The Rise Of The Morningstar (Eng. Version)

Chapter 99 - Reincarnation

Song inspiration: Dress – Taylor Swift, Guilty as Sin? – Taylor Swift

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Chapter 99 – Reincarnation

--- 7.5 hours before sunset. ---

Flickering candlelight enveloped the Accords Hall in a glow of mystery and anticipation, heating the high-ceilinged room as if the celebrations had been going on for days. I could not remember the reason for them — why we were gathered here so close before the war. It seemed too somber to be an official Nephilim state affair. And yet I stood in the middle of a crowd made up entirely of Shadowhunters. Dressed in the finest evening wear, only their exposed runes gave any indication of their origins — that they were warriors and only half human.

The warm air was charged with hot tension. The high ceilings listened to the chattering people and echoed their words back in a tangled whisper. Everyone in my immediate vicinity seemed a stranger. The figures that turned to me regarded me with detachment — their faces lacked depth, making it impossible for me to remember any of them. They faded into the background, vanishing from my memory as soon as I pushed past them. I was moving forward, that was all I knew. Forward, toward the music, music so contrary to the hostility surrounding the atmosphere around me, like rising mist from a hot spring. This music felt like a wire between my fingers — familiar from childhood days, as if it were keeping the crowd from tearing me apart like a pack of wolves devouring its prey.

As I let myself be carried away by this melody, I realized that I would throw my life to the wolves for it at any time.

It wasn't until I had fought my way through the last row of the boiling crowd and the antique, black-polished piano came into view that I understood why. My focus immediately slid to the young, blond man behind it. Jace, whose fingers moved gently and thoughtfully over the keys, as if he wanted to caress the music before it reached the audience. As if each note was a letter of a larger message – like a love letter that needed to be studied in detail and deciphered.

It was like looking up at a theater stage. Bathed in the cone of a spotlight that left the rest of the theater a pitch-black void, there was just Jace, and Jace alone. The rest of the Accords Hall ceased to exist when he played. A song my mother had sung to me as a child. A song as old as the fae themselves, and so popular in Nephilim culture that it could have been passed down by the Angels themselves. A song that had slipped my memory for years, only to now appear out of nowhere, as if it had never been more than a thought away. From his fingers, it sounded like nostalgia, home, and love all in equal measure. Could it be possible that with every keystroke he was making her voice a little more real? That I could suddenly hear her as if she were standing right in front of me?

When I felt someone step forward to my right, my breath caught for a moment, expecting it to be her — that Jace had miraculously managed to actually breathe life back into her.

I didn't expect him, though. My body wanted to jump back in shock, but there was no weapon here that I could reach for. My feet would not move anyway, as if the smooth marble had swallowed them. My head started to rattle – had there not been something? There was something beyond the horizon of my memory; something that had to do with him. The harder I tried, the faster the thread of memory slipped away from me – burned to ash in the fire of his eyes.

I knew immediately why he was here. The demon was just as attracted to this melody as I was. Because Jonathan's thoughts had not simply disappeared with his transformation – they were still buzzing around in this strange head.

As soon as he came to my side, I knew this was a dream. I had spent months trying to shake off the fact that my brother was dead — that nothing but a demon occupied his body. That demon was gone now. Jonathan stood beside me. His crooked smile bore a yearning that caused me physical pain. Our eyes met — green on green — and he sighed to himself. "When I was five, I had this phase where I was haunted by nightmares night after night. After Father started teaching me demon mythology," he whispered to me. "Mother always sang me that song to sleep. Night after night. Nothing else helped."