A/N: Oh my goodness, you guys are sweet! Within a few hours of posting the last chapter I got 3 super sweet reviews! Shoutout to Pinkbabydoll who gives a lovely review every chapter, you make my day!

Entreat me not to leave thee,

Or return from following after thee—

For whither thou goest, I will go,

And where thou lodgest, I will lodge.

Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.

Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried.

The Angel do so to me, and more also,

If aught but death part thee and me.

The rune burns Clary's hip in the best possible way. As soon as it is complete, she feels different. She is still looking at Izzy, whose giddy expression mirrors her own.

Clary laughs and, almost as if she can't help herself, throws her arms around her best friend. Her parabatai.

Much like Clary's engagement party, her parabatai ceremony is a political affair. Izzy's the head of the Institute, after all. It would have been a spectacle no matter who she took the oath with. At least half the Council is here, along with the Downworlder representatives Izzy meets with once a month, and nearly every Shadowhunter who works at the New York Institute.

But their family is here, too, and they are the ones Clary and Izzy go to first.

Jace and Simon are the first to reach the new pair. Jace murmurs a congratulations into Clary's hair before going to hug Izzy. Almost as soon as he's let go, Simon throws his arms around her.

"Move over, boys, it's our turn," Maryse says, beaming as she pulls both girls into a hug. She steps aside so Luke can hug them as well.

Once everyone has had their hugs, Izzy reaches for Clary's hand, a bright smile on her face.

Alec nudges Jace. "Look at them, they're all goofy."

"I seem to remember the two of you acting just as goofy after your ceremony," Maryse says, giving the two a pointed look.

Clary laughs. She feels not only her joy but Izzy's too; the echo of another heart beating in her chest beside her own.

Izzy drags Clary around the various important people she has to greet, until her feet are sore and her cheeks ache from the polite smile she's perfected. But she doesn't care.

She has a parabatai.

Tomorrow, Jace and Alec will teach them how to use their bond in battle, and how to control the how much they give and take from each other. But today, it's enough just to have Izzy by her side.

Clary and Izzy's parabatai ceremony isn't the only important event in her life right now; she's getting married in less than a month. Even though sometimes it seems like Izzy is more interested in planning it than either Clary or Jace, there are a few touches that the two of them have decided on. Like their plan to have an empty seat on the front row with a white camellia on it, Jocelyn's favourite flower.

Jace mentions another special touch one afternoon, a week and a half after Clary and Izzy's ceremony. She is sitting up on his bed, reading The Art of War as he lies perpendicular to her, his head in her lap. She cards her fingers through his hair absently while she reads.

He sits up, rolling onto his stomach so he's propped up on his forearms. "Hey."

"Mm?"

"You know how Shadowhunters give jewelry as part of the wedding ceremony?"

"Yeah, before they Mark each other. Why?"

"I was thinking, maybe we could give each other wedding rings."

She puts the book down to look at him with a puzzled expression. "Shadowhunters don't wear wedding rings."

"No, but mundanes do, and that's what you were raised as." He takes her hand, runs his thumb across her knuckles. "Look, you're a Shadowhunter, but that's not all you are. The mundane parts of you, they make you you. And I just wanted our wedding to acknowledge that. Besides, I know it won't be like you imagined it as a child, so maybe the rings can connect your old and new lives."

A single tear slides down her cheek. Without wiping it away, Clary leans down to press a kiss to Jace's lips. "How did I get so lucky?" she asks, an easy smile on her face.

"Uh, you followed me into a demon hunt."

She laughs and leans in to kiss him again.

But wedding planning isn't all sweetness and light. Sometimes, it's compromising. And sometimes, it's Imogen Herondale stomping all over everything, albeit well-meaningly. Since the planning began, Imogen has been trying to convince Jace that the wedding he and Clary want is not a wedding fit for Shadowhunter royalty. Well, she technically hasn't said the royalty part, but he can hear it in every pointed comment about the decor or the music or the guest list.

He gets another fire message from her during a training session with Simon. He catches it in midair while still blocking his punches.

Though Jace says nothing, Simon can see the subtle changes in his expression; the furrowed brow, the exasperated puff of air that escapes his mouth. Simon wonders when he got to know Jace well enough to see those changes. "Everything good?" he asks, raising an eyebrow.

"It's fine. I just need to talk to Clary for a minute. Can we cut training short today?"

"My motivation says no, but my bruises say hell yes. Go find your fiancée."

He finds her in Izzy's office discussing their next mission. Jace feels a little pang of jealousy that Clary is able to be this close to her parabatai all the time. Even though Alec is only a Portal away, and comes to the Institute for dinner at least once a week, it's not the same as being able to see or talk or spar with him whenever he wants. He feels the distance between them through their bond, like having him in view but being just out of reach.

He knocks on the open door. Both Clary and Izzy turn to look at him.

"Hey," Clary says, the smile she has reserved for him on her face. "I thought you were training Simon."

He holds up the fire message. "Got interrupted."

"Ooh, this means Simon's free," Izzy says, abandoning her seat and moving towards the door.
"I thought you were working," Jace says.

"Shut up, I'm the boss!" she yells as she darts out of the room.

Jace sits on the couch next to Clary. He hands her the fire message. "Imogen is convinced that the Institute isn't important enough for a Herondale wedding. She wants us to have it in the Grand Hall in Alicante."

"I like the Institute. It's home."

"That's what I said." He sighs, running his hands through his hair. "I wouldn't have invited her if I'd have known she was gonna try to control everything."

"Hey. I'm glad your grandmother is coming. One of us should have biological family at our wedding." Her eyes flit to her reflection in the window in front of her. She looks at herself in that way she does sometimes, like she's trying to find the parts of herself that come from her mother.

"I wish your mom could be there," Jace says quietly. "I wish everything happened differently with Jonathan."

"I wish a lot of things about my family." She reaches for his hand, holding it in both of her own and giving it a gentle tug. "But in two weeks, you'll be my family. And that is all I need."

He smiles softly. "I can't wait to be your husband."

"I can't wait to be your wife."

The days pass quickly, as they do when you're planning a wedding and fighting demons every day. Before they know it, it is the night before their wedding. Clary and Jace have chosen to forgo the bachelor and bachelorette parties that are becoming increasingly popular in the Shadow World, both agreeing that getting drunk and seeing strippers is not how they want to spend their last night as single people. Instead, they have dinner with their respective parabatais. Izzy calls both Clary and Jace 'old people', while Alec is much happier not to have to plan anything or pretend to be nice to people he couldn't care less about. And if Izzy makes Clary wear a sash that says BRIDE in shimmering pink letters, well, no one can deny her that.

After they return to the Institute, she showers, says goodnight to Jace and crawls into bed. Her own bed, in her room, for the last time. Jace's is bigger, so she'll move in there after the honeymoon.

She stares at the ceiling.

These are her last hours as Clary Fairchild.

As of tomorrow, she will be Clary Herondale.

She smiles softly.

Izzy bursts through the door, wearing satin pyjama bottoms and a T-shirt that is clearly Simon's. "Scooch over," she says, nudging Clary over so she can get into her bed.
"What are you doing?"

"What does it look like? We're having a sleepover."

"Why?"

She fluffs up her pillow and flops back down. "Because this is the last night we can have one without it being weird. Once you get married, Jace is the only person you're allowed to sleep next to."

"Says who?"

"Says Jace. He's a little obsessed with you, you know."

The side of Clary's mouth quirks up. "I know. I'm a little obsessed with him, too."

"So this is it, then. The only boy you're ever gonna gossip with me about is my idiot brother."

"Yep."

Izzy's head rolls to face Clary's. "Are you happy?"

She smiles automatically. "So happy."

Izzy's own smile widens. "I can feel it. Just wanted to make sure."

"You know everyone says it's normal to be scared the night before your wedding. But I'm not scared at all. I love Jace, and I know that we can face anything as long as we're together."

"I mean, you kind of already have faced everything. Thinking you're siblings, check. Evil father, check. Him literally dying, check. Am I missing anything here?"

"Uh, Jace being possessed and throwing me off a rooftop, check. Being connected to my resurrected half-demon brother, check. Getting my memory stolen and returned by angels, check."

Izzy laughs. "You guys really have been through the ringer, huh?"

"We have. But we made it."

"You did." She grabs her hand. "I hope your life together is easy, Clary. The Angel knows you at least deserve that."

"Thanks, Iz."

Clary falls asleep peacefully beside her parabatai, dreaming of the life that is inches away from being hers.