redamancy | jace herondale

14

"Any word from the Clave?" Isabelle questioned Lydia as we walked next to her through the Ops Center with Alec and Magnus.

"Not yet, and we've been trying for the past four hours." Lydia shook her head in denial, "Something's up."

"Mm, the Clave being unhelpful?" Magnus held one of Jace's sweatshirts, "Who's shocked? Show of hands?"

"I'm worried." Alec expressed his concern, "I can't sense Jace through our parabatai bond."

Magnus assures him, "We'll find him, Alexander."

"When we arrested Hodge, he said Valentine was on a ship." Isabelle inhales, "They must still be over water."

"Pull up the waterways around New York." Lydia instructs when we surrounded the table.

Isabelle obeys, "The ship couldn't have gone too far."

Alec looked at Magnus, "Anything?"

Magnus exhales when he wasn't getting anything from tracking Jace, "Sorry-"

Alec's tone was filled with more worry and panic "There's got to be something!"

Magnus looked at him, "I don't see him-"

"Alec, hey-" I stepped closer to my best friend, "Calm down- we'll find him."

"All right, listen up!" Alec stepped away and raised his voice for everyone in the Institute to hear, "I want 24/7 monitoring of the Hudson and East Rivers, if you see anything unusual, you come to me first."

Lydia stops him, "I've got this, Alec."

Alec faces her with complete accusation in his tone, "Then why haven't you found Jace yet?"

"Don't forget who you're talking to." Lydia reminded him calmly, "I am still the Head of this Institute."

"And my brother is still missing!" Alec raised his voice at Lydia, catching us all off guard.

"Alec!" I placed a hand on his arm gently after his outburst, "Why don't you just take a break? You need a minute-"

Alec wasn't as firm and aggressive with me, facing me, his voice lowering, "Not now, Zee."

"Zee's right, and it's not a request." Lydia was firm with him, "You're dismissed."

Alec pulled away from me, "Fine!"

Magnus reaches for him when Alec's upset expression only worsened, "Hey-"

"Everybody, just- back off!" Alec shouted at us all, walking away from us.

-

"We are at war." Maryse stood in front of everyone at the briefing in the Ops Center, "Valentine now has the Mortal Cup, with which he is, no doubt, raising a new army, and one of our own has joined him."

Isabelle remarks to me when Clary, Simon, Luke and Jocelyn join us, "Looks like the queen's taking back her kingdom."

"As a result, the Clave has declared a state of emergency at the Institute." Maryse continued, "Their first priority is to replace the current leadership, who they have deemed wholly ineffectual."

"It is an honor to introduce the newly appointed head of the New York Institute, Clave representative, Victor Aldertree." Maryse gestured to the man behind her and stepped back as he came forward.

Alec's leaned closer to Isabelle and I, as confused as both were, his voice low, "Did you know about this?"

I shook my head, "No-"