Sweet Little Serena (Rewrite)

Jace And Clary's Book Club Actually Involves Books

No one could stop smiling once they returned to the Institute and Magnus, Izzy, and Simon took their turns to reunite with Clary. Alec had to place a hand on Jace's shoulder to keep him back after Simon quite literally pushed him out of the way so he could hug his best friend whom he didn't actually murder.

"Tell me where Jonathan is," Izzy demanded once she pulled back from Clary's hug. "I'm gonna kill that son of a bitch with my bare hands."

"You can't. None of us can," Jace informed her.

"Why?" Simon wondered.

"Lilith carved this rune into me, right before your mark blasted her back to Hell," Clary explained as she showed the rune that was etched just above her collarbone.

"The rune ties Clary's life force to Jonathan's," Alec continued.

"If you hurt one of them, you hurt the other the exact same way," Luke added.

"Which is why Alec and I alerted the other Institutes," Serena revealed from where she was casually hugged to her husband's side. Said husband then tapped the monitor next to them as it showed them the alert. "Jonathan must be captured alive."

"He was looking for a sword when he was in Paris. The Morning Star. If we can find it first, maybe we can track down Jonathan," Clary suggested.

"Another magic sword?" Simon commented.

"He said it was some sort of family heirloom," Clary finished.

"I'll reach out to all the weapons masters to get intel," Izzy offered.

"I'll reach out to my Downworld contacts and see if they've ever heard any rumours about this sword," Serena piped up.

"I'll draw up all the ley line junctions in the city. If Jonathan moved the apartment, we'll find him," Magnus said.

"Depending on how many junctions there are in New York, I think we might consider a 24-hour guard on them in case Jonathan decides to return. I don't want to take any chances," Serena said.

"That's a good idea," Alec agreed.

"Thank you, all of you," Clary blurted. "I honestly don't know what I would do without you."

"That's what family's for, Fray," Simon smiled.

"Alright, let's get to work," Alec dismissed and Serena took Izzy by the arm.

"Let's go. We need to talk," she said as they walked down to the armoury and to Izzy's office.

"You felt it, didn't you?" Izzy questioned once they were behind closed doors and Serena nodded.

"Did you think that I wouldn't? Are you-"

"No. It's not a relapse or anything. We, uh, we-"

"Iz," Serena said as she took her hand. "It's ok. I'm here for you and so is Alec and Jace. We've got you. You can talk to me."

"The mission I went on with Simon was to remove the Mark of Cain from his forehead. And we found a way to do it. In the Seelie Realm -"

"The Seelie Realm? Izzy, why wouldn't you tell me?! The Queen -"

"Was not happy to see us, but still, she seemed to like Simon. And now that Lilith was gone, she told Simon how to remove it. And Meliorn was there. You know he'd never let anything happen to us."

Serena sighed heavily at Izzy's rather sound reasoning. "What happened next?"

"We removed the mark but the process almost killed Simon." Her eyes hit the floor. "So I made him feed on me."