War of Hearts

Chapter 18

Val's POV

I was sitting in the Ops room with the rest of my family -minus Izzy and Madzie who was still sleeping- and Sebastian. We were all coming up with ways Valentine would try and get to the Mirror. None of us talked about where it was in front of Sebastian and for that I was grateful.

"Sorry, I'm late. I've been looking everywhere for Max. Has anyone seen him?" Izzy said as she joined us. I noticed Sabastian tense up and shot him a questioning glance.

"Have you tried the armory?" Jace asked her. "He's probably sharpening his blades for his first assignment."

"I checked." Izzy sighed and I could see the worry as plain as day. It was rare anyone of us actually let our emotions show on our face. I sighed as I knew I would be dividing my time between my hurting parabatai and my worried best friend when I helped her look for Max.

"We have more passing matters." Alec said. I took my free hand and placed it in Izzy's since Lucy had my other hand.

"After the meeting Luce and I will help you look for Max." I tell her before returning to the matter at hand. "Thanks to Dot we now have the Mortal Mirror." I spat out the warlock's name and ignored Clary's questioning look.

"And you have it at the Institute. And it's well guarded, I presume?" Sebastian asked.

"The Elite Guards are the only ones who know its location. It's safest that way." Alec told him.

"Jonathan went after Elliot and Dot to get the Mirror. Now that he knows we have it, he's going to come back for it." Clary said.

"Agreed. Report back with any possible scenarios by which Jonathan and Valentine could attempt a breach." Alec told them, since he knew Lucy wouldn't be able to concentrate and neither would Izzy until we found Max.

"I got through to him last night, Alec. Give me another chance." I begged my boyfriend.

"You took a dagger for him. That surely gained his trust. Just don't try and get yourself killed trying to save him." Alec warned.

"I won't." I tell him as I turn to look at my parabatai and sister.

"Is everything okay? You told Magnus about the Soul-Sword, didn't you?" Izzy asked Lucy. She stayed silent and Izzy looked at me and Alec. We shook our heads no for the first question and yes to her second. Lucy had barged into my room earlier this morning and we spent two hours on my bed as she cried and told me what happened. Izzy placed a hand on her older sister's shoulder. "Wow. That bad?"

"Come on let's start looking for Max." I said, pulling my parabatai up. She leaned into me as we walked around all of Max's hotspots trying to find him when I got the text from Izzy. "Come on, Izzy found Max. Took him to the Infirmary." I told her. She nodded and together we walked down to the Infirmary.

"I tried using an Iratze rune to wake him." We heard Izzy say to one of the medics. "Nothing's working." We rush to our sister's side and one of the medics looks at me. I sighed and pulled the shadows in the room towards me and let my hands hover over Max's unconscious form. I gasped as I felt the person who did it. I pulled my hands away and opened his hand that was closed. In his hand lay blonde hair.

"He found a way to track Jonathan." I whispered as Alec and Clary rushed into the room. I closed my hand around the hair and shook my head at the girls.

"What happened?" Alec asked.

"I don't know. I found him like this in my room." Izzy told him.

"Oh, my God, Max." Clary whispered.