Watching from the kitchen, Ash Dark smiled as the Lightwood-Bane's ate their meal. She'd spent all afternoon making it, and was happy to see little Max with half of it all over his face. Rafael was making some big gestures as he talked, and Alec, his father was smiling.

Magnus was looking at her. She hadn't realised it, but she suddenly noticed and went back to work. The potion in front of her was only half done, and her client needed it for the next morning. Her wings ached beneath her hoodie, and she wondered if there was time to go out.

Glancing at the clock, she saw it was 6 o'clock. The potion needed 3 hours to cure, and another two for cooking. If she went out for a while, Ash wasn't going to be sleeping much tonight.

Her notebook said she needed to crush the demon fangs into the mermaid scales, and then to add the Drevak spines. She began her work, when a shadow fell over he mortar.

"You should take a break." Magnus had walked over to her station.

"No, Ms Dubs needs this potion for tomorrow morning. I am not about to lose my reputation. Anyways, at this rate if I get this part done in time, I can be done by 2." She blew a strand of grey hair out of her face. Ash poured the now smooth paste into the cauldron.

"And you have a lesson tomorrow. Don't wear yourself out, Ash." Magnus gave her a warning look, but she dismissed it. She needed to work. If she stopped, then she'd have to think. If she thought, then she'd remember who she was. She didn't want to remember. "We can't run from who we are. We need to accept it. You have incredible power, and you need to stop thinking of where it came from, and use it."

She threw down her notebook that she'd been studying, trying to block him out.

"How can I forget!? I am the literal child of the devil. I am Lucifer's daughter!" She threw her arms up in frustration. "I can't just accept that, Magnus. Maybe you need to accept. I will never be a Bane. I will only ever be a Dark."

Ash turned and headed towards the balcony, intent on flying to the nearest party and getting blackout drunk. If it hadn't been for Max's blood curdling scream, she would have.

Rushing to the living room, Ash saw Rafael and Max surrounded by black mist. They were warping, changing, growing. They didn't seem to be stopping.

Running forwards, she focused all her energy, all her power, everything, on pulling Max and Rafael out of the tornado of mist. Suddenly, they started to move, they were pulling towards her. Seconds passed, and soon enough, MAx and Rafael were in her arms.

But they were no longer the small toddlers she had watched giggle and laugh while eating. They had aged by at least 5 years, maybe more. Rafael looked 17, whereas Max looked 14, the same age Ash.

It was Alec that spoke first.

"R-r-raf?" His voice came out dry and thin, as if it could break at any moment.

"Dad?" Rafael's voice was low and full. Alec, stepped back, shocked, but then rushed forwards and pulled the boys into his arms, accidentally crushing Ash as well.

Ash, disentangled herself and sat down, panting. Everything was quiet for a while, as Magnus joined the family, and Ash watched as Alec began to sob quietly.

Ash stood up, and went back to her station, where she picked up her notebook and pen. She left the family clutching one another in the living room.

Stepping onto the balcony, she felt the crisp air touch her skin as she looked out on the city of Brooklyn. Slowly, carefully, she hoisted herself onto the railings. She stood up and breathed in deeply. Ash straightened her legs, and hoped her military boots wouldn't slip.

She pulled of her hoodie, and dropped it off of the balcony.

"Ash." It was Alec.

"What?"

"This wasn't your fault. You can't control it yet. You will. It just takes-"

"Time? Maybe it'd better if my time was spent away from good people. I've hurt enough of them."

"Ash, when Magnus found you, you were curled up in a ball in an alley. Your wings were damaged, you were almost blind. You had been beaten beyond belief. He didn't know if you'd survive. But you did because that's what you do. But even if you choose to leave, you are always welcome here, and I will never be able to repay you for saving my don't even know if it was you!"

"Goodbye, Alec."

She jumped off the balcony, letting herself fall until the very last moment, where she could almost see the dirt on the dumpster below. Then she pulled up, feeling the wind in her hair.

These were the moment she lived for, the moments where her marks felt like blessings.

Ash did not look like other warlocks. She had three demon marks, all "gifts" from her father.

The Shadowhunters had discovered Ash's existence just before Ash had actually been born. Her mother had raised her until she was 4, before she threw her out onto the streets in disgust. Magnus had been looking for her for months before he found her in an alleyway, having been brutally attacked by mundanes.

Her eyes had been scratched and bruised, because one was pink and cat-like, and the other was turquoise and human. Her head had been smashed against a wall until she was barely conscious, because of the blue ram horns spiralling out from it. Her back had been kicked and beaten until it was cut and bleeding because of the beautiful wings arching out from her back.

Magnus had took her in and raised her as his apprentice. Alec had just accepted her, but she didn't want to be part of his family. She didn't want to be part of any family.

Ash landed in Mainstreet. No one could see her. She walked down the street, pausing to look in a shop window.

Her hair was damp from the rain that had begun to fall. Her horns were slowly dripping too. Suddenly, Ash wished she hadn't abandoned her hoodie, because it was cold. Her band tee shirt hung damply from her pale shoulders, and her short shorts were sticking to her thighs. At least her feet weren't damp, covered by her buckled military boots and her thigh high socks. They didn't match but Ash didn't care.

Finally, she looked at her wings. They were like stained glass, made up of shattered glass-like flesh. Each shard of colour was either pink, blue or gray. They ended with jagged points, which didn't just make her wings transport, it made them weapons.

She met her own eyes in the window. Suddenly, she realised how much she hurt. How much she hated running when ever things got too hard.

She broke down crying, sprawling her legs out around her. She cried for the mother who hated her, for the father she never saw, for the family she'd ruined. She cried until she felt a hand on her shoulder.

She looked up, expecting Magnus or Alec, but instead there was only a boy. He was holding an umbrella, and wearing a kind smile.

"You could stay here, or you could come for a walk with me." His voice was surprisingly gentle.

"I don't even know you. You could be an axe murderer for all I know." She laughed in spite of herself.

"But I might not be." He held out his hand, still smiling.

She took it.

They walked in silence for a while, until they reached a tall apartment block. The boy pulled her over to the door, and took a moment to pull the umbrella down. It was then that Ash realised that the boy had large red antlers.

She fell back in surprise, and thudded to the ground. He looked over to her, and smiled slightly more.

"The antlers usually do phase people a little. Even my own kind it seems." He came over and helped her up, and she blushed a little.

"I was just surprised. I didn't think you were a warlock." She looked down at her feet, slightly ashamed she hadn't noticed.

"I'm Rufus by the way."

"I'm Ash."

They walked up the stairs making small talk. Thankfully they stayed away from the topic of why Ash had been crying in the rain when Rufus found her. She found out he was 14, and lived on his own, since his father had died in a freak accident. He found out she was adopted, and she pretended to have no clue about her excessive demon marks.

They reached his apartment, where they sat and talked some more.

"What were you doing on the street then, Ash?" Rufus said finally, after a few minutes of tense attempts to ignore it.

"I'd had a incident. I thought my family would be better off without me. So I left. And then everything built up and…" She trailed off, as she realised she was crying again. "this isn't a regular thing. This is the first time I've left." Then she really was crying, hard and fast.

Silently, Ash chastised herself for crying in a stranger's home. But she couldn't help it. She didn't want to be the girl who couldn't control her powers.

"Hey, it's okay." Rufus enveloped her into a hug, and they sat like that for a moment, her crying into his shoulder, and him patting her head.

"I think you need to go back. You need to accept what happened. Your family chose you; if they didn't want you they wouldn't have let you stay. You can stay until you figure it out, but you need to see them."

Ash was surprised how old the boy sounded. Then she realised. He'd probably killed his dad as a child. It wasn't uncommon that a warlock child lose control and kill a parent. He'd probably told himself this before.

She pulled away and looked at him. He was wearing a brown shirt with a collar, but no buttons. He'd tied a tie around the collar, and was wearing black suspenders. He was tall, and blonde and suited his antlers. Ash had to admit; Rufus was handsome.

"Can you come with me?"