Woohoo! I'm on time for this update! The further we get to the big reveal of what's going on with Celeste, the more excited I am to post chapters. :)
The gorgeous banner at the top was made by @lucida- and it looks amazing. So thank you so much for making it for me. It's perfect! :)
Also, may I please draw your attention to the fantastic typography down below that @GoddessofNostalgia created for the quote for this chapter. Another huge thank you for that!
Clary had refused to leave Luke's side, and Jace had refused to leave Celeste's, so the four of them ended up crammed in the backseat of Luke's car.
Jace was doing his best to help Celeste and stop the bleeding while also giving directions to Simon on how to get to Magnus's apartment. Unfortunately, doing both was difficult, and after causing Simon to miss a turn twice, Celeste managed to yell at him to pay attention to where they were going instead of dealing with her, despite the pain she was in.
When they finally pulled up outside of Magnus's place, once again Clary wouldn't leave Luke, and Simon wouldn't leave Clary, so they were both out of the car to head up to find Magnus. Jace tried to argue that Simon needed to deal with the car while he helped get Celeste up there, but ultimately lost the battle when Celeste started making her way out of the car on her own.
Clary wasn't strong enough to help Luke up the stairs on her own, so Simon took his other side. They'd gotten through the doorway of the building when Celeste's ankle collapsed out from under her.
"Celeste!" Simon exclaimed, looking back.
Simon and Clary both looked conflicted, as they knew they couldn't help her and Luke get to Magnus's at the same time.
Celeste noticed their expressions, and waved them off. Between her pants she managed to shoo them away. "Go. I'll figure it out."
Clary didn't need to be told twice. She liked the girl well enough, but she didn't know the girl anywhere near as much as she knew Luke. If push came to shove, she was going to save Luke first.
The trio made their way to the elevator while Celeste managed to stand up and limp to get the next one.
Magnus lived in the penthouse suite of the building, so when she finally did make it into the elevator, she took a seat on the floor to catch her breath a bit.
Now was as good a time as any to check out her injury, so she rolled up the pant leg of her jeans just enough to be able to see her injury.
It was horrific. Simon probably would compare it to a scene from one of his favorite horror movies when he saw it. Four long claw marks, equal distance from each other cut deep into her skin. She swore she could see a little bit of her tibia, but it was hard to tell with all the blood covering it.
Perhaps the worst part of it though, was that not only was blood coming out of it, but some sort of dark substance, and a gold substance too.
She knew what the dark substance was. The only plausible explanation was that it was the werewolf poison from the wolf's claws. She'd never seen what it looked like before, but she knew that some warlocks kept it on hand for their potions.
The gold liquid though was puzzling. It looked like nothing she'd ever seen before, and she was certain it wasn't in any of the textbooks she's read.
Besides the initial surprise of seeing it, she didn't have a chance to continue thinking about what it could be, as the elevator dinged, announcing that she'd gotten to her destination.
As the doors opened, she dragged herself through them and then crawled her way up the wall beside her in order to continue limping down the hallway.
She just about fell through the doorway of Magnus's place, catching everyone's attention.
"It's a side effect of the poison in the alpha bite." Magnus was explaining.
"Celeste!" Clary and Simon both exclaimed when they saw her rapidly declining state.
Now that Luke was safe, or at least as safe as was possible for now, Simon rushed over to help Celeste get to the living area of Magnus's place.
"What happened to you?" Magnus asked, wide eyed and stopping in his tracks from where he was just leaving to get ingredients to make a potion for Luke.
"Wolf attack." She exclaimed through gritted teeth. "Deep scratch. Burning. Gold and black liquids oozing." She depicted her condition in as few words as possible, pausing between each description.
Magnus seemed to think about it for only half a second before continuing on his way to get ingredients, this time with a longer list of what he'd need in mind.
Once Simon got Celeste situated on the couch opposite Luke, he turned back to Clary, wanting to do whatever he could to help.
"You okay?" He asked, watching the girl he'd been in love with for years.
Clary nodded in response to show that she'd heard him, but otherwise made no other move. She was just staring blankly at the bloody body of the only father figure she'd ever known.
"Hey..." Simon trailed off, and walked over to stand behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. Hopefully it would comfort her at least a little. "It's me." He said, trying to get her to open up a little. "I know how much he means to you."
She blinked back a few tears before standing up to face Simon and talk through everything she'd been thinking about.
"How could I have ever doubted him? Simon, he's..." She trailed off for just a moment trying to find the right words to convey how she was feeling in that moment. "He's the only father I've ever known. I-I can't lose him."
Simon quickly embraced her in a hug, knowing she needed all the support she could get right now.
"Hey." He said, still not letting go of her quite yet. "I get a good vibe from this Magnus Bane guy. Seems like he knows what he's doing." He pulled back just enough to look her in the eyes to say his last bit. "He's going to be able to help Luke."
Celeste had been in so much pain that she hadn't heard a word of the conversation the two best friends were having just a couple yards away from her. But despite this, her groan of pain happened to time perfectly with Simon's last remark and reminded them that Celeste was there too.
"He'll be able to help Luke and Celeste." Simon began backtracking. "Magnus will figure something out for both of you."
Celeste's ears perked up a bit at the mention of her name, and she heard what Simon said after that. But the only response she gave was a hum that seemed to be somewhere in between acknowledgement and more pain.
Before Simon and Clary could continue with their conversation, Magnus walked back into the living room with an armful of pots and ingredients.
"The bark will stop the transformation for now, but Luke needs an antidote to stop the poison in his system. As for Celeste, the black liquid coming from her wound is the Lycanthropy disease, and there's nothing I can do to stop that. The one thing I can do is create a healing salve to dull the pain and heal the wound. But I don't have all the ingredients for either of them." He explained.
"Just, tell me what you need and how to get it." Clary immediately jumped in.
"No." Magnus denied. "You stay here. Luke will need you if he wakes up."
"When he wakes up." She quickly corrected.
"I'll go."
"I'll go."
Simon and Jace - who had overheard the conversation as he was making his way from the entrance to the room they were situated in - said at the same time.
Everyone turned to face the new arrival. Jace looked a bit frazzled, which was unlike him. His hair was not up to his usual standards, and he even had a bit of blood on one of his cheeks.
"Jace, what happened to you?" Magnus used two fingers to turn Jace's face to the side to get a better look at it before quickly heading back to work.
Jace sighed, not wanting to talk about it. "Luke's car may have found its way into a pole while I was stashing it." He admitted. "I don't do mundane driving."
"Yeah, apparently." Simon said sarcastically.
Jace grabbed one of the cloths that had been laid out near Luke and used it to wipe the blood off his face.
"What do you need for the salve and the antidote?" He asked quickly, throwing the cloth back to the pile it came from.
"Hey! I got this."
Magnus ignored Simon's attempt to prove himself, and spoke straight to Jace.
"For the antidote I'll need phoenix eyes, moon salt, and Idris fulgurite. And for Celeste's salve, I need crystallized tears, fresh mandrake roots, elderberries, and linseed oil."
"One trip to the pharmacy, it'll take two seconds." Simon said, not taking no for an answer.
"I know a guy." Jace said, holding his arm out to stop Simon as he tried to pass by. "And uh, I don't need him." He said, letting go of Simon as he sent him a harsh glare.
He didn't want Simon coming along. Not only was the kid annoying, but he'd only get in the way. Magnus needed the ingredients as soon as possible, and Simon would only slow the process down.
"Too bad. You're getting me." Simon said, holding Jace's stare. "We'll be right back." He started to make his way to the door when Magnus stopped them.
"One more thing." He told them, and waited until he had everyone's full attention to continue. "I need Alexander."
Jace hesitated. "Why do you need Alec."
"Virgin Shadowhunter energy."
"That explains so much." Simon muttered.
"Um, Alec..." Jace trailed off. "Yeah, I can't." He finished, thinking about how upset his parabatai had been with him lately.
Clary came over to him quickly. "Jace, just ask. Please." She begged. "You guys need to talk."
"Trouble in paradise?" Magnus asked sarcastically.
Before Jace could snap some sort of response back to him, a loud groan sounded from the couch.
They all snapped their heads to see Celeste with her hands clenched in fists and her eyes closed tightly as she fought through the pain.
Jace immediately nodded. "Okay, I'll ask him." He said.
Without another word being exchanged, he was out the door with Simon following behind him, doing his best to keep up.
Once they were gone, Magnus got back to work immediately, and Clary took a seat on the edge of the coffee table. She kept her eyes on Luke in general, but every time Celeste would groan or cry out in pain, her eyes would snap over her way. It was hard to watch either of them in this state knowing that she couldn't do anything to help.
As for Celeste, she felt herself drifting off into darkness, and was granted a reprieve from the pain. She was thankful for it, even though she knew it probably wouldn't last long.
As soon as Jace had gotten outside, he was on the phone with Alec.
"You need to get back to the institute." Was the only form of greeting that Alec gave when he answered.
"You need to help me first." Jace countered.
"No, I'm not messing around."
"Me either. I need your help." He said, speeding his steps up a little, and making it even harder for Simon to stay with him.
This got Alec to stop pacing back and forth in the hallway. "You okay?" He asked, worriedly.
"I'm fine." Jace emphasized, knowing that Alec would understand what he was getting at. "It's Magnus. He needs your powerful Shadowhunter energy or something like that."
"Magnus? Why does Magnus need me?"
"To help save Luke's life. And hopefully Celeste's."
"Hopefully? What does that mean?" Alec asked, his voice raising slightly.
"It means she's not looking good." His voice breaking on the last word. "And he can't use his power for both of them. But to be honest, I'm not sure he even has enough in him to help Luke."
Alec's eyes narrowed at the continued mention of Luke. "No." He answered quickly. "I told you at the wolf den. No more Downworlder business. We can't be seen as interfering with a pack alpha dispute. How can you even ask me--"
"I shouldn't have to ask Alec." Jace cut him off. "We're parabatai."
"That's exactly my point."
"Alec, you're a man of honor, and the only person in the world I would trust with something like this. I'm counting on you to do the right thing."
Jace was about to hang up without waiting for a response, but he stopped himself and put the phone back to his ear to add one more thing.
"Besides, I think we both know who Magnus would choose to save between a Shadowhunter and a Downworlder if it came down to it."
Luke had had a major burst of pain, and Magnus quickly did his best to help him and put him into unconsciousness. Before he did so though, Luke had been adamant that Clary hear the story of how Valentine rose to power and became the person he was today.
He wasn't too far into the story when Celeste began to wake up again.
"We'd all stood with the Clave for centuries."
"How could that not matter to him?" Clary asked confused, from her spot at a counter, sketching pictures of whatever came to mind.
"He was obsessed with ensuring the purity of blood." Magnus explained. "Convinced that impurities were a threat to peace."
"He was a threat to peace." She muttered.
Celeste could hear their conversation, but paid no attention to it. She was too busy trying to fight through the pain.
Her whole body felt like it was on fire now, except for the spot on her leg that had the scratch which instead was frozen. A pounding had started in her head, and each beat felt like someone was using a jackhammer from the inside of her skull as they tried to drill a way out.
"Mad men rarely make sense." Magnus said, neither of them realizing that Celeste had awoken yet. "Mostly they just hate. And he hated the Downworlders for the gifts that we possess that he could not have. He hated us enough to kill us all."
The silence that came after his last sentence only lasted about ten seconds before a female scream broke it.
Magnus and Clary both turned and ran over to examine Celeste.
Since she had passed out earlier, they hadn't paid much attention to her, instead focusing on creating the antidote and the salve as well as informing Clary of the story of the Uprising.
Now that they were taking a good look at her, they could see just how much this wound was taking out of her. She was drenched in sweat, and her breaths were shallow pants. Just as before, her eyes and fists were clenched tightly. Magnus even noticed a drop of blood dripping out of one palm from where her nails were digging in, and judging by the few splatters on his carpet, he knew it had been happening for a while.
"Celeste." Clary breathed. "Celeste, can you hear me?" She asked, watching Magnus flutter about.
He was checking her temperature, which was much higher than it should be for a Shadowhunter. In fact it was probably higher than he'd ever felt in his life. He didn't even want to know the exact reading. The temperature was consistent throughout her face, arms and even the uninjured leg.
"Yes." Celeste grit out, prying her eyes open to meet Clary's eyes.
Clary was at a loss for words. She wanted to tell her that it would be okay. That it would all work out. She knew that had the positions been switched, Celeste would have known just what to say. She always seemed to have a positive outlook and know exactly how to help others see the best in every situation.
But Clary wasn't Celeste. And she didn't know what to say this time.
When his magic wasn't managing to take her pain away, Magnus resorted to simply knocking her out with his magic instead.
So once again, Celeste was given a short amount of time in the darkness to recover the best she could before round three.
"Everything Jocelyn did, she did to save the people she had sworn to protect." Magnus explained, finishing the story of the Uprising. "She took her oath as a Shadowhunter seriously."
"I understand, but how does that help me find the cup?"
He shrugged. "Maybe Luke thinks if you know your mother better, you'll know where she hid it."
"Then tell me why she gave up being a Shadowhunter." Clary suggested.
"Because the one thing in the world she loved more is you. She had to protect you."
Clary looked down at the almost complete drawing she was still working on throughout the story. "From my father, the lunatic."
This time it was a male grunt that interrupted them.
"Luke." Clary muttered, quickly getting up to join his side. "Luke!"
"The magic's wearing off." Magnus realized.
"It was our fault." Luke said, eyes still closed. No one could be sure if he was talking to the people in the room, or a memory. "It was our fault!" He repeated louder.
He let out a loud scream and began convulsing for a second.
This woke Celeste up, and as soon as she came to, she registered her own pain that hadn't changed much since Magnus had put her under. She did her best to stay quiet, as the noise around her told her everything she needed to know. Clary and Magnus were already too busy to deal with her right now.
Clary checked under Luke's bandage to see what the bite looked like. The sight she found was not a good one.
"It's worse." She informed Magnus, who had already seen it from where he was next to her as he worked on helping Luke.
Celeste couldn't hold her cry in again, as she screamed out once more.
Clary glanced up and looked at Magnus, panicked.
"Celeste?" Magnus called out to her. When she grunted in reply, he took that as a sign to continue. "I'll be over as soon as I can."
She shook her head frantically, though Magnus couldn't see it since his back was turned. "Focus on Luke." She managed to get out.
"Celeste..." Clary trailed off, but Celeste wasn't having it.
"I said, focus on Luke!" She snapped, and then gulped in massive amounts of air as though it had taken everything she had out of her.
Clary and Magnus shared a look, but Magnus eventually nodded once as a sign that he was going to listen to Celeste's orders.
It wasn't long before the entire apartment began shaking and Magnus became weaker and weaker.
"I'm running out of magic." He informed Clary.
"What do I do?"
"I can't leave him, but the potion stock still needs Komodo Scale." Magnus said. "Find it, add the rest when they get here. You'll have to feed it to Luke."
Clary was about to do as Magnus had told her, but another outburst from Celeste stopped her.
"And Celeste's salve?"
"It still needs to set for another hour before we can add the last ingredients. Don't let them do anything to it until I say so."
"Okay. What about you?" She hesitated getting up to do as she was told. Magnus was looking worse and worse by the second, and judging by the increase in the shaking of the building, she could tell it wasn't a good sign.
"I'll hold on as long as I can." He told her. When she still hesitated, he quickly yelled at her. "Go!"
This managed to convince her as she quickly bolted out of the room.
Magnus was on the verge of passing out when Alec came through the door, looking around in confusion. He managed to catch Magnus just as he was about to fall over.
The warlock looked up into the Shadowhunter's eyes, begging for help before he even got the words out.
"Help me." He managed to get out, and then held out one hand towards Alec. "I need your strength."
Alec seemed to be hesitating, but when Celeste cried out again, he remembered Jace's last words to him and made up his mind quickly. "Take what you need."
He helped Magnus back up to a better angle to heal Luke. With renewed strength, the warlock continued his spell.
Jace and Simon suddenly burst through the doors with a bag in hand. Simon was sweating and out of breath, and even Jace seemed a bit flushed from the exertion.
"Clary!" Jace called, seeing everyone in the room except her.
"Do you have it?" She asked, appearing in a doorway and running up to him.
"Yeah."
She grabbed the bag out of his hand and rushed over to where the potion and the salve were sitting, waiting to be completed. She dumped the contents of the bag out and quickly began searching for the three ingredients that were supposed to go into Luke's potion.
Jace started grabbing for the others to put them into the salve, but thankfully Clary stopped him.
"Wait!"
Wide-eyed, Jace stopped before he could pour the linseed oil.
"Magnus said it's not ready yet. It has to set for another hour."
Jace took a quick glance at Celeste on the couch, and he wasn't sure she could wait that long, but in the end he conceded. Though not without slamming his fist onto the table and letting out a curse of frustration at the situation.
He finally put the oil back on the table and instead helped Clary finish adding the ingredients.
Once they had finished and Clary had poured the thick goop into a small glass, she brought it over to feed to Luke.
Instead of following them, Jace went straight over to Celeste's side and took one of her hands in both of his. Though there wasn't much he could do for her at this point, he needed her to know that he was there for her.
Feeling the pressure on her hand, she opened her eyes and found Jace next to her. Even with blurry vision, she could recognize him anywhere. She sent him a small smile, but it didn't last long when she screamed in pain again.
On the other side of the room, once Luke had downed some of the potion, his convulsing body began to slow, and his face relaxed from where it had been scrunched up in pain. As his movements slowed, Magnus was able to stop using his magic.
The room slowly began to still, and the blue glow that came from Magnus's hands dimmed, letting the natural light bathe the room in a warm light again.
The only sound that could be heard for a moment was Magnus's heavy pants as he struggled to get his breath back. In the midst of the chaos, Celeste had passed out from the pain once again.
Luke finally opened his eyes and saw Clary hovering above him, and this made him smile weakly.
"Hey... Clary."
This seemed to convince Clary that he would be okay in the end, and she sighed softly with relief.
Alec was still holding a weak Magnus on the ground. He was concerned for the warlock.
"You okay?" He asked.
Magnus came an almost imperceptible nod. "Yeah."
No one said a word for a little longer, before Simon remembered the other person in the room that needed help.
"What about Celeste? How much longer before we can finish the salve."
Everyone looked over to where Jace sat on his knees at Celeste's side. He still held her one hand in both of his, trying to give her some support, even if she didn't really know he was there. He knew that she'd feel it unconsciously.
Even in her sleep she looked uncomfortable and in pain. At least she wasn't as flushed as she had been earlier though.
Clary frowned. "At least she's unconscious again."
"It's only a matter of time before she wakes up. I just hope it's later rather than sooner. Until the salve is ready, there's not much I can do." Magnus told them all as he struggled to sit up on his own power.
Throughout the conversation, Jace hadn't taken his eyes off of Celeste. And he wouldn't until she had been given the salve.
Unfortunately for her, she's be in and out of consciousness many times before the salve was ready.
Poor Celeste...
Anyway, the new season premiered a few days ago, and I'm so excited for it! I'm already thinking about how to put Celeste into that season, even though we're still way back here in season 1 in this story. Haha.
As for the question this chapter, since it focuses on Celeste and her injury, I figure that seems like a pretty good topic. So:
What's the worst injury you've ever had? And how did it happen?
I will see you guys again in two weeks with another chapter, but feel free to send me messages if you have questions about the story or even just want to talk to someone. :)
Next Planned Update: April 6th, 2018