City of Heavenly Fire

Chapter 9

"You know we can't stay here right?" Clary said, sitting opposite Jace, twirling her noodles around her chopstick.

"I know." He said, he looked right into her eyes. And it was one of those time that she saw the heavenly fire in him.

"So we have to leave." Clary said, putting the chopstick on the table.

"How? Where?" Jace sighed and leaned back on his chair.

"I can make a portal, we can travel to Idris, talk to those kids that Robert was talking about. Get some answers!" Clary said.

"Your portal would end us up, miles away from Idris." Jace ran a hand through his hair, obviously uninterested by her plan.

"Come on Jace!" Clary yelled, "at least sound like you care!"

Jace stood up from the table, so quickly, Clary had been sure he didn't move at all. He was clenching and I clenching his fists and the Heavenly fire that she saw earlier in his eyes, was ready to come out. "When have I not cared Clary! When have I not given a damn about this whole thing?"

Clary stood up and touched his shoulder, his skin hot but she refused to move her hand. "I know, it was a slip of the tongue I'm sorry." Clary looked at him, and hoped he would calm down before he burnt the institute to the ground. "But I'm going to Idris, you can come with me or not. But I need answers."

Jace sat back down on the chair, and his face was unreadable. "I know." He said, "and I told Joceyln I would protect you, so I'm coming too."

Maia

Maia reached into her vibrating pocket and pulled out her phone, the pixels on the screen read, Jace. She went to press decline, but decided against it. It could be am emergency.

"Hello?" She put the phone to her ear.

"Maia, can you and Jordan meet us at the park?" Jace asked.

Maia furrowed her eyebrows but said, "sure, I'll be there in five." And hung up the phone. She walked into the living room where Jordan was playing his video games. "Jace just called." Maia said, taking the house keys from a small bowl on the kitchen bench. "He wants us to meet him at the park."

Jordan paused his game and turned to face his girlfriend. "I've got to meet Luke at the bookstore in half an hour, sorry." He said with a sheepish smile.

"No, it's cool." Maia walked over to him and give him a quick kiss on the forehead. "It's probably not important anyway. I'll see you later."

"Alright, love you." He called out as Maia went for the front door.

"Love you too."

Clary

The park was clear, there was a few people walking along the path underneath the moon lit sky, but otherwise it was only Jace, Clary, Simon, Isabelle, Alec, Maia and Raphael. "Where's Jordan?" Jace asked Maia.

"He said he had to meet Luke at the bookstore." Maia said, squeezing into the circle that the others had created. "What's this about?"

"Robert has come back to the institute." Clary began, "he said that the Los Angeles institute was attacked, by—"

"Sebastian." Raphael sighed, his posture and voice clearly bored with the conversation that hadn't even started. "We know, get to the point."

Clary shot him a glare, but continued anyway. "He mentioned that a group of survives managed to get into Idris, and what they know may help us track down Sebastian."

"You know I cannot go into Idris without permission from the consul, so why are you bothering me with this?" Raphael ran a hand through his black hair, only a shade lighter then the dark sky above them.

"I just thought that since we were in alliances—"

Raphael interrupted her with a cold, emotionless chuckle, "I have no alliances with anyone, shadowhunter."

"But this war involves you, and all the downworlders." Clary pressed, her green eyes showing a large amount of determination.

"It doesn't involve me, unless I involve myself." Raphael said calmly.

"You can either be in this or not." Jace said, breaking the tension between a lady and Raphael. "Our plan is simple. Clary will make a portal that will take us as close to Idris as she can get, we go to the Inqusiter's house where they'll most likely be staying, if they're not their they'll be at the house of the counsel."

"And then what?" Alec shrugged, "we talk to them, what if they don't have the information we need?"

"They'll have more then we know." Isabelle said to her brother, stroking the ends of her long black hair. "That's something."

"But like Raphael said." Maia said, "The three of us downworlders can't get into Idris, what are we suppose to do?"

"We assume that Sebastian will come back to New York to get Clary." Jace said, "you guys are our eyes and ears. If Sebastian comes looking, you tell Magnus and he'll send a message to us."

"And then what? What if he knows that you're going to Idris, what if he comes to New York looking for something else, or someone else?" Maria's eyes widened with a small hint of fear, but she new deep down that she would do whatever it took to help Clary, even if it meant having to spend time with Simon.

"Then you tell Magnus and he'll send us back here." Clary said, "this is our only chance to find out what's going on, what he's up to, and hopefully where he's hiding."

The circle of people were quiet, the crickets singing their songs and the water in the small lake lapping against the edge of it. "I will do this for you, if you do something for me in return." Raphael said.

"And what is that?" Isabelle asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Simon becomes part of my Clan." Raphael smirked, "I know he wants to be, otherwise he wouldn't of turned up at my hotel the other night."

Simon took a step back, swallowing hard. He remembered very clearly about how he had the urge to go somewhere, only he hadn't known where he was going until he turned up at the hotel. "Okay," Simon said. "I'll do it."