Andy entered the narrow office of the Inquisitor just as the first rays of the sun hit the side of the building. The woman wanted to see her and Jace again, but Andy hadn't bothered waking him up on her way here.
Now, she stood alone in front of Imogen, who still had moments of utter disbelief while looking upon her kin. The lines of her face seemed softer, less intimidating than before. Her crystal eyes were warmer and seemed a bit far away. "I really should have known," Imogen stressed again. "The chances of my granddaughter and the Wayland's child having the same name were... slim to none."
Andy wasn't really sure what to say. She considered Imogen's words kindly, understanding why she usually held herself so rigidly and refused to be talked over or second guessed. Imogen had lost her son. And then she had lost her entire family, her namesake, her legacy in one burning night.
Her piercing gaze was filled with something deeper as she reached out and found Andy's hand. Her light touch was endearing and Andy found her own steadfast apprehension begin to melt. It felt familiar, like she should remember the woman in front of her from earlier in life.
Imogen's tone as she spoke next sounded nostalgic, like warm tea on the first cold, rainy day of autumn. "I never thought I'd see you again, Andina. And yet you've been tossed in front of me for being stubborn so many times."
Andy imagined it was a long shot to try to argue against the woman's self-pity, but she still found herself muttering, "you couldn't have known."
She was met with a set jaw. "I should have known." Imogen said stiffly. "You have your father's eyes, his laugh..."
Andy believed her grandmother, but she wanted to know. She wanted to remember her real father's voice and his deep blue eyes. She wanted to remember more than vague details about being told she was going to be a big sister. But she couldn't. So she let herself pretend that hearing it from the woman in front of her was enough.
She tried to keep herself strong, eyes clear of tears and breath even. But when Imogen pulled her in for a hug, it all broke down. She didn't feel like she was in the Inquisitor's grasp, trapped by the ghost of a soldier. No, it was like a heavy blanket on a cold morning that had been kept warm for her since she was a child.
She wrapped her arms around Imogen's shoulders, not able to stop herself from gripping the woman's pressed suit jacket. She had learned how to accept love from people over time, when the Lightwoods threw it her way unexpectedly. And this didn't feel like something she had to double-check the sincerity of. It felt like it had always been there, waiting for her to return to it.
Imogen didn't pull away, but moved her gentle touch up to the back of Andy's neck and faced her. With inches between them, where Andy could make out every web in her iris, she told her, "I meant it with every part of my being when I said you and Jace don't have to be alone anymore. I couldn't help you then, but I can now."
Andy bit her lip to stop it from quivering and offered a quick nod. "Thank you," she said, unable to manage much more than a whisper. She hoped her grandmother realized how truly grateful she was.
°◊°◊°◊°
A mix of tissue paper and plastic rustled in Andina's hands, settled behind her back. She spared a hand to give another knock on the solid wooden door in front of her before she returned it to the crinkling materials.
The door opened to reveal her favorite warlock inside, still in a pair of comfortable looking pajamas. She was a bit surprised to catch him in the flannel patterned pants and plain t-shirt. The only thing sparkly about him was his gorgeous eyes and the rings on his fingers. She wondered briefly if he ever took them off.
"Andina," he spoke, obviously surprised to see her. Which was a valid reaction, she hadn't exactly given him fair warning to her arrival.
"Hi," she greeted awkwardly. More crinkling ensued as she presented the item in her grasp. There was a handful of pink carnations making up a measly bouquet. She would've had a huge bunch for her extravagant friend, but Hodge wasn't around to tend to the Institute's gardens any longer and no one had dared to pick up his role. "I brought you these."
Magnus examined her carefully, but offered a small smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. He accepted the gift. She felt a bit bad about the water droplets that were left in her hand and probably seeped into his, but the flowers would've gone dry if she hadn't filled the weak plastic up with some liquid. "They're lovely," he muttered, but he sounded distant.
Andy took it upon herself to step past him and into his dark apartment. His curtains were drawn closed. Only small slivers of sunlight slipped past the dark fabric. Things were still quite cluttered from the day before and she noticed a few bottles on his cart of alcohol that were left without caps.
"How are you?" She questioned him, turning to find him headed her way. He set the flowers down on an end table rather than finding a vase for them. She didn't mind it, but she knew that wasn't Magnus' typical style.
The warlock sunk down into his couch, still exhausted. "I'm fine." Andy scoffed. He met her eyes. And that was the first of many times the two could truly relate to one another.
Andy knew well enough to guess that he didn't want to be pressed on the matter. "Well if you start feeling un-fine, call me," she told him. "We can make a day out of it."
He let another sliver of a smile onto his lips but it didn't stay for long. He was soon staring off into space, despite his gaze aimed at her hands. She knew he wasn't really looking at her when she started fidgeting and his eyes didn't flicker with her movements like they usually did.
"Did you ask Alec?" She couldn't help but blurt out.
Magnus' hand moved to trace the shadow on his upper lip. He shifted from staring blankly at her hands to staring blankly just behind her head. "No," he mumbled.
She nodded, accepting his answer. She didn't have to be at the Institute yet, but she could sense the signs of a man wanting to be left alone. She threw them out at her friends quite often, to no avail. She straightened up and went to pick up the flowers. He didn't spare her a single look as she dug through his kitchen for something resembling a vase. What she found was a carafe, but she didn't know enough about wine to realize it.
She filled it up at the sink and set it down briefly on the dark countertops. The crinkling of plastic ensued again as she pulled the rubber band that kept the stems stuck together and unfurled the bouquet. She had just snipped the stems a little less than an hour before, so she discarded the rest of the wrapping and set the flowers into the carafe.
She looked over to Magnus, feeling a bit empty herself as she watched him sink into whatever was running through his mind. She had been there many times before, with messy hair and yesterday's clothes. Sometimes clothes from days before.
She held back the urge to sigh and picked up the flowers, walking through the loft to put them on the end table closest to the windows. She walked up to the curtains and grasped them, pausing for a moment in thought. "You're not hungover, are you?" She asked over her shoulder.
Magnus spared her a look and shook his head softly, she barely even saw him move. She looked back and pulled open the middle section of curtains, letting the light stream in and onto the pink petals behind her.
"I'm gonna head out," she informed as she walked back to him. She suddenly understood why Alec and Jace often paused before leaving her to sulk at her worst times. She was hoping Magnus would ask her to stay. He didn't. "Call me if you need anything."
Again, he offered a silent, subtle move of his head. This time, Andy did let herself sigh, but she didn't fight to stay. She gave him a worried look before forcing herself to leave.
°◊°◊°◊°
"Where've you been?" Jace called out to his sister when he found her strolling into the room, cutting his parabatai off in the middle of his sentence and earning a disgruntled look from the man. The ops center was bustling with activity from a meeting that had just ended, the Shadowhunters that made up her family clustered together by one of the stone pillars.
She scrunched up her nose. "You know I actually do things besides taking care of you," she quipped, walking over to join them. He scoffed at her comment, rolling his eyes. "What's the big deal?" She questioned the meeting she had just missed.
"Clary and Simon found a dead Shadowhunter last night," Alec caught her up. "It looks like a werewolf attack, but all of their runes were scratched off."
She faltered for a moment, disturbed by the image conjured up in her mind. She winced as she imagined having her skin torn from her in such a way. Clary continued, "We found another with marks from a Seelie, and now one's been found that was killed by a warlock."
Andy blinked in shock. They were dealing with a serial killer? She didn't have a chance to ask questions, though, her attention swiped elsewhere when Izzy added with a laugh in her voice, "And Jace is the new Head of the Institute."
Her face fell, "What?" She was sure she had heard her wrong, looking to her brother in disbelief. He surprised her by shrugging, rather than enjoying her shock. "No way."
"Imogen made the call," he explained quickly. "She's still in charge while she's here–"
She realized he was waiting for her to be angry and cut him off with a shocked laugh. "No, I definitely did not want to take care of all of this." She muttered as she glanced around the room. "I run away from all of this."
Alec gave her a frown and Jace stepped away. "Let's not make a big deal about this," he insisted, though it was clear to all of them that he was already using it to boost his ego. He had a smirk stamped on that wasn't going to leave him anytime soon.
Izzy followed after him, prompting them all to catch up. "Still, being appointed Head of the Institute and finding out you're a Herondale?" She gave him a stern look, despite the smile on her stained lips. "Don't let it get to your head."
"So Herondales are what, like, the Kennedys of the Shadow World?" Clary inquired as they strolled up to the map in the center of the room.
Alec settled beside her and Andy leaned against the table at the head of it, examining the flat diagram of Manhattan. "It's an old Shadowhunter family," He explained. "Like the Lightwoods."
"But we're the Kennedys," Izzy bragged with a smirk.
"You two are ridiculous," Andy spoke up, eying she and Jace from across the table.
Her brother shared a grin with her before gesturing to the map. "Let's focus on what matters." He started, taking on a more serious note. "The Inquisitor would like us to reach out to our allies to see what they know. At this point, she considers all downworlders suspects."
"That's casting a pretty broad net," Alec criticized.
"She can't possibly think any of our friends did this," Clary interjected.
"Yeah, well, we'll prove that to her," Jace reassured. "Look, since Luke's DNA cleared him, we should collect samples from all of our friends to clear them as well. I'll make an Institute-wide announcement–"
Andy cut him off with a scoff. "You really think they're gonna just volunteer?"
"If they're innocent," he countered, earning an eye roll from her.
She resigned to giving him a judging sneer as Clary jumped into action. "I'll go talk to Simon," she said, stepping away from the table.
"And I'll go find Raphael," Izzy piped up, ready to follow the redhead.
Her brother protested immediately and Andy's gaze hardened on the girl. Iz faltered, giving them both an indignant glare.
"Why not?" Jace questioned, glancing between them and suddenly feeling like he had been left out of something.
Alec sighed, sharing a look with the Herondale beside him. She shook her head, fully believing that this was Izzy's secret to tell. But the chance to lie had passed them as Jace pressed harshly, "Am I missing something here?"
Isabelle worked up the nerve to meet his gaze as she started, "Jace..." She fought to find the words, like she had to physically pull them out of her throat. "I'm a yin fen addict," she admitted.
"Excuse me?" Jace's brow shot up, positive he was being messed with.
"It's a long story, but I'm better now. Not perfect, but better." She stated, before aiming a determined glare at the two across from them. "Definitely good enough to hunt down whoever's murdering our people."
Andy chewed on her cheek to keep herself from arguing as Jace and exchanged a look with his parabatai, trying to gauge the situation. After a few moments of consideration, Jace nodded. "Okay. We'll take all the help we can get."
Izzy took his trust gratefully and paused for a moment, telling Alec she'd be fine alone and she'd leave after helping their little brother get settled into training. "You just have to trust me," she left him with before walking off.
Alec watched her go tensely. He knew he couldn't keep her under his supervision forever, but letting her go off to a vampire den – especially that vampire den. It didn't help when Andy leaned into him and muttered, "You trust her?" as soon as Izzy was out of earshot.
Alec scoffed beside her, crossing his arms. "Do you?"
He glanced down at her. She pursed her lips and shook her head. "Not really," she said without much hesitation, meeting his worried gaze. She pulled a face. "You can pretend you're okay with it as much as you want to. She's lied to me more in the past two weeks than the entire time I've been in New York." It was a bit of an exaggeration, but it got her point across.
"Thanks," he murmured sarcastically. He was hoping for some reassurance.
She straightened up, getting ready to leave. "Good luck with Magnus," she offered jokingly before she followed Izzy's path out of mission control. She had a few friends to trick into giving her their DNA samples, per her brother's orders. She cringed. Nothing about that sentence felt right.
°◊°◊°◊°
Andy was great at tailing people. Unless she was distracted, she could easily go undetected for blocks. She was even willing to put her ability to take death-defying leaps off of rooftops to the test, but that would get her too far away from Izzy to keep an eye on her.
She almost felt a little guilty as she slipped out of the Institute and hid behind one of the thicker trees nearby so Iz wouldn't see her. But her friend was going to a vampire den after just getting clean. When she remembered that, no part of her wanted to turn back and trust the Lightwood girl.
Izzy's bright jacket was easy to follow, the holographic material shining off of every light, even in the dark alleys. Andy would've had it easy to remain unnoticed until she wanted to be seen.
But she was distracted.
Magnus had insisted he was okay that morning, but she could tell he wasn't. Flowers wouldn't do the trick for the torture he had suffered, and while she was pretty sure the warlock didn't directly blame she and Alec, she could imagine that it wasn't easy to move on like nothing ever happened.
And if that wasn't enough to keep her mind reeling, the first thing she asked him once she was done interrogating him about his feelings was, "Did you ask Alec?" It was pretty insensitive, even for her, to think that he had possibly had a chance to talk to Alec about that while he was recovering. Especially when Alec had come storming home the night before when he went to check on Magnus. She assumed they hadn't been able to kiss and make up as easily as either was hoping for.
There was nothing she had ever experienced like the questions clouding her mind. She was prepared to either let it all drop when Alec said no to Magnus' proposal, or be surprised by a yes and attempt to act casual about it. This in-between state was wearing her down. Wondering if she could continue the banter she always shot back and forth with Alec. Wondering when the knife would drop and ruin the slight skip in her chest that happened every time she started to picture the three of them, together.
Wooden pallets clattered onto the cement sidewalk that shot through the alleyway. Andy cursed as she tripped past it and attempted to catch them to minimize the noise. It didn't help much in the way of damage control.
There was no way that Isabelle Lightwood – in all of her fierce, Shadowhunting glory – didn't hear that. Especially as she turned around with wide chocolate eyes aimed straight at Andy.
The older girl offered a sheepish grin and a wave as she examined the awkward ten feet between them. Knocking into something definitely wasn't her first mistake in stalking. The momentary alarm slid off of Izzy's face and she crossed her arms, coat shimmering as she kicked her hip out to the side.
Andy realized she was defeated and closed the distance slowly, dragging her feet. Izzy didn't wait for her to get there before she asked in her quick, lilted accent that was full of discontent, "What are you doing here?"
Andy raised a brow and looked behind her as she scratched her neck, as if Izzy could've possibly been talking to anyone besides her. She looked back and winced at her own words as she drawled, "following you?"
Izzy's lips turned down. Her gaze was intimidating – she got it from her mother. Both she and Alec could break Andy and Jace down by leaving them enough time to talk themselves into a grave. It was a terrifying talent.
Luckily, Izzy didn't wait for Andy to dig the pit she'd die in. "Don't you trust me?" She asked, as if it was rhetorical.
Now it was Andy's turn to be surprised, jaw dropping. She blinked for a second and tried to hold back a laugh, but the disparaging smile was impossible to hide. "I'm sorry, did you forget the part where you lied to all of us?" Andy asked harshly. "Or the part where you told Alec and I to just leave you 'the hell alone'?" She quoted.
Izzy's expression darkened as Andy spoke and she dropped her powerful stance. "I'm sorry," she said sincerely. Her words felt rehearsed. "I wasn't myself, I–"
"Damn right you weren't," Andy cut her off. But she didn't keep hounding the girl she knew as a sister, reaching out to lay a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I forgive, but I sure as hell don't trust you to go to a vamp den on your own yet." She told her, softly and honestly.
Iz inhaled a deep breath through her nose, offering a sad nod. "I can handle it," she still argued. "But thank you."
Andy squeezed her shoulder and offered a smile. "You're welcome. Now lets go meet Raphael."
She let Izzy take the lead again, this time not bothering to keep herself silent. Which led to a bit too much introspection. They were about a block and a half away from the Hotel Dumort when Andy broke the silence, wondering if Iz had ever dealt with a situation like hers in her many tristes around the city.
"Have you ever," she started but trailed off, huffing into the dark alley before them. Iz granted her an odd look, prompting her to continue. "If I ask you about relationship advice, you're not allowed to laugh," Andy insisted.
Izzy almost instantly let out a giggle. "I don't think I've ever heard you use the word 'relationship' seriously before," she teased, her voice dancing on the evening air.
She noticed Andy tense up. "I don't think I've ever needed to," the Herondale admitted, looking puzzled. Iz hummed, hinting for Andy to lay it on her. So she did. "If someone asks you to date them, but they're already dating somebody... is that a thing people do?"
Iz furrowed her perfectly filled in brows. "Yes, and it's called cheating," she said slowly, her steps matching the pace of her words until Andy got the hint and slowed down next to her.
Andy shook her head. "No, it's– lemme start over," she said. "So someone is dating someone else, and they want to date me, but they also want the other person to date me. I think." The more she talked about it, the more she confused herself.
She expected to glance over to the Lightwood and find the same confusion, but Izzy was smiling brightly. In fact, she was giving her the same look she used to offer up when Andy finally agreed to train with her. Like she was excited and proud, but a little nervous at the same time. "By the Angel," Iz breathed. "You actually like someone? Two someones?"
Andy frowned and tried to shrug it off, but there was an unmistakable hint of pink on her pale cheeks that used to only appear after a night of drinking. "I don't–" she started, but realized it wasn't a true statement. She huffed again and mumbled aggressively, "I just wanted to know if that's a thing."
Izzy was still giving her that proud smile, mixed with a bit of adoration. "I've heard of it," she said sweetly. "Some of Meliorn's friends dated like that. It's not for me, but I'm pretty sure even mundanes do it sometimes."
Andy bit her lip and let her teeth drag over previous attacks that were still painful. It got her mind off of her racing heart. "Well, I already sealed my fate and said I'd try it," Andy admitted, quickly adding, "But one of the other parties hasn't been asked yet."
Her icy gaze met Izzy's, silently begging for advice that she would never ask for out loud. Izzy thought about it for a moment before shrugging. "Obviously don't do anything until everyone's agreed," she commented. "That's cheating. But if everyone wants to do it and you do, too, go for it, Andy."
"I don't know. What if it get's messy, or confusing?" Andy commented, glad for their glamour runes as they stepped out into a crowd of mundanes. "I don't like messy and confusing."
Izzy chuckled. "You are messy and confusing," she drawled, but Andy could tell it wasn't ill-intended when Iz gave her the signature all-knowing grin that she took on when talking about romance. "But that's love. It doesn't always work or turn out how we want it."
Andy nodded, realizing her friend was right. Maybe she did just have to go for it. She told Magnus that she wanted he and Alec to have their own chance to be happy, separate from her, if things didn't work. Maybe she just had to try and see if it worked before deciding to call Magnus and change her mind.
She was pulled from her thoughts when Izzy let out a long aww that she had clearly been suppressing since the start of this conversation. "My Andy does have feelings!"
Andy couldn't help but smile back at her, shoving her shoulder into the girl's playfully. Izzy just leaned into it as they crossed the street, throwing an arm over her shoulders and giving her a quick hug.
When they broke apart, Iz began to lose whatever false positivity had been cast on the two of them. "Did you talk to Jace?" She asked wearily. Before they had left, he briefed them about the order he got to use trackers on downworlders. It was a last ditch effort by the Clave to figure out who was responsible for the murders of Shadowhunters. Neither of them had been happy about the idea.
Andy frowned. "I was going to," she murmured, leaving out the rest. It was pretty clear to Izzy that she had chosen following her over having that conversation. She shook her head, trying to brush off the worries they had. "He won't go through with it," she decided.
Iz matched her expression. "How are you sure?" She remembered ages ago, when they had fought her own brother to keep him from following a corrupt Clave order. She had never expected for things to get that far. It was hard to tow the line between cooperative soldier and protector of mundanes and downworlders.
Andy shrugged. "He'll realize it's dumb, and that I wouldn't do it. And that it's dumb," she emphasized, giving Iz her best reassuring look that muddled with a cocky grin. She knew her brother. He tried to keep things just as long as his own arrogance didn't get in the way. And no one was on the other side of this, coaxing him on like it was a competition.
The Hotel Dumort came into view as their feet hit the sidewalk again, looming over the street. Iz tried to agree with her friend, offering an unsure grin and hoping Andy was right. It faltered some when Raphael walked out of the doorway ahead of them.
They approached the vampire nest slowly. Andy hung back behind Izzy like a guard dog, keeping an eye on the shadows that were swallowing the street.
"You shouldn't be out this late," the vampire fretted, for obvious reasons. The word about dead Shadowhunters was spreading around town, and everyone knew they weren't exactly easy targets to take down. Which meant that their enemies were more powerful, and it was dangerous to be out in the city with them still at large.
"Raphael... thank you for coming," Izzy said sincerely, intent on keeping space between them. "Just so you know, Simon and I would have never done anything to hurt your sister–" Andy's eyes widened. What has she been up to? She wondered, suddenly thinking that leaving Izzy with Simon the other day was maybe not such a good idea.
"I didn't come for apologies. I came to reason with you." Raphael said stiffly. "For my Clan. They're not gonna sit around and let the Clave put trackers in them."
"We don't want that either," Izzy insisted. "I want to stop all of this. So if there's anything you know about these murders..."
"I can tell you it's not a vampire. We would never remove runes from a Shadowhunter." He vowed.
"Why is that?"
Raphael stumbled and took the time to bring air into his lungs. Andy perked up. It must be serious, if the century-old vampire felt the need to fake a human habit. "From the time before the Accords, the downworlders were hunted by the Shadowhunters for sport. They took our fangs, werewolf claws, warlock marks as trophies. We swore we would never let that happen again. To anyone," he finished adamantly.
Both women could tell he was being genuine. "That's horrible," Iz breathed. "But if there are no vampires involved, what about Keytower?" She questioned, thinking of the last Shadowhunter who had turned up dead. "His blood was drained."
"My guess? Diversion. To throw you off the real trail." He offered. He looked like he was going to explain further, but he decided against it, stepping away from her suddenly. He paced off for a few steps, rubbing his hand over the back of his neck.
"Raphael, I respect your loyalty to the Downworld, but please... we're desperate." Izzy pressed. "Innocent people are dying."
He looked back, considering it for a moment before giving in and wandering back into the light. "Back in the eighties, the Downworld came together to make some demands that the Clave wouldn't agree to. And it got pretty ugly. I overheard a Seelie knight tell Camille that the only way to gain the Shadowhunter's respect was to show them how dangerous we are."
Izzy shared a glance with her partner as it hit them both how deep this really went. They were starting to realize that the Accords had not solved the rift between Nephilim and the Downworld as they had been taught by their elders. "He suggested an extra step," Raphael continued, lowering his voice as Andy stalked up. "Taking their runes.
"Which Seelie?" Izzy demanded, her face hardening.
The vampire seemed reluctant to admit it. But he did, having no reason to protect the downworlder in question. "Meliorn."
°◊°◊°◊°
The docks Izzy led them to were filled with shipping containers, the night lit up with a few measly street lamps. The wind was strong, forcing their hair into their faces until it abruptly changed direction. The Lightwood girl had one of the faerie's shirts in her hand, using it to track the man. Andy and Raphael followed her around the corner of a large red container, deeper into the metal maze.
"I can't believe Meliorn would do something like this," Iz mused.
"The Fair Folk work in strange ways," Raphael reasoned. Suddenly he rushed forward and threw his arm in front of Izzy, bringing them all to a stop as he looked around. He must have heard something that their ears couldn't catch. "We've got company," he informed.
Something clattered against the ground near them. In the blink of an eye, Izzy had her staff ready and Andy was clutching her short blades. The older Shadowhunter stepped forward, intending to find the source of the sound.
They followed as she found a pile of wooden crates stacked perfectly in the corner. On the ground beside it was a rusty strip of metal that was bent out of shape. She and Izzy prepared to attack whatever was hiding when the vampire stopped them abruptly again that night. "Wait–"
It was a good thing, too, because the person who stepped out from behind the boxes was not a threat, despite his arms raised in the only fighting stance he knew. Andy's eyes were filled with concern as she found the youngest Lightwood in front of them. "By the angel, Max!" Izzy cursed, lowering her staff back to her side. "What are you doing here?"
"I tracked you here," he stated simply, holding up a hair band. "Told you I was the best in my class."
Any other time, it would've been amusing to watch Izzy dote on her brother and insist, "You could have gotten yourself killed." But she was right. There was a Seelie killing adult Shadowhunters on the loose and Max had been following them, alone.
"Max, you can't you just sneak out of the Institute," Andy scolded when the kid looked to her for back-up. She may be the fun one at home, but he needed to know how dangerous this could have been for him.
Izzy nodded, fully prepared to go into lecture mode until Raphael interrupted, alerting them, "I smell Shadowhunter blood."
Izzy frowned back at him, trying to shake off the fear she had for her brother's safety. She leaned down and grasped Max's hand tightly. "Wanna prove your the best in your class? Stay here. Stay hidden. Do you understand?" She asked, and he nodded quickly. She reluctantly stepped away, knowing they had work to do.
Andy twisted the blade in her right hand, holding out the hilt to the boy. She ignored the incredulous look Iz gave her. "Don't activate it unless you have to," she directed. Raphael urged them to leave and they did as asked, readying their weapons and diving into the maze of metal once again.
Raphael led them to the source, and when they found it, the Seelie they were searching for hovered above a body. Another Shadowhunter lay dead, runes stripped in the most inhumane way and blood pooling out beside him. The Seelie looked up at the sound of their footsteps and threw his hands up immediately. "This is not my doing." He said quickly.
"Sure looks like it," Andy sneered.
"I was tracking the killer," he argued, moving to stand slowly. "I'm afraid I arrived too late."
"Don't believe anything he says," Raphael told them, stepping forward dangerously. Andy would've been glad to do so, but as Iz pointed out, Seelies can't lie. "They'll spin the truth until your dizzy," the vampire argued, clearly not about to trust whatever Meliorn told them.
But he wasn't the one on a mission to track down the killer. "I can help you find them," Meliorn insisted. "It's a Seelie, I can tell you that. And I can track them."
Andy met her friend's eyes, giving her the okay to make the decision. Iz knew Meliorn much better than she did, and hopefully she could tell if he was being genuine. She gave Andy a nod. "Let's go."
"Isabelle, it could be a trap," Raphael contested.
She shook her head. "I believe him, okay? I need you to take Max back to the Institute where he'll be safe." She told the vampire. "Andy and I got this." She took off and went to retrieve her brother so the biter could protect him.
Sharing a tense look, the other three followed. They were only a few feet behind when Izzy called out for her brother, causing Andy's heart to jolt in fear. She rushed around the corner and found Izzy coming towards her. "He's gone," Iz told her briefly before yelling, "Max!"
Her voice echoed into the darkness without reply.
"Max!"
°◊°◊°◊°
The two Shadowhunters followed fiercely as Meliorn led them to an old basement warehouse. It was the only lit up building on a dark lot, and as they settled themselves near the windows to peer inside, they were pretty sure they had the right place.
Bottles lined steel workbenches alongside medical tools and dark streaks of red. A table sat in the middle of the narrow room, something dark laying on it as a figure hovered over it with a scalpel. Suddenly the figure jerked, and a familiar yell echoed out of the building. Max was definitely in there, and he had just impaled the attacker with the seraph blade Andy had given him.
Izzy wasted no time once she knew her brother was there. She broke the window she and Meliorn were behind and dove into the room, her whip in hand. The figure inside turned and ripped the blade out of its chest, holding it out at an awkward angle.
Her backup rushed in soon after, Andy letting the vampire take up the back as she readied her seraph blade. "It's over Kaelie." Meliorn called out, keeping her attention. Izzy slipped past and went to help Max, who was still restrained to the medical table.
The room was musty and smelled like blood and rust. The air was thick with death, almost as if the screams of the Seelie's victims still lingered. "The Shadowhunters led us into a massacre. Why are you on there side?" The other Seelie questioned harshly.
"It is not a matter of sides, Kaelie," Meliorn said. In front of him, Raphael pulled his lips back and let his fangs slip from his gums, hissing. "It is a matter of what is right."
She shook her head violently and charged for her like-blooded enemy. Raphael stopped her, dodging her sweeping blade and catching her by the throat. She ripped out of his grasp and swung for his arm. Andy's second blade cut off the motion, saving the vampire from a fiery death as she slipped her blade up the woman's hand and forced her to drop her weapon. Things crafted from adamas didn't clash well with demon-infected individuals.
The Seelie refocused and went for the Shadowhunter, but the vampire sped Kaelie into the cement pillar behind her. He tried to wrestle her arms against the water-stained wall but was forced to give up as she threw a bottle of acid into his face.
Andy went for the killer again, but she found Izzy stalking back over and giving her a motion to stay put. She did as requested as Kaelie grabbed a bone saw and moved dangerously for the Seelie on the other side of the room.
Andy wasn't sure she had ever witnessed one Seelie attacking another. Meliorn drew his blade, prepared to take her life and end her madness. But Izzy had other plans, snatching Andy's lost seraph blade from the floor and slamming it into the Seelie's back.
The green blood characteristic of their kind spilled out as she retracted the weapon, and the killer fell forward. The dark liquid seeped onto the cement floor.
°◊°◊°◊°
"She had everything," Iz relayed to the group as they gathered in the Head office later that night. She and Andy were catching them up on the Seelie who killed so many Shadowhunters in just one day. "Werewolf claws, vampire fangs, Seelie blades. She used it to make it look like a Downworld uprising."
"The question is why," Jace muttered, trying to piece it all together. He had been focused on fixing Downworld relations most of the evening, earning plenty of "I told you so"s from his family after deciding to go through with the tracker idea. It had taken a punch to the jaw from Maia and a stern talking to from Luke to knock some sense into him.
"We're not sure," Alec answered his question, pushing himself off of the bookcase. "But it has to go further than covering her tracks.
"I agree," Iz spoke up, sharing a nod with Andy. What they had found in the warehouse Kaelie was operating out of was strange, comparable to the collections of lab equipment they would find in abandoned Circle hideouts. But Kaelie hadn't just been experimenting, she was framing others for her own kills.
Jace lightened up some, watching the two exchange puzzled glances as they tried to figure this out. "Good job today, guys." He lost the air of authority he was trying so hard to fake. "I hear Max is back up on his feet and ready to take on the world. How are you doing, you okay?" He directed to the Lightwood.
"Getting better one day at a time."
"Good. We'll keep investigating Kaelie, but in the meantime, my first official act as Head of the Institute is gonna be somewhat controversial. So I'm gonna need your help." He looked to Alec, a glint in his eye. "You're taking over."
"The Seelie investigation?" His parabatai questioned.
"No, I mean you, Alec Lightwood, are now the Head of the New York Institute." Jace said with a smirk.
"Oh thank god," Andy blurted. Izzy gave her a look of feigned shock, but it soon filtered into a laugh that they shared.
"Can you do that?" Alec double-checked, failing to hide the pleased grin taking over his face.
Jace pursed his lips, "yeah," he decided. "I mean, like you said, being a Herondale comes with certain perks. Naming a successor is one of them." He clasped a hand on Alec's shoulder fondly. "You were right. Downworlders and Shadowhunters, we're all a mix of human, angel, and demon. If we let the Clave forget that... we deserve a revolt. I'll always be a soldier, but you're a leader, Alec."
°◊°◊°◊°
Andy caught Jace later that night on his way out of his room, hair gelled back and his "fancy" leather jacket on. "Going somewhere?" She asked, voice light.
He shrugged. "Clary said Simon had a gig at the Hunter's Moon..." He muttered, not surprised when she looked like she didn't believe him.
She didn't press it though, just offering a "Hey," that told him he was obligated to stop for conversation. "About that order you gave today..." She trailed off, watching him falter. "I feel like I taught you better than that."
He scratched his neck. "I– I know. The Inquisitor was breathing down my neck, I... I didn't know what else to do." An unpleased frown settled on her face and he tried to backpedal. "She's family."
"I don't care if we're family," she defended the line behind his words that told her he thought she would've done the same. "When family does dumb shit, you stand up against it."
"I'm not doing– I was following orders, Andy," He tried to brush her off.
His sister scoffed. "Since when do you follow any orders besides your own?" She watched his face contort and tried harder to keep her voice low. She'd been trying really hard to yell at him less lately. "Look, we may be Herondales. Or we may find out three days from now that we're from one of a thousand other Shadowhunter families."
Jace started to really listen to her, recognizing her tone as the one she took when she started telling the truth. Not necessarily the facts, but the truth she believed in. "One thing that has always made us us," she gestured between them, "is that we don't take shit. We don't let people stomp us to the ground just because they think they can. And I don't know about you, but I certainly try not to break every moral I have just to make the Clave happy."
She lost him a bit there. "You didn't break any morals when you killed a downworlder?" He tested.
She clenched her teeth together and looked off for a moment. "Why do I tell Alec anything in confidence," she murmured. She gnawed at her lip as she tried to find the right words. "I thought I... I don't know. I didn't go against anything I believed in when I did that because I didn't know the whole situation. And really, I wouldn't have been crossing my morals if I did, because moral number one: keep my idiot brother safe," she declared, quickly turning this back around to put him on the wrong side.
"What's rule number two, nag me constantly?" Jace said, a bored expression on his face. She couldn't help the genuine bark of laughter that escaped her, lightening the mood some.
She shook her head and tried to wipe the smile off of her face, because she was trying to be serious, but it stayed fast. "That's like, rule number six," she joked through her laughter. Her heart soared as Jace cracked a smile.
For a moment they just looked at each other, both realizing how long it had been since they had simply laughed. Not in the midst of a scoff, or a sarcastic sneer to end a blistering argument. Just because they enjoyed each other's banter.
Andy refused to let her smile leave her, enjoying this too much to let it dwindle and die out. But she did grow serious once again. "Rule number two is making sure you don't turn out as fucked up as I am. Including all the dumb mistakes I make."
Despite her efforts, Jace's grin slipped. He understood the truth behind her words, and felt a lot worse for trying to point out how much she had indeed messed up in the past.
Andy still didn't let her lips turn down, though. It resulted in her casting her brother a sad look. "I've done things for the Clave that I haven't always agreed with. And I know I told you last month to stop fucking around and pretending you didn't have to take orders," she said, and as soon as the words left her she could tell it was what her brother was about to bring up next. "But hey, that's before we found out that the entire Downworld was at stake. Or that we're apparently from some big honorable family.
"Although that really shouldn't change things, it does. People are dying, important people. To us. I can't – I can't watch you get hurt," she admitted quietly, finally losing the battle with letting the momentary happiness fade away. "And as much as I would hate myself if I let you get hurt out there, I know you're gonna hurt worse if you're not helping people the way you think is right."
Her brother blinked at her. He thought this was the first time since they got back from Valentine's ship that they had both talked and let things loose and hadn't ended up shouting or lying. The way Andy stood back and waited for his expression to change, or him to speak told him that she was done. That's all she wanted to say. She hadn't bit her cheek or jerked her head to the side to cut herself off from saying something biting. She just stood there and waited for him.
He nodded to let her know he heard her. Then he offered a short, soft chuckle as he spared a glance to the carpet under their feet. "How are you always right?" He muttered.
He was glad to see another grin split Andy's lips. "I'm not," she admitted with a shake of her head. "But I think I am. A lot." She offered with a shrug.
Jace took in her tired eyes and the stress marks around them. "That's what makes us us, right?" He tried to meet in the middle.
She bit her lip and looked off to the side as she cocked her head, reluctant to admit how proud she was that Jace had actually listened to her. "Honestly," she muttered as her eyes caught the light in the hall, "screw what anyone says about us getting our stubbornness or anything else from being a Herondale." She said the name like it was a dish on the menu of a fancy restaurant.
He quirked his brow but let her say her piece, wondering where she was headed with this. "Nobody else has gone through what we have. Alec, Izzy... Clary, they can try and understand. But they never will." She looked up the way she often did when she was trying to hold back tears, and the sniffle in between her words was all Jace needed to know she meant this.
And he agreed entirely. "I don't think I'd even want to tell them," he breathed. There was too much there, and neither of them wanted to unearth it just to be pitied.
Andy nodded. "I don't care about the family name, or the history. All I think about when I think of where I came from is us. Even when we were Waylands, to me 'Wayland' just meant Jace and Andy. So fuck some fancy last name from some fancy family you never got the chance to know." She concluded, trying to ignore the few trails of salt-water that had slipped down her cheeks.
Jace didn't have to say anything. She had summed it up perfectly. "I love you," he told her, voice strong and sure. It felt more solid than the words they had shared the night before. "I know we don't always agree, but I still love you. We're... we're still Jace and Andy." He stated, stepping up to her and glancing over her features like he hadn't seen them in months. They weren't the type to wipe tears away and hold their breath for fear of upsetting each other. Maybe they should have been, but they weren't.
Andy sniffled and wiped her own tears. "We better be, cause I'm half of the reason you're still alive," she teased him, but her voice was stuffy. She noticed he was giving her a playful glare and added, "I love you, too."
He threw his arms around her, pulling her in for a much-needed hug. Somehow, it was tighter than the ones they had shared the day before. Andy lost any rose-colored-glass feelings she had about the Inquisitor in that moment. Imogen's touch may have felt familiar and warm, but Jace's arms were home. Having him in her grasp meant that he wasn't off getting hurt or disciplined by their fake father or making stupid decisions.
More importantly, it meant they hadn't driven a wedge between each other that was too deep to be fixed. Maybe a few more reckless adventures and overly-truthful nights on her rooftop would be enough to fill the gap with cement or, at the very least, build a rickety bridge over it.