Detained [2] 《SHADOWHUNTERS》

Chapter Twenty-Five

Andy was exhausted. She frowned at the glass case in front of her, watching the three Shadowhunters inside attempt to terrify their prisoner. She had barely slept the night before, and her fight with Alec had her sitting in her room and staring out at the roof throughout the morning. It was one of those nights where she watched everything get pale before the sun made its official appearance, leaving her with blurry eyes and a headache from an empty stomach.

She forced her heavy eyes to focus past the piece of art in front of her and into the cage where her father was chained. She couldn't say for certain if the torture was working. He made it seem like it wasn't. She didn't know the man who had pretended to be her father as well as she once thought.

But she knew he'd pretend a lot more things to get what he wanted. When the Inquisitor had requested her presence after catching her in the training room this morning, Andy had told her just that. That her father was a manipulator, and he'd try anything he could to get out of that room. Maybe even give them a location for the Cup, just to use the slight lowering of their guards to his advantage.

Andy didn't feel comforted when Inquisitor Herondale told her that that wouldn't happen. She had been told a lot of things about the safety of herself and her family that had been proven very wrong recently. Idris used to be deemed safe, until Andy fought off a Greater Demon in the countryside. Institutes were meant to be impenetrable, but the Clave never had a backup plan for their own turning on them and breaking down the very wards that kept them safe.

Andy didn't feel very safe lately. So she resorted to her fierce glares and tightened shoulders, her tensed jaw and blank stares. She wouldn't let the man beyond the glass catch a thing in her expression except for pure resentment.

She heard the elevator open down the hall behind her, feeling even less unsafe when she glanced back and didn't find Alec. Not that the image of her brother and thought-to-be-sister made her feel unsafe, rather the idea that they had gotten down without the aid of the few steles that were given access to the most important areas of the Institute. Granted, it didn't make much sense to have it all on full lockdown when the Inquisitor herself was down here, but it didn't help Andy's nerves.

She turned her gaze back ahead of her, not bothering to greet either of them. She listened to the muffled interrogation going on and watched her father's lips quiver. It was a sickeningly sweet irony, remembering the countless times he had put her in that position.

"Nineteen Shadowhunters died in your assault on this Institute along with hundreds of downworlders that you massacred with the Soul Sword," the Inquisitor stated, hands tucked behind her back as she stalked behind Valentine. She held up her stele and approached his arm, insisting that justice would be served before she activated the rune on his skin. It was unfamiliar to the three that stood outside of the cell, a powerful mark that was reserved for few members of the Clave.

Valentine screamed in pain, struggling against the restraints around his arms. Jace and Clary both looked away, instinctually trying to silently reassure one another. But when they tried to do the same with Andy, they found her gaze glued forward, muscles in her neck shifting. It was easy to see that she wanted to scream. Her clenching fists revealed her desire to rush inside and aid in Valentine's suffering. 

But her face was still.

The Inquisitor walked out of the large, reinforced metal door and the two Shadowhunters who had been helping her followed, making sure the cell was locked tight. Andy forced herself to tear her eyes away from the man in the cage and look at the Herondale who settled herself in front of them.

"How long can you keep torturing him?" Clary asked, once again reminding them all that she was once just a mundane. She understood why they did it, but she had convinced herself that there were better ways to tame evil. Andy wished she could have ever been that naïve.