Tainted Soul • Lightwood. [ON HOLD]

T H R E E

Justin was on his designated bedroom, thinking how bad he felt for the killings he did with Jace, although unintentional, he felt responsible for them. His father came to convince him to go to a mission with the newest Shadowhunters but Justin declined, excusing himself with feeling under the weather. He was tired of everything his father was putting him through.

After a couple of hours of just sitting by himself, feeling guilty, Justin finally left the room. He wondered around the ship aimlessly, various hunters sending him some looks. He found himself in the sublevels of the boat, where all the Downworlders were being kept.

As soon as he stepped foot into that room, the gates started rattling. Cries for help came from all around him, and soon enough it became too much for his ears. So he ran. Like the coward he is. He ran up to the fresh air and took a deep breath.

Much to his infortune, Valentine was passing by and snatched his wrist, dragging him to a different part of the ship. In there he saw someone he never thought he'd see again. Clary. "My children. This is what I always wanted. To be with my family."

Clary's eyes widened when Justin appeared from behind the older Shadowhunter. "You and I are not family," the redhead said firmly. "Clary, I am your father, and I do love you." Clary looked at him warily. Valentine turned to eye his two sons. "So are you two going to join Jeremy? He's going big game hunting. We just got intel on the wolf that killed Jeremy's father. We're gonna bring the beast back to the boat."

Justin rolled his eyes. "I thought I told you I'm not interested in that." Valentine stared at him before he advanced to Clary. "Look, since Jace nor Justin doesn't want to go, why don't you come along, Clary? Hone those Shadowhunting skills of yours, huh?"

Not giving her any time to protest, Jace spoke up. "No. She's uh... She's not ready to face a cornered werewolf. I'll go." With that, the blonde hunter left their sight and went to meet up with his hunting party. Valentine sent a look to his two redheaded children before following after Jace, not before receiving dirty looks from the Fray siblings.

"Justin." The redhead was caught off guard when his petite sister launched herself at him, his body reacting almost immediately by catching her as soon as she made contact with him. "Are you alright?"

Justin chuckled against her hair. ""I'm okay, Clary. How you are here is the question." Clary smiled at him. How she missed her older brother. "Dot brought me, I don't know why but she just wanted to show me something, that I think it's the future."

"Okay, Clary, I think being around the Shadow World really turned you insane." Clary tried arguing with him, to tell him it was the truth but Justin was not budging, instead he decided to change the subject.

"How's A- how's everything at the Institute?"

Clary looked at him sadly. "You mean how's Alec handling everything?" Justin didn't locked eyes with her. "Not good, to answer your question. We have a new head of the Institute, with new rules and warriors. Everyone is going crazy, they hate so everything's a mess."

Justin laughed at her expression. "I guess thing get messy when Jace is not there," Justin said. Clary looked at him but her eyes darted to the people walking to them from over his shoulder. "Sorry, Valentine wants us to escort her somewhere." Clary started to protest, wanting some more alone time with her brother, but Justin stepped in. "Clary, hey. It's fine. You better go, I don't want anything happening to you."

When the two Shadowhunters started taking her back, Clary could feel the sadness oozing from Justin, but at the same time she saw the fear lurking in his eyes. What the hell did Valentine do to my brother?

➰

"Justin, we need to go."

The older Shadowhunter didn't question the orders when he saw Clary and Dot standing outside his room. The redhead scurried out of bed, throwing his black leather jacket on, and picking his stele off the floor on the way out.

"Okay, what the hell is going on?" Neither of the women replied to him so he just followed them. They got to the top of the ship, a place Justin spend an unhealthy amount of his time in. His eyes ran all over the boat, catching Jace's figure being awfully close to a white haired girl. Clary seemed to notice, too, because she was on the move to get closer to the men and woman.

"Jace!" Her voice caught the attention of Valentine, who happily exclaimed to his two children. "Clarissa, Justin, how nice of you to join us. Perhaps, one of you can convince your brother to finish what he started."

Clary stared at the blond hunter, Jace staring right back at her. "Jace, I need you to listen to me. Everything I said before, I was under a spell. Run!"

Something seemed to snap inside the Wayland boy when he grabbed Clary's wrist an pulled her with him Justin instantly knew he was supposed to follow them so he started running, only to crash against Clary's back when they came to a stop. Circle members were surrounding them, limiting their chances to escape.

"Jonathan, Justin! There's no way out."

Justin sighed, taking his blade out and advancing with Jace to fight the men on their way. The brothers fought together like they've been doing it their whole life, finally killing the Circle members and making way for Clary to come through.

Jace stopped on his tracks and was out of the world for a moment, then started coughing and ha blood dripping down his nose. "Jace, are you okay?" Jace started groaning, losing his strength so Justin went ahead to help him stand straighter. "Clary, whatever we're about to do, it better be fast."

Clary nodded ahead of her and Justin was still wondering what what's going on. "Jonathan! Justin! Come back here! There's nowhere to run!" Can he just stop for a second, Justin rolled her eyes at the thought.

From in front of them Dot did her thing and somehow opened the barrier for the. "Jace, we have to go now!" Clary exclaimed as she turned back round. Jace was glued to the ground, his nose still bleeding badly. "Brother, hang on in there. We have to run!" Jace gathered the remaining strength he had and the three ran, jumping over the boat's fence and through the barrier opened by Dot, their bodies crashing to the water.

Author's Note:

*comes from behind the couch* Hey guys! I know it's been a while but my life has been hectic the last couple of weeks. College was kicking my ass and I was struggling with my classes (still am, honestly) so I've been focused on that but I'm done with the semester so hopefully I can update more. Also, I've been on a slump with all my stories and every time I tried sitting down and writing I blocked and started doing other things so yeah.

I'm prewriting most of the book, or at least part two, before I publish it so there can be more constant updates so expect more chapters soon but please be patient, I still need to take care of my mental health and I have some other books I'm prewriting too.

Anyways, excuses over, I really hope you enjoyed this chapter, and let me know your thought about it! See you next time!