Chapter One
Twins

The girl was stunning. Her skin was a light gold colour and her thick blonde hair, curling in the damp, August heat, glowed like a halo in the late afternoon sun. A pair of emerald green eyes blazed out from her face. Beside her walked a boy with her golden toned skin and blonde hair, but his eyes were gold rather than green. The boy also had hints of strawberry in his short, blonde crop, whereas the girl had no sign of this. The boy walked with the casual, confident stride of a person who knows they are attractive and enjoys it, while the girl walked with the stride of someone who was absolutely furious.

"That was the stupidest thing you could have done, Mike!" she snapped at the boy. "What were you thinking?"

The boy, Mike, instantly assumed a wounded air. "Your lack of faith in me is insulting, Ruby, I had everything under control."

"It didn't look like that to me," Ruby told him. "It looked like that faerie had the upper hand."

"He did not!" Mike said, but it sounded like he was lying.

"Oh yes he did!" Ruby said. "He had your arms twisted behind you and was sitting on top of you!"

"Alright, so maybe I was in a tight situation," Mike admitted grudgingly. "But I don't need my baby sister to come to my rescue, alright? Especially not with a faerie, two werewolves, a half-nixie and an ifrit watching. It's embarrassing!"

"So you'd have preferred it if I'd let the faerie dislocate your shoulders, would you? And I'm not your baby sister, I'm your twin sister."

"You are younger than me by a full minute and thirty-eight seconds," Mike said in a superior tone. "That makes you my baby sister."

"You're a stuck-up, arrogant pig, Mike"

"Well, as Uncle Alec would say, I am my father's son."

"I have my doubts," Ruby told him. "You're even worse than dad."

Mike muttered something uncomplimentary under his breath about sisters. Ruby rolled her eyes and stalked ahead of her brother, pretending she hadn't heard what he'd said.

It was typical of Mike to believe that he was utterly and completely invincible. That was what had caused him to get into a fight with the faerie at Taki's. As usual, he hadn't been able to keep his mouth shut, and some inappropriate remarks about the faerie's girlfriend had led to a brawl. Ruby had broken it up, but not before Taki, the chef, a warlock and the owner of the restaurant, had come storming out and told the pair that if they ever darkened his doorstep again, he would cut them into pieces and make a stew out of them. In short, Mike and Ruby had been banned from Taki's.

As she walked, Ruby wondered what her parents would have to say about this. Her mother would be furious, of course, but their father might let them get away with it. That wasn't to say that their father was a softie, but he would probably not see a brawl with a faerie as too greater crime. If Aunt Isabelle was at the institute, then she would probably be able to reason with their mother, but Aunt Isabelle was in Idris with her fiancé. Nope, unless their father let them off the hook, they were going to get a serve and a half from their mother. Ruby slowed her pace, anything to put off the confrontation with her mother was fine by her.

"Thanks for waiting up," Mike said sarcastically, coming along side her.

"We're going to be in it when we get home," Ruby said. "Mom's going to have a fit."

"Only if we tell her what happened," Mike said in a crafty voice.

"What?" asked Ruby.

"Well, mom's not going to know what happened if we don't tell her," Mike said. "So, if we don't tell her about the fight and getting thrown out of Taki's then –"

"Then she can't get mad at us!" Ruby said. "Mike, you're a genius!"

"It's been said," Mike told her. Ruby smacked him on the shoulder.

"Ow!" he complained. "Watch it, that's tender."

"I know," Ruby told her brother.

As it turned out, all hopes of getting away quietly were dashed when the pair reached their home. As they rounded the corner and saw the massive, gothic cathedral that marked their home, they saw something like a small blaze burning in front of it.

"Uh oh," Mike said, turning to his sister.

"Mom," Ruby said, looking pale.

Clarissa Lightwood, their mother, was standing in front of the cathedral, watching her children inch closer to her from the other end of the street. Her red hair was lit up by the afternoon sun, giving the impression that there was a fire burning atop her head.

The twins walked as slowly as they possibly could towards their mother, like two criminals going towards their execution. They walked as if through wet cement, seeming to struggle to place one foot in front of the other. When they eventually reached their mother, they seemed to have shrunk, their shoulder hunched and their heads down.

Clarissa pointed at the door to the church.

"In," was all she said and the twins walked dejectedly into the cathedral. Their mother followed, walking just behind them. They walked through the empty church and to the elevator. When the gilded birdcage arrived to take them up into the institute, Mike turned to his mother.

"Mom, we can explain –"

"You'd better," Clarissa said.

"It was all –"

"Not yet."

Mike closed his mouth and stepped into the elevator, his sister and mother following him in. He and Ruby exchanged looks full of foreboding as the elevator took them up and into the Institute. When the doors opened, Clarissa led the way down a long corridor to the library. On the way they passed the empty rooms that could offer shelter to Shadowhunters if they needed it and their own bedrooms. As they approached the library, they heard muffled voices coming from behind the door.

"Is that Uncle Alec?" Ruby asked curiously and her mother turned and nodded curtly.

"That means Magnus Bane is here too," Mike muttered any his breath. "I wondered how mom found out so quickly."

"I heard that, Michael Lightwood," Clarissa said. "Consider yourself lucky Magnus was here, imagine how much angrier I would be if I found out later that you'd lied to me, as I know you would have tried to."

Mike shuddered at the image of his mother being any angrier than she already was and Ruby decided not to try and picture it. Their mother opened the door to the library and gestured her children through it. They walked in.

Had they not been in so much trouble, they would have been excited to greet their dark haired uncle, who was sitting on a couch beside his partner, High Warlock Magnus Bane. Mike didn't like Magnus, he thought the warlock wore too much glitter, dressed too outlandishly and was altogether far too strange. Ruby, on the other hand, liked him. Magnus's eccentricity made him a likeable person, as far as she was concerned. Magnus smiled hugely at the two Shadowhunter children as they entered the room. Their Uncle Alec wore an expression which told his niece and nephew that he was none too impressed with their behaviour. Ruby and Mike already knew their mother was furious and –

"Where's dad?" Ruby asked, looking around for her blond haired, golden skinned father.

"Never you mind that now, Ruby," her mother told her. "You and Michael have some explaining to do."

"I think I agree," Magnus put in. "Imagine getting into a fight with a faerie that resulted in being banned from Taki's. This is a story I simply have to hear! Tell me, how did it start?"

"We are not encouraging this behaviour, Magnus," Clarissa said firmly.

"I have to agree with Clary, Magnus," Alec said. "This is terrible behaviour for Shadowhunter children to be exhibiting."

"Next thing you know there'll be a goddamn law against it!" Mike snapped. "We didn't do anything wrong!"

"Are you trying to tell me," Clary whispered, staring at her son, her voice deadly, "that you were thrown out of Taki's for doing NOTHING WRONG? WHY ARE YOU LYING TO ME!"

"It's not like that, mom!" Mike said. "When I say 'we' I mean myself and Ruby. See, we didn't do anything wrong, I did. Rubes broke up the fight, in fact."

Ruby made a face. "Don't call me 'Rubes'."

One thing you had to give Mike credit for was his honesty. If he had done something wrong and was caught, he would admit to it, even if he had lied about it to begin with. Eventually, he would always come clean.

Clary looked from her son to her daughter and back again. Her gaze then locked on Mike.

"Are you telling the truth?"

"I'll swear on the angel if it would make you believe me," Mike said, standing up straight and proud. He stared his mother straight in the eye as he spoke.

Clary looked at her son for a long moment.

"I believe you," she said. "You are telling me the truth. Ruby, you may go."

Ruby gave her brother a grateful smile and left the library. She was just at the door when she said: "Mom, where's dad?"

"In the greenhouse," Clary said.

Ruby thanked her and left. Just before she closed the door she heard Magnus say: "Now, let's hear the story, my boy!" and her mother's disapproving "Hmmph!"

She closed the door and went to the greenhouse to find her father.