Everything you recognise belongs to Cassandra Clare :)
Seven year old Tavvy Blackthorn knew that when he made a big round shape with his red crayon and coloured really really hard with his yellow crayon, he'd finished his picture.
But when he showed it to his Julian, something was wrong. Normally he'd get a big smile and a cuddle, but that didn't happen.
His Julian was sad and that made Tavvy sad.
Emma sighed as she picked up Tavvy and cuddled him close. She wiped away the tear that had leaked from his eye and stroked his flyaway hair back from his face.
She knew that Tavvy couldn't possibly understand what had happened to their family. But he was tired and the noise that usually came with the Blackthorn clan was absent today.
At some point she would have to figure out how to make it known to him that his sister wasn't going to come home. That time hadn't arrived yet.
"I'll take him up" She said to Julian as she straightened up, Tavvy still tucked in her arms.
There was no reply. She brushed her hand across his shoulders as she went past.
A shudder ran through him, but he didn't say anything. As she looked back from the doorway, she thought that she saw him sag even further into himself.
"Come on little one, time for bed"
She turned and went up the stairs in the Penhallow Manor that were staying in for the night.
After Emma had left the room, Julian clenched his hand into a fist and brought it down hard against the fireplace he was leaning against.
How could he have been so selfish? Hadn't they been warned what would happen if they continued their relationship?
He loved Emma with every part of his soul, and now he knew that she felt the same way. But nothing good could come of it. Not with the curse hanging over their heads like a black cloud.
The fact was that he and Emma were parabatai; two souls bound together by a bond that ran so deep the mundanes didn't even have a word for it. They fought as one, they knew what the other would do before they did it and they felt each other's pain.
And the number one rule was that they could not fall in love.
Julian watched as his knuckle started to swell, a cut ran across the edge were he had split the skin.
The pain actually helped to lift a bit of the fog that had fallen over his eyes since the Council meeting earlier that day. He glanced up and saw that Dru had finally fallen asleep, her neck bent at an odd angle from where she had been curled up in the armchair. Tear tracks ran down her face.
He got up and picked up the blanket and with the practice of many years tucking in his siblings, wrapped the blanket around and eased a pillow under her head. He turned down the witchlight lamp in the corner of the room and pulled the door too as he left the room.
If it was because she was his parabatai or if it was because she was his Emma, he knew before he turned that she was behind him.
"Julian, I'm sorry, please, tell me what I can do. Let me help you." She reached out to touch his shoulder. He cringed away from her hand.
"Please don't" He said as he drew a breath to try and steady his heart. He knew now what he had to do. And this was never going to be easy.
Emma left her hand raised in the air, not touching him, but close until slowly she lowered it back to her side deflated.
He took another deep breath as if it would give him the strength to go on. "We should talk."
And with that he turned and walked down the corridor, past the dining room and into the kitchen. After she had followed him into the room, he leant against the door and looked anywhere but at her face.
Emma sank down into the chair and waited.
"I can't be with you anymore. I can't take the risk."
It was like a punch to the gut. She felt like he had thrown her against the wall and was physically beating out any hope she had left in her that they could be happy.
"What?" She forced out as she rose from her seat and tried to get him to look her in the eye. "Julian? What are you saying?"
"Don't you understand what happened today?" He looked up then and she could see now why he had been hiding his face.
She saw his rage. And she knew. He meant it.
It was as if a dam had burst and he could finally say what had been ripping him apart since the second the silent brothers had forced him away from Livvy. Since they had made him let go of his baby sister. It wasn't right.
"You knew about the curse! You were the one who could have stopped us! And now look what happened! She's dead Emma, my baby sister is dead because of us! Because we couldn't follow the one rule for parabatai. The one rule.
Malcolm said that we would hurt the ones we loved the most first, that's what you told me. You didn't tell me they would die."
She felt a pulse rock through her parabatai rune and Julian unleashed all of his pain upon her.
"How could we be so stupid to think that this would work? We have no future, none!"
His face was red and his eyes clear as he glared at her like he was truly seeing her for the first time.
This wasn't her Julian, there was no love in his eyes.
"It's your fault that Livvy is dead."
Her breath left her as the rune seemed to tear against her skin. Tears fell down her face as she stood facing the one person who had always been by her side.
Julian pushed past her and into the hallway. She could hear his footsteps as he went up the stairs without a pause.
A numbness started to spread through her as she pulled her hand away from her parabatai rune. It was covered in blood.
