Chapter 25 – What Lays in the Past

I floated in mid-air for several moments, unable to scream because I couldn't breathe. My stomach gave an awkward lurch and I tried to keep my hand on my stomach. But it seemed like my body no longer existed. It felt like I was part of the glowing vortex now. Without a body, only my soul seemed to exist.

I heard a gasp from far away. Then my body was back and I hit the ground with full force. My fingers dug into cold dirt and I pressed my lips together trying not to inhale the dust. Only now did I feel the cold surrounding me. An icy wind pressed against my limbs and blew my tangled hair in the air. The ground beneath me was wet.

I tried to get up, but all strength had left my body. Gasping, I rocked onto my side and finally fell onto my back. Stinging cold pierced my gear. I opened my eyes exhausted. A bright blue sky took up my entire view and for a moment I flinched from the brilliant light. My eyes slowly became sharp.

I was lying on a snow-covered patch of grass that stretched out in all directions. Somewhere near Alicante, I knew that because the forest stretched everywhere far away from the city and the meadows there were a lot smaller.

The swearing of a familiar voice made me take in my immediate surroundings. A few meters from me knelt Adam and Jace, who had obviously managed better landings than me. Adam's eyes widened in a gesture of equal measure amazed and amused, looking at the wasteland around us. Jace was patting his clothes, looking angry, confused, and amazed at the same time. Then, in a synchronous movement, they turned their heads in my direction. If I didn't know better, I thought I saw a flash of shock on both their faces for a brief moment when they saw me lying on the ground. But even now, Jace was adept at burying that slip-up behind his mask. If I hadn't imagined it because I hit my head.

"Clary, are you alright?" Adam came running towards me and looked down at me in concern. Jace took a step forward too, only to stop.

I nodded and flexed my muscles again. They were stiff and heavy, but at least I could move them now. "The rune," I tried to say and cleared my throat. "It took all my strength." I sat up carefully and let my gaze wander over the ice landscape again. In the distance you could actually make out Alicante, but a white mist lay over the city.

We had landed on a rise near a wide hill. At its highest point loomed a dark estate. Wooden planks were hammered across the windows, the roof looked ramshackle and the overall appearance was as if the house had been abandoned years ago. It seemed dead.

"This is the Wayland estate," Jace said, following my gaze. His voice couldn't hide the obvious surprise at this situation.

I smiled to myself as I watched him. Almost automatically I thought back to the words he had said after I told him about the dream with Ithuriel. It's all one big show. I wanted to throw the exact same words at him, but he didn't pay me any attention.

Adam helped me get to my feet. They trembled from the exertion, but I could feel new energy coursing through my veins with each breath. Like when you have to recover from a hard sprint.

"You just created a portal," Adam stated. A smile curled his lips. "I thought only warlocks could do that." A rocky path led up the hill to the dark house. Without consulting us, Jace marched off. We followed him.

I shrugged and carefully pulled away from Adam, who had been supporting me until now. His green eyes looked down at me, an unfathomable expression in them. I gave him a grateful smile and then shrugged. "But usually you have to think of a place before you go through it. I didn't think of a place and yet we were taken to the Wayland estate." Could this be coincidence?

"Do you think we ended up here on purpose?" Adam asked, voicing my thoughts. He frowned and turned his head up at Jace, who was blocking his view of the mansion. He had stopped on a small ledge, the stones creaking under his boots. He looked down on us almost imperiously.

"Of course it was on purpose," Jace said firmly. All trace of confusion was gone. "Apparently Clary was telling the truth after all. The angel showed her the rune. He must have had a reason for it." Then he gracefully lunged backwards to clear the way for us.

"Ithuriel led us here on purpose," I whispered, my legs quickening their stride on their own accord. I left Adam behind and jogged the last steep part of the way up to the cottage. Now that I was exposed at the top of the hill, the icy wind left uncomfortable goosebumps on my skin. Like Adam, I had removed my jacket in the training room. I was dressed only in my black outfit, which was damp from the snow on the back.

The two boys followed me in silence as I slowly walked up the stone steps and then pushed lightly against the door. It creaked under my weight and opened a crack. An old, dusty smell greeted me. I hesitated and felt my heart beat faster in my chest. Ithuriel had brought me here for a reason. That reason was somewhere behind that door, I just had to be brave enough. I'm calling you because I need your help.

I pressed my lips together, straightened my back and fully opened the door. With careful steps I felt my way through the darkness. The little light that filtered into the room through the windows revealed worn wooden floorboards and a finely woven carpet. The sight made me stop. "Why does someone leave their property and not take such a carpet with them?"

The floor creaked as Adam and Jace followed me inside the house. Someone closed the door and darkness enveloped me for a moment. Then a bright light shone beside me, casting long shadows down the hallway. Jace had produced a witch light from his pocket. The hallway was not large and similar in layout to the Lightwoods' estate in Alicante. On the right a shattered staircase led to the first floor and in front of us was a frame with no door on its hinges. A large room appeared behind it.

Jace led the way and we followed him as he moved toward the room with a careful eye. Large dusty bookshelves filled the room. The books looked like they would fall apart into a thousand pieces at the slightest touch. Holey purple curtains hung where someone had boarded up the windows. A mantel adorned the broad side of the room and much of the furniture had been covered with linen cloths. It didn't take much imagination to see the space in its heyday. The country house had looked so deserted from the outside, but here it looked as if the owners had only intended to leave it for a while. Just what happened?

"Michael Wayland was Robert's parabatai," whispered Jace, who seemed to think the same thing. By Robert he had to mean Alec and Isabelle's father. "He just disappeared years ago, but Robert knew he was dead. His Parabatai rune had disappeared." My stomach sank at his words.

"What's that?" Adam asked suddenly, pointing to a spot on the floor in the back corner of the room. I followed his gaze, but couldn't see anything at first. Jace took a few steps closer and held the witch light in Adam's direction.

It was a trapdoor. Its contours were now clearly visible in the light. It was quite wide for a trapdoor, nearly two meters long. Immediately, Adam and Jace knelt on the floor and pressed their fingers to the outline, searching for a handle. Jace rolled aside a rug, then grabbed something metallic that flashed in the light. A moment later we heaved the heavy door up. It was several centimeters thick and was made of concrete on the underside. A sickening smell hit us and I had to take a step back to keep from falling over in a faint. Jace clamped a hand over his mouth, his dark eyes narrowed to slits.

We allowed air to diffuse into the room for a few minutes before approaching the hatch again. In front of us lay an uneven stairway that led deep into the hill. The witch light was lost in the darkness. Not a sound passed our lips and we didn't move an inch. I held my breath to listen to the deep space, and I thought Adam and Jace were doing the same. But I couldn't smell anything except a putrid smell.

"Come on," I whispered with newfound courage, climbing the trapdoor onto the first step. I had to duck my head to continue down the stairs. As my body disappeared into the darkness, I turned to the others. Adam stood hesitantly in the mansion's living room while Jace followed me down the stairs. Adam mumbled something I didn't catch and then climbed after us.

Someone must have built this part of the house after the rest of the property was finished. The staircase consisted of odd steps, sometimes humped and sometimes deepened. Our progress was slow, as Jace's witch light only lightened a few yards into the front and the end of the descent was not yet in sight. With every step we took, the foul smell of death and decay grew stronger. The hairs on the back of my neck were standing up and every fiber of my body wanted to turn around and storm back up the stairs. Furthermore, the thought of being separated from the surface by meters of concrete, stone, and rubble made me extra sick.

After minutes of trudging in complete blackness, the heel finally fell into the cone of light and a smooth concrete floor came into view. It wasn't professionally made either, but seemed more even than the stairs. I lifted my head and stared at the ceiling. It was unchanged. We were in a cave.

At that moment an unbelievable pain ran through my limbs. It snapped up my wrists, into my back and made me gasp. I staggered backwards and my boots hit the bottom step.

"Clary, are you okay?" I heard Adam whisper from afar. Due to the currently uncertain situation, he probably did not dare to raise his voice.

I nodded halfheartedly and stared wide-eyed into the darkness. Just like in my dream, the urgency of longing flared up in my chest. The last time it had lasted until I had drawn the rune on the paper Jace had given me. As if in a trance, I raised my hand and was hardly aware of the gesture. I had stopped dead in my tracks, listening to my body's reflexive desire. Only now did I realize that I had snatched the witch light from Jace's hand and that he had let me without further comment. With outstretched hand, I held it into the vault of the cave.

It was the cave from my dream. The rusty cages flashed in the light, revealing lifeless bodies. Dead shadow-worlders. In my dream they had still been alive.

An oppressive silence fell over us as I walked between the cages, trembling. Now that I recognized the place, I exactly knew why I was here. At the other end of the cave was a circle of runes. Only unlike in my dream, the figure within the circle was covered with a white cloth. The heart in my chest began to beat faster as the first doubts began to build up in me. Was I late? Was he already dead? Had my father left him here to die like the other shadow-creatures?

I stopped in front of the circle and listened to the footsteps of Adam and Jace, who positioned themselves on either side of me and stared at the picture in front of us. I didn't have to glance at them to see their stony expressions. Unlike me, they didn't know what had happened here. I lowered my head slowly and then took another step towards the runes. I leaned forward and grabbed the cloth. Then I ripped it away from his body.

"Ithuriel." My voice sounded like broken glass.

Layers of dust billowed, revealing a hunched figure, lifeless on its knees. It was clear to see that it was an angel. He still had the strong and beautiful features from my dreams and wore the same robes completed with a weapon belt and adamas sword. However, his skin was deathly pale. Blood and dirt covered both his clothing and great wings. The feathers seemed stuck and hardened. The heavy shackles were still digging into his legs and wrists after all these years. The spots were scraped and inflamed. Ithuriel had lost all dignity. He seemed more like a human and less like an angel.

My heart skipped a beat for a moment, fearing he was actually dead. But then he slowly raised his head and opened his eyes. The look in them was blank and gave me a pang as violent as if someone had rammed a dagger into my torso.

"By the archangel," Adam ground out and one could hear the panic that had mixed into his voice. "That's not an angel, is it?"

Jace turned to me, and his eyes seemed to run through me. "Why are you leading us to a bound angel who looks like he's been here for years?"

I didn't avoid his gaze. I wouldn't have known where else to look. To Ithuriel? To the countless cages? "My father is responsible for this," I said soundlessly. "He summoned him from heaven to earth eighteen years ago and then imprisoned him here."

"And you knew about it?" Jace yelled in my face. His hand twitched and I took a startled step back, unsure if he was going to lose his composure completely. I couldn't blame him. Who wouldn't go crazy at the sight of a captive angel?

"I only know because Ithuriel told me about it in my dream," I replied, overwhelmed by the situation. "I didn't know where he was being held. How was I supposed to know he was still here after all these years?"

Jace's mouth opened in one swift movement, a disconcerting wildness in his gaze. But Adam forestalled him. "Weren't you the one who dismissed Clary's dreams as lies?" he hissed, pushing past me. He had his hand up and was pointing accusingly at Jace, whose face had drained of all color. He incredibly resembled Ithuriel.

Jace's eyes darted from Adam to me, and then he relaxed, dropping his shoulders and facing Ithuriel. "He was imprisoned here for eighteen years. Why?"

"Valentin needed his blood," I replied hesitantly and in a neutral voice. "For us."

Pain crossed Jace's face and he knelt before Ithuriel. He stretched out his fingers in the angel's direction, but was thrown back by the wall of wards. A curse escaped his lips. But instead of withdrawing his hand, he lowered his arm and almost gingerly stroked the golden runes, which hadn't changed a bit after all these years.

A split second later, the room was bathed in bright light. The contours around me disappeared. I squinted against the brightness. When I could fully open my eyes again, the cave was gone. I gasped as I recognized the drab living room where I'd spent most of my childhood and in which corner I was now standing. The furniture looked newer and was arranged differently in the room than I remembered. The living room had two wide windows on the right side, from which one could see our vegetable garden.

And right in front of one of the windows stood two people deep in a heated debate. They didn't notice my sudden presence. I immediately recognized the tall man with the angular, stern facial features and the short white-blond hair. My father looked just like in the dream Ithuriel had sent me. The woman next to him had long red hair and a rounded stomach that indicated she was about to give birth to a child. My mother.

"You lied to me, Valentine," my mother hissed at him, pressing a finger on his chest. "I never wanted you to put our children in such danger!" Her voice sounded similar to how I remembered it. Though loud, her tone lacked the authority and life experience she possessed today.

"Jocelyn." My father sighed and took a step towards her, cupping her cheeks in his hands. The warm expression in his eyes had nothing in common with the man who had imprisoned Ithuriel in the cave. "The angelic blood will give our child extraordinary abilities. She will be safe. This is everything I ever wanted for our family. Security."

Though the upset didn't fade from her face, my mother snuggled into his touch. "And I want the same for our daughter. But at what price? Where did you get the angelic blood from?"

"It doesn't matter, dear," Valentine said, pulling away from her. "Some day, we won't be here to protect them anymore. Jonathan and his sister will have to survive without us. The Council will want to kill them as soon as they learn of their existence. We can not permit that."

Jocelyn stroked her round stomach and put on a thoughtful expression. "What about Stephen's kid? What does he have to do with all this here?" Valentine was silent. He had his head bowed and his eyes were staring out into the garden, but his gaze seemed far away.

The image of my parents faded before my eyes and for a moment I stared into a bright light again. Then suddenly I was in the dark. It took me a few seconds to get used to the little light and I recognized the dark clearing in front of me where Jonathan had almost killed me. It was late night and the sky was covered with clouds. My father stood in the clearing, hidden by a multitude of green trees that, due to the lack of wind, looked like a wall.

A dark woman was standing a few meters from my father. Her bare skin was covered with black ash and her long black hair made her face disappear. She had stretched her hands to the sky. "Now you have called me to this earth, Nephilim," she spoke with an unfamiliar accent. "Why?"

"I ask that you place my son under your protection, my queen," my father said, kneeling in front of the woman. His voice was gentle and even a little pleading. "In return, I am willing to put his life in your hands."

The woman turned her head in his direction in one quick movement and lowered her hands. "Your son, you say?" Her tone took on an amused tone, but there was a hidden surprise underneath. "I am Lilith, the mother of all demons, and yet I have never longed for anything more than a human child. You do realize not to toy with the wishes of a demoness of my reputation, don't you Shadowhunter?"

"I would never do that," Valentine assured, looking her straight in the eye. "The only thing that matters to me is the well-being of my son. I won't be able to protect him against the Council's henchmen alone. For that I need your help."

Lilith laughed a lovely laugh and stepped closer to my father. "How do you imagine my help?"

"I need your blood. For my son Jonathan. He needs it to defend himself against the Council of Nephilim. He must become the strongest Nephilim the world has ever known."

"Very well," Lilith whispered after a while and opened her hand. A short golden dagger appeared in her palm out of nowhere. She grabbed it and cut her left arm with it. Black blood spurted out, reflecting what little light the stars had. "You get my blood, Valentine Morgenstern. But your son won't be the same afterwards. The blood will rob him of much of his humanity."