predestined | jace herondale

13

I walk into my room, noticing Jace stood with his back toward me, holding the box, staring at the objects inside.

"Jace?" My voice is quiet and in a whisper, as to why he was still in my room even after I left.

"How could I not know?" He slams the box closed, looking back at me.

I swallow hard, knowing he was referring to the box, knowing that we were picking up right where we left off with our most recent conversation, "Jace- I don't know."

"But, Jace, the one thing I know for sure is you are not a bad person." I walked over to him, "You're not Valentine."

"I should have killed him." Jace's voice is dangerously low, "And yet I can't shake the feeling that he was right."

"Well- you know what, he wasn't. He's getting to your head." I put a hand on his arm, "Valentine is my father, too. We're the same-"

"No, we're not, Zee." Jace raises his voice, "No, we are not. Margaret raised you- and then Jocelyn took over."

"I was raised by Valentine, and a pair of baby booties isn't gonna change that." Jace was ready to throw the box onto the ground.

I caught it quickly, the wood hitting my hand hard, "Jace, stop!"

Jace stares at me, anger threaded in his actions.

"I don't have the answers." My voice was calm, "I can't explain what I don't know. But- Jocelyn, she can. We are so close to waking her up. You want answers as badly as I do, we have to go back to the Hotel DuMort and talk to Camille."

"Fine." Jace sighs, "Where's Simon?"

"I just said goodbye to him-" I grab a bit of my dress, lifting it up, running out of my room and through the Institute, grabbing the bookmark on the way, spotting Simon, "Simon, wait!"

He stops at the sound of my voice, turning, "What's going on?"

"We need your help." Jace came to my side after I came to a stop.

I swallow, holding up the bookmark, "The Book of the White. It contains the spell that can wake Jocelyn, but she hid it so Valentine can never find it."

Jace nods, "We have a lead."

"The Bookmark of the White?" Simon stares at it.

"It's a piece of the book itself." I explain, "Magnus tracked its owner to the Hotel DuMort, but it belongs to the one and only Camille."

"Okay, um-" Simon inhaled deeply, "I'll set a meeting with Raphael."

I smile, "Thank you."

-

"How's Lydia?" Clary asks as we all grouped into the Ops Center, stood behind Isabelle who was seated, looking through the security footage.

"Better." Alec comes to my side, "Magnus is doing what he can to help her, but it's bad. And the Cup is definitely missing."

Jace inhales deeply, "So is Hodge."

"Maybe he was attacked, too." Isabelle suggests, looking through the footage.

I threw out a possibility, "Maybe he's the one who attacked her."

"Hodge?" Isabelle glances at me, "No way. We've known him our entire lives. He would never do that to us."

We watched the sped up footage, Isabelle spotting right as Lydia pulled out the Mortal Cup, Hodge attacking her and knocking her to the ground, grabbing the Mortal Cup from her.