Our Fate II ➰Shadowhunters➰ [Jace]

➰Chapter Forty-nine➰

➰Chapter Forty-nine➰

"I still can't believe Clary made a Portal rune. How did you know that she could do that?"

"I already told you, I don't know. Besides, she can turn her palm into a sunlit flashlight, and the Portal rune is what amuses you?" Leah raised an eyebrow, as she slowly walked away from the shore, following Jace's lead.

"You don't understand. It took warlocks thousands of years to learn how to use Portals. And Clary just improvised one," Jace continued, before continuing their hike outside from the lake's area. "I want to get out of here before dark?"

"Why? This place looks pretty wonderful, to be honest," Leah admitted, gazing at the snowy mountain range in the horizon. It certainly looked like a place straight out of a National Geographic documentary.

"Don't be fooled. These woods are home to several packs of notoriously feral wolves."

"And you said Valentine brought you here as a kid?"

"Even he wouldn't let me go near the lake."

Leah suddenly felt dizzy, as if she'd gotten up too fast after the fall. "Wow. I almost blacked out right now."

"Probably from the fall. An iratze could help you with that," Jace commented, as they slowly walked deeper into the woods.

"Shoot. I don't have my stele. Maybe I dropped it in the lake or something," Leah sighed.

"Don't look at me. I left mine back in New York."

"Well, it's a good thing we can activate our runes without one, right?"

"Theoretically," Jace replied.

Leah raised an eyebrow and smiled with satisfaction. "You don't know how to do it, don't you?"

"I didn't say I couldn't do it," He replied defensively.

"You know what? I'll just head back to check if I can find it, just in case. If these woods are as dangerous as you say, I don't want to risk not being able to count on an iratze to help."

➰➰➰

"Hey, Alec," Isabelle called out to her brother, walking into the Ops Room. "Have you seen Jace or Leah?"

"Not really since this morning," Alec frowned. "You think they might be in trouble?"

"Well, I hope not. But I think it'd be better if we go check—"

"Agh!" Alec winced in pain, clutching his parabatai rune with a frown. "Something's wrong with Jace."

The Lightwood siblings hurried to one of the Institute's libraries, where they recalled having seen Jace go in earlier. They were shocked when they saw that the room had been seemingly trashed, as if a tornado had gone through it.

Isabelle gasped. "By the Angel."

Alec frowned, entering the room and examining some of the shattered glass on the floor. "What the Hell? What are these things?"

"They're... Portal shards," Isabelle said, examining another piece carefully.

"So Jace and Leah are at this beach?" Alec questioned with a frown.

"Assuming they went through together, but none of it makes sense," Isabelle said, utterly confused about all of this. There hadn't been any announcements for a Portal to be activated inside the Institute, much less in a random room such as this one. She was also certain that there had been no warlocks invited in recently, so this all came as a surprise to both of them.