Will exited Jem's room. He felt all sorts of things—sorrow, heaviness, anger, loss, and a strange emptiness.
He closed the door softly and looked up. Nora.
He approached her quickly, entrapping her in his arms.
He brought his lips down to hers, desperate for something real. And nothing was more real than Nora. Nothing more real than his love for her.
Nora pulled away slightly. "Are you scared, Liam?"
Will rested his forehead on hers, closing his eyes. "I am."
Nora slowly kissed his cheek, then his nose, then his forehead, and finally his lips.
"I will go with you," said Nora, her voice leaving no room for argument.
And yet...
"Nora, it will be a long journey," Will said.
"I will go with you," Nora repeated.
"It is deadly," Will said in an anguished voice.
"I will go with you," Nora said again.
~
As Will fastened the cinch, Balios lifted his head and whickered. Will's head whipped around. A slight feminine figure stood in the doorway of the stable. As Will stared, she raised her right hand, and the witchlight in it flared up, illuminating her face.
It was Cecily. He straightened up. "Cecy, what are you doing here?"
She took a step forward, then paused on the threshold, glancing down at her bare feet. "I could ask of you the same."
"I like to talk to the horses at night. They make good company. And you should not be out and about in your nightgown. There are Lightwoods wandering these halls."
"Very funny. Where are you going, Will? If you are going to seek more yin fen, take me with you."
"I am not going to seek more yin fen."
Understanding dawned in her blue eyes. "You are going after Tessa. You are going to Cadair Idris."
Will nodded.
"Take me," she said. "Take me with you, Will."
Will could not look at her; he went to get the bit and bridle, though his hands shook as he took them down and turned back to Balios. "I cannot take you with me. You cannot ride Xanthos—you have not the training—and an ordinary horse would only slow our journey down."
"The carriage horses are automatons. You cannot hope to catch them up—"
"I do not expect to. Balios may be the fastest horse in England, but he must rest and sleep. I am already resigned. I shall not reach Tessa on the road. I can only hope to arrive at Cadair Idris before it is too late."
"Then let me ride after you and do not worry if you outpace me—"
"Be reasonable, Cecy!"
"Reasonable?" she flared. "All I see is my brother going away from me again! It has been years, Will! Years, and I came to London to find you, and now that we are together again, you are leaving!"
Balios stirred uneasily as Will fitted the bit into his mouth and slid the bridle up over his head. Balios did not like shouting. Will gentled him with a hand on his neck.
"Will." Cecily sounded dangerous. "Look at me, or I shall go wake the household and stop you, I swear that I will."
Will leaned his head against the horse's neck and closed his eyes. He could smell hay and horse, and cloth and sweat and some of the sweet scent of smoke that still clung to his clothes, from the fire in Jem's room. He desperately hoped that Nora would return soon. She seemed to be able to calm Cecily so easily. As easily as it can get. "Cecily," he said. "I need to know that you are here and as safe as you can be, or I cannot leave. I cannot fear for Tessa ahead on the road, and you behind me, or the fear will break me down. Already too many that I love are in danger."
There was a long silence. Will could hear the beat of Balios's heart under his ear, but nothing else. He wondered if Cecily had left, walked out while he was speaking, perhaps to rouse the household. He lifted his head.
But no, Cecily was still standing where she had been, the witchlight burning in her hand. "Tessa said that you called out for me once," she said. "When you were ill. Why me, Will?"
"Cecily." The word was a soft exhale. "For years you were my-my talisman. I thought I had killed Ella. I left Wales to keep you safe. As long as I could imagine you thriving and happy and well, the pain of missing you and Mother and Father was worth it."
"I never understood why you left," Cecily said. "And I thought the Shadowhunters were monsters. I could not understand why you had come here, and I thought—I always thought—that when I was old enough, I would come, and pretend I wished to be a Shadowhunter myself, until I could convince you to come home. When I learned of the curse, I did not know what to think anymore. I understood why you had come but not why you stayed."
"Jem—"
"But even if he dies," she said, and he flinched, "you will not come home to Mam and Dad, will you? You are a Shadowhunter, through and through. As Father never was. It is why you have been so stubborn about writing to them. You do not know how to both ask forgiveness and also say that you are not coming home."
"I can't come home, Cecily, or at least, it is not my home any longer. I am a Shadowhunter. It is in my blood."
"You know I am your sister, do you not?" she said. "It is also in my blood."
"You said you were pretending." He searched her face for a moment and said slowly, "But you are not, are you? I have seen you, training, fighting. You feel it as I did. As if the floor of the Institute is the first really solid ground under your feet. As if you have found the place you belong. You are a Shadowhunter."
Cecily said nothing.
"I am glad," he said. "Glad there will be a Herondale in the Institute, even if I—"
"Even if you do not come back? Will, let me come with you, let me help you—"
"No, Cecily. Is it not enough that I accept that you will choose this life, a life of fighting and danger, though I have always wanted greater safety for you? No, I cannot let you come with me, even if you hate me for it."
Cecily sighed. "Don't be so dramatic, Will. Must you always insist that people hate you when they obviously don't?"
"I am dramatic," said Will. "If I had not been a Shadowhunter, I would have had a future on the stage. I have no doubt I would have been greeted with acclaim."
Cecily did not appear to find this amusing. Will supposed he could not blame her. Nora would've laughed, though. She found the simplest of things he said amusing. "I am not interested in your rendition of Hamlet," she said. "If you will not let me go with you, then promise me that if you go now-promise that you will come back?"
"I cannot promise that," Will said. "But if I can come back to you, I will. And if I do come back, I will write to Mother and Father. I can promise that much."
"No," said Cecily. "No letters. Promise me that if you do come back, you will return to Mother and Father with me, and tell them why you left, and that you do not blame them, and that you love them still. I do not ask that you go home to stay. Neither you nor I can ever go home to stay, but to comfort them is little enough to ask. Do not tell me that it is against the rules, Will, because I know all too well that you enjoy breaking those."
"See?" Will asked. "You do know your brother a little after all. I give you my word, that if all those conditions are met, I will do as you ask."
Her shoulders and face relaxed. She looked small and defenseless with her anger gone, though he knew she was not.
Then, "does Ella know?"
Just at that moment, Nora stepped into the stables. Her eyes travelled from Will and then to Cecily.
"Yes," said Will. "Nora knows."
Nora hugged Cecily, whispering something to her.
Cecily clutched onto her tightly. There was love shared between the two. Nora probably reminded Cecily of their Sister, Ella—both headstrong and stubborn.
Nora finally let go of Cecily, giving her a last smile. She walked up to Will, and Will could see she was wearing gear.
"I will get Xanthos ready," she said, and left to go to the other horse, leaving Will alone with Cecily again.
"Cecy," he said softly, "before I go, I wish to give you one more thing."
He reached into his shirt and lifted over his head the necklace Magnus had given him. It swung, gleaming rich ruby red, in the dim lights of the stables.
"Your lady's necklace?" Cecily said. "Well, I confess it does not suit you."
He stepped toward Cecily and drew the glittering chain over her dark head. The ruby fell against her throat as if it were made for her. She looked at him over it, her eyes serious. "Wear it always. It will warn you when demons are coming," Will said. "It will help keep you safe, which is how I want you, and help you be a warrior, which is what you want."
She put her hand against his cheek. "Da bo ti, Gwilym. Byddaf yn dy golli di."
"And I you," he said. Without looking at her again, he turned to Balios and swung himself up into the saddle. Nora brought Xanthos next to him. Cecily stepped back as the two urged the horse toward the stable doors and galloped out into the night.