Scars of her Blood • Shadowhunters

Chapter 44: Switched

There was nothing out of the ordinary to find about Sebastian Verlac. He was indeed from the Institute in London. A quick call there only revealed that his family had not know where he was specifically, but they did not act like that was something unusual.

Celia sighed when she put the phone down. She did not like that she could not find anything. Of course it was good that this man did not seem to be a threat. But something about him and his story made Celia's instincts step in - and usually, those were right. What if she was missing something?

The only thing keeping Celia from spending more and more time on that question was that Alec cam back from Magnus' place with some good news. For some reason, Azazel had been there and Alec had managed to pierce him precisely with an arrow, banishing him back to the realm he came from.

Now, Celia sat in her office again, rather bored, watching Ophelia flip through a book filled with ancient Greek poetry, wondering why that was in her office. Alec had gone to the cells to interrogate Valentine some more. Everyone else was all over the place.

Celia almost flinched when Alec ripped open the door without knocking. He eyed Ophelia, who immediately moved to hide behind the book.

"Don't worry about her.", Celia spoke up, "what is it?"

Alec looked Ophelia up and down one more time before pulling Celia up from her chair and out of the door.

"Alec, what is going on?", Celia was alarmed now.

"I was just with Valentine...", Alec mumbled, "he said that he is actually Magnus. That Azazel has switched their bodies."

Celia raised an eyebrow:

"What?"

Alec started chewing on his lip:
"He knew... intimate details from our relationship."

"It's not possible, Alec. Don't let this get to your head. If he knew things that he shouldn't we need to figure out if there is someone loyal to him among Magnus' friends."

Alec nodded, still looking riled up and left Celia standing there. Celia understood why he was so concerned. Valentine was not the kind of person you wanted to have personal details about yourself and the people you loved. And it was possible for a Warlock to be helping Valentine. Even though it was incredibly contradictory, Celia had seen it happen. And of course, that information did not have to have been given up freely.

Celia re-entered the office and was faced with Ophelia looking just as concerned as Alec just did.

"What?", she asked.

"Celia... I think there is such a spell."

"What do you mean? Did you hear -", Celia stopped. Alec had not even closed the door. Of course Ophelia had heard their conversation.

"You mean a spell that makes people switch bodies?", Celia asked.

Ophelia nodded slowly.

"I have read about something along those lines before. It's a difficult curse, but I mean, it's Azazel, he could cast it without problems."

Celia turned on her heel and left the room without another word. But Alec was long gone from the corridor. This was bad. She had to find Alec as fast as possible. And Magnus. No, Valentine in Magnus' body.

But Alec was no where to be found. Finally, Celia made her way down to the dungeons. It was the only place she had not yet searched, but in hind sight, maybe the first she should have considered. When she turned the corner to Valentine's cell, she saw Inquisitor Herondale through the glass, a dagger in her hand, the blade uncomfortably close to Valentine's throat. Alec came just walking out the door.