The Ambassador of the Gods

9. Death

-- 18th December 2009 --

Alec woke with a shiver as cold pierced through the massive stone walls of the cabin and right through him. He opened his eyes and saw his breath misting. Clary had stopped talking just seconds ago.

Jace muttered, "Woah."

Magnus sat by Alec's feet on the corner of the bed, turning to the ruby scattered atop the altar.

Izzy stirred. "What's going on? Why is it so cold?"

Clary put her pad and pencil down on the duvet, unfurled and sat up. Her fingers found her stele on the bedside table. "Something's happening."

Izzy rolled her eyes and mouthed, "Very helpful" to Alec. Alec ignored her.

Jace drew a long deep breath, filling his lungs with the freezing air, and his eyes glittered dangerously. "It's Nico. He used this to make me drop my seraph blade."

"Or," said Magnus, turning to the front door, "it's his father."

Alec looked over Magnus's head, where the giant statue of Hades glared down at them. "Hopefully not the latter."

"Hopefully."

They didn't have to wait much longer. The two Greek fire braziers by the door extinguished, and between them darkness rose up from the ground, seethed in chaos, and then lay down again.

Where it had been was a dark figure. His boots clicked against the stone, deep and consuming. Shadow clung all over him like a great cloak. His silhouette seemed to bend the stones toward him.

The braziers flared back to life. Cold drained out of the air. Nico managed a single step forward, a mistless sigh of breath, and crumpled.

Jace caught him; the boy was ashen, one shoulder torn open and the other hand clawed apart.

Jace set him down the black stone floor and withdrew with bloody hands. For a moment he hovered over Nico, staring down. Izzy's humour was gone. She strode over like thunder in two giant steps and knelt next to Nico, ignoring the blood she got on her clothes. "He needs healing."

Her voice strained, striving for evenness. "He's going to die."

Alec stood slowly, gazing at Nico's unconscious body, and thought, He looks like Max.

Max, his little brother, dead on the steps of Alicante. Alec turned and saw that Magnus was still standing where he had been before, motionless and staring.

Jace fumbled with Nico's wrist and kept his fingers on his pulse. Clary, beside him, set her stele hard on the ground as if to physically stop herself from giving him an iratze and managed, "Healing. What kind of healing do Greeks have? He must have something here." She looked desperately up at the cabinet and its glass-walled potions.

"Elixirs and god-food," Magnus said. "Nothing that will save him now."

"The, the centaur, Chiron," said Izzy. Her eyes scanned Nico's face, trying to find an answer or an idea in it. She saw it too, Alec realised, in the tremble of her hands and the tremor of her voice. She saw the pale skin and black hair and small frame of their baby brother in a dying Nico di Angelo. "He's a healer. Some legendary mythological healer."

"He won't get here in time."

Alec hovered beyond Nico's feet, watching the blood on the floor spread. A mundane would already be dead. They probably didn't have much more time with a demigod.

"What are you doing?" Jace looked up. His eyes set into Magnus and bore holes.

Magnus turned and looked at the crushed ruby on the altar. In despair he said, "I can't do anything. He's dead."