predestined | jace herondale

36

"Jace?" I walked into the Ops Center, confused on why he was still up, as he was standing alone, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." Jace stammers, and sits down in his seat again, looking through the footage, "I'm- I'm good."

"Jace, it's four in the morning." I didn't approve of him being up this late, sitting on the desk, looking down at his messy hair, "I just got back from patrol- why are you still up?"

"I have to go through the rest of this surveillance footage." Jace sighs, grabbing out his stele and running it over his Stamina rune.

I scoff, crossing my arms, "By using your Stamina Rune?"

Jace sighs and tosses his stele onto the desk.

I exhale deeply, "Jace, at some point, you've got to get-"

Jace cuts me off, "I can sleep when I find him."

"You also have to take care of yourself." I crouch in front of him, grabbing his hands, "Or I will go all mother on you- and I really don't want to."

Jace stares at me as my voice got quiet, "Please?"

"Seven mundanes have been murdered in the last 48 hours." Jace lets go of my hands and sat up straight, looking at the footage with a glare, "I think I know who's responsible."

My eyebrows furrowed as I stood back up, "You ID'd the Owl?"

"The Clave has no record of an owl-faced demon." Jace's gaze never left the screen, "Or a demon that possesses people that way, that face has to be a glamour."

I place my hands on my hips, "Well, who'd want to hide themselves?"

Jace's next words shock me, "I think the Owl is Jonathan."

-

"You sure this is what is looks like?" I asked Maia, looking through the Gray Book that day.

Maia looked over my shoulder, stood behind where I was seated, "I mean, I know I'm no Picasso, but-"

"Actually, Picasso was an abstract-" Simon began from next to me then clears his throat, "Never mind."

Maia points to the drawing on the napkin, "This is what I saw on his forehead."

"Well, it's not in the Gray Book, which means it's not a Shadowhunter rune." I shut the book, "And Magnus has never seen anything like it."

Simon sighs, "And the Seelie Queen said only a Daylighter can withstand it."

Maia looks up at the aisles of books, "Does this library have a Daylighter section?"

"I'll see what I can find, but this may be more of a vampire question." I fold my hands and looked at Simon, as he understood what I was implying.

Simon looked at me, "Remember back in fourth grade when Tommy Weismann kept picking on me?"

I nod, "Until you knocked him out."

Maia chuckles, "What?"

"True story- I was king of the nerds for a day." Simon points at her, then looks at me, "What I never told you was that that knock out was actually an accident- I ducked to shield my new glasses, and my elbow caught him in the face."

I gasped playfully, "You were eating all of the acknowledgement up."

Maia laughs, "I had a similar showdown with Cindy McCallahan but my knock out was intentional."

Simon exhales deeply and looks down, "I guess I miss the days when our biggest problems were 90-pound bullies and the threat of being suspended."

Before I could reply, Jace walks in.