Lady Midnight

Chapter 19

It hurts everywhere. That was Emma's first thought. The throbbing in her head was unbearable. The sharp pain was blinding. It felt like someone was drilling into her skull. 

She painfully raised her hand to the back of her head. It came back red. It took her a second to register the clank of chains.

 Her hands and feet were shackled to a stone wall behind her. There was barely any light except for a tiny little window across from her.

With much effort, she pushed herself up into a sitting position. She scanned her surroundings even more. A shadowhunter must always be alert.

 It looked like she was in some kind of dungeon. There were bars surrounding her. There was a small pool of blood where her head lie before. Emma hoped her head wasn't too bad.

The ground was rough and cold, but that wasn't what she was looking at. In the cell across from her, the one with the tiny window was a message. In dark red writing that looked like blood. It looked like the blood was there for a long time.

The Dark Artifices are shadows,                                                                                                                                                 they are darkness,                                                                                                                                                                           they are oblivion,                                                                                                                                                                              they are wickedness,                                                                                                                                                                        they are death.    

The Dark Artifices? Why did that sound familiar? Emma tried to remember where she heard that name from, but the throbbing in her head wasn't helping. There was another dilemma too.

 Emma didn't know where Livvy and Taylor were. All of the other cells around her were empty. Emma was scared. She didn't know if they were alive or being tortured.

Whoever had captured them had removed all of her weapons, even the stele that was hidden in her boots. Emma was steaming with anger.

 They took Cortana from her. The Carstairs family blade that her father had passed down to her when she started training.

There was some rattling of a lock to her right. There was an old metal door there. it swung open to reveal Livvy and Taylor. Both were barely conscious. Two burly, armor clad figures dragged them into the cells on either side of her. They chained the shackles on their hands and feet.

Emma hoped that they would leave and not notice her. Her hopes didn't come true.

They carried a huge key ring that had hundreds of keys clanging on it. They unlocked her cell and started unchaining her. Emma struggled against them, but it was no use. She was too weak from blood loss. Their large hands clamped around her arms and dragged her out of the room. 

She tried to memorize the maze of hallways that they led her through. It was very hard though. All of the hallways looked the same. After walking for about 3 minutes, they came to a staircase made of stone.

 It was worn smooth by people stepping on it so much. Emma tried not to pay attention to the dried blood droplets that were streaked here and there. 

Once they reached the bottom, there was a hallway that branched into 2 doorways. They shoved her into the door on the right. 

The room was small. It had a table that had straps on it. There was a tall man standing beside it. Emma had never saw him before, but he was described to her millions of times. She had no doubt who he was. The leader of the Wild Hunt.

 Gwyn ap Nudd.

Emma felt her anger boil up. She launched herself at Gwyn. She wanted nothing more than to cause him as much pain as she could.

 He had done this. He had tortured Livvy and Taylor. He took Cortana from him. He imprisoned her. He took Mark away from them...

The people who dragged Emma there, grabbed her and shoved her down onto the table. They took the straps of the sides and restrained her with them.

 Emma fought as hard as she could, but they overpowered her. After they got the restraints on, she still wriggled and tried to rip free of them. 

 Gwyn stood back and had the nerve to smile through it all. That made Emma more aggravated. She started cursing in such foul language that a sailor's mouth would be put to shame.

 One of the men hit her on the back of the head. Emma nearly blacked out.

Gwyn walked up," now that you have calmed down, I want to show you something." He pulled out a stele, but Emma saw that it was black and looked nothing like the silvery adamas that they were always made of. It was so dark, it felt like it was sucking the light out of the room. 

Gwyn waved it around," this looks like a stele, but it is not. The Iron Sisters create steles out of adamas. This is crafted in the deepest depths of the demon realms. The nine princes of Hell crafted this. Your steles give you shadowhunters power. It heals you, gives you strength, or allows you to be soundless. This stele does not work the same way."

He walked closer to her," many are too weak to handle the power of this stele. It especially effect beings with angelic blood." Emma whispered," shadowhunters and faeries."

"Yes, shadowhunters and faeries. If they cannot withstand the power of this, than they will die. If they are strong enough to handle the runes carved from this stele, they will eventually become demonic. Demonic beings created with this stele are none like you would have ever seen before. They are worse than normal demons, they are more powerful than some greater demons," ranted Gwyn.

 " It would take repeated applications of all the demonic runes. The cycle takes days to complete." He tied a gag around her mouth.

Gwyn took Emma's wrist and pinned it down with an iron grip," let's see how powerful you are." He touched the stele to her skin.

Emma screamed into the gag. It was unbearable. It felt like someone was cutting off her wrist with knives made out of fire. Tears streamed down her face.

 It felt like hours, but in actuality it was seconds. He put them on her shoulders and legs. Emma felt like she was dying.

After the agonizing minutes, he stopped. Gwyn smiled at her," wow. You lasted twice as long as all of the others. You might just be strong enough."

Emma was fading in and out of consciousness. The runes burned even when they were done being applied. Gwyn's two henchmen came back and unstrapped her from the table.

 She was in too much pain to fight them. They were not gentle as they dragged her back to her holding cell.

They chained her up and left. Emma had to curl up into a ball. It was the position that hurt the least. Taylor and Livvy were still unconscious.

 Emma saw the gray markings on their legs and arms. She didn't have time to examine her own, because she was greeted by darkness.