Sweet Little Serena (Original)

Chapter 42

(A/N: Thank you all so much for 50,000 reads! Enjoy the chapter. XxD)

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It was the next day that Magnus arrived, having gathered all items of importance from Ragnor's house.

Clary then identified a bookmark that she saw from the alternate dimension, concluding that it must've been the book of the white.

Magnus had then tracked it to find out that Camille was the owner.

While the others schemed and talked, Clary pulled Jace to her room where she showed him the box inscribed with his initials.

JC.

Which stood for Jonathan Christopher. His full name. Jace being short for it, one of the many nicknames Serena came up with for him over the years that just ended up sticking.

And while he'd believed Clary in that Jocelyn never abandoned him, he couldn't help but believe that she'd abandoned his sister.

There were no trinkets for Serena, no inscription of her initials.

Nothing.

And while Luke had told Clary that Jocelyn had had another son, he'd never said anything about another daughter.

And while they puzzled over that, Serena had contacted Raphael to set up a meeting and talk about Camille before she and Alec went to see Lydia.

She was supposed to be leaving today and part of the reason why Magnus was at the Institute was to open a portal to Idris for her. But she never showed up.

And the second Alec opened the door to the Head of the Institute's office, he saw Lydia unconscious on the floor.

"Lydia!" Serena said worried as she dropped to her side, check for a pulse. "It's weak but she's alive. Her irazte!"

Alec wasted no time in running his stele over the rune on Lydia's arm, as Serena went to get help.

But she didn't miss the weak sound of Lydia's voice as she said, "Hodge."

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While Magnus helped Lydia, who was in critical condition, they found out that it was Hodge who'd attacked her, seeing his face on the security tapes.

All of them, minus Clary, had been hurt by Hodge's actions, having known him their entire lives and treated him like family.

He had also taken the Mortal Cup.

They watched as he slid on a ring and began talking to someone before deactivating his punishment rune.

A Seelie ring that Serena identified, the accessory enabling the wearer to see and speak to someone wearing the matching ring, likely taken from the dead Seelie scouts Valentine had killed.

But as they wondered how he got the ring, Serena and Clary then brought up the Forsaken attack, the footage revealing that the creature was merely a delivery service to bring Hodge the ring.

Jace, however, was inconsolable. He was overcome with guilt and rage as he blamed himself for not being able to kill Valentine back at Renwick's.

He'd set out on a mission to find Hodge and Alec and Serena were to go with him, to make sure he didn't do anything too reckless while the others went to go talk to Raphael about Camille.

Serena had called for Luke's aid, the angered wolf letting out his pack to track him down.

But Jace found him first.

And Alec tackled him to the ground.

"It's over!" Alec yelled as Luke ran for Hodge and Serena collected both his and Jace's weapons.

"No, it's not! He's a traitor! He deserves to pay!" Jace raged from under Alec as Luke examined the hand that Jace had cut from Hodge's body before attempting to kill him.

"JJ, you almost killed him," Serena said in disbelief to her brother.

"Maybe I should've killed him! He sided with Valentine. The Clave let him go once before and look where that got us!"

"What are you going to do? You going to kill every ex-Circle member including our parents?" Alec asked, still holding Jace down.

"Robert and Maryse aren't my parents."

Alec glanced to Serena who looked hurt by her brother's words before looking back to his parabatai.

"They are your parents! You said it yourself and so has Serena. They raised you! Just calm down!" Alec exclaimed as he let Jace go, the blond lying on the floor as he took deep breaths.

"There's a dungeon in Idris with your name all over it," Luke said to Hodge as Serena turned to him, her stele twirling through her fingers.

"I'm going to enjoy this."

And Alec helped hold Hodge down as Serena ran her stele over his iratze rune, the man screaming out in pain as his stumped hand began to heal over.

But no one noticed as Jace pulled the Seelie ring from Hodge's dismembered hand and slipped it onto his finger before conversing with Valentine.

Nor him vanishing with Hodge while Luke warned Alec and Serena not to let Jace turn into Valentine because it seemed like he was heading down that path.

And while Clary, Simon and Izzy were breaking Camile out of the Hotel Dumort after Raphael refused to release her, unknown to Serena and Alec who were trying to get ahold of Jace.

"Jacey, where the hell are you?"

"I'm going after Valentine. You need to help Clary," he said softly, voice emotionless.

"Little brother, you're acting crazy. Whatever Valentine has told you isn't true, ok? Just come home."

"That's just it, Rena. It is true. Valentine's my father. He taught me how to fight. Not to be weak."

"He's my father too! And the things he taught me still gives me nightmares! So cut whatever bullshit you're saying about you being weak and come home so I can knock some sense into you," Serena scolded him.

"This is me! And while you may have had it worse, he still raised me to be a killer. And I'm going to make him regret it. Now go help Clary. Go help our sister, she needs you."

"No. No. No. Jacey, please. Don't let him control you. You're not - Jace? Jace?!"

He hung up on her.

Serena turned to Alec, the expression on her face defeated.

"What do we do now?"