Lady Midnight

Chapter 33

Emma sat on her bed deciding between a flowy white dress and a tight black one. She had been trying to decide for 10 minutes until she resorted to her favourite way of choosing something. "Enee-meenie-miny-moe catch a tiger by it's toe. If it hollers, let it go. Enee-meenie-miny-moe." Her fingers landed on the white dress.

She quickly picked up the dress and slipped it on. It ended near her ankles and was strapless. It showed the scar she got from being branded by Gwyn, but all Shadowhunters bared scars and were proud of them.

Of course, white was suppose to be the colour of mourning for Shadowhunters, but Emma felt like it was too beautiful to only wear for the death of someone.

Out of her closet, she picked out a braided brown belt to go over the dress along with some brown wedges. Because the dress was flowy, that allowed weapons to easily be concealed.

There were sheaths on both of her legs. One held a seraph blade and the other held Cortana. Tina had retrieved Cortana when they were being saved.

Her necklace was made out of electrum in case anything tried to throttle her. The bracelet on her wrist had a garrotte wire to strangle others.

She slipped on the wedges. Emma specifically liked this pair of shoes, because she had hollowed out the wedge on both of them. She stuck a stele in one wedge. And in the other, a mini dart blower that held darts that were poisonous and ones made of adamas.

Her purse consisted of all of the usual things a teenage girl needs on date night. A tube of mascara and lip gloss, a cell phone, couple of daggers, makeup wipes, vile of salt(for faeries), mini perfume bottle, hair ties, and a miniature hair brush.

Emma lightly curled her hair into soft waves and put on a tiny bit of makeup. After a ton of turning in front of the mirror, Emma deemed herself presentable and left the comfort of her bedroom.

She descended the stairs to find Mark with a bouquet of African orchids. Emma thought that was so sweet. He handed them to her and she breathed the sweet scent in. He also had a large picnic basket and a blanket.

"Are you ready?" Asked Mark. "Yeah let's go," she said. "You look stunning, Emma." Emma smiled,"thanks." Mark was wearing a pair of jeans and a black dress shirt that was untucked. The black made the pale colour of his hair to stand out. He took her hand in his own. His hand was cold.

They both went to Emma's car, because Mark didn't have his own. Mark put the basket and the blanket in the backseat of the car. She tossed him her keys. He had learned to drive before he was taken.

He pulled out of the Institute's garage and into the warm L.A night.

Emma switched on the radio to fill the silence. Mark drove to a beach. The sunset glowed over the water, making the ocean loon like it was a rippling fire.

He parked and got out of the car. He opened her door for her,"thanks," she said. "Welcome," he said smiling down at her. They held hands and walked down to the shore.

The waves were calm near the beach, but Emma could see that near the caves on the far side of the shore, that many jutting rocks before the caves made big waves that produced mist every time a wave crashed.

Mark led Emma to a spot near the waves. They laid the blanket down over the soft sand. Inside the picnic basket were two Tupperware containers full of pasta, a jug of iced tea, grapes, and chocolate covered strawberries. All food that Emma loved.

The love on Emma's face for the ravioli was evident. "You are such a good cook," she praised. "Thanks. I've been trying to brush up on my cooking skills, because I never got to cook when I was in the Hunt."

"What was it like. Flying through the sky and reaping the dead," she asked. Mark finished his bite of ravioli,"It's not a feeling you can easily describe. There's nothing keeping you tethered to the earth. The adrenaline pumps through your veins when you speed through the sky. There are almost no worries that cloud your mind. It makes you feel weightless. It makes you feel free."

Free. That was a feeling that she and Julian had never experienced. They always had to worry about the kids. Whether they were eating enough, whether they had to start getting along, and when they had to be comforted by nightmares that no child should have.

"It sounds amazing,"she said. "It's not just freedom all the time though. The leader always has complete control over you. You must always obey, no matter how hard you try to resist. And reaping souls, that is not a cakewalk either. Too many dead." Mark looked down at the sand.

Emma out a comforting hand on his shoulder,"you won't have to endure that again." Mark said nothing. She wrapped her arms around him. She could feels his lean, strong muscles through his shirt as he wrapped his own arena around her.

They finished their food and Mark insisted that they take a walk by the water. Emma kicked off her shoes and sunk her toes into the fine grains of sand. The sun had gone down and the moonlight illuminated the waters. It now looked like liquid metal in waves of silver and dark blue.

They talked and smiled at each other. Their feet sunk into to cool wet sand. Mark had rolled up his pant legs so that they wouldn't get wet. Emma had to use her hand to hold up part of dress so that it would not dip into the water or get dirtied by the sand. White always stained easily.

Emma told Mark about the funny tales of the Blackthorn children from the past 5 years. They walked along the shore and towards the caves, where the salty ocean mist surrounded them. The little droplets felt soothing. "Here, I want to see what's in one of the caves. We might find some cool shells,"said Mark.

He was smiling like a little kid. They both ducked into a big cave. It was dark, so Mark reached for a witchlight. A bright white and silvery glow erupted from the stone. The light glowed from between his fingers. "Oooooo look!"

Emma bent down to pick up a bone-white shell. The inside of it was smooth and polished. She ran her fingers over the surface. It was slightly glossy.

"Mark this she'll is so smooth. Mark?" He didn't reply. Emma turned, but Mark wasn't there. "Mark?"

"Yeah?" His voice echoed around the cave walls. Emma breathed a sigh of relief. She thought something had happened to him.

He stepped out from behind a rock. "There's a bend that leads deeper into the cave. It looks so cool. There are a ton of shells. There's even this." Mark held up some beautiful sea glass.

Emma followed him to the place he was talking about. The cave was filled with shells like he had said. Her first thought was, Julian would have loved to paint this.

She picked up some sea glass and examined it. The surface was fine and smooth. She smiled. "Hey Mark..."

A thump sounded behind her. She turned to find Mark knocked out cold on the ground. She grabbed a seraph blade from her thigh sheath. "Rafael," she named the blade. The seraph blade lit up in her hand.

A person tapped her shoulder. She whipped the blade out, but it caught nothing but air. A chuckle sounded and reverberated around the cave,"oh little Carstairs. You really thought you were going to get away so easily from me? The Lady awaits for you to serve her."

"Gwyn. To afraid to show yourself to a little girl?" She taunted. "That won't work on me Emma," he said. "Who's is 'The Lady'?"

"Wouldn't you like to know." A whistling sound came from behind Emma. She ducked as something hurtled over her head, but didn't move I time before the second object struck her in the back of her head.

Her mind blacked out as she collapsed to the ground.