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Chapter Text

The Portal swirled and for a moment, Tiberius felt like he was in a free fall before he stepped out into the familiar entryway of the LA Institute. He took a moment to steady himself, his fingers fluttering at his side, while he told himself he was okay. Finally, after a few breaths, he took a slightly wobbly step and made his way toward the staircase. His brother's head popped into the foyer.

"Good patrol, Ty?" Julian asked, but he got the typical silence from his younger brother. "Good talk." It wasn't as though Julian was offended. He knew Ty wasn't the biggest fan of talking. Unless he had something important to say, Ty typically let the facts speak for themselves.

Julian did not, however miss the way his brother's hands opened and closed at this side, as though he was grasping and releasing some unseen rope. It had been becoming increasingly more common since he got back from the Scholomance. He'd hoped that Ty graduating not just from the Scholomance but as Primi Ordines, would help boost Ty. He was allowed to do exactly what he'd always dreamed of, he was a Nephilim detective, but Julian had had to come to grips with the fact that losing Livvy probably put permanent breaks on any further social development Ty might make.

The slamming of a door from upstairs brought Julian back to the present, as Tavvy came flying down the stairs, Drusilla just behind him.

"OCTAVIAN BLACKTHORN! YOU BRING THAT BACK RIGHT NOW!" Dru screeched, taking long strides to catch up with her younger brother. Tavvy laughed manically as he rounded the banister and darted down the hallway that lead to the Sanctuary.

Julian closed his eyes and pretended that nothing had happened. He had enough on his mind already and his brother was old enough to know better than to mess with Dru. This was one fight he didn't have to get involved in. Emma on the other hand was exactly where his attention needed to be. Brother Enoch didn't specifically tell them she needed to be on bed rest, but the implication was there. After all, when Julian's mom had been pregnant with twins she went on bed rest for more than a month before she delivered Livvy and Ty. No, Julian definitely had enough on his plate, and a sibling squabble was not something he needed to get dragged into.

***

Ty laid on his bed with his headphones on. He had originally planned to try to read, but for whatever reason, he found he was having a hard time focusing on the words on the page. He had read the same paragraph fourteen times before he realized he'd been re reading. Fourteen, Ty went back through his memory and counted. He put the book back on his night stand and picked up his Centurion's pin. He had worked hard to earn it, and he only survived the Scholomance because he had Livvy here with him. He just didn't realize that she was going to put conditions on talking to her brother. Her personality had changed so much in the four years since she had died. She was impatient, even with Ty. He rolled the pin around in his fingers, allowing the sharp back the jab the tips of each. On some level, Ty recognized that it hurt, but he ignored it as he let his stormy thoughts be drowned out in the melody of Schubert, finally willing himself to sleep.

***

The sun beating down on Ty's neck was uncomfortable, and he could feel the skin there tightening. He was about to say something, suggest finding some shade, when Kit disappeared from the corner of Ty's vision.

"What?"

Kit's head was cocked to the side as he looked at his best friend, a few steps behind him. "How are you doing? Getting hot? I know I can feel myself starting to sweat so I figured I'd check with you."

The corner of Ty's lips tugged ever so slightly upward. "I um... I'm trying. Some shade might be nice though."

Kit led Ty to a tree that stood proudly, by itself, along the shore of a pond. The pair plopped down and Kit put his back against the trunk of the tree, his knees pulled up loosely before him. Ty did the same, their legs nearly brushing. His heart was racing and he had to distract himself before his thoughts started to overwhelm him. He looked up and started studying the tree intently.

"What's going through your head, Ty?"

He blinked slowly, stalling while he organized his thoughts into words that would make sense to Kit. "So, this is a maple tree. They're pretty rare around here. They tend to like cooler climates and are especially numerous in Vermont, New Hampshire and Canada. I've never seen one in real life before. They just don't happen in California."

Kit smiled. "I wonder what it's doing here."

"I'm not sure." He could feel heat blossoming under his cheeks. "I just keep finding rare things." He glanced to his left, at his best friend and caught Kit's smile widen.

"C'mon," Kit said, rising and offering his hand to help Ty up. "We should grab somethin' to eat and then get back. I bet Julian's got a whole list of things we need to do."

The pair started down the path headed for Kit's truck. He had bought it not long within a year of moving to the Institute, just after his 16th birthday. It was NOT what he'd had in mind when he went looking for a car, but he had to admit that having the beat up little truck had been helpful more than once.

Ty's mind was off to the races again, mulling over how rare his best friend was. His own family didn't understand him, but this boy who he'd almost killed not only got Ty, but liked him. And when he smiled, it made Ty want to smile. He didn't understand that at all and he wasn't sure he wanted to think about what it could mean. Suddenly Kit grabbed Ty's wrist and dragged him forward, almost running. When they finally stopped, they were a hundred yards from the path that wound it's way around the pond.

"Why did we just run through the field, Kit?"

"There was a duck over there giving us shifty eyes. I don't trust it."

***

Ty opened his eyes. Music continued to play from his headphones, but now the sun projected shimmering red shapes along the wall of his bedroom as it sank in the west, reflecting off the waves of the Pacific just a hundred yards away. In the corner, Livia floated, glaring angrily at her brother as he awoke from his nap.

"Livvy? You're back."

Without even answering, she disappeared and Ty's heart sank further.

A knock on the door pulled him just as he was about to cry. "Ty, Jules says dinner's ready," Dru called from the other side of his door. She knew not to expect a response, so she didn't wait. Instead she continued down the hallway.

***

By the time Ty had made it to the kitchen, the rest of the household had already settled in.

"Won't be long now," Aline said, watching as Julian helped Emma into her chair.

"I hope you're right," Emma replied, plopping with much less grace than would be expected of a Shadowhunter. "I just wanna get these two beasts out and get back to life."

Ty watched his family, observing all their attitudes and banter, filing it away for him to ponder later, if he needed a distraction.

"So Dru," Tavvy started, "who is CJ?"

"You little shit! I told you not to got through my phone."

Ty watched as his younger siblings argued. "I didn't. You left yourself logged into your email on the computer in the library. It's not my fault that it only took four or five clicks to find something juicy."

"He's just a friend," Dru deflected, glancing quickly down the table toward Ty.

"He called you 'sis'."

"Enough Tavs." Julian was done, he could see Drusilla was becoming irritable.

Ty finished eating and excused himself.

Julian watched his brother leave before he spoke up, making sure Ty was out of ear shot. "Has anyone else noticed that Ty has been wearing a necklace since he got back from the Scholomance?"

"That bird thing?" Emma asked. "Yea, I saw him fidgeting with it this morning while he was waiting on the coffee pot."

Julian nodded slowly, trying to puzzle out what it meant. "When he was younger, he hated jewelry. He'd scream whenever he'd try to put something on. Said it made his skin feel like it was all spiky."

"Wonder what's changed."

***

"Livia, I saw you watching us the whole time," Ty said to the empty room. He knew his sister could hear him. "I am becoming worried about you."

The stack of Sherlock Holmes books and some of the fidget toys Julian had made Ty when he was younger lifted off of the night table and flew across the room.

"Fine, Livia." He pulled his headphones up and left for a walk along the beach. He hope the sound of the waves crashing against the sand might help him focus. Somehow, Livvy had become Ty's next case. He just had to figure out what her conditions were; why she seemed so angry with him.

As he walked down the hallway toward the stairs, Dru passed him in the hall. She was on her way to the library and Ty didn't really want to talk to Dru about anything. He knew that she knew his secret, but they would never acknowledge it, and that was perfect for Ty.

***

Like most days, all four were gathered around the table for breakfast. Kit had grown used to walking to the bakery just a mile away with Jem on nice mornings, picking up pastries for breakfast. It had been how he met his only friend in Devon. A lovely young lady named Adah. They had become close friends and Kit thought of her as a sister. He was looking forward to that afternoon, when she'd come over to Cirenworth and they'd gossip about some stupid drama he'd heard in town or that she had overheard from her father, a judge for the local circuit court and had a tendency to speak boisterously about the events of the day's precedings when he got home. Kit loved the stories Adah shared, but most of all he loved just having some friendship after having left L.A.

He remembered one of their conversation from the day before as he reached for another danish. He'd been more honest with her than he'd expected.

Kit sat on the small bank with his feet in the stream, watching the clouds roll passed.

"Ya know, Kit. You've always got that mask on," she said as she poked at his ribs."It's like you've got all these walls up. I think you're really much softer than those tattoos make you look. You've got those walls up around your fluffy soft core."

"There are walls around prisons and asylums too," he said dryly.

"Okay, Chris, what's going on?" She was good at poking through his malaise, and maybe that was why they'd become friends.

"I'm just thinking."

"About that boy," she said.

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh c'mon, Herondale. You're not hiding it from me. You left LA because you where dumped by someone. And since you freeze up everytime I mention my brother, Tyler, I made an educated guess that either you're in love with my six month old brother, or there's a boy in America named Tyler who you're in love with."

She was good. "Close. His name isn't Tyler," and that was all Kit would say about that.

Tessa sipped her tea gingerly as she watched her husband help little Mina with her milk. Kit was typing away furiously on his phone, texting an unnamed friend. Jem and Tessa had long ago decided to give kit the space and privacy he needed.

The familiar double ping of his phone's text alert rang again. "We're about to get visitors," he said with calm certainty. It was less than ten seconds later that the clear knocking on the front door rang out.

Tessa stood. "I've got it." Jem had his hands full with Mina's milk.

"Magnus," Kit heard from the entryway. "So good to see you. No Alec? Or the boys?"

His tone was level but Kit could hear the excitement in his cadence, a magical quality. "It''s time."

Tessa came running back into the kitchen. "Jem, we need to go. LA is calling."

Kit's heart dropped. LA. His old home. His cell phone tinged again. :Don't worry. He's away right now: the message read.

The Carstairs household had been prepared for this. They had bags packed and ready to go. Tessa had promised Emma that she'd be there to help with the delivery and Jem couldn't turn his back, Emma was a niece of his. Or a cousin, he'd still not figured out the whole bloodline, even though he got to follow it through the centuries from the objective eyes of the Silent Brothers.

He sent Adah a text as he waited for everyone to get ready, telling her he'd be out of town for a few days.

Finally, after the longest five minutes of Kit's life, everyone was gathered in the conservatory. Magnus and Tessa worked together to open the Portal.

Stepping through into the entryway of the Los Angeles Institute was a very weird feeling for Kit. He'd just started to get comfortable here when he'd left. He looked around the large room. Mark was pacing the entryway back and forth, completely oblivious to the new arrivals. A Silent Brother, Enoch, soundlessly drifted in and greeted Jem and Tessa, his voice audible only in their heads.

She still has time. She is strong, but she requests you.

Tessa nodded and started for the Infirmary and Jem settled in on one of the uncomfortable looking pieces of furniture and waited for Aline or Helen to arrive and welcome them. Kit stood by awkwardly as he pulled out his phone and texted Dru.

Soon the pattering sound of foot falls on the polished steps echoed throughout the room and Kit could feel his heartbeat skyrocketing. Drusilla took a running jump and wrapped her arms around Kit in a crushing hug.

"Hi, Dru," he said, hugging her back and set her back on her feet. She was practically vibrating with excitement.

"I'm gonna be an aunt!" she said loudly, still hugging him. She spun them both a quarter turn in her excitement and Kit could now see down the hallway toward the Infirmary, wear he could see Magnus, Tessa and Brother Enoch standing, Magnus and Tessa beaming, Enoch's face as unmoving as ever. Kit smiled to himself as he watched.

Dru finally pulled away, her face suddenly serious as she looked up at the young man she though of as a brother. Looking into his eyes and without a single give away on his face, Drusilla slapped Kit across the face as the front door to the Institute opened behind him. Dru's eyes became saucers as Kit's cheek reddened and she started apologizing, desperately trying to keep Kit's attention on her.

Jem's eyes darted from the raven haired boy who'd just walked in the door to the pair standing in the middle of the room.

The boy's breath hitched and he took off up the stairs. And only once he was away did Dru stop apologizing, acting indignant again.

"Talk about whiplash," Kit laughed.

"How could you just leave?"

"How many times have we gone through this, Dru. I just couldn't stay." He'd told her what had happened. She knew the whole story. Maybe was the only one who really did.

Kit wasn't an idiot, it didn't take him long to realize what Dru was doing and he knew she really was angry with him for leaving, but he was also grateful. At least he didn't have to turn around. "How 'bout you show me what room I'll be in?"

"Your room. It's not like it's changed at all."

"Well how about you remind me," he signaled, needing a reason to get away from Jem, who continued to watch silently. It was only in those weird instances where it was easy to remember that Jem used to be a Silent Brother.

"Right," Dru grabbed his wrist and led him up the stairs toward the the level with bedrooms and to the south wing.

Kit could feel his heart racing as he passed each perpendicular hallway to the main, he knew exactly where he was going, and where he'd go if his life hadn't turning into such a disaster. Finally, he stopped. Dru turned around and faced Kit. "You lied to me," he accused, a loud his more than a shout.

A slick grin, mischievous, played at her features. "No, not really. I told you he wasn't here when we were texting. He is now. Technically I didn't lie."

"You Blackthorns. You've always gotta have... ya know what, never mind; I remember where I'm going now."

Dru watched him stalk down the hallway, her attention only leaving Kit when she heard a loud clatter resonate from near the end of the wing.

Chapter Text

Another night at the Shadow Market showed nothing. He had to find Hypatia Vex. Only Vex was gonna be able to help him find out why Livvy was acting so weird. He asked plenty of ambiguous, but leading questions and still no sign of where Vex might be. Ty was becoming desperate but as the night dragged on, he lost hope and began his walk out of the Market.

Once he was out in the open streets of LA, Ty pulled out his phone and called an Uber to get him back to the Institute, and quietly mulled what was going on from the backseat as the City of Angels whizzed past. The car came to a stop, but Ty didn't move, his mind lost in what seemed like a void of evidence, not a place where Ty, who disliked not know things, enjoyed. "Are you sure this is the place," the mundane driver asked as Ty slid across the backseat.

"Yes."

As soon as the car disappeared from view, Ty crossed the road and made his way toward the building, knowing that though it looked to be deserted ruins, it was in reality a beautiful, building, bustling with the life of the Shadow World. A home and focus for Shadow Hunters and the home to his family.

Tiberius crossed the dark court yard, lit only by the Witchlight lamp posts and climbed the steps, pausing for just a moment on the front stairs of the imposing building to take a breath. Ty loved his family, really he did. But they didn't understand how much they made him feel... out of place sometimes. No one ever understood that, no one but... well, it wasn't worth it to dwell. He raised his eyes briefly from the ground and looked at the Rune of Angelic Power set as an iron inlay in the Rowan wood door. Finally, after a deep breath, he pushed the door open.

Inside, he was surprised to see Jem Carstairs sitting on one of the chairs that lined the wall of the entryway, and Dru hugging someone. A lean young man with a mop of golden hair. "Kit," escaped his lips as a whisper as Dru looked up from the young man's shoulder. Ty's heart suddenly started pounding in his chest and he felt like he was going to be sick. Jem looked at him and back to Kit and Dru. Ty wanted to run to the boy. He wanted to tell him how much he missed him. How much he hated him for leaving. How much he needed him. Instead, he took off up the stairs for his room. He could feel himself loosing control of himself. His fingers started flapping at his sides like hyperactive butterflies. His breathing picked up but he couldn't draw enough breath. He could feel a prickle at the corner of his eye. He felt like his skin was shrinking, getting tighter and it wouldn't be able to hold everything he was feeling in. He finally got to his room, after what felt like an eternity.

Ty stumbled as he crossed the room, trying to get to the bed and reaching for the bundles of pipe cleaners that Julian had turned into focus toys years ago. But he was shaking to much. He knocked everything from the night table, and the fidget toys scattered across the room and as he fell, he pulled the night table down with him, in a loud clatter. Ty pushed it off of himself, but didn't try to pick it up like he normally would. Instead, he slammed it against a wall in frustration. And heard a strange crack, like breaking plastic. It was a clear, crisp sound and it grounded him for just a moment. Long enough for him to pull the table back from the wall and find out what had made the noise. That was when Tiberius' fell further. Crushed between the table and the wall, lying in countless pieces of broken plastic and electronics were his headphones. They'd slipped from his neck when he fell and now, his best shield from the world around him was broken far beyond repair.

Somehow, Ty got himself onto his bed. He pulled his knees to his chest and wrapped his arms around them, tightly. Oh his chest he could feel the Centurion pin digging into his skin but he didn't take it off. If anything, the stabbing pain was the only thing keeping him from completely breaking down.

"Ty?" he heard from somewhere. "You okay?"

He didn't answer and a moment later he heard the familiar sound of a stele working on the wood of his bedroom door, and it was quickly followed by the sound of the door clicking open.

"TY?!" She rushed to his side, climbing on the bed and wrapping her arms around him.

"DON'T TOUCH ME!" he screamed, rocking back and forth, his tears flowing down his cheeks.

Dru jumped back, nearly falling onto the floor. "What do you need from me, Ty? What can I do?"

He shook his head violently. "Nothing. I don't need anything from you. I just need to get myself under control." He was still crying and shaking. "I'm fine."

Nodding her head slowly, Drusilla stood, signaling to her older brother that she understood. As calmly as possible, she left the room but as soon as she disappeared, Ty could hear her break out into a run.

He tried to calm himself, knowing that Dru was probably off to find Julian, or Helen. He wasn't ready to deal with that. Neither of them had any idea what he was feeling or why. He sat there for a while, holding himself tightly and wondering where Livvy was. Even after she died, when he had little fits at the Scholomance, she was always there to comfort him. Even if she couldn't rub little circles on his back, her voice helped ground him. But she wasn't there, and that was just further evidence that something was desperately wrong.

"Ty?" Julian's head popped into the doorway that Dru had left open when she left. "I'm makin' pancakes. You want some?"

Ty looked at his brother, his eyes focusing on Julian's nose, a trick he learned at recently to let people think he was making eye contact and he could keep some emotional distance. He nodded slowly and wiped his cheeks with the sleeve of his shirt.

"Cool, get cleaned up and maybe out of that silly Centurion gear and come down to the kitchen. See ya in a few minutes."

***

Kit glanced around his room. It was like a time capsule, or a mosquito frozen in amber. Perpetual and unchanging. Everything was exactly how he'd left it four years before. A few books, scattered around the room, papers balled up and tossed haphazardly and a few band t-shirts that Ty had helped him save from Johnny Rook's house. No doubt he'd out grown them now. Memories came washing over him. He remembered opening the door to his bedroom and that strange and beautiful boy sitting there.

"I didn't want you to think you were alone," was all he had said when Kit looked down on him in surprise. Kit smiled to himself, missing the days when he knew that no matter how alone he felt, Ty was just beyond the door. He'd really messed his life up, just when things might be turning up.

Outside of his room, he heard the sudden heavy footsteps, of someone running, and he poked his head out into the corridor, wondering if it was happening. Maybe Emma was in labor, but when no shouts of excitement or calls to come down followed he figured Tavvy had just run passed, excitedly.

He picked up one of the scattered band t-shirts and caught a whiff of something familiar. Ocean breeze, sandalwood and soap. He knew that smell anywhere - Tiberius Nero Blackthorn. He was amazed that the fabric had retained Ty's scent for so long, and instantly regretting it, Kit put the soft fabric to his face and inhaled deeply. His chest tightened, knowing he'd never get to hold Ty and smell Ty so closely again and his heart broke again. He knew it was masochistic, but he also knew that he never would stop.

Kit put the shirt back on the floor, and stepped into the hallway to head back downstairs, meet up with Jem and Mina and the three of them could raid the kitchen.

Julian and Dru were coming from the other end of the hallway talking in hushed, urgent tones as they approached.

"I've never seen him like that, Jules." She was telling her brother. "He actually shouted at me."

"Okay, Dru. I'll take care of him," was the last thing Kit heard as they moved out of earshot.

***

Kit was so used to getting up early to walk to the bakery with Jem that he woke up automatically and made his way to the kitchen. The Institute was still quiet in the early morning hours and Kit reveled in the fact he could get a cup of coffee before the Blackthorns were up, before he ran the risk of running into Ty. But maybe that's what he wanted. He had heard the words Drusilla had told her brother. Something had upset Ty. It's you, resonated in the back of his head. He doesn't want you. He didn't want you for anything more than to help resurrect Livvy and he definitely doesn't want you now.

"Don't worry, Ty," he muttered to himself, "I'll be back in Devon as soon as Tessa and Jem are done with Emma, and you'll never have to see me again."

Stepping into the kitchen was one of the strangest things Kid had seen at the Institute, and that was saying something. The walls were spattered with some kind of goo, a broken plate lay shattered on the floor next to the table and syrup coated nearly every surface.

Kit couldn't believe his eyes. Did Tavvy come in here on a bender? Did Mark show up out of the blue? All legitimate questions, because Julian would NEVER have left the kitchen in that condition. Thankfully, the coffee pot seemed to have been spared from the swath of destruction that Hurricane Random Blackthorn had cut through the kitchen.

Kit spent the rest of the day entertaining Mina in the training room while Jem and Tessa sat with Emma, at the back of his mind though, Kit was dreading dinner.

***

The whole family and assembled guest sat down around the family together, well all but two. Emma was now restricted to her Infirmary bed and Tiberius was conspicuously missing and as Julian loaded up his plate with spaghetti, Dru spoke up.

"Where's Ty?"

Julian looked up from his plate to grab at a piece of garlic bread. "He says he's working on a case and won't join us. He's fine, but busy." Then he muttered something under his breath that Kit couldn't completely make out, but it certainly wasn't complimentary to Centurions. A moment passed before Julian spoke up again. "I think we're a bit much right now for him. He broke his headphones last night."

Kit felt instant pain for the young Shadowhunter. He knew how important Ty's headphones were; most people at the table understood. Tavvy looked especially mortified.

"That's unfortunate. We're they expensive?" Jem asked, wiping sauce from his face.

"Yea, but that's not really the problem." No additional explanation was given.

Kit leaned toward Jem and whispered "I'll explain it later."

***

"Yes, I can see how that might make Tiberius distraught," Jem said as they walked through the Shadow Market. "Magnus said that it would be the fairy that whose booth had a Wild Hunt image as her sign. Do you know where that is?"

"It's been a long time since I've been here," Kit said, looking over his shoulder, waiting for Barnabas Hale to come flying out, ready to kill him.

"You're fine, Christopher. I'm keeping an eye open. Hale is dead."

"That doesn't mean old friends of his don't have a score to settle." In the countless voices of Downworlders around him, Kit was nearly certain he kept hearing 'Johnny Rook' and 'son,' but he couldn't be sure who was saying it. "And Hale isn't the only one for me to watch out for. Rook made plenty of enemies here. I'm sure someone here wouldn't mind taking some anger out on Rook the Crook's son. What are you looking for anyway?"

Jem turned down a pathway and Kit followed. "I'm looking for something to help Mina focus her magic. She can be whatever she wants but right now she's too young and she hiccoughed last night and blew out three light bulbs and made Magnus' cocktail start to boil."

Kit looked down and laughed as he imagined little Min-min making booze boil. "Thanks, by the way. For stopping at the music store on the way here." The pathway was uneven and if he hadn't been looking down, he'd have tripped. When he looked back up, Jem was gone.

"Jem?"

"In here." His head popped out from behind a curtain. "This kelpie makes a soup that your mot... Tessa says will make Emma more comfortable, without using Rune or the Silent Brothers. It takes some time to cook up though."

Kit stepped in and joined him. The kelpie glared. "Rook's boy. You picked my pockets when you were eight."

"I'm sorry."

"I had forty-five dollars in there."

"I'm really sorry? Look if you want, I can wait outside." He turned for the curtain again.

"Actually, I'm going to find the potion master that Magnus told me about. You stay here and wait for the soup."

Kit sighed deeply, "Yea, great."

The kelpie watched him closely, only half paying attention to the boiling stock.

"Yes, I know. I've grown up to be quite the striking man, but that soup is gonna boil over," Kit said sarcastically.

"Actually, I was thinking about how much soup you'd make and all the bone broth."

A chill ran down Kit's spine, remembering how Julian and Emma saw a kelpie eating someone in Fairie. "Look if you want, I'd be happy to give you the forty-five dollars back."

"No. You know, I've never tried angel meat." Kit matched the kelpie's stare.

"Well you know, you have one seraphic being you've had 'em all, right?"

The kelpie jumped across the small counter at Kit and Kit ducked fast to avoid it's teeth. The two were soon embroiled in a fight within the tent. Every time Kit thought he had the upper hand to reach for a blade, the kelpie was right there to stop him. It lunged for Kit again and Kit kicked out, sending it flying into a tent pole, bringing the whole thing down on top of them. Kit scrambled to get out from under the heavy fabric as it started to catch on fire from the cook top. The kelpie was doing the same.

Jem came running down the pathway, excitement on his face; but that quickly gave way to confusion as he joined the small cluster of Market goers who were now watching to see if the kelpie and the Shadowhunter were going to keep fighting.

"What's going on?"

"Horse face tried to eat me."

"Well we've gotta get going. Emma's in labor, so forget the soup. We can come back and enforce the Accords later."

Kit and Jem started away, down the main corridor. The kelpie moved to the intersection. "You Nephilim are going it regret this!" the kelpie called. "Especially you, Your Majesty!" It spat the last to words like a curse; both Jem and Kit stopped dead in their tracks. The blood in Kit's veins ran cold. That was it. He'd been through too much in the last twenty-four hours to just let it go, and he was sure the kelpie meant those words as a threat.

Kit turned on his heel and started running down the midway, vendors and Market goers diving out of his way. The kelpie's black eyes grew like saucers and it ran for the remains of its tent, fabric smoldering away the soup spilled. "What?" it asked defiantly, now more confident standing in the ruins of its business, the only still freestanding part was the sign post that a wooden plaque with weathered paint swung from. "You're already in over your head, my Liege." The kelpie bowed low in a mocking way. "Go ahead and kill me in my own shop. Break your own Accords and be hunted by the Clave and the Seelies."

Kit could feel a bubble of rage roll to the surface. The strength rune he'd placed on his bicep earlier began to burn and he swung his fist for the sign. It shattered in an explosion of splinters and blood. Pain shot up his arm from his hand and he looked at his fist to see all of his knuckles broken open and bleeding. "Yep. Definitely broke my hand that time," he said to himself, the pain bringing him back down.

"Still punching boards, I see." That familiar, rich voice was like being wrapped in a warm blanket after being out in the cold for hours. Kit spun around, looking into the booth across the path, but no one was there. And as Kit searched the crowd, no Shadowhunters but Jem and him were to be found.

Chapter Text

The excitement around the Institute was palpable when Kit and Jem walked through the door. Mark, Christina, and Kieran had arrived while they were at the Market, as had Alec and his and Magnus' sons. Most of the family was gathered in the Library. Julian and Tessa were with Emma, but everyone else waited together. Alec was holding Mina when Kit and Jem walked in, but he quickly passed the girl off to her father.

"I trust you got what you needed," Magnus said, as he played what looked like ping-pong across the table with Max, the ball was a sphere of blue magic.

"More or less," Kit said, still rattled from the whole experience at the Shadow Market.

Ty looked up from his book. He had small ear buds in but anyone could see they weren't keeping the loud world out. He took the briefest glance at Kit before he slammed the book shut and stalked out of the library. Kit felt another part of himself shrivel and die.

***

Ty couldn't take it. Did no one remember that people are supposed to be quiet in a Library? He stormed out and marched down stairs to grab something to drink before returning to his room for quiet. He was nearly back to the staircase, a glass of orange juice in hand, when the ghostly form of a Silent Brother caught his attention from the corner of his eye.

Something haunts you, Tiberius Nero Blackthorn.

"I'm fine," he lied.

Still, something haunts you. Your sister-in-law will be fine... tomorrow, perhaps the next day. She will not give birth tonight.

Ty looked at the Brother. "Thank you, but I didn't ask for an update."

Yet you are still haunted, Centurion.

Ty looked at the Silent Brother but said nothing. It was almost as though they were challenging each other. Finally, Ty turned his back and continued to his bedroom.

When he got there, he was surprised to find a box with expensive, large headphones sitting there, like a delivery package. He picked it up and opened the door, surprised by someones gift. A small, folded scrap of paper fluttered down from the box and Ty leaned down to collect it, but waited until he was inside his room to open the paper and see who had been so generous.

To Ty, Love Kit

Ty could feel himself shaking again but this time he was able to reign it in. And he took a shower and let the steam clear his mind.

***

Kit couldn't sleep. The words of the kelpie kept playing again and again in his head. It had to have figured out the whole 'First Heir' thing that even Kit hadn't figured out yet. It had gotten late but still Kit was wide awake. Hours before, Jem had told him to go to bed, that they would make sure it was all taken care of. He listened to Jem, but that didn't mean he would fall asleep. At around two in the morning, Kit heard a sort of shuffling sound outside of his room. He reached for the iron dagger he'd placed on his night table waiting for the attack to come. He could see the shadow of feet through the crack under the door. He watched as it stopped, turned toward the door, and back the way it came, before shuffling off again.

His heart was racing and he waited for a moment before he opened the door to look around. On the ground, next to the door, sat the box with the headphones he'd bought for Ty. Taped to the top was a piece of lined, notebook paper and on it, in green ink, in Ty's elegant handwriting, was a single word. "NO."

***

Morning came, and with it the promise of new life. Everyone who had been in the Library the night before had gathered in the dinning room and Mark was sending what he claimed were omelets from the kitchen. Around the table, small groups chattered away about what was happening in the Infirmary down the hall. Silence only fell in the room when they heard Emma call out.

"By the Angel, Julian! If you ever so much as touch me again I will break you like a mirror," a laugh went around the table but Ty didn't understand what any of that meant. Emma had always seemed to like Julian's touch. And how could she shatter him like a mirror?

"Tessa you take Cortana and you cut these bastards out of me! Do you hear me?" Similar screams and sounds came from the Infirmary for a few more hours, but finally at just past ten, silence fell and it became clear that the Silent Brother had put up a silencing ward.

It didn't last long. Twenty minutes, at most, before Julian came into the dining room beaming. He carried two small bundles with him. "I want you all to meet Robert James Carstairs-Blackthorn and Michael William Carstairs-Blackthorn," he said as he moved around the room to show off his brand new sons. Jem had tears in his eyes as he heard the names and he only wished he could have seen Tessa's face when she had heard.

Ty looked at the two small children. He loved them, he thought, though love was not exactly easy for him to understand, there were too many different kinds of love. He looked around the room, at his siblings, Philos; at his new nephews, Agape; at Kieran, Jem and all the friends, Pragma; at Kit... He wasn't going to approach that. It could only lead to pain.

***

Once the Silent Brother had left, the assembly all congregated in the Infirmary so they could see Emma. The excitement in the room was incredible and Kit had to admit he was glad he was there, even if it did hurt. He glanced around the room for the source of his pain, and he found him, sitting on a distant hospital bed, his knees pulled up to his chest and his chin resting on them.

The last time Kit had seen Ty before he left for Devon, he seemed so much less miserable than he was now. He needed something, or someone. Kit could be that. He could give Ty what he needed, even if it hurt. If Ty needed a friend, Kit could be that for him, even if it burned his soul away to nothing. He could be whatever Ty needed him to be. And that would be good enough.

Kit stood up and started walking toward the far end of the Infirmary. Ty saw the movement and tried to wave him off. He didn't want to talk to Kit.

"Leave me alone, Christopher."

"But Ty. I think we should..." Ty cut him off.

"You left. You promised me you would always be here and then you left me. You said those horrible things and then you left me. Well guess what. I agree. I wish I had never met you either."

"Ty, I'm so sorry." His cheeks were wet. Was Kit crying? "Ty. Please. I want to be your friend again. Let me be your Watson. I'll be anything."

"Anything?" Ty asked.

"Anything at all!"

"Then be gone."

Kit didn't know what to say. It was like being punched in the face. He stood there in front of Ty in utter shock.

"I said, be gone."

He wanted to say something, to fight for Ty; to show him what he meant. He opened his mouth about to speak when bright red light flooded into the Infirmary through the windows. A deep echoing rumble resounded and the red light continued flickering like sunlight through a wave.

"The perimeter wards." Julian stood, handing the infants off to his wife and the whole group moved to the front door.

Outside, just beyond the wards lay a body and a burning mound. The wards had faded back to their usual transparent appearance and Julian slowly approached the body.

"It's a dead kelpie," he said, turning toward the burning mound. As he approached it, a tree sprung up out of it and a scroll unrolled from a branch. "It's a message." He started reading it aloud. "I shall not stop until the rivers run with blood. I shall use all the powers of Hell if I must and I will remain. The Heir shall know my terrible power by what he witnesses. All he loves shall be burned to ashes and even the ashes will do my bidding. This I promise. I will not stop until his mind is broken and his line ends."

"Kit," Ty said quietly, subconsciously taking a step toward him.

"So... Did Jem tell you guys about the kelpie we met at the Market yesterday?"

***

Inside, a somber atmosphere had replaced the jubilant one from just an hour earlier.

"We should get Kit home," Tessa said. "They think he's here and the extra warding there will keep him safer."

Ty made eye contact, briefly, with Kit. His eyes were dark, almost pleading.

"Right," Magnus pulled up his ruffled sleeves with a flair. "Tessa darling, let me help you with that Portal. Two warlocks are better than one!"

Both started swirling their hands around as familiar waves of magic materialized, twisting like a food coloring in swirling water. Finally, the Portal formed. But something was wrong. As they looked through, the image was not the living room of Cirenworth, or the Conservatory, or the garden, or kitchen. Not even a bedroom or closet. This was a brightly lit night. They could see the clear sky but columns of smoke seemed to obscure them occasionally, and there seemed to be orange light coming from below.

"Stay here, Tessa," Magnus said. "I'll go check it out." He stepped through, returning a moment later from a Portal he opened from the other side. "So, there is good news and bad news. I did get the destination right."

"Okay, bad news then?"

"The destination doesn't exist anymore."

***

Jem stepped back into the Institute from the Portal and went straight to the Library. "Magnus is right. Cirenworth has been completely destroyed."

"Our home," Kit said quietly.

"Not at all, Christopher. Nothing that cannot be replaced has been lost. We are all here safe. They have failed." Jem put his hand on Kit's shoulder, comforting the young Shadowhunter.

"Have they?" Ty asked.

Jem looked at Ty with surprise. "What do you mean, Tiberius?"

"They knew you were here. Whoever did this wasn't trying to kill Kit, not yet. They were starting to make good on their promise, 'all he loves shall be burned to ashes.'" Ty put his earbuds in. "It was a message."

Kit stood from the table and started out of the room. Jem caught up to him and grabbed him. "Kit, everything lost, Tessa or Magnus, or Katarina or any of our warlock friends, they can fix it. We didn't lose anything."

"Yes we did."

Jem looked at him, a question in his expression.

"We lost the illusion of safety. They proved that they can get to us. That none of us are safe. I just wanna go to my room."

***

Kit was laying on his bed, freaking out a little bit when the knock on the door pulled him out of his fear.

"Can I come in?" Ty's quiet voice came.

"Yea."

"Can we talk?" Ty asked. "Obviously, you're going to be here for a while."

"You've made your feelings pretty clear, Ty. Can we just agree to be civil?"

Ty rocked back on his heels. "Kit, this is a big case. And I'm already working on another one. I could really use your help." He was practically pleading.

Kit wanted distance. He needed it if he had any chance to live without perpetual heartbreak. But he also knew that he could never deny Tiberius Blackthorn.

"Yea, I'll help, Ty." A smile tugged at Ty's lips and his eyes lit up. Kit wondered why so many had been done by the beauty of the blue-green Blackthorn eyes when really it should be the rare steel that made people wax poetic.

"Great! Come to my room at nine thirty. I have things I want to go over with you."

"Why so late?"

Ty stepped toward the door. "It's about my other case. I can't really talk about it until I know we aren't being heard."

"Ty," Kit stopped him as he went to leave. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"Forgiving me. For letting me be your friend again."

"You're my Watson. I need your help in this investigation, Kit." His face had gone flat again, emotionless. Ty didn't say anything as he left, even if Kit was sure there was another part to the sentence. We aren't friends. You are my assistant.

***

Dinner was incredibly awkward. They all ate in the proper dinning room and candles burned from candelabras every few feet on the table and from sconces on the walls. The lights were kept off, along with Witchlight, leaving the room lit only by flame. Flame for the birth of a Nephilim. But the formal and celebratory atmosphere juxtaposed strangely with the sense of doom that hung over the entire Institute.

It mirrored Kit's own inner turmoil. He was so happy to have Ty around again, talking to him; but it was crushing him to think Ty would never be his friend.

Alec must have noticed the general malaise on Kit's face because he addressed him directly as the group ate their take out. "Kit, don't worry about it. We'll make sure nothing happens."

"In the meantime," Helen said, taking a drink from her water. "I would really rather you didn't leave the Institute, Kit. We can protect you in here, but outside the wards... well it makes our job a lot harder."

Kit nodded, he was only half paying attention. He could hardly tell them how far off they were about his fears. He finished dinner, ignoring the conversation around him. Had he not been so lost in his own thoughts, he might have noticed the cold presence of Livia as she floated at the end of the table, behind Julian. As more and more wiped the pizza grease from their mouths, Livvy faded and disappeared altogether. Finally, after a while in his own head, he wiped his own face and balled the paper towel up, and dropped it on the paper plate. "I'm done," he announced to know one in particular. "I'm gonna get a shower and maybe read for a while."

***

Kit stood outside Ty's bedroom door, watching his phone for the time to change from nine twenty-nine to nine thirty. When it did, he tucked his phone back in his pocket and took a breath as he raised his arm.

"Come in, Kit," came the call from the other side of the door, before he'd even had a chance to knock. He should have known that Ty would be ready at precisely nine thirty.

Stepping into Ty's room was like being transported back four years. Like his own room, it was practically unchanged, a few more books than Kit remembered, and the night table hadn't been broken four years ago. The closet had a perfectly lined up tiling of notes and photographs, the top-middle being Livvy, on the door and Kit realized that they were case notes.

"What case are we working on tonight, Sherlock." Kit smiled at Ty but the boy didn't react.

"Kit, have you seen Livvy lately?"

"No actually. I don't think I've seen her since... Since Mina was born?"

Ty was nodding his head as he caught Kit up on all the changes in Livvy and how she could hear through the wards into Idris. About how when she was too far away, Ty would get sick, which was how he knew she couldn't be far. And he told Kit of the time she did something he was still trying to figure out, something immeasurably hurtful to her brother.

"But Ty, she's a ghost. How could she open the window or put up a grate?"

"I don't know, Kit. I just know that when I came back to the Scholomance, she was floating with a smirk on her face, the window was open and barred. And poor Irene." Ty was visibly upset and Kit moved closer before he remembered that their relationship was changed. He wasn't allowed to hold Ty anymore, even to comfort him, at least he didn't think he was, until Ty leaned into Kit.

Kit wrapped his arms around Ty, holding the boy together. I love you, Ty. I love you.

"I'm the reason she did it, aren't I?" Ty asked.

Kit didn't want to say it, he didn't want to say 'I told you.' If ever there was a time in Kit's life when those three words were true now was it. But he couldn't. That would break the boy who was now crying in his arms. He put his face in Ty's hair and breathed in deeply, his heart clenching. "Who knows why any of this stuff happens, Ty. It might not have been her. Everyone knows the Scholomance is a weird place. Anyone, or thing, could have do it."

Ty pulled back. "But Kit, Irene was a Carpathian Lynx. She was born to live in that climate. It couldn't have been the cold. Livvy did something to her." He wiped the tears from his cheeks with the meat of his palms and looked at the man who was once his best friend. "I've been going to the Shadow Market almost every night. I need to talk to Hypatia Vex."

"Ty, she wouldn't talk to you when you trying to raise your sister, why would she talk to you now that..." he cut himself off.

"Now that it's clear how much I messed this up. Right, Kit? You can say it." His face had gone stone, and his gray eyes matched. Kit thought of a statue of a Roman Emperor.

"Now that something is wrong, Ty." Ty's features softened. "We'll figure it out, Ty. I promise."

"And we'll figure out how to keep you safe too." A smile returned to Ty's face.

Kit smiled back, but as he looked at Ty's face, he could see Livvy floating, watching them, a cold expression on her face.

Chapter Text

"I will send my spies, Julian Blackthorn," the Unseelie King said as he prepared to depart the Institute with his partners. Emma had refused to stay in bed, and was standing, with Dru's help, in the entryway, saying goodbye to Kieran, Mark and Cristina. Cristina hugged Emma tight.

"You are going to be a one of a kind mother." She was stalling, missing her friends, even though she was the happiest she'd ever been with Mark and Kieran.

"Lady of Roses," Kieran started. "Shall we depart? If we are to participate in protecting Christopher, we should return to Fairie.

Tavvy ran past, chasing Rafe and Max. Alec was saying his goodbyes and Magnus snapped his fingers, lifting both of his sons into the air, stopping them in their tracks. Octavian collided with Rafe's feet and a loud 'oof' sounded from the youngest Blackthorn.

Jem turned to check on Tavvy. "Don't worry about him. He deserves it," Dru said as she helped Emma to a chair, as uncomfortable as they were.

***

Kit sat along the edge of the roof, watching as Kieran, Mark and Cristina road their Fairy horses out, over the Pacific as they trekked back to the Unseelie Court.

The sun was now directly above him and Kit could feel himself starting to sweat. He had so much on his mind, and he didn't know what to think. His house was in ruins, fairies were out to kill him, the ghost of his former best friend's sister was acting flat out evil, and the most all consuming thought of it all was how much he was in love with his best friend, who he could never have.

"Do you think Kieran will be able to find anything out?" Ty asked from behind him.

Kit turned his head. Ty had grown since the whole Cohort thing, but he was still the same, skinny young man who Kit had fallen for. He wondered if he had noticeably changed in Ty's eyes. "I don't know. I hope so."

"It was the catalyst, wasn't it?" Ty asked, switching topics, knowing Kit would follow.

"Honestly, Ty? It might have been. I don't want to blame you, or you to blame yourself, but I won't lie to you either Ty. Necromancy is weird, and unpredictable... and wrong." Ty dropped down next to him, dangling his feet over the side. "There are so many things that could have been... not quite right. And Ty, it might have nothing to do with the ritual." He wanted so badly to put his arm around Ty but this wasn't the time. In a way, he'd just accused Ty of not just performing dark magic, which was true, but messing it up, badly, which remained to be seen.

"Do you still think I was being selfish when I brought her back?"

"You didn't bring her back, Ty. You made her into a ghost. And, again, honestly? Yes. I do. I would have been there for you through all the pain. Julian too, your family. But you couldn't see past what you were feeling to what the rest of us were feeling."

Ty put his head on Kit's shoulder and Kit took that as permission to put his arm around the taller young man's back. "So do I. I was selfish. And the Angel knows what's going to happen now."

"We'll get through it, Ty."

"I'm gonna have to tell people, aren't I. They're all going to learn what we... What I did."

Kit sighed and took his arm back, turning just a bit to look at Ty. "Probably. But I'll be by your side when you do. I promise. But please Ty, can we talk about what happened?"

Ty sat up, going rigid. "No, I'll tell you what happened." His voice was somehow deeper. "My twin sister was killed and you promised me that you would always be there for me. You said you would help me. And then you told me that you wished you never met me. And then you left. You didn't even say goodbye. You just left, after you promised that you wouldn't. Kinda how you just promised me you'd be with me when I told people what I did." His voice was cold and when he got up, the space he had just occupied beside Kit was cold too.

"Ty, that's not, exactly what happened."

"You're right," Ty said. "You tried to manipulate me." And without another word, Ty disappeared behind the doorway and into the Institute.

***

Dinner was even more awkward than the night before. Kit sat next to Jem, and Ty sat across from him, and looked just about everywhere but at Kit. Stranger still, Ty was in gear.

"I didn't know you still went on patrols," Jem said to Ty.

"I don't. I'm working on an investigation," he replied but offered no further clue about what his investigation was. He was the first to finish eating and he excused himself without a word, taking the plate to the sink before heading for the kitchen door. "I'll be back. Christopher, we will go over the notes I collect at four thirty." And then he disappeared.

"In the morning?" Kit asked no one.

Alec rose. "We'll be taking a Portal back to New York so I've gotta get Max and Rafe together." He and Magnus walked out of the kitchen, their heads together, whispering about some thing or another.

"Well," Aline said, "now that the sugar monsters are off, Helen made a double chocolate cake for desert."

From the other room, Kit could hear the sound of a portal opening and Alec's voice to his sons. "Okay now, just like last time. Hold your breath and away we go!" came floating down the hallway.

Conversation around desert was much more enjoyable than the dinner conversation, and as it came to a close, Julian cut a piece of cake for Emma and left. The sound of another Portal opening in the foyer echoed and Julian could be heard greeting the visitors, but no reply came. Silent Brother Kit thought to himself.

"I'll make sure it's handled," he heard Julian say. "I'll take you there." A moment later his head popped in the door again. "Guys, I'll be in the Infirmary. Kit, when you're done with desert can you go to the dining room?"

***

Kit stood before the table. It seemed so imposing now, with the pair across from him staring him down. When he had lived at the Institute years before, it was just a dinner table, nothing intimidating about it. He realized they were waiting for him to speak. “I’m really sorry. I screwed everything up. This was supposed to be a big, special thing and like usual, I fubared the whole thing, because I had to freak out at the Shadow Market. And now, not only did I ruin what should be one of the happiest days Julian will ever have, he’s got his wife, new born sons, his brothers and sisters, and their whole family in danger because of me. Again. Oh and I got the family home of the ONLY people to ever love me blown to bits.”

“Is that why you think we asked to speak with you Christopher?” The other man just smiled at the speaker as Kit stammered. “I wanted to speak with you and ask you what your plan is for dealing with your feelings. Surely, you cannot ignore them, especially now that you’ll be staying here, with the Blackthorns. With Tiberius.”

Kit blanched. Had he really been that obvious? He drummed up his resolve before he spoke again. “That’s exactly what I’m going to do. I’ve done enough to make them all hate me. I’m just gonna hide in my room and play with Mina, he's been pretty clear that the only interaction we're to have is case related.”

“Avoidance is never the answer Christopher. Action is your only hope. And you may be the target of the Seelie Court, but you are also a fully trained Shadowhunter. You cannot stay hidden in the Institute, at least not for long.”

A shiver moved down Kit’s spine, as if someone had dropped an ice cube down the back of his shirt. He knew what he was about to say, even though every fiber of his being told him to keep his mouth shut. “I already told him.”

Magnus’ eyebrows arched high and Kit found himself puzzling briefly over the warlock’s cat eyes. When neither men replied, he continued. “Four years ago. Right before the whole Cohort thing.” He could feel the familiar prickle forming at the corners of his eyes and God he hated himself for every tear he still shed. “He didn’t even acknowledge what I said, he just kept...” he caught himself before he said too much. “He was in the middle of something and he didn’t even care enough to pause for a second and acknowledge what I said. Not a ‘aw that’s nice’ or ‘thanks but I wanna stay friends’ or a ‘kiss my ass, Kit.’”

Magnus sighed. “You know Tiberius feels things differently. He has to have the chance to process things and you didn’t give him that. You just sprung it on him and when he didn’t instantly reply you just? What? Ran away? You put a continent and an ocean between you.”

Kit wiped away the streams of tears furiously with the hem of his t-shirt. “Why should I try? It’s not like he’s done anything in the past four years to make me think he wants anything to do with me. Besides, I’ve never had any evidence that he even likes guys.”

Magnus laughed out loud. “In the centuries that I have known the Blackthorn Family, I have yet to meet a straight one. Though, Octavian is an enigma, I’ll concede that.”

Kit's eyes were wide. “Dru?”

“Come now, even you must see Drusilla’s more of an equal opportunity lover.”

“Livvy?”

“Alright, I admit I didn’t know Livia well enough to deduce.”

“C’mon Magnus,” Kit said, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. “What about Julian?”

The warlock was in true hysterics at that point. “If that boy could see beyond the Carstairs charms, he’d have fallen for anyone who showed him any affection!”

The other man chuckled lightly and batted at Magnus’ shoulder. It was the first sound he’d made since Kit had entered the room, and while they’d met before, it was still odd to see the Consul of the Clave acting so... informally, especially in a setting where he felt so much like the Consul. At dinner, it seemed normal... more or less. Then Alec was just Alec, but with the giant table between them, the setting felt more official; even if Alec wasn't acting like it.

“So what do you want? Me to march up there and confess my feelings again so he can dice my heart up like a Ravener demon?”

Alec shifted in his seat. “I think you should think of a way that speaks uniquely to you and Ty’s past relationship. Something in Ty language.”

“Ty language?”

“Mhmm,” Alec said with a calming smile.

“Actually, I think I have an idea.” Kit started for the door.

“Christopher? Care to clue your Consul and me in?”

“He’s gotta be stressed with all the changes going on, right? His whole, scheduled life is in upheaval. And Dru says he’s still all alone, he’s got no one anymore to ground him, not since... well um... Dru said his only friend got pissed at him and stopped talking to him when he came back here, so he’s pretty isolated. I’m gonna do what he did for me. I’ll care for him in a way he’ll understand. Give him his distance while being present. I’m gonna sleep in the hallway outside his door.”

***

Ty's notebook was full of chicken scratches, even he couldn't read it, he suspected he was just too tired to carry out any meaningful investigation. He settled in behind a tent, he wasn't sure which one, and leaning against the wall, closed his eyes to think.

"It was headed toward the Queen's Court. It was a shadow on the ground, but when I looked up, there was nothing casting it. But the shadow looked like an enormous angel."

"I think you had too much to drink, Terok. Angels don't visit Fairie. And our Queen would never consort with Angels."

Ty listened intently, writing everything he heard down.

"I'm telling you. The dream I had after that was the most vivid thing I've ever had," the first Fairie said. "It was a warning. It was like the stories of Thule. Pestilence is coming to this world and these humans are going to pay for their arrogance. And all of Fairie will be united under one banner."

"You saw all this in your dream."

"It was more of a vision."

"You've been drinking from that pool, haven't you. The one the Queen was given as a sign of peace. You know it causes hallucinations."

"Or visions."

"I can't take any more from you tonight. Go find that little vampire and see if he's got the jar. I'd like to get back to Fairie as soon as possible. I really don't wanna be caught with any of their 'holy stuff' in a jar in our possession."

"It's still not clear that that's were the Daylighter came from."

"It's all we've got to work with. Go!"

Ty was almost certain that they were about to break the Accords, or a vampire already had, but that was not what he was investigating. But the conversation before could have been relevant; so he scribbled it out, verbatim.

The whispered word 'Nephilim' made it's way around the Market, and before long, Ty could hear people talking about a dark haired Shadowhunter stalking the Market lately. He'd been made, and it would be a long while before he'd be able to come back. He stepped out from behind the tent and started walking down the midway.

A Fairie spat on him and he started shaking, his fingers fluttering.

"Serves him right. Spying on us for the last weeks."

"How did you know? How long have you known?"

"Since day one. He had all his angel marks covered but have you seen how he walks? Just like all of them. Like they are so much better than anyone around them. Like the earth around the should bow before the Nephilim. There's no hiding that stink."

Some of the Market goers might have made him, but Ty was sure that the conversation he'd heard was genuine. He just had to figure out what it meant.

He could feel his skin crawling, he needed to get out of there, but he refused to give them the satisfaction of seeing him have a fit. So he pulled out a dagger and started playing with it, showing off as he wound the blade through his fingers, distracting himself, giving his mind something to focus on.

Chapter Text

The soft rapping at the door woke Kit up. Small wonder, he hadn't been sleeping well the previous few nights, so even the almost shy knock woke him up. He mumbled something that sounded like "come in," and the door opened slowly.

Ty's stepped into the dark room, looking around for Kit, who was still laying in bed, sheets up to his neck. "It's four thirty-seven," Ty said with a shyness Kit hadn't heard from Ty since he first moved to the Institute after his father was killed.

"Oh," Kit said yawning. "Right." He propped himself up and the sheet fell, pooling in his lap. Ty's eyes locked on Kit's chest. His build hadn't change much in the last four years, but there was a lot more definition then there had been years before.

"Ty?" Kit said, watching him. A spark of hope that he knew was irrational.

"Sorry," Ty said. "You haven't had anymore permanent Marks put on."

Kit looked down at his bare chest. "Oh... Yea well, I told you years ago that you were gonna be the only person to put permanent Runes on my body."

"But..." Ty sounded confused, "clearly things change." There was a touch of bitterness in his voice.

"Can we not go through this again? I really don't think my heart can take it right now, Ty. What was your mission like?"

Ty sat down on the edge of Kit's bed and told him everything that had happened and then pulled out his notebook to show Kit his notes.

"Ty, this is covered in blood. Fresh blood."

Ty looked at the paper. "Huh." He looked at his hands. They were bleeding from dozens of tiny cuts and pin pricks.

"What the hell, Ty!" It was automatic and he thought nothing of it when he reached for his stele still on the night stand. He pulled Ty's sleeve up and the boy went deathly still. Somewhere, Kit recognized that he was touching Ty without permission but the blood that was washing over Ty's hands was his first priority and like he'd been drawing them all his life, Kit made an iratze on Ty's arm and watched as the scores of wounds closed.

Suddenly, Kit's cheeks flared red, realizing that Ty was staring at him in the dimly lit room. "Sorry. I know not to touch you. I just... I hate seeing you hurt."

Ty stood up and for a moment, Kit though he was gonna leave but instead the Centurion went to the pile of clothes Kit had dumped from his bag and pulled out a shirt. "Put this on before you get cold." He didn't turn back around until he was sure Kit had put the shirt on. He settled into the desk and pulled out his notes again and flipped to a blank page. "Okay, what do we know?"

"That fairies are out to get me. Um... Some fairie at the Shadow Market is having weird dreams and taking drugs? You can't pass for Mundane? They are trying to understand Clary's parabatai while he was a vampire?"

Ty rubbed his palms into his eyes. "There is something we're missing. There is a glaring hole here. I can feel it. Evidence is right in front of us."

Kit pulled himself out of bed, the sheet falling from his lap to the floor, and started moving to the desk. Ty glanced over at Kit and was suddenly sure that if his life were an anime, his nose would be bleeding, because standing right beside him, yawning and totally oblivious to Ty's struggles right now, was Kit, in the white t-shirt Ty had handed him, and black boxer briefs. Nothing else. "Kit, will you please put pants on?"

"Hmm?" He looked down at himself. "Oh sorry." Kit said. "I didn't even... sorry."

The pair stayed up for another hour trying to puzzle out what was missing, but the closest they could come up with was that maybe the search for a way to recreate Simon Lewis might have some kind of tie to the Seelie Queen trying to kill Kit.

Ty yawned widely as he looked out the window. The Pacific was reflecting the beginnings of sunrise and Ty was exhausted. Even Kit could see it.

"Ty, go to bed. Pop your earbuds in, play some... who are you listening to right now? Verdi?" Ty nodded with with a smile that warmed Kit all the way through. "Put Verdi on and sleep. You're not gonna solve anything if you can't keep you eyes open."

Ty nodded and stood up, and walked to Kit who was standing directly in front of him. Kit was still a little shorter than Ty, probably always would be. Ty wrapped his arms around Kit in a tight hug. "I won't let her get you, Kit. I promise."

Kit hugged Ty back, "And I'll help you figure out what's going on with Livvy. I promise. A real promise."

Ty backed away and smiled lightly at Kit again and turned around heading for the door. He opened the door and as he stepped over the threshold his right arm shot out and grabbed the headphones Kit had bought for Ty off the dresser. He was just about to pull the door shut when he turned around. "They are still mine, right?"

"Of course."

With a click, Kit's door closed and Ty padded his way to his room while Kit removed the sweat pants and t-shirt and climbed back in bed.

If I can't have him be in love with me, at least I'll get to be his friend again.

***

Kit sat at the kitchen table as Aline made scrabbled eggs and bacon. He had to admit, Aline was nice, she made a great Head of the Institute, but she was definitely not Julian in the kitchen.

Jem sat down next to Kit. "How did you sleep?"

"I'm struggling, to be honest."

Dru came in followed by Ty just behind her. Dru was heading to sit next to Kit. "You know you're safe here," She said as Ty stepped around her quickly to sit next to Kit.

Seeing Ty 'compete' for the seat was was a little heartwarming for Kit, but he also knew that all he was ever going to get was Ty's friendship. It would be good enough. Kit turned his head to look at Ty who was yawning widely. Kit was about to elbow him playfully, like old days when movement caught his eye. Livia drifted into the room, her eyes seemingly locked on Ty and Kit.

"We're gonna have to tell," Kit whispered.

"I know. Today after breakfast. We'll go to Aline and Helen's office. Can you bring Julian... and maybe Jem?"

Kit nodded. "I'll be right there with you." Below the table, Ty's hand grabbed desperately for Kit's. His hand was shaking violently, and Kit squeezed it.

"They're going to strip me of my Marks."

Kit wanted to reassure him that that wasn't going to happen, but he couldn't. Necromancy was no small crime.

Aline and Helen would have no choice but to call a meeting of the Conclave, and they would escalate it to the whole Council; and even if they could get Alec on their side because they knew each other, the Consul didn't have absolute authority. Things were still in too much turmoil from the Dearborn's attempted coup. Without access to Alicante, many members of the Clave had doubled down on the Covenant. The Law is hard, but it is the Law. The Clave-in-Exhile was still trying to figure out what the new governance would look like and after what Horace Dearborn had done, the Council had been hesitant to elect a new Inquisitor. But that time was up. They'd have to before the trial.

Kit wanted to tell him so badly that everything would be okay, but he didn't believe it himself.

***

"All right, Ty. What's going on?" Aline asked. It was obvious that Ty was upset, his hands were moving like lightning and he was visibly sweating.

"I don't feel well." He scanned the room, maybe asking for all four of them had been a mistake. When his focus landed on Kit, he spoke simply. "Kit, please?"

Kit knew what Ty was asking. "So... four years ago, after Livvy... The night before the fight with the Cohort... We tried to resurrect Livvy."

The shock was audible and the room felt suddenly colder.

"Tried... but failed right?" Julian asked, "No one has to know."

"That's only half true." Ty reached out for Kit's hand. He was ice cold and shaking like he'd spent the night in the ocean. "We were able to resurrect her ghost, but the magical catalyst was corrupted so we never got past a ghost... And she's bound to Ty."

The silence in the room was eerie and beyond uncomfortable.

"I really don't know what to say," Helen said, her head in her hands. "This is a really horrible position you've put us in. We're in the middle of this fairie investigation so I can't really call a meeting of the Conclave, there's just too much going on. But on the other hand, if anyone ever finds out any of this and that we didn't act as soon as we found out, then it looks like Aline and I are protecting you because Ty's my brother."

"Ty, what made you think this was even close to being okay?" Julian's barely contained anger was clear and was presenting as tears in his eyes.

Ty muttered something that no one understood.

"What?"

"I was hurting. I needed my twin. I thought I couldn't live without her. I was wrong though."

"We were all hurting, Tiberius. We all lost Livvy. And Kit, I know you were new to the world of Shadowhunters, but you never thought this was a bad idea?"

"I did. I just... Ty needed someone. I hoped that if he saw that I supported him and cared for him and was his friend, maybe he'd think he didn't have to do it. By the time I realized I was wrong we were at the lake and we were starting the ritual."

Jem finally spoke up. "Where did you learn the ritual, the proper alignment of items and incantations?"

"Hypatia Vex told me what we needed to get. And when Jules came back with the Black Volume of the Dead, I took pictures of the pages on necromancy with my phone."

Aline stood up. "I'm going to have to call a meeting at some point. But now isn't the time. Not a word about this to anyone outside this room. Tiberius, I'd really love to confine you to the Institute, but that would raise too many questions. And Kit..."

Ty interrupted. "Kit didn't carry out the ritual, he was a bystander. He shouldn't be punished."

Kit tried to protest but Ty released his hand and waved him off trying to silence him.

"This could be anything from imprisonment in the Silent City to being stripped, you know that, right?" Julian asked.

Ty nodded.

"Does anyone else know?" Jem asked.

"Dru. She overheard Magnus Bane and I talking about it."

"Dru and Magnus Bane. Anyone else?"

Ty shook his head. "I don't think so. Dru didn't tell anyone, and Magnus wouldn't tell Alec. He'd keep him protected."

Aline sighed. "Okay, we'll carry on like we normally would until I can call the Conclave to order. Helen, I'm sorry. You can't hold any authority as co-head of the Institute on this. That wouldn't be right. Ty's your brother."

Helen nodded and silence fell again.

Julian looked up from his shoes. "Why are you confessing to this now?"

Kit answered. "Remember how I said that Livvy's ghost is bound to Ty? Well, she still is, Ty can see her when she's around, I can too. They've talked and she's even helped the Clave out, though no one knows it's her. Well, she's been acting... weird."

"Weird how?"

"She's been angry. She murdered my pet during my last week at the Scholomance."

The mood in the office changed. Like the flick of a switch it had gone from a criminal interrogation to a typical Shadowhunter investigation. "What could cause that?" Aline asked, rhetorically.

Jem answered, "I suppose that it could be the longer she is without a body the less 'Livvy' she is. Or perhaps it could be a result of the corrupted catalyst. But both seem suspicious to me. The ghost of Jessamine Lovelace has never stopped being Jessamine... But I don't know. These are all parts of why necromancy is so dangerous. It's unpredictable. None of these fit totally though." Jem sighed before he continued. "My experience as a Silent Brother leads me to think that if it had been the catalyst, she'd have been corrupt from the beginning. No. Something has changed."

Kit looked to his left, at Ty. Just behind him, drifted Livvy, waves of what Kit was sure had to be anger, coming off of her like ripples on a pond.

He nudged Ty and gestured with his head in Livvy's direction.

"I know." Ty whispered.

Jem nodded slowly. He must have seen the interaction and had deduced what they were saying. "This is a lot to cover and a lot to investigate. Why don't we all go off and do what we need to?"

Aline agreed, assigning everyone specific tasks. "You two," she said gesturing to Kit and Ty, "you're already into your investigation. Carry on with it. Just... remember, you answer to the Clave, you answer to me. Business as usual for now. But if you two step out of line and break the Law of the Covenant, I will call the Conclave. I will end this investigation right then and there and call a trial."

Chapter Text

"Kit, what are you doing?" Julian asked as he walked past.

"I'm supporting him."

Julian stopped. "How are you supporting Ty. You're just sitting here."

"When I first came here, after Johnny Rook was killed, I refused to leave my room. Remember? Ty never left from right outside my door. And I knew that. He said he didn't want me to be alone when I decided to come out. I felt so alone and isolated when I first came here. You were all a family and I was the outsider. An island. Not only didn't I know anyone, I was brought to the very heart of everything my father had taught me to fear. And I felt like I was to blame for all of it, for my dad dying and being here. I was already why my mother left and now my father was dead because of me.

"Think of how Ty's feeling right now. He's isolated. The only person who ever got him died, he got her back, sorta, and now something is terribly wrong with her and he's the only one who can see it. On top of that he's got the full weight of the Clave about to come down on him. And you - you didn't even look at him at dinner." Julian knelt down next to Kit as he listened. "He's ashamed and he wants to be alone, but he also is alone, with himself and his guilt. He's a storm right now."

"He's lucky to have you, Kit. We're all lucky he has you. But you can't protect him from this. He's going to have to face the consequences of what he did."

"I get it, Julian. But I'll be damned if Ty's gonna be alone for all of this. I abandoned him once. I'm not going to do it again."

Julian smiled at him warmly. "Kit, he hasn't even let you into his room. You're out here in the hallway."

"He doesn't have to, Julian. He just has to know I'm here. That I..." He paused. "That he's not alone."

"You're in love with him, aren't you?"

Kit couldn't look at Julian. "I... I am. I have been since before I left."

"Oh Kit. I'm sorry."

"Why are you sorry?"

"Because I'm not sure Ty can be in love with someone. And if he could, Kit you've gotta realize how bad this is. He's probably going to end up being de-runed. This is all going to be taken from him. He won't be able to stay here. And until this all is cleared up with the Seelie Queen, you can't leave."

Kit let his muscle steel themselves. "Julian, let me be perfectly clear. If they strip Ty, they are going to have to do the same to me. And the Seelie Queen be damned, I'm not leaving him again."

"Okay, Kit." Julian stood up, his knees popping as he rose. "I'm off to bed." His tone was ice cold.

***

The sun streaming through the huge window of the Library warmed the space, making the books release the dry smell of parchment and the acrid smell of ink.

"I was thinking," Ty said as he poured through his notes. "We might have a bigger problem than we realized."

The group around him turned and faced him.

"Remember how I found out that the Cohort in Alicante can spy on us? What if they know we can do the same? In fact, I'd be certain they do know."

Octavian looked back down at the enchanted map of Fairie in front of him. "How did you find out about the Cohort, by the way?"

Helen spoke, seeing Ty open and close his mouth a few times. "We just have to accept that Centurions have access to information that most of us don't, Tavs. Your brother is part of a very special group of Shadowhunters."

Tavvy muttered under his breath. They had met so few Centurions that could be trusted since they had all seemed to be Horace Dearborn's personal little militia during the rebellion. To think of Ty as a Centurion still didn't sit well with many of them.

"How much of any of the intel can be trusted then?"

Kit put his head in his hands. "So now you're saying we have three investigations?"

"Three?" Drusilla asked. "The Fairie Queen and now this. What else?"

Ty ignored her. "No, I think they might be interconnected." The whole group crushed in around Ty.

"Back off guys," Kit ordered. "Give him room."

"I'd like some time to work it all out before I say anymore. Back to my room, Watson."

Kit stood and followed Ty as they left the library.

Julian hadn't been paying much attention. His thoughts still so occupied with the revelation of his brother's actions. He'd been so lost in it. He felt like he failed Ty. But there hadn't been any signs. How was he supposed to recognize what Ty was up to and... "By the Angel. That's why he climbed her pyre."

"What?" Tavvy asked.

Emma sat in the corner with the twins. She still wasn't ready to return to anything resembling normal life. "What do you mean, Jules?"

"Nothing babe, just thinking out loud."

Aline appeared in the doorway, "Julian, Helen, can you two come with me? I've got a werewolf in the sanctuary to report some missing members of his pack."

***

"Okay, Ty. Explain what you mean about the investigations being connected."

"So, they can spy on us. They know you are the First Heir and they know the Seelies want you dead. From that they can, without a doubt infer that we are trying to protect you. But what worries me now is how does anyone get into an Institute?"

"They've gotta have Nephilim blood, or the door won't open."

"And one Downworld theory behind Simon Lewis is that he drank the blood a Shadowhunter."

Kit nodded. "You think they are trying to collect Shadowhunter blood to get in?"

"I don't know. But I know that the Seelies at the Shadow Market were waiting for an exchange of blood and it sure sounded like Shadowhunter blood."

"If that were the case, why wouldn't we have known. Someone in the Conclave would have reported being attacked by a vampire."

Ty was nodding. "Kit, Alicante. We can't portal in. They can't portal out. Yet how can the living in Alicante spy on us?"

"Do you think that vampires can?"

Ty sat down yawning. "I don't know, Kit. Right now it makes sense. A vampire goes to Alicante, the Cohort gives the vampire some Nephilim blood, the vampire brings it back and gives it to a Seelie, who will use it to get into the Institute."

Kit could see the bags under Ty's eyes. "What about Livvy? Where is she in all this?"

"I don't know, Kit. But my instincts are telling me their is a connection."

A chuckle escaped Kit's lips. "You relying on instinct instead of evidence?"

"I think that I know there is evidence I just need to figure out where it fits. Like when you are doing a jig saw puzzle, if you have all the pieces spread out and face up, you can get a decent idea of what the image is. You just have to figure out how they fit together."

Kit sat down next to Ty, their legs nearly touching, but he kept a little distance. He so wanted to be able to just touch Ty, but he didn't want to overwhelm him either. So he kept an inch between them. An inch Ty closed. Kit smiled and spoke. "Hey, Ty. What about the pool? Remember the fairie drank something from a pool that had been given to the Queen. Could that be water from Lake Lyn from the Cohort? It makes people who drink it hallucinate."

Ty yawned. "I don't think so. That only happens to Nephilim. Fairies used to drink it all the time. They claimed it gave them true vision. Could see more, but not visions of the future. This is something else."

"Okay, how 'bout you take a nap," he recommended. "I could use one too." Kit started for the door.

"Kit? Stay?"

"Sure, Ty."

Ty went to his closet and started pulling blankets and pillows down. "I'll make you up a little bed here on the floor."

Thank the Angel.

Kit was just about to fall asleep when he heard Ty mutter. "So beautiful, Kit. So beautiful." He'd thought Ty was at least attracted to him. Especially after he'd given some thought to Ty's reaction when he was in his underwear. But attraction and romantic feelings are two different things, he reminded himself as he drifted to sleep. Best not to hope.

***

They weren't loud, but the two screams from above and beside him woke Kit from his nap. Blinking a few times, he remembered he was in Ty's room and sat up from his bundle of blankets and saw Ty thrashing in his bed. Kit's response was automatic. He immediately got onto the bed and started rubbing the side of Ty's face.

"Ty. It's okay. I've got you," he whispered in as calming a voice as he could. "I've got you."

Ty opened his eyes. He was shaking violently and crying but he was awake. He twisted his body, flipping over in the bed and put his head on Kit's lap. Kit kept rubbing his face. "It's okay, Ty. You're okay. We're all okay. I've got you, my love."

My love!? He couldn't believe he let that slip out, even if it was something he'd wanted to say desperately. Thankfully, Ty didn't seem to react, so Kit continued trying to soothe him.

After a while, Kit wasn't sure how long, Ty finally sat up and rubbed at his puffy eyes. His gray irises were darker than normal, but no less beautiful. "I'm glad you were here," Ty said.

"Me too."

"I never feel as safe as I do when you're around."

"Can I ask you something Ty?"

"Okay..."

Kit swallowed hard. He was more nervous than he thought he'd be. "Will you let me take you out? Anywhere you want. I saw how you looked at me, I know you are attracted to me, at least I think you are."

"Kit, you've got to realize, I probably won't stay a Nephilim. I won't be around."

Kit started pleading. "I know what we're up against. But even if they do, I won't leave you. Please?"

"You're right, I am attracted to you. And you are the only one who understands me.

Kit smiled. "I mean, I understand that you're different. I don't want you to think I experience the world the way you do. I know it's different. Not better or worse, but different."

Ty's eyes narrowed and a storm swirled in his eyes. He sees you as a charity case, or some kind of penance for something. Ty thought to himself. And why wouldn't he. You can't go out to clubs, or the boardwalk. You can barely look people in the eye and crowds make you crazy. You're worthless. "Oh." He seemed to shrivel. Ty may have seen himself as pitiful, but he was not going to be Kit's charity. "Kit, I think it would be better if we didn't."

What had just happened? Kit was sure Ty was going to say yes. He's amazing. He's gorgeous. He's so crazy smart. He's so unique. What are you - a low rent Jace?

"Oh." Kit said defeated. "I'm gonna go take a shower. Um..." He got up to leave but stopped himself. "Ty, you were about to say yes weren't you? Look I get it? I'm not as smart as you. I'm not a great Shadowhunter like my cousin, or whatever he is. I'm nothing special. But all I wanted was a chance, Ty. A chance to make you happy. That's all I've ever wanted." Ty just looked at him. "I'll go now."

Kit was pulling the door shut behind him when Ty called out. "Christopher." Kit stopped. "Were you being honest just now?" Ty had caught up with Kit just a little outside the door.

"I wouldn't lie about that, Ty." He looked even shorter than he had before.

"I thought you were asking because you felt sorry for me."

Kit gaped at Ty. "Pity? There's nothing to pity."

"C'mon Kit, I'm weird. I'll never be able to go out to parties. I'm not a great fighter, in fact, I hate fighting. I might not ever be okay to go to a restaurant."

"Then I'll cook. I learned a little from Jem and Tessa." Kit said. "I'll fight for you when I can. I don't want to go to any parties you wouldn't be comfortable at and you're not weird; you're Ty. And Ty is amazing and unique and incredible."

"There might be days when I might not be okay with you touching me."

"I'll give you space." Kit said. "All you need to do is tell me."

"Sometimes, I might not be able to tell you. Words are hard sometimes."

"We'll come up with our own language. Ty, if you'll agree to go out with me, my whole goal will be to make you happy, always."

"Kit, there are going to be days when happiness just isn't something I can get to. There are just days when I can't find a path out of those kinds of valleys." Ty was backing into his room. Kit was following.

"Then let me be a ladder. Let me be what ever you need. Tell me what you need."

"Hold me."

Kit wrapped his arms around Ty, tightly, remembering the night on the roof of the London Institute.

"Put your arms around me," said Ty. His hands were a pale blurs in the air, as if Kit were looking at a time-lapse photo. "Hold on to me."

He was still rocking. After a moment, Kit put his arms around Ty, not quite knowing what else to do.

It was like holding a loosed arrow: Ty felt hot and sharp in his arms, and he was vibrating with some strange emotion. After what felt like a long time he relaxed slightly. His hands touched Kit, their motion slowing, his fingers winding themselves into Kit's sweater.

"Tighter," Ty said. He was hanging on to Kit as if he were a life raft, his forehead digging painfully into Kit's shoulder. He sounded desperate. "I need to feel it."

Kit had never been a casual hugger, and no one had ever, that he could remember, come to him for comforting. He wasn't the comforting sort of person. He'd always assumed that. And he barely knew Ty.

But then, Ty didn't do things for no reason, even if people whose brains were differently wired couldn't see his reasons immediately. Kit remembered the way Livvy rubbed Ty's hands tightly when he was stressed and thought: The pressure is a sensation; the sensation must be grounding. Calming. That made sense. So Kit found himself holding Ty harder, until Ty relaxed under the tight grip of his hands; held him more tightly than he'd ever held anyone, held him as if they'd been lost in the sea of the sky, and only holding on to each other could keep them afloat above the wreckage of London.

"You remembered." Ty whispered, surprised at how tightly Kit was holding him.

"I remember most facts about you that I've learned," Kit said honestly.

"After that night in London, I remember thinking you gave the best hugs. Like they could hold me together."

"I think it's that night that was the first time I realized I was starting to fall in love with you, Ty. Even if I couldn't admit it to myself then."

Ty nodded, and Kit could feel his head moving against his hair. "I think I started feeling something that night too. But Kit," he backed out of the hug. "You really were telling the truth that night, at Lake Lyn?"

"Every word. I love you Tiberius Blackthorn."

Ty smiled brightly. He opened his mouth, a moment's hesitation.

"Don't say it if you don't mean it. We can build up to it."

"I love you too, Christopher Herondale."

Kit wanted so badly to kiss Ty. He'd dreamed of kissing those lips so many times. He'd wondered if they were smooth or chapped. Would they be soft or firm?

He would wait. Ty was incredibly sensitive to touch, and after all that he'd been through, just knowing Ty loved him was like an oasis in the desert.

They stood there, looking at each other, grinning like fools for a few more minutes, until a knock came to the door.

"Ty," Dru called. "Mark, Kieran and Cristina are on the way. We should go to the library and get them caught up."

Kieran.

"Okay," Kit called through the door. Ty hadn't reacted to his sister. His face had gone stoic, like he was on a lead.

"It was water, not blood," Ty muttered. "Library. Now," he finally said.

Chapter Text

Ty got the group caught up on what he and Kit had uncovered, the possible connection between the Cohort and the Seelies and then continued. "At the Scholomance, there is a room called the Hollow Place," Ty said, as though this was some secret information, and if he'd have been with another group, it might have been."

"I remember it well, Centurion," the Unseelie King said with a shudder.

Ty continued, "In the room is a tiled pool that has enchanted water in it. It causes anyone who touches it to feel the evil they have done to others, intentional and unintentional."

Kieran looked ill, remembering his brief encounter with the pool.

"Why is it called the Hollow Place?" Tavvy asked.

"On the ground, in gold, next to the pool is written a passage from the book of Judges. 'And God split open the hollow place, and water came out from it.'"

"Ty," Kit was sitting noticeably closer to Ty than normal. "What does that have to do with the investigations?"

"I suspect, that when mixed with the water of Lake Lyn, it might have the exact effects that the fairie I heard at the Shadow Market describe."

Around the room there seemed to be consensus. It made sense. But there was one problem, Mark pointed out. "How would the Cohort or the Seelies get the water from the Hollow Place out of the Scholomance?"

"That's the next piece of the puzzle," Ty said with quiet confidence.

***

Dinner started wonderfully that night. Emma had gotten Robert and Michael to bed early and while she was still sore, her recovery was moving swiftly along. Kit suspected it had something to do with both the Nephilim's ability to produce blood faster than Mundanes, and Julian's frequent application of iratzes. Kit and Ty sat next to each other, and more than once, Kit caught Ty sneaking some of the roasted mushrooms off of Kit's plate and eating them.

Kit wasn't the only one. Julian caught it also. "Tiberius," he said sternly when he went for Kit's last mushroom cap. No one else seemed to notice and Ty looked up at his brother, fork in hand with the mushroom cap skewered.

"Go 'head, Ty," Kit offered, and without another thought, Ty popped the mushroom into his mouth. Julian narrowed his eyes and shook his head disapprovingly.

"Jules, what's up?" Emma asked, reaching for the water goblet.

Ty could see his twin sister behind Emma and he was becoming increasingly more anxious about her near constant facade of rage.

Emma brought the glass to her lips. She was about the drink when Ty noticed it seeming to vibrate, like a soprano was holding a note right in front of it.

"Emma, put the glass down!" He didn't shout but his tone was firm.

Emma looked up at Ty, momentarily distracted. The glass shattered in her hand.

"What the HELL was that?" Emma exclaimed, wiping the water and blood from her hand with the napkin. Julian reached over with his stele and drew an iratze. He was glaring at his brother with nearly the same rage that Livia had in her own features.

Aline and Helen were looking disapprovingly at Ty also, Jem, however looked on with sympathy.

Kit felt horrible for Ty, so he tried to distract. "Kieran, have you learned anything about the Queen and her plan?"

Kieran put his own water glass down; he'd been inspecting it closely, trying to see if his would shatter also. He slid it far away from himself. "I have sent several members of my Court into the Queen's realm in secret. They have reported that very few have been permitted near the Queen. She spends all of her time speaking of something called Janus and Ash."

Dru went rigid but Kieran continued.

Emma and Julian remembered Ash from their time in Thule, but they couldn't begin to guess what a Janus was.

"She speaks only of ensuring that Ash is the Heir, and wiping the First Heir from the world. I have sent more in, trying to hunt down this Janus and Ash, and have considered requesting the assistance of Gwyn ap Nudd and the Wild Hunt. But when my agents approached the Seelie lands, they stopped report back and I suspect they have been killed. Unfortunately, I fear that she is further along in her plans than we can know."

"And even the ashes will do my bidding," Dru said under her breath. "She's manipulating that boy. Ash is the weapon she's going to use to try and kill Kit."

"Why then would they need Nephilim blood to get him into the Institute? He's Sebastian's son, shouldn't that be enough of a Shadowhunter bloodline?" Cristina asked.

"There's no way to know what effect the Unseelie King's work might have done to him." Julian replied. "For all we know, Kieran's father could have all but burned the Angel blood out of the boy. Let's not forget that Sebastian himself had both Angel and Demon blood."

"Valentine's ultimate weapon," Emma said to no one.

"And that weapon created an even better weapon, which the Unseelie King made worse."

Kit and Ty just listened.

Aline interrupted. "I know this is a priority investigation, but we are a functioning Institute. Werewolves are going missing and we still have a responsibility to enforce the Accords and the Covenant Law. Ty, Cameron Ashdown is on the way. You two are going to go down to Nighthawk Breakfast Bar on West Washington Boulevard. The pack alpha will be waiting for you. Take a look around, listen to what he's got to say. Report back. If there is a fight between packs brewing we need to be ready to intervene. Kit, you and Dru will go to the old abandoned hospital, speak to the vampire clan leader. If anything at all feels fishy, let me know. We don't need a war between vampires and werewolves around here. I want your reports before the sun rises."

Even though four years had passed, it was weird seeing anyone other than Julian giving the orders around the Institute, maybe weirder for Kit because he had been away during any adjustment time. Weird as it might be, Aline and Helen were the Heads of the Institute and Kit was going to do exactly as he was told. He wouldn't do anything that could get Ty in any more trouble.

***

Jem helped him with getting the gear on. He had left his gear in Devon, so it was burned up pretty well. So he had to do a mix and match of Ty's older gear and more recent. Some of Ty's gear was too big and and some too small, so they pieced it together and Jem helped him tighten up what needed to be tightened.

"How do you know how to do this so well?" Kit asked as Jem pulled on a leather strap.

"When I was training to be a Shadowhunter, in... lets not say how long ago." He laughed. "Every piece of gear was custom made. It would be impractical for us to replace it any time our bodies became more or less lean or we grew a centimeter so we learned how to make simple alterations."

"Right, the good old days."

Jem laughed. "I wouldn't call them that. The Accords were fairly new. A generation before me, Shadowhunters routinely went into Downworlder encampments and committed murder, for the sake of proving that we are the superior race. They would claim all the Downworlders possessions as their own, spoils of a war that never actually existed. Unfortunately, a lot of the wealth of old Shadowhunter families, the Lightwoods and Blackthorns included, was build by means of the spoils of those raids." Jem pulled tight and Kit thought he was being cinched into a corset for a moment. "There you go. Can you move?"

Kit tried it out. "Yea."

"Good. Let's get down to the weapons room and get you ready to go."

It was just down the hallway and inside, Dru and Ty were already selecting their weapons. Ty was in his typical black gear but the Centurion pin was visible. A look of dread was on Ty's face. "C'mon Ty-Ty. When's the last time we went on patrol together?" Dru asked.

"Never. I'm a Centurion. I don't go on patrols."

Tavvy looked at his brother. "Ya know, Ty. You might not be evil like the other Centurions but you're an asshole like them. You aren't too good to go on patrol." He sat on a counter top, swinging his legs as he watched those around him get ready for their mission. Kit laughed internally at Tavvy's attitude about everything, remembering how he was on the brink of 'terrible teendom.'

"Octavian! Language!"

Dru put her hand on Tavvy to calm him down. "It's fine Tavs. He's right. He's got specialized training and the Clave has put a lot of resources into making sure he's the best of the best. Patrol is a waste, especially if something happened."

It felt like someone dumped a bucket of cold water over Kit. Something could happen. That was what being a Shadowhunter meant. There was a reason they trained so mercilessly. The monsters that Mundanes spent their formative years convincing themselves didn't exist, were always right around the corner and it was the Shadowhunter's job to make sure it didn't get beyond the corner. All the stories are true. Monsters are real. And we slay them. And sometimes, they slay us.

Ty had himself outfitted with throwing knives and daggers. He'd always been better with shorter blades than long swords. When they were younger, it frightened Livvy that a demon could get that close to her brother. That's why she made him train with the throwing knives and a slingshot, and Ty found he was good at them, and preferred them. Finally, he secured a single seraph blade to his thigh and looked at Dru with a nod.

Kit was still getting ready when Ty walked up to him. "We are heading out now," he said.

"Okay."

"Okay."

"Ty, be careful."

"You too, Kit. See you in the morning," he said with a smirk, and they left. Kit stood there, staring at the doorway, wishing he'd have told Ty he loved him. But they hadn't said anything to the rest of the household so he didn't want to push his luck.

"I hate Centurions." Tavvy said as Cameron clipped a pair of chakram to his back. Kit rolled his eyes at Octavian but smiled. Cameron had been quiet the whole time, just watching the family's exchange.

Kit looked down at his own equipment. Two seraph blades, a garrote made of electrum wire, and a dagger. "Should we take a stake for good measure?" he joked.

Tavvy rolled his eyes and walked out of the room.

***

The old hospital looked great for something built in the forties and hadn't been occupied since the Second World War ended. Of course, Kit knew he was looked at a glamour to keep the Mundanes away. As they approached, the hospital's true appearance became clear. The windows had all been painted over to keep the sun out and the doors welded shut. In more than a few places, the white exterior of the building looked as though blood was running down it from a window or vent. Once he could see through the glamour, Kit realized that it was exactly the kind of place that would have vampires.

"So," he said as they passed welded door after welded door. "How do we get in?"

"The morgue entrance."

"Naturally."

The two Shadowhunters made their way down the small hallway, both holding their witchlight, illuminating the corridor as they went. The floor was sticky with what Kit chose to believe was mold or mud.

"Hello?" Dru called out as they exited the morgue and went through what was probably a laundry room at one time. "We enter on authority of the Clave." Nothing.

Each floor was the same. Dru would call out but they'd get no response.

After several hours of going floor to floor, room by room, it was clear, there were no vampires at the hospital. "What does it mean?" Kit asked.

"I don't know. If they moved, they're supposed to tell us. We cant really protect them if we don't know where they are."

They descended a staircase to the main lobby. Each step made a crunching sound under their feet and Kit knelt down to look at what he was stepping on. "Looks like they've been gone a while."

"Impossible, Cameron was here for a meeting two weeks ago."

"Well then, this clan doesn't mind living with squirrels." Kit rolled his eyes as he rose back up.

"Huh?" Drusilla turned to look at Kit.

"Acorn shells, the floor is covered in them."

Dru bent down to pick a few up. "Kit, these aren't from squirrels. These were messages from fairies."

"What?"

***

Ty and Cameron had already gotten back and were in Helen and Aline's office when Kit and Dru arrived.

"What did you find," Aline asked.

"Nothing," Kit said. "Not a single vampire. But loads of...

"Acorns." Ty finished for him.

"Yeah. How did you know?"

"It was practically the same at the werewolf den."

"Practically?" Dru asked.

"There was one survivor," Cameron said. "He's in the Infirmary now, Tessa's working on him. His mind is shattered. He keeps saying 'her eyes are everywhere and she will bring Pestilence.'"

Julian came running into the office. "Guys," he panted out of breath. "There's been an explosion. Kendall's Alley is completely gone.

Kit looked at his watch. It was barely past the witching hour. The Market would have been filled with people.

"The Shadow Market," Ty said solemnly.

Helen turned to her wife. "Summon the Conclave."

Chapter Text

The only place in the Institute that could hold the entire Conclave, was the Sanctuary. So they all gathered there, Kit and Ty sat near Julian, even though he wouldn't acknowledge Ty.

"I've lost my brother, haven't I?"

Kit glanced at Julian, seeing him wince ever so slightly. "Not at all Ty," he reassured. "Julian's upset. Probably disappointed, but he'll get over it. He loves you. He always will." Kit looked back up toward Julian again, but he remained unmoved this time.

In the hours since Aline had first called for the investigation, about thirty members of the Conclave had descended on the remains of the Shadow Market. Now, this early morning briefing was to bring everyone up to speed on what they thought had happened.

"So at first we thought, maybe a warlock's spell had gone sideways, but this is big. Too big for a foul up. This was done on purpose. It was done just past the witching hour when the Market would have the most people there and it was done in a way that would do the most damage." Diana Wrayburn said as she addressed the Conclave. "The epicenter of the blast appears to be at a booth where a Mundane with the Sight had set up shop." It's directly across from a booth ran by Antoin Robespierre, the number two to the vampire clan's head. We're pretty sure, Robespierre was killed in the blast. Along with what we currently believe to be about one hundred twenty other Downworlders. In the rubble, we also found the burned remains of a warlock identified as Rickdon Salasi, of the Spiral Council. We are still trying to determine why he might be in LA."

Kit had broken out in a cold sweat. "What, Kit?"

"That's where our booth was. Johnny Rook. The Mundane got the booth after Rook was killed. Our booth was the center of the blast."

A low rumble went around the room and Cameron Ashdown rose to his feet. "What kind of blast was it? If it wasn't something a warlock did?"

Tessa answered this time. "From what I can make of it, it's almost like someone blew up Sebastian's cup. It was a release of pure infernal energy."

"What does that mean? Exactly?"

"Who was at the Battle of the Burren?" A raise of hands went up. "Imagine if the sword that Clary Fairchild had, Glorious, had exploded while infused with Heavenly Fire. Now imagine if it's allegiance was flipped from seraphic to infernal. That's what we're talking about. Something like that would need to be done in a very specific ritual, but moreover, it would need to be heated then tempered in a way that was both Seraphic and Infernal."

Ty went rigid.

"Who besides Sebastian Morganstern could do something like that?" asked Grace Rosewain, from the back of the room.

"His son."

***

"Everything he loves will be burned to ashes," Kit said as they sat on Ty's bed. "She's making good on her promise. Our entire lives revolved around that Market."

"Kit. What do you need me to do?" Ty asked.

"Just... let me stay here tonight."

"Done." Ty got up and stepped out of the room. Kit could hear him in the room next door and in just a moment Ty appeared in the doorway, dragging the mattress from the bed. He laid it flat, next to his own bed and started making it up for Kit. "There. Now you won't be on the floor."

"By the Angel, I love you."

Ty smiled shyly. "I love you too."

They both turned in to their respective beds soon after but neither got much sleep. Kit managed to doze off just before sunrise and when he woke up, a little over an hour later, Ty was nowhere to be seen. He placed his hand on Ty's bed, feeling the cooling sheets. He hadn't been gone long.

***

Ty was standing in the kitchen, silently watching his brother make breakfast.

"Julian," he finally said.

Julian cast a glance over his shoulder toward Ty. "Come help me with this."

Ty joined his brother at the stove and helped him mix the batter for muffins. "Do you hate me?"

Julian froze. "No, Ty!" He was shocked. "Never. I'm disappointed. In both you and me. I should have been there for you. If I hadn't been so caught up with everything going on with me and Emma, I'd have seen how bad you were hurting. Sometimes I forget just how much you deal with things differently then I do. Hell, the only one who seems to understand is Kit. I'm a little jealous that he knows your workings better than I do." He looked at his brother, even though Ty didn't return the gaze. "And to be honest, Ty, I'm scared. The Clave isn't going to go easy on this just because you're different. You know they see the Law in absolutes. This is one of the times where there isn't anything I'm going to be able to do to protect you."

"I know."

Julian had tears in his eyes. "What did you think was going to happen, Ty, if you succeeded?"

Ty looked at his brother, stunned. "What do you mean? We'd have Livvy back."

Julian sighed, wiping a tear from his cheek. "No Ty. They would have executed her for being an abomination. She's not supposed to be alive. They'd have corrected the balance, and then they'd have arrested you on the spot for necromancy. And even if they let Livvy live, you still would be in prison, or de-runed."

Ty didn't have a response. "I just wanted her back."

"And what would that have cost us Ty? Haven't we lost enough? Mom, Dad, Livvy, what's gonna happen to us if we lose you too?"

Ty couldn't answer and Julian couldn't bring himself to think about it, so he changed the subject.

"What's going on between you and Kit?" he asked, hoping for anything better than the previous topic.

Ty blushed but said nothing.

"I see," he said taking a sip of coffee.

"Julian, how do you know when it's right to... become physical with someone?"

Julian started choking. "Sex?" He was blinking rapidly.

"No, no... That... seems like a lot right now. But maybe kiss."

"Oh, um... okay..." Julian cleared his throat to stall but Ty waited expectantly. "Um... Well, Ty. First, I guess I'd say you need to make sure they actually want you to kiss them. Classically, there's cues the other person might give."

"I'm not good at reading social cues."

Julian nodded. "I know." He sighed. "Look, Ty. For you, I think you probably want to just flat out ask them. But I think right now is a really bad time. I like Kit, really. I know you don't think I do. But I thank the Angel that he was here during everything that happened. But Ty, you and he aren't going to have a happy ending. I think you shouldn't try to get involved."

"We already had a conversation about it. I think, if I read it right, we are dating."

Julian pursed his lips. "I kinda figured. You two were weird last night. Ty, this is bad, I hope that this makes you happy for however long it can. But this is gonna crush both of you when it's all over."

"I'm in love with him, Julian."

"You don't even know what love is." For a moment, Julian could swear he saw anger behind Ty's eyes.

His voice was steel and when he spoke his words were more of an accusation than a question. "When you see Emma, does your heart get all flittery? Does being around her make you happy? Do you want to do anything to make her happy? Is Emma more important than you are? Does the idea of her not being around scare you? Do you feel something about her that you cannot put words to?"

"Yeah."

"Is that what you would call love?" Ty asked him in earnest, like he was truly trying to understand what Julian's definition of love was.

"Yeah, Ty, I suppose it is. Is that what you feel about Kit?"

He nodded. "And more. Julian, I'm terrified. What if the Seelie Queen gets to him? I would rather be stripped of my Marks than let her have him. I will do whatever I have to to keep Kit safe."

"And what if that means we lose you?"

"Whatever it takes, Julian."

The steel in Ty's voice scared Julian. He'd never heard Ty speak with such conviction or authority, and he realized that neither his life or the Law was going to stop Ty, and now he understood how Kit must have felt four years before, and suddenly, Julian realized what Kit had told him all those years ago.

"He's not weird. His brain is just wired differently. It's more common than you think."

Julian looked at Kit with skepticism. There was no language in the Shadowhunter lexicon to understand what Kit was talking about.

"In the Mundane world, we call it 'autism.' It just means he processes thing differently."

"There's more to it than that, Kit." Julian didn't like being lectured by a fifteen year old. "He doesn't feel things the same, unless Livvy is involved."

"First all you Shadowhunters need to remember that different doesn't equal broken or wrong or anything else, different means different, nothing more nothing less. And secondly, you're wrong, Julian. He feels everything, he just might not show it. I'd bet he even feels things more intensely than you do."

Kit's last sentence hung in the air as Julian remembered the conversation. Maybe Kit had been right all along.

***

Kit was standing in his room, looking at the mess that had remained since he left, at the pile of clothes that probably didn't fit. He'd added to the mess since returning, dumping his belongings around, what was left of them. This wasn't the first time Kit lost just about everything he owned. But this time he didn't mourn for his stuff. Sure, he was upset about the estate, but that was more for Jem and Tessa. It dawned on Kit that Cirenworth was never really home, neither was the Institute or Johnny Rook's house. Home was Ty, and for the first time ever, Kit actually had a home.

He picked up one of his old shirts. He remembered how the shirt had ended up on the floor.

The tide had come in while they had been in the cave. Ty had run ahead leaving Kit with Shade. In that private moment, Shade had made it very clear how he had to try to stop Ty from bringing Livvy back.

"There is always a cost," Shade had told him. "Just because she comes back doesn't mean it's actually her."

Kit understood. He had to find a way to stop Ty. But he had to do it without losing him.

By the time Kit got to the end of the cave, Ty was in the water and was wading to the shore. Instead of jumping straight in, Kit scooted along the rock face until he was above the beach and jumped down, staying dry. He ran to catch up with Ty.

"What took you so long?"

"Didn't want to get wet." It wasn't a lie, entirely.

They walked along the beach, Kit's mind pondering how he was going to stop Ty. He glanced over when he realized how long Ty had been quiet. The taller boy was shivering.

"You're cold. Do you want me to hold you, like in London?"

Ty shook his head. "Uhuh, touch feels weird today."

Kit nodded. "Well you aren't gonna get any warmer in that wet shirt." He peeled his own shirt off and gave it over to Ty. "Put it on."

Ty nodded and exchanged his wet shirt for Kit's dry one. "It's really soft."

"It's old. Been through the wash a lot."

After dinner, Ty followed Kit back to his room and Kit read to him from his favorite books, the ones Ty had helped him save from Rook's house. "I still can't believe you've never read these," Kit said as he settled in on the bed.

"We're discouraged from being part of the contemporary Mundane world." He pulled Kit's shirt off and tossed it to the blond boy. "Wait a second. I wanna go grab a hoodie."

Ty ran from the room, and Kit blinked after him, as he watched the shirtless Shadowhunter leave. "This is a problem," he said aloud, to himself as he tossed the shirt onto a pile of other dirty shirts in the corner of the room. Ty came back and plopped himself down on the pile of Kit's clothes and Kit started reading. It became a ritual for them. They'd go back to one of their rooms and read.

"Some day we'll flip and I'll read you Sherlock Holmes," Ty said one night as he drifted to sleep on the pile of laundry.

"Okay, Ty."

Kit brought the shirt to his face and inhaled. Even after four years, it still smelled like Ty. A knock at the door pulled Kit form his memories and Ty walked in without waiting. "You left. I thought you would still be in bed."

"I was gonna get a shower." Kit smiled as he nodded toward his bathroom.

"You could have used mine."

"My toothbrush is in here."

Ty nodded. His face was a storm of confusion. "What does the disappearance of both the vampires and the werewolves have to do with this?" he asked. "And does it have anything to do with the Shadow Market?"

"I don't know, Ty." Kit looked at the taller young man. "I hope they're connected. I can't deal with much more."

Ty nodded. "What are you doing with that shirt? It's dirty."

"My first night back here, I remembered how it smelled like you," Kit said smiling. "So I picked it up and smelled it. Even after four years, it still smells like you."

Ty opened his mouth like he was going to say "ah," but he closed it again. He took a breath and looked down at Kit's shoes. "I would come in here sometimes after you left. When I was back from the Scholomance." Kit was looking at him in awe but Ty didn't look up. "I slept on the shirts a few times. I thought about taking one to the Scholomance with me but I thought that if you ever came back while I was away you might wonder where it was." He glanced up, embarrassed but Kit was just smiling kindly at him.

"You really are something special, Ty."

Ty smiled, one of the smiles that seemed to be reserved only for him, and Kit felt like he was standing in a sunbeam.

Chapter Text

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Emma asked as she stood in the foyer. Jem, Tessa and Kit were standing in front of the Portal as it swirled patterns of color. The clear image of ruin coming through.

Ty sat back, wholly uncomfortable with this.

"The investigation is stalled, and we need more information," Jem said, pulling tight on the thigh strap he'd fastened. It had been so long since he'd worn Shadowhunter gear that he had almost forgotten what it meant to be an 'everyday Shadowhunter,' if there was such a thing. "Besides, we should at least really see what's left."

Jem stepped through, followed by Tessa and Kit. Just as the Portal was closing, Ty jumped to his feet and started running for it, but he was too late. He moved clean through it and came to a stop just next to the staircase. Emma gave him a strange look, but said nothing

***

The sight before them was heartbreaking. Timbers lay strewn about, totally scorched. Bricks had been shattered like as though they were glass, the windows and glass of the conservatory had been pulverized nearly to sand. Bit's of fabric fluttered on the breeze or on the upright timbers like torn and tattered flags after a hurricane. Everything they had worked so hard to build as a home was in ruins.

Kit couldn't help but let a tear fall. He couldn't imagine what Jem must have been feeling, this had been his family's home. Cirenworth had been in the Carstairs family for generations. And now, because of Kit, it was nothing more than scorched rubble.

Tessa moved through out the wreckage, touching the odd piece of timber or stone fragment.

"Well?" Jem asked her.

She nodded with a solemnity that caused Kit physical pain. "It's the same; a burst of infernal energy."

Kit made his way through the rubble to where the back of the house had stood. It was still standing, in a way, the second floor had collapsed down but at one end a large fragment of stone remained, holding the ceiling up, just a few inches above Kit's head. He walked in, his head tilted to the left slightly to avoid any chance of disturbing the ceiling. He was in what was once Tessa's flower room. On spring mornings, Jem would often go out into the meadows and fields nearby and collect fresh wild flowers. Tessa used the room to arrange them, though Kit suspected she also used the room for magic. Many of the plants were know to have properties useful in the making of potions. Small glass bottles littered the floor, all broken. They crunched under the sole of Kit's boot.

"Be careful, Christopher." Jem called out.

"Always am," he replied with a flippant tone. He backed out of the small space and made his way around toward the back garden and fields behind where the old manor house once stood. The ground was totally scorched, like everything else, as far as the eye could see, from the rolling grass of the field, to the creek he'd loved so much and beyond it into the charred remains of the forest beyond. The landscape had meant more to Kit than anything else and seeing it like that made him feel physically ill.

Tessa came up behind him. "I'm so sorry, Kit," she said in a mothering way.

He tried to calm himself. "It's just grass," he reassured himself as he stepped out of the ruins of Cirenworth and into what was left of the field. Beneath each step the burned and blackened leaves and grass crunched. The sound reminded him of autumn but the smell was otherworldly. Kit couldn't figure out what the scent was. It was earthy, and sweet but with the exhalation it left the feeling of fire in his throat.

As he stepped, his boot collided with something more solid than the blackened carbon of the burned grass. He looked down and nearly screamed. A small skeleton rattled from his movements. He could feel panic rising, the taste of bile on the back of his tongue. Instantly, his mind jumped to the cat, Church, but the skeleton was too small and Kit decided it must have been a hare. It still horrified him to realize that Church had been at the house at the time. An immortal cat, had lived for more than a century, to be done in by fairie hatred. He wanted to go to the Seelie Court himself. To drive a blade through the chest of the Seelie Queen. But he had to remain calm. He knew going off the handle would only get himself killed, and probably others. It would play right into her hand and she'd win.

He continued across the field to the stream. It was hellish. Somewhere upstream, it seemed, the blast had ruptured some kind of chemical lines and now the stream ran with a pinkish red hue. The rivers will run with blood. It was surreal. That was when Kit had a horrible thought. If the blast was big enough to rupture something like a chemical line half a mile away, what had it done to structures nearer by... Adah's home.

Kit went running back to Cirenworth. "Jem! Tessa! What about the neighbors?"

Together the trio made their way down the road, the weeds at its edge were burned in the same infernal blast. Finally, they got to Adah's home. Yellow caution tape had been put up all around the property. The building was standing, in away. It was crooked, leaning away from Cirenworth and the side facing the Carstairs home was blackened.

There was no sign of the family who'd lived within and Kit prayed to the Angel that they were in a hotel, far away from here.

The door was covered with plastic.

Jem moved toward the building. Kit started to follow. "No. Stay here with Tessa. I'll look inside."

From the side of the road, Kit could see the terrible look on Jem's face as he peered through the windows. He leaned forward, his body wanting to tear across the lawn and look in himself.

"Go," Tessa said, understanding Kit's need and he flew from her side to the window. Looking in was horrendous. Everything loose was pushed against the opposite wall and shards of glass stuck in the walls and furniture. Worse still was the clear lack of glass in several locations. Gaps in the damage that were person shaped. Kit remembered the old photos of Hiroshima, the scorch marks shaped like people, their only remains after the atomic bomb went off and he realized that he was looking at the very places where his friend and her family likely died.

He dropped to his knees. Tears streaming down his face. Jem's home obliterated, Kit's field burned, the stream polluted, Adah's life, countless at the LA Shadow Market. How high must the cost go?

He was wailing before he realized what was going on.

"Not here, Kit. Let's get back to Cirenworth."

Jem fought him the whole time, practically dragging Kit up the road. He wanted to lay down and sob and die right there. He was the cause of all this destruction.

They had barely made it back to the burned estate when a local Mundane constable pulled up.

"Mister Carstairs, I'm so sorry."

Jem just nodded. Kit was still on the ground sobbing.

"Is your boy gonna be okay?"

"In time," Tessa replied. "It's a lot to deal with right now."

"That it is ma'am. But thank the lucky stars you weren't home."

Jem smiled kindly at the police office. "Right, you are, Constable. Has the fire brigade come up with a cause yet?"

"Near as we can tell, it was a simple gas explosion. It was an old house, sir. The gas lines were probably rigged more than a century ago and who knows who or how they were put in. But it looks like the flow-back valve failed and it blew up stuff all up and down the banks."

Jem nodded. "Right. Well I guess there's not much here worth saving."

"Sorry Mister Carstairs but I expect not. Can I take you somewhere?"

Jem shook his head. "No we'll make our own way. Thank you though. Good evening."

The constable touched his cap and drove off down the road. Once he was out of sight, Jem turned to his wife.

"I've got it," Tessa said and started opening a Portal back to the Institute.

***

Ty had been pacing back and forth all day in the entryway, waiting for the shimmer of a Portal opening. With each passing hour he became increasingly more anxious. His fingers were a whirl as his side and his headphones hadn't left his head, even when Julian had come to get him for lunch.

When the Portal finally opened and Kit walked through, Ty saw the pain all over his face. He hesitated, stayed back, for just a moment but as he looked at the young man he loved, he couldn't just stand back and let him hurt. Without even knowing what Kit had seen, Ty ran forward and wrapped his arms around Kit.

Without a thought Kit followed Ty's lead. His head found the crook of Ty's neck and he buried himself there as the tears started again. In Ty's mind, he had no idea what to do, how he should comfort Kit when he wasn't even sure what was wrong. That was when Tiberius Blackthorn did the most counter intuitive thing he'd ever done. He stopped thinking and just acted. He let his heart figure out what to do and as automatic as taking a breath, Ty picked Kit up and carried him to his bedroom.

With all the grace of every Shadowhunter ever to have lived, Ty gingerly placed Kit on his bed. He'd felt the smaller man's sobs the whole way up to his room and Ty's own heart felt like it was being squeezed, so after he laid Kit on his bed he climbed in behind the smaller man. Kit's golden hair tickled Ty's nose and that normally would have bothered Ty but in that moment, Tiberius Nero Blackthorn was secondary. He wrapped his arms around Kit from behind and held him. Slowly, Kit cried himself to sleep, and only once he was sure Kit was asleep, did Ty let himself drift to sleep.

***

Kit blinked in the darkness. He had no clue where he was, he felt exhausted and he tried to remember what had happened and where he was. When Ty shifted behind him, it all came rushing back, the ruins, the creek, Adah. But also the instant love Ty offered, his strong arms, being carried up the stairs and held all night. Kit sat up and moved down to the mattress that was still on the floor next to Ty's bed. Ty grumbled a bit but Kit could see in the darkness how the raven haired man seemed to expand once Kit had moved, spreading out to take up more of the bed. He smiled despite the hollow pain Kit could feel in his soul, and he laid back down and closed his eyes until he fell back to sleep.

***

When Ty woke up late in the morning, he was surprised to find that Kit had moved down to the mattress below. Had he made a mistake? Did he damage the fledgling relationship they had by sharing a bed? He nearly worked himself into a panic when Kit finally rolled over with a huge yawn.

"Morning," he said, scratching at his mop of golden hair.

"Good morning, Kit." He wanted to ask if he messed up, but he was afraid of the answer.

"Ty. Thank you," he said, propping himself up on his elbows.

He cocked his head slightly. "For what."

"For literally holding me together. For letting me cry without asking. For just being you."

Ty smiled and he moved down to sit on the mattress with Kit. He sat very close, strangely close for Ty. So Kit sat up fully.

"Kit." Ty said tentatively. They were close. Close enough that Ty could feel the warmth of the other's skin. His focus kept darting from Kit's nearly cobalt eyes to his lips. He tried again. "Kit?" But he couldn't finish more than his name.

"What are some of your favorite words right now?" Kit asked, like it was some kind of codex to unlock Ty's mind.

"Words that end with a 'd' sound. Send, cloud, abound, acrid... Boyfriend."

Kit smiled and Ty's eyes followed the curve of Kit's lips as corners tugged toward his eyes, his whole face lighting up.

"Boyfriend."

Kit didn't wait any longer before he closed the distance, their lips barely brushing together in a tender, sweet kiss. Kit pulled back; Ty's eyes were wide. "I'm so sorry. I thought... Oh my God," he said panicking and turning away, his cheeks flaring bright red.

"Christopher," Ty said calmly, drawing Kit's attention back to him. Ty brought his hands up and finally did something he'd only ever dreamed about. He put his hands in Kit's hair and pulled the boy toward him and kissed him again. The kiss wasn't deep or passionate. But it was loving and safe and uniquely them.

Chapter Text

"Why do we have to be here while weirdo's talking?" Paige Ashdown asked. If looks could kill, Kit would have been in shackles for homicide at that point. Paige missed the look but as she turned to look at Kit she saw him still looking in her direction. "I'd much rather listen to you."

Cameron swatted her on the back of the head. "Shut up."

"Everything that we know from the Shadow Market and from Cirenworth tells us that this is in the vein of Sebastian Morganstern. I feel compelled to remind everyone that there Sebastian did have a son, who theoretically would have a similar bloodline, with both angel and demon blood. But more evidentiary is the fact that the child's mother is the Seelie Queen." As Ty finished the sentence a mutter went around the room. "Additionally, I have been in contact with Jia Penhallow at the Scholomance to try and determine if anyone who should not have access to the Hollow Place could have been their recently. I am waiting for her to compile a list of names. Though, I have some suspicions of my own."

"This is stupid." Paige stood up and started for the Library door.

Kit stood up, "I think it's a good time for a bathroom break, maybe lunch."

Julian rolled his eyes, he had both babies in his arms. Emma was taking the opportunity to shower. "You heathens are all on your own for lunch. The kitchen is stocked and there's plenty to make sandwiches with." The horde moved toward the door. "Kit, if that kitchen isn't how I left it when you're done. There'll be Hell to pay."

Kit gave a salute and ran to catch up with Ty. "You okay?"

"Of course. I'm used to Paige, she's-"

"A bitch?" Kit said, finishing Ty's sentence.

"I was going to say she's been like that since we were little but that's as good a description as any."

Ty rounded the corner and headed for his room, "Ty, where are you going?"

"I have a hypothesis. There's just one piece I'm missing and I think their might be a reference in a book I've got."

The pair got to the room and Kit offered to help find it.

"It should be in a book called 'Between Here and There: A Study of Supernatural Power by Henry Branwell.'"

Ty started skimming his notebooks, perfectly cataloged in his desk with dates and reference numbers, while Kit started scanning the bookshelf. "How do I find this book? You've got half the library in here with no system."

"It'll be close to my bed because it's blue. It moved there last year."

"Why?"

"They are arranged by color. The more I like the color the closer it is to my bed."

"Why is blue you're favorite color?

"Cobalt, specifically. And because it's the color of your eyes," he said without shame.

Kit spun around and crossed the room. Ty felt him approach and turned to face him. "I love you so much, Ty."

"I love you, too?" he said it as a question as he bit his lower lip.

"Can I kiss you?"

"Mhmm," Ty nodded. "Please."

Kit brought his lips to Ty's, taking them hungrily. He caught Ty's lower lip between his teeth and Ty moaned into Kit's mouth. Ty's hands came up and his fingers wound their way into Kit's hair. His tongue ghosted over Kit's lips and Kit opened, giving Ty access. Kit's fingers tangled in Ty's black hair.

They took a few moments just to explore each other's mouths. Finally, Ty pulled back. His hair was an absolute mess and his lips were bright red. Kit had never seen Ty looking as gorgeous as he did in that moment. Ty was breathing hard and when he finally caught some semblance of breath, he gasped. "The book."

***

"This is an old copy so we need to be careful with it," Ty said as he handled the volume with white, cotton, gloves. "This edition predates Branwell changing his name to Fairchild."

"What are we looking for, Ty?"

Ty looked up, glancing around the room at all the faces, not making eye contact with anyone, not even Kit. "Any references to demons having some kind of an effect on ghosts."

Dru closed her eyes, knowing the only road this could lead.

"I told you he's weird." Paige said, maybe too loudly. "What the heck do ghosts have to do with faries?"

Kit rolled his eyes.

"Ya know, Kit. I'd love to go out sometime. Do you like Chinese? I love Chinese."

Kit was trying desperately to ignore her.

Ty appeared at the end of the long table with another book, almost as old as the first, this time a book called 'A Whoops and a Bang: The Shadowhunter of the Modern Age,' though Kit had to say, it certainly didn't look very modern.

Cameron spoke up after an hour or so. "There's a reference here about how Greater Demons might be able to exercise control over non corporeal beings, if the will to stay on this plane is low."

Kit looked at Ty and saw the pain in the taller boy's gray eyes. Kit realized that that was probably the first time Ty truly realized that Livvy never wanted to come back.

"Copy it, word for word," Ty said. As he watched Cameron begin writing, he finished with "And be neat."

Ty was hovering over Cameron and they were talking in hushed tones about the passage, like Cameron was actually interested.

Kit smiled, seeing someone treating Ty without any prejudice or difference.

"He may come with that Iblis demon masquerading as a girl, Paige, but at least Cameron is hot," Mark said to Kit..

"Hmmm." Kit looked at Cameron again. He supposed Cameron was attractive. "I guess he's not bad."

"Not bad, is an understatement." Mark smiled. "I wonder if he's as flexible as he is muscular?"

Kit's eyes stayed on Cameron. Ty was awfully close to him. They weren't touching but from Kit's angle, they very nearly were.

Aline appeared in the double doors of the Library. "I'm glad to see we're all working so diligently, but we do have more than one thing going on here. Kit, Tessa says the werewolf is as clear minded as he's gonna get. Go talk to him."

"Okay." He was hesitant to leave, but Ty moved to join him.

"Doesn't that get old, Kit?" Paige began. "It's pathetic, he follows you like an anxious puppy."

"Oh you think so, Paige? What a shame that would be." He said, sarcastically.

"You must really have the patience of a saint," she said, flirtatiously. "Being nice to him so you don't hurt his feeling." Ty slid his headphones up, distancing himself from whatever Paige was saying about him. Letting the soaring melodies of Stravinsky carry him above Paige's venom. He could still hear her but at least it seemed distant, and they didn't stop Kit from hearing her. "It's great being nice and all," she continued. "But you don't have to with him. He can't feel anything."

"If he doesn't feel anything, why does he follow Kit around?" Tavvy asked innocently.

"Okay, maybe he's got a crush on Kit."

"That's a feeling," Ty muttered under his breath, and the room seemed stunned to hear Ty say anything in his own defense.

Glances shot around the room. "Ty, where did that come from?" Mark asked, a proud smirk on his lips.

"I... I'm not sure... It just seemed right."

Dru grinned. "Confidence will do that for ya."

"What's he got to be confident about?" Mark had been right earlier, Paige really was repugnant.

"What doesn't he?" Kit replied. "He's brilliant, gorgeous and caring. He's just..."

Paige laughed. "Oh Kit, that's funny. You've got a great sense of humor."

Kit rolled his eyes. "Ya know, Paige, you have a real knack for seeing things." Ty was looking directly into Kit's eyes. Kit made the smallest motion of a kiss, something only Ty would see and he nodded approvingly. "But you are really missing this one... Let me demonstrate." Kit brought his hands up and wound his fingers through the Shadowhunter's black hair. He kissed him passionately, Ty opened his mouth almost immediately, granting Kit's tongue permission to enter. Their tongues met, massaging each other. Kit pulled back the slightest bit and bit lightly on Ty's lower lip. The taller boy moaned into Kit's mouth, not inaudibly, and his hands sought their way up to wrap around Kit's neck. The whole Library was watching as Kit pulled back. Ty was blushing brightly, but he stood firm, no shame at all present in his face.

Dru's face was split in an enormous smile.

"Their just screwing with me, right?" Paige said, still shocked.

Cameron rose to leave the room, speaking to his sister as he went. "I don't think so Paige. That moan sounded pretty real to me. Now, I wanna meet the werewolf."

***

Kevin Barrett was laying on the Infirmary bed. The room was building was huge and imposing to him and he was glad that the young Shadowhunter had taken him out for a stroll when it filled with Nephilim for the meeting, days ago. He was only remembering bits and pieces of the attack now but most importantly he remembered hearing a woman's melodic voice everywhere. It seemed like it was coming from ever single intruder. The voice spoke of how the night would take them comfortably. He watched as it seemed to rain acorns that grew instantly into vining plants that squeezed the life out of them. They tried to fight but they couldn't even bite through the vines. And then once the place was filled with vines, faries came and started taking them away. Even telling Kit and Ty about it now felt like a surreal nightmare.

"Look, I never wanted any of this," he said. "I'm 22 years old. I just want to have some fun, play some soccer, surf a little. Then out of no where. I'm walking along the beach one night and this dog bites me. Next thing I know I'm part of this pack. I don't want it. I just want a normal life."

Kit and Ty looked at each other, Ty's pen was flying over the page of his notebook, recording what Kevin was saying verbatim.

Footsteps echoed off of the rock walls as Cameron approached. "Don't mind me," he said, sounding complete at ease, "Just seeing what I can do to help."

An idea crossed through Ty's mind. Kevin had mentioned soccer and Ty had known from growing up around the Ashdowns that Cameron had - what some Nephilim might call - an unhealthy obsession with the Mundane sport. "Cameron," Ty pulled the tall redhead aside. "Look, you two both like soccer. Can you try to get his trust? Befriend him, prove that just because we enforce the Accords, we aren't his enemy. We protect them."

"Yeah, no problem," Cameron moved toward the young man, sitting down in the chair next to the bed. "I'm Cameron," he said. "Did I hear you say you like soccer?"

The werewolf looked at the tall Shadowhunter skeptically, but answered. "Yeah. Why?"

"I love soccer. I just don't get to play much. We're not really supposed to 'engage' with the Mundane world."

Ty nodded as he turned away, heading back toward the hallway; back to the Library where his investigation was going to necessitate his honesty about Livvy. "I suppose this is where I tell them all," he quietly told Kit as he climbed the staircase to the second floor. When Kit didn't reply, Ty stopped and turned, looking back for him.

Kit was standing in the middle of the entryway, the mosaic of Raziel rising out of Lake Lyn beneath him. Ty stood at the railing looking down at his Kit. It seemed fitting to him that he should stand there with the Angel, but Kit's face was melancholy. Ty descended, coming to Kit's side.

"Kit?"

Kit looked up with a smile. The two made eye contact briefly. "Ty, do you think Cameron is handsome?"

Ty blinked. His heart raced. Was Kit about to tell him that he wanted to pursue Cameron? Or that Ty should? "I..." he stuttered. "Do you think so?"

"I think he's good looking enough, but not my type." Kit was looking into Ty's eyes. "Do you?"

Ty looked down. "I'm not..." He sighed heavily.
Kit waited. "Take your time."

Ty's fingers started going. "I just... look; I didn't think that was a part of who I am. I've never been attracted to anyone. People are people, which more often then not means they are annoying. And I always just figured that attraction and all that comes with it were for other people. I only ever understood the beauty of music and art. And then you came to live here and my whole world re-oriented. Suddenly, centuries of music about feelings and beauty made sense. So, I guess to answer your question, I don't know if Cameron is attractive because the only human being that I've ever found attractive is you." He glanced up shyly.

Kit was smiling ear to ear. "Good, 'cause my type is Tiberius Blackthorn."

Chapter Text

The group had waited for hours, reading through stacks of tomes that Ty had set out for them while they waited for Cameron to come back. Nothing about the werewolf's story fit with the rest of Ty's theory. The disappearances of the vampires and the werewolves were an outlier.

Kit was sitting next to Ty, watching his dark eyebrows knit together as he puzzled through all the evidence. Finally, Ty spoke. "I think we have to throw out our hypothesis."

"Why!?"

"This account with the werewolf doesn't fit the modus operandi of the Queen. At least not within the confines of the hypothesis."

Kit shook his head. "But that's just one thing."

"It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts," Ty quoted.

"Okay, Holmes. What if they aren't related or are a red herring?"

"It cannot be a red herring, not only do the means by which the victims were kidnapped fit the abilities of few but the Queen, but we have an eyewitness."

"You once told me," Kit said, "that eyewitnesses are unreliable."

Ty sighed deeply, "If everything else didn't match, I would agree, but under these circumstances..." he trailed off. "Of course, we could be missing something blatant." He stood and spoke clearly and loudly. "I want everyone to stop working on the kidnapping case."

"Absolutely not!" Aline was nearly shouting, countermanding Ty's direction.

"The Queen is trying to get us to waste our resources," Ty said. "By splitting our groups across multiple investigations, it slows us down and give her more time to get to Kit. What we need to be doing is focusing everything on how she's able to do these attacks and what her next move is."

"Ty, that isn't how this works. You aren't in charge here. I'm the Head of the Institute." A rumble went around the Library as Aline apparently seemed to forgot that she shared the role with Helen.

"Then I'll work on this without you," Ty said belligerently. "You can split your resources and get everyone in the Conclave killed." He stormed out of the Library.

"Ty," Aline called after him. "Ty!" he ignored her. "Tiberius!" He was about to round the corner when she shouted, sounding like her mother, summoning the authority of a former Consul. "Centurion Blackthorn, stop right now!"

Silence fell in the Library, not even the scratching of pencil on paper could be heard as Ty returned. Even with his head hung low and his shoulders down, somehow, Ty still exuded the belligerent heir of a Centurion. His hands were fluttering at his sides. Kit came to Ty's side, reaching for his hand.

"Christopher." Aline said. "Sit down. Tiberius, why don't you tell us why you are so intent on ensuring all our resources are focused."

"Because, I have a personal interest in ensuring that the First Heir is not harmed," he admitted before he paused. "I am unable to maintain a level of critical distance from this case."

"Why?"

Ty looked up, quickly scanning the room, his siblings and their colleagues. "Because I have recently entered into a romantic relationship with Kit."

A few smiles played out on the faces of the Blackthorns, even Aline. Paige looked disgusted.

"Ty, can you do this?" Helen asked in a soothing voice. "Can you do this without letting your feelings tear you apart or make poor decisions?"

"I can." He was practically begging. "Please. Let me lead this."

Aline sat down. "Centurion Blackthorn." Her tone was harsh, but softened as she spoke. "Please continue with the briefing."

Ty stood at the end of the long table. "I think we ignore the kidnapping," he said.

"How is that not a violation of the Accords?" Cameron asked.

"We're prioritizing. If by the end of this investigation, we don't have an answer, we re-open the case." Kit smiled as he listened to Ty, but he knew where this was leading. Ty continued. "It is my belief that the Queen has somehow acquired water from both Lake Lyn and from the Hollow Place. I've also been going through my notes from the Scholomance. Any object can have an allegiance. While most items in this realm are neutral, we know that we can switch them. We do it almost daily when we take adamas and give it an angel's name to make a seraph blade. And we've seen how items can be switched from neutral or seraphic to an infernal allegiance. I posit that the water from Lake Lyn could be made to have an infernal allegiance. And when mixed with a water that already has the ability to tap into an item's evil past, they could be used together to infuse a weapon with infernal energy."

Tessa was nodding at the back of the room, holding Mina. Kit moved back there and took the three year old from its mother, kissing her on the cheek. It was clear to Tessa that Kit knew this was about to go to a darker place. Something the toddler didn't need to hear.

"Tavs, why don't you and Min-min go play on the other side of the Library."

Octavian rolled his eyes as he took the baby from Kit and scooted across the floor.

"Be careful," Kit called after them.

"Okay Ty," Cameron asked, "How did the Queen get either?"

"We know that the Cohort has the ability to spy on us." Paige shifted uncomfortably, knowing that she might be accused for wanting to stay with the Cohort four years before. "And my own investigation has determined that a vampire has been moving between Idris and the outside world, I suspect the wards don't recognize him because he's dead. Or they've been designed or altered to not recognize him." Tessa looked horrified. How had the Spiral Council missed that? How had she missed it? "During a night where I was gathering information at the Shadow Market, I heard of a hand off of some seraphic liquid from a vampire to a Seelie."

"You mean you were spying on them?" Paige accused.

Ty ignored her and continued. "At the time I assumed it was Nephilim blood, and wrote up a report for future charges against the Accords, but now I believe it was water from Lake Lyn."

"Okay Ty, that explains Lake Lyn water," Julian said. "How did the Seelie Queen get water from the Hollow Place?"

"In Branwell's book, he writes that a greater demon could influence a ghost as well as allow them to manipulate the world around them, provided the spirit's will to remain on this plane were low enough." He took a deep breath. "I don't have all the pieces yet, but I believe there is a ghost helping the Seelie Queen by collecting water from the Scholomance and providing it to the same vampire."

"We need to find that vampire." Paige said.

"He's dead." Tessa's voice was quiet. "When I was at the Market after the attack I was helping figure out what exactly happened. I looked at the body of Antoin Robespierre. There was evidence of barrier magic, like he'd passed through ward's recently. It didn't feel quite like the wards we put up in Alicante, so I figured he might have been in an Institute at the time. I completely missed the Hallowed Ground bit. He went through the Alicante wards."

"If the barrier magic had a different signature, why do you think it was Alicante?" Cameron asked.

"It was close enough," Tessa said. "I should have thought about it. It was close enough to have been just a slight alteration."

"But I thought only members of the Spiral Council would be strong enough to ever make minor changes," Julian said, disbelief writ large on his face.

Jem spoke quietly. "Rickdon Salasi, the dead warlock at the Market... he was on the Council."

"Well, the Queen sure cleans up after herself," Kit said making a humorless joke.

"Ty, why do you think there's a ghost? Is the Scholomance haunted?" Emma asked changing the subject.

Ty shifted his weight, his hands were a blur as he batted his fingers back and forth. His eyes landed on Kit who held his gaze. After an uncomfortable period of silence, Ty opened his mouth. "I wouldn't say that the Scholomance is haunted, per se." His voice trembled. "But I am."

Emma shook her head, confused and Tessa shut her eyes. Kit smiled at Ty, a sad but encouraging smile. A smile that said he wasn't alone.

"When everything was going on. The night before the parley with the Cohort, I tried to resurrect Livvy." There was no going back now. "I didn't know it at the time, but the magical catalyst that I used was corrupted and so, rather than bring her back, all I got was her ghost."

"I knew there was something wrong with him," Paige shouted. "He's a necromancer!"

"Paige, just shut up and let him finish."

Ty continued. "She's somehow bound to me, but she can project herself great distances, for a short time. For instance, she was at Cirenworth when Wilhemina was born, and she's been to Alicante. She's how we know anything about what's going on with the Cohort currently. But she's been becoming increasingly more..." his voice faltered, and tears were falling freely down Ty's face.

Kit rose to stand with Ty. "I was with him before the parley. I'll talk," he said, rubbing calming circles on Ty's back. "Livvy has been mean. She hasn't spoke to Ty in months and she's thrown things around rooms and broken glasses." Kit looked at Emma. "Sorry," he said, before continuing. "All of that would be stuff you might expect from a ghost, at least one with any considerable power. But this is new. If she were alive I'd want to describe her maybe as having a breakdown.

"When Ty was at the Scholomance, he had a pet cat."

"A Carpathian Lynx," Ty corrected through his tears.

Kit continued. "It was injured and Ty nursed it back to health. But right before he graduated. She killed it."

The whole group was uncomfortable at the idea that a ghost, especially Livvy, could kill anything.

"The point is, if the Cohort has spied on us and knows about Livvy, they could have made whoever they have out here plant something to manipulate her. And if they've got that kind of control, and we do know Livia can touch things, then she could get the water out of the Hollow Place. And it fits with the Seelie Queens threat... The ashes shall do her bidding. Livvy's body was handled just like any other Shadowhunter's... She was burned to ashes."

The group sat with the information for a minute, digesting the implications.

"Aline, arrest him," Paige said. "He just confessed to necromancy!"

Helen answered. "We know. Ty confessed last week. And once this is all said and done, we'll call a meeting of the Conclave."

"Ty, what do you think about patrols?" Emma asked, almost like she hadn't heard Ty's big secret. "If the Queen wants us distracted, shouldn't we act like we are? If we don't she might change her strategy."

Nodding, he agreed, not saying a word as Kit continued to comfort him.

***

They hadn't been gone from the Institute for long. Julian was still trying to talk Emma into going back, staying out of danger for another week, but she was having none of it. Kit and Ty were laughing about it as the four of them made their way through Santa Monica. It felt like any other patrol, Kit maybe had a little more anxiety now that they were together. He admitted to being afraid something might happen to Ty and he had to keep reminding himself that Ty was a Centurion. Even hating fighting, Ty was probably the most capable there, though Kit figured that saying that within earshot of Emma might be more dangerous than walking into the Seelie Court in nothing but a tutu.

A shadow briefly moved overhead, passing in front of the moon and Kit could practically feel the electrical tension among the four Shadowhunters. All patrols were tense, they had to be ready to pounce with little to no warning. But knowing what they knew now; fairies out to get Kit, and the possibly insane ghost of a sibling always around, every movement seen from the corner of their eye and every shadow was a possible threat.

Without warning, a piece of sidewalk behind them seemed to blow up. The tension snapped, like the breaking of an overstretched rubber-band. They were instantly all in fighting stance. But there was nothing to fight. Just small fragments of concrete settling like dust. The whole area was silent, no sound from truck engines, or sirens of the city, or car alarms set off by the blast. The world unearthly quiet.

The store-front next to Julian burst outward as shards of glass and bits of brick and mortar exploded. Julian was thrown clear into the street and the group ran to his side. He had a small cut on is forehead from the flying glass but overall he was fine, his gear took the brunt of the blast. Kit drew and iratze on Julian's neck as Emma returned to a fighting stance. Again the world fell silent. And Julian got back to his feet.

"Just what the hell is going on here?" Emma asked looking to the sky.

"Freaking ducks," Kit said, only half joking.

Further down the block, another blast went off, but this time, when the dust cleared, the team of Shadowhunters could see a blond figure in red gear standing where the explosion had occured.

"Sebastian," Emma said.

"Wow, you forgot me already. It hasn't been that long." The young man stood ramrod straight while black wings unfurled behind him. "My mother did say you Shadowhunters had a short memory if it doesn't have to do with you."

"Ash," Ty said. "Why are you doing this?"

"To make sure my mother is safe from that abomination." He had drawn his sword and was pointing it directly at Kit. The blade was glowing black, like it was emanating darkness. A streak of shadow flew from the tip of the blade toward Kit, but Ty pushed him out of the way. The streak continued until it struck a gas pump on the intersection behind them. The explosion lit up the night as a fireball climbed skyward. Burning debris fell all around, catching fire to brush and grass.

"For all the Earth will be devoured by the fire of my zeal," Ash said before leaping into the sky.

A barrage of noise suddenly broke free, like a burst dam. All the sounds of the city, sirens, alarms, rumbles and other explosions. Ty pulled his headphones up to block out the noise.

"Look," Emma shouted, pointing up the hillside. The burning debris and had lit dozens of secondary fires that were now moving up the dry hillsides of the Pacific Palisades like waves across a mill pond. It had been just moments since the blast but it was already burning out of control. Houses were catching fire up the hill and Kit looked on in horror as the fire moved, faster than any natural wildfire he'd ever seen, even growing up in California, where the fifth season is fire season and sometimes it lasts throughout the other four. It reminded him of the blast wave of a bomb.

"Enough!" Julian yelled. "This is too much for us. We've gotta get back to the Institute."

Chapter Text

"What the hell was he talking about?" Julian asked as they removed their gear. He was plucking the glass from his gear.

"It's from the Bible. It's a prophesy about God's judgement on prideful nations," Ty was running his fingers through his hair, trying the get the dust and rubble out. He coughed, inhaling a little. "His sword was Heosphoros."

Julian just looked at Ty as he pulled on a t-shirt. "Okay, should I know that sword?"

"Heosphoros is one of two Morganstern family swords, and ironically, the name means 'dawn-bringer.' It was destroyed when Clary ran Sebastian through while it was infused with Heavenly Fire."

Kit was rubbing at this eyes. "Then how does he have it."

Emma and Julian both answered. "Thule." Emma continued on her own. "The same way we have a Mortal Sword after Cortana shattered it. The one in the Silent City is the one we took from Thule. Ash must have gotten his hands on the Heosphoros from that world."

"And it's infused with infernal fire." Ty's tone was flat and matter-of-fact.

"We need Kieran." Julian said.

***

The plan was simple. It was time to put an end to the axe over Kit's head. Ty had the history and the how worked out, but now was time for action and the future.

"We will get you into Fairie but once you are there, you will need to get into the Seelie lands," Mark told Julian. They kept the timing a secret from Ty, worried Livvy might find away to feed it back to the Seelie Queen.

It was late, or early, depending on how it was looked at, when Julian used his stele to open the door to Ty's room. He quietly toed his way toward Ty's bed in the dark, while Dru went to get Kit. Neither of them expected to find the boys the way they did.

After stubbing his toe on the corner of Ty's bookshelf, and releasing a string of curses that could have made and adult film star blush, Julian pulled out his witchlight stone, illuminating the room in the soft, warm glow.

On Ty's bed, Ty was curled up tightly to Kit's side, his head rested on Kit's chest and his dark hair fanned out, obscuring some of the permanent runes on Kit's body. A sea of emotions roiled in Julian. He was angry. How dare neither of them talk to him before sleeping together. But then there was almost an innocence to the way they were entwined. His heart swelled with happiness for Ty, seeing how comfortable he was, both boys shirtless, skin touching and Ty not having a breakdown. He felt comforted, seeing how Kit's arms wound around Ty protectively. And he felt so warm seeing a ghost of a smile on Ty's lips, even in his sleep. And most importantly, for Julian at least, there was not a single thing that hinted at sex, though he really had no right to say anything if it had. Kit and Ty were both nineteen.

Julian padded across the room to the bed, stepping up onto the mattress that was still on the floor beside Ty's bed. He placed his hand on Kit's shoulder, the one that wasn't covered by Ty, and he shook the young man gently. "Kit, it's time."

Kit's eyes fluttered open as he heard Julian's voice. He had known the day was going to come and he was ready, he just needed to convince himself of that. He blinked hard, clearing the cobwebs from his mind and rubbed Ty's cheek to wake the boy. "Ty, babe. Gotta wake up. We gotta go."

Unlike Kit, who struggled to wake himself up, as soon as Ty was awake, he was awake. He sat upright and swung his feet over the sides of the bed, immediately going into the bathroom to get ready and not even acknowledging Julian.

Kit stretched, trying not to make eye contact with Julian, who hadn't left the room.

"Is she in here?"

Kit swept the room with his eyes. "No. No clue where she is."

"Do you think she can come to Fairie with us?"

Kit didn't have an answer. No one probably did.

***

Helen and Aline were waiting in the entryway with Mark and Kieran, when Kit and Ty made it down. In just a few moments the rest of the family had joined them. Helen handed Julian a backpack.

"It's got food," she said as they made their way for the door.

Jem and Tessa hugged Kit tightly before he ran to catch up with the rest. He called back, "Have Magnus come here in case this goes belly up. No Alec, yet." Tessa nodded, understanding.

***

The group walked out to the rock that Ty had often run to for solitude. The rock that Kit always worried Ty would jump from some day, into the sea below, a fear he'd never share with Ty.

Kieran reached up and closed his fingers like he was reaching for a firefly. Instead, he grabbed a star. One of the hundreds of thousands of millions of points of light. He moved the star and then another and then another, until he'd seemingly rearranged a whole corner of the sky, lining the stars up as two parallel rows. At last, he reached for a silver leaf pin that Mark wore as a closure for his cloak, and placed it between the two nearest stars - it hung in the air. Rays of light bounced back and forth between the stars and a surface formed between them like a glass bridge. All of it defied all science that Kit had learned growing up in the Mundane world, and he wondered if the local Mundies could see the stars moving.

"Thank you, my Elf Shot."

Mark blushed and stepped out onto the bridge and led the way.

As they walked, Kit looked back. The rock was getting further and further away as they seemed to get higher above the heaving ocean, but Mark's pin was always just behind them.

It took a long time, and the sun was rising behind them before they stepped off of the Bridge of Stars and on to the soft soil of the Unseelie Lands of Fairie. Kit wished for just a few extra hours of sleep as they trudged on. Finally, Ty, maybe sensing Kit's exhaustion, maybe giving into his own, asked for the group to stop for a rest.

"We will make camp here for now. When we arise, we will be less than an hour's walk from the Seelie border and it is there, I shall leave you, for if I enter without escort from the Seelie Knights, it will be viewed as an invasion."

"Wait. You're leaving us?" Dru asked, not even bothering to hide her anxiety. "Doesn't the geography change?"

"You are right, Drusilla. Fairie is a constantly changing place, but you will know when you are approaching the Seelie Court. But this map will lead you. As you travel, beware the revels."

Kit laid back in the soft moss of the ground, just for a little sleep. Ty curled up with him and they huddled as though they were staying close for warmth.

Mark smiled at Ty. Even though he hadn't been able to be there for Ty during a major portion of his life, Mark kept a special place in his heart for Ty.

***

The horizon had taken an iridescent cast as the sun traversed the sky. Julian and Emma walked with Mark as Kieran led the group, Dru, Kit and Ty brought up the rear.

Ty had been incredibly quiet since they had awoken and started off again, even for him. He had spent most of the time with his headphones on and Kit wondered if Ty might be having second thoughts about risking so much.

He realized his worry had been on his face when Dru leaned toward him to speak quietly. "It's not you," she assured. "Ty's stubborn. He wouldn't be here at all if he had any question."

How does this family do that? Kit wondered. They all seemed to be able to read Kit like an open book, but that was a question for another time. "Then what's wrong?"

"Who knows? Anxiety before a battle? Fear of failure? Guilt?" She shrugged her shoulders. "He's a complex little Centurion, isn't he." She smiled, a fond but teasing smile. Ty didn't see it, or hear her joke.

Ahead, Kieran came to a stop as a stream with water as blue as a sapphire cut through the earth before them.

"This is where Mark and I leave you," he announced. "Across the water lies the lands of the Seelie Queen. You will find your way, but remember; do not expect to follow the same path back out. The world will have changed around you before you are finished and the map will no longer be of use."

Mark hugged Julian and Emma saying his goodbyes. "I wish I could join you, but the Queen knows my face. My presence would be as much a declaration of war as Kieran's. Be kind. Take care of them for they are pure of heart."

Dru rolled her eyes, but stepped forward to say goodbye also, with Kit and Ty bringing the close. Together, the five Shadowhunters stood in a line and stepped across the water, entering the Seelie lands.

***

The hours of walking in silence was starting to wear thin on Kit, and he started rolling his stele around his fingers for something to do, the way a bored child might with a pencil.

After what felt like an interminable span of time, a melody rose on the wind. It was a foreign and yet some how familiar, haunting tune that sounded like it came from a music box.

"I think it's a revel!" Dru said, excited to see something so often spoken of but so rarely seen. She ran to catch up with Julian and Emma.

Seeing the excitement, Ty slipped his headphones off for the first time since they entered the Seelie lands.

"Rachmaninov?" Kit asked, hearing a few stray piano notes escape from Ty's headphones.

"Shostacovich," he replied simply. "What is Dru worked up about?"

"A revel."

They caught up with Julian, Emma and Dru at the top of a hill. They were squatting low and looking down the other side at the fairies below.

"That doesn't look like what I though a revel would look like," Kit said. "Seems like a boring party."

Julian looked over at Kit. "That's not a revel. That's a team of Seelie Knights."

Ty got even paler than he normally was, his eyes becoming the flat gray of a battleship, as he counted how many Knights were below.

"We've got to try and get around them," Dru said and Julian gave her a dirty look. Thanks for that report on the obvious.

"We could kill them." Everyone turned to look at Emma. "I was joking," she explained, too loudly.

It was only one of the fairies who heard her but soon he'd alerted all those within his ranks. "Um... run," Kit shouted as they started fleeing. The fairies were on them far faster then they could have imagined and as Ty dove to avoid the slash of a fairie blade, the clear ringing of swords crossing echoed around them. He needed to stay alert and aware of what was going on around him, otherwise Ty would have put his headphones on to muffle the sound of the swords and the shouting of the battle. Emma's cursing drew Ty's attention and he could see her locked with a tall fairie knight. His armor could have been made of leather but it had the sheen of oil on the surface of water.

The sun had dipped below the horizon, and alien stars twinkled and danced over head as they continued to fight by starlight. They were out numbered. Their runes had no power, they were five young Shadowhunters against a division of ageless fairie Knights. Kit knew it was only a matter of time before they lost the fight or were forced to capitulate. He started planning how he was going to get Ty out of Fairie. If the Queen was going to have Kit, he was not going to let her hurt Ty.

Ty was holding his own pretty well against two Knights but Kit knew, it would only take a second for that to change. He had to even the odds. So he ran away from his own fight, and joined Ty, back to back. He had no intention of staying like that. No, he would use the distraction to get between Ty and the Seelies. He knew it was essentially a suicide run, but if it saved Ty, that's what mattered, and if he could take out a Fairie or too, all the better.

He braced himself. In his head, he rattled off a long soliloquy of a goodbye to his love, an explanation of what he was about to do. Aloud, his words were far simpler. "I love you, Ty."

Kit lunged forward, running head long toward the blade of a Seelie with his own sword out before him. He could see the blade point glimmer and as he got closer, with the world around him slowed down. The fairie suddenly flung himself sideways and the sword swung wildly away from Kit. Around him, the world seemed to return to the normal flow of time. He looked to his right to see the Knight lying dead on the ground, an arrow in his right eye.

The Seelies were shouting of betrayal and while they tried to escape a large regiment of Fairie warriors descended the hill, under the banner of 'Kieran, the unconquerable. King of the Unseelie Court.'

Kieran and his forces took no prisoners and left no survivors.

"Kieran," Julian's did nothing to mask his surprise, "I thought you said you couldn't come with us."

"I said that coming would start war. I did not say that I would not start a war for my family."

Julian smiled and they all seemed to look around touched, Kieran too looking at the group of Shadowhunters now escorted by his soldiers.

"Is Tiberius well?" he asked.

Kit's head snapped to look at Ty. His steely eyes were glassy and his gaze was distant. "Ty!" Kit shouted.

Ty seemed to come out of his nearly trance like state. "I'm alright," he didn't sound sure of his own words.

"Do we need to take a break?"

"No. I'd rather we get this done. The sooner we get back, the better I'll feel."

"What does that mean, Ty?" Julian had come to his brother's side, concerned.

"Livvy didn't come through to Fairie with us. It's like we are connected but the bond is trying to recoil. I'm beginning to feel a little ill."

"We must move quickly," Kieran said. "The Queen doubtlessly is now aware of my incursion into her lands. She will be preparing."

They started off again, in the direction they thought the Seelie Queens fortress would be. "Do you need anything? I can carry something for you? I can carry you."

"No. I just want to get done and get you safe." His eyes were on the ground below him as they walked on. "During the fight," he paused, anxiously, afraid of what the answer to his question was going to be. "You said you loved me. You were saying goodbye, weren't you?"

"Look Ty, I thought we were dead. I had to do something; anything I could to give you a chance to escape, and I had to tell you one last time."

Ty had tears in his eyes. "You can't die, Kit. You can't. I need you." He reached out desperately searching for Kit's hand, his fingers moving like the wings of butterflies.

Kit grabbed Ty's left hand with his right. "Ty. I'm right here."

"I know. But you can't do that. You can't make that decision." Ty was frantic. "I can't. You don't get to leave me. Not again." Kit was nodding as Ty pleaded with him passionately. "Do you hear me, Kit? If it comes to it, it's together."

"Together."

Chapter Text

The structure rising out of the ground ahead of them was nothing short of monolithic. Towers and turrets, porticoes and parapets; all seeming to have grown from ancient trees, a forest that coalesced to form a living fortress.

"You don't think we could just light a forest fire and run, do ya?" Kit said, a humorless joke.

"This will be no small work. She commands the very existence and order to the world within. The battlements themselves will rebel against us and protect the Queen."

"Like the acorns," Ty whispered to Kit.

"How do we get in?" Dru asked, squinting toward the fortification. She was used to being able to rely on her Angel Marks to see distances, but in Fairie, no Runes worked. "And a better question, why is the Head of the New York Institute walking down that path with the Seelie Guards?"

"All good questions," Emma said. "Let's get in there."

They charged across the rolling fields toward the Queen's castle. "He betrayed his people," the Unseelie Soldiers speculated as they approached the high walls.

"I don't believe that," Kit said, as they circled the structure to get to the entry, holding onto faith in his cousin's loyalty. As they got to the path way, they each pulled their weapons, backed up by the Unseelie Forces. So far, it had been too easy.

They were still some ways from the entrance when a person dropped in front of them, landing in a perfect Shadowhunter fighting stance.

"Jace." Emma muttered.

"You always wanted to be the next Jace," Dru said. "Now's your chance."

They advanced and Emma pulled out Cortana. Jace pulled a long sword off of his back. His golden eyes locked with Emma, his stare cold.

"Jace, how could you? I don't want to fight you," she professed, but her grip on the Carstairs family sword told a different story.

"Don't call me that." His voice was flat and dangerous. "Those days are behind me, burned away to ashes."

Kit practically froze at those words, but Julian understood. "Emma. Thule!" he yelled.

There was no time for the group to stay and watch Emma fight, soon Seelie Knights would come flooding to stop them from getting to the Queen, and so they moved on, Julien looking back at the fight.

Emma was on her knees, and Janus had his sword lifted above his head, ready to bring it down. Julian screamed, as he saw the blade drop. But then, Emma rose, bringing Cortana up, under Janus' ribs. The long sword dropped, rattling to the ground, as Janus fell.

Julian breathed a sigh of relief, waiting for Emma to get up. She was slow to her feet and as she started to move toward her husband she limped twice and collapsed. Julian ran to her. "Keep going," he called to the group. "I'll be there."

"Jules, I'm fine, just a cut."

"That's not just a cut, it's your Achilles Tendon."

***

The throne room was all but empty. It was a large chamber, domed with twisting vines and branches like a chancel of a cathedral made from the natural forming of a forest. Directly in front of the throne, a reflecting pool had been carved in the stone, a beautiful marbled basin filled with crystal clear water that shimmered lightly; the water smuggled to the Queen from Idris and the Hollow Place.

Two Guards stood before the throne and on it sat an ethereal looking woman with fiery red hair. It was almost luminescent, like the hot coals of a camp fire after the flames had died away. Her eyes were cold and bored, as though she'd witnessed millennia go by, and she knew there was nothing new to be seen.

"Janus failed to tell us we had guests," she said, a smirk to her tone. "It's unfortunate that no one will know that you died here."

Kieran pulled a dagger, "Your ancient reign of deception ends today."

"Oh the Wild Hunter who plays king," she spat with absolute hatred.

Kieran glanced to Mark and then behind him. The doorway leading out of the throne room into the antechamber they'd just come through sealed, branches growing as a lattice, cutting the five off from the Unseelie soldiers and Julian and Emma.

The guards advanced on the group, ready to kill them all. Ty, pulled his short swords out, one in each hand and ran for the guards, Kit drew his own sword and made a run for the Queen. The clashing and clanging of battle surrounded them. From the ground sprung shoots of what looked like bamboo, natural weapons to impale the invaders. Branches descended from the ceiling as Kieran ran a guard through. The branches and vines wrapped their tendrils around Kieran and lifted him, holding the Unseelie King against the wall like a manacled prisoner.

"Keir!" Mark shouted watching his lover become pinned to the wall, his distraction left him open to an attack as more shoots rose from below. He managed to force the remaining guard back as a shoot rose, darting up along the Knight's back and tearing through his back and exiting his chest. Another shoot rose through the cuff of Mark's pant. It tore through his calf and lifted him off the ground and he let out a shout of pain as he slid down. He was otherwise well, though unable to move.

Kit turned, slicing at the bamboo, to find Dru. She had managed to scale the back of the throne and was mowing through the vines as they descended to imprison her.

Kit and Ty continued their assault on the Queen, though her continued defenses of nature were stronger than they could have imagined.

The ground beneath the throne opened in a well of mud and the enormous chair of formed wood began to sink while rain fell from above the seat. Dru slipped and fell into the mud, waist deep. She struggled to get out but it hardened like cement, trapping the young Shadowhunter.

It was down to just Kit and Ty. They were making no headway, with each swing of Ty's blades, and felling of the bamboo, four more would shoot out, still, Ty swipes had the accuracy of a surgeon and the grace of an orchestra conductor. Kit was mesmerized as he watched. Too mesmerized.

A branch with a blade-sharp tip rose from the pool in front of where the throne had stood. It drove itself through Kit's shoulder, and into the wall behind him, pinning him. Blood poured from the wound in gruesome rivulets down his gear.

Ty screamed for Kit when he saw the blond get forced backward. He turned and was immediately bound by vines which secured him just next to Kit on the wall, his blades dropping to the earth below with a clatter as the vines tightened around his waist and chest.

The bamboo spikes receded back into the ground and the Seelie Queen, her hair standing around her as though she were being shocked, slowly crossed toward Kit and Ty. She was beautiful and terrible and every deliberate step she took showed a cruelty that made any previous interactions the Clave had had with her seem kind and diplomatic.

"I have waited centuries for this moment," she said. "My victory secure. I shall reign forever, but first you will watch the blood of your loved ones paint the earth. The red flowers that grow in this chamber will forever be a monument to my superiority, and the fall of the Nephilim's pride."

As she approached, Kit reached for Ty's hand. Their fingers laced together. "I'm so sorry, Ty."

Ty, who hadn't been injured looked increasingly more ill, Livvy's distance wearing on him. "No. I'm sorry. I couldn't protect you." Ty said calmly.

Kit squeezed the hand in his. "Together."

"Together."

"I shall start here." The Queen was holding a blade of hewn rock to Ty's throat. "You will watch as I end them all, knowing there was nothing you could do to save them. Nothing to save your love."

Ty ignored her, "You aren't leaving me again, ever. And I won't leave you." Ty's promises seemed empty.

The Queen applied a little pressure on the blade and a line of red dripped down Ty's neck, just a small dribble. She was going to drag this out.

"Never," Ty repeated, swinging his arm up. He jammed his Centurion Pin into the Queen's eye. The iron Centurion Pin.

She backed away screaming as black veins spread across her face. Her concentration faltered and all of the natural weapons of the throne room retreated. Ty and Kieran dropped. Mark screamed as the shoot of bamboo slid backward through the muscle of his leg. The last bit was the branch that pulled back slid through Kit's shoulder. He cursed, dropping to the ground.

Kieran and Mark scrabbled at the ground to dig Dru out.

Ty stood, with both of his blades in his hands. He approached the Queen as she writhed around on the ground. "You will not do this," she struggled to mock Ty. "You don't have the stomach to spill Royal blood and you won't break the Accords."

"The Accords apply to Downworlders," Ty said. "You may not be a demon, but your spirit is nothing but evil and it is the Nephilim's solemn duty to drive evil out of creation." He crossed the blades like scissors over her throat. He pulled both arms outward with ease and grace. The blade dragged across the Seelie Queen's neck, and without any resistance, sliced through the meat of her neck, severing her head completely.

The trees and fauna that made up the Seelie palace started to wither almost instantly.

Ty ran to Kit. Both were weak, but Ty helped Kit to his feet.

"We've gotta go!" Dru yelled, and they all ran for the exit.

The Unseelies helped all the wounded out, carrying Emma and Mark. More than once an Unseelie Knight offered to carry 'The First Heir," but Ty refused them each time, preferring to carry Kit himself.

From the outside, the small band watched as the fortress withered, like a plant whose stem browned and shriveled from lack of water. Around them the landscape changed. A stream carved it's way through the land behind them. The same stream they had crossed what seemed like days ago. It was the Unseelie border.

"What's gonna happen to the Seelie lands?" Kit asked, he breath ragged.

"The First Heir will unite all of Fairie under one banner. With the death of the Queen there is not Seelie or Unseelie. We are all Fairie. You have united us," Kieran said. His tone was flat, not giving away any of his personal feelings about the unification.

"Seems like I've completed my end of the deal," Kit said. "But I've just become comfortable being a Shadowhunter. I don't wanna be king. I refuse to be king!" His face was breaking out in sweat and his voice was weakening.

"Who will lead us?" a fairie soldier asked.

"You already have a ruler," Kit said with a weak smirk looking at Kieran. "You don't need a new king. He's driven cruelty out of the Unseelie Court and he can do the same here." Kieran was blushing his hair changing to a dark shade of blue, almost purple; Mark was beaming. "He can bring honor to all the realms of Fairies. And build trust between the Clave and Fairie." Kit was gasping.

Dru put a hand to Kit's forehead. "He's got a fever. We've gotta get him back to the Institute."

Kieran reached up and rearranged the stars as he had days before. Beautiful horses came galloping out of the sky. "These steeds will spirit us back."

The fairies of Kieran's guard helped the Shadowhunters onto the horses and sent them on their way.

***

"Magnus, thank you for coming so quickly!" Tessa said before Magnus' portal even closed. "They've only been gone about an hour but who knows how long this could take, or how quickly time will pass between worlds."

"If they come back at all," Octavian said, holding his head in his hands.

The door swung open, and Julian came running through with Emma in his arms. He didn't even greet his family, running passed them all, straight for the infirmary. Kit and Ty came through, Ty followed his older brother's lead, carrying Kit. The difference was on their faces. Julian kept a clear face of determination; Emma was limp in Julian's arms. She'd passed out, but Julian kept calm. He knew from experience that panic wasn't going to help. He had to keep a level head if he was going to help Emma. Ty was the opposite. Tears were streaming down his face and he was whispering, quietly pleading with Kit, whose breathe was shallow and erratic. Dru followed closely behind Ty, crying herself, as she listened to her brother beg Kit not to die.

"Get a Silent Brother," Dru suggested. "For all of three of them," she gestured back as Mark limped in followed by Kieran.

Magnus took off down the hall toward the Infirmary, a blue glow of sparks and light already started to surround him.

Ty was drawing iratzes again and again, on Kit's chest. The wound had closed, but ugly black webbing had started to spread out like a malignant spiderweb. Ty kept drawing the healing Rune, but it was now just fading into Kit's skin. "It's not working!" he shouted.

"Stand aside, Tiberius." Magnus cracked his knuckles and started moving his fingers above Kit's prone body, as though he were playing an unseen piano just above Kit. The blond's body began to glow as Magnus did his work.

"Please, Magnus," Ty whispered. "You saved Livvy once. Please save Kit."

The warlock didn't reply, he just kept working, until the parchment robes of a Silent Brother joined him on on the other side of the bed.

The blood is poisoned.

The Brother had said it in everyone's head.

Several beds down, Emma sat up, the iratze Julian had drawn on her having done it's job. "Kit?"

Julian put his hand on is wife's shoulder. "They're trying."

Tessa brought Robert and Michael in and placed them in their mother's arms. Jem followed, Mina on his shoulders as they entered. She didn't fully understand what she was seeing, but she knew the boy who was a brother to her, and she could see he wasn't doing well. She started crying. Her wails becoming a consistent rhythm.

"I'll take her away."

Bring the child to the bedside.

Jem sat Mina on the edge of the bed and she crawled up toward Kit's chest, both hands on his abdomen as she continued crying. She was in direct contact with Magnus' magic but rather than interfere, Mina was like a lens. She focused both the Silent Brother's power and the magic of Magnus.

The necrotic webbing on Kit's chest started to close in on itself, withdrawing to the point where the branch had first torn through Kit.

***

When Kit woke up, he was still in the uncomfortable bed of the Infirmary. His fingers were entwined with Ty's who was asleep in the chair beside the bed. His countenance held none of the peace Kit had grown used to seeing on Ty's sleeping face. His dirty face was tear stained and his hair was dirty and caked with mud and probably blood too, but despite all that, Ty was still the most beautiful person Kit had ever seen.

Kit let the warmth of Ty's hand lull him back to sleep.

When he awoke again. Ty was standing at the foot of his bed with a Silent Brother. They were talking but Kit couldn't hear any of it.

As Ty and the Brother became aware of Kit, the conversation opened up.

He will recover. The poison from the Queen of Thorns is gone. From here the Clave blood will make it's claim. Christopher Herondale is a Shadowhunter.

Ty nodded and Kit propped himself up a bit.

He can leave. But he must rest until he is recovered.

"Define recovered," Kit said, defiantly.

When your body feels no memory of the wound.

Ty turned to Kit. "Julian is making pancakes," a small smile played at his cheeks and seeing the boy's gray eyes light up was better medicine than anything that Magnus or the Silent Brothers could give him.

Chapter Text

Ty and Kit were sitting on the beach, their feet in the sand as waves crashed; a calming soundtrack to their evening. Crabs were climbing all over Ty and he was openly laughing, the most amazing sound Kit had ever heard and a sound he was sure he would never get tired of. Kit watched Ty intently. His irises were like disks of silver flecked with gold. Kit could sit there watching Ty for the rest of his life.

Ty's smile faded and he turned to Kit, picking a few crabs off of him and placing them in the sand. "Kit, will you tell me what happened in Devon?"

The joy left Kit's eyes, but Ty was his love, and loved him in return. Ty would support him and when he broke down, as he knew he would, Ty would hold him together.

"The only friend I had. Adah lived down the street from us. When the Queen blew up the house, she was..." he lost it. He couldn't finish the sentence. Ty understood. He wrapped his arms around Kit, and let the boy sob, wrapped in Ty. They sat there, together for a long while and Kit didn't seem to be getting any better. Ty was starting to worry. He was about to say something when a loud purring sound started to Kit's left. Ty glanced over Kit's hunched shoulders.

The fluffy, gray cat was rubbing against Kit's thigh. "Church!" he said through his tears. He picked the cat up and the purring stopped. Ty could almost imagine the cat rolling it's eyes, but it made no struggle to leave. Kit hugged it close before placing it back down. "Go find Jem. He'll be so happy to see you."

Tears where still flowing down his cheeks when he turned back to Ty. "Thank you."

"For what?"

"Loving me."

Ty looked at Kit, confusion clear on his face. "I didn't choose it. I wouldn't change it, but what I feel is unstoppable and elemental. You are the true north that the compass in here points to," he pointed at his chest.

"When did you start waxing poetic?" Kit wiped at his eyes.

"I've been reading Robert Browning."

Kit rested his head on Ty's shoulder and Ty cocked his head to rest his head on Kit's as they watched the sun drop into the sea. It didn't last long, but as the sun dipped, small bands of green light sunk with the sun, the legendary green flashes.

"Green will mend our broken hearts," Ty said quietly.

"Huh?"

Ty didn't lift his head. "It's from a Shadowhunter nursery rhyme."

They continued to watch the darkening sky. Another flash of green arched across the horizon.

Ty lifted his head.

"What?" Kit asked, looking at Ty.

"That shouldn't have happened. Once the sun got below the horizon, the light shouldn't have the appropriate angles of refraction to get a green flash. It can't be natural."

Another bolt of green streaked across the sky, but toward them, striking the rocks behind them. They jumped to there feet, turning to see a ragged and bleeding Ash Morganstern standing hunched over.

"You. You Nephilim. You've taken Fairie from us. My mother. YOU TOOK EVERYTHING!" He was breathing hard and he lifted Heosphoros toward the sky. "All I wanted, was to be a Shadowhunter. Jace... Janus... was going to teach me. But you... You Nephilim have destroyed all I've ever had." He put every ounce of hatred he could into the word 'nephilim,' and with the wings on his back spread wide, Ash screamed. His vocal cords were straining, becoming harsh. Heosphoros was glowing with the same darkness it had when they had encountered Ash while they were on patrol. Ash doubled over in pain but kept the blade pointed just past Kit's head. His wings were curling in on themselves. The sword spat a bolt of infernal energy across the sky and Ash was consumed in a similar black flame.

The boys looked on as the burned and blackened corpse of Ash Morganstern felt to bones and carbon.

"In the end he got his wish," Kit said. "We are but dust and shadows."

Above them the sky tore open and waves of dark heat poured through a rift in the firmament.

"That can't be good," Kit said, sarcastically.

A rumbling and crackling sound drowned out the roar of the ocean waves.

"What is that?"

"It's nothing," Ty shouted over the roar.

"That's a pretty hellish looking nothing."

"No. I mean it is literally nothing. It's what there is between the realms of this world and the others. Between here and Thule, and Edom, and the Angel knows however many. It's bleeding into this world."

Kit looked on in horror. "What's gonna happen?"

"Think of it like a space ship that has a hole in the side. It will pull all the life out of our world until there is nothing here."

"So... un-good."

"No, Kit. Very very un-good."

The rumble and rift had grabbed the attention of everyone in the Institute and they gathered at the beach with Kit and Ty, looking up to the hole in the sky.

Magnus' magic swirled as he struggled to hold the Nothing back. Tessa joined him, the two warlocks holding back the world ending void. The ocean beneath the hole in the sky, swirled as the warlock magic converged with the rift. The waves seemed to lift like tidal forces, yearning toward the rift.

"They won't be able to hold it forever," Jem said. His voice was calm, almost accepting. The lack of fight in Jem's voice was what scared Kit most. If Jem thought there was any hope at all, he wouldn't just wait for it. Emma huddled close to Julian, the twins in his arms. They had all worked so hard to beat the Seelie Queen and now it seemed it was all going to be for naught.

Ty laced his fingers into Kit's. "We promised together," he said, the same acceptance in his voice that Jem had.

The very thought that after all they'd been through, this was how it was going to end. No more Kit and Ty... no more Ty. A shooting pain darted through Kit; a cracking pain. Something he hadn't felt since the battle on the Imperishable Fields. He dropped Ty's hand and clenched his fists as light, true and pure, shone from him, from his face and his fists. And as though being pulled together by a master tailor, the sky started to close, stitched together by whatever light was pouring from Kit. He could feel himself being emptied, and as the last bits of sky came together, Kit collapsed into the wet sand. His eyes and ears were bleeding and his face was purple, like he's been strangled. Not a breath moved his chest. The golden haired boy was gone.

Ty dropped next to him, took his hand. He was colder than the ocean and Ty broke. Kit was cold, and not breathing.

Tessa curled into Jem as he wrapped his arm around her, both in grief.

Ty threw himself down on the cold body of the boy he loved, the boy who'd just emptied himself to save the world. He wasn't crying or weeping. He was wailing.

Julian hadn't heard his brother make sounds like that since he was a baby, and his heart broke. "Ty," he said, trying to pull his brother off of Kit. "C'mon."

Ty smacked at Julian, batting him away. "Don't touch me!"

"Ty, he's gone."

Ty jumped up, pulling a dagger from his thigh holster. He pressed it against Julian's chest. "He'll be back. He promised me he wouldn't leave me again!" The tears streaming down his cheeks were dripping down like small falls of rain onto the beach. "He promised." He turned back to Kit's body. "Please, Kit." He was begging. He looked up at his brother. He was going to tell Julian that Kit wasn't going to lie, but he saw Livvy behind Jules. Her cold face was twisted in a cruel smile and Ty knew that Kit was gone. "I can't. He has too."

Mina, who'd been quietly watching the whole thing approached the body. "Kit-Kat!" she said excitedly, jumping onto the blond.

Ty wanted to grab the child, to push her off of Kit. Kit was his, even though, intellectually, he understood that Mina was as much Kit's sister as Drusilla was his own. Kit had taught him that family wasn't always blood.

The child knelt and reached into Kit's face, playing with his cheeks and giggling. "Kit-Kat!" Jem stepped forward and pulled Mina off of the body.

Ty laid down next to Kit and put his head on the boy's chest, just as he would to go to sleep. Tears were pouring onto Kit's shirt. "If you're going, please Kit. Take me." His fingers were tangled tightly in the soft, worn fabric of Kit's t-shirt. "Don't... Damn it, Christopher! Get up." Julian must have knelt down behind him, because he could feel Julian's comforting hand on his head.

"I said don't."

Ty's head lifted ever so slightly, before dropping back down. "Ty-Ty." He didn't want to acknowledge it. He knew soon enough he would have to get up. The Brothers would come and prepare Kit's body for the pyre and he would not let his family take his last moment's with Kit.

"I had so much I wanted to do with you. I wanted to live with you. I wanted to be yours and you to be mine." He was being wracked by the sobs that tore through his body. "I wanted to spend my life with you, Kit." He was so broken, even more now than he had been when Livvy died. "I cannot love another, Kit." The world around Ty became silent for just a moment, and he felt like he was in shock before he was pulled out.

"Ty." Julian's voice was becoming grating to Ty. "Up."

"You can't order me to get off of him. He was who I'm meant to be with. You can't!"

Strong arms wrapped around Ty, and he struggled to get free, to not be pulled away, but then he was being held, tightly. Warm breath tickled his ear. "You're right," the weak breath said. "I love you, Ty."

Ty jumped back, off of Kit's body... off of Kit, looking down in amazement. "You... I thought... I... You... DEAD!" Words had gotten lost between Ty's brain and mouth.

"Me too." Kit said, his breathing still shallow, but getting stronger. "I was. I think. It was weird."

Jem and Tessa knelt beside the young man they now thought of as a son. "What happened?"

"I don't know. I just let myself burst... I felt like my insides where being pulled out through my nose, eyes and mouth... I could feel myself getting weaker. I got a very clear impression that if I stopped I might save myself but Tessa and Magnus still would struggle and probably kill themselves trying to close the sky, but if I kept going, I could do it, but I would probably die. And then I was warm. It was safe and comfortable and like being in joy. But I could feel a tug that said 'Ty.' I tried to pull on it, like it could pull me back, but all it did was make me see what was happening here, through a haze. I didn't want to come back. But Mina, suddenly after Jem took her off of... me, I guess, I felt strong, like I could make a choice. Then Ty started crying again and I knew that any Heaven without Ty is Hell."

He was sitting up, strength starting to return.

"Then as I started to wake up, I could feel Ty, his fingers in my shirt, his tears on my chest. And I could hear every word he said." He was clearly exhausted. But he was alive.

"Help me get him inside," Jem said, lifting Kit off the ground.

Ty was about to protest, that he would carry Kit, but Julian placed his hand on Ty's shoulder. "Jem's like his dad."

***

Kit had slept for two days straight, and Ty hadn't left his side. Once Brother Enoch had made it clear that he would survive, Kit demanded that he be allowed to sleep in a normal bed. Ty had helped Kit back to Ty's room and the two remained in bed until well after sundown. Kit was laying there, with Ty reading Sherlock Holmes to him when a knock on the door resounded. Helen didn't even wait for the boys inside to reply, she opened the door and stepped in.

"Hey Kit, how are you feeling?" she asked looking at him kindly.

As if on cue, Kit yawned. "Tired, weird. This whole thing is really weird, but it's good. In the end. I'm still here."

Helen smiled but it didn't reach her eyes. "Look, I've got some bad news. We can't put this off anymore. Aline got a hold of the Consul this afternoon. She didn't give him any of the details, just that a trial against a member of the LA Conclave would need to be called. He called an emergency meeting of the Council... They elected an Inquisitor, Hester Branwell. She's been very quiet through her career. She's part of the Chicago Conclave... No one really knows her views on how strict the Law should be... Which is probably why she won, she's a clean slate and I'm sure some people think they can influence her." She looked sad as she gazed at her brother. "Oh, Ty." She cried a little and opened her arms, an invitation for a hug. Ty gave the briefest of hugs before he let go.

"When is the trial?" Kit asked.

"Soon... a couple days at the latest."

"Okay." Ty turned away from his sister and re-opened the book to continue the mysteries of Sherlock Holmes.

Chapter Text

The whole Blackthorn family sat right up front, nearest the dais. Ty hated the room, the last time he'd been in there, Annabel Blackthorn, an insane, resurrected ancestor of his had murdered his twin in cold blood. Of course, only now, long after it was too late did Ty see the irony of what he was about to be charged with and why he committed the crime to begin with.

Alec entered the room, his black Consul robes flowing around him as he took his place at the podium. Inquisitor Branwell came in behind Alec, she seemed intimidated in her Inquisitor robes that were way too large for her.

"I call this meeting of the Counsel to order," Alec began. "Aline Penhallow, you have called a trial before the full Clave, circumventing the authority of your own Conclave. Do you offer an explanation?"

Aline stood, "Consul Lightwood, Inquisitor. I bring this before the Council, as we accuse of a most unnatural ritual and the use of magic not granted to our kind by the Angel."

"You're charges?"

The entire Council sat in near silence as Aline rose and approached the dais, handing a sheet of paper to Alec.

Alec was visibly uncomfortable, he glanced up, more than once, at the Blackthorns and took a deep breath. "Centurion Blackthorn, stand." He passed the charges to the Inquisitor.

Ty did as he was told.

Hester Branwell didn't know the Blackthorns like Alec did and wasn't as caught off guard, or maybe disappointed, as she inspected the paper. "Tiberius Nero Blackthorn; you stand before the Council of the Clave accused of the grievous and dark crime of necromancy. This is a serious charge, with serious consequences. Do you deny the charges?"

"No."

A murmur of surprise went around the room.

"Do we really need to have a trial? He just admitted it?" Paige Ashdown shouted, the same venom in her voice that she used when ever she spoke to or of Ty.

"The Law of the Covenant dictates that any serious charge against a Nephilim must be tried," Alec said. "Inquisitor, call the Trial to order."

***

"You say you were at the shore with the Centurion?" the Inquisitor continued her line of questioning.

"Yes," Kit said, standing on the dais. "He was distraught. For God's sake, he just lost his twin sister. They had never, literally never, been apart." Kit's zeal to protect his boyfriend was strong, but a small part of him wondered if it was doing more harm for Ty than good. "Look, I know how this looks. I'm trying to save Ty. You're right I am. I think that this whole thing is ridiculous, hasn't he been punished enough?" He looked around the Hall. No one's face seemed to sympathize. "Look, you want the cold truth? Let's make this solely about the truth. I request that the remainder of this trial be for ALL witnesses, a Trial by the Sword."

It took no time for a contingent from the Silent City to arrive with the Soul Sword. Kit had to admit, he was anxious. The last time he'd seen a Trial by Sword, Livia had been murdered with the sword.

Hold out your hands, Christopher Herondale.

Brother Enoch laid the blade of Maellartach across Kit's palms and Kit could feel the weight of the sword. Tiny shocks, like electric tendrils reached into Kit's skin. It was felt scorching hot and ice cold at the same time and electric.

"Christopher Herondale, did Tiberius Blackthorn resurrect his sister?"

"No."

"Did he commit necromancy?" The Inquisitor pushed.

"Yes."

"Did Centurion Blackthorn intend to resurrect anyone other than Livia Blackthorn?"

"No."

"Why is Livia Blackthorn not here?"

"Her ghost. It is."

Hester waved her hand off and the Brother lifted the Mortal Sword off of Kit's hands.

"We have now heard from the Centurion's brother and his lover, documenting how Tiberius has always been different than his peers and that he was seemingly dependent on Livia. We have heard of the distraught condition he was in following his sister's death and his motivation. Let us here from Tiberius himself."

"This is gonna be good," Paige said as Ty stood on the raised dais.

Brother Enoch placed the sword in Ty's hands and he went ridged.

"Centurion Blackthorn, have those who have given account of your actions provided a true representation of the events?"

"Yes."

"Centurion, do you know what could happen as a result of this trial?"

"You will strip me of my Runes." Alec closed his eyes at the thought of someone with such an innocent spirit being punished so horribly.

"That is most certainly a possibility. Do you feel that you deserve to be stripped of your Marks?"

Ty was quiet for a moment before he answered. "I have committed the rite of necromancy and have carried out magic, albeit failed magic, that is unnatural for our race and forbidden by the Law."

The Inquisitor shifted. "Tiberius, are those crimes worthy of de-runing."

"Lex Malla; Lex Nulla," was all Tiberius said, 'A bad law is no law."

"Do you believe the ban on necromancy is a bad law?" Branwell sounded amazed.

"No."

"Are the consequences too great."

"It is dependent on the situation. The Clave sees in black and white. There is no black or white, just varying shades of gray." Another round of hushed, disapproving voices circled the room.

The Inquisitor's eyebrows arched. "Is your ability to communicate with Livia Blackthorn how the Clave has come to gather knowledge about the Cohort."

"It is. It's because of that that I was able to find out that they were spying on us. I believe it was a spy within our own ranks that has been providing the Cohort with information. What they intend to do with the information, I don't know. But I do believe that this is somehow tied to Livvy acting strangely. And the Seelie Queen's attacks."

"Do you know who this spy is?"

The tendrils of electricity dug deeper into Ty. "I have suspisions."

The whole room seemed to be waiting for Ty to offer up who he thought it was.

"Who is the spy?"

"I believe that it's Paige Ashdown."

Paige started screeching in protest. "He's a liar. How dare you! You filthy pervert!" She turned for the Consul. "He's an admitted necromancer. You can't be taking this seriously!"

"He's holding the Soul Sword, he cant be lying. He must believe that."

Alec stood there, looking at the girl, memories of the snotty, Cohort sympathizer rushing back to him. While he hesitated, the room broke out in shouts and cries, support for both Ty and for Paige. Alec could see the Clave beginning to splinter again. Was this to be his legacy as Consul?

"Enough," Alec yelled, calling the Council to order. "We will take a break. Resume tomorrow morning." He turned to the Silent Brother's who lined the walls of the Hall. "Brother Shadrach, take the Centurion to the City of Bones for the night."

The brother bowed at his waste, and seemed to glide over to Ty. Tiberius Blackthorn. You are in the aegis of the Silent Brothers. Do not attempt to resist. Follow.

Ty walked with the Brothers as they filed out of the chamber.

"Ty!" Kit shouted. "I... I'll see you tomorrow."

Ty nodded once, reading between the lines, and continued out with the Brothers.

Once the Silent Brothers had all exited, the Hall began to empty; the Blackthorns all remained.

***

New York was so much colder than LA. And Kit was not a fan of the architecture of the New York Institute, but as he roamed the halls that night, terrified for Ty and feeling so alone. He again realized that LA wasn't home. Ty was home, and he resolved in himself that if Ty was to be stripped, so would he. He walked into the Library. Compared to the great library in LA, it looked like a tiny used bookstore or something that would bare the name 'BookNook.' He walked passed a massive desk of carved wood and marble, the legs carved to look like angels, straining to hold the marble top up. On the third level, he found a small section of fiction, and he lost himself, for just a few moments.

"You knew about this? And you didn't tell me?"

"Alexander, I was protecting you."

"Yea, Magnus. That's great."

"You had just been elected Consul. You needed to be distant."

Kit listened as Alec sighed.

"Someone taught the kid the ritual side of it. Magnus, do you know who?" Jace asked as he sat down at the angel desk.

"Ragnor directly, but at the direction of Hypatia Vex."

"We've got to get both of them in here. And charge them," Jace said coolly. "Sorry Magnus, but it's a violation of the Law."

"I don't think it is," Alec said calmly. "It necromancy is illegal, but they didn't do it. Ty did."

"We need to at least talk to them."

Magnus sat back in a large leather chair, looking completely at home. His silken over coat flowed down like a shimmery waterfall and his rings shimmered brightly in the light. "I might be able to get Ragnor to come and talk, but I'm afraid Hypatia is quite impossible."

"Why?" Alec demanded.

"She's dead," he answered, nonplused. "Her throat was cut quite cleanly."

"Who would have killed her?"

"Tiberius' spy, perhaps?"

Jace's golden eyes flicked back and forth between Magnus and Alec. "How do you put up with this?" He asked. "The way he only gives so much of an answer."

"He doesn't do that to me."

Magnus yawned. "Four years ago, when we assisted the Silent Brothers in strengthening the wards around Idris, it became clear to the Spiral Council that we could never sustain that kind of power. So, with the agreement of the Silent Brothers, the Spiral Council bound the wards directly to a greater demon. It was quite the work of magic if I do say so. To convert pure demonic energy to seraphic." He was looking at his nails and smiling like the cat that swallowed the canary. "Anyway, we took a Greater Demon and connected the two so that just where the wards began, the energy flipped to seraphic. It was at a great cost to the Spiral Council, I'll have you know."

"How did warlocks get a hold of the energy of a Greater Demon?"

"Oh you really are just too adorable when you're puzzled, Alexander." He raised his voice. "Isn't that right, Christopher."

Kit ducked behind a bookshelf.

"Kit's in here?" Jace asked. "When did you figure that out?"

"I've known all along. Come out, Christopher."

Kit came down the stairs, his head hung. "Sorry, I was just roaming, trying to distract myself. I was reading when you came in."

"It's fine. Have a seat."

Alec went to excuse Kit, but Magnus stopped him. "Would you be sent away if this were about me?" He blinked slowly. "May I continue?" Alec nodded. "We got the Demon from you. As payment for services rendered in 1896. It was contained in a Pyxis that has been kept in the Spiral Labyrinth since them. Once we bound the wards to Baal, the Pyxis was given the Hypatia to sink in the Pacific. It seemed to be one of the few places actually on earth that it would almost certainly never be found. She went missing not long after, but that's not unusual for warlocks to disappear for a decade or two. The wards seemed strong so we had no reason to suspect anything was a miss. But with the recent discovery of Hypatia's body smashed upon the rocks in Santa Monica... well there maybe more to this."

"No wonder Ty couldn't find her," Kit whispered. Everyone turned to look at him. "When Livvy started acting weird, he tried to get ahold of Hypatia Vex. He thought that since she was the source of his knowledge, maybe she could help."

"What do you mean acting weird?" Jace asked.

Kit told them about Livvy's ghost becoming mean, how she killed Ty's pet, how Ty suspected that Livvy is how the Seelies were getting water from the Hollow Place. He also mentioned how Cameron had found the passage about Greater Demons controlling ghosts.

"It would take a lot to manipulate her to be able to touch, especially to carry water or kill. She'd have to be in near contact with the Pyxis," Magnus said. "And no one knows where that is."

Kit's eyes steeled. "I bet Paige does."

***

"We are here to conclude the Trial of Tiberius Nero Blackthorn," the Inquisitor bellowed. "After conferring with the Consul, we have decided to ensure that the Ashdown name's reputation not be called into question."

Paige smiled victoriously at Ty as the Inquisitor took a breath and the Silent Brothers entered the chamber, taking up the same positions around the room as they had the day before.

"To ensure the reputation of the family, Paige Ashdown will stand for Trial by Sword," the Inquisitor finished.

Paige Ashdown, stand and take the dais.

Paige didn't move from her seat.

"Paige, go!" Cameron commanded. "Prove you're story."

Paige Ashdown, you will stand and take the dais.

She remained unmoved, white as a sheet.

Paige Ashdown. Stand. She was totally rigid as she stood, compelled by the Brothers. Take the dais. She stepped forward and climbed the few steps to the stage.

Hold out your hands and take the Mortal Sword.

Paige did as she was told this time but rather than let the blade rest in her hands, she gripped it. She jolted as if struck by lightning and her hands began to bleed. The trial continued.

"Paige Ashdown, do you know anything about the communication of the Cohort with a spy on the outside?" asked Hester.

"Yes."

"Are you that spy?"

"Yes."

Alec gripped the stand in front of him and spoke. "Paige Ashdown, do you know anything about the disappearance of the warlock Hypatia Vex?"

"Yes."

"Do you know where she currently is?"

"Not currently."

"Do you know her current state?"

"Dead.

"How?

"I..." she was visibly fighting the influence of the Sword but any five year old Nephilim knew that fighting it was futile. "I killed her. I slit her throat and took some blood. It was part of something I was told was called the Ritual of Conversion"

Rumbles went around the room, mumbles of the name 'Valentine,' and his Ritual of Infernal Conversion. To Ty it all made sense. The Queen had the blood of Vampires, Warlocks, Werewolves and Fairies. She just changed it a little from what Valentine had done a few years before. The puzzle was complete.

"Are you aware of any items she might have had with her?" the questioning continued, despite the musings happening in Ty's head.

"She had a Pyxis. It had a Prince of Hell inside it."

"Are those the reasons you killed her? For the Pyxis and her blood?"

"Yes. Zara Dearborn wanted that Pyxis at the bottom of a Lake in the Carpathian mountains called Dimmet Tern."

"We've heard enough." The Inquisitor said. "Both Tiberius Blackthorn and Paige Ashborn are to be charged. I will now take recommendations for sentencing."

Gen Whitelaw stood from his seat near the back of the Hall, his face was pitted and marred and his features were harsh. "For the charges of necromancy and unnatural magic against Blackthorn, I recommend the immediate stripping of Runes."

Grace Rosewain of the LA Conclave jumped up instantly. "I reject Whitelaw's recommendation."

The chamber burst into heated argument as they screamed about the severity of what Ty had down. Again and again, Kit could hear the phrase 'Sed lex dura Lex.' The Law is hard but it is the Law.

"ENOUGH!" The Inquisitor lost her patience for a moment. "On the charges of breaking the Accords, and High Treason against the Clave, and conspiring with enemies of the Clave to bring harm to another Nephilim, what recommendations do you have?"

Paige jumped up screaming. "Wait. I'm not on trial. The charges against me cannot be more serious than those against that," she pointed at Ty.

Cameron stood.

"Cam, please!" Paige begged. "Help me out here." But Cameron Ashdown would not look at his sister as he turned and left the Hall.

Whitelaw stood again. "The charge of trying to harm another Nephilim is reason enough for death."

Isabelle Lightwood, the Consul's sister, stood. Paige relaxed a little; someone with a little influence was coming to stand up for her in some way. "I think Whitelaw is half right. That alone is a horrific thing to do and definitely the worst, and the others are just icing on the cake but they are bad too." That was when Paige realized that Izzy wasn't standing up for her. "I think it'd be more of a punishment if she were stripped of her Runes, except Voyance and be forced to live in the Mundane world while seeing the Shadow World."

Shouts exploded again. It was utter chaos until Ty stood up.

"I move she should be held in the Silent City for a period to be determined by vote of the Council." It was the most merciful option suggested, and it was from the very person Paige was trying to destroy. The Council Hall fell absolutely silent at the weight of that realization.

"I shall discuss this with the Consul and the Brotherhood. You shall all be summoned when I have my decision."

***

Ty and Kit never left the Council Hall. They just sat there.

"Ty, if this goes bad... I'm not kidding. They have to strip me too."

Ty began to argue but Kit claimed the dark haired boy's lips with his. When he pulled back, he spoke. "Together, remember. Besides, I'm pretty sure you proposed to me on the beach."

"No... I... That... I thought..."

"Oh." Kit understood Ty. He knew that it was emotional and that it was early, but he had to admit that he was still a little hurt.

"It's just that I wanted to be more romantic than propose to your corpse... or here... but since I've already-"

Kit cut him off. "Don't. You don't need to do it again. The first time was perfect."

Ty smiled and hugged Kit as the Silent Brothers began gliding back in.

Inquisitor Branwell has come to a decision.

In just a few minutes, the Council had assembled and Alec and Hester came in in their robes.

"Tiberius Blackthorn and Paige Ashdown. Stand."

Both did as they were told. Paige glanced at Ty with utter contempt. Cameron's head hung low in embarrassment.

"Paige Ashdown, for breaking the Accords, High Treason against the Clave, and conspiring with enemies of the Clave to harm another Nephilim it is decided that you be taken from these halls to the City of Bones where you will be stripped of your Marks and released to the Mundane world. Paige Ashdown, know that this is mercy. You will be under surveillance. If you break the Law regarding the disclosure of the Shadow World to Mundanes, you will find yourself back in this Hall, with no mercy."

A Brother advanced on her and screaming as she went, compelled her out of the Council Hall.

"Tiberius Nero Blackthorn, for the crimes of necromancy and conducting rites and rituals unnatural to the Nephilim, you are to be stripped of your rank as Centurion, you will assist the Clave in finding and destroying the Pyxis that contains the Greater Demon Baal, together with Magnus Bane, you will destroy the ghost of Livia Blackthorn, you will not be permitted to hold any authority or rank beyond Head of an Institute and finally, if you should fail to comply with these orders or you are found to be guilty of formal charges against Covenant Law in the future, you shall be cursed in the same fashion that members of the Circle were, with banishment and and exhile.

"These proceedings are closed."

Chapter Text

Magnus and Ty stood on the frozen shore of Dimmet Tern, the dim moonlight reflecting off the placid water. Ty hadn't been back to the Scholomance since his graduation. He hadn't really thought much about when he'd return, but he always expected that he would. Maybe come back to teach someday, or even become headmaster; but those dreams died with his sentencing. Kit had chosen to stand behind them, he said it was so he could check Ty out, but Ty wasn't fooled. Kit was giving Ty room to grieve, both literally and figuratively, to mourn for what he'd lost.

"Once we are finished here, we must portal as quickly as possible to the Idris boarder. Are you ready, Tiberius?" Magnus asked his hands flat above the surface of the water, blue lighting already crackling between his fingers.

Ty nodded and Kit stepped forward.

"Are you sure you can do this?" Kit asked?

"Yea, no problem."

Magnus started lifting his hands and the water far out in the Tern started to churn. "Ah, there it is."

The water opened and a carved wooden box rose. It was caked in mud from the bottom of the Tern and the silver and gold inlaid Runes were discolored. The Pyxis floated through the air and settled on the shore right in front of them. The sound of whispered mutterings in another language could be heard from it. Kit recognized it as Purgatic.

"Well, Tiberius. I could blow it up, but you two will need to be ready to dispatch it."

Kit nodded, pulling out his seraph blade. "Ramiel," he shouted loudly and the blade burst out, it's angelic light bright in the darkness.

Ty did the same, calling forth his own blade. "Zerachiel."

Magnus waved them all back as he started manipulating the magic that was flowing around him and through him. "Alright. NOW!"

The box burst apart; splinters flying everywhere and the rancid smell of sulfur and rotten flesh immediately washed the whole area as the Demon reared back, just slightly, from the light of the Angel Blades. It's flesh looked as though the Demon was a parasite and had grown within human hosts; the stretched and contorted faces of what had to have been Shadowhunters from centuries past. As it flexed, the skin seemed to tear and blood, blood, not ichor, poured from the gashes. The smell was enough to make someone with even the strongest stomach sick, and both Kit and Ty fought the sour twist of rising bile.

Ty plowed forward, plunging his blade into the Demon's underside as Kit went for its back. It swiped furiously, tossing Kit across the frozen beach. Ty's blade opened its belly and both blood and ichor rained down from it onto Ty. It kicked out and Ty tumbled and slid into the water, mercifully washing the acidic demon blood from Ty's gear and skin.

"Ty!"

He rose soaked to the bone and gasping from the shock of cold but rushed forward to carry on the fight.

Magnus started pelting the Demon with bursts of his magic. They ripped small, insect-like limbs off, but as quickly as they tore away, the wound seemed to cauterize.

Kit was back to his feet, and was using Baal's tail to climb it's back.

"You annoying flea."

Kit drove his blade into its back, the contorted face near the entry of the seraph blade twisted in torment, and Kit realized with horror that yes, these were Shadowhunters of centuries ago, Shadowhunters who had lost their fight with Baal. Shadowhunters that were still alive.

Ichor and blood bubbled up from the cut and Kit pretended the face wasn't there as he dragged the blade through the Demon's flesh. The face moved and caught Kit's attention again. A hissing whisper sounded from the face. "Please. Kill me."

Baal screamed as Kit dragged the blade from the back to the side. The live skin it wore was starting to dangle off like the feathers of a tattered boa, and Kit rolled over it's side, gripping his blade firmly. It dragged a little lower but caught and Kit used it almost like a gymnast would use uneven bars, and flung himself for the demon's neck settling just behind it's head.

While Kit and Magnus had Baal distracted, Ty snuck up under it.

"NOW!" Ty yelled, and both plunged their seraph blades into the Demon's head, Ty from below and Kit from above. Baal bucked and tossed Kit. Both seraph blades were still lodged in its head as it tossed back and forth before exploding in a cloud of black dust. Ichor and blood rained down and tatters of flesh fell like a grotesque confetti.

The boys barely had time to wipe their faces before Magnus was swirling his hands, drawing in magic to open a portal.

"Christopher, Tiberius, let's go." Magnus waved them through the Portal and followed just behind them, letting it close once through.

***

The Nephilim stood on the edge of what would be the border of Idris ready to walk in, ready to enter their home for the first time in four years.

Kit and Ty took their ranks with the rest of the Blackthorns. Alec stood at the front. "If we're going to do this, now's the time." He took a tentative step forward and felt himself move through the wards... and came to stand on the Imperishable Fields. Within seconds hundreds of Shadowhunters joined him, forming a line as they faced the gates to the City of Glass.

The demon towers, which had been dark for four years suddenly lit with the beautiful silver light they were so known for. Ahead, Ty could see Jace pointing at something along the tops of the walls of the City. Members of the Cohort had seen them.

Jace, who's reputation had made him the de facto general, raised a sword and ran, leading the army to the gate. They charged in but the streets of Alicante were deserted. Had Jace not seen people on the walls, he might have thought they had all died, but no. There were signs of life but no people.

"Fan out, go street by street," the army of the Nephilim moved through their city. As they moved toward Angel Square and the heart of the City, more signs of life but still no people.

Dru climbed the steps of Accords Hall and pushed the door open. Dozens of cots were laid out around the Hall.

Julian waited in the Square with Emma. Alicante was silent... until a pitter-patter sounded behind him. He turned with his blade drawn, but instead of a combatant ready to attack him, a child, no more than seven, stood there. He was twig thin and his skin was pale. His eyes had sunken in. Julian could see instantly that the child was malnourished.

Alec rounded the corner with his bow drawn, but still nothing. It wasn't long before the entire force had made it back to Angel Square. What they found had been heartbreaking. Dead Shadowhunters, many starved; even more, especially teens, had seemed to take their own lives. Children who were eating scraps.

Alec knelt down to another older Shadowhunter boy. "Hi. I'm Alec. Do you know where Horace Dearborn is? Or Zara Dearborn?"

"The old codger's in the Gard," the thin teen said. "He and his closest allies are up there, fed and protected while we are left down here to starve and die. They haven't left the Gard since the riots."

"How old are you?" Julian asked.

"Fifteen."

Those close enough to hear the boy were at a loss for words. No one thought the boy to be older than twelve.

"Okay. Jace, how are we doing this?"

***

It was easier than Kit thought it would be. He and Ty hadn't faced a single person as they approached the Gard from their side. Once they made it to the wall, they'd meet up with the main group. They had just rejoined the Army when finally they found resistance. They had just gotten into the Gard courtyard when arrows started flying, their distinct sound whistling passed as they struck gear, or soil, or flesh.

Ty spun around, trying to keep track of his family. He found them safe, but he also watched as an arrow tore through Cameron Ashdown's leg. Nephilim were falling left and right.

"Kill them all!" someone shouted from up high... Zara.

A group of seemingly well fed members of the Cohort came rushing into the courtyard wearing what looked like cheap costume versions of a Centurion's uniform.

Ty had to admit that not being in his own caused a dull ache, but as he fought, trying not to spill any blood, he realized it would be generations before anyone saw the Centurions as loyal. Their ranks, spoiled by the likes of Zara Dearborn.

Kit and Ty broke off from the main group during the fight, and rushed ahead to join Alec, Jace, Clary, Isabelle, and Simon.

The doors of the Consul's office were wide open, and behind the desk, a thin, feeble man sat. He had lost all measure authority.

"Dearborn." Jace approached the desk.

Ty could hear the tension on a bow string as it stretched and his eyes flicked over at Alec who was loosely holding his bow. He glanced around quickly, realizing that there was a small office off to the side and he could see the tip of an arrow as it was aimed at Alec, ready to be released any second. With a single fluid movement, Ty grabbed, spun and flung a throwing knife from his belt. The blade soared through the air, finding its mark in Manuel Villalobos chest. Alec nodded at Ty, a single thanks, as Clary ran to see if Manuel was alive. Ty would never admit to the slight feeling of disappointment when it appeared the wound would not be fatal.

Alec stepped forward. "By order of the Clave, I order you to surrender yourself."

Horace laughed bitterly and moved to stand in front of the open window. "I'll never surrender to you. You who pollute our way of life, who lead the Nephilim on the path to damnation."

"Alec."

"I see it."

Horace had a knife. "This isn't over. Others will follow in my footsteps." He plunged the blade into his own abdomen and fell backwards through the window. Everyone ran to it; he'd used the window and an escape trick before. But not this time. Three stories down, on the flagstone pathway, lay the broken and dead body of Horace Dearborn.

***

The battle in the courtyard was raging on when Alec stood in the balcony. "This fight is over," he announced. "Horace Dearborn is dead."

"You lie!" Zara screamed.

"Rather than submit to the authority of the true Clave, he stabbed himself with a dagger and fell through the window of the Consul's office."

Zara screeched. It was exactly how Horace would do it. Without hesitation, she brought her blade to her throat and cut, falling flat to the earth, dead.

"It doesn't have to be this way. Haven't enough of our kind been killed?" Alec asked. "We can rebuild what he had. We can make the Clave work for everyone."

There was enough of a pause in the fighting for the Nephilim of Alec's army to move through the group of Centurions and start arresting them. Few fought back, many seemed to be relieved. Even imprisonment would have been better than starvation.

It would take a long time and there would need to be a lot of healing. But at least it was a start.

Ty looked out from the balcony he stood on with Kit as the Cohort surrendered their weapons and allowed themselves to be escorted away. He knew there would be trials, charges of treason. He only hoped the mercy that had been shown him and even Paige, might be shown again.

Those would be problems for another day. Now, Ty and Kit had to rest. Ty's required reparations still had one more part. He needed to rest.

***

Kit and Ty were laying in the bed; it was bigger than the bed back home in LA but that didn't stop them from being very close. Ty rested his head on Kit's chest.

"Should we talk about what we said in the Council Hall?" Ty asked.

"Yea! We've got some planning to do." Kit joked.

"I'm serious, Kit. I know I'm a lot and to ask that of you... You don't have to say yes."

"Ty-"

"I never wanted to just spring it on you. So don't feel like you have to say yes."

"Ty," Kit said, running his fingers through the other boy's hair. "Do you remember when you though I felt sorry for you?"

"Yes."

"I have never pitied you. I wouldn't ever do something like that out of pity. And there is nothing that could make me happier, Tiberius Nero Blackthorn, than take your hand and marry you before the whole Clave."

"I love you so much, Kit."

"I love you, Ty."

Chapter Text

"The trials are already starting," Kit said, as he tugged on the lapels of the white suit. Just like four years before, it didn't fit quite right. Last time he'd said goodbye to Livvy, the suit was too big, this time it was too tight. It might have been the same suit.

"The Council has a lot to get settled. They will want to show off their authority and legitimacy." Ty was brushing his hair out of his eyes. It had grown longer than he'd like and being able to see it was... irritating. If he were being honest, it made him anxious.

Kit came up behind him and wrapped his arms around Ty. "Are you going to be okay through all of this?"

"I don't have a choice." The anxiety in his voice was clear. "I never really did, did I? Bringing her back is just making me have to go through this all over again."

Kit turned Ty around, looking up slightly into the eyes of the taller Shadowhunter, cobalt blue meeting steel gray. "Ty, did you actually say goodbye back then? Can you honestly say you dealt with Livvy's death?"

Ty was about the argue, to become defensive, but he knew Kit was right. He took a single step back. "Probably not."

"No, I don't think you did. You were too focused... obsessed with bringing her back, you never let yourself deal with it."

Ty was starting to get frustrated. The Clave had already passed down their judgement. He didn't need to be judged by Kit too, the person who was supposed to love him, who was supposed to be on his side. "What is your point, Kit?"

Kit smiled at Ty with a sad gentleness. "I just want you to be ready. This might hit you harder than you think. This time it really is goodbye."

Ty just looked at him blankly.

"No matter what, Ty, I'll be here for you. What ever you need. Even if that means distancing for awhile."

Ty closed the small distance between them, letting Kit wrap his arms around him. "Thank you, Kit."

***

The shore of Lake Lyn at dusk was beautiful. The setting sun gave the glassy surface the look of liquid fire.

Magnus was drawing symbols in the sand and humming to himself while Kit and Ty watched.

"Tiberius," Magnus said, "there is a good chance that this ritual will completely destroy the locket."

Livvy was floating behind Magnus, a smile on her face. "It will put her to rest though, right?"

"Yes."

"Thank you, Ty-Ty."

Ty didn't react to his sister; instead he turned to Kit, and buried his head in the crook of Kit's shoulder.

"You okay, baby?"

Ty nodded, but Kit could feel the dampness spreading. It was good though. Ty needed to let it out, he needed to feel Livvy's loss, and to have a chance to truly grieve for her.

Sunset is approaching. Once you open the gateway, Livia Blackthorn must cross through quickly, or risk something far worse.

"We just have to wait." Magnus raised himself off of the sand, and brushed away the sand that clung to his silken trousers. "Sand really is the most tedious."

"Livvy, I hope you can forgive me for what I did. For letting you get so manipulated." Ty hadn't lifted his head from Kit's neck, but his muffled words were audible enough for Livvy to understand. Or maybe ghosts didn't need clear speech, no one there had the answer.

"I'll always forgive you, Ty-Ty." Only Ty and Kit heard it but Brother Shadrach and Magnus understood she was present.

The stars were starting to come out and the moon was bright over head. Magnus took the locket from Ty and placed it at the top point of the pentagram before he turned to the Silent Brother.

This adamas is taken from the deposits under the demon towers. There is no purer source for this rite.

Magnus placed the adamas energy source and started chanting. The latin words natural to him where they had felt foreign it Ty's mouth years before.

"I can't wait to rest." Livvy said, as she started to drift out to the center of the lake.

A cold chill ran down Kit's back as the noise of hundreds of thousands of whispers rose from the waters. The smooth lake surface started to churn. Dozens of figures started to rise from the water, each in a different era of Shadowhunter gear. They shimmered, almost as though they were made of moonlight. Near the shore, Kit was sure he could make out the figure of the former Inquisitor, Robert Lightwood, in his robes and a young boy who could have been a child Alec standing with him.

"Take care of him, Kit," she said smiling.

Magnus' chanting became more excited, his delivery more fervent. Lake Lyn seemed to drop out at the center of the moving figures as a column of the same moonlight shot skyward.

Livia must move into the light if she is to return to rest.

"Go, Livvy."

She backed up her eyes focused on Kit and her brother. "I love you both. Tell everyone I love them." She backed up and she was washed out by the bright light. Ty felt a sudden pang, almost a popping within him, like tension that he didn't know he was carrying had suddenly snapped and his body eased. He knew what it meant, that the bond between he and Livia had been severed. He felt both lighter and heavier at the same time.

"She's gone," Ty said quietly. "I can both see it and feel it."

Magnus shouted more in Latin and the rough cut adamas glowed bright and then went dark, and with it, all the figures in the lake... and Livvy.

Ty collapsed to the sand, his white gear becoming gritty with it.

"Are you okay?" Kit knelt down next to Ty.

Ty looked up, his eyes bright with tears. He didn't say a word, just let himself cry. Kit held him silently as Magnus and Brother Shadrach cleared the beach of any evidence of the ritual.

"C'mon, Ty." Kit helped him to his feet. "Let's get back to Alicante. We can get some sleep and figure out what we do next." Ty nodded and they started toward the City of Glass.

***

"Why don't we go somewhere?" Kit suggested. The soft light from the demon towers bathing the room in a comfortable glow. "Travel is always a great distraction."

Ty looked up, not saying anything. His eyes were still red and puffy from crying but he seemed to have calmed down a little bit.

"I'll take you anywhere you want, Ty. England, France, Peru, China, you name it and we'll go."

"Home," Ty said quietly. "Can we just go home to the Institute. I don't want to be here. I don't want to look out the window on the Imperishable Fields, where Livvy was burned, or see the demon towers, or feel the ghost of the Cohort or anything. I just want to go back to the Institute and move on. I want to go back and try to forget everything since Livvy's death ever happened. I just can't do anything else right now."

Kit visibly shrunk. 'Everything' included their relationship, their engagement. All of Kit's insecurities came rushing back to him. "Yeah, home is good. I'll get you back to your home and uh..." he was fumbling with his words, his fears overtaking him like a wave, stealing his breath away.

"It's your home too," Ty said.

"I don't have a home. It was blown up, remember."

"I thought... Where we were together was home?" Ty looked down slightly into Kit's eyes. "I though that since we were... I mean I thought there was a future. I thought you'd be staying in LA... Or I'd be going with you..."

"You just said you wanted to forget-"

Ty cut him off. "My feelings started on the roof of the London Institute. And they haven't changed. How I feel about you is the only constant, Kit. I need you. You are the only anchor I have now."

"Ty-"

"No! You said you'd be here." He was starting to cry again, maybe harder than he had for Livvy. "I was wrong four years ago. It wasn't Livvy that I can't live with out." He wiped the tears away with the meat of his palms. "It's you, Christopher. It was always you." He paused, taking frantic breaths, almost asphyxiating. "Please."

Kit moved those few feet forward, closing the distance, and wrapped his arms around Ty. Feeling the sobs wracking Ty's body, he started crying too. "I'll always be where you want me to be, Ty. And if that's in LA. I'll be in LA."

"Promise?"

"I swear it on the Angel."

Ty's breaths were still ragged and Kit just held him.

"Tighter."

Kit squeezed.

"Tighter."

A smile played at Kit's face as he tightened again.

"Tight as you can."

And Kit did, the two of them standing in the bedroom of the house that had once belonged to Diana Wrayburn. Who knew who owned anything in Alicante anymore. There was plenty of time to figure that out later.

Even the knock on the door didn't pull them apart, and Julian pushed it open slowly. "What's the plan?"

Ty pulled back and nodded at Kit. "We want to go home."

Julian nodded with a smile. "I think we all do."

***

Stepping back into the LA Institute finally felt like coming home. Not because he was finally thinking of it as home, or because it was where he and Jem, Tessa and Mina were staying, but because it was where Ty called home. Tiberius Blackthorn was Kit's home.

Only time would tell how long they stayed in LA, but Kit could wait.

***

Ty couldn't believe how different the past six months had been. Throughout his whole life Ty had felt alone, and maybe that was why he wanted to be a Centurion so badly. Their more solitary lives of being 'elite' would let him justify his differences, if not to others, than to himself. But falling asleep with Kit each night, and waking up in exactly the same position, with his head on Kit's chest, was just one of the countless reasons he didn't feel alone anymore.

He laid in bed, smiling as he thought about the ancient words he would soon be saying, and even though waking up alone in the bed was disconcerting, Ty knew that that was unlikely to happen often after that day was over. He remembered the day he graduated from the Scholomance, and the ancient words of the oath that Centurions take and how anxious he was at the thought of the weight of those words, the weight of the Rune that was to be placed on his chest. That Mark now was cut, broken and severed by the Iron Sisters as punishment for his wrongdoings. But the words he was about to say, and the Marks he was about to take, those he would protect forever, never let anything endanger those. And while Ty could feel the weight of the words he'd say, he felt absolute conviction and absolute certainty about them.

He showered quickly and went to his closet. Dru had put the garment bag in there the night before. She had been very clear that he wasn't allowed to look at it until she was in the room. He was excited, and he was getting tired of waiting for his sister to show up, but he'd promised Drusilla.

The knock at the door made his heart thump loudly, but when Julian came in he had to admit disappointment.

Julian looked his younger brother up and down. "I don't get the feeling Kit is planning to just be in his underwear."

Ty rolled his eyes. "The suit is in the garment bag in the closet. I'm not allowed to open it until Drusilla gets here."

His whole family ended up getting there, long before Drusilla finished off the group. Ty suspected she did that on purpose.

"Okay, Ty-Ty. Let's get you suited up."

The perfectly fitted suit was a beautiful shade of gold that Aline had called 'champagne' and the tie that went with it was nearly pure gold in color.

"Damn, Ty." Dru said, with a sly smile. "It's a good look on you. Kit's gonna lose it."

Helen ushered Ty into his bathroom to start arranging his hair. "Talk to me if I'm touching you too much, Ty."

"I'll be fine." He popped his earbuds in and closed his eyes, letting the music distract him from the feelings of his sister's hands in his hair.

***

"I think you look good, Kit," Tessa was sitting on the edge of Kit's bed watching him do his hair for the third time. "There is such a thing as over doing it. Quit before you don't look like you!" She gently teased.

The honey gold of his suit and his golden hair made his the blue of his eyes all the more remarkable. "I think this was the right color, don't you?"

Tessa nodded to her husband.

"It feels so luxuriant. I've never worn something that was made with so much care." Kit was inspecting himself in the mirror.

"That's because clothing isn't made with that care any longer."

Kit's attention went from himself to Jem and he spun around to look at the man directly rather than through the mirror. "Is this from your wedding?"

Jem laughed. "No. I wore a black suit and Tessa wore blue. The customary warlock color."

Kit's narrowed his eyes. "Where did this suit come from then?"

Tessa's smile was nostalgic. "This is the suit that Will wore when he and I were married."

"But... I'm not... This is not-"

Tessa stood up, cutting Kit off. "You are a Herondale, just like Will, and more importantly, you are our family."

Kit couldn't stop himself, and he allowed the few tears to roll down his cheek as he hugged both Jem and Tessa. Mina tugged on the bottom hem of Kit's jacket and he picked her up. His family, together. And he truly felt like he had a real family; more than he ever did before he found out what he truly was.

"Have you and Tiberius decided about names?"

Kit nodded and then ducked his head. "Will you be angry?"

"Of course not," Tessa hugged him. "I'm always going to think of you as a son. You are loved, Kit."

"Would you two like to walk me in?" He asked, trying to come off like he didn't care. "I mean, Julian and Emma are walking Ty in, so..."

"Of course," Jem said, smiling widely.

***

The front entrance of the Institute was beautiful, gold decorations and Runes hung from the covering. Magnus had helped Tessa set up chairs in the courtyard in front of the Institute and he was proudly sitting back admiring his handy work. He'd made an aisle down the middle of the seating area and covered the ground in the same Runes that Alec wore on his wrist and over his heart, the same Runes that Magnus wore as a pin, the same Runes that Kit and Ty were about to exchange.

"You went a little overboard."

"Alexander, by now you should know, there is no such thing as overboard when your talking about Magnus Lightwood-Bane."

Alec rolled his eyes with a smile as he took a seat in the second row. Alec's parabatai sat directly across the aisle from him. Jace had told Kit that work at the New York Institute was just too much for him to get away, and he hoped him being there would be a nice surprise. Secretly, Jace was always nervous when it came to Kit. He had such little family that to finally know a blood relative was... well it made Jace want Kit to like him.

The crowd was exactly who Ty and Kit wanted, not a soul more. They'd selected who they invited very strategically, and then Kit removed a few, after Ty was done, just to keep the crowd manageable for Ty.

Kit and Ty came around from different sides of the Institute, simultaneously. Kit stumbled when he caught sight of Ty. He looked gorgeous and Kit realized how lucky he was as he met Ty in the middle, before Brother Shadrach.

Jem and Tessa, and Julian and Emma took their seats in the front row.

What ye are about to witness has been handed down from the time of the beginning of our race, without change. This is the Nephilim heart.

The ceremony had barely begun and Julian was already sniffing, tears welling in his eyes, pride beaming from his cheeks.

Christopher Johnathan Herondale. Hast thou found the one thy soul loves?

"I have found him. And I will not let him go."

Tiberius Nero Blackthorn. Hast thou gone among the watchmen, and in the cities of the world? Has thou found the one thy soul loves?

"I have found him. And I will not let him go."

Brother Shadrach held out his hand, a golden, ceremonial stele as Ty took Kit's right arm and slid the sleeve of his jacket and shirt up, and started to draw the intricate pattern of the Wedded Union rune.

He smiled lightly as he focused on the dark lines forming under the stele and he spoke the ancient words. "Love flashes out like fire, the brightest kind of flame. Many waters cannot quench love, nor can the floods drown it." He finished the Rune, and Kit pulled Ty's sleeves up.

He began drawing the Rune on Ty's arm and he continued the vows where Ty left off. "Now place me as a seal over thine heart, as a seal over thine arm: For love is strong as death. And so we are bound: stronger than flame, stronger than water, stronger than death itself."

They smiled at each other as they fixed their sleeves, the second Mark, over each other's hearts, they would add in private.

The Silent Brother held out his hand again, and Kit placed the stele into it. Shadrach withdrew his hand into his parchment robes before his hand reappeared.

The rings.

Ty took both rings and slid one on to Kit's finger. Kit took the second from Ty and slid it onto Ty's finger. The silver rings were inscribed around the band with the branches of twisting thorns and on the top signet, a block letter 'B.' The classic Blackthorn family rings.

Brother Shadrach lifted his arms.

Tiberius Nero Blackthorn. Christopher Johnathan Blackthorn. You are now one. Let all Nephilim rejoice.

***

The beach was decorated beautifully. Magnus and Tessa had used their magic to make the sand into different colors, enormous decorative sand sculptures were arranged artfully, recreations of Kit and Ty, the Runes for Love and Wedded Union. Magical torches lit the whole area in soft, warm light as the assembled guests all ate their dinners, the sand enchanted so it didn't end up on plates. As the evening went on, Magnus stood at the edge of the water, his fingers glowing as he lifted an enormous, square stone from the water. It's top was flat and he quickly enchanted it to float, just off the shore, making it a beautiful dance floor just above the waves. The sea floor seemed to rise in a straight line, forming a safe, dry walkway out to the 'dance floor.'

"I was wondering what the plan was for dancing," Kit said, leaning over to his new husband as they sat at their table. Ty stayed silent, picking at the small bits of salad still on his plate.

More magical torches appeared, rising out of the water to hover around the dance floor and the walkway, lighting it in the same warm light.

Everyone meandered out, onto the stone, grabbing drinks and snacks from the stand that Tessa had magically created on the beach where the walkway started.

"I think everyone's waiting on us," Kit said as he stood and put his arm out to help Ty up.

Ty took Kit's hand as he rose. Together, fingers entwined, the pair made their way to the edge of the walkway. Tessa stood there, the rest of the guests were all out on the huge stone already.

"When you boys are ready," she said with a kind smile.

Kit looked at Ty, who met his eyes. For a moment, the two seemed lost in each other. Finally, the moment faded and Kit smiled at Tessa with a slight nod.

"You boys stay on the walk way until Magnus introduces you. If you don't he'll be offended." She laughed, rolling her eyes. She turned and led the boys across the walkway to the dance platform.

"Why does Magnus have so much say?" Kit asked as they followed Tessa.

"He wanted to be the MC. He feels like he played a part in you boys getting together."

Kit rolled his eyes and Ty looked at him confused. "I'll tell you later," Kit explained.

A hush seemed to fall across the group on the rock and the rhythmic sound of the water against the rock was all that Ty could hear until Magnus spoke.

"Friends! I am honored to introduce, Misters Christopher and Tiberius Blackthorn."

Kit wove his arm through Ty's and led him out. "Ready for our first dance?"

Ty looked at Kit. "We didn't plan on this!"

"I did. I picked the song myself. As a gift."

The pair made it to the center of the dance floor and turned, facing each other. Magnus cued up music from some unseen stereo or speaker.

"It's a song from my favorite musical. I think you'll really like it." Kit wrapped his arms around Ty's waist, pulling the boy closer. Ty's arms instinctively wound around Kit's neck.

The music started and Kit started swaying, leading Ty.

'I don't need you to sell me on reasons to want you. I don't need you to search for the proof that I should.'

Ty's eyes were locked in Kit's in a rare moment. The whole world had disappeared.

You don't have to be scared you're not enough, 'cause what we've got goin' is good.

Ty could feel the prickle and pressure in his eyes but he refused to look away from Kit's eyes. He needed to stare into his husband's eyes. He wanted it and he wasn't going to let tears stop him.

I never though there'd be someone like you who would want me, so I give you ten thousand reasons to not let me go. But if you really see me, if you like me for me and nothing else. Well that's all that I've wanted for longer than you could possibly know."

Kit could feel the tears streaming down his cheeks as he stared into Ty's shimmering, gray eyes.

So it can be us, it can be us and only us. And what came before won't count any more, or matter. We can try that. It's not so impossible. No body else but the two of us here. 'Cause you're saying it's possible. We can just watch the whole world disappear. Til you're the only one I still know how to see. It's just you and me.

Ty gave up the fight and let his tears fall, but he never let lost eye contact.

We can try that. You and me, that's all that we need it to be. And the rest of the world falls away. And the rest of the world falls away. The world falls away. The world falls away. And it's only us.

The music stopped and the boys stopped moving, their eyes still locked. Around them, the Blackthorns seemed to all be crying, along with Alec and Magnus, as well as Tessa; Jem was wiping at his eyes too, though not quite as obviously.

The next song started and the guests all started onto the floor with them and the spell seemed to break. Ty smiled brightly before he dropped his gaze to his feet, just for a moment. Kit pulled Ty closer and kissed him sweetly as they started dancing to the music, surrounded by those who loved them.

***

Kit and Ty sat on their bed, looking at each other. Ty had to admit that he was more than a little anxious. "We still have to put the second Marital Rune on each other."

Kit smiled and nodded. Ty hadn't realized that Kit had his stele in his hand. "Would you?" Kit asked.

Ty nodded and Kit pulled his shirt over his head and laid back. Ty situated himself, sitting upright next to Kit and placed his hand over Kit's heart. He could feel the beating of the other Shadowhunter's heart, it was faster than normal.

Ty brought the stele down over Kit's heart and began drawing the Rune, the dark lines and curls forming perfectly.

When he was finished, he made eye contact with Kit, briefly. It was powerful, to feel that connection when their eyes met. "Now me," he said quietly as he tugged his own shirt off.

Kit sat up, much as Ty had and but for just a moment, he hesitated.

"I trust you," Ty said, staring up, his gray eyes locking with Kit's blues.

Kit placed the Rune on Ty's chest; identical almost as though they hadn't drawn them but a master Runesmith or a Silent Brother had done it.

"Wow," Kit whispered as Ty sat up. They could both feel the connection and Ty wondered if that's what parabatai felt. He figured it wasn't the same, but similar maybe.

It was a link, that was undeniable, and they both sat there, looking at each other in amazement.

"I love you."

Kit smiled, he'd never grow tired of hearing Ty say those words.

"I love you too."

Kit could feel something, a pulling at his heart. He let that pull take over and he leaned forward and kissed Ty, passionately. Ty's fingers wove into Kit's hair and they were lost in each other.

"More," Ty demanded as he fell back again, pulling Kit on top of himself.

"Whatever you want, Ty."

"I want all of you."

"You already have it." Kit's breathing was ragged.

"No," Ty shimmied. "All of you, Kit."

"Oh..." Kit didn't know why he was surprised. It was their wedding night. "You take the lead, Ty. I don't want you to cross a line you aren't ready for." Kit was still on top of Ty, but he was propping himself up on his elbows.

"Kit, for once I don't want that kind of control. I want you to take control."

And Kit listened. This is home.

***

The sun shining in Ty and Kit's room warmed their bed, Ty's head rested on Kit's chest as it had most nights since he'd returned from Devon. The difference was now they were each other's fully and completely. Ty looked down at the Marital Rune he'd placed on Kit's chest the night before.

Finally, I belong to someone.