XXX CHARACTERS BELONG TO CASSANDRA CLARE WITH SOME EXCEPTIONS XXX

James gave Amanda exactly three days to live with the knowledge that he was back in her life for good before he appeared at her doorstep again.

She hadn't been there.

He'd had to go back to Wolverton Manor, extend his arm out to his mother and accept her disapproving looks as she etched on the palms of his hands and just above his marriage runes the sacred Marks used on by the Barriers of Idris. They were the Marks that allowed the Barriers to feel the Wards that defended their country, to be one with the spells and the runes that kept away Mundanes and demons alike.

Any breach was felt.

Any threat to their safety.

Years ago those Marks had been the first thing to alert the Nephilim that Sebastian Morgenstern and his army of Fairies and Endarkened had entered Idris. His family, nearly sixty strong, had dispersed as messengers to Alicante to warn the Council and Consul while the Bloodgoods had gone to the Barrier, to reinforce what had been weakened and to build new Wards.

Both families had lost people, either to swords or to Sebastian's blasted Cup. James didn't remember much about his uncles and aunts, and cousins, but he did remember his two oldest brothers. He remembered how his mother had sent him to the Hall of Accords while she held off his siblings from killing him and his sisters.

Now it was his turn to bear the Marks of the Barrier as all his other family members would have if his father hadn't lost his damn mind. James still couldn't believe that Gregory had forbidden any other Wolverston from riding the Barrier as their family code demanded it from them.

His many years at the Scholomance had taught James to control his temper. There were times he could think of his father with level-headedness unnatural to his family. When you killed enough demons, when you faced the end of Emma Blackthorn's sword, saw things very few creatures had ever seen or survived a test created by Jace Herondale, his father's selfishness and high-handness seemed like a child's crime.

Whether the rest of his family could ever forgive his father was a different matter. Yes, he'd been scared of Gregory as child, but he wasn't scared any more. He would defy his father in any way necessary to regain the rights of his bloodline. What was a Wolverston without the Barrier? What purpose did they serve?

His mother had drawn the runes and rolled her eyes at him before she'd disappeared into the library. She hadn't said a word to him since he'd come home to tell her he hadn't accepted Amanda's petition for a divorce.

Considering the lack of warmth in his mother's reception, he doubted he'd get anything better from Amanda.

It grated at his nerves to wait for her to come back to Bloodgood Castle. Pissed him right off that she'd set a locking rune on the front door that kept him from getting in. He would have attempted to break it but he wasn't willing to find out what bad tricks she'd picked up over the years.

Instead, he tracked after her.

His wife wasn't necessarily easy to find, but it wasn't hard to locate her either. It was almost like she was alive in his bloodstream. He'd followed her tracks east, and then south, staying close to the foot of the mountains but never starting to climb. She'd crossed a river, set up camp, and wandered around barefooted despite the growing chill in the air before she went to sleep.

He'd caught up to her the day after, standing near a rickety bridge over a rushing creek.

He leaned forward, wrists leaning against the pummel of his saddle as he watched her study the bridge.

Her hair was up in a lopsided ponytail and there was a discarded hat on the floor with the Red Sox's logo. He wondered where she'd picked that up. She didn't wear gear like normal Shadowhunters, but wore dark brown riding breeches, a white linen shirt, and worn leather boots. A leather belt hung low on her hips, a sword and a few knifes strapped to it. She had tomahawks tucked in the back of her pants. She'd rolled up her sleeves and her arms were covered in the same runes as his and so many more he didn't recognize. It fascinated him to this day that her runes didn't fade from black to gray like everyone once else; hers had a beautiful red tint to them.

Fascinating and macabre: the color of dried blood.

Her horse was tied to a tree a hundred yards away and over the saddle was dark green cloak. It was sensible for a woman who rode the Barrier every day.

As he watched she shifted her footing, pushed some dry needles with the heel of her boot and rotated her neck left to right.

Amanda might keep the Barrier but she was a warrior, of that he had absolutely no doubt. Her body was a weapon in itself; her arms were muscled, her shoulders broad and rounded and used to taking on weight. She was not fragile or small; no, Amanda would never give any one that impression. It might have been the harshness of her black eyebrows or the cut of her high cheeks, or the way her lips were always pursed like she was holding words that would scorch the earth.

"What are you doing?"

She didn't jump. She didn't even look back at him. "I'm looking at a bridge."

Queen of Obvious.

"And what do you plan to do with this bridge?"

She turned away then, walking to a tree stump where an enormous, double-head axe made from adamas rested along side a long length of rope. She grabbed both and walked back to the bridge. She was sure footed as she wandered half way in, tied the rope around one rail and examined a spot just a few feet over. In one quick, well-practiced move, she splintered the railing in half. Then she turned and did the same to the other side.

"You're in a bad place to weaken that structure."

"I know how to destroy bridges, thank you."

He was sure she had enough experience for both of them.

"I meant it might collapse with you on it."

She heaved a sigh of impatience, as if he were an idiot she had to deal with. "Once again, I know how to destroy bridges."

She picked and chose several spots where she delivered precise and measured blows, not enough to bring down the whole thing but certainly weaken it. She attacked the weight bearing parts with skill and precision and left James holding his breath as she walked around, more light footed than any Shadowhunter had the right to be.

"Would you like some help?"

"Go away."

Ouch, that hurt.

On solid ground, she slung her axe over her shoulder and grabbed the end of her rope. She didn't even put the axe down before she gave it one solid yank.

He was amazed at the sound that she made when the bridge collapsed to a reap over the creek. It was a girlish laughter, a giggle and a snort that he hadn't expected she was still capable of.

She slid down the side of the bank and started chopping the larger pieces into much smaller ones.

James dismounted, tying his horse up before he joined her and started to collect the pieces. "Why did you chop it down?"

"It was rotten."

Try his patience she would.

She worked with an efficiency that amazed him. She was long done chopping before he'd finished organizing everything.

"It was old and compromised by the elements. Not a lot of people come this way so no one maintains it. The werewolves use it, some times, but when winter comes and later when the snow melts this thing becomes a death trap."

James wasn't sure if he should gloat or just be thankful that she was speaking to him at all. "Thank you for doing a job that belongs to me."

Amanda glanced at him before shrugging and climbing the side of the bank.

She was seated on the ground, a canteen next to her, when he joined her. She tipped her head back to him in his full height and reluctantly offered him water when he was across from her on the damp ground. "You're grown ridiculously large. Remember when we were little and your grandmother loved to show off how beautiful you were? Whenever there were any other Nephilim around, you were always the center of attention. The boy with the beautiful voice and the angelic face. I think the unsanctioned tattoo and the gravel in your voice might finally get her to stop."

"I'd be hard to drag anyway. I might have a foot and a half on her."

"All those years, you must have been repressed by the weight of your father's stupidity and your young bride."

"Are you trying to pick a fight?"

"Yes. I thrive in it and I'm not sorry for it." She looked utterly unapologetic as she sat there with her battle axe on her lap.

"What happened after I left?"

"I took on everything. Riding the Barrier, keeping the Wards, being the only person covering the whole of Idris. It didn't leave a lot of free time. I think you father let me do it because he hope I'd fail and come begging him for his help and guidance. I did have help, though. Helen Blackthorn came to train me and Clarissa Herondale showed up one day with new Barrier runes that did incredible things that the old ones couldn't. And the years passed and I didn't cave. I did what I said I'd do."

"With no one to share the burden."

"It's not a burden, James. It's the life I was born in to. I was born for this."

"You were not meant to carry the weight of it all on your shoulders."

"Maybe not, but I thrive on it. I'm good at it.

"You were good at making flower crowns and planting gardens and keeping bees."

"You remember a child."

"I never stopped thinking of you as a child. Did you ever think of me as anything other than a boy?"

James saw Amanda's eyes flare. He saw her suck in her breath and her nostril's flared. It was almost amusing that she still had the same tells as she had as a child. A bit of a temper. "Was it easier to stay away when you thought of me as a child, rather than a woman?"

"You were fifteen. We were married for two weeks."

"You have a point," Amanda shrugged.

James caught her eyes, remembering how beautiful he'd always thought they were. Brown the color of melting chocolate and fresh brewed espresso. In those rare times she got angry, those eyes turned to flame. Pure flame.

"Don't you remember that afternoon?" His voice did not rise, but it took on a severe, rather chilling tone that he'd picked up sometime over the years and was rather useful on demons. "You threw me out of my parents' house and told me never to come back. You said you never wanted to see my face again. How's that for 'til the Angel take us away from each other?"

"Did you commit adultery?"

That took him back. The forest seem to quiet down to the point he thought made he was loosing his hearing. At least he kept his patience.

"Our marriage feels like a lifetime ago. I don't even remember the last conversation we had before our lives went to hell. I never got to apologize to you."

"It was Gregory's doing. You are just a tool."

He could tell she meant that in many ways.

"You were my best friend. You could have been my parabatai. We grew up together. The whole thing made my betrayal worse."

There was pause in which Amanda seemed to drift off. "I did."

"You did what?"

"There was someone else when you were gone."

James had to force his hands from turning into fists. His stomach turned at the thought of another man with Amanda. "Is he still around?"

Amanda shook her head. "He fell in love with another. They had a baby a few months ago."

By the Angel, that didn't make him feel better at all. It was the tone Amanda used, the tone of someone used to disappointment. She hadn't gotten involved because everyone in her life disappointed her. James felt a sudden wave of longing, not for the hard-faced woman in front of her, but for the girl whose eyes lit up any time he walked into a room, the one who had loved him.

"Is that what you wanted for yourself?"

"I don't think the Angel meant me for a family. I'm better off surrounded by wilderness then taking care of children."

"I want kids." He had no clue what prompted him to admit something like that to her. He hadn't given it a lot of thought until he'd come home to see what had become of Wolverston Manor and his family.

"I'm confident that when our marriage is dissolved, you'll find a new wife that will share that hope with you. Many blessings on her womb and whatnot."

"What?" His snarl shocked even him.

She wasn't listening anymore. Amanda had stood up to pluck a fire message from the spot near her head. Her eyes narrowed as she scanned the note before she released it.

"There is one thing, James," she said as she rolled her sleeves down and slung her axe over her shoulder. "It's time you take over the Barrier like the Wolverstons' were meant to. I was under the impression I could do it alone, but it seems I was ignoring some of my own shortcomings. I know Clary Herondale has trained your mother in the new Marks of the Barrier, but I'm willing to aid in your home coming efforts."

"Where are you going?"

"I've received summons."

He followed her as she walked to her horse and put her axe away. She pulled her great coat on and climbed up.

"This conversation isn't over."

"Go home, learn how to pack a bag again. Look over the maps. Learn your Marks. Remember the Wards."

"Our marriage isn't over."

Amanda laughed. "I'll see you at the Barrier, James. If you survive the first week."

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