Forgetting the Past

Chapter Twenty-Five: Sacrafices

"Remind me again why we need to do this in the Hotel Dumort? This place creeps me out," Isabelle said. The five of them; Jace, Alec, Magnus, Izzy, and Simon, were gathered in the ballroom of the abandoned hotel, accompanied by a pile of animal carcasses Magnus had "borrowed" from a nearby butcher shop. "And why we need these dead animals."
Magnus sighed, turning to his boyfriend's sister. "We are using the animals as sacrifices in the place of actual human beings, and this hotel has been prepared for the portal many years ago. The warlock I knew- who meant to make the portal before- he put a series of enchantments and spells on the building, along with the electrum and demon metal in the walls. What took me the longest was refreshing the spells, which is now done. It's the perfect candidate for channeling a strong signal."
She silently nodded, staring at the ground. Jace wondered what they were thinking, but distracted himself by asking the warlock another question. "What do we do next?"
At this, Magnus's face looked as if it had been shadowed by a dark cloud. "We need blood," he said simply, handing a dagger to Jace. He quickly grasped the handle, bringing the silver blade to his palm. But before Jace could break the skin, Magnus stopped him.
"Not yours," he said. "Mine. Only the blood of a warlock can open the Portal."
"Then why...?" Jace questioned, holding up the dagger.
Magnus sighed. "A few drops would only open the portal for a few minutes, maybe. Not enough for you to get in and back out. Plenty of blood would open it for maybe an hour. But there's still a chance you wouldn't get out. We don't know what you will face down there."
"Why are you talking like you're not coming with us?" Alec asked in an edgy tone of voice.
"He can't be serious," whispered Simon, who, like Jace, seemed to have already realized what Magnus meant.
"Killing me would open the portal for much longer. Five, maybe six-"
"No!" Alec screamed. "No! Don't even think- we can't- I won't let you-"
"Alec, if this needs to be done to save Clary and destroy Sebastian, we have to do it."
To his own surprise, it has not been Magnus speaking those words, but Jace.
They were all silent for a moment. His parabatai gawked at him. "Jace," he whispered. "You... You wouldn't..."
"A Herondale at heart," Magnus said with grim satisfaction. "Nothing will stop you from saving Clary. Let it be that way."
"Jace, you can't do this! You wouldn't!" Izzy exclaimed.
Jace gripped the knife harder in his hand, raising the point so it was toward the warlock. His green- gold cat eyes fixed on Alec, full of sorrow and... gladness? Could he possibly be glad to die as a sacrifice to somebody else's purpose in life, the love of Jace's life?
"I love you, Alexander," he whispered. Alec pressed his lips together, so hard they turned white. Tears ran down his face and he grabbed the wrist of Jace's hand that held the knife. "Jace, don't. You don't have to do this..." His voice rasped out of his throat.
Jace jerked his hand away, turning to Magnus, who was still standing, waiting, with his eyes closed. He slashed the dagger upward, hitting his mark perfectly. The others gasped.
Scarlet blood streamed out of the wound in Magnus's neck. "What-?" He said, bringing a hand to the source. "You didn't kill me."
The granite pieces beneath them lurched, rising from the floor, like the single slab of stone it once was.
"You'll lose blood slowly," Jace said. "But you're a warlock. A wound like this won't kill you before you heal yourself."
Cracks webbed the granite floor like the noise of a giant piece of ice coming free of a larger one. They ran through the cracks old and new, splitting the heavy stone. Fire erupted along the walls, caging them in. They were sucked into a vacuum stronger than any force on earth. The walls of the building shuddered, threatening to cave in. "I have to stay here," Magnus shouted, "to keep the Portal open."
The animals were now scorched skeletons, but the fire didn't seem to touch anything else. The walls, and the five gathered in the center of the room, were untouched.
A deep rumbling filled Jace's ears. When he turned to Magnus, he saw the warlock had his hands pressed to his forehead as if resisting some invisible force. Alec questioned him with a look. "It's trying to pull me in," Magnus yelled. "I'll resist. But you two have to go."
They had a one-way connection to the demon city. That much Jace understood. If... If whatever was down there could talk to Magnus, but not physically pull him in, they could go in without monsters coming out.
A dark portal, a pitch black one, had opened on the wall opposite the heavy wooden doors of the ballroom. "We don't have much time," Jace said to his friends, who each nodded. They stepped toward the opening, and were sucked into blackness.

Jace didn't know how long they were in the darkness. It was a force that seemed to crush him inside and out, devoid of all light and sound. For what felt like an eternity he couldn't breath, couldn't move, couldn't think.
Then, just as suddenly as they had been pulled into the Portal, it spit them back out. They all tumbled onto the black, uneven floor of an enormous space. Standing up, Jace saw the walls bored through with cave-like tunnels high and low. Behind them, a black, swirling portal filled the opening of one of the holes.
"Woah," Alec said, craning his head upward. There was no ceiling; the walls only stretched up into blackness. Likewise, there was nothing to their left but infinite, empty space.
"Look," Izzy said, pointing in the opposite direction. To the right they saw something of interest. Up against another black wall was a platform holding a speaking podium and two very different thrones. One was dark, glittering with different minerals and molded around many white, human bones. The other was pure, angelic- it was the color of milk, with feathers like solid gold scattered over its surface.
Alec turned to Jace, his face now dry but still flushed. He put a hand on his parabatai's shoulder. "Thank you." Jace nodded, but his attention was taken by something else.
A sudden rumbling in the distance shattered the moment. "We need to go," Jace said, looking at the heavy doors on the backside of the platform. Just then, a thousand demons erupted from the blackness on their left.
It was the most terrifying thing they had ever seen. Their countless bodies moved like one boiling, disgusting wave, threatening to swoop up the two Shadowhunters. "RUN," Alec shouted, but the they were already sprinting away from the horror.
Jace ran full bore, channeling his angelic powers into springing off the ground and onto the stage. Simon used his vampire agility to do the same. He knelt at the top, reaching down to pull his parabatai up with him as Simon did with Izzy. Suddenly, demons began to break free of the ocean, attacking them. Jace pulled a seraph blade from his belt and brought it to life with the name of an angel. Izzy and Alec did the same, while Simon used his fangs and strength to fend of the monsters. They slashed at the demons, beheading and mutilating their bodies. None of them disappeared.
They fought their way to the doors, and when given the brief opportunity, pulled them open and ducked through the threshold.
Scratching, hissing, and pounding form the other side threatened them, but Jace, Izzy, Simon, and Alec simply leaned against the doors and caught their breath. However, there was little time to do even that.
A blood-curdling scream echoed through the halls they had just entered. Jace stiffened at the noise. He could hear a faint voice. "Stop!" It said- no, she said. His blood chilled, then boiled. It was Clary.