More Than Starlight (Lady Midnight Julian + Emma)

Chapter 19 - Temper and Steel

"Ow! What was that for?" Jace asked, laughing playfully after Clary punched him as hard as she could in the shoulder.

"What were you thinking, Jace? We could get in so much trouble. We could lose the institute!" Although Clary was angry, a part of her was happy. She was glad Jace had gotten Magnus to portal Julian here for Emma. And he knew that.

"Yeah, like that has stopped us from making decisions before." He smiled as he took Clary's face tenderly in his hands, planting a kiss on her lips, a smile breaking out across her face, "Besides, I know you're not actually mad at me." He whispered against her temple as he planted a kiss there. With a scoff, she turned away from him and began walking back to their room. "Oh no, you don't!" He joked as he grabbed Clary and swung her up in his arms.

"Jace, you can put me down." She giggled as she wrapped his arms around his neck.

"I know I can, but I don't want to. Besides," He said lowly, "Maybe I'm practicing for the wedding."

***

The sword sliced easily through Julian's skin. A trickle of blood running down his arm as he winced slightly. Their eyes met as they waited for a while, his eyebrows raised.

"Did it work?" He asked.

"I don't know. I don't feel any different. I still feel like you're a part of me." Emma answered, disheartened. She took the sword and cut a shallow cut on his forearm, her heart sinking as she felt the faint pain she always experienced when her parabatai was hurt.

"Are you done cutting me? Damn, Emma." He laughed, but the smile faded when he saw her face, "You felt it, didn't you?" She nodded slowly. "Well, it was worth a shot. For what it's worth, for a split second I felt something pulse at my rune."

"It's probably this thing called pain, Jules. That happens when people cut you with a sword." She joked curtly.

"Thank you for that, but no. I mean something else, like a strain deep inside but it resolved." He stroked the parabatai rune on her arm as he spoke. She looked quizzically down at her arm and then back at Julian's rune. The shallow cut had healed and the rune was intact again.

"Maybe they both need to be severed." She thought out loud.

"So to answer my question, no you are not done cutting me?" She ignored him and repeated the same shallow cut on his chest and then her arm. As soon as the rune was sliced, she felt what Julian had be referring to, a strain that resolved quickly, like you were trying to cut a taut rope that went limp.

"I felt it too, the strain. That must mean something, right?" The runes had healed once again, the dark ink staining their skin.

"Maybe they have to be cut at the same time?" Julian suggested. With a nod, Emma put her arm against his chest; their runes side to side. She took another deep breath and closed her eyes to take this final chance. She drew the sword directly across both their runes and she screamed. It felt as if every bone in her body snapped at once, a fire burning her lungs as she gasped for breath. She looked to Julian to see his eyes wide open, his hands clutched to his chest. Emma fell backward onto the floor and arched her back as the fire built in her body. She heard Julian scream from above, the sound getting more and more distant as her visions began to blur. She brought her arm up in front of her face and looked at her parabatai rune, it looked as if it was painted in blood. No, it was bleeding. But when she wiped the blood away, all that was left was a faded mark of the rune on her skin. And then all she saw was darkness.

***

"Emma- Em, are you alright?" A familiar voice was calling her name in the darkness. Slowly, she opened her eyes to see familiar red curls falling around a pale freckled face above her. She turned her head to the side; she was in her room in the New York Institute but she was on the bed now, Julian nowhere around. "Emma, what did you do?" Clary continued asking.

"I- We broke the bond. I think." Emma said as she slowly sat up. Clary's green eyes widened as she took Emma's arm gingerly and brushed her thumb over the faded rune.

"Unbelievable," Clary murmured quietly to herself in amazement. She looked up and met the other girl's eyes, "How did you do it?"

"Cortana. A sword forged by Wayland the Smith can cut anything. I saw it in a dream once. I didn't know if it would work, but it did. I don't feel a pulling when he's away. I don't feel the tether; it snapped." She watched Clary as she absentmindedly ran her finger along her own parabatai rune. Emma knew how much Simon meant to her, Clary looked as if she felt sorry for Emma. But it wasn't the same. Clary loved Simon as parabatai are meant to love each other; the bond wasn't a cage for her heart.

"Emma," She breathed, "What does this mean? Are you going to go to the Consul? There is no protocol for this. No parabatai have ever broken the bond before death." Emma had stopped listening as Clary continued on, she had not thought this far ahead. Her mind was so full of her desire and need to feel what her heart wanted her to feel that she didn't think past this. She was desperate for the slight chance this could work, she didn't think about what they would do if it did work. And it did.

"Where's Julian?" Is what she said instead, not knowing what to say to Clary. She sat up and swung her legs around the side of the bed; she was feeling fine now with the exception of a dull ache like a bruise where her rune was and an empty feeling inside.

"He and Jace are in the infirmary I think, getting bandages and such." She said quickly, obviously not dropping the topic quite yet, "What are you two going to tell people?"

Emma said nothing at first, just stood up, oddly aware that she was still only in Julian's shirt. "Well," She started slowly, "I guess that's something we're going to have to figure out, now isn't it?"