"Good morning red," Jace talks in a voice like honey and gold. "How's the foot?"

I groan again and tear my eyes open and in the direction of the voice. He was right; it would have been a shame not to see the face of the golden boy. That's what he is, golden. His hair, his skin, his eyes. His black shirt and jeans are the only things that stop me from thinking that he is an angel. That and a scar just above his left eyebrow.

"Where am I?" I ask, looking around at the dark room. From what I can make out, we are in an attic. The roof slopes off in two directions and the beams that hold it in place are strewn with cobwebs and eaten away at by insects and time. It's not a particularly large room but it holds at last 10 beds, all of them smothered with expensive linens.

"Welcome to the infirmary of the storm king boarding school, just a three hour walk outside of New York City, overlooking the majestic Hudson River in the historic town of Cornwall on Hudson."

"You sound like a walking brochure," I mumble.

"Is that anyway to treat the guy who just carried you for three hours?" Jace askes, placing his hand on his hip and throwing his hair back heroically.

"Wait you carried me?" I glance at his arm muscles. "Not bad" I think.

"I am the white knight to your damsel in distress." He bows at me and I giggle (possibly a little hysterically)

I am about to say something when I feel a sudden burst of pain in my ankle. The pain causes me to cry out and my eyes water. Jace comes over to the side of my bed and I know he's asking me if I'm okay but I can't quite muster enough energy to reply to him. After a while he disappears. A short while afterwards a little girl dressed all in white stands at the bottom of my bed. She doesn't say anything; she doesn't move or blink, or even seem to breathe. She just looks at me, and I look back. Then I phase out again and when I regain consciousness I find myself alone.

When I get up and creep over to the door I hear muffled voices. They are quiet but I can just tell what they are saying:

"Valentines not going to be happy; If that girl can't walk were going to have to leave her" says a male voice.

"So what if we leave her? We don't know the girl, we can't trust her. Jace isn't always right you know." The second voice is also male but I remember it from the other day…

"I know we can't trust her but Jace seems to think we can and as long as we keep moving valentine doesn't care. I wouldn't worry; she doesn't seem like much of a threat. She is so little!" the first voice replies. Maybe I can't hear them properly but I think they lower their voices when they mention Valentine. He must be their leader.

"I just don't like her." Alec (the second voice and person who knocked me out) retorts. I am about to open the door when I hear footsteps clicking along the floor. I scramble back to bed just in time for an elegant black haired girl to enter without spotting me.

"Oi, get up," she says, prodding me "Valentine wants to see you."

"And I want to see Valentine." I think, but out loud I just grumble a reply.