Her throat burned.

Every part of her felt stiff and heavy. It took several slow blinks before her eyes remained open. The room was bright, too bright. It was the sun, she realized. Streaming in from the open window.

The sun. It didn't shine that bright.

She blinked several more times as her eyes adjusted. Her arms were lead at her sides.

"Don't try to move."

She turned her head to the side. Jace was there. Both his hands were holding hers, impossibly tight. Rays of pure sunshine were cast over his face. He looked as if he hadn't slept in days. Dark circles shadowed his eyes, cheekbones sharp and hollow.

"I'm pretty sure I'm in Heaven." She rasped out. "But you look like hell."

He didn't smile. Or laugh. Not even a little breath from his nose.

"Do you know how lucky you are to be alive?"

Alive. She was alive. She was alive?

"I'm fairly certain that I died." And she was very sure Lilith hadn't given her a third chance at life.

"We all were. You stopped breathing a couple times and-."

"How are we here?" She cut him off. "And where is here, by the way?"

"The Basilias." In Alicante. How the hell were they in Alicante? "You've been out for a couple days. The Silent Brothers have been pretty adamant about monitoring you. Brother Zachariah has been by a lot, he actually helped-."

"Jace." She broke his sentence again. He blinked down at her. "That's all well and good, but uh, how are we in Alicante? We were stuck in Edom. Like, forever stuck."

He leaned back. He let go with one hand and rubbed his face. He told her it was a long story and she said to get to telling it. Magnus had said there was one final option for escaping the Hell dimension, but it was a high price to pay. They all pressured him into doing it. "So, Asmodeus showed up and was zapped your mom, Luke, you, and Sebastian back here. And he said the price was great for the rest of us to come home and Magnus promised to pay it and-."

"Wait, why did Asmodeus show up?" She asked. He was one of the rulers of Edom. One of nine Princes of Hell. Those didn't just call on lost Shadowhunters and grant them favors.

"He's Magnus' father."

"He's what?"

Jace chuckled and told her not to strain herself. "You didn't know that?"

No, she had not known that. Magnus' father was touchy subject, one he didn't like to talk about. Therefore, Eliza never asked about him or brought him up. But…Asmodeus? By the Angel.

"So, Magnus agreed to pay the price, which meant he had to give up his immortality to sustain Edom. His dad was really pissed about the whole Sebastian thing, by the way. Not his biggest fan. Magnus said once his immortality was gone, he would die."

"Jace, surely-." Her voice cracked. Magnus couldn't be gone. He couldn't.

He eased her. "Alec refused to let him. We said we would all rather die than let Magnus do that. But Simon…Simon offered himself to Asmodeus. He took Simon's immortality and made him human again. But he took his memories. Simon doesn't know anything at all about the Shadow World. Or Clary."

Her heart wrenched. "Oh, Clary." She whispered.

She couldn't imagine how heartbroken and devastated her sister was. She had lost her best friend.

"Where is she?" She asked.

He told her that she was probably at Amatis' house with Luke and Jocelyn. She had left a short while before Eliza had woken. "They burned his body. Sebastian's." Jonathan's. "Clary's been keeping the ashes. She wants you to go with her to spread them."

She nodded. Of course, she would go. There had been a beautifully tragic glimpse of the brother she should have had. A shadow of what should have been. He hadn't died Sebastian. He had died as Jonathan. She would honor that.

"Also," Jace winced, "your mom is pissed."

What else was new?

There was a myriad of reasons as to why Jocelyn would be so mad. The sneaking off to Edom, the almost dying, probably some other things she was forgetting. "Why? Did she find out we got married on our trip to Hell?" Jace's stone expression said everything. "No." She whispered. "Oh, God. How?"

Jace explained that as Eliza was dying, he had sort of lost track of the environment. He had begged her to stay. "I may have said that I wasn't ready for our runes to fade…"

"Jace!"

"You were dying!"

She was going to lay down and die. It was supposed to stay a secret until they actually had a wedding ceremony. Of all the things…of all the people! And that meant everyone knew.

"We are so dead."

Lake Lyn was supposed to be beautiful. And it was, Eliza could admit that. A serene silver-blue water that stretched on and on. When the surface rippled, it either looked like oil or the bluest ocean. The green hills that surrounded the lake were evergreen and bare of any trees or flowers. Over Lake Lyn, the sky was never grey, always clear and blue.

But the sight of it left a rusted taste in her mouth.

Where she and Clary stood was on the western banks, admittedly, not the place where Valentine had summoned the Angel; where Jace and Eliza had lost their lives; and where they had been brought back. She hated to think of all the trouble that they could have been spared had the two of them just remained dead.

That night had been the second time Eliza had ever been to Lake Lyn. The first, she had been with Valentine and Jonathan. Their father had used a strange magic to conceal them, one he would not delve into discussion with. He had made them stand at the edge of the eastern shore (the same shore where he had plunged a sword into her chest) and explained the ritual to them. There was not much to it, it seemed. So long as he possessed each Mortal Instrument and called out the Angel's name, Raziel would appear and grant his favor.

Even that memory left her feeling sour and wrong. They were both gone. Raziel had smote Valentine and Clary had killed Jonathan. Eliza was the last true Morgenstern left. By name, blood, and association.

It was just the two of them, she and Clary. Jocelyn had refused to come. Jace had insisted it was something they do alone.

"Why did they burn him?" She had asked Clary on the way there. The Clave only burned the bodies of those they honored. Jonathan Morgenstern had been disgraced-for several reasons- and should have been buried at the crossroads. Valentine had, however, been burned. That had only been an insurance policy to ensure he could not come back. "Don't answer that." She said quickly after she realized the same was true for her brother.

The Morgenstern men had a funny way of coming back from the dead.

Clary had told her that the Endarkened were burned as courtesy and their ashes buried at the crossroads outside of Brocelind. The Clave meant to build a necropolis to mourn those who had been Turned. It hadn't been their fault. Their deaths lay at the hands of Jonathan.

Clary clutched the silver box in her hand. J.C. engraved on the top. She carefully opened it. His ashes were…just ashes. Grey and peppered with black. His Morgenstern family ring on top of the pile of powdered ash. The heavenly fire had burned a hole through him and destroyed him from the inside. And yet the ring, which had been on a chain at his throat (the same way she wore hers), was unharmed. Still in perfect condition.

They stood at the very edge of the shore, just barely out of the water. Water lapped across the toes of her shoes. The pebbled shore felt foreign under her feet.

"He never really existed, did he?" Clary whispered. "Jonathan."

Eliza unclasped the necklace that was around her throat. The ring fell off into her open palm. It was identical to Jonathan's in every way. Silver made, the same pattern of a blazing star falling. The ring had been too big for her to wear on a finger. Even her thumb. "For a few minutes, maybe." Eliza was careful in placing her ring next to his. The ash buried the bottom part of the band. "Or maybe not at all. Who can know?"

Clary gave her a questioning look but closed the lid of the box. Clary offered it to her and Eliza shook her head. They exhaled at the same time and then Clary launched the silver box out over the water. The lid flew open as it stretched over. Dark ash plumed behind it, a perfect arc. A dark rainbow. The twin rings jetted through the air, never straying apart. With ash behind them, they looked like falling stars.

Morning Stars.

They fell, sinking deep below the surface. Ash powdered down and it too sank below.

"Ave atque vale in perpetuum, frater." They whispered together.

"Hail and farewell, Jonathan Morgenstern. Hail and farewell." Eliza repeated on her own.

She turned to face Clary and started. Her sister was crying. Mourning the brother that she should have had. A boy who should have existed and lived and loved but never would. Valentine had robbed their family of that. He had stolen that boy from existence and replaced him with something cruel and twisted. Just as the fey did with their changelings. Perhaps she also cried for Simon, the brother she had been gifted. Simon who no longer knew her and would never know her again.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't cry." Clary wiped her cheeks.

"There's no shame in mourning broken dreams." Eliza told her. "None at all."

She put her arm around Clary and pulled her close. Clary rested her head on her shoulder and continued to cry. Eliza listened to the quiet sniffles and the jagged breaths. She rubbed soothing circles on Clary's back and watched the ashes disappear in the water.

"I'm sorry." Clary lifted her head. She sniffed again.

"For what?"

Clary glanced down at Eliza's stomach. "Stabbing you."

Whatever response Clary had expected, Eliza did not deliver. She laughed. Full, open-mouthed, loud laughter. Clary stared at her as she did. Eliza quietened herself and took a deep breath.

"Don't be sorry. It's a family thing."

Eliza shivered. She pulled her cloak closer to her body and crossed her arms over her chest. The gloves that covered her hands were doing well to keep her fingers warm, but the rest of her body couldn't seem the shake the chill. The frequent gusts of icy wind weren't helping.

Herondale manor loomed over them. The packed dirt path was blanketed with dusted white snow. Behind them, the entry gate was still open-as it had been when they arrived-, the iron birds seeming to take flight off the top. The fountain that stood in the center of the circled drive was dry and looked as if it hadn't been used in several years.

Jace was staring up at the manor house. His hands were white from grasping the horse's reigns so tightly, the cold air tinting his fingers blue. Jace was peculiar with his horseback riding. He preferred to feel the reigns in his hand and refused to wear gloves for that fact.

"What are you thinking?" She took his hands in hers. She rubbed over them gently, trying to spark some kind of warmth. Even with her gloves on, she could feel the chill of his hands.

He was going to get frostbite. All to feel some leather straps against his bare skin. Sometimes, she worried about him.

Behind them, the horse stomped against the gravel of the drive. She glanced back. Wayfarer neighed and then dipped his head to try and forage for any grass.

"It was winter when I was born." He said softly. His eyes flickered to the front door. "Here. This is where my mother killed herself and Valentine had to cut me from her stomach."

She knew that. She remained silent. She kept her ministrations against his hands as he stared back at the house where his biological family had lived.

"You told me a long time ago that I had always been a Lightwood. That it had always been my name." He said. "And I am a Lightwood. But I'm a Herondale too." He explained that once he turned eighteen, he would lose all rights to the Herondale name. It wasn't clear what would happen to the estate. Until he claimed the Herondale name, he really had no rights, legal or otherwise, to the property. "Do you think the Lightwoods will be upset with me if I take the Herondale name? Would I be betraying them?"

Eliza said no quickly.

He sighed. A white puff of air floated from his mouth. "My father, Stephen, he wrote me a letter. It was in the box that Amatis gave me." Knowingly, she asked how many times he'd read over it. Jace smiled wryly. "A handful." Which meant six or seven. "I hated him, someone I didn't even know. I hated him for still being in love with Amatis but being married to my mother. For following Valentine. And even though he said he loved me, I didn't believe it. But he also said that he wanted me to be better than I was and to follow myself. Not to let anyone tell me who I was or who I wanted to be."

"It doesn't sound as if you still hate him." She lifted a hand and toyed with the curls that reached over his ears. His ears were red with cold. He'd left with no gloves and no hat. "It sounds as if you're maybe a little fond…maybe even forgiving?"

Jace's forgiveness was something hard earned (if you weren't Eliza). His ability to hold a grudge was award-winning.

"The Herondales were a great family. They could be one again." He looked over at her. There was a familiar, wild spark in his eyes. He took her hand from the side of his head and pressed her cloth-clad knuckles to his lips. "What do you say, Liz? Do you want to be a Herondale with me? Officially."

She looked back at the house. Charming and beautiful. Elegant in the way that all the old family manors of the countryside were. It wasn't imposing in the least. She could see it. The two of them building a family there, making a house into a home. Somewhere safe and welcoming for anyone. Flowers all along the iron trellis' that lined the sides. Water in the fountain. Maybe a cat that would laze in the window. Their own greenhouse in the back.

"I'd love to."

"I must say," Eliza announced herself, "you look much better than the last time I saw you."

Magnus spun himself around to face her. She was telling the truth. He looked lifetimes better. He had filled out, healthy instead of gangly skin and bones. Color had returned to him. He looked back to normal. His normal, vivacious, magical self.

"I can say the same for you." He was hugging her in an instant. Just like in her head, he brought so much warmth and comfort with him. Hugging Magnus was the equivalent of cozying next to a fire with a blanket and hot cocoa. "You have to stop getting killed."

She laughed under her breath as she pulled from the hug. "I'll work on it." She promised him. His yellow feline eyes were bright. Happy. "Have you and Alec spoken…?" He didn't even have to say the words. His incandescent smile said everything. "Oh, thank the Angel! I was worried I was going to have to lock the two of you in a room together, shouting 'you love each other! Make up now!', but I'm very glad I won't have to do that."

His nose crinkled in distaste. "Oh, me too. Definitely."

"Though," she crossed her arms over her chest and stared him down, "I am very cross with you, Magnus Bane. You are my best friend-not including Alec- and I was the last to know about your father." His face fell. "I know the truth came out against your wishes and that you weren't entitled to tell me, but Jace?" She threw her hands up. "Jace knew before I did! You barely tolerate him."

Magnus said that, on the contrary, he was rather fond of Jace. Stephen Herondale had turned his taste away from the family and Jace had made him change his mind. "One thing you should know about me is that I have a very long history with the Herondales. Which," he eyed her suspiciously, "will now include you, if I'm not mistaken…?"

She rolled her bottom lip between her teeth. So, everyone did know. Perfect. Fantastic. The only solace she could take part in was that no marriage was legally binding unless the Shadowhunters were of age. Which, she and Jace were not. After they were both eighteen, a formal ceremony would have to take place. All for show, of course, because the runes wouldn't fade. Until then, she was Eliza Morgenstern.

Last of the name.

"Please, don't." She groaned. "I've been lectured eight hundred times over by Luke and my mom. Anymore and I might explode." Magnus relented and said no more about her secret, intimate union to Jace in a tunnel of Hell. "You know," she hugged him again, "it's kind of ironic."

"What is, little dove?"

She smiled, looking up at him. This was her best friend. The first real friend she had made in the world. He had seen her, not just for her name, but for her heart. Magnus never lost faith in her, not once, never when she messed up or failed. "Your father followed my namesake from Heaven down into Hell." When Lucifer left the ranks of Heaven, Asmodeus left with him. Lucifer appointed him a high position as a Prince of Hell and gave him Edom. "And now, here we are, the two of us. Inseparable."

Magnus held her a little tighter. "That's not irony, dear. That's fate."

Whatever it was, she was thankful for it.

April 2008

"Happy birthday."

That was how her day started. The press of Jace's soft lips against her shoulder. The reminder that she was no longer a child by Clave ruling. Eighteen. A day she had, a year ago, thought may never arrive.

But there she was, sitting at a table surrounded by everyone who loved her. Magnus had to summon an extra long dining table just to fit everyone. He had transformed the apartment for the occasion, adding in a real dining room. Gold and white balloons filled the ceiling and decorated the floor. A large golden banner reading 'Happy Birthday, Eliza!' hung over the window that overlooked the city. Fanciful foil streamers hung down from the ceiling, intermixing with the balloons.

She really had been missing out on birthday parties.

Tons of food filled the table, along with plenty of champagne and two birthday cakes. Izzy and Clary had attempted one, which Eliza would try with good humor. It was a lopsided three-layer effort, slathered in a thick white icing and doused in sprinkles. Izzy was very proud of it. The other was Magnus' doing, naturally. Four-layers of chocolate and vanilla, elegantly decorated with chocolate frosting. There were intermittent white flowers with thin yellw veins-morning glories, she realized- and little edible knives on top.

"Were knives really appropriate, Magnus?" Her mother had asked.

Magnus had only grinned at Jocelyn. "She likes knives." Was all he said back.

Everything about the day was wonderful. Everyone had made it wonderful. Just being with her family and her friends.

"Here." Jocelyn handed her a long, silver wrapped package. "From me and Luke."

It was heavy, whatever it was. She placed it on the table and lifted the top of the box. "Holy sh-." She stopped herself after seeing the disapproving look. It was a short sword. A stunningly beautiful weapon. Gold and adamas, a dark silver hilt. In small lettering, E.S. was engraved on the back of the hilt. "This is…this is…" she couldn't find the words. "Thank you."

Luke hugged Jocelyn from the side. "Told you she'd be speechless."

"And you said knives weren't appropriate." Magnus muttered under his breath.

Eosphoros hadn't survived the trip to Edom. It had been destroyed after unleashing the heavenly fire. She'd been lost for a weapon since, having to loan swords from the Institute's armory.

Clary gifted her a sheath for the new sword, having been in on the joke. Izzy gave her a newly minted set of throwing knives. "Since you lost yours." In Edom.

The Hell dimension had really taken all her good weapons.

Magnus, much to the dismay of her mother, handed her the keys to a vampire motorcycle. Normally, it would have run on demon energy, therefore only being useful at night. But Magnus rigged it to work full time. "You're too pretty for the L Train, little dove."

"Don't worry." Alec handed her a simply wrapped box. "I got you something practical." Fighting a worried look, Eliza lifted open the box. It was a thick, black sweater. Eliza raised her eyebrows. It was early April, but the weather was starting to warm already. "I have one just like it. It's the one you said you liked a long time ago. I found where I got it and bought you one…"

She stood and wrapped her arms around him. "I love it, Alexander. But we will not be matching on any day."

He said that was perfectly understood.

Jace took her out on the balcony for his gift, leading her away from the dispensary of cake with a sweet whisper and soft hands. Stars sparkled in the sky. Horns of cars honked. Jace made her close her eyes. She did as told and he placed something in her hands.

"Open."

She did. It was a book. Dark blue hardback binding. Glittering gold words on the spine. The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon. "Jace…"

"It's a first edition. It's signed. Magnus helped me track it down." She went to open it to see the signature, but he stopped her. "I wrote you something, at the end. Don't read it until you finish it, okay?"

She frowned. There was nothing suspicious in his tone or facial expression. "I won't." She promised. "Thank you. I love it."

"Something else. Eyes."

She closed them again. His hands brushed against her neck and she could feel his breath hot against her cheek. Something cold fell against her neck and at the hollow of her throat.

"Open."

She looked down, her breath catching in her throat. It was the silver chain she had always worn her family ring on. After tossing the ring with Jonathan's ashes, she had abandoned the chain to a box in her room. Hanging from the end of the chain was a silver ring. She lifted it gently between her fingers. A pattern of flying birds was engraved.

Herons.

For an engagement to be official, a family ring had to be given. After the wedding ceremony, it was given back.

"I didn't know if I was going to be a Lightwood or a Herondale or…I wasn't sure. And I didn't have a Herondale ring. I wrote the Iron Sisters a few weeks ago and asked them to make one."

"You didn't have to. I didn't need a ring."

"Yeah, you did." He said. "I never had one to give you before we left. And I needed a ring anyways, since I'm legally a Herondale. This way, it's official. Everyone will know that you and I are-."

"Already married?" She smiled. Not that the Council- or anyone else- officially recognized it. And wouldn't until Jace turned eighteen in January.

"Engaged. Properly this time. You're mine and I'm yours. Forever."

May

It was warm. Warm with a cool breeze. Warm enough for her to have forgone a jacket and stand just with a white dress on.

The dock was busy and bustling with life. A cruise ship had just ported, and people were exiting. A freight liner was docked, though she wasn't sure of the cargo. Merchants were trying to sell freshly caught fish and other sea life.

Her eyes scanned over the crowd. Tourists with their cameras and phones out for pictures. Citizens leaving their cruise vacation. Merchants and consumers. Just…people. All people who had no clue at all what their world was really like. That there were demons that sludged through the night. Warlocks with the ability to do wonders, lives that stretched on for centuries. Vampires that wanted to drink their blood but were also fiercely loyal companions. Werewolves with hearts of gold and didn't just change when the moon was full in the sky. Trickster faeries who couldn't lie but on the rare occasion could truly be trusted.

And Shadowhunters. The ones who slayed demons and fought alongside the Downworlders to protect the world and keep mundanes safe.

Eliza's gaze landed on a boy with hair the color of freshly minted gold. An angel among mundanes and Shadowhunters. An angel no mundane could see. But she did. She had always seen him. He was dressed casually, dark jeans and a short-sleeve shirt. Boots. Silver scars flashed across his skin, mixed in with dark black Marks. He was leaned against a sleek black motorcycle.

He was looking at her, a radiant smile on his face. She couldn't help but smile too as she walked over to meet him. He pushed off the motorcycle, hands still shoved into his pockets.

"I suppose you're my ticket to the Institute." Words echoed from so long ago.

"You can see me." An equally echoed response.

She reached out to him and he took her hands. He pulled her in for a kiss. Breathtaking and awe-inspiring. As each one was. His hand caressed a line down her cheek, across her jaw, down her neck and found itself tangled in her hair.

It was as long as it had been a year ago, the first time they had met. A year exactly to the date.

He pulled away from her, still leaving his arms wrapped around her body. His face was etched with such adoration and blissed happiness.

"I've always seen you." She murmured. "In my soul and my heart of hearts. Always."

Once, she had felt uncomfortable in the dress. Foreign, out of her element. But now, she didn't. Perhaps it was the fact that the overwhelming weight had been lifted from her shoulders. There was no father to worry about, no brother. No war or death or…anything. Life was, as normal as it could get. For a Shadowhunter.

The only worry she had was the reception. And as she had not been to any previous weddings, she had no clue what to expect. If it was anything like the preceding ceremony, she was going to be bored out of her mind.

Not that she wasn't happy for her mother and Luke, because she was. They deserved the utmost happiness, and they had found it in one another. But the ceremony had been long and tedious. An exchange of vows. An exchange of rings. All that mundane stuff that she didn't understand. Then again, she didn't know much about Shadowhunter weddings either.

Just the runes.

Which still winked at her from their spots on her hand and chest. Jet black and eternal.

The land of Luke's farmhouse seemed shades more beautiful than the last time she had been there. Well, the time before she'd shown up to help decorate for the wedding. The whole Simon-summoning-Raziel time.

Her heart wrenched. She missed Simon. Not as much as she was sure Clary did, or Isabelle, but she missed him. And now he was mundane again, out in his world doing whatever he had done. Without his best friend. A girl he didn't even know existed now.

It was worse than him dying, she thought. For him to be out there and them to know but he would never know them again. What tragedy.

The day had been warm and the night brought a welcome chill in the air. She had left her flowers on a table, the little wildflowers limp from being clutched for so long. It looked like something from a fairytale. Lanterns suspended from the trees. Bouquets of lilies, cattails, and goldenrods scattered on each table. Magnus had lined all the paths with small, glowing crystals. Elegant and not too overstated.

The ceremony had taken place in the barn and a tent was set up for the reception. One of the downtown werewolves- she thought his name was Bat- was standing at a booth, spinning as a DJ. She wondered if he volunteered or if Luke had insisted on paying him. Some of the guests were dancing, others relaxing at one of the many tables. Eliza liked that none of the dining china matched. The glasses weren't even actual glasses, just mason jars.

It was all very much her mom and Luke.

"You are devastatingly gorgeous."

She turned, the long dress sweeping around her feet. "And you are decadently handsome."

Her fiancé was, as always, beautiful. His dark blazed was rumpled, white shirt underneath as well. He had discarded his light-colored tie somewhere and she had no mind at all to find it. It made him look too stuffy. He'd run his hands through his hair too many times, effectively ruining the careful work Isabelle had done.

He took her hand and spun her around. "I am the luckiest man in the world." He whistled. "Let's get you a drink."

He escorted her over to a long table where Alec, Izzy, and Clary had gathered. Each had a flute of champagne. He took two and handed one off to her.

"Don't I have a stunning fiancée?" Jace asked them, nodding his flute to Eliza.

Izzy rolled her eyes. "Jace, she has a name. You can quit calling her fiancée. Everyone knows."

Jace frowned at her. "I can't help myself. I'm proud. And when she's my wife, I'll call her wife."

Eliza gave him a sharp look and his proud face faltered. "When?" She raised an eyebrow. "Technically-."

"Technically, it isn't recognized by the Clave." Alec reminded them both.

Jace and Eliza gave him a dangerous look.

"Who is that?" Isabelle whistled through her teeth. Her eyes were trained across the tent.

The girl in question was beautiful, in an otherworldly kind of way. Brown hair that cascaded down her shoulders and back. An old-fashioned green dress that matched the emerald pendant around her neck. She looked sweet-natured and mild, in a nice way.

Eliza briefly recognized her as someone who had been talking to Magnus. She'd seen them together at the Clave's party back in December, celebrating the end of the Dark War.

And with her was-.

"Is that Brother Zachariah?" Alec whispered.

It was. Not at all a Silent Brother anymore. Handsome in his humanity. Tall and regal in his black suit. He had sharp-lined cheekbones and startlingly dark hair. The girl smiled at him.

"He really is January through December of the Hot Silent Brothers Calendar, huh?" Isabelle sighed.

"Where can I buy that?" Alec grinned wolfishly.

Jace's eyes widened at the boldness of his parabatai. Izzy told him to be quiet before Magnus heard him. Clary asked where he had wandered off to.

Eliza closed her eyes. He was around somewhere, she could feel it. And he was up to something. "He's close, I think." Isabelle agreed and said he had to run a quick errand. "At a wedding?"

The girl shrugged in response.

She took a generous sip of her champagne. Bat hadn't yet begun to play music, even though some people were already dancing. How they did it without music, she wasn't sure.

"I wonder what Magnus is up to." She mused. Jace asked what she meant. "I can feel his little mischievous vibes in my head. He's not just running an errand. He's up to something."

"I used to be very insecure about your little mind trick with him." He admitted out of the blue. "It weirded me out and I thought maybe…"

"Maybe…?"

He took a long drink. "I was jealous, I guess. I know I was actually. Some part of me thought you wanted him or you'd want him. I mean, he's a warlock. I will admit he's kind of cool. It took me a long time to realize that Magnus is to you what Alec is to me."

"My parabatai?" She breathed a smile, eyebrows arched. In a way, maybe so. They had a deep connection that only they understood. A way to communicate with one another, similar to the way parabatai could feel what each other felt. She and Magnus could do that as well. "I can't believe you thought I'd fall in love with Magnus."

He finished his champagne and placed it on the table. "He isn't the worst looking warlock." He took her flute and placed it next to his empty one. "Come dance with me." He grabbed both her hands and led her to the dancefloor.

Still, no music played. Jace wrapped his arms around her waist and she folded hers around his neck. The Herondale ring that lay at the base of her throat was cool, pressed deep into the skin. She let her head rest on his shoulder. His cheek against her forehead. He took her hand and held it out, clasped in his as if he'd never let her go.

She hoped he didn't.

She hoped they stayed that way forever. Everything faded away. If there had been music, she wouldn't have heard it. All she heard was the steady beat of Jace's heart, the gentle way he breathed.

"I love you. More than anyone has ever loved someone else. More than anyone will ever love someone." The words were quietly spoken. No one else would have heard them. "Hell and high water."

The smile that came to her was unwarranted. "We say that a lot. Did you ever stop and realize that we've been through Hell and high water?"

His head inclined back so they could look at each other. His tawny eyes were wide with realization. "And we made it through. Look at us. We almost drowned. And we went to Hell and back."

"Not to mention we both died."

"Hmph." Jace nodded sagely. "You know, we might just be invincible." She stated very clearly that she was not willing to test that theory. "Me either."

Her ears strained. She could hear sobbing. Distanct sobbing that she had only heard a few select times.

Clary.

She jerked away from Jace rather viciously.

Clary was standing at the opening of the tent, clutching on to a boy with a mop brown hair and rectangular glasses. Scrawny and lanky and tall and-.

Simon. It was Simon Lewis.

"Oh, my God." Eliza breathed.

The two were exchanging words quietly. Isabelle was standing near them, Maia at her side. From where she stood, Eliza could see Isabelle was crying. Simon looked confused and Clary looked…emotional.

But it was Simon and he was there.

Magnus stood behind Clary. Very proud, his eyes glittering and a giant smile on his face.

"You're my best friend." She heard Simon tell Clary. "Your name is Clary."

"Is that…?" Jace's voice was in her ear.

She could only nod. It was indeed.

"You are something else." Eliza circled from behind Magnus. "Truly a High Warlock."

Magnus lifted his hands and said it was an art. "It was the least I could do." She asked what would happen. Mundanes couldn't know about the Shadow World. "He won't be a mundane for long. He's going to Ascend."

Eliza was, for lack of a better word, stunned. Simon had been a mundane and then a vampire and then a mundane again. A Daylighter and bearer of the Mark of Cain. Never upon her knowing him had she imagined him as a Shadowhunter.

He would be a good one.

"I missed him." Eliza admitted fondly. "I like Simon a lot. Even if he said my blood was sour."

She was sure if she pressed her wrist to any willing vampire and made them drink her blood, the answer would be far different. The heavenly fire had burnt all the demon blood from her system. She was a normal Shadowhunter. What she should have always been.

"He is an extraordinary person." Magnus agreed. "And he is in similar company."

She leaned her head against his shoulder. Clary and Simon were dancing. Jace was playing the piano. Expertly, the way only he could play. She remembered the night at the Institute after she had first arrived and Jace had been cold and unwelcoming. She had found him playing piano, beautifully and tragically. There had been a sorrow in the way his fingers moved over the keys, how he watched himself play.

It was gone now. Whatever piece he was playing was uplifting, appropriate for a wedding. His eyes were on her and he was smiling that angel's smile. Church- Eliza for the life of her didn't know who had allowed that cat at a wedding- was chewed rapidly on the leg of the piano.

"You two." Jocelyn found them outside the tent. Nothing of suspect going on. Innocent conversation between two people engaged to be married. Already married.

Jace involuntarily jerked from Eliza. "Just talking. I promise." He held his hands up.

In the past six months, Jocelyn had grown much fonder of Jace. He came to weekly dinners. Jocelyn always made him spaghetti. He liked the way she made the sauce.

Jocelyn laughed. The laugh of someone who was inexplicably happy. Musical and carefree. "There's someone you should meet. Two people, really."

Jace and Eliza shared a look. Nonetheless, they followed her back into the tent. Jace wound his hand around Eliza's, locking their fingers together. Jocelyn led them to a table where Clary sat with Brother- no just Zachariah, and the woman he had brought as a date.

She was young. Eliza hadn't noticed before. Only nineteen or twenty maybe. Barely older than them.

"Eliza, Jace, this is Tessa. Tessa Gray. She's a warlock." Jocelyn introduced them. "Tessa, my older daughter, Eliza. And Jace Herondale. Her fiancé."

The woman's grey eyes sparkled. So far upon inspection, Eliza couldn't find a warlock tell. They all had one. Magnus' cat eyes. Catarina Loss' brilliant blue skin.

"Why don't you sit with us?" She spoke with a slight English accent. Something about her seemed old and Eliza wondered how old she really was.

She and Jace sat across from them. Jace sat directly across from Tessa Gray and Eliza directly across from Zachariah. And she realized then, that Zachariah held Church in his arms. Fat Church with a dozen little silver bells around his collar.

"You're holding my cat." Eliza said deftly. She was the only one whom Church allowed to pick him up.

Zachariah smiled at her. "So, he likes you, then? Clary said he hated everyone."

Jace rolled his eyes at the statement. "She gives him food every time she eats. He's been bribed to love her." Eliza commented that Church let her hold him. And he slept in her room. "He probably knows you hide food under your bed. He's begging."

Eliza's eyes widened. How did he know she hid junk food under her bed? "You've been snooping again, haven't you?"

"I wanted Oreos."

Tessa Gray smiled at them. The fondness of someone who had lived many, many years and was looking back at a legacy. "I brought you something, Jace Herondale." She took something from her pocket and dropped it down into Jace's hand. It was a ring. A family ring. Birds in flight on the band. "I heard you had a new ring commissioned by the Iron Sisters, though," her eyes landed on the ring around Eliza's neck, "it seems it has found a happy home with your fiancée. I hope you will wear this one. It once belonged to James Herondale."

Jace studied the ring. He turned it over in his hand, letting his fingers slid over the birds. "Thank you." He murmured, sliding the ring onto his finger.

Clary held a weathered copy of The Shadowhunter's Codex in her hands. It was bound in a midnight blue velvet. Words glimmered gold on the back, but Eliza couldn't make them out.

"Eliza," Tessa said carefully, "this, I've brought for you." From her pocket, she lifted a necklace. It was small, old-fashioned. A clockwork angel hung from the thin gold chain. "Once, there was an angel trapped in this. His name was Ithuriel."

Eliza, for a moment, didn't breathe. She could feel Jace and Clary tense beside her. Ithuriel. Ithuriel the angel who had been trapped and tortured by Valentine. Who had shown them the truth in visions. Who had stolen Jace's seraph blade and ended his own misery. Ithuriel whose blood ran in the veins of Clary and Jace.

"I…" She had no words as Tessa dropped the necklace into her hand.

"This belonged to me. I would like you to have it. Perhaps after your wedding, you may wear it?" Eliza could only nod. It made the warlock smile. "I heard things about you during my time in the Spiral Labyrinth and then when I left and returned again after the Mortal War. A Morgenstern. The daughter of Valentine and the sister of Jonathan. A girl who stood by the Clave and did everything in her power to stop her family. A Morning Star in your own right, I believe."

Her mother had said the same thing once.

"If I am too forward, I apologize. But you must know that there is someone who understands your unique…heritage. My mother was born a Shadowhunter and she went unmarked, due to peculiar reasonings I will not force on you. A demon once came to her in the form of my father. They call him Belial."

She sucked in a breath. He was a Prince of Hell. Realm-stealer. Lord of Thieves. "I've heard of him."

"He impregnated my mother and I was born from them. Half-Shadowhunter and half-demon. Like you were."

There was indeed a peculiar comfort in knowing someone was like her. Or what she had been. Someone good. A warlock, like Magnus, who was good and kind-hearted.

"Should you ever need me, I will be there for you. I have a special place in my heart for Herondales." Eliza reminded her that she and Jace were only engaged and that they wouldn't be married for a while. Tessa glanced at the runes on their hands and gave them both a sly look. "Not every binding must be legal."

Jace thanked her again for the ring. He stood and kissed Eliza's cheek. He said he was going to relieve Lily once again from the piano. Both Tessa and Eliza watched him walk away.

Eliza watched as Tessa's face molded into serene affinity once he began to play the piano. Her smile was slight and peaceful. Her grey eyes twinkling with a happiness Eliza hoped to always feel. Zachariah's hand was wrapped around hers and he watched her the way Luke watched Jocelyn.

"I should go put this away." Eliza held up the necklace. "Thank you again." Tessa nodded, still watching Jace.

As Eliza stood from the table and turned, Tessa called her name. She turned her head to look back.

"To love a Herondale and be loved back is life's greatest blessing. Treasure it always." Tessa wasn't looking at her. She had said it all still looking at Jace. Almost as if she saw someone else in his place. Someone she had once cared for very deeply.

"I will, I can promise you that." Eliza said, her own gaze resting on Jace. His head lifted to meet her stare. She blew him a kiss and he stumbled over the next few keys. With a rare, embarrassed smile, he regained his playing.

It was later when she picked up the copy of her favorite. Later when the wedding reception had ended and everyone had gone home.

The bridesmaid dress hung on the back of her door, exchanged in favor of a pair of shorts and the sweater Alec had given her as a birthday present. Everyone was asleep. Jace beside her, dead to the world. He snored slightly now that he slept soundly. The foot of her bed was empty. Church had always slept curled between her feet. But he was gone. Zachariah had taken him to Los Angeles. Church had been so happy and content with the former Silent Brother, Eliza had relented. Though she wished her mercurial little beast.

Jace stirred beside her and his arm flung itself over her midsection.

Since her birthday, she had read the book. It had taken a long time for her to finish. It was special, this gifted book. She read thoroughly, as if some message for her was written in between the lines.

It was only as she finished it that she decoded the message. Why, so long before, Alec had found it funny that her favorite book was a story about an unwillingly double agent. She swallowed as she turned over the last page. The page before the end of the book was white and would have been empty. Words written in thin black ink were scrawled over the page. Jace's handwriting was easily recognizable.

That was why he wanted me to wait until I read the book.

She settled in and let her eyes wash over his words.

Eliza,

Once you wrote a letter to me and told me a story about a girl. A girl with a fierce heart in the middle of a mess she had no say in. The girl was scared and afraid, not for herself, but for those she loved. She did brave and selfless things for those lucky people. Risked her life time and time again. The girl thought she was a bad person because of her circumstances, the things she had done, and the things done to her. I saw this girl and the first time I laid eyes on her, I knew she was going to change my life. She's a brilliant, extraordinary person. When she loves, she loves viciously. She loves hard and never lets go. To be loved by her is a miracle and I'm glad I get to experience it. She's the best Shadowhunter anyone has ever seen (don't tell anyone I said that, or I'll deny it), a brutal warrior. Beautiful, not just on the outside but also within. Her wit remains unmatched and to know her is to love her. She's the moon in the sky, so close but so far from reach. A mystery, even when you study her for hours on end. Nothing is dull when she's around.

Life throws things at you all the time. Most of them you can never expect or be ready for. Some of them are bad, most of them are good. Very few are great. Life threw me to the Lightwoods. And it threw me you. The greatest thing this life has ever given me, Lizzie, is you. I look at you and I want to be better. I'm not the person I was and that's because of you. You made me a better fighter, a better Shadowhunter, a better man. I've always loved you, deep in my heart of hearts. That is where I will hold you forever. In my arms and in my heart.

L'amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle.

The end! Thank you so much for following along, favoriting, and leaving kind words! I am so so thankful for each and every one of you.