My Beautiful One

8. Drawing in blood

"You'll never guess what happened last night." Said Clary, excitement in her every word and stance as she threw her last knife and bounded over to the target to retrieve it. 

I smiled. I had a pretty good guess what Clary was referring to, but I didn't want to spoil the surprise she so obviously wanted to share with me.

But that didn't mean I couldn't tease the situation a little.

"Let me think..." I feigned deep thought as sat on the highest beam in the training room. "You made a rune that can sharpen pencils for you?"

Clary gave a snort of laughter. "Guess again."

"Hmm..." I closed my eyes, again in the melodramatic pose of thinking. When I opened my eyes again, Clary was sitting next to me on the beam, grinning impishly. "Isabelle's finally taken the hint and started cooking lessons?"

"Nope." Clary started swinging her legs. "Though I'm sure the world would be grateful."

"Someone said hi to you on the subway?"

She made a face. "No. That would be creepy."

I laughed and nudged her with my elbow. "Says the demon hunter."

"You still haven't guessed correctly."

"Damn. Right. Okay... Alec smiled? That would be worth noting."

"No."

"A secret eighth Harry Potter book was launched?"

"Nada."

"You saw the Seelie Queen in Java Jones?"

"Thank the Angel, no."

"You've finally gone up a shoe size?"

"I wish."

I heaved a sigh. "God, Clary. There's only one option left." I looked her in the eye and put a hand a hand on her shoulder in mocking consolidation. "Jace has taken to cross-dressing, hasn't he?"

She starting laughing so hard she was hugging her side with one hand and trying to keep herself on the beam with the other. "No, Amari. I'm engaged!"

"To whom? Magnus?"

Now it was Clary's turn to elbow me in the side, and my laughter resulted in me losing my focus and toppling off the beam, taking the happy little redhead next to me down with me. We hung in midair from our safety ropes, bobbing and spinning lazily.

"No, silly, I'm engaged to Jace." 

"Yeah, I know. Jace told me last night." I said. "Congratulations, by the way. You two are sickly sweet together."

"Gee thanks." Clary kicked a foot out at me, grinning. "I'm hoping that's a good thing."

"It is." I gave her one of my rare earnest smiles. "But don't expect me to ask you about every single detail."

"Oh good." Clary gave a relieved sigh. "I've already dealt with Isabelle, and I swear in a past life she must have been a government inspector or something."

And so training continued. Clary and I sparred and practiced hand to combat, which made me feel proud of my pupil. Her strikes were strong and true, less hesitant and more ruthless. If Jocelyn had seen this, I'm sure she would have upset that I had turned her fragile little doll into a skilled killer, but I knew that despite the fact that I was teaching her, Clary and I would never be similar fighters. Morals after sixteen years as a mundane are different to those of nine years of defending yourself in one of the most hostile societies on the planet, after all.