Chapter 23

Faith's POV

Nothing feels the same anymore. My heart doesn't beat the same, my breath isn't the same, none of it. My Connection ruin is healing, but Magnus said it's not healing right without Jace around. So I planned on fixing that today, right now.

"You sure about this?" Magnus' voice spoke up behind me as I faced the entrance of the City of Bones.

"I have to see him, Magnus," My voice came out groggy, like I had just woken up from a long sleep. Or not enough sleep.

I use my Steel to open the City of Bones' door, before stepping down the long, winding steps that seemed to go on forever. Eventually it came to an end and there was nothing left but hallways.

One of the Silent Brother's greeted me, causing me to stop in my tracks. "What is your business here, Shadowhunter?"

"I need to see Jace Wayland," I said, raising my chin in hopes of it making me look more confident.

The Silent Brother turned, leading the way down one of the half lit hallways. Cells on either side of me, filled with people screaming for help, filled my ears.

"Pay no heed to their desperation. They all deserve to be here. Infractions against the Clave do not go unpunished," The Silent Brother said, his tone making a chill go up my spine.

We reached one of the end cells, revealing Jace's figure sitting on the floor. He glances up, meeting my eyes before standing.

"Jace."

"Faith." Both of us run to the cell gat, our hands gipping the bars that separated us. "Are you okay?"

I smiled slightly, seeing the situation as a reverse for me to ask him if he's okay. "I'm fine. Magnus helped me." I pulled up my sleeve, revealing my ruin perfectly healed minus some scarring around it. "It'll hurt for a bit, but I'll be okay." My eyes move back to the man before me, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Jace said, his eyes looking down at the ground, proving his words were fault.

My eyes moved to meet his, causing him to look up at me, "No you're not, I know you're not." He sighs. "Jace you don't have to do this alone."

"This isn't your cross to bear, Faith. I have to pay for my actions," Jace said, his eyes falling again.

I gripped the bars harder, correcting him, "Our actions. We were both there."

Shaking his head, Jace looked at me, "Not this time Faith, this time it's just me."

My mouth opened to fight back but the Silent Brother that led me here stopped me. "Time to go."

"Wait, I've barley had any time with him," I said, my head turning between the Silent Brother and Jace.

"You must leave," The Silent Brother ordered.

Jace's hands gripped mine on the bars, trying to calm me down, "Hey, hey. I'll be okay."

"You damn well better be," I mumbled, my head stretching between the bars to capture his lips in a quick kiss that he returned. As I pulled away a little, Jace's words mumbled to my lips, "See you in my dreams."

Those words echoed in my ears as the Silent Brother grabbed me and yanked me away. Out of instinct, Jace lightly lunged towards the bars, meeting my eyes as tears filled them.

I'm led back into the night air, the door closing behind me and leaving me in the presence of Magnus. He looked at me with hopeful eyes, only for them to fall when tears filled mine.

"Why is this happening, Magnus?"

Magnus' arms wrapped themselves, holding me close. His hand rubbed my back soothingly, "Even the world likes to mess with it's own creations."

After Magnus returned back to his home, I headed back to the Institute. Everyone was silent towards me as I walked down the hallway, heading towards my room. The sound of my mother's voice calling from behind me as she tried to catch up, grabbed my attention.

"Faith! I heard you went to see Jace. Is he all right?" She asked, meeting my steps.

"He's locked up in the City of Bones. How do you think he's doing?" I said, my voice annoyed and angry as I turned into my room.

"Faith, wait. There's something I have to tell you," My mom said, causing me to sigh. I stopped in the middle of my room and turned to look at Jocelyn. "The Clave is reassigning me to Idris."

If her words were trying to make me sympathize with her or something, she quickly found out that, that wasn't going to work. "Cool, have fun," I said with a shrug as I turned towards my bed. A half packed bag sat on it, opened with clothes and a journal sitting next to it, waiting to be put in.

Mom's mouth parted in shock, "Faith, I'm sorry for what's happened. I didn't want-"

Quickly I interrupted her and turned towards her. "Don't you dare tell me that you didn't want this, because you did! This is what you've always wanted." I turned, tossing the rest of the stiff into the bag and zipping it up, before throwing it over my shoulder. "Congrates, you're getting your wish."

As my body walked past her, my mom quickly stopped me again, "Where are you going?"

A sigh left my lips as I halted, "Magnus'. He thinks it's better that I stay there where I'm... safer."

"Is this my punishment? You hating me?"

Pausing, my eyes starred at hers, the next words leaving my lips causing her eyes to fill with tears. "No. You loosing me is." With that, I turned and walked out of my room, heading down the hallway, and out of the Institute.

Magnus' place had never looked so welcoming. A spare bedroom was made up for me, leaving me to have my own space if I wanted it. Magnus already had a drink in his hand when I entered the livingroom. His free hand was turning page after page in a book.

"What are you looking at?" I asked, watching as Magnus turned and looked at me.

"Oh, just doing some light reading. Care for one?" He asked, holding up his drink.

I nodded as my answer and sat on one of the couches, watching him make me a drink. He walked over, handed me the drink, backed up, and sat on the couch across from me.

My eyes fell on my drink for a minute, saddening slightly. "Magnus, will Jace die?"

Magnus seemed surprised by my questions, his own eyes falling to his drink. "I'm afraid I don't know, my dear. The questioning will give more of an insight on things. We'll know more afterwards."

A sigh left my lips as I nodded, taking a swig of my drink to find it mostly contained a whisky type taste. Defiantly not my favorite, but it helped.

Inside my pocket, my phone went off, causing me to pull it out and see a text message from Clary. It said something about a Demon in the Institute and that they needed my help. I hadn't been gone for more than an hour and already they were begging me to return.

Without a second thought, I deleted the text message and took another swig of my drink before focusing my attention back on Magnus.

"Is everything alright?"

"The love of my life is locked up, and it seems like everyone is trying to pull us apart. What do you think?" I asked, my hand raising the drink again to my lips.

"Not me," Magnus stated, holding his drink up.

I smiled, raising my own drink up in a cheers motion, "Nope, not you." Magnus took a drink of his while mine returned to rest on my lap. "Why are you helping Jace and me?"

Magnus paused, his hand twirling around in the air. "I think it's a rare thing what Jace and you have. And when they talk about it a hundred years from now, I want to be known as the person who helped you the most." A playful smile was on his face, making me wonder if what he was saying was true, or if he was just trying to lighten the subject a bit.

A small chuckle left my lips before I downed the little remains of my drink. "Well, I'm going to take a shower and get some sleep."

"Sleep well, dear."

"Thanks, Magnus... for everything," I said, a smile on my face as I sat the glass down and stood up.

A long, warm shower seemed to calm some of the tension in my bones, but Jace's tension was tightening them back up, making me wonder what he was going through right now.

After my needed shower, I climbed into the large bed Magnus had for me and reached into the bag I brought. Pulling out one of Jace's shirts, I cuddled up into it, let the scent of him overwhelm my senses and calm my mind.

Darkness overtook me, letting me get some rest. But it felt like only an hour had passed before my phone was going off on my night stand next to me. A groan left my lips, my eyes begging me to ignore the call and slip back into sleep.

When the phone slipped back into silence, a sigh of relief left me and I felt my body relax enough to start to drift off. Then the ding of another text message filled my ears again and my eyes shot open.

Jesus, is it so hard to ask for some peace and quiet every now and then?

Sitting up, I grabbed my phone, knowing very well that the missed call and text message had nothing to do with Jace as I would have felt it. The clock revealed I had slept for four hours instead of the thoughtful one.

The missed call was from Alec, who was also the one to have texted me afterwards. I could almost read the frantic in his text as he begged me to return to the Institute and that he really needed my help.

Usually, I would shove it off as nothing, as just another means to get me back there. But this was Alec, the big bad Alec that wouldn't ask anyone for help unless it was Jace or his sister.

And even then, it was a rare day.

Grabbing my jacket, I decide it would be better to at least check everything out. I headed back to the Institute, everyone franticly running around or whispering to each other as I made my way towards the training room.

Clary sat on one of the steps, her eyes red like she was crying. Her head rose at the sound of footsteps.

"Okay, I franticly get called over and over, so here I am. What is the problem?"

Clary stood up, "Faith... it's mom."

"What? She's leaving for Idris? Yeah, she told me."

"She's dead," Clary said, her voice cracking as her eyes filled with tears again.

My mouth parted in shock, my voice running dry as I stared at her. "Wait... what?"

Sucking in a breath to gather herself together enough to talk, Clary explained roughly. "The demon took over Alec's body and he... she's gone."

I felt the race in my heart as my breath slipped into a coma in my chest. My mind ran and screeched to a stop every second, seeming to not understand what to do next. Yes, in some cases, I hated my mom, I hated what she did to me, what she continued to try and do to me. But she was my mom, and as much as the bad memories haunted me, the good was still at the surface.

"Where is she?"

"Faith..."

"I asked, where is she?" My voice yelled, my eyes going from the ground to a slight glare at my sister.

It wasn't her fault, I knew that, but there was no way someone was going to stop me from seeing my mom.

Clary took me to a separate room, the room small and mostly empty minus the long table in the center, holding our mother's body. Clary left, leaving me to slowly make my way towards her.

"Mom," The single word came out almost less than a whisper, barley coherent even to my ears.

The sound of footsteps are heard behind me, slow and steady. They come to a halt in the doorway. I don't need to turn around, or ask who is there, because the empty feeling in my heart filled and every part of my being seemed to lighten up.

But my words and expression were not the same.

"She asked me if me hating her was her punishment. I told her it wasn't. It was her loosing me. That was the last thing I said to her." I turned around, Jace's eyes meeting mine as he looked at me with sympathy. "And now I can't ever take that back."

Tears filled my eyes and Jace fast walked over to me, his arms wrapping themselves around me. I buried my head into his chest, the contact of Jace seeming to fill my body with relief.

But even Jace Wayland couldn't make the sting of guilt and pain in my heart leave.

Hope you enjoyed!

Guess what, I'm alive!

I'm so sorry about not updating for so, so long. I've been having a difficult time recently and had literally no motivation to write. I'm really, really hoping to get back into it and update this book more but no promises. Special thanks and extreme apologies to @BlahhhSailor who continuously commented and motivated me to update. So sorry it took so long, but thank you so, so much for all the comments!

This chapter is for you!