Disclaimer: SOME of the dialogue in this chapter, all characters (but Grace and Philip), the main settings and story line belong to the awesome Cassie Clare. I only own Grace, Philip and my own plot. All rights for the Infernal Devices go to Cassandra Clare.

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'Why are you looking down all the wrong roads
When mine is the heart and the soul of the song.'

- Like I Can, Sam Smith

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-*-*-*-*- Grace -*-*-*-*-

"He's gone to Wales alone?" Charlotte demanded after she had forcibly summoned everyone into the library after discovering that Will was missing that morning, despite how hard Grace had protested from leaving Jem's side.

"It is not my responsibility to manage wayward Shadowhunters," Magnus replied smoothly from the chair next to Grace. "Nor will it ever be." Charlotte turned to Grace, almost in exasperation.

"How could you have let him go off like that?" she asked. Grace folded her arms and leant back on her chair at the table, looking extremely defiant.

"I didn't 'let him' go off," she said. "Will is doing what is right, especially after that moron of a Consul refused to help." Apparently that didn't satisfy Charlotte so she turned to the rest of the room.

"Does anyone know when Will left?" she asked, looking down the long table that everybody sat at. Her eyes narrowed at Cecily who was wearing Will's ruby necklace, although Grace had no idea when or how he had got it, or why who wore it for that matter.

Cecily seemed to sense that everyone was staring at her and crossed her arms, copying Grace's position. "I will say nothing," she said. "Will's decision is his own. Grace is right."

"I did not think that he would leave Jem," Charlotte murmured then looked shocked at her own words. "How are we to tell him once he wakes?"

"Jem is well aware of Will's actions," Grace said, looking at the rest of the table. "Because it was Jem who asked him to do it."

"Of course Jem knows," Gabriel spoke up. "Will is only doing his duty to his parabatai by going in his place."

"You are defending Will?" Grace asked, eyebrows raised. Gideon looked as surprised as she did. "After the way you've treated him, treated me, you're defending us?" Gabriel's face coloured.

"Will may be a reprehensible person, but he is not a reprehensible Shadowhunter," Gabriel said, raising his chin. "And I was wrong about you Miss Carstairs. You have my apologies." Grace only nodded in reply.

"A very magnanimous statement, Gideon," Magnus said.

"I'm Gabriel."

"All Lightwoods look the same to me," Magnus said, waving a hand in front of his face. Grace wasn't quite sure how you could confuse the Lightwood brothers, considering one had blonde hair and the other had dark hair.

"Anyway," Gideon interrupted. "Regardless of Will's personal qualities or anyone's ability to tell one Lightwood from the other, the question still remains: Do we go after Will?"

"Of course not!" Grace exclaimed, standing up and leaning on the table. "His best chance is to remain undetected. If we were to go after him, then the Magister is sure to know that we are aware of his location and immediately move, taking Tessa with him."

"Are you saying that we should abandon Will and let him ride off to his death?" Gideon asked. "He'll be slaughtered."

"If Will wanted help then he wouldn't have ridden off in the middle of the night," Cecily said. "And besides, the only one he would have taken anyway would have been Grace."

"So why didn't you go?" Gideon asked her. Grace opened her mouth to speak but Gabriel interrupted.

"Even though the Magister did not specifically ask for Grace, it doesn't mean that he does not want her anymore," he said. "We cannot make it easy for him by sending our best Shadowhunter and our best chance right to his doorstep. Besides, I do not think that Will would have left his parabatai if he wasn't sure that someone would be with him." Grace nodded, but she wasn't sure what Gabriel meant when he said 'their best chance.'

"He'll be killed even before he gets to that mountain," Gideon warned. "We must help him."

"Stealth and secrecy is Will's best chance of staying alive-"

"Silence!" Charlotte shouted, slamming her hand on the table. The whole table looked gingerly at her, afraid at what she would say next. "Grace, Gabriel, Gideon, you are all correct. We cannot go after Will but we will not abandon him either. All our efforts must now go to saving Jem." Grace snapped her head up at that.

"He has finally given us permission to search for a cure for him," Charlotte continued. "A part of Will's strength relies in Jem, so we must save him. He is one of our own." Everybody nodded.

"What are we to do?" Cecily asked. Charlotte raised her chin and stood up straight.

"Mr Bane," she ordered. "Will may have summoned you but you remain here in my service until I release you. You shall be instructing Gabriel and Cecily in which shops they must go to in order to get the ingredients you need." Magnus nodded.

"Henry, perhaps you could allow Mr Bane to use your crypt to work unless there is some invention that prevents this," Charlotte said, raising her eyebrows.

"There is," Henry said feebly. "But perhaps Mr Bane could help."

"What are you working on?" Magnus asked.

"A portal of sorts that can transport you anywhere in the world by thought," Henry replied.

"Including a store room full of yin fen in China?" Magnus said. "That sounds very interesting indeed." Together, the two left the room.

"Gideon," Charlotte said. "As you are injured, you will remain here in the library researching yin fen. If you need help, myself or Sophie will assist you." Finally, she turned to Grace.

"Grace, you will be visiting Mr Blackthorn," Charlotte said.

"What? No!" Grace protested. "I am not leaving Jem." Charlotte gave Grace a stern look.

"Mr Blackthorn has many contacts in Downworld that may know of a way to help your brother, Grace," Charlotte said. "He was also in league with the Magister. He may know something."

"I haven't seen Philip since he was exiled," Grace lied. Charlotte raised an eyebrow.

"I know that you and Jem brought him an apartment. I also know that you have been seeing him, so you cannot fool me," she said sternly.

"Fine," Grace said grudgingly. She picked up her gear jacket that was draped over the back of her chair. "I'll be back in an hour. If anything happens-"

"I will tell you," Charlotte said. "Don't worry, Grace." She nodded slowly then exited the room.

***

Grace knocked on Philip's door quietly, half hoping that he wouldn't be home. The last time she had seen Philip, she had been fighting in The Ring, almost dead. Was he angry at her? Was he worried? It wasn't like she had contacted him to let him know she was all right. In fact, she'd been avoiding the confrontation.

After a minute of waiting, she was about to leave. But the door flew open and Philip stood in the threshold. She looked down at the floor.

"Hi," she said. He looked at her, shocked. "I-" Suddenly, he surged forward and crashed his lips onto hers. She gasped in surprise. She had expected him to yell at her, shout and scream, not kiss her. His arms wrapped around her waist as he lifted her off her feet and pulled her into the apartment, kicking the door closed behind him.

"Oh God, I thought that-" He broke off when Grace pushed him away. He stepped towards her again but she countered by taking a step back.

"No, Philip," she said. "I-I can't. Not right now." He looked slightly broken hearted but nodded and stepped back, perching on the edge of his bed.

"I'm sorry if that overwhelmed you," he said. "I just...I just haven't seen you since that night at The Ring. I wasn't sure if you were still hurt or angry at me."

"I was angry at you," Grace replied, leaning on the wall. "But not now. I know I was stupid and you did the right thing." She took a deep, shaky breath. "But that isn't why I'm here."

"What's wrong?" he said. "There are rumours flying around that the Magister attacked the Institute. Are they true?"

"Yes."

"Is everyone all right?" Philip asked urgently. "Are you all right? Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine, nothing an iratze can't fix," Grace replied. "But Tessa was taken and Jem..." She broke off, trying to get control of herself. "Jem is ill. Really ill. There isn't enough yin fen to give him the strength to recover himself. If we don't find a cure, he'll..."

"Die," Philip finished. "How long?"

"A couple of hours," Grace whispered. "Perhaps a day, if we're lucky."

"The why are you here?" He asked.

"I'm here because Charlotte asked me to see you," Grace said, pushing herself off the wall. "I know she's trying to distract me, so she sent me to ask for your advice. You were in league with the Magister. You also have contacts in Downworld. There has to be something you know. Someone you can go to."

"Grace-"

"Don't tell me there's nothing," she said. "Please, Philip. I can't lose him. There has to be something."

"I-I don't know how to tell you this Grace," he stammered. "But there's nothing I know. Anything I knew about the Magister I told the Clave, and there is no Downworlder who has yin fen."

"There is one," Grace murmured. Philip snapped his head up.

"No, Grace," he said sternly. "We just got you out! There is no way I'm letting you go back in. No way."

"I'm not going to fight," she said, walking towards the door. "I'm going to employ my famous persuasion techniques. And you're going to help me do it."

***

During daylight hours, The Ring was pretty much empty, save for a few vampires who didn't leave the night before and were avoiding the sun. Grace stalked inside, Philip on her heels, trying to persuade her not to do what she was about to do.

"Grace, don't do this," he said. "He'll kill you. You'll never get away with it."

"Shut up," she growled, scanning the room. She stormed towards a bartender, the one she had spoken to on that first night, and slammed her hand on the counter.

"Where is he?" she asked, her gaze fierce.

"No listen here, lady-" he started but Grace grabbed him by his shirt and slammed him down onto the counter.

"Where. Is. Slewford?!" she shouted.

"I-I don't know!" the bartender stammered, trembling. "He pr-probably sleep-sleeping."

"Go get him," Grace ordered. "NOW!" Philip grabbed her arm, dragging her back as the bartender scampered off.

"What the hell are you doing?" he exclaimed. "Slewford warned us that if we ever came back here then he'll kill us!" He took a breath and looked around. "If Jem knew I let you come here...I don't even want to think about it. You can't lie to him, not now, Grace. We've got to go. We have to go before Slewford see's us-"

"Oh it is much too late for that," a voice said behind them. Grace and Philip whipped around to find Slewford standing behind them, the bartender looking gleeful next to him.

"Mr Slewford," Philip said calmly. "I'm sorry to disturb. We were just leaving." He grabbed Grace's arm again and tried to drag her away. But instead of going with Philip, Grace ripped her arm free and launched herself at Slewford, tackling him to the floor. He tried to push her off him but she punched him in the jaw.

"Now listen here, Slewford," she growled. "You are going to give me all the yin fen you have right now or I'm going to beat you to an inch of your undead life!" Grace hardly noticed Philip pinning the bartender to the wall to stop him from attacking her.

"I'm not giving you anything!" Slewford spat. "I should have dealt with you when I had the chance!"

"That was your mistake," Grace hissed. "Now give me the yin fen."

"No!" he said. Grace slapped him then drew her dagger, stabbing it into Slewford's shoulder. He roared in pain and writhed off the floor but Grace pinned him again.

"I'm not going to ask you again!" she yelled. "Give me all the yin fen you have or you'll die today!"

"You don't get it, do you?" Slewford groaned. "There is no more!"

"You're lying!"

"I'm not," he said, grinning evilly. "After your last fight, I had a meeting with the Magister. He's brought my yin fen supply up for a very handsome price indeed, more than I was ever going to make. I should thank you. He only came here because of you."

She snapped.

Grace drew back her fists, pummelling Slewford with everything she had. She felt her palms heat up as she screamed with rage, not showing any mercy. Even when Slewford's dry vampire skin caught fire, she continued to kick and punch, ignoring his pleads for her to stop.

Suddenly, arms wrapped around her shoulders and she was yanked away from Slewford. Philip was dragging her out, kicking and screaming as Slewford lay on the floor, bruised and bloodied. But his bartender had thrown a bucket of water over him, dousing out the fire. He'd live. And Grace wasn't fine with that.

"Get out of here," the bartender said. "And never come back if you value your lives." Philip pushed Grace through the doors roughly, pulling her down the street in a hurry to get away from The Ring.

"Get your hands off me!" Grace shouted. "Let me go, Philip!"

"No," he said, his eyes dark. "You've done enough today." Grace managed to rip herself from his hold, shoving him away. He gave her a concerned look.

"Don't look at me like that," she said. "I had it under control."

"Did you?" He asked. "Grace, I saw you in there. Your eyes were glowing bright red, your hands were on fire. You were losing control. I-I think you were going to kill him."

"I don't care!" she yelled, her throat raw. "My brother is dying and that was my last sliver of hope that I might be able to save him! Now I can't." It all came crashing down as Grace backed away and hit the wall, sliding down it with her head in her hands. "I'm going to lose him. I'm going to lose him."

She was sobbing now, unable to stop the tears from falling. Philip crouched next to her, pulling her close to him. Despite her mixed emotions, she let him hold her. Anything to forget what was on the road ahead.

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Hiya guys!

Hope you enjoyed this one! Let me know what you think!

Love y'all!

CricketCat