City of Secrets

Chapter 27: Veni

Ember and Jonathan were sitting on the sand near the Lake. Her head rested against his shoulder, and she was watching their intertwined hands, a small smile playing on her lips. Her wrist was bare, and Jacob's golden bracelet was discarded on the sand next to her. Jonathan, on the other hand, was watching Jace and Clary, who were crouched by the Lake's shore, with mild fascination. Their heads were huddled closely together, flame red and gold, and they were whispering fiercely to each other as they inspected something by their feet.

Alec and Isabelle stood far off to the side, where the earth met the line of trees they had appeared from. Isabelle was stroking the electrum whip coiled around her wrist, as if trying to draw comfort from the repeated motion. Her lips were moving rapidly, though Ember could not hear what she was saying, but she could tell that she was distressed. She saw it in the rigid way she stood, like a spring about to snap, the way her fingers lingered around her whip, the way her brow was furrowed as she spoke to her brother. Alec's dark head was bent down slightly towards her as he listened to his younger sister. His jaw was clenched, his knuckles white as he gripped his bow tightly in his hand. His blue eyes flickered occasionally to Ember and Jonathan, but even more so to him, and Ember knew he was thinking about Max, their little brother, the one Sebastian had killed during the Mortal War.

Her hold on Jonathan's hand instinctively tightened at seeing the way the oldest Lightwood sibling regarded the silver-haired boy beside her, and he broke his curious gaze away from his siblings to look down at her.

"You're worried," he said as his green eyes studied her closely. His thumb rubbed circles on the skin of her knuckles, and she felt some of the tension leave her body at the soothing gesture. "Care to share why?"

Instead of answering, she released his hand and pushed herself to her feet. "I just need to clear my head," she told him, and extended her hand out to him. "Join me?"

Jonathan took her hand wordlessly, and she led them away from Lake Lyn and into the forest. Broken streams of golden sunlight flooded in overhead, giving the lush green trees a beautiful and ethereal look, like something out of a dream.

Jonathan suddenly spoke, snapping her out of the spell. "You've been quiet. What's wrong, Ember?"

She sighed, hesitating, wracking her mind for the right words to say. "Look, I'm not going to lie. A lot of things have changed since you've been gone," she finally said. "I'm not the same girl you met at that park. I'm a Shadowhunter now. The laws of the Clave and Covenant bind me, and the Cold Peace with the faeries is in effect. I suppose I'm worried about how you'll adjust—how the people around us will." Her thoughts immediately went to Jocelyn, Luke, and Maryse, but most importantly, to Roselyn. She began to gnaw at her lower lip, and her fingers flew to the ring around her neck, an action that didn't go unnoticed by him.

"You kept it," he said with mild surprise, and hooked his finger around the silver chain. "I would have thought you would have gotten rid of it."

"Why would I?" she asked. "It was one of the few things you left me that reminded me of you. I couldn't throw it away. But now that you're back..." She reached behind her neck, and for the first time in little over a year, unclasped the chain and held it in her hand. She removed the ring from its chain and took his hand before sliding the ring onto his middle finger. "It's not mine. It belongs with a Morgenstern. I am no star of the morning, but you are. It belongs with you."

His expression was unreadable as he traced the silver six-pointed stars lightly with his index finger, then turned pensive when he got to the M on the front of the ring.

"Everything's going to be different now, isn't it?" he asked softly.

"You have no idea," she replied in en equally soft tone. "But that isn't necessarily a bad thing." She pressed the silver chain into the palm of his hand and closed his fingers over it, all the while never raising her eyes to his. "I don't want you to worry about it. Leave all of that to me. I'll take care of everything. You just focus on readjusting."