Of Ghosts and Angels

Prologue.

PROLOGUE.

Kit Herondale was wide awake. His blue eyes were restlessly scanning over the pages of the book that Tessa had given him earlier that day upon their arrival, thinking that he could find some solace amongst the pages, as she once had, after having just left everyone he knew from the Los Angeles institute behind. Sighing, he sat up in his new bed, setting the book down by his side on top of the covers realising he'd been reading the same sentence over and over in the past few minutes without taking it in. Getting up out of his bed, Kit stared at the open window of his bedroom, shivering as his bare feet contacted the cold wooden flooring.

A soft breeze blew in through the open glass windows, stirring the thick red curtains as Kit slowly made his way over to the plush window seat and sat down, drawing his knees to his chest with his arms wrapped tightly around them. The early morning sun was slowly rising in the sky washing away the last clinging signs of the night with a soft orange glow. The gentle early morning breeze tickled locks of Kit's golden hair against his cheek and neck making him shiver as he brushed it away impatiently, biting his lips with a frown. He hadn't slept at all despite the late hour which the three of them, Jem, him and Tessa, had stepped through the Portal into the front gardens of Cirenworth Hall and made the short walk up the crunchy gravel path to the front door.

"Welcome home Christopher." Tessa had said softly as her and Jem Carstairs, the previous Brother Zachariah a member of the Gregori, hung back watching his every move cautiously as if he would be easily startled. He had stared impassively up at the grand stone building, soft yellow lights glowing through the glass windows and illuminating squares of the grounds before them. Kit did not feel like this was home. He was not sure where his home truly was. Despite spending so long around the Blackthorns and Emma and Cristina in the L.A. Institute he had never felt at home there, never felt like he had truly belonged around them. Except for Ty and Livvy.

He had flinched at the thought of them, their faces looming in front of his eyes for a moment with the wide grins they'd had on their faces as they had looked at him that day on the beach which seemed so long ago now. Closing his eyes for a moment, he inhaled the cold night's air bidding away the unwanted memories. Everything had changed now, and Kit wasn't sure he could ever go back to being that boy again, ever go back to the Blackthorns. The pain pinched sharply in his chest as he took another deep breath before he turned to face Tessa and Jem with a smile, masking everything he felt inside the same way he always had with cockiness and sarcasm. "I prefer to be called Kit," he said not unkindly as he looked over at Tessa, "you live here by yourselves?"

Tessa smiled as she slowly stepped forwards, every motion and expression screaming out with nothing but kindness and support and comfort, like a mother approaching their child. But Kit didn't have a mother, he didn't even know if she was alive or even wanted him as he forced back everything that screamed inside him to step into the embrace of Tessa Gray, who upon noticing the young Herondale's hesitancy settled for resting her hand on his shoulder as she crouched in front of him to look straight into his eyes with a gentle smile. "It can be your home too," Jem spoke up, smiling at Kit too with kindness and an open honesty in his expression, "if you'd like it to be."

Kit had turned back to look up at the building in front of them without answering. He nodded once as his eyes scanned the exterior before he had made his way towards the front door, towards his new life. His life without the Blackthorns.