Forgetting the Past

Chapter Six: At Lucifer's Right Hand

For a moment, Clary stood in numb shock. Her lungs rejected the idea of breathing, her limbs refused to moved. She suddenly felt herself stumbling backwards, balanced only by Jace's arms, but regained some sort of composure. Her legs wobbled, as if the ground beneath her was shaking and might crack open at any moment.
Sebastian. The man who had beaten, whipped, and raped her, the person who had murdered her daughter in her crib and threatened the lives of the ones she loved. He stood right in front of her, grinning down at her, challenging her. She looked around at her family and friends, who either looked stunned by his presence or worried about her.
Something in Clary snapped, then. He was standing right there, right in front of her, and he would hurt the people she loved. She knew that was true. The only reason he had held back before was because of her bargain, and that very agreement to keep them safe was proof that he could use them against her. She had risked herself to protect them; now he could turn that trait back against her. Blind rage overtook Clary, and she shook Jace's arms off of her. Baring her teeth and narrowing her eyes in unadulterated hatred, she whipped a seraph blade out from her weapons belt and bolted toward the platform. She hurdled the four stairs in one jump, screaming out the name of it so furiously that, for a moment, the angelic blaze drowned out the scarlet glow of the pentagram. "Nakir!"
But her race toward him was abruptly cut short when somebody's arms grabbed her by the elbows and stopped her right at the edge of the pentagram. Clary tried to pull away, but Jace's rough hands wouldn't budge.
"Clary!" He shouted, though she was right in front of him. She panted hard, both from the running and from her vicious need to rid Sebastian of his cold, dark heart right then and there. He stood calmly in the center of the formation, his eyebrows arched in mock surprise.
"Couldn't wait to see me, Clarissa?" He asked. She growled at him through her teeth like an enraged animal, struggling pointlessly against Jace.
Sebastian chuckled, which made her stomach turn over sickeningly. "Don't be so barbaric, little sister. That's not how you treat a Prince of Hell."
"A what?" She asked incredulously.
"You know, a Prince of Hell. A demon who rules under Satan. But I'm more than that, really," he declared, folding his hands behind his back and taking up a rather formal air. It seemed quite fitting, what with his neatly combed hair and crisp, dark suit, except that he was entirely out of context there. One simply did not find hansom, well-dressed demon boys in abandoned subway tunnels.
"What do you mean? How are you here?" Maryse demanded.
"It's quite simple, actually. When you so kindly stabbed me through the heart," he said with a pointed look at Clary, "it burned out my demonic nature. Now, you know that demons don't die, really, so that part of me took this form." Sebastian gestured to himself. "Lucifer was quite pleased with my work on earth, you see, so he made me his right hand. I am above even the Nine Princes of Hell."
Clary sucked in gasp, as did most of the others, and it seemed to please Sebastian. "What do you want?" Clary hissed at him.
"Only you, dear sister."
Her stomach dropped with dread, and her pulse quickened. Every bit of anger seemed to drain out of her, along with the color in her face. But what had she expected? She had always been the thing Sebastian wanted. But now she doubted that it was because he needed or simply wanted her; he probably wanted revenge and what he couldn't have.
"No," she breathed. "I will never go with you."
At this, Lilith laughed. The sound of it was a high pitched ringing, bordering on a screech, and it sent chills up Clary's spine. She felt as if someone was dragging nails across a chalkboard. "Foolish girl," she spat. "Do you think there's any way you could say no to this kind of offer? Not only would you have power; you would rule hell as the wife of Satan's second in command!"
Clary felt chilled to the bone. "I won't do it."
"Have it your way, sister. But you will regret it every moment."
With that, both figures vanished and the glow of the pentagram went out, leaving the tunnel lit only be faint witchlight. The abrupt silence rang in Clary's ears, suffocating her. You will regret it if you do. He was going to hurt them. What had she done? She had been so determined to save herself that she had not given a thought for the people she loved, who he would hurt just to get to her. All of the people she held close were now in danger.
She suddenly felt very tired. Clary rubbed her head, holding back a flood of tears. She had never felt more helpless.
"I cannot believe-," Jace said with boiling anger. But she never found out what he could not believe, because a wave of dizziness hit her and blackness swallowed up the dim witchlight.