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Jace suddenly wakes up as someone puts their hand on his mouth. He jerks away, ready to fight, but recognizes Clary in the darkness of the room. He’s confused, and scared for her, but she says :
“Shh it’s okay, I’m here to bring you home. We all are. Alec and Isabelle are waiting for us on a raft near the boat.”
Jace wants to protest, it’s not safe and Valentine will kill them all, but Clary goes on :
“It’s a mission approved by the Clave. The Lightwoods and other Shadowhunters are close and ready to intervene if it goes wrong. Hurry Jace, we don’t have a lot of time!”
And she pulls him by the hand and he follows, still scared and confused but so happy that the people he loves came for him, came to bring him home. Maybe it can work, maybe he can escape Valentine’s clutch without causing the death of everyone he loves. They stealthily run across the boat, hidden by an invisibility rune, Clary’s hair is bright in the pale moonlight and he thinks he can see the raft in which Alec and Isabelle are, and hope suddenly catches him at the throat and maybe there’s a way out for him after all…
But suddenly Clary stops and turns back to look at him. A foul smile stretches her lips in a grimace and he doesn’t understand what is going on, until… until Clary’s body is contorting and trembling, and she grows taller and bigger until there’s no Clary anymore, just Valentine. Jace’s blood runs cold, hope snuffed out of him. Valentine looks at him, still smiling, but his eyes are cold and cruel.
“What did you expect, Jace ?” he says condescendingly. “Did you really think that your friends, your so-called family would come for you ? They don’t care about you, to them you’re just the spawn of the devil. Why would they risk their lives for you ?”
He cocks his head and adds :
“This was a test. I wanted to know where your loyalties really lied. I’m disappointed in you, son.”
And he does sound disappointed, but he also sounds pleased, as if he couldn’t wait to punish Jace.
Jace feels crushed and numb all at once. Clary wasn’t there. Alec and Isabelle weren’t there. They never had been. He can’t even feel Alec through their Parabatai bond. He is all alone, like he has always been. How stupid of him to think otherwise, even for a second. He knows Valentine is going to physically punish him, but that prospect doesn’t even fill him with dread. He would’ve preferred to be beaten over and over again, than to have his heart ripped out of his chest like this.