She's My Parabatai

Chapter 21

The first thing I did was tell Izzy.

When I went into her room I found that she was having trouble sleeping as well. Of course, she had been close to Sebastian as well. Dealing with my own feelings I had overlooked the fact that others might be hurting as well.

"Jonathan Christopher Wayland?" My Parabatai questioned when I had finished explaining.

I nodded. "It all makes sense. I mean I don't exactly know what his motive is but his identity makes sense at least."

"But how did he get from Idris to New York? It wasn't exactly a hop, skip and a jump back in 1992."

I shook my head. "I don't know. And obviously he had someone to help him, he was just a baby then."

"That's...my dad used to tell us the story of the Waylands. Michael Wayland, Jonathan's father, was his Parabatai," Izzy told me. "I always thought it was such a sad story. Michael's wife, Eliza succumbed to an illness a few months before Michael was killed during a mission. And then the next day the baby perished in a fire along with it's caretaker at Wayland Manor."

"Obviously the baby didn't die," I sighed. "He grew up into the bastard that killed my father."

"Isn't it just a little convenient?"

"What do you mean?" I asked her.

"Like it almost seems like too much of a coincidence that Michael Wayland was killed just the day before the fire that supposedly killed his son," Izzy theorized.

"So you're saying they're connected?" I had been focusing too much on the killer's identity and how he got to New York to realize the obvious facts.

Izzy nodded. "What if someone wanted the Waylands gone? They could have killed Michael on the mission and then turned around the set fire to the manor house. Or even sent Michael on a suicide mission."

"Maybe...maybe if we can find out what the mission Michael was sent on was we can find out who wanted the Waylands dead..."

"And then that can lead us to who saved the baby and brought him to New York," she concluded.

"It might even give us some insight into what Jonathan's next move might be," I said. I then realized that Izzy was silent. She was thinking something but not telling me. "Izzy."

"Clary...I think we already know what his next move's going to be...or at least the general idea of it," she said. What was I missing? "It's you...he's going to try and kill you. Remember the note? The Morning Stars Will Go Out?"

"No..." I said. "That's not-" Is that what Jonathan was trying to do? Kill all the Morgensterns? Or... "Sebastian wanted our father dead," I tried to keep my voice steady as I said that. It was still hard for me to believe. "He wouldn't want me dead too..." I trailed off realizing that I didn't even know my own brother any more. I had always thought he loved Father. What if his love for me was an act as well? What if he had just been waiting for the right time to stab me in the back, literally?

I sat on Izzy's bed and put my head in my hands. What was the point of all this? Sebastian had contracted Jonathan to kill our father...but he was still working with him. They were planning something else, but what? And why reveal themselves to us? Sebastian could have kept working in the shadows and none of us would have known.

I felt Izzy sit down next to me and put her arm around me. "I'm just so confused and frustrated. We figure out one thing and then we have a dozen more questions that come as a result."