˹ ʟɪᴏɴ ʜᴇᴀʀᴛᴇᴅ ɢɪʀʟ ˼

          taking residence in quill and elena’s house is not exactly ideal. they’re hospitable hosts, generous and luca will always be grateful for that. but they’re also newlyweds - war or not, they’ll want their own space. the last thing they need is half the institute tripping over each others feet. still, it’s the best of a bad situation and at least it means he can keep an eye on all his siblings.

         hearing the sound of a dummy being pummelled, the shadowhunter turns the corner to the training room. he leans against the doorway, watching his sister make easy work of the moves they’ve been learning since they were kids. “you know, it’s not polite to mock your victims.” luca snorts, shaking his head at her.

Her sour expression softens at the sight of her brother leaning against the doorway, watching her work out her latest frustrations on the helpless dummy in front of her. It seems there’s many things frustrating her lately; from feeling completely helpless in the war against Leo Wallace, to learning her mother was actually a mundane and the woman she believed was her mother all of her life was the one that killed her. It’s hard to say whose face she’s picturing instead of the dummy’s when she hurled the battle axe through the air — her duplicitous father for never telling her the truth, the blood thirsty seelie who killed the mother she’ll never get to know, the traitorous nephilim who cast a spell over her brother, turning him against his friends and family or their damn weapon instructor who constantly chided her choice of weapon.

❝ I’m not feeling terribly polite today. ❞ Dawn huffed, pulling the axe free from the dummy’s chest and twirling it around in an idle manner as she moseyed on back to her original mark on the training mat. Dawn tested the weight of the axe in the palm of her hand again, hazel coloured hues narrowing on the dummy as she swung and slashed her axe through the air, moving swiftly across the mats as she demonstrated her skills with the weapon before finally burying it deep into the dummy’s chest once more.

“Do you really think he’ll attack? Alot of his family are here and they may be injured in the process. I don’t know if he’s willing to risk that. He has to have a reason for this. Maybe it’s for his family. From what I can tell they always seemed close. He was there at Quill’s birthday and wedding.” She unconsciously grabbed her jade necklace and started rubbing it. It was a present from her grandmother and her grandmother always called it her protection charm. It always gave Jade comfort.

Dawn couldn’t begin to fathom what ideas Leo might have for the rest of the nephilim, for all she knew he could be leading them to the brink of a civil war or one between nephilim and downworlders. By the angel, it might not even really be Leo pulling all the strings. If the oldest Wallace had the power to cast spells over other Shadowhunters, who was to say nobody had cast a spell over him? This could have easily been orchestrated by a Greater Demon or an evil warlock intent on ruining the nephilim by polluting them, spreading their evil through their ranks like a disease.  ❝ I don’t know what he’s capable of and that’s why we have to be prepared. All I know is that he’s already cast a spell over my brother once, he nearly killed Elena while under that spell too and she’s married to his brother. I know blood runs thicker than water but I don’t think we have the luxury of giving him that benefit of the doubt. ❞ Dawn had given the woman she believed to be her mother the benefit of the doubt once, that was one of the biggest mistakes of her life.

with everything that had been going on in the shadow world, jason had been more worried than usual about his loved ones. he was a worrywart by nature, mind always preoccupied with concern about what might happen to those he cared for and with ideas of what he could do to protect them and keep them safe. now more than ever he felt the need to check up on them. it was a long list of people to check up on ( he didn’t know how or when it happened, but there were so many important people in his life it was still hard to believe sometimes ), and elena was surely one of them. jason knew that, being her parabatai, lukas would know if something had happened to her, but he still felt the need to go check on her. that was why he was in her house. passing through the rooms in search of the shadowhunter, he picked up on the sound of a voice coming from the weapons room, arriving just in time to see the brunette sticking her tongue out at the training dummy. letting out a laugh, jason took a few steps inside the room. “what did that dummy do to you? must have been pretty bad.”

❝ Nothing, actually. I was just proving a point. ❞ Dawn admitted some what sheepishly, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment as she realised how stupid that might have sounded given the fact that she was all alone in the training room.❝ Not to the dummy, obviously. ❞ She added, the words spilling out of her mouth faster than she could stop them, ❝ Someone said something to me once, I was just proving them wrong. ❞ Dawn gave an awkward shake of her head, rubbing her hands over her face as she mentally chided herself for rambling on like a complete and utter fool. She was a Shadowhunter, she was supposed to be swift, graceful and well put together. Not awkward, shy and blushing in front of a werewolf. 

❝ Are you looking for sanctuary? Or Lena and Quill? I think they should be around here somewhere. ❞ She said, hoping her questions would steer him away from pressing her any further on the dummy and saving her any further embarrassment.

“Strength for what? I don’t want to fight. There are other shadwohunters on Leo’s side and…..” Jade paused for a moment. “Leo is Quill’s brother. I don’t want to fight him.”

It was unsettling to hear another Shadowhunter protest their disinterest in fighting, they were warriors after all. Shadowhunters began their training from as early as seven years old, learning their way around a sword and studying forgotten demon languages. Shadowhunters didn’t run from a fight, they ran towards it.❝ You can do other things besides fighting that still requires your strength. Besides, you may not want to fight but you might have to defend yourself against his army. That, you will definitely need your strength for. We all will. ❞

“I really can’t even eat right now. There’s just too much going on. ”

❝ You need to eat, J. ❞ Dawn spoke softly as she joined the other Shadowhunter at Elena and Quill’s long, oak dining table. ❝ We all need to keep our strength up. ❞ 

❝ Maybe next time, ❞ Dawn whispered to the battle axe, hanging it back up on the wall. What did they know anyway, she could be just as deadly with a shuriken as she could a battle axe. As if they were standing in the weapons room with her, watching her with a disapproving look in their eye, she picked a shuriken up from the weapons chest, letting it fly home. The shuriken buried itself into the shoulder of the training dummy, and Dawn couldn’t help the grin that spread across her lips. Try swinging your dumb, old heavy axe now, she thought, doing what any other respectable Shadowhunter would have done and stuck her tongue out at the training dummy.

“Nothing, nothing.” He glared at Dawn as he brushed the shattered mug under the counter subtly. “And don’t call me Ricky.” Freddie hissed under his breath, his light eyes narrowing. “You know I hate it, Sunrise.” He was annoyingly proud of himself for that joke, even to this day. It may have been his five year old mind that came up with it but it always annoyed his older sister. That was one of his favourite past times, making Dawn look like she was about to kill him. He leaned his head on her shoulder, blinking up at her with a grin. “What you reading?”

Dawn rolled her eyes at the mention of his nickname for her, it wasn’t even like the name itself irritated her, or her younger brother for that matter. It was just so.. lacking and unoriginal. At least her nickname for him actually managed to get under his skin, burrowing deep into his nerves like a khan worm. Dawn loved her brother, unconditionally, even when she wanted to clap him upside the head and threaten to unleash a Silent Brother on him ( he’d always been a little creeped out by their hollow, stitched together features ) but she loved teasing him just that little bit more.

Maybe she was half seelie after all.

❝ Ancient demon languages. Which is what you should be reading too, instead of breaking all of our kind companions mugs. ❞

It was a tense situation, everyone seemed to be on edge and Freddie was trying his best to just blend in with it all, to listen to what others were saying and just keep his mouth shut. But the smashing of something incredibly fragile turned eyes to him and he couldn’t stop the words coming out of his mouth. “I-didn’t-do-it.” He said it quickly, like it was all one word, his cheeks flushing red.

Hazel eyes glanced upwards at the sound of something shattering, followed by her brothers sheepish apology. Dawn had never met a shadowhunter with less hand-eye co-ordination than her younger brother before, even with the aid of the angelic runes that enhanced their stamina, balance, endurance and more. Slender fingers tapped the page of her demon languages text book that was opened out in front of her, a look of exasperation sinking into her delicate features as she brushed a stand of dark hair out of her eye.

❝ What did you break this time, Ricky? ❞