Finding Clarity

"I thought you'd be up here." Clarity tore her gaze away from the setting sun on the rolling green hills near her home on the outskirts of Alicante. Elias Carstairs lowered himself onto the roof, sitting beside her. She sighed and laid her head on his shoulder. She knew he'd come to let her know that their guests had arrived for dinner and that she should have been ready.
"Is there no way for me to avoid dinner with the Blackthorns?" She asked her father, eyes pleading.
"I'm afraid not, my little Clara." He replied, brushing a dark strand of hair out of her face affectionately. Clarity looked over her shoulder into her bedroom where her maid, Amelie, waited with a gown appropriate for dinner. She glanced down at her current attire, her black Shadowhunter gear.
"Hurry along, Clara. You know how your mother gets when you're late." He urged, rising and stepping nimbly back through the window, presumably to go and entertain their guests until Clarity was ready. Reluctantly, she followed suit, closing the window gently.

"It is a lovely evening, Miss Clara. I don't suppose you'll be taking Remedy out tonight?" said Amelie, lacing up Clarity's corset.
"You are right, Amelie, it is lovely. It would do my dear Remedy some good to go out for an evening ride." She replied, smiling at the thought of her beautiful dark chocolate colored Arabian. She ran her fingers over the soft fabric of her dress before turning to exit her room. "Thank you for assisting me, Amelie. You're help is invaluable."

Clarity had just set her foot on the bottom floor when the screaming began, then suddenly, it was just her screaming, and she bolted up in her bed, gasping.
Her door opened silently as her cat-eyed best friend entered the room, a cup of hot chocolate already in his hand as he approached her.
"Are you sure I can't...you know, help?" Magnus asked, gently wrapping an arm around her as she sipped the hot beverage.
"I can't forget about them, Magnus." She whispered.
"Maybe a sleeping potion, then?"
"Magnus-"
"Clara, it's got to be better than these nightmares every night. You can't change what happened."
She looked up at him then, her mercury eyes boring into his golden ones.
"I could have gone to the demon. I could have gotten my curse lifted while he was still alive."
"You would have gotten yourself killed, Clara."