Clary Fray looked down at the large polka dot suitcase in front of her, filled to the brim with the things she held dearest… and a few clothes for good measure.

"So this is what it feels like to pack your whole life up for a year?" She asked no one in particular.

She turned to see her mother in the doorway giving her a concerned look that these days seemed to be reserved only for Clary.

"If you're having second thoughts, we can re enroll you in school, you can stay here with me and Luke, we can unpack your stuff right now, maybe re-decorate your room for the year?" Jocelyn couldn't help but hold on to the thought that her only child might be having second thoughts about leaving her, about diving head first into the world that Jocelyn had fought so hard to keep her from.

"I have to do this mum, you grew up in Idris, always knowing what you were and having the choice to live as a shadowhunter. Me? I grew up in Brooklyn, thinking I'd be a painter or writer. Now I see things that shouldn't exist and suddenly have a choice to become something I never ever dreamed existed, yet I don't even know what that would mean!".

Clary Fray had spent her life living with her mum on the outskirts of New York, their apartment was covered in paint splats, dream catchers, tarot cards, and featured second hand everything. Despite her lack of friends, she loved her life. It was unique, and it was hers. Or so she thought.

Clary was two months away from turning 17 and six months ago her life had been turned upside down. Jocelyn had told Clary that she, like her mother, was a Shadowhunter. Half human, Half angel warrior of the Shadow world.

Jocelyn told Clary of her youth in Idris, an unimaginably beautiful city were Shadowhunters ruled, and learnt their art. She had told her daughter of downworlders and demons, and everything in between.

Clary had thought her mother had finally gone completely insane until she began to see things. Things that made no sense. A women on the streets with sharp glistening teeth, a man with sparkling red eyes and pale blue skin, a young girl with strawberry blonde hair, who could have passed as your average teenager if it weren't for the translucent glow of her skin and sharp pointed ears. Clary had rushed home, yelling for Jocelyn, out of breath and on the edge of sanity.

Her mother had calmed her down and told her that she had reached an age were Jocelyn no longer felt it was necessary to protect her from this world. To hide her. Clary had listened to the stories of Shadowhunter glory, of downworlders who were considered second class citizens within the Shadowworld, of the power of runes, and of how Jocelyn had turned her back on this world when she became pregnant with Clary, deciding it was too violent of a life to bring any child into. She had escaped Idris and settled in Brooklyn, with hopes that her baby girl would never want to venture back into the world that Jocelyn had forfeited everything to leave behind.

Clary turned to her mother.

"You know I love you with all my heart, and Luke, but I have to do this for myself. I can't decide that I don't want to be a part of this world when I know nothing about it. The academy will be the best place for me to learn, and I'll still be in New York! You don't need to worry about me. I'll go for the year, learn all I can and decide what I want to do with my life, you owe me this" Clary watched the hope slip from her mothers face and felt awful, she loved her mother, but she had to do this for herself and wasn't going to let anything stand in her way.

"Okay, Its your choice baby" Her mother attempted a smile, but her eyes betrayed her.