The Shadowhunter Chronicles

Sighing I glanced at the clock on the wall of the kitchen. It was only just eight, not late at night by any stretch of the imagination but I was nearly falling over. If it wasn’t for the box of Chinese takeout I was eating from I would probably would have dozed off at the kitchen table.

Why was I so tired? No clue. It had been like this for the past week. I would go to bed, sleep like the dead and wake up the next morning still tired. I probably would have been able to make it through the day but between morning training sessions and nightly patrols I was ready to pass out. Coffee and the occasional stamina and clarity runes were all that was keeping me going.

Finishing off my lo-mein I tossed my trash and headed up to my room, thankful that it was one of my nights off. Forgoing my usual shower, I stumbled into my bedroom where I traded my clothes for an oversized tank top and slid into bed. Switching off the light I burrowed further under the covers. Usually when Caleb was out on patrol and I was in bed alone I found it hard to sleep. His presence next to me was comforting. However tonight the moment my head hit the pillow I was out.
I slept hard. When I woke up I was still in the same position and my head felt like it weighed a million pounds. With a groan I turned over, not quite ready to get up.

“Morning.” Caleb yawned as he turned over, wrapping an arm around my waist.

“Morning.” I replied as I cuddled closer.

He pressed a kiss to the top of my head, “Still sleeping like shit?”

I sighed, “Yeah. I was in bed at eight last night. Why do I still feel like crap?”

Caleb shrugged, “It’s probably just a phase or something.”

“I’m almost to the point where I’m desperate to try this sleep rune I found a while back.”

“Sleep rune?” Caleb asked.

I nodded, “It’s supposed to help you sleep but there were some side effects.”

“What kind?”

“Well the severest one was a coma but that’s only if you’re super inexperienced at drawing runes. The most common one was side effect was for people who had Parabatai. It drains the energy from them because of the connection or something. I didn’t want to do that to Ella.” I replied.

Caleb nodded, “Well then I say we go back to sleep for a while and skip training today.”

“Can we do that?” I asked.

There hadn’t been a day since I had graduated from the academy that I had gotten to sleep in. Training was important to keep in shape but if someone was offering me extra sleep I wasn’t going to say no.

“You’re tired. Training when you’re tired is dangerous. The last thing you need to be doing when you’re tired is handling sharp weapons or your bow. No one needs an arrow in the ass.” He replied.

I smirked and curled closer into him, “Sounds good to me. Love you.”

He grinned and hugged me, “Love you too.”

***

When I woke up the second time I felt a little better. The pounding in my head from earlier was gone and I felt a little more rested. Caleb’s side of the bed was empty but even on normal days he was usually up before me. Checking my phone I saw it was already midday and at the thought of it being noon my stomach rumbled.

I quickly dressed before heading downstairs to find food. Walking into the kitchen I found Ella working on something in a sketch book while Caleb stood at the stove making grilled cheese.

“Hey you’re up!” Caleb said looking up from the frying pan.

I nodded as I walked over and pecked him on the cheek, “Those few extra hours really helped.”

“Good. Sit down, lunch is almost ready.” He replied nodding towards the table.

“Good morning.” Ella said as I took a seat next to her.

“Good afternoon.” I replied.

“Whatever. What do you think of this?” Ella asked and pushed the sketchbook towards me, a pencil sketch of what looked like one of the Lesser Demons we’d seen earlier in the week on the page.

“It looks good but aren’t the front legs supposed to be longer?” I asked.

“That’s what I thought.” Ella hummed.

“Lunch is served.” Caleb said as he brought a tray of grilled cheese sandwiches over.

We all grab a sandwich and dug in.

“Are you feeling better? Caleb said you were sick this morning or something.” Ella asked.

“Yeah. I was was just super tired. I haven’t slept well over the past few days.” I replied.

“Really? I had that problem last week. It sucked.” Ella said.

I nodded,” It really does. I’ve been on the verge of falling asleep every day this week.”

“You know what you should try? There’s this sleeping rune that really works. That’s what I’ve been using.”

I froze, “Sleeping rune?”

“Mhmm. It’s been helping a lot. I sleep through the night and I feel amazing every morning.” Ella replied.

I glanced at Caleb who was frozen in place, sandwich half way to his mouth, his eyes going back and forth between the two of us.

“Did you find it in the library?” I asked.

“Yeah…why?” she asked.

“You didn’t read the whole passage, did you?” I asked.

“I read most of it…” She replied warily.

“Except for the part that says that you’re not supposed to use it if you have a parabati! You’re the reason I can’t sleep! All that extra energy? You got that from ME!” I spat.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t know!” Ella replied.

“Because you didn’t read it all! Why would you use a rune and not read everything about it? That’s dangerous!”

“Okay! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to! I won’t use it again!” she replied.

“Thank you. Maybe I can get some decent sleep tonight.” I sighed.

"We have patrols.” Caleb replied.

I shook my head, “No you and Ella have patrols. I’m sleeping.”

“Tonight’s my night off!” Ella protested.

“Yeah it was. Use that extra energy you got from me. I’m going to take a shower and head up to work on my bow work. Good luck tonight.” I replied and with that grabbed the rest of my sandwich and headed upstairs.