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"finders keepers"
for two years, two long and painful years, i had been looking for my brother. now i stood at the very edge of a cliff, looking down at the endless drop.
my brother was supposed to be here, this is where he had been tracked to, but he's gone.
"maybe we aren't thinking well enough." i scrambled, grazing my knees as i shuffled on the floor to grab a stick.
i carefully mapped out the possible places romero could be, crossing off all the ones we had checked.
clary kneeled beside me. "tearing your hair out isn't helping, breathe and we'll work this out together."
steady breaths helped me breathe better, they did not however reduce my panic. "ok, so what now?"
simon scoped the baron area we were all stationed in. "there has to be something we are missing."
jace kicked a rock into the water, carefully trailing the landing sight of it.
izzy rushed to the edge of the cliff in amazement. "there's a glamour, when the rock went through-"
"it disappeared." jace finished.
without turning to look at anyone, i ran straight off of the cliff, diving into the glamour head first.
water collided with my body, the more i panicked the more it suffocated me. i slowed my breathing and relaxed, watching the water cease around me.
out of some miracle, romero was floating in front of me. his eyes were glazed with a lifeless expression, his hair dull and his body just bone.
his skin was infused with bright purple in every crevice, signifying his warlock blood. he had been mutilated, experimented on.
the water was choking him in an endless cycle of suffocating and then resurrecting himself. his warlock blood was the only thing keeping him alive.
jace appeared beside me, staring at my brother in horrific shock. "please, help me get him out."
the two of us ran to romero's sides in unison, pulling him from the water he was entrapped in.
once he was free of the suffocation, his body collapsed, his chest breathing in relief.
it didn't matter that i was in some sort of underwater spell, or that romero couldn't respond. my brother was alive.
i wanted to collapse by his side and hold him until he woke, but jace and i had to get him out of the spell before whatever put him there got back.
he wasn't heavy, in fact his body was just skin and bone. all the muscle he had was drained from him, like someone had ripped it apart from his body.
upon resurfacing, jace took all of romero into his arms and placed him gently on the ground.
isabelle fell to the rocky floor in complete shock, her medical training flooding to her in an instant. "he's so cold." she pressed her fingers to his neck to find a pulse. "get me a blanket from the van, simon. clary, i need you to break some of those aloe leaves over there."
simon and clary rushed to do their duties, simon was the first to return with the blanket. "so, this is your brother?"
"that's romero." i nodded softly, my heart shattering at the sight of him.
isabelle retrieved the aloe leaves off of clary, snapping them in half then proceeding to rub the oil over his cut up chest.
"why is he purple?" clary asked isabelle, studying the grooves in his skin.
isabelle shook her head with a shrug. "whatever tortured him must've used something to carve his warlock blood out."
clary took me in her arms immediately, wrapping her hand around the back of my head to pull me into her shoulder.
"can you tell what's wrong, izzy?" jace ushered to her side, examining the body along with alec.
alec took romero in his arms, "i'm taking him to the van, we need to get him to the institute immediately."
"alec?" my voice wavered from clary's shoulder. "call magnus, he can portal us back."
alec's head raised up and down before he left with my brother to take him to the van.
"he's in some sort of coma," isabelle pushed herself off of the ground with a sigh, "unfortunately, i cannot tell if it's natural or forced."
simon raced forward with furrowed eyebrows. "you mean, someone could've done this to him?"
"you should've seen it down there, he was fighting for his life." i explained, recalling the monstrous water.
jace agreed with me, "whatever put him in that position, certainly didn't want him to get out. we need to go to magnus, not the institute." he concluded.
simon, clary and isabelle all nodded, wholeheartedly agreeing with jace over my brother's safety.
