CHAPTER THREE
MISS THERESA GRAY
*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧
SIX WEEKS LATER — JUNE, 1878
"How can you throw left-handed if your dominant is your right?" Will asked from where he was perched up on a beam in the training room. It wasn't the highest in the room, only ten feet high where the highest reached to thirty feet, but Evangeline was keeping an eye on him regardless. Mainly because Jem was right there beside him, and he'd been wearing a dark look all afternoon, ever since Will had told Charlotte that Jem wasn't feeling well. He'd been promptly taken off the possible mission they were hoping to go on in only a few hours, and he had been cross with Will ever since. Will didn't seem to care. He just continued eating his apple, unbothered by Jem's dark looks, or the fact that Jem was very likely to shove him off the beam head-first.
"I told you, Will," Evangeline sighed as she aimed an axe—not her beloved, but rather a spare used one from the weapons room—at a target set far in front of her. She was practicing throwing with her left hand, and she was trying to focus. She had mastered knives. Now it was time to master axes. "I can use both. I just prefer my right." She balanced herself, using the momentum of her body as she threw to make the axe soar harder. It landed blade-first in the target, but not on the center, just a few inches to the left. Evangeline grumbled under her breath and went to retrieve the axe, jerking it out of the wooden target. She could've hit the center righthanded with her eyes closed. Clicking her tongue, she turned to go back to her spot, only to hear a muffled yell. She glanced up just in time to see Jem shove Will off the beam. Will floundered in the air for a split second, then landed with a thump on the mats.
"Jem!" Evangeline said in a scolding tone, though she could feel laughter bubbling up her throat. Jem had taken Will's apple before shoving him off the ten-foot beam, and now he was munching away happily, his legs kicking in the air as if he hadn't just tried to murder his own parabatai. She glanced at Will, saw he was fine and currently pouting as he sat up on the mats, and finally let her laughter ring free. "What have I told you about trying to murder Will? Only do it outside!"
"Right," Jem said seriously, biting into the apple again. "Sorry, Evie. Next time I try to murder Will, I will be sure to be far away from the Institute, I promise." Evangeline shared a grin with him. Will grumbled something rude under his breath, then raised his voice dramatically.
"Both of you are cruel," Will said loudly, coming dangerously close to wailing. Jem and Evangeline watched in amusement as he fell back against the mat and threw the back of his hand over his forehead dramatically. "Betrayed by my own parabatai and our shared, dear friend. How will I go on after this pain? This betrayal? 'Hide not thy poison with sugar'd words; Lay not thy hands on me; forebear, I say! Their touch affrights me as a serpent's—'"
"Jem," Evangeline whined, cutting Will off, "he's quoting Shakespeare again!"
"Stop quoting Shakespeare, Will," Jem ordered, his focus mostly on the apple now. He was twisting it around, looking for more of the apple he could eat. It was mostly the core that was left, but Evangeline was simply glad he had an appetite at all. He usually didn't when he was sick. "You know how Evie dislikes his work."
"How can you dislike Shakespeare?" Will asked, sitting up in one smooth motion and resting back on his hands. "His work has made history!" Evangeline sniffed delicately and propped one hand on her hip, her right hand busy playing with the axe. She weighed it in her palm, then twisted it in the air, hearing is whistle slightly at the speed.
"Our Jem has told better stories with his violin," Evangeline declared. Jem made a choking sound above her, then broke into harsh coughing. A moment later, there was a thump and a groan. She turned. It seemed Jem had either fallen from the beam or had jumped and landed wrong. The core of the apple was a few feet away on the floor. Evangeline started toward him, concerned, only to see Jem wave her off and roll onto his back, his arms and legs spread-eagled around him. Evangeline stared at him for a moment, eyebrow raised, and then she looked at Will. He was smiling at Jem so softly she had to look away. She gave Will a moment, as she always did when she caught him looking at Jem that way, and then stepped forward and pointed her axe at him. He blinked and jerked back, letting out a cry for Jem's help.
"Jem!" Will cried. "I am quite sure Flora is about to kill me with her axe!"
"Good," Jem muttered, throwing his arm over his eyes. "It's what you get for tattling on me."
"I did not tattle—" Will started, looking offended just at the suggestion.
"You did," Jem cut in.
"You really did," Evangeline admitted. It had been that morning when Will had stormed into the dining room at breakfast and declared that Jem was ill, that he had been coughing up a lung that morning. But Evangeline had been keeping an eye on Jem all day, and despite a bit of paleness, he hadn't coughed once. He could've easily been coughing up dust. It wasn't above Will to overreact to mild signs of Jem's illness. Still, it was better they be safe with Jem whenever he looked pale, so while Evangeline could admit Will had tattled, she couldn't disapprove of it. Instead, she stepped closer and carefully put the dull end of the axe beneath Will's chin. She tilted his head up so their eyes could lock, and suddenly, he was very, very quiet. She smiled sweetly and said, "I expect you to look out for me on tonight's possible mission, Will. I won't have Jem to watch my back like he normally does, and you won't have him, either. Are you going to focus tonight, or do you plan to be reckless?"
When Will swallowed, it was the loudest sound in the room.
"I'll keep you safe, Flora," Will promised quietly, blue eyes oddly dark. "Always." Evangeline stared at him for a moment, then smiled brightly and stepped back, freeing Will from the closeness of her practice axe.
"Good." She turned to look at Jem, who was staring at her with wide eyes, an expression on his face she wasn't familiar with. Evangeline frowned at him for a moment, wondering why he was looking at her like that, and then she grinned and twisted the axe until the handle was pointed at him. "Want to throw with me?" Jem sat up, then slowly reached out to wrap his hand around the handle.
"Always," was all Jem said.
*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧
"Henry, can you hand me those daggers, please? The ones to your right—no, dear, your other right," Charlotte said patiently. She was currently braiding Evangeline's hair back for her, the strands packed so tightly that Evangeline's temples ached slightly. It would keep, though, for the mission they were being sent on, and that was what counted. They were all in the weapons room, preparing to storm the Dark Sisters' old and decrepit mansion, and Evangeline unfortunately had to leave her beloved axe behind. It was good in open battle, but a liability inside of a house, especially when she didn't know how packed the rooms or how small the hallways. She was settling for daggers the length of her forearms, strapping them across her body as Charlotte fussed over her. Jem was in the corner, Marking Will with a gentle hand. Their heads were bent close together. Evangeline could hear them murmuring to each other, but couldn't make out the words. Henry and Thomas—who was coming to help, since Jessamine refused and Jem wasn't allowed—were preparing in nervous silence.
"Here," Charlotte said, handing Evangeline two more daggers, these shorter, meant to throw or stab in closer quarters. Evangeline strapped them to her thigh holster, then smiled when Charlotte patted her cheeks gently. She always got like this when she was sending one of her kids off on a potentially dangerous mission: nervous, affectionate, twitchy. Charlotte would've loved to go with them, but with Henry—the only adult—going, Charlotte had to stay inside the Institute. Jessamine would be no help if someone came to their doors, and though Jem could handle it just fine, he was often met with wary stares, everyone seeing his silver hair and eyes instead of his heart and talent as a Shadowhunter. It frustrated Evangeline greatly. "Do be careful, Evangeline."
"I always am, Charlotte," Evangeline reminded gently. Sometimes she thought Charlotte saw Evangeline, Jem, Will, and Jessamine as the children she and Henry had yet to have. They were all orphans, and all had come to her when they were very young. She had raised them through their grief; it made perfect sense that she would love them as her own. She pressed a kiss to Charlotte's cheek, then glanced over her shoulder. Jem and Will were no longer murmuring to each other, and instead, they were chuckling and playing, getting dangerously close to roughhousing. Evangeline smiled, endeared, then raised her voice. "Right, then. Remind me what exactly we're looking for inside the Dark Sisters' house?"
It had taken them a month and a half to track down the carriage Evangeline had seen so many weeks ago, the one that had the double ouroboros on the side, with the words Pandemonium Club scrawled around it. It seemed to have completely disappeared after that day Evangeline had seen it on the street. The only thing she could remember about that day was that it had been pouring down with rain, the roads and streets dirtying the hem of her dress. But with the right bribes and the right Downworlder drug dens—found by Will, who often went to them to get Jem yin fen when he ran out, since Jem was too ashamed to go inside the establishments himself—they had found a lead. The Dark Sisters, it had been rumored, had such a carriage. With a visit to the Enclave archives, something Evangeline had to drag Jessamine along to do, they had found the address of the Dark House, right off Whitechapel High Street in London. They had been scouting it for a week before Evangeline had seen the carriage driving past the gate, and then they had waited for permission to raid the house from the Enclave.
They had received it an hour ago, and now here they were, about to embark on the journey.
"Any evidence to suggest the Dark Sisters are responsible for the death of that mundane girl," Charlotte said, but only when Jem and Will had stopped playing and had wandered over, and when Thomas and Henry were done preparing with weapons. Now, they stood in a circle around Charlotte, and despite Charlotte being the shortest person there, the power she held over them made her seem taller. "Weapons with the double ouroboros symbol, more victims, signs they've summoned demons to this world. But remember: Do not break the Accords. I would like this to be as non-violent as possible—but, of course, if they attack first, do defend yourselves. The Dark Sisters are not known to be friendly or kind. Be careful."
"Why not just kill them?" a new voice suggested. Evangeline glanced over her shoulder and saw Jessamine in the doorway, wearing a pretty pink dress, her hair delicately curled. She looked around the weapons room with a disdainful expression, her nose wrinkling slightly. She didn't visit this room often, if at all. "It seems that's where this mission is headed."
"That," Charlotte said sternly, "is not how we do things, Jessamine."
"Come to see us off, Jessie?" Evangeline asked, choosing to be friendly this time. She didn't hate Jessamine, or even dislike her. Not truly, anyway. She just would've liked if Jessamine didn't despise Evangeline's way of life so much, and if Jessamine was a little kinder, especially to Jem. "We could very well die tonight, you know, and then who will go shopping with you then?" Behind her, Jem groaned in exasperation, and Charlotte sighed. Henry murmured anxiously under his breath, Thomas shifted on his feet, and Jessamine's eyes widened in alarm. None of them liked when Evangeline joked about her death before every mission, but Jessamine was always shocked by it. In comparison, behind her, Will chuckled low in his throat.
"You won't really die?" Jessamine asked, her voice cracking slightly. Evangeline's teasing smile fell from her face. Perhaps joking about a premature death in front of Jessamine, who was still traumatized by the fire that took her parents, wasn't the wisest thing to do. She didn't share Evangeline and Will's morbid senses of humor, and she didn't have Jem's desensitization to those senses of humor. Studying Jessamine's stricken face and remembering that the other girl was younger than she was, Evangeline smiled gently and moved forward, taking Jessamine's hands in her own. Where Evangeline's were calloused even despite the protective gloves she wore, Jessamine's were soft, unused to holding weapons.
"I will not die," Evangeline promised, squeezing Jessamine's hands. "None of us will. We'll be home soon. You and I can even go shopping tomorrow. How does that sound?" Jessamine hesitated, then nodded slowly, still looking more like a frightened little girl than the normal arrogant, spoiled girl she acted like. Evangeline nodded back, then glanced over her shoulder, seeking Jem with wide eyes. He was moving forward a moment later.
"Come, Jessie," Jem said kindly, reaching for her hand. When Jessamine felt vulnerable like this, she actually let Jem be kind to her, and he always seemed to know when she needed it most. "We shall have tea and biscuits in the library, and you can tell me all the latest gossip you've heard. They'll be back before you even notice they're gone." With one last uncertain look at Evangeline, Jessamine let Jem ease her away from the weapons room, and from the anxiety Evangeline's words had caused her. Evangeline grimaced and turned back toward the group. There was a tense moment of silence, and then Will broke it by laughing.
"Good work," Will said sarcastically, laughing again. "Now Jem has to suffer Jessie's gossiping and complaining for hours." Evangeline scowled at him, flipped her braid over her shoulder, then darted forward to kick his shin. Charlotte stopped her before she could, pressing a hand to her shoulder and shaking her head. Scowling some more, Evangeline stepped back and glared at Will with her arms crossed over her chest.
She would make it up to Jem once she got back. Somehow.
*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧
"Perhaps we can go in through the cellar?" Evangeline suggested an hour later, as she, Will, Thomas, and Henry all crouched behind a hedge that clearly wasn't being cared for. There were gaps in the foliage, and many of the limbs were dying or already dead. She ignored all of it and nodded toward the small window she could see on the side of the house, right above the overgrown lawn. She studied the window another moment, glanced over at Thomas and Will—who both were blessed, and perhaps cursed, with broad shoulders—then offered a teasing smile. "Well, perhaps only I can go through the cellar." She doubted even Henry would be able to fit through the window. He was slim, but Evangeline was still smaller—and though she would never say it out loud, she doubted he'd be able to get through the window without making some sort of noise. She found Henry worked best when he didn't have to sneak and hide.
"You wound me, angel, you really do," Thomas said, returning her teasing grin. He'd started calling her angel when they were kids, after she had explained their angelic mandate to him and he realized the word 'angel' could be found in her name. Will scowled when Thomas referred to her by the nickname, but he turned away before Evangeline could get a chance to ask him about it. "How will the rest of us get in?" Evangeline frowned, then shrugged and let her eyes roam over the house. There was a fountain in the front lawn, with a disturbing figure at the very top. It looked vaguely demonic. Grimacing, she pulled her gaze away, and found herself staring at the windows on the side of the large house. They had specifically chosen this side because it was away from the carriage and the horse stable.
"The attic," Evangeline murmured, pointing up at the highest window. No bedroom would be up that high in a house as large as this one, and servants' quarters were always on the first floor, close to the kitchens. "Will and I shall climb up and enter through the attic window, and Henry and Thomas will climb through the window on the second floor, if the way is clear. Will and I will search the attic, fourth, and third floors, and you two can search the second and first floors. Let's wait until we're all together to search the cellar, if possible. If that window is the only other escape route, I would rather us be together." Henry and Thomas nodded, while Will grinned, leaning over to nudge their shoulders together.
"A leader in the making," Will teased affectionately. Evangeline rolled her eyes and nudged him back, then cast one last look around before dashing forward. It was easy to get through the hedge, the gaps wide enough that they all avoided any scratches from the branches. It was easy for her to find foot and hand holds in the side of the mansion; it wasn't a well-made house. The bricks were uneven, and some were even loose, which explained the hole near the cellar. She glanced into the window on the second floor as she passed by, but saw nothing but a dark hallway. She could've sworn there was mold growing in the far corner. Wrinkling her nose, she continued on, letting Thomas and Henry take care of the window themselves. She kept climbing until she reached the attic window. She glanced inside once, saw only dusty boxes, then got out her stele and drew the unlocking rune on the window. With a pop, it was open, and she pushed it up and ducked through.
She was already carefully searching the attic by the time Will followed her, using her stele to nudge the dead carcass of a large spider off the top of an old trunk before she knelt down to unlock it. Will muttered about getting dust in his hair as he followed her lead, and they searched the attic in silence. It was smaller than she had originally thought, and not nearly as packed with boxes and trunks. There was an old, rusting bird cage in the corner, and a cracked full-body mirror. There was blood and hair on some of the shards. Evangeline avoided looking at it as she searched through the trunk. All she found was old shawls and a few pairs of shoes that were falling apart. Useless. Sighing, she carefully shut the lid of the trunk and moved on. She paused beside the mirror and tilted her head, then looked over her shoulder at Will, who was flipping through what seemed to be a naughty cartoon book. She rolled her eyes.
"Honestly, Will," she hissed. He shot her a grin, then raised it for her to see.
"Could this be considered suspicious?" he asked. Evangeline narrowed her eyes, then stepped closer to see more closely. Her eyes widened in shock at what she saw. The naughty cartoons showed mundanes consorting with all sorts of demonic creatures. She almost gagged just at the thought.
"However disgusting those drawings are," Evangeline said carefully, once she was sure she wasn't going to vomit, "they are still just drawings. It's not enough." She glanced at the mirror, then motioned toward it with her hand. "What about this? Blood and hair."
"No way to prove it's mundane blood," Will said with a shrug. "Not right now, anyway. If we find something else, we'll come back to it." He glanced around at the attic one more time, then motioned for Evangeline to lead the way out of the attic. As he did, his hand slipped into his pocket. "There's nothing of use in here. Let's move along to the fourth floor." Evangeline stared at his pocket, then glared at him.
"Did you just steal that cartoon book, William Her—"
"Flora, please focus. We are on a mission."
Evangeline let out a sound of disgust and turned away. The attic unfortunately didn't have a door or stairs, only a door in the floor with a ladder they would have to unfold down. Grabbing her stele, she drew a rune flat on the wooden floor and waited until she and Will could see through the floor. The hall it led into was filthy, covered in dust and cobwebs, but not a living soul seemed to be in sight. Evangeline pocketed her stele and unlatched the door, then grabbed ahold of the edge and swung down, landing lightly on her feet. There was no use unfolding the ladder, and Will seemed to agree, because he landed beside her a moment later.
"Good lord," Will huffed as he stepped over a ball of dust. Evangeline, paranoid it would come alive somehow, avoided it entirely. "If the rest of the house is like this, we'll never find anything."
"It doesn't seem like anyone has been to the attic or this floor in years," Evangeline murmured in agreement, peering about. They came upon few doors, and the ones they did see only had empty rooms behind them. The floor was completely abandoned. Shaking her head, she and Will focused their energy on finding the stairs, and when they did, they crept down them carefully, though they paused to put silencing runes on themselves in case the stairs creaked. Evangeline peered into the next hallway first, saw it was empty, and then blinked in surprise when she saw one of the doors had a lock inside the keyhole. "It's like they wanted us to find something," she said happily, skipping forward as Will protected her back. He kept an eye out as she turned the key, dropped it carelessly to the carpeted floor, then twisted the iron knob and pushed the door open.
The room inside was dark, the now-setting sun basking everything in shadows. Evangeline stepped in and reached for her witchlight in her pocket, and that was when she saw it. Movement in the corner of her eye. She looked over, barely had time to see a clay pitcher coming toward her head, and then she was being shoved forward by Will. She twisted on her heel and watched as the pitcher landed on Will's upraised arm, the shards cutting deeply into the back of his hand. Evangeline winced, stepping forward to ask if he was alright, and then she saw who had attempted—rather clumsily, now that her mind was clearer—to attack them.
It was a girl, not much younger than Evangeline herself. Evangeline didn't see anything beyond a plain brown dress and long brunette hair before the girl was whirling toward the now-closed door. She jiggled the knob, but couldn't seem to open it, despite neither Evangeline nor Will locking it behind them. A spell to lock the girl in, then. The key must have been placed there to tease the poor girl. Securing a hand around the witchlight, Evangeline raised it in the air to illuminate the room, and watched as the girl paused and twisted around. Large gray eyes met Evangeline's own, her skin pale and her cheeks sunken, like she hadn't been in the sun in weeks. Dimly, she was aware of Will cursing at the cut in his hand, but Evangeline knew it was minor, so she didn't much care. The girl looked frightened, and that was Evangeline's main concern.
"It's alright," Evangeline said, finding her voice, though it sounded hoarse. Whatever she had expected to find in the Dark Sisters' house, it hadn't been a living mundane girl. "We won't hurt you." The girl didn't seem to hear her. Her eyes, still wide and startled, were on Will.
"You cut me," Will said pleasantly, done with his dramatic cursing. "It might be fatal." The girl swallowed.
"Are you the Magister?" she whispered, still frightened. Evangeline frowned at her, her head cocking to the side. Will didn't seem concerned. He made a show of his bloody hand, tilting it enough so that drops of bland landed on the floor. Evangeline resisted the urge to hit him upside his head.
"Dear me, massive blood loss," Will commented. "Death could be imminent."
"Are you the Magister?" the girl repeated, her voice sharper this time.
"Magister?" Will blinked in surprised, then squinted over at Evangeline. "That means 'master' in Latin, doesn't it?"
"Yes," Evangeline sighed, "it does." Will nodded.
"I've mastered many things in my life. Navigating the streets of London, dancing the quadrille, the Japanese art of flower arranging—"
"You have never done that in your life," Evangeline said, unimpressed.
"—lying at charades, concealing a highly intoxicated state—"
"Those two he has done," Evangeline said to the girl, who was staring at them both, looking quite dazed.
"—delighting young women with my charms—"
"Ah," Evangeline sighed. "Lying again."
"Alas," Will concluded, as if Evangeline hadn't interrupted him multiple times. "No one has ever actually referred to me as 'the master,' or 'the magister,' either. More's the pity."
"Are the two of you highly intoxicated at the moment?" the girl asked, squinting at them both, as if she could tell just by looking at them. Evangeline supposed she could, if only they had been intoxicated in the first place.
"I assure you, we haven't had a lick to drink," Evangeline told her. "Though I fear my friend here will drive me to it before the night ends—"
"Who are you?" the girl demanded, growing rather impatient. Seeing as she had clearly been kept in captivity, judging by the poor state of her and the ropes on the bed, Evangeline wasn't offended. She just smiled.
"How very direct, but I suppose all you Americans are, aren't you?" Will muttered. Evangeline leaned over and swatted him on his arm, to which he cried out dramatically. Evangeline rolled her eyes.
"Ignore him, my dear, he makes it his life's mission to be absolutely irritating." Though she wasn't wearing a skirt, Evangeline tossed Will her witchlight—which he caught easily—and swept herself into a low curtsy, giggling at her own silliness. Tessa blinked rapidly once she got a good look at Evangeline, the witchlight no longer shining directly into her eyes. Like any mundane girl would, her eyes widened even more when she saw Evangeline wearing trousers. "I am Evangeline Rosewell, last of my name. It's a pleasure to meet you, despite the circumstances. And my friend here is William Herondale, though he prefers Will."
"What on earth are you wearing?" the girl gasped, her jaw loose. Evangeline and Will shared an amused look.
"Why, Shadowhunter gear, of course," Evangeline said, knowing that explained very little, as Will went to look out the girl's one small window.
"Pity we're on the third floor," Will said. He spoke as if to himself, but Evangeline knew he was mainly talking to her. "We could manage the jump, but it would probably kill you."
"Through the door, then," Evangeline sighed, taking a moment to stretch her arms above her head. She noticed, with slight surprise, that Will had passed the girl Evangeline's witchlight without Evangeline noticing. It was nothing but a glowing flicker now, nothing compared to the bright light it had been in their own palms. She stepped around the girl to open the locked door. She had just popped it open with an unlocking rune when she heard a door slamming somewhere in the house. She and Will both froze, and then she was jerking the door open and looking over at Will. He was grimacing down at his hand. "Draw an iratze on the way. Come along..." She paused, realizing the girl still hadn't said her name.
"Miss Gray," the girl said, sounding dazed again, like she couldn't believe she was being rescued. Evangeline felt her heart ache in pity. She reached forward to take the girl's hand as she continued. "Miss Theresa Gray."
"Come along, Miss Gray," Will said, ushering them both out of the door. Evangeline took the lead, lacing her fingers through Theresa Gray's as they ran down the hall. Evangeline was dismayed when she glanced out a window and saw many carriages lined in the front yard. They all must've arrived while they'd been picking through the attic. She hoped Henry and Thomas were alright. Racing down the hall and putting the carriages away for later, she rounded a corner and found another set of stairs. The three of them raced down it without being careful, and as they did, they heard a scream from above. "They've found you missing," Will grunted, still taking the rear, protecting Evangeline's back like he had promised he would. They had reached the first-floor landing. Theresa Gray started to slow, but Evangeline jerked her gently forward.
"Aren't we going out the front door?" Theresa demanded. Evangeline shook her head. The other girl must not have seen the carriages lined out front when they passed the window.
"We can't," Will explained as Evangeline led them down more stairs. She was guessing where the cellar was, and she was praying she was correct. "The building's surrounded. There's a line of carriages pulled up out front. Flora and I appear to have arrived at an unexpectedly exciting time. Do you know what the Dark Sisters had planned for this evening?"
"No," Theresa said. She sounded out of shape, the air wheezing in her lungs. Which was unfortunate, because they were now past the first floor and descending into the cellar, where the air would be thinner. Much to Evangeline's shock, heat rose up to meet them instead of cold. Judging by the silence below, Henry and Thomas weren't there yet. She wondered where they were. Perhaps they had already left the house; they would've seen the carriages arriving before Evangeline and Will.
"But you were expecting someone called the Magister?" Will demanded. He didn't give Theresa a chance to respond. "By the Angel, it's like the ninth circle of Hell down here—"
"The ninth circle of Hell is cold," Theresa corrected. There was a beat of silence.
"What?"
"In the Inferno," Theresa said. "Hell is cold. It's covered in ice." Evangeline paused at the mouth of the cellar and turned to stare at them, then snorted, then laughed at the expression on Will's face. She was still laughing when Will took the witchlight back from Theresa and glared at them both.
"As for the temperature of Hell, Miss Gray," Will seethed, shooting Evangeline one last glare, "let me give you a piece of advice. The handsome young fellow who's trying to rescue you from a hideous fate is never wrong. Not even if he says the sky is purple and made of hedgehogs."
"I had a dream like that once," Evangeline muttered. Will looked at her over Theresa's shoulder, who turned slowly to stare at Evangeline, her eyes wide and grave again.
"That the sky was purple and made of hedgehogs?" Will asked.
"No, that you were never wrong." She smiled sweetly. "It would be more accurate to describe it as a nightmare." Will immediately glared, while Theresa managed only a small sound. It could've been a laugh or a groan of dread. Whatever it was, Evangeline ignored it and reached for her hand again. "Come along, Miss Theresa—"
"Tessa," she croaked. "Just Tessa." Evangeline paused, then nodded.
"Come along, Tessa. This way." There wasn't really anywhere to go aside from the dark corridor ahead, so that was where she dragged Tessa toward, Will following close behind. Tessa's hand tightened in her own as they walked down the narrow corridor, and Evangeline squeezed gently back, even if her own instincts were telling her something was wrong. The air around them seemed to grow hotter, and the corridor walls pressed in on them. She took in a deep breath, as deep of one as she could considering the heat, and kept pressing forward.
Tessa broke the silence.
"Mr. Herondale," she said hesitantly, "Miss Rosewell, did my brother send you to find me?" Evangeline glanced at her over her shoulder, then turned back forward and let Will handle it.
"Never heard of your brother," Will said, though he was aware enough to not sound callous when he said it, much to Evangeline's relief. "And outside of the past ten minutes, Miss Gray, we'd never heard of you, either. We've been following the trail of a dead girl for near on two months. She was murdered, left in an alley to bleed to death. She'd been running from...something." Evangeline paused briefly when the corridor forked ahead, then decided to take the left. The right felt too ominous, and she avoided looking down it as they walked down the left. "There was a dagger beside her, covered in her blood. It had a symbol on it. Two snakes, swallowing each other's tails."
"That's the same symbol that's on the Dark Sisters's carriage—" Tessa started before she stumbled over her words. "That's what I call them, Mrs. Dark and Mrs. Black, I mean—"
"You're not the only one," Will assured. "But where was I? I was boasting about my investigative skills—"
"I was the one who saw the carriage—" Evangeline hissed, annoyed. They both broke off when a voice echoed down the corridor, high and unnervingly sweet.
"Miss Gray," the voice seemed to sing. "Oh, Miss Gray. Where are you?"
"Oh, no," Tessa whispered. Evangeline could feel her hand trembling in her own. "Oh, God, they've caught up with—" As one, Evangeline and Will surged forward, breaking into a fast run as they both kept Tessa close at their heels. The corridor twisted and turned, sloping downward the deeper they went. Evangeline almost lost her footing at one turn, the ground becoming slick and damp as the air grew hotter and hotter. All the while, the Dark Sisters called after them, their voices high and falsely sweet, like poisoned candy. Rounding another corner, they skidded to a halt before two medal doors. Will rammed into them to push them open, and Evangeline dragged Tessa inside, who slammed the doors shut behind her. Evangeline drew a locking rune on the doors just in case, and then there was nothing but the three of them gasping for breath, taking a brief moment to rest their lungs and hearts.
"Where are we?" Tessa whispered once they had caught their breaths. "Are we safe?" Without a word, Will raised the witchlight and willed it to brighten the entire room. Evangeline sucked in a sharp breath, horror rushing through her. The room must have been the main cellar, the very one Evangelina had thought about entering earlier, as it had a single small window. The walls, floor, and ceiling were made of stone, a drain was in the center of the room, and spaced about were wooden tables. On top of those tables were bodies, a misshapen Y carved into the center of their chests, their bodies twisted and broken. Bloody tools were littered around the room. It was a complete slaughterhouse.
Evangeline immediately burst into motion, releasing Tessa's hand to dart across the room. Avoiding the bodies, she reached the window and grabbed up a bloody tool. Wrenching her hand back, she threw it and watched as it crashed through the window. Thomas and Henry wouldn't have left them, and knowing protocol, they would've gone back to their original spot in the hedges on this side of the house. They would see the tool crashing through the window. Behind her, the Dark Sisters were slamming into the doors now, saying threatening things she didn't bother listening to. She just climbed up, caught Thomas's eyes, and then jumped away from the wall completely. Turning, she saw Will standing up onto a table. She was just about to ask why he was on the table when cracks formed on the two metal doors, and then they crashed open. Tessa was the closest to the doors, but she had somehow gotten her hands on a hacksaw.
"Little Miss Gray," the short Dark Sister said, a wide, gruesome smile across her face. The other Dark Sister, tall and as thin as a branch, smiled the same way. "You ought to know better than to run. We told you what would happen if you ran again..."
"Then do it!" Tessa snapped, her voice rising in panic and fear—and hatred. It was there clear as day. Evangeline unsheathed her seraph blade from her belt and made her way toward her, not wanting Tessa to be alone in the face of two monsters. "Whip me bloody. Kill me. I don't care! I won't let you give me away to the Magister. I would rather die!"
"What an unexpectedly sharp tongue you have, Miss Gray, my dear," the same Dark sister said. She reached down to remove her glove, and Evangeline's lip curled when she saw it was withered and gray, with demonic-like talons for nails. That was no warlock mark. She was glad to have drawn her seraph blade. "Perhaps if we cut it out of your head, you'd learn to mind your manners." Evangeline immediately slid in front of Tessa, an angelic name on the tip of her tongue, lighting the seraph blade in her hand. Will had moved too, dropping down in front of Evangeline and Tessa both, his own seraph blade glowing like ice.
"Get out of my way, little Nephilim warriors," the Dark Sister sneered. "And take your seraph blades with you. This is not your battle."
"You're wrong about that," Will said. Evangeline couldn't see his face, but judging from his tone, she knew his eyes were narrowed. "I've heard some things about you, my lady. Whispers that run through Downworld like a river of black poison. I've been told you and your sister will pay handsomely for the bodies of dead humans, and you don't much mind how they get that way."
"Just rumors, of course," Evangeline cut in, a sweet smile curling at her lips. "But rumors are enough."
"Such a fuss over a few mundanes," the other, taller Dark Sister said with a chuckle. She moved to stand beside her sister, close to Will, so Evangeline did the same. She joined Will at his side, their arms brushing together, with Tessa protected behind them. "We have no quarrel with you, Shadowhunters, unless you choose to pick one. You have invaded our territory and broken the Covenant Law in doing so. We could report you to the Clave—"
"You do that," Evangeline encouraged, though her tone was mocking. "I'm sure the Clave will be pleased when they see your art of skinning and beheading people."
"People?" one of them hissed. "Mundanes. You care no more about them than we do." The Sister looked over Evangeline's shoulder then, toward Tessa. "Have they told you what they really are? They aren't human—"
"You're one to talk," Tessa muttered, and Evangeline grinned despite herself.
"And has she told you what she is?" the Sister said, shooting the question at Will and Evangeline now. "About her talent? What she can do?"
"We don't much care," Evangeline cut in, sounding bored, though she was itching for Henry and Thomas to make their move. "You see, we do not take kindly girls being held captive, mundane or not."
"Though, if I were to venture a guess, I would say it has something to do with the Magister," Will added. The Dark Sisters paused then, both of them tilting their heads at the same time. It made Evangeline's skin crawl.
"You know of the Magister?" the one Sister asked, and then she glanced at Tessa. "Ah, I see. Only what she has told you. The Magister, little angel children, is more dangerous than you could ever imagine. And he has waited a long time for someone with Tessa's ability. You might even say he is the one who caused her to be born—"
Before she could finish her bore of a speech about the mysterious Magister, there was a loud crash from behind them as the east wall of the cellar suddenly caved in. Evangeline immediately ducked, bringing her arms up to protect her head. Glancing over once she was sure debris wasn't going to knock her unconscious, she wasn't all surprised to see a rectangular hole in the wall, nor was she surprised to see Henry and Thomas standing there, each holding activated seraph blades. They charged forward at the same time, the dust barely settled, and the Dark Sisters reacted accordingly—with magic flying from their hands. Evangeline was bewildered for a moment in all the chaos that followed, unused to being around literal explosions, and didn't snap out of it until she saw Will's seraph blade sink into the chest of the shortest Dark Sister. Turning her head, she looked for Tessa, and found her just in time to see her sink her teeth into Henry's hand.
"Will!" Henry cried, jerking away from Tessa, who had blood on her lips. "She bit me!"
"Did she, Henry?" Will asked with a grin. He looked at Tessa with that same grin. "It's bad form to bite. Rude, you know. Hasn't anyone ever told you that?" Tessa glared right back at him.
"It's also rude to go about grabbing ladies you haven't been introduced to," Tessa snapped at him. "Hasn't anyone ever told you that?"
Evangeline couldn't quite focus on much after that. She and Will surged into motion together when the Dark Sister she had thought Will had killed found herself back on her feet, moving in synch as she help Will decapitate her completely. And then the other Dark Sister responded to her sister's death in nothing short of rage, lightning sparking off her fingers. Tessa was knocked out in the fight following, and that was the only reason neither of them risked staying long enough to kill the woman completely. Evangeline and Will fought her together, and when they were sure she was defeated, then turned and fled, Tessa in Thomas's arms the entire time.
*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Gonna be honest, the second half is completely unedited. But hey, I beat my writer's block! Hallelijah!!