redamancy | jace herondale

13

"How's Lydia?" I asked Alec as he walked over to Jace, Isabelle, Clary and I in the Ops Center after checking on Lydia from when she was attacked.

"Better- Magnus is doing what he can to help her, but- it's bad." Alec exhales deeply, "And the Cup is definitely missing."

Jace exhales, "So is Hodge."

"Maybe he was attacked, too." Isabelle was seated in front of the monitor, looking through the footage.

I cross my arms, shrugging lightly, "Maybe he's the one who attacked her."

Isabelle looks back at me, "Hodge?"

"Yeah." I looked at her, "Come on- both Hodge and the Mortal Cup go missing as Lydia is attacked? There's too many hints for us to miss this- it's not just a coincidence."

"No way, Zee." Isabelle shook her head, looking back at the footage, "We've known him our entire lives- he would never do that to us."

Then, when she came up to the footage where Lydia was attacked, Hodge appeared onto the screen; as the attacker.

I clear my throat, slight surprise threaded in my expression as to why Hodge would do this, "You were saying?"

Jace was hurt, "I led him right to the Cup."

"We treated him like family." Alec was betrayed, "How could he do this to us?"

"That's how." Isabelle pulled up the footage of Hodge standing over Jocelyn.

Clary questions, "What is that ring?"

Isabelle looks closer, "Looks like he's talking to someone."

Jace huffs, "And I can bet who it is."

I looked down, "Valentine."

Alec exhales, "Well, that explains how he deactivated the Punishment rune, but- it doesn't explain where he got the ring."

Clary crosses her arms, "You think someone smuggled it past the wards?"

"Maybe." Jace said, "Hodge wasn't the only ex-Circle member around here."

Isabelle looked back at Jace, "Look, I know I don't always see eye to eye with my parents, but I know they're not traitors."

"Really?" asked Jace, his teeth lightly gritting, "Isn't that what you just said about Hodge?"

Jace adds, "It'd have to be someone we trusted, but if there was an intruder inside the Institute, we would have found them by now."

I thought out loud, "What about the Forsaken attack?"

"No." Alec shakes his head, "We killed that thing, and I didn't see a ring."

"He didn't have one during the autopsy, but- maybe there's something in the footage." Isabelle looked through the footage from when they were attacked.

Alec watches her fast forwarding, "Go to the other camera."

Jace has her stop, "There."

There he was.

Hodge slipped off the ring from the Forsaken.

"Son of a bitch." I muttered, huffing deeply, "The Forsaken was just the delivery boy."

"If he gives that Cup to Valentine, he'll create an army of Shadowhunters." Alec inhales sharply, "With that kind of power behind him, he'll kill thousands."

"He'll kill thousands just creating the army." Isabelle huffs, "Most mundanes won't survive that."

Clary shook her head, "We won't let that happen."