A Surprise and A Betrayal (✓)

17. Speak of the devil and he shall appear.

*Before leaving for the forest*

A loud yawn escaped from Jace's mouth before he could stop it, earning a light smack and an eye roll from his Parabatai.

"What was that for?" He asked sleepily, blinking hard to stay awake.

"I only asked Clary to create me a portal, not for you all to gather to see me off. I'll only be gone for a day."

"We wanted to see you before you leave, big brother. When you get back you won't be a mortal anymore." Izzy said, trying to suppress the yawn and failing badly.

"I agree, I missed Fray's calling upon the angel thingy, at least I can see off before you leave to become immortal." Simon defended his girlfriend.

"Why is he here, again?" Alec said, eyeing Simon.

"Because we wanted to see you as a mortal Shadowhunter one last time kid!" Luke said while walking towards the gang with Maryse.

"Luke! Mom!" Alec's eyes widened. "Now don't tell me Max is here too!"

As on cue, Max chimed in. "You're gonna have wings when you return Alec? Like real wings? That would be so cool!"

"Seriously!" Alec looked at his family around him and wanted to bang his head on the wall, only the looks on their faces stopped him from doing so.

"Alec, my boy, Luke is right. What you're going to do is a big step, we just wanted to be there for you before you take this step and tell you that we all are there for you, and we all love you, mortal or not."

"Thank you, Mom, all of you. Now, can you please create the portal Clary?" He asked, a little frustrated.

"Before that," Jace interrupted, "handle me your phone, Alec." He said, stretching out his palm in front of him.

"What? Why?"

"As I remember, Catarina said that you're 'awakening' will be really powerful. Do you want to shatter your phone into pieces?"

Alec took out his phone but hesitated.

"Alec, we'll handle it if Magnus calls, don't worry," Clary said, noticing the way he hesitated.

"Don't worry big brother, you're doing this for Magnus right? We'll handle him if he calls any of us, okay?"

Alec sighed. "Okay." He handed the phone to Jace. "Now, the portal."

Clary stepped forward and created a portal for him. He looked around to see his family and thanked them all for their support then stepped into the portal.

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*Later- Jace's room*

Jace stirred in his sleep when his whole body suddenly started aching. He started twisting and turning, then jolted awake, sweat dribbling from his whole body.

Clary, who was sound asleep on his chest, jolted awake.  "Jace, what's wrong?" She asked, completely alarmed.

"D... Don't know. My whole body, it's aching, precisely my shoulders or around there."

Clary touched his back to soothe him a little but he flinched so she backed away, not sure how to help him.

"Sorry, didn't mean to. But my whole bo...." Before he could finish a loud scream escaped from his mouth.

"Jace!" She quickly wrapped her arms around him and started rubbing his back, unsure what else to do.

"I don't know what's happening, Clary. My back!" He grunted in pain.