Valentine Morgestern

Valentine Morgenstern- Part 16

To my credit I paid heed to the warning voices in my head but I lingered in Alicante long enough to scatter the ashes of what had once been my son and the apparent remains of my husband. I did my last duty by them as a wife and Mother.

The horrors Valentine had caused in Alicante lingered on. Many long established Shadowhunter families were delivering last rites to children, friends, brothers and sisters. The skies of Alicante were barely smoke free for days. The putrid smell of burnt flesh and silk remained in the air for days and clung to my hair and clothes. The smell only served as a reminder of the destruction the man I had once loved had caused.

Once the bodies of loved ones had been burnt and their ashes gifted to the Silent Brothers for use in the Silent city the Clave took up their interrogations. To my surprise they worked from the lower echelons of The Circle upwards which meant they were coming for me last. Fear bred in my mind because I'd once been like them and now I'd tried to redeem myself by planning the counter uprising it had not been enough.

Over the next four days worry built in my body and I was in a constant state of stress, ironic seeing as I'd never been as stressed when I'd planned the counter uprising and now in the aftermath I was a wreck.

"I'm leaving Alicante," I said to Lucian one night.

"And where do you plan on going?"

I raised my chin, summoning up the last remnants of the pride I'd developed as part of the proud Morgenstern family. "Lucian, I can't tell you. I need to keep you safe from The Clave and for that reason you can never ever know."

"But Jocelyn, you're being silly."

"This was always the plan Lucian!"

"I didn't really think you could be so cold."

"I'm not being cold. It's called practicality." I internally scoffed at my own words, I was just trying to conceal my own inner knowledge that I knew Valentine wasn't really gone and my own fear of the interrogation I'd receive from The Clave. Part of my fear stemmed from the Mortal Sword which would force me to admit to things that horrified me like what Valentine had done to Jonathan, what I believed he'd done to Celine's child. Those things never needed to be said out loud again.

I went to bed that night my mind reeling so I picked up an atlas from the book shelf and idly flipped through the pages. I stabbed my finger at one location on the map in a country called America. New York City, more specifically Manhattan. I could blend in well there. I could sell some of the priceless Morgenstern jewellery which should keep me afloat until I established myself in the mundane world. I could work as a painter, I could sell portraits, perhaps utilise my own natural talent.

Resting my hand on my stomach I felt a slight bump which I'd barely noticed emerging. I was about four months along and I was praying and hoping this baby would be born with a blind inner eye. They need never know of the Shadow world nor know of their father, the man who had destroyed my first child. Thankfully I'd distanced myself enough from him before he could do the same to my second.

The next morning I grabbed my bag and Lucian and I smuggled our way out of Alicante and hitched a ride to the airport. Deep inside my bag I'd concealed the Mortal Cup. My original plan had been to return the cup but because I knew in the depths of my being that Valentine was still alive I could not abandon the cup with the same clumsy, narrow minded fools who had lost it in the first place. I'd find a way to hide it and I'd hide it somewhere he'd never think to look.

The airport was a strange place. It was oddly emotional with others saying farewells with tears to others saying hello with blatant joy. It was the sort of place where people seemed to connect or let go and I was one of those who was letting go.

I bought the last ticket on the next flight to New York. Luckily there were a few flights leaving at similar times so Lucian would never know where I was headed.

We spent our last hour together in almost complete silence. An announcement came through that the flight to New York was leaving in fifteen minutes so I sat until the announcement for Majorca came through. I gave Lucian a warm hug and murmured in his ear, "He isn't dead."

With those final words I climbed in a plane to New York to begin my new life.