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chapter twenty-one. . . hiding for good
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MALIA HAD THOUGHT that punching a punchbag would be something to comfort her, to take out the rage that the day before caused. Every punch she had imagined Valentine's face and wishing she was actually punching him. The fact that he was her father and she was just finding out about it, and the fact that he killed Veronica. But it didn't do anything. Malia still felt the pain of the fact that her maternal figure was dead and the boy who she liked and kissed was her brother. It was gross but she didn't know. It didn't even cross her mind that Jace and her could be related.
For what Malia had known was that avoiding Jace was not a good call. They needed to talk to each eventually and due with their line of work and spending a lot more time together, they needed to talk sooner rather than later. And what a great time to do that in the meeting about waking up Jocelyn Fairchild.
The Banshee cleared her throat as she approached the table, appearing to be just on time, later than everyone else, but just on time. The brunette slowed to a stop as she noticed Jace approaching Ben, Clary and Magnus sitting at the table waiting for the reminder of the group working on the mission to find the warlock who had created the potion that Jocelyn had drunk.
Malia forced a smile towards Jace. "Morning."
Jace sighed before sitting beside Ben. "Morning." He greeted coldly. "Sleep well?"
Malia pursed her lips as she settled in the chair beside her best friend. "Slept fine." The tension was able to be cut with a knife as Malia's leg crossed over the other.
"While this conversation is no doubt scintillating, remind me why we couldn't do this at my place?" Magnus questioned as he had hoped to avoid the Institute for some time. "At least there we'd have cocktails."
Clary's eyes widened. "It's 9 in the morning." She exclaimed.
Magnus shrugged, knowing he'd rather enjoy sipping on cocktails and making him able to cope through yet another day. "Oh, it's happy hour somewhere, my dear." He retorted.
"We invited you here, Magnus, because Hodge can't leave the Institute." Ben informed as he pushed himself to stand so he could sit on the table. "He's an important part of this mission."
"Well, then where is our hardly little tutor?" Magnus questioned wishing his time at the Institute would be quick. "There are certain individuals that I'd like to avoid, so let's make this quick."
"Pardon the delay, Magnus." Hodge apologised with his approach. "I was following up on a lead." Magnus had fallen to silence as Hodge stood in front of the five with his information more narrowed than the earlier start of the morning. "Now, we're narrowed down our list of warlocks to these three."
