Chasing Death (TMI FanFiction) // UNEDITED

Chapter Twenty-Five

Jonathan spun on his heel and turned to face the door where the voice had come from. He had not realised anyone was watching him so was completely oblivious as to how much they had seen. It was, however, clear that they had not been stood there long as it had only been a few moments since Alec had left after passing on the instructions for the archery. The important question wasn't how long they had been stood there, but how much they had seen. Had they seen him cheer when he hit the target? Had they seen him tear the dummy's head apart? These were things he felt like he needed to know, but the look on their faces said it all.

In the doorway stood Jocelyn and Luke, both looked terrified of what the had seen and kept flickering their eyes between the torn dummy and Jonathan. It became clear that they had seen him tear the dummy apart and both thought he was going to do something to hurt them. Had they announced themselves earlier on, Jonathan may have been able to talk his way out of it, but now he couldn't. Behind him, the dummy showed evidence of a rather powerful throw. Tearing the dummy's head apart was supposed to be an impossible task and yet he had done it with nothing but a throwing knife.

"I can explain," Jonathan said though he wasn't all too sure he could. After all, throwing knives weren't supposed to be able to do that. Neither Jocelyn or Luke said anything, but Jonathan noticed Jocelyn's eyes were directed towards his hand. Quickly looking down, he noticed that he still had a throwing knife clasped tightly in his hand. He had planned to throw it before he had been interrupted. Jonathan quickly dropped the knife and the raised his arms up to signal a surrender, or at least, to show them he no longer had any weapons on him.

"H-how did you do that?" Jocelyn stuttered, her eyes fixed on the dummy at the far end of the room.

"I don't know, that was only my third attempt. I only wanted to hit the target, not tear it apart. I promise that was not part of my plan!" For a reason Jonathan could not seem to explain, he began to find it hard to get his words out. Whether it was due to the person he was talking to, or the fear t hat seemed to run through him, Jonathan was really beginning to struggle with not only keeping eye contact but speak with an ounce of confidence.

"What plan? The plan where you tear us down from the inside? You kill us all? Is that the plan? Or maybe the one where you get Lilith here so she can kill us? Which is it?" Jocelyn screamed at him. Jonathan took a step back, even though he was quite far away from his mother to start with. 

"I, um," he stuttered, unable to find the right words. He had neve felt so flustered and his lack of verbal communication was being to get annoying. Never had he struggled so much to get his words out. He had always been so determined to be seen as a superior figure and talking fluently had always been part of that imagine he had maintained. It became clear that his ability to talk so fluently had come from the demon blood that had laced his veins all those years ago. 

"Get it out! I want to know why you're really here!"Jocelyn demanded. She had become fed up of everyone treating Jonathan like a normal Shadowhunter rather than the evil dictator had been. She had spent days trying to convince everyone that he was evil and not to be trusted and yet everyone just took it in their stride and convinced themselves that he was there to help. 

"I didn't want to come here! I had it been up to me then I would have stayed exactly where I was. It was Beth who decided to bring me here, even after I told her a thousand times not to. There is no hidden agenda here, I'm here to help Beth and that's all." He wasn't technically lying. He was there to help Beth out with her plan to defeat Lilith, but he was lying about not wanted to be back in New York. Ever since he had been killed by Clary, Jonathan had wanted to make it up to them for what he did, but he couldn't figure out how to. Now he had the perfect opportunity to make it up to them by destroying the common enemy. Lilith.