"Are you nervous, chéri?" Adelia's mother asked, placing a hand on her daughter's shaking leg.

"No, Maman." She stated obstinately, refusing to admit to her weakness. She tried to convince herself that her feeling sick was only to do with the jolting of the carriage. She was very excited to be going to school.

Her mother opened her mouth but her sister started speaking first. "Well, when I first started school here, I was terrified. I was close to wetting my knickers."

The girl looked at Belle, her eyes wide as Maman shook her head, hiding a smile behind pursed lips, "Really?"

"Oh, yeah. You were 9 and you held my hand the entire time. Papa said I was so pale that he thought I was going to faint."

Adelia laughed. She couldn't imagine her sister about to faint. Belle was 4 years older than her and to Adelia, she seemed like the strongest person in the world.

"So, even if you were nervous, which I know you said that you weren't, there's really nothing to worry about."

She nodded and pressed her cheek against the curtain draped across the window. "I might be slightly nervous."

"You'll be fine, Lia. Your years at the Academy are going to be the best years of your life." Her father winked at her, before twisting his face into a strange shape, making both daughters erupt into a fit of giggles.

"Merci, Papa." Adelia felt better already. Even if she didn't do well in the Academy or she didn't make any friends, at least she'd have her family.

Shielding her eyes from the sun, she turned her gaze to a slate grey structure with steeples that rose towards the sky. The Academy. A huge stained-glass window shone with the brilliance of a dozen pearls shining upon an angel wielding a blade. Under its watchful gaze was a courtyard teeming with students waiting for the academic year to begin.

Belle was out of the carriage before it came to a stop and had her arms thrown around two people. Georgina and Rahul, if her extensive descriptions were anything to go by. Rahul was tall and burly, his brown skin contrasting against Belle's pale coloring. Georgina was shorter than the others with slightly tan skin and curly brown hair.

Adelia stared at her sister and her friends and wished that she would one day have her own. And, if she was lucky, maybe even a parabatai.

Her mother looked at her, concerned, "Come on, chéri. I'm sure you don't want to be late on your first day."

Adelia nodded and grabbed the small bag she had with her in the carriage. "Okay, Maman."

"Henry! Louise!" Adelia looked toward the voice and smiled when she saw Will Herondale, one of her mother's old friends.

"Will!" Henry got out of the carriage, his wife and daughter following behind. "It's good to see you and James."

He gestured his head to Will's oldest, a boy Adelia's age who she talked to when the parents grouped the kids together for some event or the other. Adelia hadn't seen him in ages, only remembering his strange gold eyes. He was talking to three others - although he wasn't as much talking as he was listening - the Lightwood cousins and a Fairchild.

Christopher Lightwood also had strange eyes - purple. He was tall and had light-brown hair. Her mother was best friends with his, who was also coincidentally Will's sister. At a party, a few people had said that he was a bit wonky in the head but Adelia didn't find anything abnormal about him during their limited interactions.

Christopher was related to Thomas by their fathers. Thomas was fourteen and he had joined the Academy a year late for reasons Adelia did not know. Despite being a year older, he was a whole head shorter than Christopher and was small and thin.

Matthew Fairchild was the last one. His parents, Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Henry, who, coincidentally had the exact same as her father, practically raised Adelia's mother. Aunt Charlotte was Consul and was probably the most important Shadowhunter Adelia could remember meeting. Her son was the exact opposite of the others he was talking to. He had blonde hair, several shades darker than Adelia's. She hadn't seen him in years. Her parents loved him and everyone thought he was charismatic. Adelia supposed it was true, considering that he was the life of every party though in the few conversations she had had with him, he hadn't seemed as outgoing as he was with other people and she had thought that he was rather shy. He was wearing knee breeches and a mulberry jacket that stood out against everyone else's pants and dark coats.

"You should probably talk to them instead of just staring like a stalker."

Adelia turned to Magnus Bane, his familiar presence already easing her nerves. "Maggie!" She threw her arms around the eccentric warlock.

He smiled at her, ruffling her hair before she swatted his arm away. "How are you feeling?"

"Good. Okay. Bad." She responded and huffed, "No one wants to be my friend. Everyone already seems to have their own ones here."

"That's because you're standing far away and glaring at them."

"I am not glaring at anyone."

"Then what do you call this?" Magnus lowered his eyelids and peered down at Adelia, his lips pursed into a thin line.

"I was not like that!" She laughed, some of her tension lifting.

"Keep telling yourself that Ms. Montclair."

Adelia gripped her tray tightly, surveying the dining room. There was no one who looked friendly. She tried fighting the impulse to run away, but in the end, gave in to it and left the hall.

She didn't know where she was going but anywhere was better than there. She took a few too many turns and wound up in the middle of an empty hallway. With a sigh, she curled up near one of the windows and eyed her food disdainfully. It looked like sludge and if she squinted at it in a certain way, she could swear it moved.

When she felt a sufficient time had passed, she headed down to the room Dean Ashdown had informed her was hers.

There was someone already there; a girl her age with auburn hair. Celia Barlowe.

Adelia opened her mouth to say hello to her new roommate, but was met with a scowl. Adelia's hand fell to her side and she shifted uncomfortably, picking at her nails.

She hated meal times or any rest period because everyone grouped off with their friends, leaving her alone.

The training courses were the best and most humorous as Matthew Fairchild refused to participate in any of them.

"I must regretfully decline to participate," he told their teacher once. "Consider me on strike like the coal miners. Except far more stylish."

The next day, he said: "I abstain on the grounds that beauty is sacred, and there is nothing beautiful about these exercises."

The day after that, he merely said: "I object on aesthetic principles."

He kept saying ridiculous things, until a couple of weeks in, when he said: "I won't do it, because Shadowhunters are idiots and I do not want to be at this idiot school. Why does an accident of birth mean you have to either get ripped away from your family, or you have to spend a short, horrible life brawling with demons?"

"Do you want to be expelled, Mr. Fairchild?" thundered one teacher.

"Do what you feel you must," said Matthew, folding his hands and smiling like a cherub.

Matthew did not get expelled. Nobody seemed quite sure what to do with him. His teachers began calling in sick out of despair. Adelia supposed it was because his mother was Consul that no one could do anything.

She had laughed once when he refused to participate because he was "considering converting to Hinduism and since Hindus were pacifists, he could not be forced to raise a hand against anyone or anything". He had turned to her at the sound, his eyes shining. His hair was glowing in the sun and when he gave her a smile that was so different from the one he normally wore, she felt like something had hit her squarely in the chest.

She had never thought of people as beautiful but that was the only word that could describe him at that moment. Beautiful.

It seemed that not everyone thought that way and soon enough, there were so many teachers calling in with an acute overdose of Matthew Fairchild that Ragnor Fell was left to supervise the training courses.

"Concussions are nothing to be worried about," said Ragnor placidly when Mike Smith his himself over the head with his own longbow. "Unless there is severe bleeding of the brain, in which case he may die. Mr. Fairchild, why are you not participating?"

"I think that violence is repulsive," Matthew said firmly. "I am here against my will and I refuse to participate."

"Would you like me to magically strip you and put you in gear?" Mr. Fell asked. "In front of everybody?"

"That would be a thrill for everybody, I'm sure," said Matthew. Ragnor Fell wiggled his fingers, and green sparks spat from his fingertips.

"Might be too thrilling for a Wednesday," He continued, taking a step back. "I'll go put on my gear then, shall I?"

"Do," Ragnor said. "And hurry it up."

Adelia had turned then and just managed to dodge the staff Celia had almost hit her with. She whirled and raised her own to strike at the girl, who continued glaring at her.

Honestly, it seemed like her face was stuck in that horrid position.

When they finally took a water break, Adelia turned to look at the rest of her class. Christopher was knocking down trees with his team using the battering ram Ragnor had let him build in case they ever needed to lay siege to a castle.

Someone shouted, and Adelia could only stare in horror as it flew through the hands of Christopher's team in the wrong direction.

She gasped at seeing the great wooden log, sailing directly at James Herondale, and heard Matthew scream a warning much too late. Ragnor Fell jumped up, his deck chair flying as he lifted his hand.

But he didn't do anything. But James was fine. She had braced herself for carnage and death but James turned grey. And insubstantial as the battering ram flew through him and dug into the ground behind him. He had dissolved and changed into a shadow cast by nothing and more people began screaming.

James came back to normal with the edges of him flickering between color and darkness but he was unconscious.

Everyone treated James like the plague when he came back to regular classes. Although he was a quarter Greater Demon, his father's social standing was enough to protect him before. But now, even the mundanes he had sat with before, flinched at his presence.

So she slowly built up her confidence and during the next meal, when everyone was whispering while staring at him, she walked toward him.

He looked at her, his eyes dark and shadowed, but clear surprise written on his face.

"Do you want to get out of here?" Adelia resisted the urge to walk away. James hesitated for a moment and she felt her cheeks flush.

"Please."

She smiled at that, and raised her head, grabbing onto his free hand with hers, while pulling him out of the hall. She could see people staring at her in shock but she didn't really care. She could have a friend. And it wasn't like either of her parents cared about reputation more than her.

Adelia took him to the corner she usually ate lunch in, and James hesitantly sat down.

"Why are you doing this?"

"Because most people are idiots. And I don't think you're one."

He nodded and they ate the rest of their lunch in silence.

A few weeks later, when she went to get breakfast, she saw James sitting with Matthew, Thomas, and Christopher. It felt like a bucket of cold water was dumped on her.

Of course, James was only sitting with her until he could find his own friends. She was quiet and boring and plain. How incredibly foolish of her to think that they were friends.

She turned to go away, but James saw her and his face lit up. He rushed out of his seat and gripped her wrist.

"I was wondering when you'd show up." She readied herself for the moment James told her they weren't friends anymore but that never came. "I think you know Matthew, Thomas, and Christopher. They're really nice once you get to know them and I was wondering if you wanted to sit with them. It's entirely up to you and if you say no, we can go back to the hallway."

Adelia looked at him in shock and felt a blush creep up on her neck. James was her friend.

She nodded and James relaxed, leading her to the table. Matthew pulled out a chair for her and when she sat down, both Thomas and Christopher smiled at her, easing her nerves.

"I'm glad you decided to sit with us," Christopher said. "Some people thought you were immensely stuck up for not wanting to eat with us, regular people."

The others looked at Christopher in horror and Thomas opened his mouth to apologize but Adelia laughed. "Well, as an incredibly early Christmas gift, I decided to grace you all with my presence."

Matthew smiled at her and touched his chest in jest. "And we're so ever thankful for you blessing us with this priceless gift. However, shall we repay you?"

And they all laughed.

Life was much better now that she had friends. Matthew was loud and funny but had a subtle intensity that made Adelia flush whenever it was focused on her. Christopher was rather absent-minded but she loved him all the same. He had the most fascinating stories and would talk to her for hours about scientific nonsense that Adelia could never understand. She liked Thomas the best. He was quiet, like her, but after they warmed up to each other, it seemed like they never stopped talking. He could read her well and knew not only how she was feeling at any given moment, but also how to react to her without her telling him.

Adelia loved Thomas more than she loved herself. She wanted to ask him to be her parabatai but it had only been a few months and she was scared he would say no. Regardless, she was happy.

But she should have known that it wouldn't last long.

On a rather chilly morning, she was called out of bed and into the Dean's office. She slipped into her clothes still half asleep and made her way there.

"Adelia?" She turned to see her sister, half-dressed with her hair messy. "They called you too?"

She nodded, "Do you know what it could be about?"

"No." She paused. "It can't be anything good."

"Do you think Maman has taken ill again? I hope not."

"I don't know Lia. Let's hope it's good news."

But Belle still held her sister's hand and pulled her close, as though she was trying to protect her from whatever happened next.

"Adelia, Belle. I am so very sorry." Dean Ashdown began "There was a huge demon attack a few hours ago in Paris and two Shadowhunters perished. Those two Shadowhunters were your parents."

An incessant ringing pierced Adelia's ear and she barely registered Belle bursting into tears. She was to walk back to her room to pack her things before she would go live with someone else.

Thomas and Matthew were walking in the opposite direction and when they saw her, they paused and tried talking to her. It was very obvious that something was wrong with her. But Adelia couldn't reply, couldn't do anything but walk to her room, her actions very mechanical.

She crept into her bed and pulled her covers tightly over her head, and squeezed her eyes shut, praying that this was just a bad dream and that she would wake up quickly.

When she opened her eyes, she looked around hopeful, but then saw Belle quietly packing her things and burst into tears. Her sister looked up and walked around the bed, wrapping Adelia in a hug as the sisters grieved their lost parents together.

A day after the funeral, Adelia stared up at the London Institute from inside the carriage. According to her parents' will, in the event of their deaths, she and her sister were supposed to live with the Herondales who had agreed to take care of them. But since her sister was eighteen and an adult, it was only Adelia who had to go.

"Adelia, Belle!" The sisters stepped out of the carriage to look at Lucie Herondale who, based on her slightly flushed cheeks and loud breathing, had run outside the moment she saw their carriage.

"I'm so glad you're here. I have always wanted more girls in the Institute and now it's finally happening." She grabbed onto both of their arms and began dragging them up the stairs. "I can't wait for us to be able to see each other at all times of the night. We can have makeovers."

Adelia opened and closed her mouth, looking at Belle for help. Ever the socialite, her sister grinned at Lucie. "While that sounds absolutely lovely, I won't be staying with you. It's only Adelia." She lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper, winking at Adelia. "And she absolutely loves loud noises. Oh, and remember, if you ever see her near a library, take her away. She absolutely can't stand libraries."

She glared at Belle and was about to retort when the doors to the Institute flew open and Tessa smiled at them. "Lucie, don't bother them. Welcome to London, to both of you. I wish the circumstances of your stay were more ideal."

Adelia gave her a tight-lipped smile as Lucie spoke, "But Mother..." She trailed off with Belle's earlier words registering, "What do you mean you won't be living with us?"

"I'm eighteen now. I'm going to go to Madrid for a year before moving back to the Paris Institute." Most Shadowhunters went on a sort of grand tour when they turned eighteen, leaving their home Institute for one abroad.

"Oh." Lucie pouted and they were interrupted by the sound of a carriage.

"That'll be Will," Tessa explained. "He had to go to the Academy for something to do with James."

"With James?" Adelia finally spoke. "What happened with James?"

Tessa looked at her before her eyes darted away. "Ask him yourself."

"Adelia?" Matthew asked. James was clutching onto his sleeve and Will wasn't far behind. "What are you doing here?"

"My parents died and I live here now." She stated plainly. "What are you doing here?"

"Jamie, here, was expelled because Clive Cartwright died while trying to scare him with a demon in a Pyxis box and the idiots at the Academy needed a scapegoat. I let Christopher blow up the Academy so I could come here with him." Matthew waved his hand, dismissively, "More importantly, James and I are going to be parabatai."

Adelia's mouth fell open in shock and Tessa glared at the boys. "All three of you. Explain. Now."