Ella frowned at Thomas. "What's the harm in letting me in? I don't bite."
"I know that, miss, it's just that—"
"That?"
Will came into view, an elegant eyebrow raised.
Ella pointed to Will, and whispered, "now, that is a different story. He bites."
Will grinned, rolling his eyes. "Well, open up the door, Thomas. Don't keep us waiting."
"But Miss Gray said that she wanted some time alone with her Brother," Thomas protested.
"Well tell her we're here," Ella said.
Thomas relented, swinging the door to the drawing room open. "Miss Gray. Miss Gray, Master Will and Miss Ella are—"
"Master Will is right here," Will said, ducking nimbly around Thomas.
"So is Miss Ella," Ella followed, stalking into the room.
She smirked in amusement as her eyes landed on Tessa's Brother—Nate.
"Our wanderer, found at last," Will said. "Thomas tells me you were hiding behind the curtains?"
Ella elbowed Will in the side, causing him to yelp and jump away.
She grinned. "Thomas didn't say that. Don't worry. He just made an assumption. Though, based on your expression, he was right."
Ella was aware that Tessa was watching Will's and her exchange with a frown.
The night before, Will and her had explored the whole of London, walking and talking both.
Ella remembered telling Will that she hated him. Could he not tell that she was lying? She had been so plainly obvious. How could she hate Will? She understood Will. She truly did. After all, he had to push everyone away. Ella got pushed away, and therefore didn't let many get close to her.
"So you're a Shadowhunter," Nate said, observing Will but mainly Ella, his eyes lingering at all the wrong places. Ella didn't let her discomfort show. "De Quincey told me that you lot were monsters."
"Was that before or after he tried to eat you?" Will inquired.
Ella snickered.
Tessa rose to her feet. "Will. Might I speak to you in the corridor for a moment please?"
"Shall I follow?" Ella asked, determined of keeping to her deal. "What could be so important that you don't trust me to speak about?"
Tessa rolled her eyes. "Very well. Come along, both of you."
Will shot Nate a hostile look, and walked beside Ella as they exited the room, taking to standing in the corridor.
Ella could practically feel the tension between Will and Tessa.
"Well we really wouldn't want to keep poor innocent Nathaniel waiting," Ella said dryly. "What is so important?"
Tessa narrowed her eyes at Ella, who simply raised an eyebrow.
"I wanted to tell the both of you to be kind to my Brother," Tessa said. "He's been through an awful ordeal. He doesn't need to be interrogated like some sort of criminal."
Will replied more quietly than Ella would have expected of him. "I understand that. But if he's hiding anything—"
"Everyone hides things!" Tessa burst out, surprising Ella. "There are things I know he's ashamed of, but that doesn't mean they need to matter to you. It's not as if you tell everyone everything, do you?"
Will looked wary. "What are you on about?"
"What about Jem? Why didn't you tell me he was ill the way he is?" Tessa demanded.
Ella blinked. Rage consumed her. She willed it down. "Don't be ridiculous, Gray. That was Jem's secret to tell. Not ours."
Will nodded in agreement. Ella could tell he wasn't very happy.
"But why hide?" Tessa demanded. "It's hardly Jem's fault. There's nothing to be ashamed of—"
"You might think so. Others see no difference between his illness and an addiction, and they despise him for being weak. As if he could just stop taking the drug if he had enough willpower." Will sounded bitter. "They've said as much, sometimes to his face. I didn't want him to have to hear you say it too."
"I would never have said that."
"How would I have guessed what you might say?" Will said. "I don't really know you, Tessa, do I? Any more than you know me."
"You don't want anyone to know you," Tessa snapped. "And very well, I won't try. But don't pretend that Jem is just like you. Perhaps he'd rather people knew the truth of who he is."
"Don't," Will said, his blue eyes darkening. "Don't think you know Jem better than I do."
"If you care about him so much, why aren't you doing anything to help him? Why not look for a cure?"
"Do you think we haven't? Do you think Charlotte hasn't looked, Henry hasn't looked, that we haven't hired warlocks, paid for information, called in favors? Do you imagine Jem's death is just something we have all accepted without ever fighting against it?"
"Jem told me that he had asked you all to stop looking," Tessa said, calm in the face of his anger, "and that you had. Haven't you?"
"He told you that, did he?"
"Have you stopped?"
"There is nothing to find, Tessa. There is no cure."
"You don't know that. You could keep looking and not ever tell him you were looking. There might be something. Even the littlest chance—"
Will raised his eyebrows. The flickering corridor light deepened the shadows under his eyes, the angular bones of his cheeks. "You think we should disregard his wishes?"
"I think that you should do whatever you can, even if it means you must lie to him. I think I don't understand your acceptance of his death."
"And I think that you do not understand that sometimes the only choice is between acceptance and madness."
"That's enough," Ella said softly. She felt a surge of overwhelming exhaustion. Caspian.
"What's going on here, then?"
Ella turned and saw Jem, and relief washed over her. Ella couldn't stand tight spaces, and with Will and Tessa arguing, it felt like all the air was being sucked out of the corridor.
"I am going to head inside," Ella said, and carefully stepped past the blue eyed Shadowhunter to the entrance of the drawing room.
Inside the drawing room, Nate was watching her enter.
"I don't believed we've introduced ourselves to each other," Ella said. "I'm Ella."
Nate gave a small smile. "I'm Nathaniel. Call me Nate, though. Are all Shadowhunters beautiful?"
Ella laughed softly. "Not necessarily."
Nate nodded. He was wringing his fingers anxiously, Ella realised.
Then Jessamine, Charlotte, Henry and Will walked into the room.
Will's eyes met hers from the door, and she looked away, towards the window.
"Hello, there," Henry said, as friendly as ever.
"Nate!" Jessamine exclaimed, her eager falsetto rising. "Here, we brought you some food and I brought a blanket for you."
Ella suddenly felt a stab of pain in her chest.
"Ellie! Ellie I'm home! Here, I bought you a new blanket!"
Ella grinned as he Brother brought in the green and blue blanket. He wrapped it around her and Ella grinned.
"But my Sister—" Nate said. "Is she joining us? Where is she?"
Just then, Jem and Tessa walked in.
Ella tuned out, focusing on Nate. Something was wrong about him. She just couldn't place it.
Her eyes met Will's. He looked both irritable and amused.
She couldn't get that feeling of wrongness out.
Ella only half listened as Nate explained his whole tale about how he got to London and all. The wrongness grew in her.
Ella only came to full focus when Tessa said, "De Quincey told you to write me that letter. He had you send me the tickets for the Main. He had you bring me here."
Nate's eyes pleaded with her to understand. "He swore he wouldn't hurt you. He told me all he wanted was to teach you to use your power. He told me you'd be honored and wealthy beyond imagining—"
"Well, that's just fine, then," interrupted Will. "It's not as if there are more important things than money." His eyes were blazing with indignation; Jem looked no less disgusted.
"It's not Nate's fault!" Jessamine snapped. "Didn't you hear him? De Quincey would have killed him. And he knew who Nate was, where he came from; he would have found Tessa eventually anyway, and Nate would have died for no reason."
"Will wouldn't have done it," Ella said softly, but nonetheless, everyone turned to her. She looked up from her ring. "Will wouldn't have done it if it were Jem in Tessa's place. Jem wouldn't have either."
Jem looked at her, seemingly stunned.
Ella was leaning against the wall, one foot against it to support her. Now she stood up straight, scowling at Nate.
"Are you sure that he isn't a spy, Charlotte?" She asked lowly. "Are you absolutely sure?"
Now all eyes were looking at her in shock.
Tessa was first to explode.
"How can you suggest such a thing?" She shouted. "De Quincey wanted him dead! You think he'd be a spy for someone who wanted him dead?"
Tessa's voice was loud. Loud loud loud.
"You're doing it wrong, Eleanora! Again!"
Ella scowled at her. "You are new to this, Tessa. We have no idea how deep this is. The Magister could have spent years planning this. You think he'd simply let someone of his escape to spill away all his secrets?"
Will eyed Ella.
"Enough," Charlotte cut in, flashing Ella a murderous look. "Don't be ridiculous, Ella. Tessa's right."
That's when Ella noticed the opened window. She didn't stare for long, not wanting Nate to know that she realised.
Her heart was hammering in her chest, but she kept her face impassive.
Ella licked her lower lip. "I've seen you before," she said, choosing her words carefully. "I just realised. You looked plenty more healthy then, but you looked like a maniac gambling against people so high above you. Do you remember me, Nathaniel Gray? I told you. I warned you not to gamble with de Quincey. You didn't listen."
Suddenly Nate paled. "You-you are the girl they all talk about."
Ella grinned. "Surprise surprise."
"Schlange," Nate whispered.
Charlotte looked between the two of them suspiciously. "Go on with your story, Nathaniel."
Ella half listened, that is, until Nate said, "There were those who were very low down, clinging to the fringes, like Mortmain and his ilk. De Quincey and the higher-ups mostly kept them around because they had money, and they teased them with little glimpses of magic and the Shadow World to keep them coming back for more. Then there were those such as the Dark Sisters and others, those who had more power and responsibility in the club. They were all supernatural creatures, no humans. And then, at the top, was de Quincey. The others called him the Magister."
Ella sucked in a breath. She had never heard anyone call de Quincey the Magister. Never.
"They often held meetings to which the humans and those lower down weren't invited. That was where I first heard about Shadowhunters. De Quincey despises Shadowhunters," Nate said, turning to Henry and Charlotte. "He has a grudge against them—against you. He kept talking about how much better things would be when Shadowhunters were destroyed and Downworlders could live and trade in peace—"
"What tosh." Henry looked genuinely offended. "Don't know what kind of peace he thinks there'd be, without Shadowhunters."
Ella suddenly walked toward the door.
"Ella? Where are you going?" Jessamine demanded.
"I just remembered that I left my stele in my room," Ella said, lying easily. "Jem, could you help me? I forgot the way back." Ella pretended to frown, as if trying to remember the directions to her room.
Jem frowned but stood up, walking up to Ella. "Of course. Don't wait for us."
Jem led Ella down the corridor. Suddenly, Ella stopped Jem.
"Jem, listen to me carefully," Ella said in a hushed voice. "Nathaniel, he isn't who you think he is. Don't ask me how I know. Just trust me. Something's wrong here. De Quincey... I don't think he's the Magister. And I don't think that Nate is telling the truth."
Jem blinked at her. "Ella, you know I trust you. But what you're suggesting is ridiculous. De Quincey would have killed Nathaniel."
"Jem, please," Ella said desperately. "If you don't believe me at least keep an eye on him."
Jem hesitated. Finally, he said, "alright. You have your stele?"
Ella shook her head. "No. I dropped it in the fight earlier."
Jem took his stele out of his belt and handed it to Ella. "Take mine. Come on. We'd better get back before they get suspicious."