Addicted to you- Alec Lightwood

22- The Warmth Went Cold

As Ethan, Izzy and Alec approached the steps to the Silent City, they saw Clary stood at the foot of the staircase, phone in hand and muttering furiously. Ethan had only ever seen her this nervous once before: when he had beaten up a school bully for her and they were waiting for their mom to collect them. 

As they moved closer, Clary raised her head up to look at them. She sighed in relief and ran up to Ethan, flinging her arms around him tightly.

"So... what could go wrong, eh Clary?" he whispered in her ear, smirking. 

Clary stepped back from the embrace and slapped him lightly on the arm.

"Okay, you were right Ethan. Happy now? Anyway, I'm glad you're up and all, but you should be resting instead of being here"

She looked past him and glared at Alec, who shrugged his shoulders and smirked at Ethan.

"What can I say? Your brother is stubborn. Its one of his greater qualities"

"Aside from being really really hot?" Izzy whispered, giggling, to her brother, who elbowed her, blushing.

Luckily Ethan didn't seem to hear. "That's a good quality? Calling someone stubborn tends to be an insult"

Then he turned back to Clary, his face suddenly grave as he thought about Jace. 

"Anyway, someone has to make sure my brother is okay"

Clary's face fell. 

"So you know. I can't believe it" she said, mournfully, "You know, I thought I liked him. You know, like..."

Ethan nodded, knowingly. "I know you did. I saw the chemistry between you. It just must have been mistakenly placed. Its fine, Clary"

Clary turned her face away, staring at the floor. "Yeah... I suppose..."

Alec cleared his throat, and both Fray siblings turned to look at him.

"Not to break this up," he said, "but I believe we have a member of our group to rescue"

Ethan nodded and turned back to face the doors.

"Come on, team," he said, taking his seraph blade out, "let's do this"

                               ...............................................

As soon as they enter the Silent City, Ethan felt that there was something wrong. It was darker and colder than the last time they had been there, not so long ago. That first time, Ethan walked the halls in awe of the structure. Now when he looked around, he felt nothing but uneasy.

The others seemed to sense it too. Nobody said anything, but Ethan could tell.  Alec stepped just a little bit closer to him, which went unnoticed to everyone apart from Ethan. Even Clary and Izzy linked their arms together in support. 

They moved into the main hall, and Ethan let out an audible gasp. All over the staircase, lay bodies of the Silent Brothers. Alec and Ethan went round all of the bodies to check for a pulse. 

Nothing. They were all dead.

Alec ran a hand through his raven hair. "They're all gone. What do we do now?"

He posed it as a question to everyone, but his eyes never left Ethan's face. Ethan smiled at Alec in support.

"We do what we came here to do in the first place," Ethan said, looking round at the others, "find Jace. Izzy, Clary, you guys take upstairs. Alec, you take this floor. I'll go and look in the basement"

Everyone nodded, satisfied with Ethan's plan as they left to play the parts they had been given. Before moving to search the rest of the floor, Alec grasped Ethan's hand and gave it a quick squeeze.

"You'd make a great leader, Ethan" Alec whispered in his ear before leaving, making Ethan shudder.

He shook his head and turned his focus to finding Jace. He walked down a damp dark staircase, hidden behind a heavy metal door. As he moved further down, he heard groaning and paused. 

There was someone down here after all.

Ethan wandered into a room placed at the bottom of the stairs. Set out before him were rows and rows of rusty metal cells. As he moved through the different rows, he hoped and prayed that Jace was still here. And luck was on his side for once. He approached the end of the room, and saw Jace sat in the middle of the last cell on the right, head down. Ethan stood right outside the cell door, peering in at his brother.

"Well," Ethan said, shaking his head in mock exasperation, "You seem to have gotten yourself in a bit of a situation... brother"

At the word 'brother', Jace's head flicked up and Ethan was presented with a quite unusual sight.

Jace was crying. 

"E. You came. And you know..."

Ethan smiled. "Of course I did. I couldn't leave my brother behind. Just like I'd never leave Clary behind. And I feel like a part of me always knew that we were brothers. I felt like we had a connection from the start... don't you?"

Jace nodded, his eyes still glistening. "I love you, E. Please help me. The Inquisitor threw me in here because she thought I was working with Valentine, and there was something going on upstairs but I'm not sure what"

Ethan's face turned grave. "The Silent Brothers have been killed. I don't know how, or by who-"

"Valentine" Jace said, glaring hard at the floor in front of him, "It was Valentine. He clearly wanted the Soul Sword"

Ethan shook his head, trying to process this information. Eventually he gave up and turned onto more pressing matters.

Ethan drew an opening rune on the cell door, and stepped into the cell to meet Jace. But when Jace struggled against the handcuffs that were chaining him to the floor, he screamed in agony.

"Jay!" Ethan yelled, alarm filling his face, "What's happening?"

"The handcuffs," his brother choked out, "they must be cursed. I can't move them or I'll burn"

Ethan slid on his knees and, without thinking, drew the same unlocking rune on the cuffs as he had a moment ago on the cell door. To Jace's astonishment, they broke away, leaving Jace free to leave.

Jace regarded his brother for a moment.

"What?" Ethan said, somewhat defensively.

"Its just... you must have some powers, big brother. That rune shouldn't have unlocked the handcuffs" Jace said, shrugging.

Ethan grunted in frustration. 

"We don't have time for that! We need to go now. Come on..."

Seeing that Jace couldn't walk properly, Ethan wrapped an arm around Jace's waist to support him as he walked. As they left the cells behind and met up with the others, a voice stopped them from celebrating for too long.

"Well, well. Look what we have here..."

The Shadowhunters turned to see the Inquisitor staring them down.

And she did not look happy...

A/N- Wow... two updates in one day? Motivation or what?

Hope you are enjoying this so far! 

kait-astrophe