The Book of Demons

Chapter 4

Izzy practically skipped into the New York Institute while Jace was trudging behind her. They had completed their mission: talk to the mystery girl who found the book, steal the book, and never talk to mystery girl again. Izzy was so excited to tell Alec about their success, but Jace was still disappointed about the lack of action and demon fighting they had encountered that day. Izzy practically threw the book at Alec as she walked into the library. He caught the book with an alarming amount of grace and glared at his sister for being so careless with such a rare book.

"I see you've found the book," Alec said and he put it down and opened up the front cover.

"I sure did! We wouldn't have gotten it without all my hard work," replied Izzy.

Jace glowered at Izzy and said, "Excuse me, but I do recall also being with you during the mission, therefore making it our hard work. I specifically remember me being there when I stole the book from the girls bag."

"Well, you didn't have to make pleasant conversation with a mundane for 45 minutes. You could have stolen it faster," Izzy grimaced at the thought of ever having a boring conversation like that again.

"Guys, you're both missing out on the part where we got the book after searching for it for so long, so what does it matter who did what," Alec rolled his eyes at the two of them and their constant bickering.

"Whatever," Jace replied. "Would you just open the dang thing already. I want to figure out how to single handedly save the world with the information that's supposed to be hidden between the ratty covers of this thing."

Before Alec could even process the thought of reading the book, Jace swept it away from him and started flipping through the pages. His eyes squinted as he tried to understand the text on the pages but he couldn't make it out.

"I always knew you couldn't read," Izy laughed and she took the book from him only to discover that she also could not understand a single word on the page.

"Let me see," Alec said as Izzy handed him the book for further inspection. "We either all forgot how to read, or this is in some unknown demon language that none of us bothered to learn."

"Ugh, does that mean we're gonna have to go through and translate every word of this thing?" Jace cringed at the thought of sitting for hours with such a boring task.

"No, it's fine. I'll have Magnus come over tomorrow morning to translate. He knows like every language ever, so he'll be able to get through it faster than we would have been able to."

Jace was extremely relieved by this fact and he saw the concern leave Izzy's face as she realized that she also wouldn't be tasked with such a boring assignment. Thankfully, Magnus would be able to help them in the morning.

They were all in agreement that nothing more could be done, so they decided it would be best to order some food and ignore the problem until the next morning. They left the book on the giant wooden table in the library until they could figure out how to use it the next morning.

"Hey man, at least I'll get to hang out with my bestie, Magnus, in the morning," Jace laughed as he walked out the library's giant double doors. Alex promptly swatted him on the head.

"Ouch."