Streetlight shone on St. Xavier's power couple, illuminating the sharp plains of Kaelie's face and bringing out the hazel in Jace's eyes. Kaelie clenched her fist, the green in her veins showing underneath her pale skin.

"You didn't have to do this."

Jace bit back a snarl. They'd been through this far too many times.

"Because you deserve it?"

Kaelie placed her palms on Jace's shoulders, "We don't have to pretend that I'm anything more than that girl who works at Taki's- pretending is what we do at school."

He smiled at her, that warm beautiful smile that made her forget the cold, the threats and secrets she'd grown accustomed to.

"The Kaelie I know now has greater right to be loved than that fake unrealistic person she is for those dimwits at school."

She traced the intricate design of the charm bracelet he'd given her and knew that she was lucky. Remembering the constant clash of fists and hisses of fury that she'd grown up with, she felt the fear, that had taunted her throughout the course of her miserable life, crawl up her spine. Was he pitying her? Was she nothing more than a sob story to him? As a child she'd taught herself to always question her circumstance, never accept joy in its purest form.

Jace watched the way her emotions shifted on her countenance. He'd been so stupid. Incompetent enough to believe that Kaelie was the carefree bimbo at school, and not realise that it had been the shield she hid moment he'd seen the obvious weight pressing on her shoulders, as she served drunk men on her late shifts at Taki's, his entire perspective on her had changed dramatically. Her act had been thought out precisely- she'd made sure to get a night shift at the café so that any of her friends wouldn't catch her there, even going as far to work from Sundays to Thursdays so that they wouldn't suspect her when she said couldn't attend all their dumb parties. What she hadn't predicted was for Jace to wind up in a huge argument with his father and storm off to drink away his rage, right where she was serving chips to fat hairy dudes.

Kaelie gazed at him, her pulse racing. She wanted to memorise that moment, the blistering cold and the hum of traffic around them. His eyebrows were furrowed , his lips angled into a lopsided grin, "I know I'm gorgeous but stop staring at me you pervert."

This was why she loved him.

She tackled him, her arms wrapped around his waist. He didn't even have time to chuckle like a cliché macho guy as he struggled to overcome his balance. His fingers braced them against a dreaded fall into the sooty New York snow, steady at her waist.

He pressed his lips against her forehead, his hand moving to caress her cold wrists. She really wished she was wearing a thicker jacket. She inhaled the smell of smoke and sweat that surrounded them, dubiously content with it.

Her phone beeped against the pocket of her ripped jeans, she stiffened breaking away from him.

"Baby?"

His voice was a blur that merged into the noise and clutter of the city. All she could hear was his voice, 'You will never survive me'. She could almost the cold menacing tone as she remembered how he'd first threatened her.

Jace stared at his girlfriend in horror, a tremor jolting up his core as he realised how hard her fingers were shaking. He clamped his fingers against her shoulders, keeping his touch as gentle as possible.

She breathed out shakily, as if in a trance.

He shook her, his knuckles whitening. "Kaelie, snap out of it."

She blinked at him, composing herself. He couldn't know, he'd just worry. And she knew for a fact that she wasn't worth worrying over.

"I'm fine," she let out, taking a few steps forward. She had to make sure her stalker didn't see Jace, she couldn't bear endangering him.

"Sweetie, if you think for a second I'll believe that, you don't know shit about Jace Herondale."

He wasn't going to let her go easily, was he?

She gritted her teeth together, as if she was working to stop them from chattering. She would have to make this look as realistic as possible.

"Just don't make fun of me, for this."

"Never."

Kaelie felt the guilt rising up her throat, threatening to overcome her.

"I-It's just really cold out here, I don't think my trembling muscles can take any more winter adorability from you."

Jace stared at her, his face a growing mask of concern. He had taken the bait.

"You should really get a thicker winter clothes."

And so she'd hidden from him, in her very own deceptive fashion.

Happiness always came with a price.

She was going to writhe him alive. She was going to throttle his pale neck and make sure feed his frozen organs to Jonathan's pet snake. She was going to hold a dagger against his reptilian skin, and tear that repulsive smirk off his face. His end would come slowly, just so she could enjoy it.

Her hands clenched the flap of her laptop, her fingers careful not to graze the screen with her vicious fingernails.

"Clary?"

Her mind was on the run, plotting brilliant schemes against Jonathan's greatest zealot.

"Clarissa."

Her skin still hurt from the savage way she had scrubbed at it, leaving a few bruises in her barbaric sterilising. She was going to humiliate that damned bastard.

"Clarissa Adele Morgenstern."

She glared at her her mother, their eyes blazing with an almost equal amount of ferociousness.

"What?"

Jocelyn Fairchild scowled at both her children. It was ironical, how opposite they appeared.

"I was just talking your brother about how he had the audacity to think that I was going to let the two of you to go to that stupid club again. Could you please enlighten me with your attention."

Clary slammed her fist against on their wooden dinner table, "But, Mum-"

Jonathan brought his hands to his neck and pretended to strangle himself. So that probably meant her mother was going to be stubborn about this.

"Clary where did you get the idea that having three piercings on your left-"

"Right," Clary stated. Jonathan nodded in agreement, his fair hair catching the glow of the coloured light around them. Her mother liked to hang up christmas lights earlier than normal people.

"Don't interrupt me," Jocelyn whispered darkly.

Clary rested her arms on the table, realising just how angry her mother was.

"Which mother likes to see her very sensible daughter appear at her doorstep, with two extra piercings in her ear, and smell the satanic fragrance of beer fill the room?"

Clary resisted the urge to ask why her mother had bothered sniffing her.

"And you, Jonathan do you think I was pleased that you decided to show up, with this monstrosity on your shoulder, on the same day?"

Her mother was on a roll today.

"Mum, it's just a tattoo."

Jocelyn glared at him, "Do you call a permanent stain on your skin 'just a tattoo'? Like it's a damned blessing?"

Jonathan pondered over how something could be a damned blessing, yearning to voice his thoughts.

"You're grounded, the two of you. For two months."

Jocelyn laughed like the looks of indignance on her children's faces weren't a treat enough.

Clary huffed and stormed into her room. For the love of God, her brother's tattoo was the size of a pint.

She switched on the Resonance speakers that had taken her a year's savings to buy. She needed to disappear. She craved to forget her existence. It was times like this that she seemed out her haven. Clary turned on her laptop and marvelled at the sound that filled her room. It had been so worth it.

She logged out her 'Muse' account and then typed a few commands for Sebastian's account.

Hacking had been something she that had never acted a something to bring her relief before. She's just perceived it dangerous and a waste of time- like everyone else. After discovering her apparent talent with computers, she'd found out that it wasn't too hard to find loopholes in her friend's favourite sites. Program code had become a perpetual mystery to her and she had taken to decode a few of the mainstream sites. She loved the stealth, the hood of anonymity she'd gained as she rigged deeper into the digital vortex of lies and secrets. She had never revealed anything, not when she had first messed with her brother's Territory account or when she'd hacked into some girl's shitty boyfriend's account after she'd heard the girl complain about it when she was in the school restroom. Somehow, she had turned into some sort of vigilante on the way, passing unsigned notes into the lockers of people who's seemed like they needed help. It was shady business that messed with an individual's privacy but she couldn't help herself.

And now she was going to se this hidden talent of hers to get back at her manipulative boyfriend. Clary Fairchild was not going to break up with Sebastian Morgenstern for using her to get on her brother's good side. The moment she'd overheard Sebastian telling his friend that he was getting some from her, while having a chance at popularity, she had devised her fraudulent plan. She was going to be with him; hack into his precious account, use his unnerved stance to tackle him into a slow end. She'd expose him leisurely, enjoying every inch of worry he would show as she threatened to expose every single one of his dumb secrets. She would bring him to his filthy knees, and then she would reveal that his girlfriend- tiny, screwable Clary Fairchild had brought him down.