Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy

by Cassandra Clare

Or perhaps the training courses were the worst, because Matthew was at his most annoying during the training courses. “I must regretfully decline to participate,” he told their teacher once. “Consider me on strike like the coal miners. Except far more stylish.” The next day, he said: “I abstain on the grounds that beauty is sacred, and there is nothing beautiful about these exercises.” The day after that, he merely said: “I object on aesthetic principles.” He kept saying ridiculous things, until a couple of weeks in, when he said: “I won’t do it, because Shadowhunters are idiots and I do not want to be at this idiot school. Why does an accident of birth mean you have to either get ripped away from your family, or you have to spend a short, horrible life brawling with demons?” “Do you want to be expelled, Mr. Fairchild?” thundered one teacher. “Do what you feel you must,” said Matthew, folding his hands and smiling like a cherub. Matthew did not get expelled.

I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT HIM