Chapter 30: Epilogue

                                    

                                          
You don't have to say, "I love you, " to say I love you
Forget all the shooting stars and all the silver moons
We've been making shades of purple out of red and blue
Sickeningly sweet like honey, don't need money
All I need is you
                          
Two Years Later...
                          
C.P.O.V.
                          
"Mooooooommmmmmm!" Wren cries from her room down the hall. I heave a sign and turn to look at Jace, it was his turn to take care of Wren and whatever nightmare she was having. But to my surprise, only the lingering warmth on his side of our bed tells me that he was even here at all. I wake a little more, curious at where he could have gone to. The wooden Institute floor is ice beneath my feet, and I shiver a bit to myself. Moonlight floods through our bedroom windows and a wave of calm drowsiness almost makes me go back to sleep, but I rub the sleep from my eyes and start down the hall towards Wren's room. The usual quiet seems to have overtaken the Institute, at night it goes from being full of shouting and the bustle of the everyday, to every bit the imposing and formidable figure it truly looks like. I start to get worried, and I rush down the hall toward Wren's room. Panic is starting to make my heart beat faster and eyes go blind. Everything was going so well, Jocelyn and Luke had come over for a big family dinner two nights ago, and everyone had seemed so happy.
                          
-Two Nights Ago-
                          
Alec groaned, "Magnus, I thought we agreed that we weren't going to tell people what happened in Peru!" 
                          
But Magnus only looked slightly amused, "Oh Darling, that wasn't even the whole story!" Alec made a startled sound and looked at Magnus like that was not the last time they would be discussing that. But I just laughed and asked Magnus how his most recent attempts to potty train Max, their youngest adopted son. That launched him into another story involving a spatula, their bathroom and a startling amount of toilet paper. Both Jace and my mother looked slightly terrified and amused, and both started to get up to help Izzy wash the dishes. But instead of avoiding each other, Jace crosses the room toward her, and whispers something unintelligible in Jocelyn's ears. She looked startled and followed him as they walked out of the kitchen and out into a back room somewhere. I was curious about their conversation and what they could possibly be talking about, but I had this gut feeling that I needed to stay out of it. 
                          
A little later Jocelyn and Jace came back into the room with this, almost indescribable air about them. The rest of the evening goes off without a hitch, Wren gets cooed over by Magnus while Luke and I had a discussion on when Wren and I would be available for a book and coffee date. But again, both Jocelyn and Jace where staining in the corner, as far away from me as possible discussing something quietly. I mean I have never actually seen them have a civil conversation. At most, it was strained small talk, but never something like this. 
                          
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When I enter Wren's room I find it empty of any sign of her, only a folded piece of thick white paper. It's a note that says "Go to the greenhouse". I stare wide-eyed at the note, the handwriting is obviously not Wren's, though it had improved from scribbles to almost legible words. I hurried down the hall, wondering how on earth I heard Wren's voice in her room when she was nowhere to be found. I started walking faster and faster until I was sprinting from one end of the hallway into the greenhouse. But when I burst through doors, the deliciously warm room was not the one that I pictured. I had thought it would be filled with hell-fire and demons who had stolen my daughter into whatever hellscape dimension that they came from, but the serene, lush green landscape that was the greenhouse was as tranquil as always. 
                          
Instead I find a trail of witchlights that lead deeper into the flora and fauna, where I find a table surrounded by thousands of witchlights and candles and seated were Jace and Wren. She was all dressed up in her favorite outfit of her bright yellow rain boots and her brand-new tulle dress that she had picked out when I had gone thrift shopping the other day with Magnus. Jace, looked as dashing as ever in long black pants, a white dress shirt, and a suit jacket. When I entered the room, as if like magic, I was no longer in my pajamas, but in this beautiful green velvet dress that I had marveled at the same shopping trip that I had bought Wren her dress and boots. Except, I never bought this dress, I only joked around with Magnus, saying that if I had gone to prom, that would have been my dream dress. I looked around completely bewildered, feeling like the most unwilling version of Cinderella ever. Finally, my mind and mouth start to work together and I stutter, "Jace, Wren, what is all this?"