Jace clenched his jaw and Clary could feel the anger pulsating off him. She slipped her hand into his and gave it a small squeeze. She knew he didn’t want her to go, but she also knew he would accept any decision she made, no matter how hard it was to accept. It was one thing she loved about him- that through everything, he always allowed her to make her own choices.

 “I’ll do it,” Clary said as confidently as possible. “But I don’t want to be kept in the dark with what they do. Are we clear?” 

“Certainly. I appreciate the co-operation,” Imogen replied. 

Clary shrugged but her posture was tense as she looked Imogen directly in the eye. “I’m not doing the testing for you, I’m doing it for Jace, after all you can’t have me tarnishing the Herondale name... you know, since me and him have a personal relationship.”

Jace frowned and stepped towards the red haired Shadowhunter. “Clary--”

Clary instantly broke her gaze on Imogen to look at Jace. Her face softened, with a voice to match. “Jace, it’s okay. Like Issy said, the Herondale’s are Shadowhunter royalty.” She grabbed his hand again and gave it a comforting squeeze. “You’ve finally figured out who your real family are and I will not jeopardise that, not after everything you’ve been through.” 

Jace swallowed dryly, clearly unsuspecting of Clary’s words. He squeezed her hand in way of reply before skipping a beat and looking at his grandmother. “If these tests do anything to put her in danger I swear on the angel I’ll--”

“They won’t,” Imogen said with a stern look. “I’ll personally oversee the tests.”

“Good,” Jace said in finality. “And she’s not leaving effective immediately. She just killed her father and saved the whole damn Shadow World- the least you could do is give her a week to relax.” 

Imogen nodded. “Very well. She can leave for Idris next week.”

Jace let out a long breath, as if he’d been holding it the whole time. Clary knew he was still getting his head around being a Herondale and every encounter with Imogen was a tense one. He’d been let down so many times by people claiming to be ‘family’ so it was as if he was still waiting for the other shoe to drop, for everything to be ripped away. Clary knew he had a guard up.

“I have a meeting with Alec now, so if we’re done here, I should be heading off,” Jace said to Imogen.

“Indeed. You’re dismissed,” she said.

Jace nodded then turned his attention towards Clary. His voice dropped into a soft murmur. “I’ll see you later tonight, okay? Try and stay out of trouble until then.” He gave her a small half smile.

She grinned back at him. “Valentine is dead now, what trouble could I possibly get into.”

Jace’s half smile turned into a full blown smirk. “Oh I’m sure you’d find some way.”

Clary rolled her eyes but chuckled nonetheless. “You shouldn’t keep Alec waiting. I’ll see you tonight, and yes, I’ll stay out of trouble.”

“Good,” he replied. And to Clary’s surprise, he quickly pecked her on the lips before retreating away from her. “I’ll come find you after I see Alec.”

He walked away without waiting for a reply and Clary found herself replaying that small peck over and over in her mind. It was so seemingly normal and so mundane and so unlike Jace that it had left Clary reeling. But in amongst all that she couldn’t help but admit she enjoyed it, enjoyed the thought of it- her and Jace being able to be normal, just be themselves without an impending war hanging over them.

Clary would’ve kept thinking and dreaming of these things had she not felt Imogen’s intense stare directed at her. She vowed to get lost in those thoughts later before turning towards Jace’s grandmother.

“I see the way he looks at you,” Imogen said quietly. 

Clary wasn’t sure what to say to that so she let Imogen speak again. 

“The Herondale family has been around since the dawn of Shadowhunters--”

Upon hearing Imogen start, and thinking about where she was going with this, Clary then found the words and cut her off. “If you’re about to go on about me not being good enough for Jace, then you can quit while you’re ahead. Bloodline or not, I care about Jace. And I know what family means to him, so I would never do anything to ruin that. So don’t worry, you don’t have to warn me about tarnishing your precious name.” 

Imogen chuckled slightly. “I can see why my grandson likes you- you’re beautiful as much as you are fiery. If you had let me finish, I was going to say that the Herondales would be honoured to have someone like you amongst them. You and your peers have proved that this is a new era.”

Clary cocked her head to the side, surprised by Imogen’s words. “I’m only 18, you know. There’s no way we’re thinking about linking our bloodlines right now.”

Imogen smiled as if she knew something Clary was yet to figure out. “Either way, I’m glad Jace has found someone like you, Clary. But you are right, there are images and traditions to uphold so I’m glad we’re on the same page with that.”

Clary managed a smile, unsure of how to take Imogen’s words. She didn’t get to reply before Imogen spoke again. 

“I knew your mother, you know. If you ever want to learn more about her as a Shadowhunter, come find me.” She squeezed Clary’s shoulder comfortingly and Clary smiled in reply. “For now, I have a meeting with Maryse, so I must be off.”

Alec spared a look at Jace, who was clenching his jaw, his eyes on Clary. She didn’t even glance at him and Alec saw Jace deflate slightly, something only he would’ve picked up on, as if he could feel it. 

Jace blinked, breaking his concentration on Clary and let out a low breath. “It’s fine, Alec. I need to hunt down a lead on Sebastian anyway.” 

Jace left without another word, and he might as well have not been there since Clary didn’t acknowledge him at all. 

“See? All sorted,” Clary said with a shrug of her shoulders. “You can come or I’ll go alone.” 

Alec stared at her, unsure on how to go about this. He was Jace’s parabatai and he never wanted to see him in pain, but he was also the leader of this Institute and he knew having two important Shadowhunters not talking to each other was a liability. 

He exhaled slowly. “You can’t ignore him forever, you know.” 

“I’m not,” Clary said, shrugging her shoulders. 

Alec tried hard not to roll his eyes. “Oh no? So walking out of a room every time he enters is not ignoring him?” She gritted her teeth and he knew he had to try a different approach. “You know you’re not the only one who got hurt at the Seelie Court.”

“I know I hurt Simon--”

“I’m not talking about him,” Alec said quietly. “Have you ever stopped to think about how Jace feels?” 

“Look, if you’re trying to guilt me into talking to him because you’re his parabatai then you’re wasting your time.” Clary folded her arms defensively. “He wasn’t the one who had to kiss another person in front of their boyfriend.” 

Alec shrugged a shoulder. “No, he only had to kiss a girl who he knows he can’t have, all the while hearing her say this means nothing... because that wouldn’t suck or anything- having something you’ve always wanted but it being fake and for all the wrong reasons.”

Alec tried to bite his tongue, tried to stop himself, but he couldn’t take their heavy silences anymore. They needed to sort out their problems because there were bigger issues at hand. And he knew Jace would never try and make this harder for Clary, he would always put his own feelings aside for her. 

“What happened between me and Jace is ancient history,” Clary said, her voice shaking slightly. 

Alec raised his eyebrows. “For you maybe. Just because you moved on, doesn’t mean Jace did.” 

“So what do you want me to do? Kiss and make up with him?” Clary argued accusingly. 

“All I want, is the both of you to stop sulking and focus on the bigger picture,” Alec shot back instantly. “If you both put the same amount of energy into finding Sebastian that you do in trying to stay out of each other’s way, then maybe we would have found him by now.” 

Clary opened her mouth to reply but Alec stopped her by raising his hand. “You can feel what you want, Clary, I’m not punishing you for that. But we’re not going to be able to defeat Valentine if we can’t work together. You don’t have to like Jace, all I’m asking is that we work as cohesive team, alright?”

Clary exhaled and nodded, as if she knew deep down Alec was right- all her problems were minuscule compared to what they were about to face. 

Alec put a hand on Clary’s shoulder and to say she was surprised was an understatement. He’d never shown her anything like this before. He held her gaze and Clary bit her lip nervously. “Look,” he said softly, “Lake Lyn can wait an hour, why don’t you go see Simon. I think you need to sort that out before anything else.”

“How did you--”

He gave her a half smirk. “I have a warlock boyfriend and a sister who likes to gossip. I also happen to be Head of this Institute. Trust me, I know everything.” He squeezed her shouldr comfortingly before dropping his hand and nodding towards the door. “Take some time, get yourself back together and then come back here ready to work, ready to take down your psychotic family, okay?”

“Okay,” Clary said quietly before giving Alec a small smile. “A surprising chat, but one I think I needed nonetheless.” 

Alec grinned. “Having Issy as a sister, you kind of get used to dealing with boy drama.” He gestured to the door. “Now get out of here.” 

+

Truly thinking Alec was about to kill him, Jace brought a knee up into his back. Alec grunted in surprise and Jace was able to shove him off. Alec went sprawling and Jace tried quickly to rake in as much air as he could. He ignored the tingling of the cut on his throat and kept an eye on Alec. 

“Alec, please, it’s me. It’s Jace,” he said lowly. 

Alec made another lunge for Jace, but Jace managed to dodge him at the last second. Alec lunged again and this time, he wasn’t quick enough. The two went to ground with a gross thud. Alec punched Jace, once, twice, and then a third time. Jace felt his eyebrow split in the impact. 

“Alec,” he whispered desperately, lifting his head up as the blood dripped down his face. 

“Demon!” Alec growled, pulling out his dagger once again. “Abomination!”

Jace’s eyes fluttered in defeat and his head fell back to the ground, deflated. “Kill me then,” he croaked. “I don’t want to be alive if we’re on different sides, Alec.” 

Alec put the tip of the dagger to Jace’s heart. He pushed it in and blood appeared around the edges. Jace drew in a sharp breath. “I’m going to kill you,” Alec seethed.

And Jace didn’t care anymore. Jace had thought he once had demon blood, and he wasn’t surprised when he found out. Because he was broken. And he wasn’t capable of loving. He wasn’t capable of emotion. But then he discovered he had pure angel blood, and it didn’t make sense, because how could he have something so pure and be so damaged? 

“Do it then,” Jace said quietly. “You’d all be better off without me.”

If this is what made Alec snap out of his hallucination, then so be it, because Jace could deal with that. Could deal with dying if it meant Alec lived. Because the only way he’d be able to stop Alec was by killing him, and he could never do that. Alec was twice the man Jace could ever be, so he was okay with this. He just wanted Alec to be okay, no matter what. 

Alec dug the blade in deeper, testing Jace. 

“Do it,” Jace said, his voice rising. He lifted his head and looked directly at his parabatai. “DO IT!”

And then all of a sudden Jace’s eyes were glowing gold, and that pure angel blood coursing through him was set alight. And he felt his iratze rune burning and he felt the cut on his throat heal over. And he felt the power travel to his parabatai bond. And all of a sudden, Alec’s eyes were a bright gold, and the dagger slipped from his hands. And the wound that Alec had caused healed over too. 

Just as Jace’s eyes faded back to normal, Alec’s did too, and all of a sudden there was no pain there, no fury, and no hatred. His parabatai looked like himself again. 

“Alec?” Jace said, his voice coarse. 

“Jace?” Alec’s breathing was heavy. “Wh-What happened? I was going to kill you. I couldn’t stop myself. I... I wanted to kill you.” 

A tear slipped from Jace’s eye. Relief. Disappointment. Happiness. Fear. A whole range of emotions washed over him and he couldn’t make sense of any of it. “I know,” Jace breathed. “I know.”

“How did you... I felt some kind of energy through our bond. I think... I think it healed me,” Alec whispered, as if he thought he was being crazy. 

Jace nodded slightly. “I activated my iratze rune, and I think you got some of its power through our parabatai bond. You were hallucinating, and it healed you.”

Then all of a sudden Alec was grabbing at Jace, pulling him into a bone crushing hug. “I didn’t mean what I said. It’s hazy, but I remember. You’re not a demon. I need you, Jace. I would never,” Alec hiccuped, “I would never want you dead.” 

Jace hugged his parabatai back tightly. “I know, Alec.”

“I’m so sorry,” Alec said. 

“I’m just glad you’re okay,” Jace replied, meaning every word. “We’re okay.” 

And even though Jace had been so close to dying, he would’ve let Alec do it. But he would never tell Alec that, so he kept his mouth shut and hugged his parabatai, glad he was finally okay.

+