Hell's Angel✗ // JACE WAYLAND

XXIX

Jace's POV

"Are you sure you're okay?" Clary asked Simon for the one-hundredth time.

The boy just glanced at her."Oh yeah, I'm cool. We were just attacked by a demon, but it's no big deal. I'm fine."

She shot him a sheepish smile. "Well on the bright side, I got the cup."

"Try not to say it so loud." I grumbled. "I'd rather not want the entirety of New York to know we have it."

"Well someone's on their man period." Muttered Simon, making Clary's lips twitch.

I ignored him. Wasn't exactly worth my time anyway.

"I'm sorry about Dot." Simon muttered and he fell into step beside Clary.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Clary's shoulders and smile fall. "Yeah, I– we'll figure this out."

I sighed. This whole thing was way too complicated.

"Hey are you alright?" Clary asked a few minutes later as we rounded the corner to where we could now see the institute.

I shot her a brittle smile. "Peachy."

"Jace." I tensed as her small, pale hand gripped my arm to pull me back. "We have to talk about–"

Shaking my head, I shook her off and continued walking. "There's nothing to talk about."

I chose her. I chose Clary like Thea ordered me to, and then she threw me in the gutter.

"Jace I–"

"Guys."

Clary huffed, stopping to turn and face the brunet. "What Simon?"

"Um, I think there might be a problem."

At the hitch in Clary's breath, I turned to see what they were looking at only to find Alec, Eli, and Magnus already running towards us.

"Hey, what's going–"

"We need to talk." Alec interrupted me, his blue eyes examining our surroundings as if he was waiting for something to jump out at us. "Inside."

"First things first," Alec started as we gathered around the table in the heart of the institute. "Are you three okay? Eli told us you were attacked?"

"We're fine." I answered. "And we f–"

"We found the cup." Clary cut me off, beating me to the punch as she pulled the card out of her inside jacket pocket.

Three sets of eyes flickered from her to the card and back to her again. No doubt they thought she was absolutely crazy.

Eli was the first to speak, breaking the silence that had fallen around us. "Clary, um...that's a card."

She scowled. "Watch, you idiot." With ease, she reached into the golden embodied card and pulled out the Mortal Cup, earning wide eyes from all of us and anyone surrounding.

"By the Angel..." Everyone moved aside as Hodge suddenly reached out to to grab the cup. Where he came from, I didn't have a clue, but it was safest with him. He was the weapons master after all.

"Do you want me to put it back in the card, just in–"

"Nonono." Hodge interjected before Clary could finish. "No, it'll be fine. I'll keep it some place safe. How did you fi–"

"A lot of thought." I interceded. "A lot of–"

"Time that we don't have to discuss that right now." Magnus nodded, pushing Hodge away. "You do your thing and keep that safe, alright?"