the apartment. Not without telling Clary that she had no idea where the book was, because well Dot must have put it somewhere when she wasn't looking to ensure it stayed hidden.

Clary also finally answers her phone that Jace kept calling, he informs her that Valentine was on his way to the apartment. That doesn't scare Clary, she just tells him that they were going to stay on a mission and find the Book of the White. Which Clary does find, in another room with books lined up against each wall there was a cookbook. One that Jocelyn used to own, and when clary flips the pages, she finds the chicken cacciatore recipe and a torn bookmark.

Clary pulls the end of the bookmark out of her pocket and holds it to the one in the cookbook. Like magic, the two torn pieces melt together, and the book starts to transform from food recipes in English to magic spells in various languages. Isabelle interrupts their moment by announcing that Valentine was in the apartment, making them all walk back towards the study ready to make it out to the hallway but before that can happen a purple portal opens at the doorway.

Walking out was Valentine and his men with blades in hand. The man leading everyone smiles at the sight of his daughter, "Clarissa. So good to see you again." 

The purple portal closes behind the three men making Valentine walk towards the redhead asking, "Where's your brother?"

"You think I'd tell you?" Clary replies as she held the book of the white

"You won't have to," Valentine says walking closer to Clary making Simon jump in front of Clary and almost attack Valentine while shouting "Stay away from her!"

Without breaking a sweat Valentine pushes Simon away making him fall to the ground. Isabelle calls out Simon's name and moves around the room ready to use her whip and she does when Valentine raises his blade to strike Simon. The electric whip around Valentine's wrist only stops his movements, but when he pulls his arm Izzy falls to the ground.

Valentine turns his attention back to Simon and is ready to strike him when Jace's voice booms through the study, "Stop!"

Valentine turns around to see Jace standing with his blade pointing at him, "This time you're not getting away."

The two men who had walked out of the portal with Valentine take hold of Simon and Isabelle, to make sure they don't move place a blade against their necks.

"Finally ready to kill your own father?" Valentine asks his son

"You abandoned me." Jace states, his hold on the blade he held still steady

Valentine wasn't worried about what harm Jace could possibly do to him, "I was protecting you. You weren't ready then, but you've grown. You've become the warrior I've trained you to be."

"You trained me well," Jace voices trying to ignore seeing Isabelle being held with a knife against her neck

"And yet, I still have so much to teach you. I brought you here for a reason. Look, fight me, and watch your friends die," Valentine says with certainty just as more of his men walk into the room pushing Alec, Magnus, and Brynne who all were being held captive

"See, you are strong," Valentine murmurs making Jace look around the room knowing he couldn't do anything if it meant harming the ones, he loves being held captive, "but they make you weak."

"Let us go." Clary bargains putting her father's attention back to her and away from Jace "You can have the book. We won't be able to stop you without it."

Valentine turns around to look at Clary with a chuckle, "Ah, Clarissa. So, like your mother. Willing to do anything for those that you love. I'm touched, but... the book was never part of my plan. I want you to wake up your mother. I know that you'll both join me eventually. It's fated."

Valentine turns back around to look at Jace who is still holding up his blade, "You ready?"

Jace looks over at Alec then to Isabelle who both had a blade to their necks and making his decision he lowers his blade, "If I go with you... promise me you won't hurt them."

"You have my word," Valentine truthfully replies

"This is insane," Clary hisses at the sight of Valentine walking toward Jace

"I'm sorry, Clary," Jace responds

"Jace..." Clary trails off her eyes watering and voices ready to break, "what are you doing? You can't be serious! Valentine is wrong. You're not like him. I'm not. You're not!"

"You don't know that, Clary. You don't know that." Jace repeats doing his best to keep his voice from showing any emotion

"Let them go," Valentine orders his men and they do as he says, no one in the room had a blade against their necks

Simon runs over to Clary and holds her as she was ready to run to Jace, "Simon..."

Isabelle takes a step towards Jace, but he sees her making him wield his blade towards her "Get back, get back."

Behind Jace Valentine opens a portal making Alec take a step forward but Jace makes him stop, "Alec, I mean it"

"Jace," Clary whispers but it was loud enough for him to hear. Valentine's men are the first to go through the portal. Valentine then takes Jace by his arm and walks him towards the portal.

"Jace..." Clary calls out handing the book of the white to Simon before running towards the portal. Brynne was ready to stop Clary but Alec takes a hold of Clary first

Jace disappears into the portal making Clary push Alec away, "What are you doing?"

"Saving your life," Alec explains ready to hold her back once more if she made a run for it, "If you enter a Portal not knowing where you're going, you'll be stuck in limbo forever."

The portal closes making Clary fall into Alec's arms and starts sobbing

◇─◇──◇─────◇──◇─◇

They return back to the Institute, Clary having yet to say a word after sobbing in Alec's arms. Brynne watches Alec walk away without a glance making her tell Clary and Simon who stood in the middle of the monitor room that she'd be back.

Brynne chased after Alec and finally stops him in a hall, they stand quietly against opposite walls for a while before Brynne speaks up.

"You might not want to hear this, but I need to say it... I fell in love with someone a long time ago and... they were human. Their name was Daveed, Camille entered my life and Daveed found out that she can turn people into vampires. To uh live an immortal life and he asked for that so he can be with me, but he didn't tell me and uh by the time I found out and him... he uh was already dead"

"He turned?" Alec asks making Brynne purse her lips and softly shake her head

With a slight pop of her lips, Brynne couldn't help her eyes water when answering, "He was buried but never emerged. Meaning Daveed is trapped under the earth... starving for eternity but its – its ancient history"

"Yeah, but what she said about you being immortal... she's right" Alec states making Brynne close her eyes knowing being immortal at one point or another got in the way of her relationships, "You watch the people you care about age and die"

"Alec I may be a warlock with powers and history you have yet to learn about but..." Brynne sighs shaking her head, "I can't see the future"

Alec doesn't say anything making her shrug her shoulders before saying, "Magnus should be waking Jocelyn soon, I need to be with Clary"

Brynne leaves Alec to think in the hallway while she walks to the Ops Center. Magnus was looking through the Book of the White and Clary looking down at her mother's floating unconscious body asks, "Do you really think this is gonna work?"

Brynne walks over to stand in between Clary and Isabelle before taking the redhead's hand in her own. While Magnus mumbles, "Let us hope." Clary turns to look at Brynne who sends her a kind smile and wink

Magnus snaps his fingers, activating his magic making a blue mist emit from his hand he had hovering over Jocelyn's body. Magnus then exclaims Jocelyn's name before speaking Chthonian as the book stated. Magnus' words raised making Jocelyn's body start to move and before they knew it the bubble broke.

Luke catches Jocelyn just in time and in his hold, Jocelyn wakes up making the werewolf whisper, "I got you."

Jocelyn's vision clears making them go wide in amazement, "Luke."

The two adults hug each other before Luke gently sets Jocelyn down on her feet making Brynne let go of Clary's hand and take a step back. Jocelyn slowly looks around until she's facing her daughter.

"Mom. Mom!" Clary chuckles her voice breaking at the sight of her mom standing before her

The mother and daughter pull each other into an embrace making, Clary whispers, "I've missed you so much."

"Oh..." Jocelyn murmurs letting go of her daughter to be able to look into her eyes, "I'm so sorry I didn't tell you about your past."

"Not, not now," Clary stutters trying to keep her "I have had enough for one day. We can talk about all that later. Right now, I just... I just really need my mom."

Jocelyn nods and pulls Clary into another hug when Clary starts crying making the mom whisper, "It's okay."

And for that moment, everything was okay

A/N: happy holidays!