Asher Lightwood

This Guilty Blood

TW: Suicide/attempted suicide

We were doing everything we could to try and find Jace and bring him home.

I was with Izzy and Scout. "Mm the Clave being unhelpful, who's shocked? Show of hands?" Magnus asked, holding one of Jace's shirts to try and track him.

"I'm worried. I can't sense Jace through our parabatai bond." Alec said. "We'll find him, Alexander." Magnus said and started to track Jace.

"When we arrested Hodge he said Valentine was on a ship. They must still be over water." I said. "Pull up the waterways around New York." Lydia said.

"The ship couldn't have gone too far." Scout said. "Anything?" Alec asked Magnus.

"Sorry." Magnus said. "There's gotta be something!" Alec said, distraught.

"I don't see him." Magnus said calmly, knowing how upset Alec was.

"Listen up!" Alec called and everyone looked at him. "I want 24/7 monitoring of the Hudson and East Rivers, you see anything unusual you come to me first!" Alec ordered.

"I've got this, Alec." Lydia said. "Why haven't you found Jace yet?" Alec asked.

"Don't forget who you're talking to, I am still the head of this Institute." Lydia said.

"And our brother is still missing!" I said. "Why don't you take a break, Alec?" Izzy asked.

"Not now, Izzy." Alec said. "Isabelle's right. And it's not a request, you're dismissed." Lydia said.

"Fine!" Alec snapped. "Hey.." Magnus said, grabbing Alec's arm. Alec wrenched his arm away. "Alec--" "Everybody just back off!" Alec barked.

"Alec." I said, starting to follow after him but Scout stopped me. "Let him go. He needs to cool off." she said.

30 minutes passed and I was in my room, working on a song while Magnus went to talk to Alec. I was looking through my songwriting notebooks when I came across a song I wrote when I was around 14.

I wrote this song with Jace. He had no idea what I was talking about and he probably thought it was stupid, but he still helped me. When I played the finished product in front of Alec and Izzy, they all clapped. They were all proud of me, Jace especially.

I smiled, remembering the lyrics he came up with and me making alterations to those lyrics.

My phone chimed. There was a meeting in the ops center. I ran to the ops center. Mom was at the top.

"We are at war. Valentine now has the Mortal Cup with which he is no doubt, raising a new army. And one of our own had joined him." Mom said.

"Looks like the queen's taking back her kingdom." I said. "As a result, the Clave has declared a state of emergency at the Institute. Their first priority is to replace the current leadership who they have declared wholly ineffectual." Mom said.

"It is an honor to introduce the newly appointed head of the New York Institute, Clave representative, Victor Aldertree." Mom said. She stepped down and let Victor speak.

"Did you know about this?" Alec asked. "No. But maybe this is why Dad went back to Idris." I replied.

"Maryse went behind my back." Lydia said. "My fellow Shadowhunters. It's an honour to be here with you all. We have to find Jace Wayland. He's a Shadowhunter and we don't leave our people behind. The answer to his location may very well lie in this room. So, I wanna speak with everyone who went on a mission where Jace disappeared." he said.

"One last thing. Effective immediately, the Institute is on lockdown. But it's only temporary. Let's turn this Institute around." he said and walked away.