𝑇𝑟𝑖𝑏𝑟𝑖𝑑, 𝑆ℎ𝑎𝑑𝑜𝑤ℎ𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠

chapter eighteen. take a walk

Hope needs to be there for Luke, needs to be there for Clary and Simon. She needs to be a million places at once but right now she is sitting in front of Magnus' condo with Luke's blood in her hair, on her cheeks and on her hands.

Whenever she closes her eyes, whenever she even blinked it wasn't Luke's blood anymore but instead she was shoving her hands against her mother's bloody wound, praying she would make it out alive.

Prayers didn't save her then but Magnus will save Luke, she knows it. Swears it.

She feels someone slip a paper towel into her hands, she uses it, cleans her hands and face but the blood was still stuck in her hair, she barely remembered how it got there.

"He's stable, he'll survive this." She turned to face him. She nodded.

"If you ever wanna talk about this, I can always pretend to listen." She uses her shoulder to shove Jace away from her.

"I don't wanna talk about anything, I think I'm gonna go to my apartment. I actually miss that hellscape." She got up, tossed the dirty tissue into the bin. Jace followed her up.

"Wow, if your apartment is that bad you must hate your room in the Institute." He laughed and she didn't even think to mention that her room in the Institute is bigger than her entire apartment.

"I just need to be at home for a while. Tell dumb and dumber in there to be safe and tell the Lightwoods I'm stopping at the Institute to pick up a few things." Hope coughed slightly into the crook of her elbow.

"You can text them on your way." Jace spoke and she shook her head.

"Izzy lost her phone three days ago and Alec and I don't text." He nodded, that explained why Izzy had been ignoring all his memes he sent her. For a moment he thought he lost his taste.

"We'll call if we need anything." Hope nods, tells him to take care of her friends and starts walking.

She walks for what feels like hours, she could've used her powers but those still felt so new. She was still so unused to them but they'd grow on her.

She walked until her feet felt bloody and when she got to the Institute she was surprised to realise that she hadn't broken a sweat because she wasn't feeling tired.

She hadn't felt much of anything since it happened.

She walked through the doors and headed straight for Izzy, unfortunately she didn't see Maryse behind Izzy otherwise she would've ran for the hills.

"The Seelies are thinking of siding with Valentine for self preservation." Izzy spoke to her mother but Hope still listened as she stood next to her.

"Seelies always wanna be on the winning side." Hope understood that better than anyone yet she ended up with two natural born losers.

"Never trust someone who can't lie. They find much more inventive ways to stab you in the back." Maryse practically forced the words out.

"But I suppose you find that attractive." She gave one last look at Izzy before turning her attention to Hope.

The shorter of the two wanted to leave and fast. She wanted to take her things, take Izzy and just leave this place behind.

"Mikaelson, I need to talk to you." She walked away and Hope stared dumbfoundly behind her.

"It's best if you just go." Izzy turned to her and for the first time Hope hated the fact that she was made to always do the right thing.

That no matter how much she wanted to stay with Izzy, there was a larger part of her that needed to follow the rules, to follow the lead of her elders even if she didn't have the most respect for Maryse Lightwood.