City of Redemption

One

December 2011

"Watch it!" Miralye Carstairs cried as a dagger whipped past her head. She glared at her best friend. Mia Rosewain shrugged, unapologetic.

"You should've paid more attention," Mia informed her. Her voice held traces of a German accent from spending her entire childhood in Germany. Miralye supposed her own voice had an accent, though she didn't notice it much. After all, she'd only moved to Los Angeles from London three years ago. She'd actually worked rather hard to keep her accent. It helped her feel a little more at home.

The girls were outside, spending the day training on the beach in one of its sheltered alcoves. A tree rose from the sand about eighty metres from them. Its roots dug determinedly into the beach, rising up at odd places to form a gnarly obstacle course. Unfortunately for the tree, but luckily for the girls, it was just close enough to be used as a throwing target. The sand here served as a different surface from the hardwood floors of the Los Angeles Institute, where the Blackthorns and Emma trained everyday. Miralye and Mia, along with their siblings, preferred training outside. It was much sunnier, Miralye thought. And there were more variables to use against yourself.

Mia knelt down next to her, raising her eyebrows at the phone in her hands. "Are you texting a boy?" Her voice sounded a little too excited for Miralye's liking. Miralye shot to her feet.

"I'm not," she said automatically. Her friend laughed, handing her a knife.

"C'mon, Meerkat. You're not some lovesick schoolgirl anymore. You're a Shadowhunter now."

Miri took the knife and whipped it at the target. It struck the wood with a satisfying thump. She gave Mia a triumphant smirk.

"Who says I can't be both?"

The other girl grinned mysteriously at her. "Nothing."

Immediately, Miri was on guard. "What is it?"

"Nothing." Mia picked the daggers off the ground, putting them back in their place in the weapons case. She extracted two practice blades and handed one to Miri. She hadn't stopped smiling.

"What?"

"Nothing, Miri!" Mia seemed to be holding back laughter as they faced each other. Miri narrowed her eyes at her friend.

"Mia, if you're hiding something from me, I swear I will hunt you down and skin you."

She widened her eyes comically. "That's a bit intense, isn't it?"

"You tell me."

"Tell you what?" Miri whipped around to see Cameron Ashdown standing behind them, leaning casually against a tree trunk.

"Hey, Cam!" Mia waved and the two exchanged a grin before Cam glanced at Miri.

" 'Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol' is out," he informed her. "Think you can get us in?"

Miri grinned slyly. "Oh, I know I can."

Mia groaned. "Really, Miri?"

Cam ignored his girlfriend. "Sweet. When?"

"Most likely tomorrow night." She flopped onto her back. "I have to see when the showtimes are before I can get tickets."

"Sounds good."

Mia raised an eyebrow at Cam. "Why 'Mission Impossible'? There must be other ones to watch, too."

"Well," Cam said, grinning at her. "There's always Sherlock Holmes."