"i am ember
burning down your empire
glowing brighter than the darkness inside of you."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Clary Saltzman thought living in a strange town with her estranged biological father and half-sister would be all she had to worry about...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
WALKING INTO FORKS High School the next day with Bella makes Clary's veins boil with rage, mostly because she doesn't need a guide, regardless of her not having attended a regular school in years.
"Can you, like, just walk away or something?" Clary asks rhetorically, more like a demand than anything, as she looks down at her schedule. "I don't want to be seen with the likes of you."
"My dad told me not to leave you alone. We know how much trouble you get into," Bella says. "You'd probably run away as soon as—"
"I didn't even think of that, but thanks for the reminder," Clary cuts her off, crossing her arms as she swiftly turns to the brunette. "I may have been homeschooled most of my life, but that doesn't mean you have to stick by my side as if I'm some blind dog. I can find my way around this place myself. After all, it's smaller than the boarding school."
She stalks away from Bella, who just stands there, shaking her head in disappointment.
"Hey, new girl!" A jock whistles as Clary stomps by.
The boy goes to grab her face, but she easily places a palm onto his face, promptly stopping him in his tracks.
She pushes him away as she continues walking down the hall. "Don't touch me," she hisses, heading to her first class of the day.
She pauses in the doorway, her supernatural senses tingling. She sniffs the air, her eyes narrowing as her gaze roams over the classroom. Her eyes land on a pale, bronze-haired boy with golden eyes.
She shakes her head, stepping into the room closer to the teacher at the front. She wordlessly pushes a piece of paper into his chest, keeping her hazel-green eyes locked with gold ones that stare right back at her.
"Sorry I'm late," says the voice of Bella as she scurries into the room, almost running into Clary's back. She clears her throat awkwardly. "This is my... sister, Clary. She's new."
"And apparently rich," the teacher comments, staring down at Clary's paper in his hand. "Your last school was a boarding school? That's nice, but we might do things differently around here, Miss Saltzman. You may take a seat by Jasper. Raise your hand, Jasper."
Another boy, as pale as the first one, raises his hand closer to the back of the classroom.
Clary frowns and makes her way over, swiftly taking her seat without looking at him. She ignores the eyes burning into the side of her head.
Jasper is a vampire—a Cold One, different from a night-walker.
Their species can't eat human food or drink, they can't produce tears, their skin is like marble, and they shine in the sun almost like a disco ball.
Clary, of course, doesn't know this yet or else she would've confronted him on the spot.
She does, however, know there's something off about him and the other boy sitting beside Bella, but she doesn't fully understand what her senses are trying to tell her so she says nothing.
