Carly Herondale looked at her sister's face. The flawless skin had lost all its color, and so had the lips. Her golden eyes were closed forever, bound with white silk. The wavy, blonde hair had lost all its life. Aloise looked so peaceful where she lay in the coffin with her hands resting on her chest, a seraph blade in her right hand. She had been dressed in her favorite white dress. It almost looked like she was just sleeping, like she would open her golden eyes any second and smile her enchanting smile at Carly. Almost, but not quite. Carly took one last look at Aloise before she opened her mouth and formed her last words for Aloise.
"Ave atque vale. Hail and farewell."
She turned around and silently walked back to her seat between her mother and father. Not a single tear fell down her cheeks. She knew that if she started crying, she would never be able to stop.
After the ceremony, everyone left together. It must have looked strange to the mundanes, a small group of sad looking people with weird tattoos all over their bodies leaving a funeral, all dressed in white. Carly didn't care. She wouldn't care about anything today. All she had to do was to survive the day. For the sake of her parents. She looked sideways, at her mother. Clary carried herself with just grace, Carly felt a little jealous. She looked at her other side, at her father. Carly knew that her father was trying to keep it together in front of his family, but she knew Jace's face to know that he was destroyed. Carly swallowed the growing lump in her throat and look down at her dress. The white, silky fabric was soft against her pale skin. Isabelle had picked it out for her. Carly felt her heart warm when she thought of her aunt, Jace's adoptive sister. Isabelle had been such a rock for Clary and Jace, and that meant the world for Carly.
The Shadowhunters wandered the streets of New York City, invisible to all the mundanes. Florian watched their innocent faces. None of them knew about the Shadow world. Sometimes, Florian had to admit to himself that he wanted to be like them. Unknowing of demons and darkness. Free from the responsibility of everyday saving the world. Instead of thinking about that, he turned to look at the other Shadowhunters walking around him. There was Jace and Clary with Carly. Florian couldn't even begin to imagine what this must be like for them, so he didn't even try. He looked at his sister Blythe and his younger brother Elwin. He shuddered at the thought of losing one of them… Then he looked at his father. Alec looked so sad. Not just because his parabatai had lost one of his daughters, Florian realized, but also because Magnus hadn't even showed up at the funeral. Florian didn't want to think about the absence of his second father, so he looked at his aunt Isabelle and her boyfriend Simon. There were holding hands. But that wasn't what Florian what looking for. He gazed over the sea of white until he found her. She was walking alone, her shiny, black hair blowing in the wind. Today she was wearing a short, white dress with long sleeves. To Florian, she looked like an angel. He hesitated for a moment before excusing himself to Alec, and walked toward the angel walking alone.
"Elaine? Are you okay?", she heard his voice behind her.
Before turning around to face him, she quickly wiped the tears from her face. She met Florian's green-brown eyes. She had to say, he looked handsome today. The wind had made his golden hair messy, and the white suit he was wearing looked good on him. Elaine hated herself for thinking that. Florian was her adoptive cousin, and she had just left the funeral of her parabatai's sister.
"Yeah, totally.", she finally answered Florian.
He didn't look convinced, so Elaine tried smiling at him. It must have looked more like a grimace. How could it be like that? She was so good at flirting with all the boys she met, and they always fell for her. How could it be that she was so terrible at everything around Florian? Maybe it was because they were cousins. But they were not really related. Elaine's uncle Alec and his ex-husband Magnus had adopted their three children; Florian, Blythe and Elwin.
When Florian smiled back at her, she forgot that he was supposed to be her cousin. The one thing she remembered was that Florian did not just look handsome today; he always looked handsome. And it killed her to think about that.