Safe Place | j.h

13: You Left

"Izzy I got to tell you something." Emery had decided to tell Izzy that she left without saying goodbye on her own choice. She figured that if anyone would understand it would be Izzy. Her parabatai.

"Yes?" Izzy said looking up from the book of runes she had been looking at. Emery and her were sitting on Emery's bed. Looking at runes and talking.

"I'm being serious Iz can we put the books down." Emery said. Izzy's face dropped and put the books down. "When I left-"

"We've already talked about this, it's okay." Izzy tried to brush it off.

"No Izzy it's not." Emery said. "When I left I..." How was she supposed to phrase this? "Okay so you know how I said that I had to leave in that exact moment?" Emery said, while pressing her lips.

"Yeah." Izzy said, noticing that Emery seemed to be struggling to finish her sentence.

"I had three days to leave." Izzy nodded carefully. "I had three days to leave and I chose to leave in that exact moment-"

"You think I didn't know that?" Izzy asked, a smile on her face and humor laced in her voice. Her jet black hair flung over her shoulder. "The Clave told me after you left. The whole parabatai thing really got them." Izzy said with a large smirk plastered on her face.

Emery then got up and crossed the room, throwing her arms around Izzy. She was so glad that Izzy wasn't mad. Emery had never been so happy with the Clave in her entire life.

When she looked up, there was Jace. Standing shocked in the doorway of Emery's room. His face said it all, he was pissed. Jace was mad and disappointed. And most of all, he looked hurt.

Jace felt his chest tighten. Not only had she left in the middle of the night without telling anyone, she had time to say goodbye. And she chose not to say goodbye. She chose to leave. Then lied to them about it. Lied to him. He felt rage, he felt his hands shake with either anger or sadness, Jace wasn't sure which.

Jace turned on his heel and started back down the hall way. His body stiff as he walk, focusing on putting one foot in front of another. Emery started down the hall after him. She moved faster then he did, Jace was speed walking but Emery was nearly running. To her it felt like he was moving so fast, faster then her. It felt like forever until she caught up to him.

She gripped his arm and spun him around, "Jace." He didn't try and pull away, Emery could tell he was mad but all he did was stare at his feet. "Let me explain." Jace felt his heart clench at her words. He didn't want her to explain, he wanted to be pissed.

"No Emery." Jace snarled, topping his arm from her grasp. His face dangerous. "You don't get to explain, I get to be mad. You left and then you lied to me." Jace shook his head in disgust. Emery felt herself become small. "I thought we had an understanding Emery." Emery's heart felt pierced at that moment.

Jace and Emery did have an understanding. They were both orphans. Brought to New York after brutal deaths of their parents. Alec and Isabelle could never understand, they still had their parents. Emery and Jace spent many nights talking about their parents, trying to remember the good and the bad. Jace was the person who came running when she had nightmares about her parents death, and vise versa.

Emery's head felt heavy, sinking between her shoulders. "Jace you have to understand that leaving-"

"You had a choice." Jace snarled, his face contracted. She had never seen him look at her like this. "You had a choice and you chose the Clave. You chose the Clave over the people who took you in when you needed it the most." Jace's hands shook with anger and he tried blinked to keep the damn of water behind his eyes from breaking.

"That's no fair Jace." Her voice was surprisingly calm. They were standing in the middle of the hall scorning each other and she was surprisingly calm. "You and I both know that there's no telling the Clave no." This time her voice wasn't calm. It was corse, like she had been yelling for hours. She knew how she left was wrong. But didn't know how to explain her decision, how to defend herself. If she was being honest she wasn't really sure why she didn't say goodbye.

Jace's tongue darted from his mouth to wet his lips, he paused to think for a moment. "They gave you time to say goodbye and you ran in the middle of the night." Emery let out a shaky breath. "You always run. You ran from us and from Valentine. And you run away from your feelings." His eyes finally met hers. Jace hadn't made eye contact with her, afraid that doing so would make him feel sympathetic. But Jace didn't want to be sympathetic, he wanted to be disgusted and disappointed.

Emery stared at him for the longest time. She wasn't sure what to say to him. There was nothing she could say to calm him down now. He was mad and he was going to stay mad.

"And to make it worse you lied to me- to us- when you came back." Then Jace stormed down the hallway. His footsteps faded as he walked away. Emery flinched as he slammed to door behind him.

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A/n
Word Count: 944