The Mortal Instruments: City of All Things Again ~ DISCONTINUED ~

Chapter 2

Clary's POV

I sat on my bed, thinking about what was sure to come in these next few months. My evil brother was back in New York, and he was already killing innocent Shadowhunters. That was definitely my brother.

To calm myself down, I decided to draw. Drawing always calmed me down. I could forget myself while drawing, let my anger flow through my pencils and into the paper, expressing itself in the beautiful artwork I created.

I fetched my sketchbook and flicked to find the next clean page. Vibrant images flashed before my eyes as the pages of my sketchbook whizzed past. Demons, my friends, landscapes, self-portraits, runes and more shot past as the sunset I had drawn the night before came to rest in front of my eyes. Jace had taken me on a romantic picnic at Central Park last night, as he sometimes did to show just how much he loves me. As usual, he had brought my sketchbook, knowing that I could never resist copying such beautiful sunsets down onto paper. The soft oranges and golden hues on the paper in front of me reminded me of this.

I smiled to myself and turned to what should have been another new and unused page. But it wasn't.

On the crisp white paper there was a note. A note from Sebastian.

My dearest Clarissa,

I realised that I hadn't seen you in a while so I decided to pay you a visit. I hadn't been able to see you because you stabbed me with the Heavenly Fire. I was proud of you at first, Clarissa. You! You, of all people, managing to outsmart me. Then I realised exactly what you had done, what it meant for me. Months of forming myself a new body, painfully aware of what my old body was currently enduring. Death.

It made me realise how foolish I was to love and trust you. You aren't even my proper sister, due to Lilith being my real mother. I guess that this makes you my half-sister, if anything.

I gave you a second chance in Edom, Clarissa. I can promise you that I won't give you a third. Anybody that you tell about this letter, or somehow finds this letter or its contents will die. I'm watching you, Clarissa, and I will come for you soon.

-Sebastian

I dropped the paper and fell backwards onto my bed.

No. This couldn't be happening. Not again.

My eyes start to water so I stared into the bright light and the tears retracted, a trick I had learnt from my mother.

Sebastian was after me again. Could I honestly say that I was surprised? No. He was just that creepy.

He had said that I wasn't his real sister. We never had been proper siblings, of course, but I had always thought that he might not hurt me, or something, because of some sort of invisible bond, like our rejected sibling-bond. I had always thought that that was why he had never physically hurt me, not properly anyway. The whole loving thing, and the incident in the apartment was another matter entirely.

But now Sebastian says he isn't my brother. Does this mean that he doesn't love me? Sibling-love or otherwise? Does it mean that he will abuse me in every way if he wishes to? What I was saying was that the imaginary bond I had conjured between me and my 'brother' was now gone completely. Disappeared. Poof.

But what to do now? Sebastian had threatened everybody that knew the contents of his letter, whether I tell them or they just happen to find it.

I grabbed my stele and drew a rune on the letter. Flames engulfed the delicate piece of paper, devouring it in seconds like dry leaves in a forest fire. Nobody could find anything by accident now. The only way that they could find out anything was through me, and I wasn't planning on telling anyone anything.