Disclaimer: My hair does have red tints (natural and in the sun) but sadly I'm not a full red-head. So I guess I'm not Cassie Clare. But I do own my characters and these words.

***Important A/N***

I'M BACK (AND SO IS THE STORY...KINDA) Miss me? Hehe...anyways, hey guys, so this is going to act like a prequel to CoGH (City of Glass Hearts) So if you did not read it, I suggest that you read it. You can go to my profile and click it, search it or click this link:

Now, it is not necessary to read CoGH to read this but it will give you a better understand of why they act the way they do and their pasts in CoGH. You can still read this first, heck, you can wait till this is over (it can act as a giant prequel to my story) and read CoGH afterwards.

Also, it has just a little to do with Infernal Devices but if you didn't read it, it doesn't really matter, it just enhances it.

That it all, hope you guys enjoy :)


Under my bed was a dress box

Spilling old pictures,

A sift of lost faces

To drift beneath my dreams.

I am from those moments –

Snapped before I budded –

Leaf-fall from the family tree

~George Ella Lyon. Poem "Where I'm from" last stanza.

Prologue

Year: 2003

"Mom," said a teenage girl, tapping her shoulder repeatedly until she turned around. Her mother sighed before facing her.

"Yes?" she asked, her patience running thin. She had forgotten how hard it was to have a child, let alone a teenage girl. She wondered how her mother handled it – and if she was like her daughter at her age.

"I want to go hunting," the girl chimed excitedly, her silver eyes lighted with excitement of the prospect of doing so.

Her mom's shoulders sagged, wondering how she was going to say no for the hundredth time. It seemed like she didn't listen to a word she said to her before. She resisted the urge to run her hair through her silver hair, the same color, if not brighter pasted onto her daughter's hair.

Her husband's genes didn't get a hole of her, none of the light sandy hair that sometimes looked blonde was in her hair, and the blue eyes were missing too. She was completely like her mother, sadly enough for her. She knew how horrible it was to grow up with hair that could be mistaken as white. But she seemed to like it."Hon, I told you thousands of times before that you can't. Just two more years and then you can go with your siblings."

"But that's not fa-ir," the girl whined. Of course it wasn't fair when your siblings could do everything – and you couldn't.

"They had to wait their turn too. Now, I have some work to do; run along now," she shushed her daughter away, her calm façade about to slip any second. Her mother knew where she was coming from but it was for her own good.

The girl stomped outside, her face twisted in frustration. It didn't seem fair to her that she was always left out, always the one listening to fabulous and thrilling stories rather than actually telling them. For once, she wanted to be in the center of attention, to tell a story and have awed faces surrounding her and hanging onto each word like it was life.

But it all went to her siblings. How typical, she thought whiling kicking a stray gray stone. Her mother won't understand – she's always doing great things. She probably didn't even remember how unfair it was when she was a child, after all she was the last child with two older siblings and all of them were for years apart.

"Ouch," she heard someone say – or rather mumble. She could hear it better due to her super hearing. Which is why the rock also happened to go farther than what a normal twelve year old would kick out of anger.

She followed the voice, wanting to apologize to her fellow Shadowhunter, even if she was in a sour mood. Who knows, maybe one day this Shadowhunter might save her life or her family's.

When she saw the familiar tufts of brown hair, she ran up to him, her best friend. "Sorry, that was me. What are you doing at my house?" she asked, noticing that he crossed the lines between our neighboring houses, not that she really cared all that much.

"Well Silver, I came here to talk to you. Can you believe how they won't let us go hunting?" he asked, echoing what was on her mind, grateful that he just had a similar problem as her. She smiled at the use of her nickname, Silver, because of her silver hair.

Her real name was Selena, named after the moon due to her appearance. With silver eyes and matching hair, and pale skin, it kind of made sense.

"Well Aid," I said, mimicking him, "I know exactly how you feel. My mom just said no to be yet again!"

His face softened. "We should do something about it," he said as he plopped onto the lush forest green grass.

She sat down next to him. "Yeah," she agreed, laying on the ground completely and staring at the fluffy white cotton candy clouds, "but what? We always say that but never actually do something."

She turned her head to look at him to see his face thoughtful. "Well," he paused, looking at her, "this is kind of crazy but…"

"But?"

"We could sneak out and kill a demon ourselves." The girl's silver orbs widened at the thought.

"But isn't that kind of dangerous?" she asked in a small voice. Going alone was a scary prospect – one she didn't want to try.

He opened his mouth, but closed it, thinking better of it. Saying either way it's dangerous was going to pressure her into saying yes and he didn't want to force her to say yes. Instead he said, "Never mind. Forget that I mentioned it."

"No, it's a good idea, just really, you know," she said, feeling bad about turning down his idea. But the more she thought of it, the more she realized how much sense it made. They would have done it alone, showed that they were more than capable, and from then on they wouldn't be the ones in the sidelines.

"Let's do it," she said suddenly, filled with excitement.

One day later…

She snuck of her house, slipping out the window and landing on her feet like a cat, the backpack bumping against her back. She had packed it the day before with a few weapons and walked for a mile before resting against a tree.

She almost fell asleep when a figure jumped out at her. Only having her stele in her hand at the moment, she jumped on the person, trying to remember how the confinement rune looked like. It would make him immobile if drawn on four different sides of the person, or on the ground.

The figure slammed his back onto the tree – right where she was and she hit it surprisingly lightly before a hand covered her mouth. She squealed but a voice spoke above her. "It's me, you idiot."

She clamped her mouth as the hand drew away. "Sorry, you just scared me." He just nodded, barely visible except for the moon that was lighting their way.

When they were outside of Idris, the moon climbing steadily, they headed straight for the forest, where they learned were most of those foul things hid.

They walked side by side, trying to not make any noise but when a twig snapped under their feet they both jumped before walking again, slightly closer than before.

When there were only a few hours of night left, they decided to head back, not finding anything. They were torn into feeling disappointed and guiltily happy when they heard a rustle. They both spun around to see a thing slitering out from the bushes, dark and big.

They inched back, terrified and rooted to the place from the ice that ran down their veins. It made noises, noises that sounded like crackling flames before it switched tongues. "Who's this?" it hissed, peering closer at them, not in the least bit scared of the teenagers.

Where the demons eyes should have been looked at the boy, then the girl. "A Carstairs," it said, the tongue darting out as it talked. "I shall kill all the kin of the Shadowhunters," it spat, it's pitiless eyes boring into silver ones, "who killed my own."

The girl stood there, confused. What did it mean, that we killed it's family? I haven't killed a demon in my life, let alone see one. Until now, that is. And why was it solely focused on her?

It slithered closer and silver flashed out, with ichor falling out of the wound, but it only laughed. "Silver, get out your goddamn weapons," he hissed at her, taking out another seraph blade that was like the one before.

She fumbled for her bag, taking out two twin blades. "Don't throw it at it or else you'll run out of weapons," she advised him while slashing out with her blades. It didn't even seem to look at her as it swatted her away, her head hitting bark.

Her vision blurred and all she saw was green and black before she felt slightly burning pain and feeling better. "Thanks," she panted at Aden.

He just nodded. "Why does it only want you?" he asked as he slashed at its side over and over again without it even touching him.

"I don't know!" she answered while dodging a tentacle. Suddenly, a bright light sliced through the sky like a knife – it actually was a knife – and pierced the things middle.

For the first time, it shrieked, the sound of nails grinding down on chalkboards and a horrible voice breaking glass all in one. "Aden," she whispered shakily, "did you do that?"

"No," he whispered back, "did you?"

She shook her head, and backed away slowly. "Is that your mom?" Aden asked, disbelief in his voice.

"Mom!" she called out, running towards her. Her mom let her witchlight shine higher and she saw her dad along with Aden's parents as well. "What are you doing here?"

"I should be asking you that," she retorted, anger lighting her eyes brighter than the moon.

"Sorry, but that thing said we killed its family. And it knew I was a Carstairs," I told her, unable to keep the terror out of my voice.

Her liquid silver eyes hardened into rock. "Yanluo," she spat out bitterly. "Stay here" she commanded before going into the forest. She saw her sister and brother trailing after her parents along with Aden's parents.

She was too scared to protest or follow them, so she stood there numbly. "Come on," he said gently, tugging her into the forest. "We have to help them."

The heat came back in her and she followed. Everywhere there was fighting, ichor and flashes of silver. The two teenagers drew iratze on someone, too worried and dark to see who it was. And not really wanting to.

She looked up, hoping for some kind of miracle but none came. Instead, she saw her mother slam into the tree hard enough to sway it slightly and her dad rushing after her, shaking her shoulders before charging at him, facing the same fate.

Aden stayed where he was, helping whoever it was while she rushed to her parents. "Mom? Dad?" she asked, hope not fleeting her yet. Two pairs of eyes opened slightly, and their mouths opened.

"I love you," they both said, before her dad's eyes rolled into the back of his head. "Forever," her mother added before the same thing happened to her.

She cried out, but no one was going to help her, or her parents. She sunk into the ground before Aden came and told her to help him drag someone out – she didn't see who – of that horrible place. Once they got back into Idris, they knocked on the first house they found, but no one opened it.

Tired, cold and in shock, they all collapsed on the porch.


Nothing really to say…oh, btw, they live all the way near the edge of Idris so..yeah, they can cross it over night. And…I'll update when I can and check out City of Glass Hearts if you haven't (I really recommend reading that first before this) and Superhero.

Hope you guys liked it. Tell me what you think :)

Your writer who loves reviews as much as donuts (which is a lot),

~Icyfirelove3