𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧

She went straight to bed, her heart beating fast and praying to the Angel that she would be able to sleep at least for some hours. Her plan, however, was quickly butchered by Jace, who had decided it was a great idea to wake them all up at the crack of dawn. Well, in truth, it was Isabelle and not Jace who had come into Aria's room to wake her up, telling her that the boy had a matter of life or death he wanted to talk about.

Aria, whose brain was barely working at the moment, pleaded for Isabelle to spare her the suffering and to just tell her everything about it later, but the girl was not about to put up with it all herself and literally pushed the girl tot he library, in her pyjamas.

Aria stood at the door for a second, taking everything in. Simon was nowhere in sight, even though he had stayed there the previous night; Isabelle, Clary, Jace and Hodge were dressed but Alec was still wearing his pyjama as well, which made Aria feel a bit better.

"What's this all about?" she asked, walking up to Alec and taking a seat besides him, her head on his shoulder and her eyes closed.

"Clary says she knows where the Mortal Cup is."

"I'm sorry, what?" Suddenly, every ounce of sleep was out of her body and she sat up straight, looking at the redhead. "And why does she know where it is?"

Everybody looked at her, clearly catching the venomous tone, but Jace didn't do so much as acknowledge her presence.

"I don't really see what any of this has to do with us," Alec said, his hair covering half of his face. "I thought the search for the Cup was in the hands of the Clave now."

"It's just better if we do this ourselves." Jace was clearly impatient, which he proved pacing up and down. "Hodge and I already discussed it and that's what we decided."

Isabelle twirled one of her pink ribbons in her hand, "well, I'm game."

"Aren't there operatives of the Clave in this city right now looking for the Cup? Pass the information to them," Aria intervened. Normally, she would be up for an adventure, but this certainly did not concern them and it was completely out of their remit.

Jace gulped before answering, "it's not that simple."

"It is simple." Alec's patience was already thinning. "This has nothing to do with us and everything to do with your— your addiction to danger."

"I don't understand why you're fighting me on this."

"Because it's mad, Jace," Aria concluded. 

Jace's eyes travelled from Alec to her and back to Alec again, but it was impossible to discern what was going on in his mind. After a few seconds, he began to speak again, explaining how, while Dorothea did not trust the Clave, she trusted them (to which Clary added that she was not very sure Dorothea liked him at all). The blond boy continued trying to convince Alec, explaining how much power and glory retrieving the Cup will bring them. Sometimes, it looked as if Jace did not know Alec at all.

"In this case," Hodge spoke for the first time since the conversation had spoken, "Jace is right. If the Clave were to come to the Sanctuary, it would be a disaster. Dorothea would flee with the Cup and would probably never be found. Jocelyn clearly wanted only one person to be able to find the Cup and that Is Clary and Clary alone."

"Then let her go alone," Alec muttered. Isabelle let out a gasp whereas Aria did her best to conceal a laugh. In less than twenty-four hours, Alec had threatened Clary to kill her and had proposed to send her to a sure death. Not in character for him but that didn't mean that Aria didn't like it, mainly because she didn't like Clary.

Jace, who had until now been leaning on a desk, stiffened. His eyes, cool enough until that moment, turned downright cold as he stared at Alec up and down. "If you're afraid of a few Forsaken, by all means stay home. Same goes for her." He pointed at Aria with a movement of his head, not even looking at her.

"Have you forgotten my name? You seemed to know it well enough last night." Isabelle choked at the hearing of that sentence and Clary's head swivelled towards Jace as Alec assured them he was not afraid. Jace simply shot her a look while he said that the matter was settled, they were all together in that.

Hodge was quick to change topics, claiming that Clary did not have to go if everything sounded too dangerous to her, but the redhead answered that she wanted to find it, not for her but for her mother. Aria could not help but wonder what their parents would say if they were there. They would probably advise her to stay home, but they weren't there so there was nothing they could do.

"Don't worry," Isabelle spoke, "you'll be fine. We can handle a couple of Forsaken. They're crazy but not very smart."

"And a lot easier to deal with than demons. Not so tricksy. Oh, and we're going to need a car. Preferably a big one."

"Why?" Aria asked. "We've never needed one before."

"We've never had to worry about having an immeasurably precious object with us before," Jace explained, his eyes avoiding her like she was the plague. "I don't want to haul it on the L train."

"There's taxis and rental vans."

Jace shook his head as he said, "I want an environment we control. I don't want to deal with taxi drivers or mundane rental companies when we're doing something this important."

"Don't you have a driver's licence or a car?" Alex asked Clary, although his gaze had not relaxed. "I thought all mundanes had them."

"I never passed my exam, I really couldn't be bothered."

"Fat lot of use she is," Aria whispered at Alec, making him chuckle lightly. However, she had not been as subtle as she had hoped to because Clary heard her and told her, in no very nice manners, that at least her friends could and that Simon did have a licence.

"He usually drives Eric's van. Like, to gigs and stuff. Sometimes Eric lets him borrow it for other stuff. Like if he has a date."

Jace snorted. "He picks up his dates in a van? Aria was in for a wild ride."

"It's a car," Clary continued, not even letting Aria talk back to Jace. "You're just mad Simon has something you haven't got."

"He has many things I haven't got. Like nearsightedness, bad posture and an appalling lack of coordination."

And the fucking audacity, Jace. How could he imply that Aria would do anything with Simon knowing full well that she was head over heels for him? Well, or that she had been. Not anymore. Aria was forcing herself to get over her dumb crush, although that didn't mean hooking up with Simon. She would never do that to a person, unlike others. 

Aria wasn't too keen on them calling Simon and using him for their own purposes, especially with how things had gone with him the last time they had seen each other, but Clary was already on the phone with him at Jace's behest. In the meantime, she noticed that Isabelle had sat beside her.

"What was that all about?" she asked her. "Anyway, I'm glad you're learning how to be a bad bitch. I've spent many years trying to teach you and now you're finally picking up."

"Yeah, well, I saw Clary coming out of his room last night. Not even hours after being in mine," she explained in a hushed voice. "So I went and told him that what had happened was whatever."

"I'm super proud of you for standing up for yourself. Only... don't kill him when we're fighting for the Cup together."

"He'll do it," Clary stated as soon as she got off the phone, which was their cue to go for breakfast.

━━━━━━━━

All of them walked to the kitchen in complete silence except for Aria and Isabelle, who were discussing all the fighting tips Alec had given them in their own training sessions. As parabatai they had to be in perfect sync so it was paramount that they knew what techniques to implement and what not to do, even though it usually came like second nature to them.

Once they got to the kitchen, they engaged in their usual routines of setting up the table and preparing breakfast, each of them doing their own task in silence and without interrupting one another, like they had been doing it their whole lives. Yet again, they had. Aria stopped to think what it would look like to Clary, someone who had just come into this complicated world, seeing them do everything like it was second nature.

"Any plan we should be aware of?" Isabelle asked Jace as they were all sitting at the table with their breakfast in front of them already. Jace had a gift for coming up with plans only he knew about and then getting annoyed when the others did not follow them.

"Get in and kill all the Forsaken while Clary takes the Cup," he explained, his mouth full of scrambled eggs. "Should be simple enough for all of us."

"How many do we think there will be?" Aria questioned him, trying to discern what weapons she should take.

"We're not really sure, but expect a shit ton of them, really."

The remainder of breakfast went as usual and, as soon as the plates were empty, they virtually threw the dirty dishes into the sink and ran out of the kitchen to their rooms to get changed.

Aria stood in front of her wardrobe, trying to decide what to wear. The mission was not official (and probably not legal either) so it was not worth it taking out the fighting uniform. Instead, she opted for some black cargo pants and a long-sleeved T-Shirt as well as some combat boots, for the sake of not having more exposed skin that was necessary in case any demon should decide to attack her. She quickly put her hair into a high ponytail, not taking too much time fixing the flyaways and took her stele.

After a quick trip to the weapon room, in which she took her two favourite blades and put them in the thigh sheaf she had put on, Aria walked to the library where Alec and Jace were fighting about the latter's runes. Jace was left handed, so it was always difficult for him to draw the iratzes in his left arm.

When she opened the door, both boys turned to look at her for a second as she walked up to them, asking if they needed any help. It did not matter how bad were the terms they were in at the moment, they were all conscious of what they were about to do and, therefore, of the need to be in perfect harmony for at least a couple of hours.

"Yes, please. Draw the iratze on him yourself or else I'm going to kill him," Alec pleaded, already fed up with the blond boy. He stood aside and handed Aria the stele. She looked up at Jace, silently asking whether it was okay for her to do the task, and she started once he nodded and held out his arm. She took perfect care tracing the lines of the healing rune, trying not to hurt Jace in the process. Sometimes, having runes drawn on you could be painful and that was something they all tried to avoid.

Once she was finished, she asked if Jace would help her draw hers. She was perfectly capable of doing it herself, but runes always turned out better if it was somebody else who drew them on you, so Jace nodded once again and took the stele when she handed it to him. He bent over her arm, his tongue in between his teeth as he traced the same lines he had just felt on his skin. However, he lifted his head when the door to the library opened once again, letting the stele slip and trace an unwanted line on Aria's arm.

"For fuck's sake, Jace," she hissed, making the boy quickly turn to look at her. Alec approached her as well, taking a look at her arm. Jace curtly apologised but handed Alec the stele as he walked up to Clary.

"What's with you two?" the tall boy whispered as he drew the unfinished mark. "I preferred it when you two were yelling at each other."

"Let's just say I'm kind of tired of being Jace's rebound and then having him act like nothing happened," Aria whispered back as she flexed her arm to get used to the marks. "But that's not important today."

"We should go downstairs," Clary told all of them. "Simon will be here any minute."

Hodge stood up from his chair, dark bags under his eyes, "may the Angel watch over you all."

They stood outside, light rain falling on their heads as they waited for Simon to pull up in the van he had managed to get. Finally, he arrived in an old beat-up yellow van that looked about to break any moment, making Aria scrunch her nose.

"That's the van?" Jace asked. "It looks like a rotten banana."

Simon honked, urging all of them to get in already, and so they did. They could see Simon crawling into the back to pull the door open for them, which revealed seats in so bad a condition that neither Aria nor Isabelle were sure they wanted to sit in them.

"Safer than being strapped to the roof," Simon answered Isabelle with a smile when she asked whether they were safe or not, "which is your other option." He nodded a greeting to Jace, Alec and Aria, making clear that he was not all too pleased about being there. Aria, however, could not help but notice that he had completely ignored Clary, even when she asked to sit in front.

Simon told them to leave all their weapons in the back and, once he had complimented Alec's bow, sat down on the driver's seat again and told them to fasten themselves.

"Okay, we all know what to do, right?" Alec whispered, forcing the four of them to put their heads closer together.

"Do we follow our usual procedure?" Isabelle questioned, looking at the three of them. They had fought together so many times that this was pure routine, they knew what to do and exactly how to do it.

They continued in this fashion until they arrived at Clary's house. By that time, it had stopped raining already and the pavement was almost dry due to the strong sun that shone upon them. Aria, Jace, Alec and Isabelle got off the van and told Simon and Clary to wait by the vehicle as they checked for any demonic activity.

They got their Sensors out and walked around the building, blades on hand in case anything happened, but the place seemed to be clear, except for a few (most likely) inoffensive Forsaken they didn't need to worry about.

Alec dragged the heavy bag out of the back of the van and dropped it on the sidewalk as he encouraged all of them to go kick some demon butt, something so out of character for Alec that Jace had to ask him if he was all right.

"Fine," he answered, not even looking at him as he left his bow and took a wooden featherstaff from which two blades emerged. Aria and Isabelle looked at each other, worry written all over their faces. Alec always fought with his bow and arrow, he was the strongest of all of them on long distances.

"But the bow..." Isabelle muttered, her voice concerned.

"I know what I'm doing, Isabelle," Alec cut her off.

Simon reached for the bow but drew his hand back as he heard a laughing group of women walking towards them. "How come I can see you guys? What happened to that invisibility magic of yours?"

"You can see us because you know the truth of what you're looking at," Aria told him, daring to speak to him for the first time since they had seen each other. Simon simply nodded and turned to look at Jace again, who was telling him to stay in the van in case they needed a getaway vehicle.

"Sunlight's fatal to demons but it won't hurt the Forsaken. What if they chase us? What if the car gets towed?"

Finally, he convinced Simon to do as he was told and all of them started walking to the building, Aria telling Simon to be careful and yell if there was any problem whatsoever.

The house smelled horrible, a clear sign that demons had been there not too long ago, although there weren't any anymore.

"I doubt the Clave will be too pleased about any of this," Aria whispered, looking around. Apparently, Clary's neighbour had been entertaining demons, and putting all of them in danger without a second thought.

"On balance, she'll probably come out of it better than we do," Isabelle continued.

"They won't care as long as we get the Cup in the end." Alec's bright blue eyes scanned the place, taking in every detail. "Especially if we slaughter a Forsaken while we do it."

Alec had never behaved like this, not a single time they had been hunting for demons, and Aria didn't know whether to be worried or excited that he ahd finally warmed up to the idea of killing a few of them, that he would finally feel the thrill that came with it.

"They're in the upstairs apartment," Jace explained. "My guess is that they won't bother us unless we try to get in."

Isabelle blew a sticky strand of hair out of her face and frowned at Clary. "What are you waiting for?"

The girl's eyes travelled to Jace, who gave her a sideways smile, encouraging to go. Aria gripped her blade tighter as she saw Clary walk up to Dorothea's door, only illuminated by Jace's witchlight. She knocked and, suddenly, the door opened, golden light spilling into the room.

The woman stood there, extravagantly dressed, quickly running up to Clary and engulfing her in a hug as she asked what had happened to her the last time they had seen each other. Both of them maintained a conversation, unheard by them at first. However, Dorothea's voice raised a bit as she looked at Jace.

"Didn't I read your tea leaves, Shadowhunter? Have you fallen in love with the wrong person yet?"

Aria stiffened at the hearing of that sentence, which prompted Alec and Isabelle to look at her. In the meantime, Jace replied that his only true love remained himself, so he was out of danger.

"I don't have time for the pleasure of anyone's company," Clary stopped the bickering between Jace and the woman and cut straight to the point. "I have to help my mother and to do that, there's something I need. It's called the Mortal Cup and Valentine thought my mother had it. That's why he took her."

"The Cup of the Angel?" Madame Dorothea said, truly astonished. "Raziel's Cup, in which he mixed the blood of angels and the blood of men and gave of this mixture to a man to drink and created the first Shadowhunter?"

"That would be the one."

"Why on earth would he think she had it? Jocelyn of all people." The woman fell silent for some seconds, as if something was coming to her mind. "Because she wasn't Jocelyn Fray at all, of course. She was Jocelyn Fairchild, the one everyone thought dead. She took the Cup and fled, didn't she? So, do you know what you're going to do? Wherever she's hidden it, it can't be easy to find and Valentine could do terrible things with his hands on it."

"We know where it is. It's only a matter of retrieving it," Jace spoke.

"Well, where is it?"

"Here," he continued, attracting everybody's eyes to him. "You have it."

"That's not funny," Madame Dorothea told him, her voice completely flat. Isabelle and Aria looked at each other, worried that Jace had spoilt everything. "You are mistaken. Both in imagining I have the Cup and in daring to come here and call me a liar."

Aria's hand unconsciously moved to grip her blade, just in case everything started moving too fast for her to react on time. However, Clary managed to get the situation under control once again, explaining that Madame Dorothea did have the Cup but that she didn't know she did. She moved forward and picked up a deck of cards that was lying on a coffee table. Shuffling through them, she finally found the Ace of Cups and showed it to everybody in the room.

They were all looking at her, so still that it seemed they were almost afraid to move. Clary asked for Jace's stele and,