The Mistakes We Made

"Mina Carstairs! Where are you!"

Kit thundered down the stairs of the Devon Institute. "I swear on the Angels Mina, if you have taken my witchlight, AGAIN, I will feed you to a Drevak demon!" he yelled angrily. Kit would never feed his baby sister to a demon, but he was furious just the same. He found the 6-year-old hiding in a cupboard shortly after; cradling the magic stone in her small hands. Kit sighed, his fury dissipating almost instantly, and crouched down to face her. "Mina... we've talked about this, have we not? That witchlight means a lot to me, so I would appreciate it if it didn't go missing every week." He chastised her gently. Mina looked up at him wide-eyed, innocently showing off her unnatural silver irises.

"I'm sorry, Kitty" Mina whimpered. Kit's heart melted slightly at the use of her nickname for him. When Mina was younger, she used to accidentally mistake Kit's name for 'Kitty', which came into her vocabulary from Jem and Tessa when they were calling to Church- the household cat. "I just really wanted a witchlight too!" she added, adorably fidgeting with the stone. The door creaked open behind Kit slightly, revealing Tessa, his adoptive mother. Tessa was, in many ways, beautiful. With her dark hair cascading in ringlets down her back and eyes that sparkled even in the darkness of nights, Kit was proud to call her Mom. Mina had gotten all her good looks.

"Mina, my darling" she started, "You can't steal Kit's witchlight. What would you think if Kit took something precious to you, say.... Mr Bunny?"

"Not Mr Bunny!"

"Exactly."

Mina's eyes glassed over, as she gave the witchlight back to Kit, a single tear sliding down her rosy cheek. Her bottom lip trembled slightly," I'm sorry Kitty!" she choked out. Kit's heart lurched out for her, instantly forgetting his anger. He pulled her in to a tight embrace, whispering soothing things into her golden hair over and over, just to try and get her to stop crying. An idea popped into his head.

"Hey! What about this." He broke free from the hug and turned to look her in the eye. "Why don't we go to Diana's to get you a witchlight of your very own, later. How about that?" he suggested, gently prodding her in the stomach as he said, 'very own'. Even though Diana's Arrow was in Alicante, where the Cohort was, Shadowhunters from the Clave-In-Exile had managed to secure that area, making it accessible to everybody. Mina nodded sniffling.

"Does that sound good? Yeah?" Kit repeated, reassuringly.

"Yeah..." Mina said, wiping her nose on her sleeve. Kit hugged her again, savouring the smell of her small-child sent. He would miss her so much.

They crawled out of the cupboard, Mina running off in the direction of what he presumed was Church. He took a deep, calming breath, slowing his hammering heart. He opened his eyes and stared into Tessa's glistening ones. She grabbed Kit by the shirt and yanked him to a crushing hug, startling him. Kit could feel her body heaving next to him; Tessa was sobbing into his shoulder.

"We are going to miss you so so SO much Christopher! SO much..." she mumbled by his ear. He melted into the embrace, the familiar burning sensation of tears threatening to escape behind his eyes.

"I know, I'll miss you guys so much as well." Kit breathed. More than you will ever understand. And yet he was still going.