you guys do that; you all have done so much for me already.” Alec rolled his eyes and narrowed his eyes, his lips firm together. “Clary.” Alec scolded. "Okay, fine, if you would mind, when I was going out last night, I wasn’t going out to get some groceries since I forgot to come home from the cafe because I was tired,” Clary muttered, biting her lip.

"Groceries, that’s easy; Jace and Simon can handle that.” Alec offered to make Jace look up with a raised eyebrow, making Simon smack his arm, which Jace winced at with a glare. Clary giggled. They fight like an old married couple that is sick of each other but also can’t leave each other's side.

“No problem, Clary; we can do that; I assume it's to place down the road that you went to when we were young,” Simon asked, already getting up when she saw out of the corner of her eye a small pout on Jace’s face when he did.

"Yeah, I’ll write you a list real quick; just behave. I don’t want you two getting into trouble.” She points at them with the pen she found on the coffee table, making Jace let out an exasperated gasp like he was offended. She would think that of him.

“I’ll give you guys the money I have in my bag.” Clary went to grab her bag, which Jace grabbed before she could. “No, we can get them. You save your money.” Jace lectured her; she grumbled and tried to grab the bag, but he just held it up higher with a smug look on his face. She pouted at him, trying to jump, but he merely tossed it to Alec, and Alec put it behind him, not even blinking. She huffed and went back to her paper, writing the last thing and tearing it.

"Fine, but do not steal anything; they like me, and I get some shifts there, and I want to keep it that way,” Clary warned. Jace rolled his eyes and took to paper. “I wouldn’t steal them.” He objected to this as she tilted her head, narrowing her eyes.

“If my dreams are correct and you stole a motorcycle, I wouldn’t put it past you to steal groceries. She answered, and he pressed his lips together and sighed. Simon came and took the paper out of Jace's hand.

“I’ll understand mundane groceries more than you, no offense,” Simon admitted to this, Jace’s eyes widening, and he threw his hands up, exasperated. Simon merely smiled at this, used to his tantrums, and came and kissed Clary on the top of her head like he used to do. She scrunched her nose at this.

"We'll be back asap. I promise we’ll behave.” Simon reassured her, walking towards the door. Jace followed behind him. “I didn’t agree to that,” Jace said as he grabbed his jacket and then put his hands in his pocket. Simon raised his eyebrow at him, then looked at Clary with a smile.

“We’ll behave.” He said, enunciating the we. Jace rolled his eyes and walked out. Simon walked after him quickly as Clary closed the door behind them, chuckling.

“They fight more like a married couple than you and Magnus,” Clary joked as she went and stacked up her sketchbooks and put them back in the empty box. Alec snorts as he goes to help her, grabbing the other ones and placing them on top of the other ones in the box.

"Yeah, I guess.” He replied in amusement as Clary closed the box, “But hey, at least Simon knows how to deal with his tantrums, and I don’t have to anymore.” Alec replied, his voice flat and tired after everything that had happened.

They fall into a comfortable silence as Alec fills out and checks reports on his tablet while Clary sketches inside the book she had in her bag that Alec gave back to her when Jace and Simon left. Clary couldn’t help but worry about Isabelle. She wishes she looked at her phone when she saw how it made her upset, but she was just in shock at her reaction, and Isabelle didn’t give her time to explain. She’s glad at least Magnus followed her so she wasn’t alone, because she knew she was really upset based on how Magnus and Alec reacted. She didn’t want to push Izzy, though, since she could be stressed, like Alec said since the whole shadowhunter thing seems stressful.

Clary let her mind wander more as she drew. Clary wonders if after they get her set up back into the institute—she thinks they called it—Isabelle will still want to be around her. I mean, maybe Isabelle is just being nice because Clary was sad and lonely and she doesn’t care about her as much as Clary does about her. Clary frowns as she presses down more harshly than she intended and breaks the tip of her pencil.

She grumbles and looks down to see she drew Isabelle again. God, she was helpless already, this girl had Clary wrapped around her finger already. She puts her sketchbook away and decides to curl up in a blanket and scroll on her phone until they get back.

-
-
-

To the door being slammed open, making her jump. She sat up quickly, seeing Jace and Simon come through the door with the bags of groceries in their hands.

"Jeez, you scared the hell out of me.” She spoke with a husky voice as she yawned, and she turned, seeing Alec sound asleep on the other end of the couch with his tablet in his lap.

"Sorry, we didn’t think you would be asleep.” Simon apologized as Jace closed the door, turned on the light, and then went to the kitchen to put things down. Clary threw her arms up and stretched as she sat up, her eyes adjusting to the light they turned on as they walked in.

“Did you guys get everything okay?” Clary mumbled, still not awake enough, leaning against the door frame. “Yeah, well, I got lost, but Simon found everything alright,” Jace admits not making eye contact as he gets the things out of the bags. “You got lost? In that store?” She asks between laughs, and he grumbles as Simon chuckles with a growing smirk.

“I don’t do mundane shopping, okay? We tend to order things.” Jace said defensively, putting down the last thing and putting his hands in the pockets of his jacket.

“He got lost in the back of the store, in the frozen section.” Simon teased his smirk as it got bigger, and Jace glared at him. She would be able to take the glare more seriously if it weren’t for the fond twitch of a smile on his lips.

"Well, thank you. I promise I won’t subject you to mundane shopping as you put it again.” Clary laughed as she put away what they took out.

“Did you bore Alec so badly that he fell asleep?” Jace laughed, looking out through the door, and then back into the room. "No, he was doing paperwork, and he must have just fallen asleep too. He probably didn’t get much sleep last night.” Clary replied still feeling guilty about everything.

She reached to put the coffee up with a grunt. Jace and Simon let out a small chuckle between themselves like middle school girls. “Need help there, shortie.” Jace joked that she could feel his smirk without even looking at him. “Unless by help you mean me throwing this bag at you, I’m good,” Clary grumbled, finally pushing it up there. She turned to see Simon had already put up the rest; she trusted his judgment since he'd known her for a long time and leaned back onto the counter with a huff.

“Did you sleep okay? Any dreams or nightmares?” Simon asked carefully as to not push her. As much as she appreciated the fact they were all careful not to trigger her, she wished they didn’t treat her like she was fragile; she could handle herself. But she didn’t say anything because she knew he was just trying to be nice. "Nope, at least not that I remember, or one that Alec noticed and woke me up from; by the way, what took you so long besides Jace getting lost?” Clary pointed out the fact that it had been an hour and a half since she remembered starting to scroll on her phone.

The boys look at each other and then look away quickly. She can see the tips of Jace’s ears go pink as he shoves his hands into his jacket. Simon laughed nervously, rubbing his thumbs together. “We got held up in line, and the store was really busy.” He said it with a stammer as they avoided eye contact with each other. Clary raises her eyebrow at this; she can’t help but notice they are scooting further away from each other since they were closer before. She couldn’t help but conceal a small smile because of how obvious they were being.

"Alright, if you say so, so I was thinking we could just order pizza or Chinese unless you guys had other plans,” Clary suggested, and they both looked at each other. Jace shrugged, and Simon smiled. "Sure, we can do that; we could all hang out again as a group; it’ll be fun.” Simon beamed, making Clary’s smile get bigger.

“Oh my god, yes!” Clary exclaimed. Jace rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, but he wasn’t objecting, so she would take that as a yes. She could then hear something from the other room. Then she could hear Alec grumble something and hear movement.

“I’m in here; don't worry.” She walked out of the kitchen and looked at him; his hair was messy and he blinked slowly. He eventually hummed, acknowledging it as if the words just registered in his brain at her statement, but not moving from the couch, just sitting up.

“Are they back yet?” Alec spoke, his voice rough from sleep. Clary nodded, pointing to the kitchen. “Yep, but Jace got lost in the store,” Clary smirked; she immediately heard him come around the corner quickly at the statement.

“I did not get lost.” He objected quickly with a huff as his lips placed themselves firmly together. Simon came up behind him. “You totally did; it was like a lost puppy.” Simon teased, Jace blushed as he crossed his arms, and Clary noticed Jace shiver as Simon spoke since he was standing behind him close enough to probably feel his breath on his neck.

“I was thinking, is Chinese tonight fine with you?” Clary turned towards Alec. Alec hummed and looked at his phone.

His eyebrows furrowed together, scanning his phone a few times. Hopefully, he wasn’t going to stay here and put his job on the line for her; she wouldn’t want him to get in trouble for her. She then turned to a phone rigging in Jace’s pocket; she didn’t miss how Simon jumped at it or how Jace stiffened. When he pulled it out, after he looked at the screen he sighed in relief.

“Hey Luke what’s up?” Jace answered, and Clary immediately perked up at the name. She had missed Luke a lot; it was said he moved away from New York, but she never wanted to believe he would move from here, as he loved it too much here. She chewed the inside of her lip in anticipation.

"Wait, what slowed down what happened?” Jace’s eyebrows furrowed together with a frown. Alec sat up more with raised eyebrows as Simon’s gaze stayed on Jace, fidgeting with his thumbs.

"Okay, yeah, we’ll be there as soon as we can. Just keep trying and make sure she doesn’t get hurt, okay?” Jace rambled as he went and got his blade, and Alec immediately got up and grabbed his, since they both left theirs by the door. Simon quickly moved behind them, and Clary froze, looking at how quickly they reacted to only a few words. Jace hung up the phone, shoving it in his pocket.

“It’s Izzy I don’t know what happened, but they are at his farm. He is going to text me the address.” Jace blurted out.

"Oh, I know where that is. Me and Clary went there a couple of times when we were young.” Simon stammered out. "Yeah, I remember it's pretty far away from here, though. How are we going to get there?” Clary pointed it out. Simon lifted the keys out of his pocket. “I have my van; it's outside; we can take it," Simon suggested, and Alec nodded as Jace practically darted out grabbing his blade, Alec following behind him with his.

She quickly looked around and saw the blade that Izzy left. She didn’t know how to use one of them, but at the very least she could take it to give to her. She quickly grabs it as Simon and Clary run after them; she feels so much slower than them, probably because of their magic stuff. Simon told her he was a vampire, which was a surprise to her but made sense, I guess, on how he knew them. Vampire powers probably give him super speed, and if she recalls correctly, one of Jace and Alec’s tattoo rune things gives them speed, so she was doomed to keep up.

They eventually all get into the van, with Jace and Alec in the back while Clary gets into the front seat next to Simon's, figuring they'll have better luck navigating. She may not know their shadow world, but she knew the farm, and she knew Brooklyn like the back of her hand. She quickly puts the sword down next to her feet and ties up her hair into a high ponytail with a hair tie she had on her wrist.

“What’s that for?” Jace asked like he’d never seen a hair tie before. I get they are like they said not mundane, but how do you not know what a hair tie is? “You mean my hair tie?” She said, her voice tilting her head as she pulled at it to tighten it and dropped her hands on her lap.

“No, I know what a hair tie is; I'm not stupid.” Jace snapped, making Simon look at her with a small smirk before looking back and starting the van.

“I saw that Lewis- What I meant was, Why did you tie your hair up? It's freezing outside, at least unless you have a heat rune or you're a vampire.” Jace explained, making Clary raise her eyebrows and look back. “Because I don’t want to get blood in my hair, it sounds gross to think about.” She grimaces.

“You’re not helping.” Jace lectures her, narrowing his eyes at her. Bullshit, she isn't helping. If Isabelle is hurt and needs help, she’s helping her, especially because she feels like this is her fault.

"Yes, I am. I was one of you guys once; it’s in my blood, and I don’t care about your stupid rules. If Izzy is in trouble, I'm helping.” Clary spoke, turning her head and glaring at him. Jace sighs, rolling his eyes to look the other way. Alec smiles at her as he looks like he’s holding back a laugh.

“What? Don’t laugh at me.” Clary exclaims, crossing her arms and pouting. “I wasn’t I just—welcome back, Clary,” Alec says it fondly, with a proud dad looking at their kid getting a medal. Clary smiles at him, glad to have gotten his approval. All of this felt natural to her, the blood pumping through her blood as she got an adrenaline rush. She felt ready to take on the world. It probably shouldn't be comforting, nor should she be happy about this job, as it's an extremely dangerous job and she could get hurt or die whenever doing this, but it felt right. She always felt, from a young age, the need to help and protect people, and now she could do that while being with people who cared about her.

“It’s good to be back,” Clary replied with a new glint in her eye that didn’t go unnoticed by the boys as Jace muttered something that Alec chuckled at. She can’t be bothered to figure out what it is, so she just spins around in the chair as she leans back into the chair.

They drive for a while despite Jace yelling at Simon to go faster multiple times, making Simon snap as Alec groans, putting his head on the window during the fighting. Clary has pretty much zoned it out, staring out the window, remembering they took this way to go to the farm when they were kids. She had a lot of good memories on road trips like this with her, her mom, Luke, and Simon. They did a lot together, and her mom and Luke always did what they could to make them happy and make it seem like everything was an adventure. It came to a point where, when Simon and her asked to go back to the farm, Luke told them we couldn’t go there anymore. She was sad about it at first but eventually understood that the topic seemed to make him upset, so Simon and she dropped it.

As she looked out the window, looking at the trees and farmlands, she couldn't help but also worry about Isabelle. Jace said he didn’t know much since Luke was panicking on the other end, but it didn’t seem good. She could feel herself chewing on her lip, and she tapped her fingers on her lap, trying to let out all the nerves bubbling inside of her as she saw they were getting closer.

Chapter Text

Chapter Sixteen
(Clary’s Pov)

The van finally pulled up to the farm. Simon barely had time to park before Jace and Alec slammed their doors open and jump out. Simon and Clary opens their doors once he has fully stopped, Clary grabs Isabelle’s sword, and runs after the boys.

“This way is towards the house; they may be there,” Clary yells, turning towards where she remembers the house. They snap towards her voice and follow, running after her and to the house in the distance. Clary feels like she’s going to pass out by the time she gets to the porch. There seemed to be no one there. Jace slammed his hand into the porch post, turning around, and they heard movement after this as someone came out and opened the door.

“Thank the angel, you’re finally here. I'll take you to her. She's with Luke; she's still passed out, in some trance, or something we don’t know.” The woman explains that Clary doesn’t have time to even think about who she is before she walks in a direction that the boys run off to as Clary follows behind them, trying to keep up.

They eventually get towards the big patch of land where Clary can see what looks like fire and Isabelle on the ground with a tall guy in a white and gold robe with golden blond hair, much like Jace’s hair expects she saw—wings? Oh my god, was this an angel? Holy shit, she could see Luke next to the fire, but at a safe distance. Clary’s pace quickens, and she even beats the boys there in a rush of adrenaline. She stops in her tracks, dropping the sword, when she sees Isabelle and the angel.

“Clary!” Luke exclaims, her head turning to his voice as he stands up to hug her. She hugs back really quickly before pulling away to look back at Isabelle. This looked familiar: a fire circled her as she lay on the ground in the middle of it.

“Is she okay?” Clary can hear Alec ask, his voice breathy from all the running. Jace and Simon stand off to the side of him. “We don’t know. If you haven't guessed, that's Ithuriel; she summoned him,” Luke admits. Alec's eyes widened, and his jaw slacked.

“What?” Jace exclaims, stepping forward towards Luke, his eyes bright like a fire. Simon pulls on his sleeve lightly, making Jace pull back and away from Luke.

“Why didn’t you? Why did she? How?” Alec rambled as he started pacing. Clary stares at the fire circle as the flames start to glow when she gets close to it, so she backs up quickly. She remembers this circle; it’s a protection circle. Why would she know that unless... She summoned him, this angel; they said his name was Ithuriel; that’s how she knew what this was and why this was hitting her like de vu; she had been in this exact spot and situation before, expect-- Clary backs up, almost falling to be caught by Alec, who was next to her.

“Clary what’s wrong.” His voice is distant, and as her ears begin ringing, she can feel something run down her hands. She looks down to see blood on her hands. She frantically pulls her arms away, wiping her hands on her jeans and rubbing them, trying to get the blood to go away, but it doesn’t. She looked to see the angel bleeding in front of her, the rest of the world blurry and spinning like she's on a merry-go-round.

Clary feels herself trip and is about to fall before feeling someone grab her, to which she pulls away and goes to hit, throwing her hands around. She feels like she is drowning, gasping for breath as she latches onto something to ground herself. She can faintly feel a sweater, its wool and softness under her fingertips. She grips it tighter, squeezing her eyes shut as she tries to stop her head from spinning.

Closing her eyes only made the visions worse; image-like memories flashed in her brain, first the blood, the angel on its knees bleeding, and then the dragon creature, like the one she drew for class hovering above them both. She can feel the person grab her back towards them. She turns and hits them in the chest. She can hear words, but they all just blur in the background.
She shakes her head, almost wanting to scream, as she feels tears come down her face. She can feel herself hitting whoever is in front of her. She wants to stop, but she can't because everything feels like too much, like someone took her senses and dialed them all the way up.

“Clary, stop it; it’s okay.” Their voice is strong and stern and comes through more clearly but still distantly. She can feel them grab a hold of her hands to stop her from hitting. Clary yells, feeling the person pull her to them as they stroke her hands they have a hold of. Clary can feel her face burning up and wet from the tears. She finally opens her eyes to only look back down at her hands. They didn’t seem bloody anymore, but they were shaking from what she could tell through her blurred vision. They pull her face back to theirs.

She blinked her tears away as her vision became a little less blurred. Clary looked up slowly and could see dark, messy hair and hazel eyes. “I killed him, Alec.” She stammered out, trying to stop her hands from shaking.

“You didn’t; you didn’t kill anyone; it's okay.” Alec spoke softly. She tried to look down again, but he kept her looking up at him. "Clary, stop; it’s okay; you're okay.” Alec tries to reason; she shakes her head as she buries it in his chest, wanting to scream, her hands shaking.

Jace looks at Simon and then back to Clary. Simon nods and walks over to Alec and Clary. Simon looks at Alec; he says something, but Clary can’t make it out as her face is still buried in Alec’s chest. She can feel Alec slowly pull away and pass her to Simon as Alec backs away and stands up next to Jace, his eyebrows furrowed, looking between Clary and Simon and then Isabelle.

Clary goes to push Simon away, but he has a tight grip as he takes her and hugs her tightly. "Clary, it’s Simon; it’s okay, you're safe,” Simon started as she stroked her back. “She’s not here; she can’t hurt you; you’re okay; he’s not hurt, okay; he’s fine, I promise.” Simon spoke slowly, trying to reassure her, putting his head on top of hers to ground her to him.

Clary buried her head in his chest and tried to breathe and take in his words, focusing on the smell of his cologne. It was some kind of wood smell and lavender. She could briefly remember him wearing it in high school, but he complained he hated it at the time. “We need you, okay? Isabelle needs you right now, okay?” Simon explained, and all of her senses came back to her at Isabelle’s name. She sniffled and nodded slowly, not feeling like she could speak yet.

“It’s okay, we can take a minute; we are waiting for Magnus; just breathe,” Simon said softly as he brushed her hair away and stroked it. Simon starts humming one of the songs he wrote that Clary loved when they started his band, slowly rocking her back and forth. Clary’s breathing levels out as she grips his shirt.

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Eventually, Clary lets go of Simon, and he wipes away her tears as she blinks them out, looking around.

“I’m sorry. I remembered what happened here, and it all felt so real.” Clary stammered out, and Simon shook his head as he smiled at her. ‘It’s okay; it was traumatic for you; it’s going to affect you, especially when it comes back at you like that.” Simon spoke softly to her as he let go of her hands.

Her surroundings came back to her as she looked around the farm. She can see Alec, Jace, and Luke talking. The other women seem to have left or gone back to the farmhouse; she then remembers what they are looking at, making eye contact with Isabelle on the ground, and she scrambles to get up to go towards her.

"Hey, if you need to take a minute, it’s okay." Simon started to grab her hand, but Clary shook her head. "No, I need to do this; if she did this because of me, I need to help her,” Clary replied firmly, her eyes trained on Isabelle as she got freed from his grip and ran forward to Isabelle and Ithuriel.

She sat down in front of Isabelle and Ithuriel, just outside the circle. Alec tried to protest her sitting in front of them, but Jace shook his head. “Ithuriel wouldn’t hurt Clary; unlike most angels, he seems to care for her. He probably senses our presence, with our blood connection in all." Alec slowly nodded as Clary started at Isabelle; she looked drained and was mumbling something. Her hair was matted, and she had sweat dripping down her pale face. Clary looked back up to see Magnus standing next to Alec; he must have come when she was in the middle of her panic attack.

“So she summoned Ithuriel, who shouldn’t leave you like this.” Jace points to Isabelle’s still body.

“I don’t know; I told her she had 30 minutes, and if she didn’t come back, I would come to her. I even came a few minutes early, hoping she wouldn’t notice as I walked up. I saw him grab his hand, and she fell to the ground. They were both like this; they seemed in some kind of trance. Jace’s head snaps up at Luke at this information.

“He’s showing her something; it can happen; I’ve heard it happen before. Normally, when they go into a trance, he shows them memories, either the person’s or the angel's, but it must have taken a lot of energy since she doesn’t have pure angel blood, so it’s draining more of her energy than it would Jace or Clary,” Magnus explained. Alec furrowed his eyebrows, his eyes not leaving Isabelle.

“So she’s trapped,” Alec replied. Clary looked between all of them, confused.

“We think that Ithuriel was trying to show her something like he did with us, but she may be fighting or rejecting it, and between that and the fact she doesn’t have his blood and the strength that comes from it, it's draining her,” Jace explained, making Clary shake her head slowly.

"So we can’t enter or break the circle, I assume,” Clary asked, getting a questionable glance from Luke. “We can, but I was waiting for you or Jace. I'm afraid if anyone else did anything, it would break the connection, or worse, he would lash out, but if you two share his blood, you have a connection, and he would feel you and hopefully let her go.” Luke explained as he crossed his arms.

“That’s probably for the best; like Luke said, you two are the ones with connections to not only Ithuriel but Isabelle; you two besides Alec would have the best chance of snapping her out of it,” Magnus advised. Alec’s jaw clenched as he looked at her; it was obvious he wanted to help, but he knew what they were saying was right. If Clary has a blood connection to this angel, like they said she could try to get through to them, she hates the idea of risking Jace to do it; she caused all of this, and she was going to fix it.

Clary turned determined to help Isabelle, but her heart sank as she looked back at her. She could have died based on what they had said about an angel's blast. Isabelle had already done so much for her; why did she do this? Clary stepped up to her, and in the circle, Jace went to stand beside her, but she shook her head.

“I can do this; I don’t want to risk you; we don’t know what will happen if someone else enters the connection, even with our blood,” Clary said. Jace furrowed his eyebrows at her. "Clary, I’m not letting you do this alone.” Jace replied firmly, “Please, Isabelle is already hurt and drained. I can’t stand the idea of you getting hurt too.” She pleaded. Jace looked at Isabelle and Ithuriel and then back at Clary. “Okay, just be careful, okay? Go in and get out as soon as you can, okay?” Jace offered, and Clary nodded. “I will; we’ll be okay.” Clary smiled softly to try to reassure him, despite the fact that her heart was racing.

“We may want to step back; we don’t know what will happen when she grabs their hands,” Magnus explained. Alec and Jace both look at each other with a glance as they both nod and back up, and Magnus, Simon, and Luke follow as they step back.

Clary sucked in a breath and grabbed the stick nearby that looked like the circle was made from. She made an opening, making the fire dim down into eventually nothing. She immediately went towards Isabelle and went to stand her up, holding her up next to her and leaning down to grab her hand.

"Isabelle, it’s me. I'm here. I don’t know what happened, but I'm here now. It’s going to be okay.” Clary was reassured; she didn’t know what to say or what even Izzy could hear.

Clary rolled up Isabelle's sleeve gently, with shaky hands, and securely placed their hands together with a tight grip to make sure the connection didn’t break. Clary then slowly reaches for Ithuriel’s hand and lets out a harsh breath before grabbing it tightly.

Clary squeezed her eyes shut as she saw a bright light before she saw a memory. She couldn’t place what it was, but it was her and Izzy, and it looked like they were in a brightly lit room sitting on beds you would find at a hospital. She could then hear a male voice come through as she screwed her eyes shut at the feeling.

“Clary,” the man spoke, and she swallowed as she answered. “I assume you are Ithuriel,” Clary replied. “I am; I know you don’t remember much, but I know you know enough now,” Ithuriel started. She could feel a tingling sensation run through her body as she felt it surround all three of them, like a warm, tightly tucked blanket. “Isabelle came to me with the wish that I would protect you and your memories. I told her I would compile as long as I knew she truly cared about you and had your best intentions in mind,” Ithuriel said. Clary furrowed her eyebrows, so why would this make her this way if he just needed to look into her memories?

“When we connected, it seemed to have drained her since she doesn’t share my connection and was fighting it some, but I was able to see enough of her memories, and it was proof enough that I will not have to worry about you not being protected. I, however, do advise that you under no circumstances create any runes. Although I convinced the others to forgive you, they are not too keen on the idea of you creating runes still. Maybe one day in the far future, but not anytime soon. I will come to you if they ever change their mind on that.” Ithuriel explained. Clary nodded slowly; she hadn’t planned on doing that since that was the reason she got taken away from everyone in the first place.

“For now, until you draw your last breath, you shall be protected, and you are free to be a shadowhunter again. I will make it my priority to ensure both of those things are never taken away from you again.” Ithuriel said. “Thank you for everything,” Clary thanked. Ithuriel chuckled. “Don’t thank me; thank her; she really cares about you. I would go even further to say love, but I’m not an expert in human emotions,” Ithuriel explained. Clary could feel her cheeks flush.

“Goodbye Clary, she should wake up as soon as a break the connection,” Ithuriel said. Clary sighed in relief as she could feel herself squeeze Isabelle’s hand tighter, bracing for whatever would happen.

Just like that, she saw a flash of white that she winced at before blinking again slowly. She looked up to see that he'd gone flying into the sky. Isabelle’s body gave out immediately, with Clary quickly catching her, placing her down on the ground, and pulling her close, squeezing her hand. "Isabelle, please come back to me,” Clary pleads. She can feel her pulse pick up along with her breathing.

“Izzy,” Clary said as she felt Isabelle slowly react to her touch with a soft squeeze. "Izzy, oh my god, you’re okay,” Clary exclaimed as she went to pull Isabelle closer in a hug. Isabelle winces, making Clary quickly pull away. Isabelle opened her eyes, blinking slowly at her. Clary smiled softly, looking at her soft brown eyes. She can tell she's exhausted, but her eyes are still warm and comforting, like a campfire.

Isabelle smiled weakly at her, reaching up to grab Clary’s face gently. Clary laughed as a tear fell down her cheek. “Are you okay? I was so worried about you.” Clary let her voice sound as desperate as she felt. She saw Isabelle give out a weak chuckle.

“It was worth it; I heard what he said; you get to be a shadowhunter again; I did it.” Isabelle spoke slowly; she looked like she had been crying, making Clary wince; she was worried about what Ithuriel made her see to make her cry; but she let out a weak chuckle in response trying not to think of that.

“Oh my god, that’s the first thing you say to me after almost dying. You didn’t have to do that; I could have lost you.” She stammered, not even noticing she had a tight grip on her leg as if she needed to know Isabelle was real and alive.

“How could I not?” Isabelle smiled softly, and Clary laughed fondly as she hugged her again, but tighter. Isabelle hugged back just as tight, tucking her head into Clary’s neck. She could feel Isabelle’s heart racing, as hers was probably doing the same. She could feel Isabelle’s breath on her neck, making Clary shiver as they pulled away. Clary couldn’t help but get lost in her eyes; it felt like there was no one in the world but them right now, in the middle of the now dimly lit forest, as the sun was setting behind them. It all melted away in the background.

“I hate to break up this little reunion, but we should probably get Isabelle back to make sure she’s okay,” Alec said, breaking them out of their trance. She could see Isabelle’s eyes look up from Clary’s shoulder to Alec with a glare, then bury her head back into Clary’s shoulder again with a sigh. Clary couldn’t help but laugh at the girl's pouting.

“Come on, Alec’s right, you need to be checked out,” Clary instructed, standing her and Isabelle up. Isabelle was about to buckle, but Clary caught her, with Alec running to them and picking the other side of her up. Clary could see Jace and Simon by each other as Simon had a tight grip on Jace’s hand. When they noticed Clary looking at them with a smile, they pulled away Jace blushing, and Simon would no doubt be blushing even more than Jace if he wasn’t a vampire. She chuckled, and she then heard a whoosh sound as she saw a weird void thing show up in front of them.

“It's a portal; it won't hurt your biscuit,” Magnus reassured. Clary glanced between Isabelle and then Alec.

“Remember the sketch you showed us of that building we called the institute?” Alec said. Clary nodded as she tried to keep Isabelle up as she began to buckle a little. “Okay, just think of that hard, and you’ll be okay,” Alec instructed. She nodded and went through the portal with Alec and Isabelle.

They all ended up on the other side in front of the institute. She couldn’t help but feel a little sick at the sensation that felt so foreign. She heard the others come in behind them. Jace and Simon open the doors as they walk through them. Isabelle winced as she buried her head into Clary’s neck. Clary shushed her softly as she looked around the strange building.

“We aren't far from the infirmary; come on.” Alec said she followed Alec’s lead as they made their way to the infirmary. She heard Isabelle mumble something, but she couldn’t make out what it was since she was still buried in her neck. All she felt was her breath, and the only vibration that she could make out was her talking. She took it as a good sign that she was still coherent, just tired.

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Clary and Alec both sat in chairs in the infirmary as Magnus stood next to Isabelle, scanning her body to see if she was hurt. She could see Alec fidgeting and pitching his skin and his hands; she couldn't help but chew the inside of her cheek as she lightly bumped his leg, hoping he wouldn’t be upset. He looked at her and gave a small smile as he patted her leg, almost like it was thank you for snapping him out of his thoughts.

“Alright, it looks as if she has no injuries; she’s probably going to be asleep for a few hours, but afterward she should be as good as new,” Magnus said as Clary and Alec both jumped up. Clary smiled brightly, jumping to hug Magnus. Magnus stood for a minute, surprised, but eventually hugged her, backstroking her with his thumb.

She let go and looked up at Magnus, seeing his eyes flicker back from gold to brown. “Thank you,” Clary said. Magnus put his hand on her shoulder and patted it. “Of course, anything for family,” Magnus said. Clary’s eyes widened as she smiled at his words: family; she had a family; people cared about her.

“We’ll give you a few minutes, but when you are done, come down to the ops area; someone should be able to lead you, and we can work on your paperwork for your return,” Alec said. She nodded eagerly at him.

Magnus and Alec walk out, shutting the door behind them as they talk among themselves softly. Clary turned and pulled the chair closer to Isabelle and sat in it, looking at her. Clary resisted the urge to hold her hand or play with her silky black hair. She didn’t know she could feel this much for someone, much less so quickly. She thought things like that happened in movies, and to other people, and now someone like her.

Clary couldn’t help but worry if she’d ever live up to the expectations that people may have for her because of her past. It’s weird how she feels like people look at her like she’s a hero, some kind of savior. She certainly doesn’t feel like one right now; What if Isabelle realizes that she’s not the same girl she was then? What if she starts being a shadowhunter again and she’s not as good as she once was? All these thoughts run around in Clary's head surrounding her like a tornado, she needs to think positively, she needs to distract herself before she spirals.

“I know you can’t hear me, and that’s honestly for the best because I don’t know how you feel about everything right now, but I want you to know that I appreciate you, Izzy,” Clary said, fidgeting with her sleeves. “I’ve never felt this way before. I don’t know how to do any of this, but I know I like you. I want to spend every day with you.” Clary broke off. She felt silly saying all of this when Isabelle was asleep, but it would help get it out until she could say it to her face without stuttering and blushing profusely. “I really like you; you’re one of the prettiest, smartest, and funniest people I’ve ever met. I know this is new and we’ve only just reconnected, but I want to get to know you. I want to be with you. God, I don’t know why I’m saying this to you right now when you can’t hear me, but I just needed to get it out.” Clary sighed and got up. She should go out there and sort out her paperwork. As nervous as this all made her, she was also excited. It was nice to feel needed and to help people.

She looked at the asleep girl again before giving in and walking over and kissing her forehead. “Thank you, Isabelle; I hope you feel better.” She whispered, resting her head on hers gently before pulling away. She walked away from the bed and dimmed the lights to make them less harsh on her eyes. She smiled softly to herself before walking out and closing the door quietly.

Clary saw a guy waiting outside the hallway leaning against it. He perked up seeing her come out. "Oh, you’re out; I’m Andrew.” Andrew introduced himself with a polite handout, and Clary took it with a smile. “Alec told me to wait for you so I could lead you around,” Andrew said he was standing up straight now. "Yeah, he had told me someone would; thank you, I would get lost trying to find it myself to be honest." Clary joked, and Andrew laughed as they both walked forward. "Yeah, it can be a lot for a new shadowhunter, but you’ll learn your way around in no time,” Andrew replied, and Clary smiled. It was nice for someone to treat her so normally like she was not just some ghost from the past.

“Thank you,” Clary said. She hoped he would get that it wasn’t just for the walk; he seemed to understand with a nod. “Of course, now let’s go. Alec and Jace have been getting anxious and pacing around.” Andrew joked, and Clary chuckled.
She hummed as they walked around, Andrew pointed things out much like a tour guide. Clary found it endearing; it reminded her of something Simon would do. She felt so at home here; it was nice; she liked being here; and it felt even nicer to feel like she was part of something—a family, like one she has been wishing for.