Not Another Fairchild *Jace Wayland Love Story* [1]

Brief Interlude

Okay, so this chapter isn't overly long. In fact, it's just sort of a filler, though, also a way to show more of Lizzy's character.

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Lizzy had been wondering the streets for a couple hours, her body numb and her mind blank as she took mindless turns. Her stele was like an anchor in her pocket, weighing her down and forcing her to remember everything that had happened in barely a week. She didn't remember much after Hodge told her the truth, like her mind was intentionally blocking the events that happened afterwards. She did, however, keep getting flashes of green, kind of like a strobe light going off in her face.

She barely noticed when she walked passed a closed-down hotel, nor did she notice the dark shadow that lurked in the alley right next to it. Lizzy had already texted Clary, telling her not to worry and to focus on finding their mum. She had promptly turned off her phone after, not in any mood to talk to her sister.

Lizzy didn't even care that she was adopted, she couldn't remember a family before the Fray's and Luke. It was the fact that they had kept it from her. Worse, someone had toyed with her mind, giving her false memories of a life she had apparently never actually lived. It infuriated her that her mum had willingly allowed someone to fiddle with her brain like that.  

As if that wasn't bad enough, even with everything going on, Clary still wanted to keep it from her. For some reason, the fact that Blondie had known when she had asked them what was wrong, and he hadn't told her, somehow made it worse. Because she had been beginning to trust him. 

She wanted to go back to the morning of Clary's birthday. Before she had killed three guys in a club after running into a cocky blonde who thought it was a superpower that she had been able to see him. Before her mum had pushed Clary and Lizzy through a Portal. Before she had heard Luke say they had meant nothing to him. Hell, she wanted to go back to before those stupid runes had appeared on her skin. But most of all? Most of all, Lizzy wanted to go back to before she had been told the truth. She wanted to live her life completely ignorant to the Shadow World and being adopted.

I'm still Elizabeth Fray, she told herself mentally. It was half-hearted though, something she thought and then scoffed bitterly at because it wasn't true. She wasn't a Fray, and if what that creep from in front of the church said was true, her name wasn't even Elizabeth. God, she hoped her name wasn't actually Maggie. What was she, a Simpson's character? 

She was broken from her thoughts at the sound of three pairs of footsteps behind her. Lizzy knew better than to look over her shoulder, all it would do was alert them to the fact she knew they were following her. Instead, she looked in a closed shop window, pretending to look over the articles of clothes as she subtly threw a glance at the owners of the footsteps.

Her body stiffened at the sight of circle runes on three suited guys necks. Inwardly, Lizzy cursed her own stupidity. She should never have left the institute. Sure, she was emotionally hurt, but she'd rather emotionally injured the physically.

Lizzy walked another block before she chanced a look in another darkened window. "Shit," she muttered to herself as she only spotted two circle members. She was just wondering where the third one might have gotten off to when an arm wrapped around her waist and roughly dragged her into an alley. "Get off me!" Lizzy yelled, thrashing violently in the guy's arms.

The other two circle members promptly ran into the alley, their seraph blades lit up. One of them, a big, burly looking man with a five o'clock shadow and a scar running down his left cheek, put his blade to her throat, making Lizzy cease all movement so she wouldn't cut herself.