New World

1 | Sugar Cravings

If there was one thing Kit was good at, it was slipping out of a place unnoticed.

He'd crept out the library while everyone was eating Chinese food. Clary was doing an impression of the Inquisitor, whoever that was, and everyone was laughing. Kit just thought it was weird.

He went to the kitchen, one of the only places in the Institute he actually liked. It had dark blue walls and a farmhouse sink, and the fridge wasn't badly stocked either. He guessed Shadowhunters got pretty hungry, what with all the training.

He knew he got pretty hungry just sitting around doing nothing.

He wondered if he started training, would he get muscles like Jace or Julian? At the moment he was on the skinny side, like Mark. He lifted his shirt and looked at his stomach—flat, no abs. He dropped his shirt back down and grabbed a Tupperware container of cookies from the fridge.

Maybe he could annoy the Shadowhunters by not training and eating carbs all day instead. I defy you, Shadowhunters, he thought, I mock you with my sugar cravings.

He let the fridge door swing shut and nearly yelled. He swallowed his cookie and stared.

Lila Blackthorn, one of the triplets, her triplets being Livvy and Ty, stood by a cupboard , eating a snack bar. She was looking into the fridge.

"Those are pretty nice," she said, looking at the cookies. "But I prefer British shortbread cookies better. I always have them when we go to visit Aunt Marjorie in England."

Thoughts of cookie-related rebellion floated from Kit's mind. Despite seeing her around the Institute after coming home from patrol with Livvy and Ty, and their first meeting in the kitchen, Lila hadn't realy spoken to him. He wondered how she'd even gone through the cupboards without him hearing.

"You have blood on your hand," Said Lila, nodding lightly to the hand he'd kept on the fridge. "I noticed it earlier."

"Oh," Said Kit. "I just hurt my hand at the Shadow Market."

"How?" Asked Lila.

"I punched a board," Said Kit, "I was angry."

Lila raised her perfectly-plucked eyebrows. She had long dark hair, no fringe unlike Livvy. She was so similar to Livvy that only her slightly sharper jawline and no fringe helped Kit to tell them apart.

"I could fix it you want?" She told him. She grabbed the pen-like thing from her jeans pocket: a stele, that's what they were called.

Kit could have refused the offer. But he didn't.

He held his forearm out and Lila moved forward, reached out to grab him. Her hands were cool and careful, and Kit noticed that she had long fingers, something all Shadowhunters seemed to share. Maybe it was for the variety of different weapons they could use? A thin white scar ran along the tops of her knuckles in a nearly-straight line abs Kit wondered how she'd gotten it.

The stele glided carefully over his pale skin as Lila drew carefully.

"Watch your hand," Lila said, turning his arm over gently, before she placed her stele back in her pocket.

Kit watched his hand as the cuts closed, his skin going back to the pale colour it had been previously. It weirded him out that the Marks worked; it was proof he was a Shadowhunter.

"That is pretty cool," he admitted. "Can you heal anything? Like diabetes? Or cancer?"

"Most things, but not always. My mom died of cancer," Lila told him. "What about your mom? Was she a Shadowhunter too?"

"I don't think so," Kit said. "She's dead," he added.

"Do you think you'll want to stay here?" Asked Lila, gazing at him intently with her eyes, one of which was blue and the other green mixed with a bit of blue. Kit thought it made her unique, set her apart from her triplets.

When Kit went to answer, a sound like a bell went through the Institute. "What's that?"

Then the kitchen door opened and Livvy, seconds later Ty, burst in, Livvy who looked unsurprised to see Kit and Lila together. She hopped up onto the counter beside Lila.

"The centurions are here," Said Livvy, "Everyone's running around like chickens with their heads cut off."

"Diana went to welcome them," added Ty. "Julian doesn't look happy."

"So we're going to spy on them," Livvy finished.

The triplets headed to the door. Livvy paused with her hand on the frame. She turned around to Kit.

"Are you coming?" She said.

"Are you sure you want me to?" He asked. He hadn't really thought to invite himself; the triplets seemed like such a close unit that they didn't need anyone else—though from what he could tell so far, Livvy and Ty were a bit closer than they were with Lila.

"Sure. One warning—rude and catty comments about the people we're spying on are required." Livvy replied.

"You get extra points if you make Livvy or Lila laugh," added Ty.

"Well, in that case..." Kit followed after the triplets, walking alongside Lila.

And they headed off together, like the tight-knit group they were sure to be.