The Clave along with Arthur, Diana and the Inquisitor, Robert Lightwood, had been in meetings for three days. Emma, Jules, Cristina and the shadowhunters from New York had joined them a few times. Emma had soon felt forgotten as those from the Clave refused to listen to arguments coming from a 17-year-old. Jules had smiled at her and drawn encouraging words on her arm.

She had been too angry to return his smiles. Yet, she was afraid she would have started yelling at them if he had not been there.

When Isabelle had been on her first meeting she breathed out as soon as she went out of the room and said she saw what they meant when they said the Clave was unreasonable. They kept saying it probably was something the Fae were doing and they would look into it. No reason for the Los Angeles Institute to worry about that.

"But they killed my parents five years ago! This is something you should have looked into a while ago", Emma exclaimed before Jules or Cristina could stop her. Diana had given her a disapproving look and from the other side of the table she got a glare from the Clave representative Elizabeth Blackrose. Blackrose was one of them who had been with the Clave when they were going to part Jules and Emma five years ago. She had dark hair tied up in a neat bun and a just as dark suit. Her hair was probably dyed since Emma knew she was well above sixty.

"In the files it says they were murdered by Morgenstern's army", Blackrose said. As soon as she did Clary's head dipped down and Jace leaned closer to her to whisper in her ear and give her a hug. "Therefore I see no reason to look back at that."

Emma knew those files she was talking about were long gone. For five years they had been hidden under her bed. Blackrose must have read them before Emma took them.

Emma stood up again and was about to talk back to Blackrose when Jules gently tugged on her sleeve and with one look made her sit down again. She knew as well as him that making the Clave angry would never end up in their favor.

To Emma's surprise Alec rose to his feet. "The Clave should start working against their nature and start listening to the shadowhunters working for them." Blackrose was about to cut in when she got a look from Diana that made her sit back in her chair again. "You've done this mistake before don't do it again. We all know you have the answers that we need. Why not tell us? Who did you hire to make these runes?"

Even though Magnus wasn't at the meeting Emma could imagine the look of pride he would have given Alec if he had seen and heard him when he said that.

Blackrose and the others glared at him and that was the first time Blackrose was angry enough to not answer. A man from the Clave answered though. He was young, twenty-five at most and had most possible not been in politics when Emma's parents had been murdered and had also not read the documents.

"The Clave does not see this as a problem for you. Not for the Los Angeles Institute and especially not for the New York Institute. This concerns the Clave and us only."

"But will you do anything?" Emma asked.

"We'll look into it", Blackrose answered. "You have to understand that this is something the Seelie Court is doing and a few shadowhunters can't stop that. It needs to be solved with politics."

The others from the Clave nodded.

"Mrs Blackrose", Emma said and breathed in, "we know this has something to do with Aleyn Wight." Jules tensed beside her but didn't say anything. "We have witnesses and proof. As Alec said we know you were behind this when it started. Please be with us when we end it."

"We may have been a small part of it all but we never started anything", Blackrose insisted. "Whatever witness and proof you have need to be investigated by us. I suspect you have misunderstood."

A knock on the door interrupted the meeting. Emma was annoyed when she opened it. She had just been about to answer Blackrose.

She was met by two faces she did not recognize, one man, one woman. One thing was certain though, both of them were warlocks. The man was lanky and his long dark hair covered his ears but they were visible enough for Emma to see they were wolf ears. He was hiding behind the woman who unlike him seemed confident and stood straight. She had a beautiful face with sharp cheekbones and full lips. The hair was what stood out the most. It was curly, long and green.

"Violeta?" Emma heard Jules say behind her.

The corners of the woman's lips curled up for a moment but a second later they were back into a straight line.

"Hello, Julian", she said and stepped into the room. Her accent witnessed of her Spanish origin.

Emma raised a questioning eyebrow and looked at Jules. Jules had seen the question in her eyes.

"This is Violeta Blanca. I met her when I was in London."

The man followed right behind the woman. When he saw there were people from the Clave there he immediately tensed and turned around to leave. Violeta's hand on his arm stopped him.

"Stay, Edmund."

The warlock with the wolf ears stopped and turned to Violeta again. He looked at the members of the Clave and then glared at her.

"They've already seen you, Eddie. And you've done nothing wrong", Violeta said and then turned to the Clave and added, "Not more wrong than them at least."

Blackrose scoffed at that but kept quiet.

Edmund stepped closer to Violeta and whispered something that Emma couldn't hear.

Violeta then rolled her eyes and waved him away. "Alright, but stay outside the door."

Without another word he left the room. Violeta sighed and turned to Jules again.

"Nice to see you again."

Jules still looked surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"Edmund and I thought it would be a good time to help you take down Aleyn once and for all." She glanced at the door Edmund had closed a moment ago. "Or more like I thought."

"Do you know where he is?"

"Aleyn? No", she said and shook her head.

As if they suddenly remembered they had been interrupting a meeting they turned to rest of them.

"We should move on with the meeting", Blackrose said and looked at Violeta. "So if you may–"

"She can join us", Emma cut in.

"This is a meeting for shadowhunters only."

"I thought we agreed to not put those borders between us five years ago", Emma said. "I also think she can help us."

Blackrose kept quiet and looked away.

Jules and Emma sat down next to each other again with Violeta on the other side of Jules. He wrote the words thank you on Emma's wrist. She gave him a nod and they continued on with the meeting.

When the meeting was over the Clave still insisted on handling the murders themselves but Emma felt as if they were coming closer to an agreement she could be happy with. Violeta hadn't talked that much at the meeting but Emma could see she was listening closely. Hopefully she'd help them convince The Clave.

Edmund hadn't stayed by the door when he had left. Once again Violeta sighed because of him and excused herself to go looking for him. When she was on her way out of the room she stopped and turned around to Jules and Emma with a grin on her face.

"By the way, Jules, there's somebody waiting for you here."

He raised an eyebrow. "Where and who?"

"Somewhere in the house. Who it is you'll have to find out yourself", she said and left the room.

Jules shook his head and looked around. "Looks like we're alone."

Violeta had been the last from the meeting to leave.

"I guess so." She was still thinking about the things said during the meeting. Calculating their chances. "How do you think it went?"

"The meeting? Horrible", he said with a frown but then smiled, "but a little less horrible than before. I think it's good Violeta and Edmund came. They're the warlocks who helped me in London."

"I figured", Emma mumbled. "We should probably find whoever is waiting for you."

She left the room with Jules following behind her.

The Institute was full of people by then. The shadowhunters and Magnus from New York, those from the Clave, the brothers from Mexico, and Edmund and Violeta. The girl and Mark were still hidden in their rooms. Ty was mostly with Mark and with all the people in the building he was seen even less in the halls.

Still the place was full and Emma and Jules almost missed the extra two people in the middle of the group from New York. Jules saw them before Emma and when he did his eyes went wide and a smile spread on his face. Before Emma saw who he had seen he was already running towards them. She saw him hug a boy in their age with a child in his arms. The boy had dark messy hair and he looked tired. Still he smiled a little at the sight of Jules. He was holding the child as if he was used to it. It reminded her of Jules who had carried his younger siblings when they were younger. The child wasn't much older than a year. Her light curls went to her shoulders and bounced when she moved. Emma went over to them.

Jules turned to her and his smile grew even wider.

"Emma, this is Isaac and Rebecca. Isaac and Rebecca", pride filled his eyes when he looked at her as they always did when he said the following words, "this is Emma, my parabatai."

"Hi, we met Jules in London", Isaac said.

"Is there anybody you didn't meet in London?" Emma asked Jules and quirked an eyebrow.

Jules shrugged. "What can I say? I'm quite a social person."

She laughed and nudged him.

Isaac shifted on his feet and seemed uncomfortable with all the people surrounding him. Rebecca seemed amused by the small crowd. She giggled to catch more people's attention. Soon were Clary, Isabelle, Simon and Magnus tickling and talking to her. Isaac tried to leave but was instead followed by them and Rebecca made an annoyed sound whenever he moved away. Jules looked at them from a distance with relaxed crossed arms and a smirk on his face. When Isaac looked at him with pleading eyes and saw Jules' amused expression he frowned.

Emma stood next to Jules leaning on the wall. "Anybody else from you met in London who I should know about?" That question had been bugging her since she'd met Isaac half an hour ago. He had mentioned Violeta and Edmund but not Isaac and Rebecca. And they seemed kind of close.

"I met a few. The London Institute is kinda full." He looked like he tried recalling his time there. "But I think I only really talked to Isaac, Violeta, Edmund, and Rebecca, of course. And the Head of the Institute and his family."

She remembered Leopold Nightwhite and his family. Since Arthur was from London he knew the family and invited them from time to time. They had two daughters about hers and Jules' age.

"Were his daughters as nice as I remember them?" In her memory she had never gotten along with them. They didn't take the training seriously. It was not often that Jules trained either but at least he didn't joke about it the way they did.

"They were..." He tried to find the right word. "Intense."

"Intense?"

He chuckled. "They went to my room and just started talking and they talked so fast."

She released a breath she didn't know she was holding and realized she had been jealous. They hadn't been together at the time but it had been after their first kiss. The reason to why he traveled to London was partly because he was running away. From her. From when he'd kissed her.

Jules snickered when he heard her breathe out. "Are you jealous, Em?"

She narrowed her eyes. "No." She shifted on her feet. "Unless there's something to be jealous about.

He gave her a one sided hug and glanced down at her. "No, there isn't." She smiled and looked back at the group in the middle of the room.

"You recognize yourself in him, don't you?" Emma asked.

It took a moment before Jules understood what she meant. "In Isaac? Why?"

"An orphan taking care of a child. Just like you have for five years."

He was quiet for a moment and Emma thought he hadn't heard her at first when he spoke again. "A bit, yes. But he is much better at it. He's the only one who can make Rebecca eat you know."

Emma looked at her parabatai with sad eyes. "Jules, you really don't know what you've meant for your family." It wasn't a question. Jules looked at her with raised eyebrows. "You have held this family together as long as I've remembered. Before The Dark War. Nobody else could have done it because your family means more to you than anything and that's what has saved them. That you care. That's all they need but they don't need any random person to care. They need you. They need you to care and that's what you do."

He stood straighter and looked away. Emma didn't know what was going through his mind and wanted to ask but she knew she wouldn't get a straight answer. Jules never said what he really was thinking.

When she had been looking at him for a long time she could see the corners of his mouth were twitching and then finally formed a smile.

He was still looking away from her when he said, "Thank you."

She didn't say anything else but smiled.

At that moment she saw Livvy and Jaime pass the room at opposite side and she narrowed her eyes. She still thought about him as the boy he'd heard about. A boy who got into fights and who kept pushing Cristina and Diego to get married. Ever since he came to the Institute she had started revaluate her thoughts about him. He hadn't started any fights except for the one where he and Emma fought but then they both started it. Since then He'd always been close to Livvy and almost never left her side. He had been a good friend to her while Ty her twin brother who she usually was with was more with Mark than with her.

That was when she saw they weren't really talking happily to each other. They had stopped by the wall and with frantic gestures with their hands they hissed at one another. Emma started to walk over to them. Jules had seen his sister too and followed Emma, but before they got to the other side Jaime had grabbed her wrist and made her come with him out through the door. Emma and Jules hadn't seen which way they had taken when they went out. They both stood by the doorway shifting nervously on their feet.

"Should we go after them?" Jules asked.

Emma looked back at what she had seen of the conversation between Jaime and Livvy. They had both seemed upset, but neither of them had felt threatened.

"I think it's something they'll need to sort out themselves." When she saw the anxious expression Jules still had she added, "Don't worry. If anything happens to her you know I will beat him up."

His shoulders relaxed even if he was still shifting nervously, but it was good for now Emma decided.

"You're always helping me take care of the family. Thank you", he murmured and looked down at his feet.

She glanced up at him and smiled. "We make a good team, Jules."

He finally met her gaze and smiled back. "That's why we're parabatai."