Our Fate III ➰Shadowhunters➰[Jace]

➰Chapter Fifty-seven➰

➰Chapter Fifty-seven➰

Leah yawned, as she found Jace sitting by the computers, clearly having slept nothing at all. "Jace? Are you okay?"

Jace sighed. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"It's 4:00 a.m. I woke up to get some water, but what are you still doing here?"

"I have to go through the rest of this surveillance footage," Jace quickly activated his Stamina rune with his stele.

"Right. Look, that rune isn't going to help you. What will help you is—"

"I'll sleep when I find him."

"Look, I'm sure you'll find him, and we'll stop him together. But we won't get anywhere if you don't rest," Leah said, stroking his cheek gently. "You'll need all your strength when we finally get him."

"Seven Mundanes have been murdered in the last 48 hours. I think I know who's responsible."

"You know who the Owl is?" Leah said, referring to the demon by the name Clary had given him.

"The Clave has no record of an owl-faced demon or a demon that possesses its victims that way. That face has to be a glamour."

"Who on Earth would wear that costume?"

"I think the Owl is Jonathan."

Much to her shock, she wasn't surprised by that idea. Either way, she desperately hoped that she was wrong.

➰➰➰

"That's amazing. But also kind of creepy," Leah said, as Simon told her about the events with the wolves. "I mean, sure, you won't have worry about protecting yourself anymore. But if anyone accidentally harms you..."

"I could kill them. Yeah, that's my concern," Simon said worriedly.

"Well, that mark isn't in the Gray Book," Clary said, closing said book with a sigh. "I think this might be more of a vampire thing."

"The Seelie Queen did mention that only a Daylighter could withstand it."

"Clary creates runes all the time, runes that are not in the Gray Book, either. So I think that it's entirely possible that the Seelie Queen might have gotten that rune from a similar source," Leah said, to which Clary nodded.

"I'll keep looking."

Jace knocked on the door, making them all turn to him. "Sorry. I need to speak to Leah."

Leah excused herself before following Jace into another room, just after he closed the door behind him and rummaged through a pile of papers on the desk frantically.

"Jace, please tell me you slept."

Jace didn't respond, but showed her a picture of a young woman. "This is Morgan Young, the Owl's latest victim. Except she escaped before he possessed her."

"How does a Mundane escape from a demon?"

"She used pepper spray on him."

"That shouldn't have worked."

"It could've, if the Owl wasn't a full demon, but part human. Just like Jonathan," Jace said, and Leah turned to him with concerned.

"Jace... Look. I'm not saying it's impossible, but we've already tried the Connection rune Clary created, and it hasn't really said anything."

"They never found his body," Jace said, taking the picture back and putting it back on the pile.

"What?" Leah asked, surprised to hear that for the first time since her brother's death. She then shook her head, telling herself to stay open to all possibilities. "Maybe it washed out into the ocean? I mean... We saw him. He was dead dead."