ʙʟᴀᴄᴋᴛʜᴏʀɴs ➸ sʜᴀᴅᴏᴡ ʜᴜɴᴛᴇʀs

➝ xxi.

AFTER NATALIE left the basement she went up to her room and saw her best friend collapsed on her bed before she walked up to her.

"Hey, so where'd you go in town?" Natalie asked before sitting down next to her.

"Uh- nothing. Just walked. Pondered and a lot of other- stuff." Angel responded quite awkwardly making Natalie nod her head with hesitancy at first.

"Okay, because I'm pretty sure it's about the whole Clary and Jace-" Natalie began to mumble before Angel immediately cur her off as she sat up.

"Nah, I'm totally fine, Natalie. Now- May you get off of my bed please, because I need some rest." Angel said with a smile letting Natalie's face fill with suspicion as she looked at her best friend, covering herself with the duvet, clearly she could see that she was not okay.

"Okay, whatever. Just tell me whenever something's wrong okay? You know I'm always there for you." Natalie said, taking off her leather jacket and throwing it onto the chair beside her desk before throwing herself at her bed and falling asleep.

•••

Alec and Natalie were currently walking around the institute before Max bumped into them as they were now walking down a small flight of stairs,"Alec, do you think you can get my stele back?"

"They took it away because you nearly burned down the Mumbai institute," Alec responded to his little brother making Natalie chuckle softly as they were still walking.

"How many times do I have to say it was an accident?" Max said with a pout making Alec glance at Nat with a slight grin then turn to Max and bent down to look at him,"Look, Max, someone very important is coming to visit- do you think you can stay out of trouble for just a couple of days?" Alec said to his little brother,"If you do I promise, I'll get your stele back." he added.

Natalie smiled at the sight of the two siblings but the moment was broken once the three heard the institute doors open.

Natalie's eyes widened at the figure and sight of Valentine. Alec reacted quickly as he pushed Max out of the way as Natalie stood in front him and put her hand out to protect him at all costs before Alec's bow appeared in his hand then threw an arrow at the intruder.

Valentine caught Alec's arrow in his hand and dropped it as he pulled up his sleeve, took out his stele and held it over his arm.

They watched carefully as Valentine was replaced by a blonde woman with a camo green blazer standing there, staring at the two.

"That reaction time was abysmal," she stated as she walked forward. "Except for you." The blonde said as she looked at Alec.

"I'm Lydia Branwell, envoy from the clave." She said as she stared between Alec and Natalie before walking past them into the heart of the institute.

"Maryse." Lydia greeted as Maryse and Izzy walked down the small flight of stairs,"The clave has ordered me to take temporarily control of this institute." She said.

"Wait a minute, nobody informed us." Maryse replied.

"The clave doesn't need to and to repeat myself, it's temporary." Lydia said as she walked over to the monitor in the middle of the room.