Entrusted [1]《SHADOWHUNTERS》

Chapter Six

The sound of muffled crying wasn't one that rang out often through the halls of the institute. But when Alec was on his way back from the bathroom, he heard the noises of someone breaking. And it was coming from a very familiar door.

"Andy?"

"Fuck," was her immediate answer. Her voice was deeper and she had a witchlight pulsing in her palm that she dropped onto her bed. The illumination was soon lost.

Alec flicked on the lights in the room to see the full extent of his friend. The girl was in a sports bra and a pair of sweatpants that he was pretty sure were stolen from him, as they seemed way too long for her legs. Papers were scattered around the bed, some crumbled, some ripped and then taped back together. A notebook was fanning out it's pages until it closed, and he was able catch a glimpse of the pages upon pages of handwriting inside. 

Her face was covered in tears. Most of them had probably been silent, and judging by the throwing knife lodged in the wall opposite her bed, angry.

Andina pulled her knees up to her chest and hid her head between them, keeping her arms clasped tight. "Just go away, Alec," the muffled voice requested.

"Uh, no," he replied bluntly. "You look like you're about to go on a murder spree." That comment earned him a harsh, teary eyed glare. "Just kidding."

Andina failed to notice him making his way into her room until he sat gently on the edge of her mattress, the bed dipping slightly at the added weight. She felt a hand on her back and lifted her head again, frantically wiping away tears.

"What is it? Nightmare?" He asked. It wasn't uncommon, especially for Nephilim who had previously suffered from demon venom hallucinations. Something about the brain just really liked to replay and torment.

She shook her head, falling to the left. She would've let herself make contact with the mattress and probably roll onto the floor, but Alec shifted forward and caught her head on his shoulder, wrapping his right arm around her. He could feel the shuddering breaths and how tense her shoulders were, so without much thought, he began to rub the back of her neck comfortingly.

Andina relaxed into him, having a fellow human pulse making the world seem more real and solid. She felt his fingers dance on her neck and welcomed the touch, just now realizing that her teeth were clenched as tight as could be and it was starting to give her a migraine.

Seeing as she still hadn't talked, Alec looked down at her softly. "Is this about what happened in Idris?"

Her sniffled started up again and he lowered his palm to rub her back, whispering to her until she seemed to catch her breath. "You can tell me if you want," he muttered carefully, not wanting to press her when it was clear she already felt very weak.

All Andy could find herself doing is shaking her head frantically, but not because she couldn't tell him. "H-he's not my brother," she choked out. "He's not really my brother."

It was barely even a whisper, but Alec heard. "What?"

"J-j-jace," she stuttered. She folded into herself, elbows resting on the mattress while she held her head in her hands, trying feebly to stop her tears.

 "Who told you that?"

All Andy did was jerk her head to everything in front of her. She didn't know why she was going  to let Alec dig through her precious case files but she let him anyway, shifting to lay back onto her pillow and stare at Alec's back as he started to read.

He grabbed different papers and skimmed through them quickly. Soon he had gotten the gist of what Andy was so upset about.

Clave records, all signed and stamped by the Inquisitor, along with birth records of one Herondale, Andina. 

After reading and considering her previous behavior, he questioned. "Is that why you keep avoiding being alone with him?" He glanced over his shoulder to see her baffled expression and nodded. "Yes, I noticed."

She sighed, gripping her sheets. "I can't..." She trailed off and her eyes were staring blankly ahead of her.

"You can't what?" Alec's voice held ten times more worry than before. He watched Andy sit back up to face him with teary blue eyes.

"I can't handle this, Alec. I can't not have a brother."

Alec furrowed his eyebrows, thinking further into the situation. "So your last name is apparently not the same as your brother's. Why does that change things?" 

"Because it does," she muttered lamely.

"I'm still failing to see a reason," he whispered, noticing how quiet and far away Andina's voice was.

"It just does, okay?" She snapped. Her next words came out like a flood of water breaking through a dam. "No more laughing about stupid memories about our dad, no more joking about our sad family history, no more staying up for three days just to talk about anything and everything. It–it's all just gone."

Alec swallowed, trying to figure out how he could make her see differently. But the more he pondered it, the more he realized she had a right to be so upset. Family was one of the most important things to Shadowhunters. She must feel like she just had her entire identity ripped away from her.

He couldn't imagine what he would feel like if he was told he wasn't a Lightwood.

Andy pushed her hair back and rubbed her temples before she leaned forward and started examining another paper. She frowned deeply before trying to throw it away from the bed, but it just floated back onto her blankets. She groaned in frustration.

 Alec was truly at a loss, so he did what he could do. He shoved as many of those stupid papers off of the bed as he could and leaned over to engulf her in a hug. She was still shaking, so he delicately drew imaginary runes into her arm with his fingers to help calm her down.

After just ten minutes, the sound of another person's breathing and heartbeat had put her to sleep. He didn't know that it was mostly due to the fact that she had only slept for two hours in the past three days. Alec took the chance to grab her journal from her nightstand, propping it open. The pages were frayed and some stained, containing everything from recipes to leads on their old missions. He flipped to the pages that looked the least used–a series of scribbles on events from the past week.

It was very easy to figure out that what he was reading was Andy's entire thought process on why she had to be a Wayland, why Jace had to be her brother, etc. But then he began to see the connections being made. There was a note that described the birthmark on her collarbone that was supposedly the kiss of an angel from a long dead relative. It's mark ran through the veins of the special Shadowhunter's family. Apparently, the family she belonged to was known for being kissed on their collarbone.

There were many other factors, such as her left-handed-ness, which she reasoned she must've accidentally taught Jace. Her lack of blonde hair and golden eyes, which her previously believed-to-be brother and father had both adorned. And sure enough, as Andy slept and Alec dug deeper into her files, there was a certificate of blessing provided by the Silent Brothers when a new Shadowhunter child was born and marked with their first rune, a rune to protect them from evil influences.

"Andina Herondale," he read the name quietly, glancing down at the sleeping girl beside him. Somehow, it fits.