Scars of her Blood • Shadowhunters

Chapter 51: The Mortal Mirror

Celia walked down the hallway to her own office and closed the door firmly behind her. She had not acted rationally before. And rational was definitely what she needed right now. Celia opened a drawer in her cabinet wall and pulled out a brand new phone. She always had a spare one here just in case something happened. At least the sim card of the old phone had not been damaged beyond repair. As soon as she had placed it into the new phone and turned it on, it chimed with notifications.

I will come to New York as soon as I can. What are your leads so far?

Benicio had responded to her message to the SRU. Of course he would come to help. He was probably incredibly worried about Ophelia. He would also not be happy to hear that Celia had no leads at all. The tracking program on her laptop had also not been able to locate Ophelia's phone.

Celia, I can't reach you. Call me when you have time.

This text was from César. But Celia simply ignored it. She did not have time for him right now. Instead, she pressed a few buttons and called Benicio. He answered immediately:

"Hey, give me an update."

Celia sighed:

"There is not much of an update to give... I can't track Ophelia's phone, there was no proper result. I can't track her either, I don't know why the link is so weak."

"Well, Eileen is not stupid, she probably turned the phone off.", Benicio stated, "what item did you use to track Ophelia?"

Celia frowned:

"The pendant I have from her."

"Well, maybe it has not been in her possession for too long. When did she give it to you? Ten years ago?"

"You could be right...", Celia nodded, "I'll go to Trenton and get something else."

"No, don't.", Benicio hesitated a short moment before continuing, "I'll bring something with me. Any update on Valentine?"

"Nope..."

"Alright... I will be there in a minute.", Benicio hung up.

When Celia went to meet Benicio at the front doors of the Institute, so they could get to work immediately, she was interrupted by Robert:

"I need to talk to all of you."

"I have something better to do right now.", Celia mumbled. The portal in the door opened and Benicio stepped through.

"Celia, please.", Robert asked once more, "it won't take long, I promise."

Celia sighed. Something told her that he would not leave this alone. She waved for Benicio to follow them.
"Quick!", she snarled at Robert.

When they approached the room that Jace and Clary had been doing their research in, they could hear Izzy and Alec's voices.

"They portaled to a beach?", Alec questioned.

"How were they even able to open a portal inside the Institute?", Izzy was asking instead of answering.

Celia and Benicio followed Robert into the room. Celia scoffed at the sheer chaos that she was facing. Jace and Clary were really not able to not make a mess out of everything all the time.

Robert picked up one of the shards on the ground and examined it:

"This was no ordinary portal for sure... And that's no ordinary beach.", he added, his voice suddenly even more serious, "that's Lake Lyn."