"Mama?" A little girl asked nervously.

"What?!" Her mother snapped.

"I-I brought the firewood."

"Why tell me this? Just get it in the fireplace already."

She nodded and ran past to the hearth, throwing in the timber and grabbing the flint, clicking the rocks together a couple times before she got a spark.

My mother hated me. It would be a long time before I realized just why.

The little girl could've been no older than five, yet she went out and carried in a bucket of water twice her size with little effort. The biggest inconvenience wasn't so much the size as it was the awkward angle she had to carry it at.

She set the large bucket of water down and took a pot, filling it with some of the water and putting it over the fire. She then began to hand-wash the laundry with the remaining water. Her mother completely neglected her as she worked.

She never cared much about me. Every day I feared she might kick me out of her house entirely. I worked hard to try and gain her affection, or at least her respect. But nothing worked.

"What are you sitting around here for, girl?!" The mother snapped. "Don't dally around in my house while there's work to be done on the crops!"

Despite knowing that there was nothing really to be done, as the girl had completed all of her chores hours ago, she ran out the door in an effort to escape her mother. There were times when she wished not to be abandoned, and many others where she looked to what freedom she could get.

"Where are you going, child?"

There was this man that I knew. He'd always be nice to me.

"You like flowers?"

She nodded.

"Here."

He passed her a small rose, and she recoiled in fear. It was red as blood, and she had bled many times in the past.

But when she eventually took the plant, she saw it wasn't blood. It didn't smell that way.

He warned her about thorns, but they didn't bother her.

"I'm getting married," The man said.

"Mare-eee-d?"

"Yes."

He pulled a ring off one of his fingers, and she looked to it curiously. He let her take it, and she saw that it was much too large for her finger.

He was the only reason I survived living with my mother.

The small girl was hit back with a whip. Her cheek bled where she'd been struck, but the wound began healing immediately. Even as she received multiple attacks, they weren't concentrated, her mother not a trained expert on the weapon. Why she even had a whip in the first place was questionable, but who was she to question anything to her mother?

She was kicked across the room, holding back any cries of pain for fear of worse punishment.

"You worthless devil child! How many times have I told you to not touch my things without permission?!"

She didn't say anything. All she'd wanted to do was wash her mother's clothes, as she was assigned to do, along with all the other chores around their small household. Not that she wasn't used to a lashing of some kind. And she knew excuses would get her nowhere, so she bit her tongue and took the attacks as her wounds healed.

"It's your fault all of this happened! I was once rich, blessed by the divine deities themselves! But you…you took that all away when you were born!"

At the time, she would not understand what her mother was talking about. She was born the way she was, she had no knowledge of any other way to live.

Over a decade, I grew up with that every day. Nothing compared to what came afterwards, however.

When the dark man came to her mother, she pointed to her daughter, now thirteen years old. Instantly, the young girl was grabbed with a tight grip on her arm.

"What's going on?! Mama!"

"Get her out of my sight! I don't care what the hell you do with her, just never curse me with her again!"

"Mama! Mama, help me!"

Her mother didn't react with a hint of mercy. The young Warlock was dragged away despite her struggles and protests.

"Mama! MAMA!"

"Settle down, bitch!"

She was punched hard in the side of the head by the man pulling her away, leading her to another group of them who all worked to restrain her.

Desperation transformed to anger. Rage boiled within her at the woman who had never treated her with kindness, not like the man she'd grown to love. Thanks to him, she knew what kindness was, and she knew what hatred was in comparison.

She screamed, she wanted her mother to burn. She wanted these men taking her away to burn. She wanted it all to suffer and die!

She let out a piercing scream, let out everything that had built within her since she was born. She tossed the man at her left arm to the ground, flipping his larger frame completely over her shoulder despite the painful angle he'd been restraining her at, and causing him to explode to dust upon impact with the ground.

She grabbed the man at her other arm and swung him into another with a sickening crunch, causing them to disintegrate into ashes as well. More men converged on her, but she was out of their control. She sent out a pure wave of energy, her eyes and hand glowing with her Warlock marks as everyone within a large city's radius were obliterated under her wrath.

The men around her began shouting in pain, and her mother wasn't any different. She watched them suffer, scream, die, and enjoyed it.

"Shu."

"Hm?"

"You're brooding again. Brooding doesn't look good on you."

"I think it's more the other way around. I brood all the time. It's you who it would look weird on."

"Yes, but you're brooding is making me brood. Have we not established this yet?"

"We have." She sighed. "Sorry. What's the plan from here to find the book?"

"That talkative vampire kid, Alexander's sister, and the Fairchild girl are going to look for Camille while Alexander and the Wayland boy are off looking for that Hodge teacher of theirs that stole the cup."

"We should probably get to Camille. The other's don't understand her like we do. Doing business with her doesn't sound like something those impulsive kids are gonna be able to handle themselves."

"Right. Let's head…"

"Do you sense that?"

"Oh, don't tell me they-?"

"I told you that 1% were idiots."

"So, Magnus, Shu, how long has it been?" Camille asked. "One hundred? One hundred fifty years?"

"One hundred thirty eight," Shu corrected.

"Oddly, we haven't missed you," Magnus said.

Camille turned, smiling. "Of course you have, my love."

"All right, you three can catch up later," Clary said. "Right now we need to find the Book of the White."

"And you will. But not without payment." She eyed Magnus. "You of all people should understand that."

"Of course. And what is it you require?"

"A clean slate."

"She wants a Writ of Turning-Me-Into-A-Vampire," Simon explained.

"And we need you to draft it," Clary finished.

Magnus let out a humorless smile. "I thought I was done with you."

"We'll never be done with each other," Camille said, returning the look.

"Fine by me," Shu said, cracking her knuckles.

"I'm gonna call for backup," Izzy whispered before walking out of the room.

"Simon, can I talk to you for a minute?" Clary requested, taking him out of the room as well.

"Let's get this contract over with," Shu said, walking into the next room and getting some enchanted paper. "Here. Once signed, the contract is binding and official."

She tossed it onto the table and Magnus sighed. He held his hand over the paper as his magic swept from his palm down to the enchanted parchment. The words began to form onto the page and solidified into place, Camille watching Magnus carefully.

"You're still upset by my dalliance with that short-lived Russian?" She asked.

"Upset? No," Magnus said. "I gave up feeling anything for you over a century ago. I'm positive Shu hasn't, however it's not love that she feels towards you."

"Love is fleeting. Even more so when you're immortal."

"And yet true love cannot die."

"But people can."

"People are more than just toys for your amusement."

"Hundreds of years old and still so naïve. You wouldn't know what to do with love if you found it."

Magnus tried to keep his face straight and looked back down to the finished contract on the table.

She circled around behind him. "Or do you think you already have?"

"Camille…" Shu warned.

Magnus didn't turn around to her, but she was distracted as she sniffed the air. "Angel blood."

Magnus's eyes rose in realization, before Camille suddenly turned him around and pulled him down into a kiss, allowing him to break away only a moment later, but the damage had already been done. Shu already had a sword drawn from nowhere, and was ready to stab that undead bitch, but was distracted when Magnus looked over to see Alec and Izzy walking in.

"Well, this is…awkward."

"Where's the book?" Alec demanded.

Magnus opened his mouth to speak, trying to recompose himself. "It's complicated."

"Clearly."

"Camille has it," Shu said.

"And she's graciously offered it in exchange for her freedom," Magnus added.

"And her freedom requires a lip-lock?" Izzy asked.

"Oh no, but I'd be happy to punch her for it," Shu said.

"We don't negotiate with prisoners," Alec declared.

"Prisoner?" Camille asked, smiling. "I beg to disagree. You see I'm your only chance at saving the world. You need me."

Magnus made a 'She's crazy' motion with his finger, swirling it around near his temple before pointing at Camille.

"You certainly have a type, don't you, Magnus? He's cute. Too bad it won't last."

"Say that again, you won't last," Izzy threatened.

"Can I punch her now?"

"Not yet."

"I says he's about 20 years from male pattern baldness."

"And I'd say you're about 20 seconds away from another broken nose," Shu threatened.

Magnus had an 'Okay, hurry it up and get me out of this situation' look.

"I don't have time for this," Alec said. "Where's Clary?"

Magnus nervously pointed to the room behind him and Alec walked off.

"Can I punch her now?"

Once they arrived, Magnus opened the elevator gate with an eye-roll of exasperation as Camille sauntered through.

"Wow, you've got a lot of books," Alec commented.

"I've got a lot of time on my hands."

"Welcome home, Madame Belcourt," A servant said, walking up to her.

"This place creeps me out," Izzy said.

"Yeah," Alec agreed. "Let's check the perimeter."

"Good idea," Magnus said. "If I know Camille, she'll have a trick or three up her sleeve."

The two of them walked off.

Camille had Simon sign the contract, before revealing that she actually didn't know where the Book of the White was.

"Dot and Shu gave it to you," Clary reminded her.

"I'm sure it's here somewhere," Camille agreed. "But if the idea was to hide it, telling me would defeat the purpose."

"Of course we would," Shu muttered. "I'd never make finding something easy. Especially if I was hiding it from myself."

"You must've put it somewhere when I wasn't looking."

"So we have to search the whole apartment?" Clary asked.

"See? That's the spirit. Although I'd start now. I've got four more rooms just like this one."

Clary's phone rang, and it looked to be Jace. She walked off to answer it, while Shu rolled her eyes. "I'll go check one of the others."

"What other clues do we have?" Clary asked. "You had to have left some kind of clue."

"Maybe the clue has something to do with color, you know?" Simon suggested. "White is the absence of color, so…or is that black?

"Chicken cacciatore," Shu said. "Joselyn would make it all the time."

They looked over and saw she'd pulled out a cookbook and opened it to Chicken cacciatore.

"Even better the next day," Simon mused. "It's the gift that keeps on giving."

"Maybe more than we realized," Clary said, noticing the end of a familiar ripped off bookmark at the top of the page.

Clary pulled out the bookmark that they'd recovered from Ragnor and saw that the tear lined up exactly. Shu put her hand to the severed ends and they began to glow, sealing together. The rest of the book then began to shimmer, the pages transforming from a cooking recipe to pages filled with ancient runes and symbols.

"This is it," Shu declared.

"We did it!" Simon exclaimed, embracing Clary in a hug.

"We gotta go," Izzy called from the doorway. "He's here."

"I'll go find Magnus and Alec," Shu said, turning to walk off in the opposite direction while Izzy, Simon, and Clary headed towards the elevator.

"Found 'em!" Shu called. "One slight set back, though."

The three of them were pulled through the doorway by some Shadowhunters who had seraph blades at their throats. Simon and Izzy were similarly restrained, Clary was holding the Book of the White, and Jace had arrived at some point and was pointing his seraph blade at Valentine.

"See, you are strong, but they make you weak," Valentine was saying to Jace.

"Let us go," Clary demanded. "You can have the book. We won't be able to stop you without it."

"Ah, Clarissa. So like your mother. Willing to do anything for those that you love. I'm touched, but…the book was never part of my plan. I want you to wake up your mother. I know that you'll both join me eventually."

Clary glared at him and hugged the book tighter to herself.

"It's fated." He turned back to Jace. "You ready?"

Jace hesitated, looking around to his restrained friends.

"Just be a moment, dear," Shu said.

She then jabbed her elbow back into the man restraining her, a cracking sound coming from a couple broken ribs, before she then took his arm and flipped him over her shoulder. She stomped down upon his shattered ribs, causing him to let out a scream of pain, before holding her hand out as a three foot long sword formed in her hand. The blade was midnight black with white accents traveling down the length, and the double-edged weapon was sharper than broken glass.

She slammed the blade down into his chest, and he shattered to dust, the ashes crawling up the blade and sinking into the white parts before disappearing. She then twisted her blade to aim at Valentine, the other members that were restraining Izzy, Alec, Simon, and Magnus all tightening their grips, stepping back and pressing the blades to their necks harder.

Shu suddenly flinched, her arm wobbling as her sword dropped. Along her neck was a small line of blood, her neck being cut. She held her wound and panted, letting out a string of curses from under her breath.

"Now, where were we?" Valentine asked.

Jace looked around frantically, before his eyes settled on the man before him and his arm with his blade fell. "If I go with you…promise me you won't hurt them."

"You have my word."

"This is insane," Clary protested.

"I'm sorry, Clary," Jace said.

"Jace…what are you doing? You can't be serious! Valentine is wrong! You-You're not like him. I'm not. You're not!"

"You don't know that, Clary. You don't know that."

"Let them go," Valentine ordered.

They were all released, and Shu took a deep breath as Magnus kneeled beside her and checked if she was okay. Simon went over to Clary, while Alec and Izzy stepped forward to Jace, but he held his arms out to keep them at bay.

"Get back. Get back! Alec, I mean it."

"Jace…" Clary begged.

Valentine took his arm and pulled him to the portal behind them where the others of Valentine's crew were already disappearing through.

"Jace…"

He turned and went with them willingly, giving Clary an apologetic look.

"Jace!"

She shoved the Book of the White into Simon's arms before surging forward. "Jace! Jace! No!"

Alec intercepted her, his bigger frame and strength able to bring her to a halt with ease despite her struggles. Jace and Valentine disappeared through the portal.

"What are you doing?!" She demanded.

"Saving your life," Alec said.

"If you enter a portal not knowing where you're going, you'll be stuck in limbo forever," Shu explained. "I once was able to rescue a person from limbo, but it's not exactly an easy process. I couldn't duplicate the circumstances for you."

They watched as the glistening purple of the portal faded away. Clary fell against Alec, sobbing, staring to the place where she lost Jace.

"You okay?"

"It's healed," Shu said, rubbing her neck. "Just be glad you didn't take that sword or you'd be dead or near dead right now from blood loss alone. The healing factor does come in handy sometimes. Under the right circumstances, I could regrow my head, so don't be concerned for me."

"I'll keep that in mind, but that was a visual I could've gone my whole life without."

She looked down the hallway. "You should talk to Alec and clear things up. If you want, I can be your advocate. Just give me a holler if you need me. I'm gonna help set up Joselyn for the spell."

She patted him on the shoulder and walked past him and then Alec.

"I know you don't wanna hear it, so I'll just say it once. Whatever I felt for Camille, it's ancient history. Almost literally."

"Yeah, but what she said about you being immortal…she's right. You watch the people you care about age and die."

"Alexander…I may be the High Warlock of Brooklyn, but…even I can't see the future."

"They're ready," Luke called as he walked up. "They moved her to the Ops Center."

"Good. We need the space. Joselyn's spell is very powerful."

"Do you really think this is going to work?" Clary asked, handing over the Book of the White.

"Let us hope," Magnus sighed.

Shu opened the book and flipped through the pages, settling on one before showing it to Magnus. The two of them snapped their fingers and waved their hands over Joselyn, the green aura around her shimmering as their magic made contact.

"Joselyn!"

They began to chant in Chthonian together, reading out of the book. as their magic spread across her and the green curse began to weaken. They threw the final words out, the magic pulsing to break through and Joselyn shaking. With the final pulses of energy, the aura holding her faded completely, and Luke rushed forward to catch her and lift her into his arms as she opened her eyes.

"I got you."

"Luke," She muttered happily, hugging him in relief.

He set her down, and she adjusted to standing on her feet after so long, looking around before seeing Clary.

"Mom…" Clary muttered. "Mom!" They quickly embraced. "I missed you so much…"

"I'm so sorry I didn't tell you about your past."

Clary shook her head. "No, not now. I have had enough for one day. We can talk about all that later. Right now, I just…I just really need my mom."

She began to sob against her mother's shoulder in relief.

"It's okay."