Valentine's Arrow

20: One Woman Army

CHAPTER TWENTY

JACE

Jace's chest tightened, but he didn't let his expression change. He couldn't possibly let Sebastian know how much seeing his sister turned into an Endarkened hurt him.

"This is a fight you won't win, Jace," Rebecca said. "So you better turn around and just leave. Sebastian doesn't want to kill you."

"Well that's too bad, since I really want to kill him." He tried to sidestep Rebecca, but she raised her blade, blocking his path.

"I mean it, Jace. If you fight him, you die."

Jace faltered in his step for a moment. Though Rebecca's expression gave away absolutely nothing, her voice was low and urgent, like she was actually afraid for him.

Sebastian grinned. "Isn't she wonderful? I knew from the first moment I laid eyes on her that she'd be a wonderful soldier. I'm good at that kind of thing, you know."

Jace's gaze was still fixed on his sister. "Rebecca, move," he snarled.

"Oh, give him a chance," Sebastian called out mockingly. "He's so keen."

Gritting her teeth, Rebecca turned around to face Sebastian. "You can't hurt him."

The smile vanished from Sebastian's face. "Are you telling me," he said quietly, striding forward so that he was face to face with her, "that you actually care about what happens to him? Your pathetic family?"

Rebecca's eyes hardened. She fixed Sebastian with a steely glare. "Fine." In one fluid motion, she whirled around and drove her blade into Jace's shoulder.

The agony was instant, clear and clean as the blade slammed into his shoulder. It was like being electrified – Jace felt the pain through his entire body, his muscles contracting, his back arcing off the ground. Heat seared through him, as if his bones were being fused to charcoal. Flame gathered and coursed through his veins, up his spine –

He saw Rebecca's eyes widen, and in their blackness, he saw himself reflected, sprawled on the red-black ground, and his shoulder was burning. Flames licked up from the wound like blood.

Jace began to struggle up onto his elbows, though the movement sent a wave of pain through his shoulder so severe, he thought he might pass out. His vision darkened; when it came back again, Rebecca was standing over him, her sword at her feet, and the two of them were surrounded by a ring of figures.

Women, gowned in white like Greek oracles, their eyes leaping orange flames. Their faces were tattooed with marks, as delicate and winding as vines. They were beautiful and terrible. They were Iron Sisters.

"In six hundred years we have not abandoned our Citadel," said one of the Sisters, a tall woman whose hair fell in black ropes to her waist. Her eyes blazed, twin furnaces in the darkness. "But the heavenly fire calls us, and we come. Move away from Jace Herondale. Harm him again, and we destroy you."

Rebecca's chest was heaving, but she didn't look alarmed or frightened. She looked relieved, maybe even a little triumphant.

"Neither Jace Herondale nor the fire in his veins will save you, Cleophas," Sebastian said, raising his sword and stepping in front of Rebecca. His voice was steady. "The Nephilim have no savior."

"You did not know to fear the heavenly fire. Now you do," said Cleophas. "Time to retreat, boy. And take your loyal puppy with you."

For a moment, Sebastian looked furious. Then he lunged forward, and the Morgenstern sword buried itself into the earth.