Yo yo party people. Chapter 18 is the beginning of the end of this story. I'm expecting to have anywhere from 3 to 5 more chapters before this ends. I'm thankful to all of you guys for reading and supporting me throughout this story and hope y'all like this chapter. Happy reading!

I vaguely heard Magnus call out to me as I ran away from him. Tears began to stream out of my eyes and down my cheeks as I rounded the hallway corner and straight into a body. I looked up to see a familiar face.

"Clary are you alright?" She asked.

I look up, eyes blurry from tears, to see a dark haired woman looking back at me. "I-I'm sorry," I wipe my eyes free of the tears and Tessa comes clear into picture. She looks very worried, and I know she's not going to let me go until I tell her why I'm such a wreck right now. "I wasn't looking where I was going."

I expected her to bombard me with questions on what's wrong, on why I'm a mess right now, but she just pulled me into a hug. It was surprising at first, but after I was in her arms I just lost it. I cried hard. Harder than I ever have before and it felt freeing. I'm not sure at what point during our hug that we moved, but when I finally pulled out of my friend's arms, I looked around to see we were in her bedroom.

"I'm all over the place right now Tess. Sorry I slobbered on your hoodie."

"Don't worry about it Clary." Tessa said, rubbing her arm. "Do you want to talk about it?"

And there was the dreaded question. I mean yes, I would love to talk about it with someone, but what do I even say? 'I bet my daddy issues are cooler than your daddy issues'? I don't even know what to think about my father right now. He was always a psychopath in my mind, but now he's worse.

"Have you ever met your father?"

Tessa's eyes widened as she took in my question. I hope I'm not crossing any lines. Tessa and I did grow pretty close during the weeks she trained me, so I feel like we're close enough for me to pry a little bit. "No. I barely know anything about him."

"Oh. I'm sorry, I was just hoping you could give me some advice."

The girl smiled at me. "Try me."

"My father wiped some of my past from my memory," I glanced down at my feet, unable to look my friend in the eyes for the next part. "I-I lived with a Greater Demon and Lillith, or so my father tells me. I was hoping you could tell me about meeting your father or just-"

"Would you like to get your memories back?" I looked up, surprised at her response. Her smile had faded and was replaced with a serious expression, so I nodded. "I can't really help, advice wise, since I've never met my father. So, why don't we talk with Magnus and try to get you those lost memories?"

"That would be amazing, Tess." I smiled at my friend as she hooked her arm into mine and dragged me back into the hall, toward Magnus' room.

We entered without knocking, which made me feel rude, but apparently Magnus is cool with it. He was at his desk like usual writing something down. When we announced ourselves he looked over and smiled.

"Well if it isn't my two favorite warlocks." I widened my eyes at that wondering, am I considered a warlock now? I mean I have demon blood and human blood, but that would mean that I'm immortal… Magnus noticed my small panic and spoke up quickly. "Clary, darling, don't fret. Being a warlock is so fun. I'll teach you everything I know with time."

Despite the fact that I'm still freaking out on the inside, I smiled like nothing was wrong. "I would like that Magnus, but first Tessa and I need your help."

"I'm assuming this is about that nonsense your father told you earlier?"

"Yes," Tessa said. "I think we should get Clary those memories back."

"Come here Clary." I walked over to Magnus and he lifted his hands to hover near my head. Both began shooting blue sparks. "I will try my best to locate the memories and let you see them, but if not, I have another idea." I nodded and let Magnus fiddle around in my brain. If it were any other warlock I would have kept them away from me with a 10 foot pole, but I trust Magnus.

He has helped me more than anyone really, well maybe not as much as Jace. He helped me find family, gave me a place to stay, and taught me about who I am. He didn't have to do any of that, but as I remember him saying a couple weeks ago 'Hey, we have to protect our own right?'. He's always had my back.

"You can open your eyes now, biscuit." I did as he said and looked up into his catlike iris'. "I'm afraid that your memories are unreachable. I've never seen any magic like this before. Someone much more powerful than me locked them away from you. I just don't know how they did it."

"Okay well what was your other idea on retrieving them?" I asked, but he gave me a look that I didn't want to see. It was one that can only be described as 'you're not gonna like this'.

He clasped his hands together, giving me a small smile before he told me the idea.

Jace's POV

I stood in my room feeling numb inside as I waited on my dead parents to come walking through the door. My heart was beating faster than normal, and my breathing was rapid. Seeing them makes me nervous. It makes me think of them dying in my arms, and I vividly remember every moment of that. How they are alive now makes no sense to me. They died. I know it. I saw it.

I came out of my thoughts as my father entered the room with my mother clutching his arm. She always did hang onto him like that. Like if she let go her heart would stop beating and the life would leave her body. They never told me much, since I was a kid the last time I saw them, but I don't think my mother has the nicest past or the nicest parents for that matter.

"You can sit on the edge of my bed." And Clary's, I thought, as I walked over and smoothed out the sheets for them. Without saying anything back, my mother and father made their way over to my bed and sat down, proceeding to stare at me.

I hadn't thought about how weird this must be for them. I mean, the last time they saw me I was barely 5 feet tall and sounded like a small girl. It must be weird to think of their son as a 10 year old boy, when he's practically a man now.

"You seem very familiar with the Lightwoods." My mother spoke for the first time tonight. She looked nervous, almost scared.

I leaned against the wall as I faced my parents, crossing my arms before I spoke again. "Maryse became my mother and Robert my father." Both of my parents moved around, uncomfortable with me seeing two other human beings as parents. "A lot of people know me as Jace Lightwood now."

My father looked up, hurt. "You took their name?"

"I never forgot where I came from, I am a Herondale, but the Lightwoods saved me. I love them like they are my own blood."

"I see," my mother said, standing up and walking toward me. "Can I look at you up close?"

I nodded as my mother came closer. She brought her hand to my face, brushing a few long curls out of my eyes, and looked at me. "We thought about you everyday in that cage. About what happened to you, what kind of man you grew up to be, what you looked like." She pulled at one of my arms, so I uncrossed them, her touch so familiar yet distant. She held my hand in hers, running her fingers along my voyance rune. After lingering for a good minute, she looked up at me, locking her green eyes on mine.

A memory flashed through my head. My mother's eyes glued to me as I ran up the stairs to get away from the hooded man, to get away from Valentine. Her green eyes watching me as I was branded, burning into my soul as I mourned her death. I shook out of the memory and yanked my hand out of my mother's grasp. She gasped in surprise and backed away from me. She rejoined my father quickly and they both looked at me weird, like something was wrong with me.

"I'm sorry. It's not everyday that your dead mother looks you in the eyes and smiles," I said.

"Son, what you saw that night…we didn't die."

I couldn't help the nervous laughs that escaped as my father spoke. "Sure you didn't die. I just bathed in your blood for fun."

"Somehow Valentine had drawn a rune on your mother and I. It was dark, something neither of us had seen before and it kept us alive as we died."

I scrunched my eyebrows down at my father. He can't be telling the truth, right? I mean, a rune that keeps someone alive even through death? "I'm pretty sure when you die, you die, Stephen." Sarcasm drenched my voice, and I could tell my father wasn't having it. "No one lives through death."

"Jace, I don't remember raising you to be an asshole, so if you could cool it with the sarcasm that would be great." Father looked at me hard, and suddenly I was ten years old again, getting scolded for having the wrong fighting technique. "The rune allowed us to die, like any normal person would, but we were really alive through the whole thing."

I crossed my arms again, relaxing against the wall behind me. My mom began to speak, adding her thoughts on this 'rune'. "It was like being possessed. Like we were watching it all happen, but couldn't do anything to stop it."

"So, you guys watched as Valentine branded me?" I felt my eyes grow dark, a scary dark, but filled with wonder. "Do you know what he did to me?" If they are telling the truth, and they've been living all these years stuck in that cage, then maybe Valentine already told them that I'm a monster.

"No." My mother's eyes were wide. "He didn't tell us anything that made sense. Valentine gave us little pieces of information, but never enough to allow us to understand."

I know they are going to find out at some point anyways, so it might as well come from me. "Ahh, well would you like to know what the brand did to me?" They both nodded and my mom scooted closer to my father, latching onto his arm again. "Did you meet the short redhead while I was knocked out?"

"She's his daughter, right?" My father asked.

"Yes. Valentine branded me with the same symbol he put on his own daughter. We are connected in a way that shadowhunters don't understand yet. When she was growing up, he injected her with demon blood and angel blood." My mother took in a quick deep breath and my father tensed. "Since she was still little, it didn't kill her, but instead changed her. And since we share the same symbol, I experienced those changes as well, but not as drastically as she did. Long story short, I have the abilities of someone with demon blood and have heightened angel blood."

I waited as the news sunk in for my parents. Looking at them was becoming easier, but still made me feel somewhat uneasy. I was about to speak again, but my father spoke up. "I was your father. I was supposed to keep you safe, both of you. This is my fault."

My heart ached at my father's guilt, but I knew it wasn't his fault. It was no one's but Valentine's fault. He's the psycho maniac that ruins lives. "You can't really do much when your dead. Don't sweat it dad."

"Jace, what's going to happen when we go back to Idris? Will you come home with us?"

I let out a breath that I didn't know I'd been holding as I thought about my old home. I didn't like to think about that place, so I never did. The thought of leaving the Lightwoods wasn't something I liked going through my head either, so I knew what my answer would be. I know this is my family, my parents, but the Lightwoods made me who I am today. My two brothers, my sister, and my parents are my family.

"Look, I'm not the same kid that you remember me to be. I have a family that I love and I know loves me." My parents both looked down as they realized I wouldn't be living with them. "I loved both of you back then, and I'm sure I still do, but as I said earlier, we're all strangers here. So, I will still be staying with the Lightwoods."

After a long pause my father spoke. "Will you at least let us be in your life?" His voice was pleading.

Part of me wanted to run into their arms and let them hold me until nothing mattered anymore. Part of me wanted to be 10 again, training in the field with the man I wanted to become, but that part of me died when they did. I don't know if I can handle the pain that I went through after they died again, and getting closer to them might bring that pain back. I can't lose them again, so I'm going to keep my distance. "You're my parents, of course I want you in my life. It's just different now."

"Okay."

Clary's POV

I had finished gathering all of the candles I could find in Magnus' huge house and set them down on the floor. We had moved to the same room where Jace and I had our first date. The room with the beautiful jars of colorful light.

Magnus was looking through some old magic book, while Tessa drew the pentagram on the ground. I set the rest of our candles down, grabbed a piece of chalk, and joined Tessa on the ground. A couple minutes passed before the door swung open and a familiar golden boy walked through. He looked at each of us slowly as he took in what we were doing.

"Are you guys summoning a demon…," he quickly shut the door behind him and crossed his arms as he turned back to face us, "…with out me? Come on, I love summoning evil."

"Perfect timing then, Jace. We were just about to start." We locked eyes for a solid 5 seconds. I could see the worry he was trying to hold back over this situation and could sense the stress radiating off of him. I guess the conversation with his "dead" parents was heated.

"Which demon are we calling up again?" Jace asked, ripping his gaze from mine to look at Magnus. We filled him in on most of the details and began the summoning.

Magnus had us all stand around the pentagon holding hands. He began chanting in a demonic language, probably Cynthonian or Purgatic, and it wasn't long before a small wind picked up inside the circle. I looked over at Jace and was surprised to find his eyes already on me. There was a sadness in them that wasn't there earlier. I felt an instant urge to break the circle and wrap my arms around him, but stayed in my place. Seeing him like this, not himself, makes me wish I could just fix everything. That I could take all of his pain and his problems away from him and that he would return to his usual arrogant self.

I hear Tessa gasp and pull my eyes away from Jace, shaking myself from my thoughts. A thick black smoke was growing in the middle of the circle along with some kind of pressure pulsating against us. As Magnus continues to chant the wind picks up and the smoke grows upward toward the ceiling. It begins to outline the silhouette of a body… of a demon. I began to grow uneasy as the black smoke built up. The pressure reached an almost unbearable tension and the wind began going so fast I was having trouble keeping my balance, when Magnus abruptly stopped chanting.

The black fog cleared and a demon stood tall and strong in front of us. We were all captivated by the evil thing and with Magnus no longer chanting the room seemed eerily quiet. The demon did a slow 360 taking long looks at each of us, stopping at Magnus before reaching me. "Magnus," said the demon, "of all the warlocks to summon me, I wouldn't have guessed you to be brave enough, or should I say stupid enough to do the deed."

"Sammael," Magnus quickly glanced over at me before he continued speaking, "I wasn't sure if the rumor was true or not…but you are truly alive."

I looked the demon up and down as he chuckled at Magnus. He had two horns poking out of his forhead and dark, dark eyes. His skin was a pale color with a grey tint to it, and a thin black smoke surrounded him like a jacket.

"Trickery is one of my best skills Magnus. Maybe you should read up on your demon history. I figured you would know that," Sammael said.

Before Magnus could reply the greater demon glanced to his left, allowing his eyes to finally land on me. He moved closer to me and lowered himself down so that his eyes were level with mine. Something inside me burned at his presence.

"Clarissa. What a surprise." Sammael snapped his fingers and spoke something in a demon language. The air in the room felt different, almost colder. I glanced at my friends and realized that they were all frozen in place. "Don't worry they are still alive," he said.

My breathing picked up as a panic began to take over my body. Breathe Clary. Breathe. "I must be lucky to have some special time alone with you. Out of all the people here you chose me?"

Sammael looked at me weird and then smiled again. "Ah yes. You don't remember anything. It's a shame Clarissa, it's a real shame. We spent so many great years together and I don't even get a proper greeting from you."

"I've spent no time with you, demon." The thought made me scrunch my nose. Years? How can I not remember years I've spent with someone…or something?

"Oh, but you have. And you loved every moment of it. If I recall correctly, you even had a romance or two with a couple of my spawns." Sammael's eyes darkened as he smirked down at me.

All of the panic left my body and was quickly replaced with rage. "What do you want from me?"

"I want you to join me. Join me against your kind." Sammael paused and I looked at him like he was an idiot. "I know you are smart Clarissa. Soon there will be war and you want to be on the winning side, correct?"

"You're right. I am smart. Joining you would be suicidal and down right dumb, so no. I will not join you."

The demon sighed. "I hoped you would willingly join me. I guess I'll have to go with plan B."

Sammael began to move closer to me. "Plan B? What's pla-"

He placed his hand on my shoulder and spoke three words. They were from a demonic language that was completely foreign to me, yet way too familiar all at the same time. The burning sensation that I'd felt moments ago came back hard hitting me like a train. I knew I could fight it off, but for some reason I didn't…I couldn't. It was like I no longer had control of myself. Whatever Sammael just said must have really done something to me.

I locked eyes with Sammael as he moved back into the circle and my friends came back to life. Although I kept my eyes locked on the demon, I could feel their gazes on me. I tried to move mine to look at them all, but I was stuck looking at the demon. The three demonic words he'd spoken to me earlier came back into my mind and they set me free, but I felt wrong. I yanked my hands free of the circle and jumped forward into Sammael's arms.

"Sammy it's been so long!"

"Oh well if it isn't my favorite Morgenstern. How have you been child?"

I pushed back out of our hug to look him in the eyes. Half of me felt this huge connection to him, and the other half wanted to kick his face in. "You wouldn't believe the random stuff that's been going on. Why isn't Lillith with you?" As more time goes by the more I feel myself slipping away. It's like I have no control over what I'm saying or doing.

"She's back home, but I know she'd be upset with me if I didn't invite you back. So, would you like to come spend a year or two with us?"

Hell fucking no. "I would love to Sa"- All of a sudden two arms wrapped around my torso, yanking me away from my dear friend and pulling me out of the room. The last I saw of the room before I was taken into the hallway was Sammy waving at me. He's so sweet.

Jace's POV

In the blink of an eye Clary went from a strong independent shadowhunter facing a demon to a childlike version of herself hugging a demon. I'd never seen anything like it and frankly it freaked me out. The second the circle was broken Magnus began using all of his strength to contain the demon. I don't have any clue how he did it, but somehow he sent Sammael back to where ever we summoned him from right before passing out.

Tessa has been tending to him since then, and I have been stuck watching this strange version of Clary. I locked us in our room about an hour and a half ago and she's still going on and on about her dear friends Sammy and Lillith. It's like she's a completely different person.

"And then Lillith told me the story of the Incursion," said Clary.

I rubbed my hands down my face and sighed. "Why would she tell you about something you already knew of Clary? Every shadowhunter learns about demon history in our lessons."

"Yes. Yes, but they don't tell the story like Lillith tells it. Would you like to hear?"

"Why not?" I rolled my eyes and prepared for the fifteenth story since we'd been in here.

"Well, it's a long story so I'm gonna cut out the less important parts. Basically Sammy and Lillith fell in love, so Sammy turned her into a demon. The Incursion, as you already know, was when Lillith and Sammael opened the wards into earth allowing the demons to pass through at a greater rate. Then the Nephilium were created to lessen the influx of demons in the world."

"Why is that story any different from what they teach us in school?"

"It's the same isn't it!" Clary giggled and widened her eyes at me. "What they don't teach you is that the incursion was actually a distraction." A distraction? Now she's just talking a bunch of nonsense. "Lillith told me not to tell anyone this, but I like you Jacie poo, so I'm gonna trust you with this top secret information okay?"

I'm actually intrigued by what this childish Clary is going to trust me with, but more importantly did she just call me Jacie poo? "Lay it on me Clary."

"Okay so the incursion is a minnie version of what's about to happen."

"Please elaborate." She better be talking nonsense right now. If she's not we're going to have a big problem on our hands.

Clary came closer until her mouth was next to my ear and whispered, "Sometime in the next two weeks Sammy and Lillith are going to completely rid the earth of it's wards and the demons are going to take out the Nephilium for good."

"Why would they trust you with this information?" The thought of this actually being real made me sick to my stomach.

Clary giggled again as she backed away from me and did a twirl. "It's because I'm the key to destroying the wards."

So there's chapter 18 for you guys. The talk with Jace's parents was intense and the demon summoning brought a lot of new mystery to this story. Why does Clary suddenly love the greater demon Sammael and Lillith? Also, is Clary really telling the truth about a second and greater Incursion? Or is she crazy? Find out in chapter 19 my dudes. I hope y'all all have a great Christmas, and if you don't celebrate that then I hope you have a great Monday!