Lost || Jace Herondale

THREE

My body refused to wake. It was as though my mind had been trapped; I couldn't feel the muscles in my eyes to open them. Nor my arms to lift them. Muffled voices danced into my ears and all I wished to do was hear them.

My fingers twitched and I couldn't tell if it was voluntarily. I tried to force my eyelids open, them fluttering shut immediately. I screamed at my body to get up, to move and find out who the voices belonged to. They were becoming too clear to be in my head. 

"The Clave should be informed. They need to know we've found the necklace and about the girl." A voice I began to recognise as Alec's spoke. 

The conversation was became clearer the harder I focused - causing my head to ache. 

"We can't tell the clave Alec!" Jace whispered harshly, "you know the lengths they will go to to get information. We have to keep this to ourselves until we get a chance to speak to her and figure out her place in all of this."

"I don't like this." Alec sighed, "but as head of the institute, I suppose considering Mum and Dad are in Alicante, we could handle this ourselves. Our way. I don't want to rope this girl into this any more than she needs to be. She's been through enough."

My head was pounding with confusion and fear. I tried not to wince at the feeling but failed, my head twitching to the side.

"It's strange, she has no warlock mark, no runes, no seelie magic, nothing. And if she had the sight we would have known surely. If she's this important to valentine how has she managed to keep hidden for so long?" Izzy voiced. The others agreeing along with her. Suddenly she paused and the room became an eerie quiet. "She's waking up." Izzy stated, holding her breath.  

"Hey, its okay. Can you hear me?" I heard Jace come to my side, grasping my hand in his gently. He squeezed tentatively and I weakly tried to pull my hand away. 

Slowly but surely, I opened my eyes - squinting at the bright lights. I took in my surroundings, I laid on a white bed with silky soft sheets. I was the only patient in the room despite the number of beds uninformedly lined up against the wall. The steady heart monitor spiked, matching my growing anxiety. "Where am I?"

"You're in the Infirmary." Jace kept a firm hold on my hand, trying to gage my reaction with his glowing amber eyes. "Do you remember what happened?"

"I-" I took  a moment to recall the events that had occurred and my mind was filled with the memory of being attacked by men and those same men being slaughtered by the blond in front of me. "You killed them. You kill- you're a murderer." 

I backed myself up against the headboard as he released my hand. Bringing my knees tightly to my chest, I wrapped my arms around them. 

Jace paused, trying to collect the right words to respond. "Yes. I did kill them. And I would do it all over again because our job now, is to protect you." 

"What do you mean?" I asked as my lip trembled, "please, I don't understand. The pandemonium was robbed. The men just didn't want a witness, that's why they attacked me."

"No, those were circle members." Alec explained, "shadowhunters."

Their eyes widened at my confused expression. "You don't know what we are? Who we are? You clearly have the sight, so you must have had questions seeing shadowhunters, demons and warlocks waltzing around New York?" Izzy questioned.

"I know how it sounds. But I'm not naïve. People can't ask questions in the pandemonium. Asking questions will send you six feet underground on an unmarked grave. You're a part of a gang or something right? So you're going to kill me for knowing about you?" My eyes were wild, but deep down I had accepted that this would only end with my blood on the floor.