Whispers--Shadowhunters(2)

XIII

                                        Chapter Thirteen-Magic and Curse.

This is bad.Olivia swallowed and looked between Jace and Ian. This is very bad.

  ''Stephen killed his own cousin?'' Ian asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

Olivia shivered. She could feel the air around them thicken with an overwhelming mix of emotions: Ian's confusion and anger, Jace's shock and disgust and guilt, Magnus's sympathy, Tessa's worry and Jem....she couldn't feel his emotions (maybe because he was a silent brother).

She herself was shocked by what Magnus had revealed seconds ago. But she was also confused. When Magnus revealed than Ian was also a Herondale, she had thought that he and Jace were brothers, children of the same parents. But that was not the case here.

''Who--whose son is Ian?'' she asked and then instanly bit her lip. This was so not the right time to ask that. She shouldn't be satisfying her own curiosity when Ian was suffering. ''You don't have to answer that--''

''Joseph and Nessa Herondale.'' Jace answered her in a whisper, still trying to comprehend this whole mess. His father had killed his own cousin. He had set fire to his house.

Why?

Why had Stephen Herondale done that? Were his crimes against downworlders and opposers of Valentine not enough for him? Hadn't he had enough innocent blood on his hands? Why did he have to be such a hideous monster?

Why did he have to be my father? Jace thought bitterly and looked at Ian before curling his hands into fists. Stephen Herondale had taken away Ian's birth parents from him. He had no right to do that. He had no right to kill as many people as he did.

''Joseph and Stephen Herondale were cousins, like Ian already said.'' Magnus explained once he saw that Jace wasn't in the state to speak any further. ''Stephen had always been a little...insecure of Joseph. Think of it has Joseph being the sunlight, and Stephen being a dark cloud. Joseph was kind, while Stephen was not. Joseph's kindness was what had drawn Valentine to appreciate him, but Joseph had always been wary of Valentine. He never befriend him, unlike most of the shadowhunters of that generation. Obviously, Joseph was the first one to realise what Valentine was doing was wrong. He was about to form a group with other few shadowhunters who had started to leave Valentine's group-- this was a year before the uprising, so some of shadowhunters had seen what Valentine truly was-- to revolt against Valentine, the Lightwoods being one of the families to join Joseph, but before he and his group of reformed shadowhunters could do anything major, Stephen set fire to his house, killing him and his wife.''

''Where was Ian? Was he---'' Olivia didn't know how to frame question that was roaming in her mind : Was Ian born by that time? Or was he in his mom's womb and, like Jace, was saved by having his mom's womb cut out? ''How was Ian saved?''

''Ian was born by that time,'' Magnus answered, understanding the question that Olivia wanted to ask. ''He was born in 1989, and the uprising happened in 1990, so he was around by that time.'' he added slowly, ''I don't know the exact details, since I wasn't present there when the fire broke out, but Robert and Maryse had said that they were there at the time. So it's possible they managed to save Ian and adopted him. Now,'' he added quickly, ignoring Tessa's glare, ''We wouldn't have been sure that Ian was Joseph and Nessa's son had I not checked his birth records and seen that there were some facts in those papers that did point to the fact that Ian is a Herondale.''

''Great job, Magnus,'' Tessa hissed at him, pointing a finger towards Ian, who looked pale with both anger and shock.

Magnus gulped. He knew Ian was going to react like this (it was a natural reaction, afterall), but somehow, seeing the kind and soft hearted Ian burning with bitter anger made the warlock want to hide under a table.