Fear

Escape

Chapter 29- Escape

Clary POV

The plan was being put in action. Sebastian was away hunting and recruiting again and Ash would dismiss all guards from their posts under the orders of 'Sebastian', using a persuasion rune to make sure the place remained clear. There is a network of tunnels beneath the castle- a labyrinth that wriggles its way to the surface, where the golden sun will seep warmth into our hearts and fill us with hope- that we will use to stay out the way of as many endarkened as possible. Only Ash and Sebastian know about the tunnels, so with Sebastian away, they were our safest option.

Currently, we are crouched below a swooping arch decorated in swirling lines of gold, curling and twirling around the edge of the arch, while we wait for Ash to give us the all clear. Hidden at the heart of the labyrinth, we're a mere few steps away from freedom, but Ash needs to make sure Sebastian hasn't placed any monsters nearby.

I involuntarily sigh when I feel Jace's warm breath against my neck, "So, in this other life, we were happy together?"

"Very happy- but it was more complicated than that," I turn my head to the side, looking at him slightly.

"Why? What happened that ended us up where we are now?" He places his hand on my shoulder and leans closer towards me, tucking a curl of my blazing red hair behind my ear.

"Once we're out of here, I'm going to get your memories back and you'll remember for yourself," I promise sincerely. I absent-mindedly trail my fingers lightly against the golden maze on the arch.

"Are you sure these 'memories' are real, Clary?" Jace questions, removing his hand and checking over his weapon supply.

I hiss back at him, "Yes, I'm sure, Jace."

Ash appears from around the corner, his blonde hair a mirror image of Jace's golden curls, a shining beacon in the pitch black tunnels. His hands gently skim across the rough walls until he comes across an almost impossible to see handle that juts out, seemingly from nowhere. With a soft grunt, he shoves his shoulder against the wall, next to the handle and, with great effort, walks through the wall, a terrific tremor running through the tunnels.

Did Ash just seriously walk through a wall?

I twist my head to look at Jace behind me, my eyebrows furrowed in confusion and see Jace just shaking his head, one curious eyebrow raised. He nods his head at me to encourage me to follow Ash through the black abyss and with the unfaint mumble of a curse, I push through the wall until I find myself falling.

Free-falling like a shooting star hurtling through an empty space of darkness, knowing that I would inevitably crash onto the ground with nothing to break my fall, my life flashes before my eyes.

That's what people say isn't it? That everything that has ever mattered to you appears in your mind before you die? Maybe it's further proof that I'm not normal, that the only thing flashing through my mind are the things I would never have.

Like a future with Jace, where our kids could grow up beautiful and smart and perfect; or a future as an artist, where I would paint only beauty and magnificence rather than the demonic horrors I have come to know; I would never be able to grow old and tell the people around me how much I love them. How much I love him.

I would never be able to tell Jace that, for a while at least, he was my only reason for breathing or that I love him wholly and completely.

I am perfectly, brilliantly, uncontrollably in love with Jace Herondale.

In a stunned silence, I swiftly plummet down to the ground when suddenly a blindingly bright light engulfs me and I am left lying in a field of grass, staring up at a dull grey sky that's decorated by blackened clouds that block out any light. Simple as that.

"Clary," Ash's face appears above me and he holds out a hand to haul to me my feet- practically lifting me off me feet. "Do you have the weapons I gave you?"

"Yes, of course," I reply quickly, already unsheathing my dagger and yanking out my seraph blade. "Why what's wrong?"

"We've been found." The intensity of his eyes send a shock of electricity through me, his fear and determination somehow mixed into the solid swirls of colour in his eyes. Without looking away from me, Ash says forcedly, "Jace get up."

Ash's fear shocks me so much, I don't even notice Jace appearing in the grass. He scrambles to his feet and his golden eyes fix on something behind me, "Clary, get behind me now!"

Instead, I slowly turn around to come face to face with a pale faced, white haired, black eyed demon. "Sebastian," I spit, the name venom on my tongue.

"My beautiful Clarissa; my little sister," he almost sings. The caring tone seems so genuine that if I didn't know better, I would believe it (and that wouldn't end up well). He places a strong hand on each of my shoulders and places a gentle kiss on each of my cheeks. "It is good to see you safe."

"I'd like to know your definition of safe," I jerk away from him and Jace and Ashley step in behind me, Jace placing a gentle- yet firm- hand on my shoulder, as if he could somehow transport his strength into me.

"Ashley and Jonathan, how lovely to see you two have made friends; how lovely it is to see that Ashley has successfully completed his mission. I'm proud, my friend." At Sebastian's words, Ash closes his eyes and takes a deep breath before staring at the ground, a crease lying between his eyebrows.

"What?" Jace asks, whipping around to face Ash, the traitor. "I trusted you! You promised you were on our side, that you could get Clary to safety! You promised that no matter what you did, you'd be on my side."

He lurches towards Ash, his arms outstretched in a careless act to strangle him, his head ruled by anger rather than logic, making his actions clumsy. I catch him before he can get to Ash by pressing my hand against his chest and looking up at him, forcing him to look at me.

I turn to face Ash and I breath out the word in barely a whisper, "Why?"

I can feel tears pricking at me eyes, begging to escape, but I hold my gaze that Ash feels compelled to meet and his eyes instantly surprise me. Instead of the determination and fear I saw in them a few seconds before, I am met by the pain and guilt that overwhelms him.

"I'm so sorry, Clary- I had no choice," he cries, his face screwed up as if in agonising pain. "He has my family, Clary."

I nod solemnly and look at my brother. "So what happens next? You throw us back in the dungeon? Torture us? Rape me? What?"

I notice Jace visibly flinch when I say 'rape me', and his glare burns into Sebastian who flicks it off as if it was nothing.

"Oh no, Clary. Well, not yet anyway," he smirks evilly. "First, I use you, Jonathan and Ashley- three of the most powerful shadowhunters- to end the rest of the shadowhunter race."

"And how do you intend to get us under your control?" Jace inquires, hand tightening around his seraph blade.

Sebastian grins, wickedly winking at me in the process, in response. With his bone-white skin and hair, he looks like a half-formed ghost wrapped in a cloth of darkness. He lifts up a calloused and severely scarred hand and clicks his fingers, the deafening snap echoing over the hill we were standing on.

Unfaint screams slice through the air and as I turn towards the noise I see four of my old friends being forcefully dragged up the hill, writhing and wriggling, trying to push off the strong shadowhunters that hold them tightly in place.

Sebastian doesn't once move his eyes away from mine, his eyes as black as his soul. "I think maybe your friends will be able to answer that question for you."