I Am Ruined (TDA Lord of Shadows Sequel)

[ V ] Sometimes Ignorance is Bliss

Emma woke up in her bed, it was still early, the sun not fully risen. With a groan she rolled over to see the other side of the bed was empty. She and Julian had fallen asleep the night before, hands clasped tightly together in between them. She shouldn't have been surprised that he was gone; he never stayed in bed once any inkling of light painted the sky. It was one of the few imperfections he had, always making her get up early. There was no use going back to sleep now, she was already awake and restless. She changed into workout clothes and decided to go for a run before the glaring afternoon sun hit.

Her goal of beating the afternoon sun seemed futile, seeing as 15 minutes into her run, the Los Angeles heat was already in full force. Nevertheless, she made her 5 mile goal before heading into the glorious air conditioned Institute. Most of the Institute's residents were in the kitchen when she arrived; Julian making food as usual with Cristina helping, Dru and Mark talking at the table, and Kieran looking out of place on a stool at the breakfast island.

"Good morning, Emma. How was your run?" It was Mark who asked, smiling brightly from across the room. When he spoke, both Cristina and Julian looked over from the stove with smiles themselves. There was no sign of the broken boy from the night before, only Julian - the eldest Blackthorn who took care of everyone and never dared show any sign of weakness. It almost hurt to see him with that mask while knowing the tempest of pain he hid beneath it.

Still, she smiled back in response, "Good, I'll never speak ill of the sun again. I missed it after our months of living in the miserable city of gloom."

"London?" Cristina asked with a smirk as she grabbed a bottle of water for Emma from the fridge.

"Yeah, that's what I said." She took the bottle graciously, gulping down a few mouthfuls as she picked up a bagel from the counter.

"So dramatic, as always." Julian chuckled, stealing a bite of the bagel from her hand.

She smacked at his head gently, "Mine."

It was odd, acting so normal when everything was far from it. The Unseelie King had Annabel and the Black Volume, Diana was still in Idris and they didn't know why, Kieran Kingson was sitting in their kitchen and there was one less Blackthorn's laughter filling the room. A sting of pain went through her at the thought. As if reading her mind, Julian's expression turned more serious.

"Now that Emma is here, we need to talk about our plan of action. We need to get the Black Volume out of the Unseelie King's hands before he uses it." The smiles in the room all faded as everyone looked to Julian. "We still know that the Seelie Queen wants to get rid of the King."

Mark was standing now, leaning against the island, "But she said she would only help if we gave her the book. And we don't have the book."

"True, but she may be desperate enough to help us if she doesn't want to lose her power. And we all know how much she loves power."

"Who's to say if we enter Faerie that the King won't know? His power is growing, sources say that the blight has spread even into the Seelie Court," Cristina chimed in, "If he knows we're in Faerie Lands, he will have the upper hand. He has the power, we need the element of surprise."

"So then how do we go about getting to him if we can't enter Faerie?" Emma asked. She knew Cristina was the most educated on the Faeries with the exception of the two that had Faerie blood in the room. Cristina, however, had the benefit of knowing how to battle them as well.

Cristina pursed her lips, looking down at the ground before speaking, "I- I may know of something that can help us."

They all looked to her expectantly and she took a deep breath, explaining about how she had seen Jaime. Dru shifted uncomfortably in her seat, but no one spared her a second glance. Emma made a mental note to ask about it later. Cristina said that there was a Rosales heirloom that could help enter Faerie undetected, that Jaime had it and they just needed to find out how it worked.

Julian took a deep breath, pushing himself off the counter, "Well, then it seems our next plan of action is to figure out where that heirloom is and how to get it to work."

***

Take a deep breath, Kit. He thought to himself as he slowly opened the door to Emma's room. He couldn't help but feel guilty. He had tried multiple times to steal from these people without any remorse, but now it was creeping at him. These people were no longer strangers who kept him against his will, they were the closest thing he had to a family. He even trusted them, well most of them. No matter how close he got to the oldest Blackthorn, he didn't think he would ever be able to fully trust Julian. Regardless, he hated sneaking around in their rooms. Especially Emma, who he had no doubt in his mind could kick his ass. The room was empty, just as he had planned, he knew she had her morning run and then she would eat in the kitchen and train some more upstairs. He had taken the past months to memorize everyone's routines, just in case it could ever help him and now it was paying off. He latched the door shut behind him, welcoming the cool breeze from the open window as he rifled neatly through her room. He found books, clothes, weapons – lots of weapons – and pictures of all the Blackthorns, but nothing suspicious. Nothing even related to Faerie. Julian had said 'research it,' so maybe one of the books was a clue? He read the titles; The Shadowhunters Codex, The Law of the Nephilim, The Art of War, and plenty of books signed from JC and obnoxiously annotated again by Will H. Again, nothing that could help him. After all the talk of Sherlock and Watson with Ty, Kit realized he was horrible at solving mysteries. Ty was probably halfway to figuring out what they were hiding by now and here Kit couldn't even find a single damn clue. If Julian left again without telling Ty, especially after he just lost Livvy, he didn't know how Ty would react. He considered just straight up asking Julian and Emma if they could be involved in the mission. Maybe they would just tell them what they've been up to. His day dreaming was cut short when he heard voices outside in the hallway, one distinctively female and more specifically – Emma's. Shit. Kit scrambled for somewhere to hide, climbing out the window and crouching on the roof just below the windowsill. The door clicked open and he heard Emma walk in, Julian behind her. Maybe he would find a clue after all. He slid to the side, peeking his head up enough so that he could see through the sheer sky blue curtains.

"How are we going to find that heirloom?" Emma was asking, throwing a loose tank top on over her running clothes.

Julian shrugged, leaning against the bedpost, "We'll have to find Jaime is my guess. Jace and Clary said that their mission had something to do with Faerie. Do you think they could be looking for the same thing?"

"I'm not sure, I'll call Clary and see," Julian nodded but didn't say anything. Was this what they were hiding? An heirloom related to Faerie? Emma continued, more softly, "Julian, are you okay? After last night-"

His sea blue eyes looked up at her and even Kit could see the grief in them from the window. He had never seen Julian look so unguarded, his voice rough, "I just- Emma I need you."

There was something about the way he said it that made Kit furrow his eyebrows. But even that didn't prepare him for what he saw next. Julian wrapped his arms around Emma's waist and pulled her flush against his body, his mouth opening over hers – kissing her. And she was kissing him back fiercely. Emma's hands had twined around his neck, gripping his hair. He didn't have too much experience in kissing, but he knew enough to know that this was not their first one. And while Kit may be a new Shadowhunter, he had been living in the Shadow World all his life and he knew some things about Shadowhunter laws. Enough to know there was a law forbidding being in love with your parabatai. All that sneaking around to figure out what plans Emma and Julian were hiding fled from his mind – they weren't keeping secrets about the mission at all. They were keeping secrets about their relationship.