Angelic

Alec ~ 32

"It's best for you if you stay here." I heard Jace say through the door.

He paused, probably listening to Clary's rebellious response on the other end of the phone.

"Look, you're my sister and I'm supposed to keep you safe—" Jace began. I zoned out then. He had only referred to Clary as his sister since the fight on Valentine's boat. He insisted it was to remind him of the truth, that they shared the same blood, but I saw right through him: it was to force himself to stop thinking about kissing her, holding her in a way that wasn't brotherly, etc. I cared about him, and I hated seeing him in pain, but it had gotten old a while ago.

"It's rude to eavesdrop." Izzy said, walking down the hall to join me at the door of Jace's room.

"I'm leaving to go to the Silent City." I told her. "I made the call last night. I was coming by to tell Jace I'm leaving."

"You're going to the Silent City by yourself?" She questioned. "Do you remember the last time one of us went there alone?"

Yes, because it was practically impossible to forget: the Inquisitor had brought Jace to the Silent City overnight, punishing him for being Valentine's son, and he had nearly died. We all had. It wasn't something I liked thinking about.

"I'm not going alone." I told her. "I'm going with Ev."

"Speaking of which, I didn't see her come home last night." Izzy frowned, looking confused and worried.

"She stayed at Magnus's." I explained.

Her eyes widened. "Why would she—?"

"Iz, she didn't do it to spite me." I told her. It was then that I realized she had no idea about Lizzie. She probably didn't even know who the girl was. "We ran into some demons after the party last night. She stayed at Magnus's because... he was taking of her." It wasn't a full lie, more like a half-truth.

"We?" She wondered.

"Jace, Ev, and me." I explained. "And Raphael."

"Raphael?" She looked shocked.

"It's a long story." I told her.

She opened her mouth to say something, but Jace opened his bedroom door before she could respond.

"If we're having a family meeting, do we have to do it in front of my bedroom?" He wondered. "You two act like you're deaf. Talking loud isn't necessary unless you're sixty years old."

"Sorry, Prince Charming." I shot back sarcastically.

"What did Mom say at the actual family meeting this morning?" Izzy asked, looking at us both.

My mother had ordered a family meeting after breakfast, and Izzy, who had decided to go shopping at six in the morning, wasn't home yet.

"We're going to Idris." Jace said in a flat voice.

Izzy gasped, her eyes widening.

"Don't get excited, Iz." I told her. "It's only for a few days, and they're going for the Accords. You two don't have much freedom since we're staying with the Penhallow's the entire time. I have to go with Mom and Dad this year, since I'm a legal adult."

Izzy seemed to be forcing herself to not roll her eyes. "You practically remind us every day, Alec. We know that already."

I ignored her, looking back at Jace.
"Ev and I have to be at the Silent City in an hour. I have to go."

"Stay alive!" Jace hollered after me, sounding half-drunk.

It took only ten minutes to get to Magnus's apartment. I tried not to think about how I knew the route to his place almost as well as I knew the way home. I was bracing myself for knocking on the front door and having Magnus answer when I saw Ev waiting on the front steps. She was dressed completely in gear—a tight shirt and pants that were easy to move quickly in, and even a belt full of seraph blades, her stele—which was designed with runes that weren't from the Grey Book, but rather foreign runes that almost looked like the language of fey—, and two daggers. I assumed there were more weapons hidden inside her boots, strapped underneath her jacket. Her silver whip was wrapped around her wrist like always.

"Ready?" She asked when she saw me.

"I'm just going to forget about all the explanations running through my mind about how you changed clothes." I said.

"You honestly don't know?" She wondered. "Well, first you take off the dirty clothes you're wearing, then you put on the clean ones. It's pretty simple."

I ignored her. "We need to get going. Brother Zachariah is expecting us."

...

The City of Bones was probably the friendliest place in the entire Silent City, but that didn't mean it wouldn't scare a mundane to the point of lunacy. The entire time we walked deeper underground, I couldn't fight the feeling that there were eyes following my movements—eyes of the dead. The thought was enough to make the hairs on my neck stand stick-straight.

When we came to the room Brother Zachariah must have been looking for, he stopped at the foot of the stairs. The room widened out into a square pavilion, with torches burning in holders the colors of onyx along the sides of the square. In the center was a long table and behind it, a long silver sword hung from the wall, point down, with its hilt carved in the shape of outspread wings. Multiple Silent Brothers sat at the table, all dressed in robes with hoods up, concealing their faces.

Turning to us, Brother Zachariah looked up at me. Alec Lightwood. Please stand before the Council.

I glanced at Ev, who stared back at me, her expression unreadable. I moved over to the table, standing in front of the Silent Brothers. There were four of them, I realized. As if it were rehearsed, they all removed their hoods at the same moment, revealing their scarred faces with eyes and mouths stitched shut. All but one of them—Brother Zachariah still had black hair, his brown eyes open and watching, his mouth flat, but clearly not stitched shut. He couldn't have been older than me.

The Council greets you. Brother Zachariah's voice rang in my mind. But it wasn't just his voice that filled my mind this time. Multiple voices bounced off the walls of my brain, echoing over each other. All the Silent Brothers were speaking to me.

We will go into your mind. Brother Zachariah explained. I was relieved to hear only his voice in my mind. We will remove the barrier that is blocking your conscious from your subconscious. It should not hurt. Once we have begun, however, we cannot stop.

I considered how badly I wanted this. No. I didn't simply want answers. I needed them. Ev said it herself. If I lose enough sleep, I could start getting physically sick, too. I needed to make sense of my dreams. I needed the ghost of the little girl with braids to stop haunting my mind.

"I'm ready." I told them.

...

They finished quickly. I felt as if I had just closed my eyes when Brother Zachariah put his hand on my shoulder, telling me they were done.

Your dreams are memories forgotten. He explained. Your subconscious remembers what your conscious has failed to remember. The dreams began when something from your past came into your life, and your subconscious was trying to warn you. You faced grave danger when you were younger, and now you are being threatened with the same danger again.

But the girl in my dreams... I thought to myself, I don't even know who the girl is. Was she the danger?

As if reading my thoughts, Brother Zachariah answered my unasked question. The girl in your dreams is the younger version of your friend.

He pointed, and I looked—at Ev.

It was like I was seeing her for the first time, as if this entire time she had been in New York she had been a stranger to me. I could see it now, the resemblance. The girl's nose was in the same triangular shape as Ev's, their heart-shaped faces the same.

I had met Ev before, when we were little kids.

And she had nearly gotten me killed.