Our Fate III ➰Shadowhunters➰[Jace]

➰Chapter Sixty-three➰

➰Chapter Sixty-three➰

"Okay, there must be a match somewhere in the thousands of books you brought," Leah said, as she sat by the desk, resting her head on her fist.

"It isn't thousands, but there's a lot to go through here," Jace said. "This could take a while. Why don't you get something to eat?"

"Nah, I'm good," Leah said, flipping yet another page, unable to find anything slightly ressembling the mark on her chest.

"Leah, you haven't eaten anything since you got back. You need to take a break."

"No, I don't. Look... If we don't find Jonathan before he gets the sword, who knows what kind of damage he could cause."

"Hey, listen," Jace said, kneeling beside her and stroking her cheek gently. "I thought I lost you forever. And now that I have you back, all I want is to stop, just for a minute. And no Jonathan, no Lilith. Just you and me."

"I know, but unless we get this thing off me, it's not going to be just you and me," Leah sighed. "Think, Jace. If you saw it in the Institute, it'd definitely be among these books."

Jace sighed, before widening his eyes in realization. "Wait... I didn't just study at the Institute. We've been looking in the wrong place."

➰➰➰

Leah frowned. "Paradise Lost?"

"This edition was illustrated by a special sect of the Silent Brothers," Jace said, flipping through the pages. "Seers. Valentine made me memorize it. He was obsessed with Lucifer's war on Heaven, and his clash with his brother, the Archangel Michael."

Leah snorted. "I can totally relate."

"Why? Is it the whole Angel and Demon blood thing?" Jace smirked.

Leah rolled her eyes playfully, before her eyes landed on one of the illustrations and she wiped the smile off her face. "Jace. They weren't just brothers. They were also connected. Like Jonathan and I."

She pointed at the marks on their arms, slowly flipping to the next page. She scanned for it, and sure enough, the marks appeared all over.

"Except on this one," Leah said, as she realized one of the illustrations was noticeably missing the infamous mark.

Jace frowned. "Well, Michael defeated his brother. He must've figured out how to separate from him."

"So... there is a way?"

"It appears so," Jace nodded, but Leah winced back with pain, as her hand started to burn and redden out of a sudden. "What's going on?"

"That bastard," Leah groaned, gritting her teeth as to not scream.

"He's burning himself. Here," Jace quickly activated her iratze, which mildly eased the pain. He then held her hand, checking to see if it was healed. "It stopped."

"That's it. It's time for payback," Leah said, as she reached for her dagger and attempted to cut the palm of her hand, before Jace snatched it out of her hand and put it away.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"He started it."

"This isn't a game, Leah. You don't want to tempt him into doing something an iratze can't fix," Jace said with a serious tone.

"Then I need to get this thing off me, now. I don't care if we have to carve it out, but it's getting out right now."

Jace sighed. "I think I might have an idea."