Et tú, Clarissa?

Chapter thirty-six

Present Day (England, Britain)

To be honest, it all goes by in a blur. Everyone except Aurelia throws themselves into the fight. Wherever I look, I see people fighting each other. Like a boll of yarn of thrown fists, bites, kicks, swords, bows and magic create the most complex patterns.

I send one of the demon shadows back to hell right before a half-shifted werewolf walks up to me with a blade. Even if he got the strength of his wolf, I have years and years of training and once he gets up to me, I parry his lunges and kick him before taking the knife in a swing that ends with the blade against his throat. I throw the blade into the side of a werewolf battling some seelies and they thank me with a nod. Suddenly I hear how a werewolf flies at me in a big jump, but before he hits me, another jumps at him and once the tumble on the ground the one that saved me rips the other ones throat out. He looks at me and I see Josef.

"Get your man back, stupid. We got this!" he says and continues.

I understand that he's right and my gaze dart around the place as I try to find Zac again, but the battlefield is messy to say at least. It takes some seconds before I find him by Aurelia's side at a distance from the fight, but just as I'm on my way to them, I feel how someone grabs me by my neck. The long slender fingers wrap around my throat and it drags me away from the fight. I fight to try to get out of his hold, but those cold sharp fingers do not budge the slightest. When we get at approximately the same distance as Aurelia and Zac to the fight, it stops and leans into my ear and whispers with the most nerve chilling voice I have ever heard.

"Mistress Aurelia wanted you to have the best seat for this show," the shadow says and I can feel how his fingers cause my throat to bleed.

Each second, he has his fingers on me, I can sense my hair gaining the black colour of shadows, but I fight it. My gaze is pasted to the fight and I know I have to do something because we're losing. Whilst the werewolves decrease in numbers, the shadows only grow and killing something that does not really got a physical form, is hard. I'm forced to watch as they tear apart people I care about and I can't do anything. Even though I have to do something, my energy is only leaving me by the second.

I can't ...

Before I feel the despair take over, my eyes meet Zac's and I'm filled with a will that makes the growing darkness inside of me shrink and my energy returns. As I open my eyes again, my cat eyes shine bright as the blue sparkles of magic dance my fingers and I grab the arm of the shadow. He shrieks in pain and I feel how his grip loosens around me. I turn around with a spell ready at my fingers to cast upon him. With that, he fully disappears and I turn to Aurelia. Other shadows try to hold me back, but I escape them to make my way towards Zac.

Zac sees how I'm able to evade the shadows and he grins at Aurelia.

"You'll never win. Clary will beat you."

"Oh, shut up," she simply replies and gather some shadows beside her. "Forget about the not-kill-her order. I am starting to lose my patience."

Zac looks at her as the shadows make their way towards me and a stupid plan plant itself in his thoughts.

"Do you know why Clary will always win?" he asks and Aurelia looks at him with hatred furrowing her face. "She fights for something greater than herself. Greater than you. And whoever you are, will never win this sick game you're playing."

Aurelia falls in his trap and grabs him by his collar. She snarls in his face as she almost lifts him off the ground.

"You pitiful mundane. You have no idea what you are talking about."