The Other Morgenstern

(City Of Fallen Angels) Chapter Twenty-Three: Runes

Skylar sat in the park staring off in the distance, her mind kept wandering off once again. Jace had fallen asleep so easily, she glanced at him and froze sensing something dark coming from him. She was seeing things as if Sebastian had given her drugs once again,  Skylar put her hand over her necklace as she kept seeing runes that she didn't recognized everywhere. 

Skylar grabbed the sketchbook Clary had given Skylar and began to draw these runes quickly. She gasped for air and dropped the pencil, Skylar was overwhelmed all these runes kept appearing over and over again. She slowly controlled herself and gulped what was going on with her. Skylar saw Jace slowly open her eyes, Skylar hovered over and looked down at him.

Jace smiled at the sight of his girlfriend, he can see how different she look. Skylar was radiant, she looked like an angel herself. "I can feel somethings bothering you." Skylar said

"It's nothing, don't worry about it." Skylar froze seeing a rune flash before her eyes, she pulled away and sighed. "Are you okay?" Jace sat up and moved closer to her. 

"Yeah, fine..perfect." He sat beside her and reached for her hand holding it tightly. 

"I love you." He whispered into her ear, it sent delightful chills down her spine. 

"I love you too." Skylar kissed his cheek and smiled. "We should get going." 

~

"Why did you invite me out?" Skylar asked Simon who stood beside his new friend Kyle. "You know I have a boyfriend right?"

"I heard that you and Jace have been distant and you've been acting weird." Simon said "And we helped you once and now we're going to do that again."

"Okay Simon, let's get eating then. Izzy made some weird looking food this morning and it was awful." 

"You guys go ahead, I'm Kyle by the way I need to go."

"Skylar and nice to meet you." Skylar said and waved, Kyle left his roommate with Skylar. "Now, do you wanna go to Taki's? Iz is waiting for us."

"Iz, is there? You invited her." Simon said but saw there was no point in arguing, Isabelle was her parabatai after all. 

"There is something I need to talk to you both about, it's been killing me."

"Wait, will Jace get mad?"

"He doesn't know and it has nothing to do with him." When arriving  at Taki's, they all sat down in their booth that Izzy saved for them. "Okay, I am sound insane."

"As always." Izzy said

"I-I keep seeing runes, everywhere." Skylar pulled out her phone and handed it to Isabelle who looked through the photos, it was rune after rune after rune. 

"What the hell.." Iz mumbled "You're creating these Skye?" She handed her parabatai's phone to Simon, he looked through amazed by how many she had drawn so far. 

"Yes and I want to stop. Every where I look it's rune over and over again. It's like my mind has been consumed with runes and I don't know why. Clary thinks of them and then boom it doesn't bother her but for me it's like I write one and more show up ready to be chosen."

"Didn't you draw runes before?" Simon asked, he had remembered one of his conversations with Clary about this. Before they were introduced to the shadow world, Skylar had drawn runes time to time. 

"I did but I rarely used them, so far I have created runes like a parabatai bond with Jace, but we're not attached. I can sense him and some of his dark or sad emotions vise versa. Also I managed to make a rune stronger than a normal healing rune. I have many more but I-I still haven't properly named them or figured out what their gifts are." Skylar explained, she sounded insane very insane. 

"Skye, calm down. We'll figure out a way, try to clear your mind. Hang in there, I'll try to see if there is anything that can help." Izzy said

"I can ask Clary about it."Simon said and handed Skylar her phone back. 

"Thanks, I need any info I can get just don't tell anyone it's me."

~

"You've been following your girlfriend?" Simon repeated what Jace had just said. Jace pushed the cart as Simon kept going on and on about the muggers and Jace's issues. "Why?"

"I want to make sure, Skye's safe okay?"

"How about talking to her? She's approachable."

"Why were you taking her out for dinner anyways?" Jace asked hiding his jealously, he hated the idea out with anyone who wasn't him. "Trying to sweep her off her feet daylighter?"

"No, Iz said she was acting odd so I suggested dinner and they went for it. Nothings bothering her, she knows something is wrong with you."

"What's this?" Jace picked up a fruit ignoring what Simon said, he didn't want to deal with this now. 

"A mango, have you ever seen them?"

"I usually don't go out to mundane grocery stores, that's Skye and Alec who go time to time." Jace placed the mango into the cart and twirled a stele in his hand. 

"Is there anything else you like?"

"Tomato soup."

"Alright then." Simon walked off to find it, but as he walked away he can hear girls giggling and talking about Jace. When he walked back with the tomato soup, Jace held a piece of paper stunned. "What happened?"

"This girls said she wanted to touch my mango." Jace said "And gave me her number."

"You're not gonna call her, are you?" 

"Why on earth would I do that? I already have the perfect girl for me, can we go now?"

"Sure." Simon said, he looked at Jace's hand and stared at the stele. "My stele has these weird gold patches, it's changing." He remembered what Skylar had told him, he saw the gold patches along the stele and knew it belonged to her.