Weeks passed without Lilith or Asmodeus's promised attack. The demons were diminishing also, but some managed to kill a few unlucky Shadowhunters. Things were beginning to look up for Idris.

Some of the shops reopened and the funerals for the deceased began to take place. The black Shadowhunting gear and battle runes were replaced with soft white clothing and runes for mourning.

Maryse finally found Clary and told her that her mother had been killed in combat and Clary had been in a state of withdrawal for the past two and a half weeks. Jace had been there of course, and so had Simon and everybody else, but nothing could ease the blow of loss. Alicante was haunted by ghosts, riddled with pain, and flooded by tears.

But above all of that, there was peace. There was a lot of tension over what Lilith would do and when she might strike, but that moment never came. So things had to go on, and life went back to normal. The wards, however, didn't weaken. But everything was calm and peaceful. They managed to relax and find peace.

They should've known better.

+++

Simon crept into Clary's room silently, wearing grey pyjamas and red socks. He carried a small tray that balanced a mug of strong coffee and a ceramic bowl of warm pasta. Clary sat on the bed with her back to him, her knees tucked beneath her chin and her fingers laced. Simon could hear her sobbing, silently.

"Hey," Simon said softly, and she turned around, wiping her eyes with the heels of her hands and putting on a smile. "I brought you something."

"Simon," her voice was thick with tears. Simon felt his heart break. He approached the bed slowly and set the tray down on the woollen blanket. Some of the coffee in the mug trickled down the side. "Is Jace up?"

"I haven't seen him yet," he replied. "His bedroom door is closed."

Clary's eyes were red and her cheeks were raw. They were electric green against the redness. Her hair was limp and it hung lifelessly around her face. She nodded and wiped her eyes in the sleeves of her shirt. She inhaled deeply. "I am grateful for all of this," she gestured to the room and to herself. "For trying to help me. Thank you."

Simon sat down next to her on the bed and the springs protested, and he curled his arm around her shoulder. She leaned into him and rested her head on his. "Maybe we should go somewhere today. You haven't been out of the house in nearly two weeks."

"Everywhere reminds me of her," Clary lifted her head. "I don't think-"

"We can bring Jace and everyone," Simon pleaded. "We could go to Lake Lyn and have a picnic or something," he looked down at Clary who had an expression of disbelief on her face. "It'll be fun."

Clary didn't say anything for a few minutes. They listened to the clock ticking, the voices outside the window, the sound of the shower on downstairs, Isabelle in the kitchen and Church scratching against the door frame. Simon noticed how pale she was. Finally, Clary relented. "Okay," she decided. "We can go after breakfast."

Simon smiled and squeezed her hand. "Deal."

+++

Isabelle sat across from Alec and Magnus who ate a bowl full of golden cornflakes each silently. Isabelle took a sip of her sweet coffee and listened to the silver-plated spoons clinking against the cream, ceramic bowls. Upstairs, she could hear the whizzing sound of the shower, voices and feet on the stairs. The brass door handle twisted and the door swung open, and she turned to see who it was.

"You know," it was Jace who stood in the doorway, "you three look like the miserablest people I have ever seen."

Magnus, with a mouth full of cornflakes, lifted his spoon in acknowledgement. Alec robbed a scoop of his boyfriend's cereal sneakily, and Magnus glared at him, lovingly. Isabelle scowled at Jace. "Miserablest isn't even a word."

"It is," Jace tossed a sharp dagger back and forth in his hands.

"It isn't," Isabelle snapped tiredly.

Jace raised an eyebrow slowly. "Have you ever read the dictionary? Maybe you need to write a new one. Or-"

"SPIDER!" Alec screamed and jumped onto the table in one fluid movement, pointing to the wall and brandishing a knife with a curved edge. Jace's eyes scanned the room for the spider and Isabelle stared at Alec in shock who was shrieking, "KILL IT!"

Jace threw the dagger he'd been holding, showing no emotion at all - except maybe extreme boredom - and it flashed through the air like silver lightening. Isabelle saw it whip past her face, inches from her flesh, and it flew over the jug of milk, barely missing it-

The dagger embedded itself in the wall, causing a deep crack to creep up it. Isabelle could see the severed spider; its red guts splayed across the lemon wallpaper.

Everyone dragged their eyes away from the dead spider and to Jace, who merely dusted off his hands. "Problem solved," he grinned to himself.

Alec got down off the table, almost sheepishly. Magnus gaped at the cracked wall in shock; his mouth hanging open and his eyes wide. "The wallpaper," Magnus said in disbelief, anger coming into his tone. He whirled on Jace. "Do you even know where I got that wallpaper?"

Jace retrieved the knife from the wall, yanking it out with force. "Ikea? I hear they have a sale on at the moment."

"Peru!" Magnus cried. Everyone stared at him in confusion. Magnus ran a hand through his blue, spiked hair. "I'm banned from Peru."

"What?" Alec gasped. "What did you do?"

Magnus only sighed and shook his head at the wallpaper. Jace poured himself some cornflakes and crunched on them without milk, turning the metal spoon over in his hand as he ate. Isabelle rolled her eyes, and then the door opened again.

Simon entered the room. His brown hair was ruffled and he looked visibly tired. He nodded to Isabelle with a tight smile, but his eyes were full of nervousness. Jace stood up and pushed the chair back. It squealed on the tiles.

Jace saw the flash of red hair he'd been hoping to see come out from behind the doors of her bedroom for weeks.

"Clary," he said gently. Clary came into the rooms with her hands knotted tightly together.

"I'm sorry," Clary said. Her voice was taut, like a wire. Behind the red hair shielding her face, two emerald green eyes shone back at everyone in the room. Her shoelaces, Jace noticed, were tight and double-knotted, and the cuff of her pants was stained with red blood. Clary brushed the hair from her face and Jace's saw the shadows beneath her eyes, the hollowness of her cheeks, and her chapped lips; red and raw. "I-"

"You don't need to explain yourself," Magnus told her lightly. "We understand."

Clary nodded, but something was still bothering her. Jace wondered what it was. Pushing the cornflakes aside, he pulled back the chair next to him and gestured for her to come and sit beside him. When Clary laid her eyes on him, he could feel the magnet that pulled them closer and his heartbeat quickened. Clary approached the chair silently, and sat down.

"Jace," her voice was very quiet. "I need to tell you something."

Jace couldn't help but notice all of the unusual runes on her arms and neck. They stood out blackly, unfamiliarly, and boldly. He tried to see what their meanings were, but he was not Clary, and he did not have the gift of runes. He could only imagine her loss; the pain and the grief. Jace could see her agony in her face and he felt his heart weep for her.

"What do you want to tell me?" he asked gently. Clary shivered, although she was wearing a thick cardigan that was zipped up to her chin. A strand of red hair fell into her face.

"While I was in my room," she began slowly, "I tried making different runes to see if they would take away the pain. I tried everything. But one rune that I drew," Clary rolled up her sleeve and pointed to a Mark that was boldly drawn on the inside of her elbow. It was soft, like a lullaby, but there was something striking about it. Something dangerous and alluring. "It did something to me."

Jace gripped her hand impulsively. "What happened?"

"It made me see into the future," she explained. "I don't know if it's far or near, but I'm hoping that it's very, very far away. Jace," she bit her lip, "it was terrible. Darkness ruled over Idris and blood stained the cobbles. People screamed and bodies- there were bodies everywhere. Disfigured bodies. I was there in the vision too. I saw myself look to you, and you had blood on your face and your eyes were filled with tears, and suddenly there was a massive explosion. It was so huge that it rocked me out of the vision, but I felt its heat upon my skin and I felt your hands grab me."

Jace released her hand and he suddenly felt cold. "It's Lilith," he whispered. "She isn't finished here. She is going to come back and destroy us."

The clock on the wall chimed for 9am and Magnus stood up to go for a shower. Alec began to clear away the empty bowls. Simon and Isabelle were in a deep conversation about parabatai. Clary looked at Jace solemnly with a serious expression. "Maybe Lilith never left."

+++

Light drops of rain fell from the sky and pattered softly on the ground. Emma could see blood in the cracks between the stones, despite the Clave's best efforts to clean up Alicante and rid it of the horrific memory of bloodshed and war. Her silent feet paced down Whitehall street, her hands concealed in the long sleeves of her draping coat, and her hood shielding her face. Across the street, there were a few Shadowhunters. Some were huddled together in conversation, some were washing the fronts of their shops, and some were sitting on small chairs, polishing their weapons.

No one noticed Emma as she quietly glided through the street. She wanted to get away. She wanted to escape.

Birds chirped loudly in the turrets of old-fashioned buildings and the sun reflected off the sharp glass of the Demon Towers. Emma shielded her eyes from its shine. She had had enough of the days that she couldn't make herself get out of bed, the days she willed herself to be invisible during breakfast and dinner, and the days in the training room that she only wanted to be alone and toss knives.

She wanted to be away from Jules.

There it was again; the stab of longing and yearning in her chest for him. The whole situation had gone too far. They were parabatai, but she felt like she couldn't be that anymore. She was slowly falling in love with him. And falling in love with your parabatai is strictly forbidden. This love felt like she was walking through a spinning room littered with broken glass and nails blindfolded and in the cold. This love was crushing her.

Her left foot skidded on cobbles suddenly, and her leg twisted beneath her and she felt the weight of the heads of the people standing in doorways cast their eyes upon her. The hood fell into her eyes.

Breathe, she told herself. There's no one looking at you. Stand up, Emma.

Emma breathed deeply through her nose and sighed, pushing herself back onto her feet. Nobody said a word to her, and she was thankful. She didn't feel like talking to people now. She fixed her hood and ran for Brocelind Forest.

+++

Click.

The bathroom door shut softly. Beneath Isabelle's bare feet, some of the tiles were cold, and she shifted her weight from her left leg to her right. She padded to the full length mirror. Her breath seeped out in a gasping fog as she undressed and her skin prickled against the cold. Isabelle reached out a hand and placed it on top of the radiator on the other side of the room and cursed under her breath. It was cold.

She sat in front of the mirror wearing just her purple silken bra and panties, her hot breath fogging up the glass. She traced runes absentmindedly on the mirror and looked into the reflection of her own dark eyes. They were wide and deep brown, nearly black, and there was a ring of mascara beneath them. Isabelle wiped it away carelessly.

She turned her attention to her arms; her scarred arms, bruised and flecked with silver from battles. She was proud of those scars. They reminded her of who she was. She was a Shadowhunter. She was a Lightwood. She was a-

Isabelle froze and realise her mistake, and she tasted acid in her mouth. Lightwood. But I'm not a Lightwood, she shivered. I'm a Morgenstern.

Isabelle Morgenstern. She felt like she was the star of some sick joke and she wanted to punch something. It was as if someone was repeatedly stabbing her with an awl in her heart over and over and over relentlessly.

Clary and Sebastian, she remembered. They're my siblings. Sebastian who murdered Max and who almost destroyed the world. Who almost took Simon away from her. Balling her fist, she drove it into the wall next to her with a scream. "Argh!"

Somebody knocked on the bathroom door. "Izzy?" it was unmistakably Alec.

She was breathing heavily, and he could probably hear her. "Not now, Alec."

"Can I come in?" he asked and that jolted her. She nearly laughed at the ridiculousness of it. It sounded wrong in all levels that her brother would come into the bathroom with her when she was only in her underwear. But this was Alec, and Isabelle knew that he only wanted to help her.

"Come in," she sighed. The door handle twisted and it opened enough to let Alec in. Isabelle hadn't bothered to lock the door, because it was her room and her bathroom and she hadn't really expected visitors.

Alec closed the door and sat down next to her. He didn't look surprised that she was half-naked with a surly expression on her face. He leaned into her so that their shoulder were touching. "Aren't you cold?"

"Freezing," she agreed, not taking her eye off herself in the mirror. "Mainly because someone forgot to turn on the heating."

She elbowed Alec. A smile crept up his face slowly. "Sorry."

Isabelle found herself smiling a little. She loved her brother. At least, despite her being a Morgenstern and him a Lightwood, they still had each other. The smile drained off her face after that thought. It was like it was branded to her flesh. Morgenstern. Morgenstern. Morgenstern.

"Look," Isabelle said, resting her chin on her knees. "Even though I'm not your full sister, and I don't really have a right to the Lightwood family name, I don't want to be Isabelle Morgenstern."

"Izzy-"

"Clary and Sebastian are my brother and sister too," she said as her breath hissed out between her teeth. Even though it was six months ago, Isabelle still couldn't bring herself to say Jonathan. He was forever known as Sebastian, and nothing could change that. "I have Clary, Sebastian, Max," she swallowed hard. "And you."

Alec wrapped his left arm around her shoulders. "You'll always have me. And Clary, too."

"I just don't want to be a Morgenstern. Anything else but a Morgenstern," Isabelle fixed her bra strap.

Alec looked at his hands thoughtfully. On the back of his right had was a permanent voyance rune, standing out blackly on his pale skin. "Maybe," he said after a while, "you won't have to be a Morgenstern forever."

"How's that?" her heartbeat thundered inside her chest.

"If you...marry anybody later on in your life. You can change your name then."

She thought about marrying Simon. It made her heart feel warm and fuzzy and her eyes turned glassy. It made her smile. She would be Isabelle Lovelace. It had a nice sound to it. Suddenly, something dawned on her and she whirled on her brother.

"Magnus!" she gasped.

Alec looked visibly shocked. He looked behind him to see of Magnus had entered the bathroom, but he wasn't there. He turned back to Isabelle, his brow furrowed. "Isabelle, no. Magnus is mine."

"By the Angel," Isabelle rolled her eyes. Could he really be so stupid? "I don't want Magnus. I meant," she mock-punched his solid arm. "Didn't you say that you were getting married to Magnus?"

Isabelle gazed into his pansy-blue eyes. Alec's cheeks turned a slow, dark crimson, starting at his neck. He knotted his fingers tightly together, so tight that they turned white. His shoulders hunched.

"Well?" she pressed, trying to ease the tension. "Are you?"

When she was greeted by silence again, she shoved him into the wall that she had punched moments before, hard. His head made a thunk noise on impact and Isabelle prodded his flat stomach. "Talk!"

"No!" Alec said loudly. He rubbed his head and clutched his shoulder.

"No, as in you're not getting married, or no as in you're not going to talk?" Isabelle snapped. She didn't know why she was so agitated; she just really didn't like being ignored. Alec remained unresponsive.

She sighed. Isabelle flicked out her hand and let her electrum whip lace itself around his wrists and bind then together. Alec clenched his teeth. He gasped in surprise and pain. "We're not getting married."

The whip went tighter. "Why not?"

Blood ribboned down his arms; dark red against his pale skin. Alec looked at the ceiling. "We were never getting married. You can't tell anyone this, but..." he trailed off and sucked in a deep breath, wincing. "But Magnus wants to try and take away his immortality."

The hold of the whip eased on Alec's wrists and it slid to the floor. Alec rubbed his arms on his jeans. Isabelle looked at him in confusion, her mouth open slightly. Her hands dropped to her sides. "What?"

"He doesn't want to live forever anymore, Iz. And he needs my help," Alec said.

"Why did you not just tell me?" Isabelle exclaimed. "I think you're crazy, by the way, but you could've told me about it."

Alec shrugged. His wrists were still slick with blood, but he chose to ignore it. "I didn't want everyone to tell me it's a bad idea."

Downstairs, Isabelle could hear voices talking loudly and then a door shut heavily. Someone was arguing again. "It is a bad idea," Isabelle concluded. "But just be careful. I don't want to lose my only brother, and I don't want my only brother to have a broken heart."

They smiled and joined hands in silence. Then, from downstairs, someone screamed.

+++

In less than two minutes, Isabelle was wearing a pair of dark blue jeans and a yellow tee. She slid her toes into the boots at the door. Alec drew an iratze on his wrists and took some weapons out of her closet. Isabelle took two seraph blades and ran down the stairs. Alec was close behind.

The scream came again; loud and shrill. Masculine. It was coming from the kitchen. Isabelle stood behind the door, listening. Alec nodded to her, and they burst the door open. Isabelle looked around the room and squinted through the dim light. She sucked in her breath.

"Simon?" she whispered. "By the Angel, what's going on in here?"

Alec stood at her side, his seraph blade dropping to the floor. Isabelle flicked the switch to turn the light on.

Jules Blackthorn sat on the floor with his knees tucked up to his chin and tears running down his face. Shattered glass lay at his feet. He wiped his eye carelessly, staring at the cold tile floor. Isabelle shifted her gaze to Simon.

"Men problems," he shrugged. "Listening to them is surprisingly therapeutical."

"Alec, is that you?" called a voice down the hall. It was Magnus.

Alec turned and peered out the kitchen door. "Yeah, I'm here."

He made