City of All Things Ruined - A Mortal Instruments Fan Fiction (COMPLETED)

Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4 – EASY DOES IT

CLARY

“Eighteen, nineteen, twenty,” Clary removed her blindfold and peered around, “Ready or not, here I come” She added dryly. In the far corner of the room, she heard a faint chuckle.

The training centre was filled with different pieces of apparatus to account for various different terrains, ranging from wooden beams to jump across, ledges to shimmy across, wooden alcoves to create the illusion of a hiding space, ropes and bars, walkways and even a safety harness connected to a line of wire stretching from one end of the room to the other.The whole structure was made entirely of wood, and Clary hoped this would allow her to hear Jace’s footsteps.

Even though the weapons they were using were effectively harmless, Clary was still terrified of fighting Jace. She knew he would never hurt her, but from the height of some of the apparatus, the likelihood of her falling and hurting herself was pretty high.

She decided to start from the far left side of the training room, locking her Seraph blade into one of the loops on her weapons belt. With ease, Clary lifted herself up a wooden ladder, reaching only about half way up the entire structure, and crouched low.

Her earlier theory of listening to footsteps had proven somewhat ineffective, as the only sound she could hear was her own rapid breathing and the pounding of her heart. This wasn’t the adrenaline rush she had encountered when fighting demons with Jace and her brother, this was just pure fear, making her blood hum with an uncertain energy.

She abandoned her crouching position, and stood straight up, circling the small area around her. After a minute of searching, she deemed the area as being clear, and grabbed hold of a large rope hanging from the ceiling.

Easy does it, she thought. Easy. Does. It. She felt the muscles in her lower abdomen clench as she shimmied her way down the rope.

At the bottom of the rope, and now ‘safely’ back on the floor covered in mats, Clary resumed her crouch, and yelled.

“Hey, Jace? Can I call time out or something; I’m getting kinda freaked out here?” She hoped this would work, and that he would answer her, so she could get some idea of where he was hiding.

That’s when she heard a familiar chuckle from behind her, but before she could even turn around, she heard a quiet swooping sound, and in seconds, she was pinned to the floor, with Jace’s glowing golden eyes staring down at her. His hair tumbled around his face, looking like a halo in the dim lighting.

“If I was a demon,” He teased, “You wouldn’t ask for a time out. You’d be too dead to ask by now anyways” He smirked, and shifted off of her, and taking her weapon with him.

Jace paced towards the other side of the mats, and Clary did the same, walking to the opposite end of the training mats. With expert precision, Jace tossed her weapon, which Clary barely managed to catch.

As Jace began to stride towards her, Clary’s heart rose into her throat; Jace’s eyes flickered slightly, making him appear rutheless – Clary had seen this glassy detachment descend over him when he was fighting demons, and Clary gave up all hopes of Jace going easy on her.

Within seconds, he was upon her, swinging his blade in a wide arc in his left hand, aimed directly downwards, towards her stomach. Purely out of instinct, she jumped backwards, not even thinking to block it with her blade.

“Come on Clary, fight or flight, remember? Swing at me.” He soothed. Jace always had a way of making Clary react – even Jace just saying her name made her heart flutter.