Memories Are All She Has

17. Aurora

Clary's POV

I enter what must be the tenth room I have checked today. But I am not one bit tired or bored because I am being fueled by the desire and desperation to save Jace. The room has the same plain white walls, just that this one has no bed but instead a  brown teak closet. I walk up to it and pull its doors open. I get swarmed by a poof of dust and I turn my head away, coughing. After the dust clears I rummage through the contents in the drawers. Books. Useless. Letters. Useless. Clothes. Useless. My list goes on for a long time and after I have looked through it thoroughly I sigh disappointedly.

There is nothing in there that is of any use. I am frustrated at how useless this mission is becoming and in frustration I kick the wooden closet. Hard. It shakes and for one horrific moment I think that it might topple on me but then it doesn't and instead something from on top of it lands on my head. Well almost. Using my advanced Shadowhunter speed, I move my hand and catch the object before it hits my head. I bring it in front of me and stare at it, dumbfounded.

Its a- a stele. Its been right here all this while. Now I finally have a chance of getting out of this place. I do a little victory dance and skip to the main door. I run out to the gate. I take the stele and grip it in my hand tightly. I revel in the warmth that it is spreading to my hand. Its been so long since I held a stele. I compose myself and focus my full concentration on one rune. The opening rune. I place the tip of the stele onto the wall next to the gate and start drawing the rune. My hand moves with a rhythm of its own. I don't need to think, just to feel and right now all I want is to open this gate. I shut my eyes and release a deep breath. Then I hear a blast. My eyes shoot open and I look in front of me, to see that the wall has just completely broken. The bricks are scattered and there's a little dust flying around.

I grin so wide my face must face split in two. I AM FINALLY FREE! I think about whether I should wake up Damon but I realize that its not necessary. And Vanessa is actually much safer here. I move across to the other side and just stand there for a few seconds and the wall rebuilds itself, trapping whoever is inside, again.

I run with joy bubbling inside me and pumping adrenaline through my veins. I run for a few moments, carefree and utterly blissfully, loving the feel of fresh wind and the feeling of running with no limits. I stop and then take out one golden strand of Jace's hair I had taken from his room. It is shining in the sun and it looks like a gold wire. I use that to do a tracking rune and find him. It leads to Magnus's house. From outside I hear a lot of voices. Izzy's, Simon's, Alec's, Magnus's and Jace's.

I feel a wave of emotions crash onto me, hard.  I feel my eyes misting with tears. My heart lurches painfully and I feel like curling up in a dark corner and bawling my eyes out. I feel happy that I'm going to see them again, after a long time but I also feel the sadness that they won't remember me. It will never go back to the way it used to be. They won't ever remember me and that hurts. The one true best friend I have right now is in a coma and all these guys will not remember me. We won't be friends. I think about my best friend, Simon. With his nerdy glasses and goofy grin, always trying to make me laugh and always succeeding. He is now a Shadowhunter and we could have trained together had that warlock not cursed me. I think of all that could have been and I let myself delve into happy thoughts for a tiny moment.

I take a moment to get a hold of my emotions. You are Clarissa Fairchild, you have defeated very evil very scary demons. You can handle a few memories of ex-friends. After that inspiring pep talk to myself I brave myself to knock on the door.

Magnus Bane in all his brilliance opens the door and I feel as though a party exploded in my face. He looks at me suspiciously and asks, "Who are you?" I peep around him and look at Jace for some help. First he looks at me disbelievingly and then he smiles. I like him smiling so widely at me, he looks so happy to see me. "Magnus, that's Clary. The one I was telling you about," he says, coming to stand next to Magnus.