Nyla Herondale was a mystery, one that only a select few had the pleasure of knowing. Hidden in the shadows for months, Nyla finally steps back into her former life when the past comes knocking at the door. She'd left it all behind and never looked...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
In truth, it was hard for Nylana Herondale to be in charge of a place that she felt already had good leaders. She had no right to take over from the Lightwoods and her stomach sank whenever she thought about it. She'd tried to persuade the Clave to give back control but she refused, claiming Nyla must step up.
She didn't know what the best way of telling her friends were, or the lightwoods, without causing arguments. In her mind, they'd hate her for it and maybe they'd try to claim it was her plan all along by coming back. Of course, it wasn't true. If Nyla wished to run an institute, she'd never have come back to New York.
"Nyla?" Alec called, jogging next to her. "What's wrong?"
"Why do you assume something is wrong?" Nyla questioned as they stopped in the empty training room.
"The look in your eyes."
"The Clave...they made me head of the institute...but you have to understand I didn't ask them too! I asked them to give it back to your parents and they wouldn't let me, said I had to make peace with it after what happened in Barcelona—"
"Nyla, it's alright," Alec interrupted, putting her his hands on her shoulder. "Take a breath."
"Don't hate me," She added, staring him dead in the eyes.
"I could never hate you," Alec smiled. "You deserve to be head of the institute, Nyla, even if it's not the best circumstance."
"I don't want to be head of the institute Alec...it's stressful," Nyla mumbled, leaning her head into his chest.
"Hey, it's better than having your family name ruined," Alec signed, leaning his chin on her head. "Looks like we've got problems, right?"
Nyla paused, her brain moving at a million miles. Then, in a quiet voice, she spoke.
"You could marry me," Nyla whispered. "Solve both our problems."
"Nyla," Alec breathed. "I don't want this to be done because you think it's better for status."
"Alec, what we have...it's been there since we were teenagers," Nyla admitted. "Do you remember how long we spent in this room together? Shooting those arrows, scaring Jace and Izzy...the time my dad walked in on us and you'd pinned me to the ground."
"I think I traumatised him," Alec's lips curled up. "He didn't believe we were training."
"He threatened to ground me for a month for flirting with you until that older girl complimented me on how well we'd trained the next day."
