The Rise Of The Morningstar (Eng. Version)

Chapter 52 - The Venom In Our Veins

Chapter 52 – The Venom In Our Veins

The Basilias were filled with Shadowhunters. Malik took me and Adam to one of the Basilias's spacious treatment rooms. There, the Silent Brothers were already taking care of Jace. He lay lifeless on one of the many beds while the shrouded figures glided silently around him. The silence made it a hundred times worse. If they had been talking frantically, if Jace had been screaming, then I would have known something was up. But like this ... All I could do was stare at Jace wide-eyed, hoping that he would finally move, that he would finally open his lids to meet my gaze with his gold-rimmed pupils.

But Jace remained perfectly still. All blood had drained from his face and he was so pale that my paralyzed body began to tremble. Adam, crouched on the bed next to me, pushed the reaction to the cold and threw a blanket over me. Our injuries were not serious, so the Brothers took their time treating us. I didn't care. I just wanted them to bring Jace back to life. No matter how. Just so I could see his mischievous grin once more, hear his daring voice once more, feel his warm fingers against my skin once more.

Eventually, Silent Brothers came to assess Adam's injury and I forced my eyes on the Brother; forced me to follow Adam's treatment instead of Jace's. They injected him with an antidote to the poison. The same thing that someone injected me shortly afterwards. Then they cleaned the cut in his chest and had an Iratze do the work. I also got an Iratze for my hands, which still hadn't stopped bleeding up to that point. By the time they were done with us, Adam and I had already bled all over our mattresses, but nobody here cared. Once the Brothers finished their jobs with us, they would wander over to Jace's bedside to help the others there.

A moment later the Inquisitor burst in. She didn't look at either of us until she had checked on Jace's health. Then she wandered over to us and demanded that we relive every detail of the past few hours. I told her about Jace, who had already been defeated when I had entered the hall, and how I had fought Jonathan. Adam recounted his arrival, how he had gotten Jace out of the line of fire and then turned himself in to Jonathan after I had been brought down. When we asked how Jace was doing, she curtly replied that he would survive. A huge weight fell from my heart and I could see that Imogen also looked more than relieved. It did not prevent her from cross-examining us, although we ourselves were still in the Basilias for observation; although we lay on the wet pools of our own blood.

"If your brother was in the training hall before you were there, Clarissa, then he must've known exactly where you would be," Imogen said in a firm, bitter voice. Jonathan's wounding of Jace must have reignited old anger toward my father. I was glad she hadn't yet blamed me for any of this. "You've been back training at the Gard for less than a week. Someone must've told him where you would be."

"We have a traitor in our ranks," Adam stated, gritting his teeth. His bare chest was bandaged, even though it wasn't really necessary after the Iratze. His brown hair still hung in sweaty strands over his forehead.

"It has to be easy to find out. So many couldn't have known about our training, could they?" I asked the Inquisitor, but she shook her head uneasily.

"Your training is no secret. Consul Malachi, Malik, you and I officially knew about it, but anyone could have told anyone else. You haven't kept secret from your families where you go every morning. And enough Nephilim see you in the Gard. It really could have been anyone."

I was too exhausted to worry about it any longer. Instead, I told them my theory of how Jonathan got into the city in the first place. "His Shadowhunter blood must have made it possible."

A plausible explanation that made both Adam and the Inquisitor look rather unhappy. "We need to reinforce the guards. We can't leave an inch of the city limits unattended. Maybe the Shadowworlder training session that Alec Lightwood has set up can help us with that," Imogen mused, clearly reluctant to leave the city's security in the hands of the Downworlders. But she was right. Alone, we weren't enough Nephilim to guard the borders.