In August, all of their lives changed.

It started as a standard mission. There were reports of an Eidolon demon lurking around the Pandemonium Club, an all-ages nightclub where mundanes and Downworlders mingled. Spotting the demon was easy enough—they hide themselves from mundane eyes well but rarely did a good enough job to hide their true selves from Shadowhunters.

Isabelle immediately volunteered to be the seductive bait in her floor-length white gown she purchased at the mall with Eva not too long ago, and her favorite thigh-high heeled boots. On her throat was her demon-sensing ruby pendant. She disappeared into the dry-ice smoke of the dancefloor like a ghost.

Eva stood with Jace and Alec by the bar, all dressed in standard black gear with thick belts looped around their hips carrying their weapons. Eva's chakrams clanked together as she leaned against an empty barstool, her eyes flickered about for any additional demons that might be lurking. There were no demons, but there was a vampire sitting at the other end of the counter flirting with a mundane woman. She amusingly recalled how she met Raphael—teasing him at a bar, seeing how far she could poke at him before he left her side. He didn't, and to this day, she doesn't know what she did that caught his attention enough to remember her hastily blurted phone number and contact her. Perhaps she should ask him...

"Izzy's got him," Alec's voice brought Eva back to Shadowhunter mode. She watched her parabatai weave through the dancers, beckoning the Eidolon with electric blue hair to her, and then disappearing into a storage room. Eva and the boys moved in, brandishing their weapons along the way, and entered the storage room. Isabelle already had the demon caught in her trusty electrum whip, and it stupidly begged for its life. The demon even offered to disclose the whereabouts of Valentine, the notorious Shadowhunter responsible for the Uprising nearly sixteen years ago. He was confirmed to be dead; however, and their patience was running thin. Izzy insisted Jace kill it already so they can finally go home, and it would've all been over very efficiently if the redheaded mundane didn't show up.

She argued with them, thinking they were out to murder a normal club-going boy, not knowing it was a dangerous demon. As usual, Jace said too much, his arrogance and sarcasm dripping out of every word he spoke and let out more and more secrets about the Shadow World. Eva, Alec, and Izzy kept reminding him to be quiet, but it was useless telling Jace to stop.

They killed the demon easily enough, leaving the mundane girl spooked. If that wasn't worse, a bouncer with a mundane boy entered the room and were completely ignorant of the Shadowhunters standing in plain sight. The mundane girl was left with no choice but to declare it all a false alarm. Eva didn't know what occurred after that, whether the girl got kicked out of the club or banned entirely.

"Mundanes are sometimes born with the Sight," Hodge explained, setting mugs of hot cocoa down for all of them at the dining table. Their tutor was always buzzing with relief and joy whenever they all returned from demon-hunting unscathed and alive. It was endearing and it made her feel so loved. "It's rare, but it happens. Some aren't even aware of it and go on thinking they're just crazy."

"What a sad, sad life," Jace muttered, blowing out the steam from his mug. Eva noted he was uncharacteristically quiet, having little to say except for the occasional grunt or a sarcastic observation here and there.

"Well, she'll definitely think she's crazy now," Izzy said.

"I suggest you all stay away from her," Hodge warned firmly. "We don't know who she is, or what she is. Leave her be."

"She's a mundane with the Sight," Eva said. "I doubt she's dangerous."

"You don't know that," Hodge eyed her pointedly. "If she is a mundane blessed with the Sight, she will find her own way to us if she needs to. Otherwise, stay away from her."

Hodge's words seemed to have bounced off Jace's head as if they'd been spoken in some obscure language. The following day in the evening, Jace burst into the Institute with the redheaded mundane girl from the Pandemonium Club—Clary Fray. She was unconscious and with Ravener poison in her veins. Hodge was furious, that much was clear. He worked diligently to heal the poor girl, but Eva could still feel the rage simmering in him like a controlled fire. To her confusion, there was also a hint of shock in him, as if the sight of Clary Fray was of someone he recognized or thought he knew. It was an odd feeling, but Eva pushed it aside, finding the sight of Jace scrubbing ichor and blood from the carpet in the entryway highly amusing. Hodge rarely distributed punishments when they disobeyed him, but when he did, he usually had them be extremely tedious.

Clary woke up three days later. She'd killed the Ravener demon with Jace's Sensor, having shoved it down its throat and choking it with the runes engraved in it. Eva couldn't help but be impressed: rarely do mundanes confront demons and manage to live, let alone kill them. However, Jace admitted he carved a rune on Clary, shocking them all and throwing Hodge into a fit. She could've turned into a Forsaken—but she didn't.

Clary had to be Nephilim.

Jace left the Institute with Clary in an attempt to find out what occurred in her apartment and to possibly find some clues that led her to her mother, Jocelyn. Meanwhile, Eva sat rereading Tolkien's The Silmarillion in the kitchen as Izzy threw whatever she could find in the cupboards and fridge into a boiling pot and called it a delicious soup. Eva loved her parabatai to death, but cooking was not her forte—Eva's never really had the heart to tell her, and was glad Jace was bold enough to save everyone in the Institute from Izzy's deadly recipes.

"Another mundane?" Eva sighed in exasperation as she watched Jace enter the kitchen with Clary and the boy from the Pandemonium Club, Simon Lewis. "Hodge is going to suckerpunch you into the Void one of these days."

"I had to bring him," Jace said firmly. "I just saw two of the men who killed my father."

Eva's shoulders tensed at his words and she could see Izzy did the same from the corner of her eye. Nevertheless, Izzy hid her emotions better and merely pointed her wooden spoon at Simon. "I don't suppose he's one of them?"

Simon was shamelessly looking between them, trying to drink up their individual beauty all at once. Eva noted Clary was immediately upset by this, but the feeling quickly went away when she turned to speak to Jace as he rummaged through the fridge for one of Hodge's clearly labeled containers. Simon found his way into the seat on the counter next to Eva, smiling awkwardly. "I'm Simon."

"I'm Eva," she laughed. "Short for Evangeline."

"Wow, that's really fancy," he said. He was turning his head towards Izzy, no doubt to introduce himself, but the girl already had her wooden spoon dripping with tomato paste pointed at him like one would point a knife at a demon.

"She's taken, mundie," Izzy warned. "So unless you want the entire New York vampire clan at your doorstep, I suggest you back off."

"You're dating a vampire?" Simon asked incredulously.

Eva laughed at the boy's innocence before turning to Izzy with a quirked brow, "I'm shocked you're defending Raphael—he would gag if he found out."

"Thy people are my people, so unfortunately I have to," she shrugged. "But you can flirt with me all you want, mundie; just make it worth my while."

"Eva!" Jace called out from the kitchen doorframe. When she looked, the golden-haired boy was pointing at Church who very eagerly sat by the stove, hoping to catch another chunk of fish from Izzy's bubbling stew. "Church isn't going anywhere—that podgy, backstabbing Judas. You mind taking us to Hodge?"

They walked the halls of the Institute with Jace answering any rapid-fire questions Clary had about the world that was beginning to open before her eyes. To Eva's surprise, Clary even had a question for her. "Jace and Alec are parabatai, so that means you and Izzy are too?"

"Yes, we are," Eva nodded. "But don't think it's such a common thing—finding a parabatai is incredibly rare, and we're one of the lucky ones."

"So you fight together in battle?"

"We do everything together."

"Well, not everything," Jace teased. "I'm sure Raphael—"

Eva's cheeks flushed. "Shut up, Jace!"

"By all means, continue." Hodge miraculously appeared from a neighboring corridor that led to the Institute's greenhouses. Hugo was perched on his shoulder like a loyal sentry. "What about Raphael?"

Even though Eva was facing away from Jace, she could feel his satisfied grin burning into the back of her skull. Thankfully, Clary was impulsive and swung the topic out of the park to replace it with hers. "We were attacked by Forsaken and Jace saw the men that killed his father when we were at Luke's house."

Hodge paled at her words, but Eva really began to worry when she started feeling a gnawing sense of fear and dread and guilt from Hodge with every name Clary and Jace told him: Pangborn, Blackwell, Lucian Graymark. He told them the Circle was rising again—the group of Shadowhunters that followed Valentine and orchestrated the Uprising all those years ago.

They went to the library where Hodge searched the endless shelves before pulling out a brown leather-bound book. From it, he read the loyalty oath of the Circle of Raziel written twenty years ago: "I hereby render unconditional obedience to the Circle and its principles... I will be ready to risk my life at any time for the Circle, in order to preserve the purity of the bloodlines of Idris, and for the mortal world with whose safety we are charged."

Hodge looked exhausted as he told Clary what Valentine and the Circle stood for, what occurred during the Uprising, why Valentine specifically chose to attack Downworlders during the signing of the Accords—because they'd be unarmed and defenseless. He explained most of the Circle's documents were destroyed by the Clave in an attempt to wipe away the stain it created in their history, and when Jace pointed out he had a copy of said documents, Hodge's eyes went directly to Eva's.

The grief, the shame, and the regret that shot out of Hodge was like a knife to the gut. He finally said, "Because I helped write it. I was part of the Circle, and so was Clary's mother, and the Lightwoods."


While Clary was reeling about her mother being married to Valentine and being part of an organization like the Circle, Eva was also letting the information sink in. Hodge and the Lightwoods were part of Valentine's plan to destroy Downworlders and the Accords, but since they turned themselves in after the Uprising, they were given leniency. The Lightwoods were banished from Idris unless it was for official business and were given the New York Institute to run while Hodge was cursed and could never step outside ever again.

It all made sense now: why Hodge always sent them to buy things instead of going out himself, why he never wanted to play in the snow or take them to the park when they were children, why he faked a fever when she asked him to be her witness at her parabatai ceremony with Izzy. It all made sense, and Eva couldn't help the bitterness beginning to settle within her as the day went on. Puzzle pieces began to fit in her head perfectly and the more she put together, the more upset she became. Raphael texted her at sundown, asking her if she wanted to go watch his telenovelas and maybe get some dinner. Just thinking of him made her chest tight and she forced back tears as she texted him back: Not tonight. I'm tired from training.

His response was quick and simple. Mentirosa.

Eva hated that he knew her so well. I'm upset about stuff that's happening in the Institute right now. I need time to process it all.

Okay. He responded just as quickly. I'm here if you need me.

Eva was curled up on her bed, staring at the glowing streetlight that poured in from her window. Occasionally, she'd twirl the hourglass pendant on her chest, finding its warmth comforting. When a knock came from her door, she sighed. It was probably Izzy coming to ask her why she was down in the dumps again. Eva had turned her away the first time and hoped that by not responding to her knock, she'd get the hint and go away, but the door opened nonetheless. Eva sat up hastily, "I said I don't want to—"

"Talk about it?" Hodge stood in her room, his eyes downcast behind his glasses. He closed the door behind him gently. "I'm afraid that's why I'm here."

Eva turned her head, watching from the corner of her eye as he approached her bed and sat down on the edge. He spoke first, "Do you think I'm not ashamed of what I've done?"

"I know you are," she looked at his face. The emotions floating around her were clear as day, but that wasn't the issue at hand. "It's just all starting to make sense, and I'm getting angrier every time I think about it."

"Angry at me or—"

"You're really dense when you want to be, Hodge," she spat bitterly. He visibly flinched at the harshness of her tone. She continued nonetheless, "Now I understand why you hate Raphael—you hated Downworlders when you were with Valentine, and you still do!"

"I do not hate Downworlders—I never have," he said firmly. "Raphael could be Nephilim and from the most prestigious family in Idris for all I care; I still wouldn't like him."

Eva frowned in confusion, letting Hodge elaborate, "I just don't like it: you having a boyfriend and doing the Angel knows what with him. You think I haven't figured out why I mysteriously got drunk that one night last year? You're right when you said I'm dense when I want to be—I've purposefully been acting ignorant since that day."

Eva flushed and looked away, twiddling her thumbs on her lap nervously. "Sorry about that, by the way."

Hodge reached out and smoothed down her curls affectionately. "You're an adult already, and no one can tell you what to do with your life, including myself. I just worry for you constantly; I can't help it."

"You're such a stereotypical overprotective dad, only you walk out on the front porch with a pair of chakrams instead of a shotgun," Eva laughed softly. "How come you never got married, or had kids?"

Hodge was startled by the question and Eva felt that familiar pang that was characteristic of his soul: grief. "I suppose it was never meant to be."

"But you would've liked that life?"

"It would've been nice," he smiled fondly. "To raise children with my wife, to read to them and teach them everything I know."

"By the Angel, you'll bore them to death," Eva joked lightly. Hodge laughed but let out a wince when Eva latched onto his side in an embrace.

"My shoulder, Eva."

"Sorry," she loosened her hug on him. "The past is the past, and I know you have a lot of regrets. I understand now why you said that about Sydney Carton—you understand him more than anyone."

"The unrequited love aspect of his character is a bit much, I'd say," he joked dryly. "I just hoped you wouldn't hate me after I told you of my involvement with the Circle; I wouldn't be able to live with myself if you did."

"I could never hate you, Hodge," she kissed his cheek in affection. "Though, you really should try to get along with Raphael. He's not a bad guy, I promise."

"I don't know about that," he rolled his eyes in exasperation. "As long as he makes you happy, I can try to make the effort, but I make no promises."