𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭

"Somehow, I thought it would be bigger." Jace was the first one that dared to speak after a few seconds of complete silence.

"For something that has caused a shit load of trouble," Aria pointed out, "it is certainly... not impressive."

"It's a perfectly nice size," Clary said, looking at the artefact in her hand. It was the size of a normal wine glass, nothing more, nothing less.

"It's the Mortal Cup, you two, not the Mortal Toilet Bowl. Are we done now? Can we go?"

Alec nodded, but Madame Dorothea stopped them before they could take a step, claiming that the Cup was damaged. It looked fine to all of them, but the woman claimed that she could show them and advanced towards Clary. Jace, however, was quicker and put herself between the two, his hand instinctively moving to the sword at his waist.

"No offence, but nobody touches the Mortal Cup except us." His voice was calm and steady, but his fingers were inching closer and closer to his weapon.

"Now," Madame Dorothea whispered, "let's not be hasty. Valentine would be very displeased if anything were to happen to the Cup."

Jace put out his sword at the same time that Aria took her dagger out. In the same manner, both Isabelle and Alec reached for their weapons but did not take them out yet. Jace spoke calmly and slowly, telling Madame Dorothea that they were leaving, but the woman had other plans for them. She chuckled and, so quick that they barely had time to register her movement, jerked down the curtains hanging along the wall, revealing a portal. The sight beyond it was terrifying, almost apocalyptic, but they didn't have time to dwell on it.

    Jace shouted for them to get down, yanking Clary with him in the process. From the floor, they saw a dark mass strike Madame Dorothea, engulfing her as if she were a mere biscuit. Her bracelets fell on the floor before them, but Aria did not care to look at them.

    "You said there wasn't much demonic activity –you said the levels were low!" Alec whispered to Jace, who had an expression of disbelief on his face.

    "They were low."

    "Your version of low must be different from ours!" Alec shouted.

    All of them got to their feet as the dark mass continued to play with Madame Dorothea. Jace pushed Clary towards the door of the apartment as the rest of them gripped and activated their weapons. Isabelle urged for all of them to step out of that room, claiming that it wasn't big enough to fight.

    "Where the hell is my stele–?" Jace fumbled in his jacket as they all stepped into the foyer.

    "Take mine," Aria replied as she threw him her stele. Jace caught it in the air but did not have time to thank her. The building was on the brink of collapse: the floor heaved under their feet, the foyer had become detached from Dorothea's apartment and an enormous hole had opened on the wall.

    "Alec!" Jace shouted, grabbing the dark-haired boy and pulling him towards him just as an awful creature crept outside the hole and into the foyer.

    For a second, they all stopped breathing. The creature was probably one of the ugliest ones they had ever seen, with filthy bones, skeletal fingers... and all that remained of Madame Dorothea's clothes tangled on his body. It looked down at them and, in a grave voice that could have come from the depths of Hell itself, ordered them to give them the Cup.

    All of them stayed silent and, as always, it was Jace the one that spoke. "What are you?"

    "I am Abbadon. I am the Demon of the Abyss. Mine are the empty places between the worlds. Mine is the wind and the howling darkness. I am as unlike those mewling things you call demons as an eagle is unlike a fly. You cannot hope to defeat me. Give me the Cup or die."

    "Shit, Jace," Aria muttered, taking Isabelle's hand. "It's a Greater Demon, if we–"

    "What about Dorothea?" Clary spoke, making Aria wish she had stayed in the car with Simon. "What happened to her?"

    "She was a vessel only. She opened the Portal and I took possession of her. Her death was swift. Yours will not be."

    Abbadon started to move towards Clary, but Jace, Aria and Isabelle were quicker and surrounded her, Jace directly in front of the demon and all of their blades glistening in the dark. On the other hand, Alec remained frozen in place, his expression sick with horror.

    "By the Angel," Jace muttered, scanning the demon. "I knew Greater Demons were meant to be ugly, but no one ever warned me about the smell. I'm not so sure about this wind and howling darkness business, smells more like landfill to me. You sure you're not from Staten Island?"

    The demon leaped at him, giving Jace the perfect opportunity to sink his blades into its body. The demon, surprised, struck at Jace but he got to his feet as quick as a flash. However, by the way he held his arm, Aria could see that the demon had hurt him.

    Aria and Isabelle looked at each other and, with a simple nod, both darted forward and struck the demon in hopes that it would give Jace enough time to recover the wind that had been knocked from his lungs. However, the creature seemed completely unbothered by them and turned to the boy once again. Jace was already drawing out a second blade, a tetric smirk on his face. Only Jace could mock a Greater Demon that could kill him with a single blow. It didn't matter how much Aria and Isabelle hit it, Abbadon was focused solely on Jace.

    Suddenly, something put itself in between the demon and Jace, hitting the creature and making it shriek. It took some seconds for the girl to point out what it was, but by the time she realised it was Alec's featherstaff, the boy had already been hit by Abbadon and had been sent against a wall, left without moving.

    "Go check on him," Aria told Isabelle, whose eyes were glued to her brother. "I'll stay with Jace."

    "The hell you are," he replied, still staring at Alec's unmoving body.

    "For fuck's sake, Jace, just forget about everything, we've fought together plenty of times." Aria moved towards Jace, ready to strike the demon in case she needed to.

    "I don't care about all that's happened, I care about you not being in danger. Take Clary and get the fuck out."

    Aria did not listen. If she had listened to Jace all the times he had wanted to prevent her from fighting for the sake of her not being hurt, he would have been dead by now. However, the whole argument lay forgotten when Isabelle yelled for them to protect Clary, seeing that the demon was close to her. It was reaching for him but, before he could do anything, both of them flung their blades at the demon. Aria only managed to hit it in the hand whereas Jace went straight into its chest, next to the other two seraph blades he had put there before.

    "Shadowhunters," it snarled. "I shall take pleasure in killing you both, in hearing your bones crunch as your friend's did–"

    That was it for Jace. He didn't care how many things were said to him but he drew the line at his friends being insulted. He was the only one that held that privilege. He flung himself at the demon, seizing a seraph blade he had taken out of his chest. Before he could strike, however, Abbadon started to back up against the wall. It was jump or be crushed for him. He fell to the ground but the creature was quicker and it knocked Jace into the stairs.

"Jace!" Aria heard Isabelle scream. She flung another blade at the demon but he seemed completely unbothered by them. It didn't matter how many times they hit it, he remained unfazed.

"Tell them to give me the Cup," Abbadon snarled. "Tell them to give it to me and I will let them live."

"Clary–" Aria began to speak, ready to tell the girl to give it the Cup so they could get Jace back and get the fuck out of there. Who cared about a stupid Cup when she was about to see Jace be killed in front of her? But she didn't get to finish the sentence because the door opened, letting a stream of light enter the room.

Truth be told, they had completely forgotten about Simon. Not to be rude or anything but being attacked by a Greater Demon tends to do that for you. In any case, the mundane had Alec's bow and arrows strapped to his back and, with a swift movement, he drew an arrow and, using the bow as if it was second nature, let it spring free. It hit the skylight directly above the demon, letting an enormous amount of sunlight light the room up.

Abbadon screamed and staggered back, letting Jace drop to the floor. Aria ran towards him as he kept his eyes on the demon and his hand on his throat. She put her arms around him, hugging him tight. They had fought many times together and they had been in danger too many times to count but that had been the one Jace had been closer to getting killed. Shadowhunters know that they are doomed to die young, especially if they are as reckless as Jace, but that does not mean it is not scary. Aria felt Jace's arms around her, his fingers digging into the skin in her waist. They stood there a couple of seconds before Clary approached them, Jace's stele in her hand, asking whether they needed to be cured.

Both of them broke the hug but, before Aria could answer, Jace pushed Clary aside and took Aria's hand to get himself to his feet. Once they had made sure he could walk, both of them walked across the foyer towards Alec's body, Aria making sure that Jace's bodyweight was on her and not on his injured leg.

Alec's face was white, drops of blood acting as if they were freckles. He looked asleep, but they knew better. They knew what had happened and they needed to fix it as soon as possible. Jace took Aria's stele out of his pocket but he hadn't started drawing the iratze that Alec spoke.

"Did I...?" he started. "Did I kill it?"

The three of them looked at each other, pain written in their faces. None of them had the heart to tell him that he had been knocked out for the majority of the fight, but Clary beat them to it and answered positively.

    "Hold still, okay, Alec?" Aria spoke softly to him, caressing his face as Jace cut Alec's shirt and began drawing the necessary runes on his chest. Aria's eyes were drawn to Jace's hands, which moved expertly, but the iratzes were not working, no matter how much effort he put in.

    "It cut him with its talons. There's demon poison in him. The Marks can't work."

    "Take him to the hospital," Simon proposed, seeing how Alec was lying still on the floor. Both Clary and him had approached them in hopes of seeing Alec spring up to his feet so that they could leave.

    "No hospitals," Isabelle concluded. "We need to get him to the Institute."

    "They won't know how to treat him in a hospital," Aria explained, her hands still cupping Alec's face. "He's been cut by a Greater Demon."

    Simon nodded and, with Jace's help, they got Alec to his feet and helped carry him to the van, which was still sitting outside. Aria draped a dirty blanket across the backseat and they laid Alec down across it, his head on Isabelle's lap. The girl's hands were trembling, but she kept herself composed, although Aria didn't know if it was for her own sake or for everyone else's.

    "Drive fast, mundane," he said, sitting on the floor beside his friend, so close to Aria that their knees were touching. "Drive like hell was following you."

━━━━━━━━

Even though Simon was driving as fast as he could, it wasn't nearly fast enough. The traffic in New York was horrible at that time of day and the urge and worry were only making it worse for them.

    "Simon–" Isabelle spoke, her eyes leaving her brother for the first time. "What you did, that was incredible. You moved so fast. I wouldn't have thought a mundane could have thought of something like that."

    Seeing how marvelled Simon had been by Isabelle the first time he had seen her, one would think that he would drive straight into a wall at her compliment, but he seemed completely unbothered. "You mean shooting out the skylight? It hit me after you guys went inside. I was thinking about the skylight and how you'd said demons couldn't stand direct sunlight. So, actually, it took me a while to act on it. Don't feel bad, you can't even see the skylight unless you know it's there."

    "It was well done," Jace muttered.

    The conversation continued as they tried to explain to Simon that, whereas it was true that he had hurt Abbadon, he had not killed it, but the topic changed completely when Alec began to choke. Jace swore under his breath and practically yelled at Simon that they should be at the Institute already. Aria placed her hand on his knee, trying to get him to calm down, but then Simon stopped the van and they all leaped out from it, taking Alec's body himself and walking to the Institute as Isabelle carried his featherstaff and Aria opened the doors.