⟨«I Love You»⟩ ▪︎M.B▪︎

CHAPTER 2

The Descent Into Hell Isn't Easy
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I stop what I'm doing when I hear a sound coming from behind me. I turn around to see a man just standing in the main area of the Institute. I can immediately tell that he's a mundane because of his clothing. He's wearing dark blue jeans with a blue shirt and a blue jacket. He's also wearing glasses and is carrying an item, but I can't tell what it is.

I furrowed my eyebrows as I grabbed my towel to wipe the sweat off my body while walking down towards the mundane, immediately noticing that Jace and Clarice already got to him first.

As I walked over to them, I see Alec walking towards them as well.

"Why is there a mundane in the Institute?" Alec and I both say at the same time. We slowly look at each other before blurting out, "Jinks!" at the same time. "Double Jinks!" we both say again. "Triple Jinks" I say a millisecond faster than Alec.

"Ha! Now you have to give me food and one of your hoodies, particularly the one with the cool design on it," I smirk at Alec in success.

"Not that one, c'mon. It's my only hoodie that actually has a cool design on it," he fake pouts to try to change my mind. I give him the look.

"Too bad. I expect it tomorrow morning along with the food." I see out of the corner of my eye Jace smirking as Clarice and the mundane look at each other, confused as to what's happening. Jace then interrupts.

"Anyways, a Circle member followed him to get to Clary," Jace explained while nodding his head towards the mundane.

"A Circle rune, just like the guys that took my mother," Clarice tells us while looking at the three of us.

"What exactly is a Circle member and why are they trying to kill us?" the mundane chimes in, looking completely lost and confused.

"All we know is, a long time ago the Circle led a revolt. A lot of Shadowhunters got killed," Jace then looks away for a split second, "including my father." Jace explained to Clarice and the mundane. I rub his back at bit to comfort him and he gives me a little smile.

"And since the revolt we've been forbidden to even hear about the Circle," I continued.

Clarice looked at us, confused. "But, how is that even possible? It's your history."

Jace scoffed, "Says the girl who didn't know she was a Shadowhunter?" We all then walked away from the main area, right to Izzy who is at the computers area.

"Yeah, yeah your right. And now the only person who knows the truth is missing, so I don't care about your rules or what's forbidden, I'm," Clarice licks her lips, "there's got to be someone out there who can tell us why they've taken my mother," Clary snapped. I then turned around and just went off. I didn't want to for the sake of Jace, but something set off in me. A feeling I can't explain. Maybe it's anger, jealousy, annoyance, or maybe it's just because I wasn't having a great day. That didn't matter though because I still walked over to Clary and just let her have it.

"Listen here, little girl. You don't get to just order people around like your little slaves. We are people, too. We could have just left you at your house to die, but apparently Jace has a connection with you or something, which is the only reason I've been patient. So, don't be telling us what to do because your gonna get something worse than the demon venom that was in you two days ago."

I then immediately get pulled back from Clarice and I get turned around to see that I'm face to face with Jace.

"Enough. Stop blaming everything on Clary because of your own problems. Leave. Go stay in your room until one of us found something to help Clary. We all don't need you screaming orders in people's faces. Get out of my sight, Echo," Jace ordered. I scoff as I look at him in slight shock. He never uses my first name unless he's really mad.