Valentine's Arrow

13: Corrupted Lungs

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

REBECCA

"Drop them!" Sebastian screamed, waving his arms like a demented windmill as the Shadowhunters below him erupted into chaos. "Use other weapons!" The scene would have been funny, if not for the seething, roiling, boiling, frustrated mass of converted Shadowhunters beneath them.

"What's going on?" Clary shouted above the noise.

"Their seraph blades don't work anymore!" Rebecca yelled back. "Sebastian's just told them to use other weapons."

"We have to get to the other side!" Clary said. "Can you walk?"

"Yeah."

Together, they fought their way through the melee. Nobody paid much attention to them – the dark Shadowhunters were all too confused by why their seraph blades weren't working anymore, or too preoccupied with the advancing mass of Shadowhunters.

They reached the other side much quicker than Rebecca had expected. The battle had properly begun now, the red clashing with the black with the intensity and ferocity of a hurricane. The coppery smell of blood hung in the air, and the sound was almost deafening. "Alec," she gasped. "Where's Alec? And Izzy?"

"Rebecca!"

It was a voice she knew so well. She whirled around, and there was Alec, bow in hand, staring at her with an expression of mingled relief and disbelief.

"Alec!"

He waded through the battle and wrapped her in a one-arm hug. Out of the corner of her eye, Rebecca spotted Clary being pulled into her mother's arms. "By the Angel, we were so worried! What happened?"

"I got kidnapped," Rebecca said. "Sebastian took me to his-"

Her words were cut short as Alec forced her down, aimed and fired. She whirled around to find Cartwright standing there, an arrow sprouting from his chest. Even as she watched, he keeled over.

"You up to fight?"

"Of course."

Without another word, Alec handed her a seraph blade from his belt and then waded into the battle again, firing arrows so fast she could barely follow them. She plunged in after him.

There was always a sort of cold detachment that came with battle. As Rebecca whirled and kicked and dodged, she felt almost separate from her own body, as if she was hovering just above the battle, watching herself fight. Though they outnumbered Sebastian's forces, his were stronger, faster, and more deadly.

From time to time, she spotted familiar faces in the crowd - Jocelyn, Maryse, Simon. She spotted Isabelle a few feet away, taking down enemies left and right with her whip. But there was one dark Shadowhunter sneaking up behind her, his sword raised. Rebecca started towards her sister, but a hand wrapped around her elbow, pulling her off balance, and she found herself face-to-face with Sebastian.

Rebecca immediately struggled, turning back to Isabelle, her chest tight with worry for her sister - and exhaled a sigh of relief as Isabelle made short work of the dark Shadowhunter who had been standing behind her. Sebastian, apparently not too happy that her attention was not on him, shook her hard. "So," he said, nearly spitting with rage. "The first opportunity you get, you betray me?"

"Oh shut up!" Rebecca screamed, half-wild from the sudden relief that had filled her. "I was never on your side! And I never will be!"

"That's where you're wrong."

Rebecca opened her mouth to retaliate, but before she could get a single word out, Sebastian collapsed, writhing in what looked like pure agony. His hands clutched at his skin as he screamed, as if he wanted to tear out his own skin.