Hiya. This is a fanfic (set between Clockwork Angel and Clockwork Prince) that took an instant to imagine, and quite a while to write so I hope you enjoy it as much as I have :-)
Charlotte Branwell walked into the dining room of the London Institute, and was confronted with two adolescents bickering. It seemed to be their favourite pastime, Charlotte mused, standing in the doorway. Why else would they do it so often?
"Why are you so incurably dull, Jessie?" Will was asking, slouched carelessly in a chair, worn boots resting crossed on the table. Jessamine, however, looked far from careless – flushed with anger and sitting so upright in her chair, Charlotte wondered briefly if her latest dress had come installed with an iron bar.
"Why are you so unforgivably dense?" Jessamine folded her hands in her lap. "Ladies do not throw knives, and certainly not at live targets."
Charlotte had been quite content to let the disagreement die down, as it always did, but this sounded like cause for concern. Striding into the dining room as though she hadn't been hovering idly, she began to return some order to the chaos. "Will, kindly remove your feet from the table," she said.
Will acquiesced with little more than a shrug. Charlotte waited until she heard two light thumps that meant his feet were affixed to the floor before turning to Jessamine. "What is this about live targets?"
Jessamine looked pleased at being able to tattle on Will and instantly replied, "William was playing-"-Training-" He interrupted.
"-With daggers, and threw several at Gabriel Lightwood."
Charlotte stared sternly at Will. "Is this true?"
Will sighed, almost exasperatedly. "Oh, come now, it was only Gabriel. Besides," He added with a sly grin, "I'm sure getting stabbed would have improved his personality."
"William!" Charlotte exclaimed. "You do not go harming - you do not even think of harming fellow Shadowhunters." Will looked surprised. "Gabriel passes for a Shadowhunter? Good lord, I barely consider him human at times."
Charlotte was torn between persuading the Silent Brothers to administer some kind of anti-sarcasm potion to Will, and laughing simply because his unmanageability was just part of who he was. "You'll have to put your differences aside," Charlotte said firmly, sitting at the head of the table. "The Enclave has given us a missive. Mortmain and the demons seem to be lying low, so they believe it is a good time to-" Charlotte glanced down at the letter in her hand. "-'review the security of the London Institute'."
Will raised an eyebrow. "Which, in plain English, means they think we have done something to wreck the demonic repelling properties of the Institute, and want us out of the way while they attempt to fix it? How very untrusting."
Charlotte nodded tiredly. That was the gist of it. But there was a silver lining. "The Clave has given us permission and means for a weekend holiday at the beach. Gabriel Lightwood-" Here, she looked pointedly at Will who returned her gaze with an angelic smile. "- is coming with us. Benedict thinks it will strengthen the bond of friendship between the youngest generation. We leave tomorrow."
Jessamine looked relived. "Thank goodness! I am so very drained from all this Shadowhunting business." She paused, apparently lost in thought. "Tomorrow is hardly enough time at all to buy the appropriate wear."
Will, however, was more concerned with the first part. "Drained? From what Shadowhunting business?" He asked incredulously. "When was the last time you did anything associated with Shadowhunting?"
Jessamine pouted, indignant. "Last week, when I ordered new drapes for the library. The old ones were horribly outdated." With that, she walked swiftly through the doorway, most likely on a mission to persuade Sophie, if not Tessa, to go with her to the store.
"That had nothing to do with Shadowhunting." Will muttered caustically under his breath.
Charlotte rather agreed with him.
Tessa entered the library and promptly had to use the door handle to save herself from falling over the large fabric suitcase that had been propped up against it. Nine pairs of eyes turned to look at the commotion. "Oh, excuse me." Tessa said, slipping through the gap she had made in the door. Seven pairs of those eyes were seated at the dark wood tables, against a background of hundreds if not thousands of thick, leather-bound books. The other two belonged to Magnus and Church, who were to the far left of the room, in what appeared to be a chalk circle. Tessa didn't have any time to take a closer look because the attention she'd gathered was being shifted.
"Goodness, Jessamine," Will said, rising from his chair, "We know you aren't fond of Downworlders but there's no need to make Tessa break her neck with your oversized suitcase."
Jessamine's expression was akin to that of Nate's when they were younger and Tessa had been allowed the last biscuit from the Cookie jar. She almost expected Jessamine to stick out her tongue.
"That, William, was the least I could pack." Jessamine turned her back to him and began to engage in a conversation with Gabriel who, until that moment, had been glaring daggers at Will.
Will just shook his head and turned to Jem who was sitting to his right, and mouthed "Curtains."
Jem grinned, and trying to conceal it he asked, "You're not hurt are you, Tessa?"
Tessa tried to smile when her first inclination was to grimace. "No, I'm quite alright, thank you."
"In which case," Said a voice belonging to a man kneeling on the floor, his black trousers gathering dust and his bright eyes made more noticeable by the oddly shimmering sea-green material of his shirt. "I think we are almost ready."
Tessa may have wondered what on earth Magnus Bane was doing here, but Charlotte had explained to her that he was what the Clave had considered 'means' for their trip. After all, she had said, if they had gone by carriage and horse, the hour they'd get there, they would have to begin the journey back to make it to the Institute in time for Sunday afternoon.
Magnus had indeed drawn a chalk circle on the floor, but it was much more intricate than Tessa had first thought. The initial circle was perhaps ten paces across, large enough for all of them plus the luggage. There was a smaller circle drawn at the centre, about four paces across. Between the two, there were many unfamiliar symbols – strange pentagons and stars and a different coloured candlestick at each of the cardinal compass points. Magnus put Church down on the chair Will had vacated with a disgruntled meow as a reply.
Everyone began pulling their bags into the circle, minding the candles as they went. Tessa followed suite. She was interested to see that Henry's blue and red pinstriped suitcase perfectly matched his jacket. Will and Jem carried near-identical small black bags, while Jessamine had to ask for Gabriel's assistance to lift her own case.
Once they were all in the circle, Magnus drew runes on the outline, softly talking in a language that sounded like flames hissing and crackling. As he finished each one, they began to glow, as though lit by witchlights. He drew seven different runes before returning to stand behind his own diamond-studded bag.
"Everyone, hold somebody else's hand so we are all linked. Make sure your foot is touching your luggage, else it won't come with us." Tessa slipped her hands into Charlotte's tiny hand and Jem's smooth fingers. Out of curiosity, Tessa craned her neck to see how the others had fared, and was somewhat gratified to see that Will was holding onto Jessamine's hand as though it would bite him, and Gabriel's hand as though it was the dearest thing to him in the world. Tessa watched as the panic rose in Gabriel's eyes, and Will's face showed the downright enjoyment of Gabriel's discomfort.
Jem noticed Tessa's gaze and looked for a half-second before sighing. "I can't take him anywhere." Jem said, smiling affectionately.
Tessa would have agreed, but a small hurricane had begun around them, whipping her hair around her face, and lifting the dust from the floor. Suddenly, Church leapt from the chair, landing on the outer circle, which flashed a blinding silver before returning to a darker grey. Magnus narrowed his eyes at the cat, before shouting, "No!" Tessa tried to step forward, but was thrown off course by the winds that had suddenly increased to storm-proportions. She could see nothing, save for the hands she was clinging so tightly onto. There was a large crack, as though a lightning bolt had hit somewhere nearby then –
Calm.
Tessa blinked against bright light, pulling her hand away from someone's warm skin to put it to her reeling head, only to feel something smooth and grainy beneath her fingers. Sand?
Sitting up slowly, she shielded her eyes against the sun's powerful glare with her fingers. Tessa let her mouth drop in surprise, although Aunt Harriet had often told her that young ladies ought not to act like carp. "Oh my goodness." Tessa said faintly, and heard similar exclamations from the others. She had landed in… a paradise. Mere meters from them was an ocean that was nigh undistinguishable from the crystal blue sky, interrupted only by a line of rocks partway out. The gold sand that surrounded them reflected the natural light from the sun so the ground glowed softly, lending a nearly ethereal feel to their surroundings.
Church wandered around them, sniffing at the sand, proclaiming his satisfaction by padding in a circle, ready to take a nap in the warmth. A flash of dark fabric put that plan out of action. Magnus shed his black cloak and scooped Church up, frowning at him. "Now look what you've done, inane feline. Sent us off course."
Church, perhaps deciding he was in the wrong, ceased growling and simply stared. It was quite a sight, Tessa thought, to see to two sets of diamond eyes in two such different beings.
"What do you mean, 'sent us off course'?" Charlotte asked cautiously, brushing the sand from her neat blouse.
Magnus sighed, setting Church down, and flexed his fingers. "Where we were headed was roughly a hundred and ten, a hundred and twenty miles from the Institute. Your cat landed on the mark for 'distance', distorting it to a combination between that and 'time', so, we are much further from London than we planned to be."
Henry, also rapidly shedding outer layers, and by now barefoot, interjected with eyes wide with the excitement Tessa had observed when he had found a new invention. "Do you mean to say that we have travelled-?"
"A hundred or so years into the future?" Will finished.
Magnus fanned himself with his hand. "You sound like a poor ventriloquism act," He observed. "But yes, we are in…" He paused. "Can anybody see a newspaper?"
Jessamine snorted and quietly muttered, "He must be a talented Warlock indeed to mess up such a seemingly simple thing, and not know when on earth we are."
Tessa froze.
Magnus simply widened his eyes a fraction of an inch and twitched a finger. A few handfuls of sand were gathering together and rising like tiny clouds to hover just above Jessamine's head. The grains trickled down one by one, unnoticeable. T
hey then began to fall in small groups, and then in such large clumps that Jessamine's hair looked much less smooth than usual, as though she had been standing in a tawny snowstorm. Will caught Magnus' eyes and shook his head, a small smile lifting one side of his mouth. "Perhaps refrain this time. It will only make her more insufferable."
Magnus bowed his head slightly, and the sand cloud dropped harmlessly behind Jessamine.
There was a shift of movement beneath Tessa's other hand, and she realised with the most embarrassing start that she had still been holding onto Jem's hand. "I'm sorry," She apologised, quickly taking her hand away and standing.
"Not a problem." Jem answered quietly, also standing, and looking around. His eyes held a faraway look.
"Is it very different to Shanghai?" Tessa guessed.
"Yes, it is. And very different again to our rather soggy London." Jem answered, stretching his arms over his head.
Tessa tried and failed not to be happy that he felt she was included. After all, to Jessamine, she was little more than an exit pass away from this life.
"2003." Magnus announced. "That's what year it is. Not only did Church here distort the mark, he also managed to change the number itself." He looked sternly at Church.
This is the 21st century. Tessa looked around her with new eyes. Everything seemed so… well, just different.
"I don't know about the rest of you, but I am burning here. Who has my bag?" Will asked the group, and was answered with blank stares.
Tessa looked down at her feet, greeted by the marked absence of her bag.
"Church, I will never forgive you!" Magnus growled at the cat. "That bag was designer."
Gabriel had his back to them. Tessa had thought he simply didn't want to look at Will, but she realised it wasn't the only reason. "I think there is some kind of shop up there. They should have the right attire for us."
Like synchronized dancers, they all turned their heads to see a large store with white-painted walls, about a five minute walk away to the right.
Fifteen minutes later, Will, Jem, Gabriel and Magnus walked back to their spot, marked by a napping Church, feeling like they had visited another country altogether. For instance, the money was different, the language was so much more informal, and the clothes... well, they were a lot more revealing. About half the fabric was used, and Will couldn't help what Jem would have called 'lecherous thoughts'. The four arranged themselves in a semicircle, waiting for the others to arrive.
"Why do females take so long choosing clothing, and why do they always have to go together?" Magnus said to himself, and if Tessa was there, she would have agreed heartily.
Tessa was in fact standing behind Jessamine as she very loudly complained about the indecency of the future and that there wasn't a single bathing suit in her colour anyway and many other things besides that Tessa had begun to tune out.
She wandered over to some other extremely outlandish bathing suits that had the middle missing. She read the sign above them. Bikinis. Just looking at them, Tessa felt herself flush in the strange heat. She sighed. Ridiculously revealing clothes, or attracting attention by fainting from heatstroke.
It was a close call.
She picked one at random in the area she though would be her size - a light blue one, with floral designs on the front. She paid for it, along with a light summer dress with the unfamiliar money Magnus had acquired (although when she'd asked, he'd merely said that you shouldn't look gift horses in the mouth), and after quickly putting it on in the changing rooms, she pulled the dress over her head. She came out in time to see Jessamine disdainfully buying a salmon coloured one-piece. Tessa smiled. She'd bet that Jessamine was sorely wishing she'd stayed at the Institute.
Tessa was immensely glad that everyone was sunbathing with their eyes closed, although Jessamine's loud voice behind her would probably change that situation, so Tessa folded the dress and put it by her towel, and by the time Jessamine arrived, had inconspicuously copied the others, closing her eyes against the sun. Unintentionally, she had caught a long glimpse of Will and Jem, their towels placed next to each other.
They were both well defined – as of course, Shadowhunters training for years would have to be – and Tessa had to close her eyes quite firmly to stop herself peeking for another look. Why, she told herself, if anybody had read her thoughts, they'd find them shameful. But still, both boys appeared ridiculously beautiful.
The sea and the sky came to mind. Jem, soothing, tangiable, Will, dark and so very far away.
Suddenly, Tessa heard a whistle. "Church," Will's voice called out. "Even if Magnus doesn't forgive you, I certainly do." Tessa had a feeling he'd opened his eyes, and had released that her empty towel wasn't so empty any more.
"Will." Jem said warily.
"Oh, all right. I'm merely trying to liven up things a little."
Not long later, Henry Branwell was ambling back with a giant rainbow-striped umbrella that, with a few more inches, could have passed for a small marquee, balanced over his shoulder. Charlotte walked behind him, carrying several bags of food and drink. Henry was talking animatedly, and at one point he spun to motion to Charlotte with his hands. She ducked the spinning umbrella, coming up just in time to nod at Henry's point. He carried on walking backwards, close enough so Will could hear their conversation.
"It's a breakthrough, I'm sure of it! If we could just have more time I'm positive we could find the-"
Will noticed Charlotte looked somewhat worried. Anyone would be, with her rather forgetful husband holding an object that could not doubt inflict injuries, particularly when its carrier was walking backwards. Will owed her a little help.
"Here, let me carry that." Will offered, and promptly had to drop to his knees to avoid an umbrella point to the head.
Henry, facing front again, opened his mouth to say something, then abruptly closed it, looking around. His eyes travelled downwards last. "William, what on earth are you doing down there?"
Avoiding getting killed by mutant parasol. "Looking for gold." He answered, standing and taking the umbrella from Henry in one swift movement. Half-walking, half running back to the semi-circle they had made with their towels, he paused. Jem was smoothing the spaces between the towels with his arm.
Huh?
Tessa was concentrating so hard Will would have been surprised if she was thinking of anything less difficult than how to remember and cite a poem no smaller than ten pages.
"I've never understood how sandcastles stay up straight." She said, and Will lowered his head to conceal the grin that was impossible to resist. Sandcastles. Not great mysteries of the world, but something that they hadn't thought of since before they were allowed out on their first Shadowhunting mission alone.
"The base is everything – no matter how well you make the walls or towers, if the base is uneven, then the whole thing falls apart."
Will dumped the umbrella in a clear space of sand, and begun to dig a small hole.
"Would you mind getting some sea water?" Jem asked Tessa. "The bucket is just over there. We'll need it for the walls."
Tessa must've nodded because the next thing he heard was Jem coughing. Dropping the umbrella he rushed to his friend's side. "James, are you well?" He asked quietly, pressing a hand to Jem's back. Sometimes it helped. Never a lot, never for long, but sometimes it helped. The coughs racked his body, though he was obviously trying to hold them in.
Jem waved him off. "I'm – fine. You don't-" another bout of muted coughing, "-Have to worry all the time."
"Of course I do." Will muttered, checking the ground for blood.
The coughing stopped, and Jem took a deep breath, looking more than just pale. He looked deathly.
Tessa was humming to herself on the way back, and Jem looked at Will with wide eyes, shaking his head slightly.
Will nodded tersely. Don't let them know. Looking around him for inspiration, he saw Henry. If Will had a lobster, and had held the lobster up to Henry's face, he would have been hard pressed to differentiate between the two shades of red.
Grabbing the sun cream, Will instructed Jem. "Turn around."
Jem did so without hesitation.
"You know, it's so easy for you to get burnt," Will chastised loudly enough for Tessa, or anyone else in the vicinity to hear. "You should get out in the weaker sun more." He said, opening the tube and rubbing far too much sun cream onto Jem's back.
The charade had to continue. Will had given Jem enough time to recover, so when he went back to arranging the sand, his pallor had returned to its normal colour.
"There isn't much sun in London, Will." A quick nod and half a small smile told him that Jem really was well, for the moment at least.
After planting the umbrella so it put half the group in shade (it was ever so slightly tweaked to cover only the lower half of Jessamine and Gabriel) Will lay on his towel and started, quite accidentally, to reminisce. Just once, Charlotte and Henry had taken them to the beach in Bournemouth, Henry had taught them how so make a sand-volcano, with water as lava and all. Now, however many years later, Jem was teaching Tessa nearly the same things. It had a certain amount of déjà vu to it. No, enough thinking about the past.
He stood, in the mood for a bit of havoc.
Will glanced over his shoulder at the others. "I'm going for a swim." He announced, and began to walk into the sea, apparently oblivious to the coldness of the water. Jem sighed, pushing his sunglasses to the top of his head. "I had better go with him. He might get into a fight with a shark because it swam faster than him. Would you care to join me?" he asked Tessa, as Jessamine was studiously pouting in the opposite direction.
Tessa bit her lower lip nervously. "I… can't swim." She said, sounding reserved but not apologetic.
Jem considered her for a moment, and then smiled. "Come on," he said, taking her hand and pulling her gently towards the waterline. "I can teach you."
"B-but Jem, I really ca- Eeeh!" Tessa yelped in protest as the cold, clear water lapped at their ankles.
Jem laughed, and Tessa paused to look at him. He seemed so alive. His eyes were bright and despite the copious amount of sun cream Will had insisted on, Tessa could see his pale skin was already slightly darker. Quickly looking away, she found that she could see tiny fish dart around their feet. Oh. A thought suddenly occurred to her. Tessa, worried whether the salt in the water would affect her clockwork angel, asked Jem, but he assured her that it wouldn't, and even if it did, Henry would be more than happy to fix it.
To be fair, Jem was an excellent swimming instructor – Tessa was just a terrible student. By the time she could put her face under the water without panicking, Will had challenged Gabriel to a race.
After much taunting (Will) and grumbling (Gabriel), he agreed.
By the time Tessa had learnt to do a passable doggy paddle, Gabriel was accusing Will of brazenly cheating, which, Tessa concluded, meant that Will had won the race.
She wasn't entirely sure how one could cheat in a swimming race in the ocean, but Tessa's attention was first and foremostly occupied by the fact that she could now swim ten meters unaided. Jem watched her delightedly. "We'll make a mermaid of you yet." He said. "But I think a well-deserved break is in order."
Leaving Will and Gabriel still bickering, they walked back to shore, talking about inconsequential things like how wonderful the weather was, and how Church had taken up residence on Will's towel.
The rest of the day passed in much the same way. Jessamine and Gabriel found they had a dislike of Will in common, if little else. Henry and Charlotte smiled knowingly to each other whenever debates (mostly instigated by Will) cropped up, and everyone else was just enjoying the break from, well, life.
Magnus sat a way away from the others. It was true, that people – Shadowhunters, Downworlders, and Mundanes- all got so concerned with what's going on in their lives they forgot to just live. To do more than eat and drink and worry about what will be and what won't be. That was part of the reason why Magnus had acquiesced to such a strange request from the Clave. That, and the fact he was looking just a little pale himself.
Will dropped to his towel feeling thoroughly contented. It wasn't often he could let of steam without having to go kill a demon in the process. He glanced over at Jem and Tessa, and was mildly impressed to see that not only had they made four towers, but also the walls, a moat and were in the process of finishing a diagonal bridge between two of the towers.
Only, there appeared to be a slight problem.
"It won't stay!" Tessa exclaimed, the sand she added to the bridge falling the second it landed. Will looked at it for a moment before producing his stele out of the mound of sand he had placed it in for safe keeping.
"Let me at it." He said, brandishing the stele like a very small sword.
Jem tried to protest, but Will had already drawn the rune for binding, to make the grains of sand stick together. It didn't quite work. Will looked at his stele as though it had grown arms and legs. It had never not worked.
"The sand moves," Jem explained, "So it distorts the shape of the rune, and so the rune doesn't work. It's not the stele." He added, as Will had set the instrument back in its sand-home.
"Really?" Tessa latched onto the information as Will imagined she would a new book.
Jem nodded, and went on to describe the experiments they had done, trying to make loose sugar into sugar cubes with runes.
As the day drew on to evening, Gabriel suggested they build a fire, with Henry happily explaining the details of his flame-retardant mixture, to which Charlotte expressed the wish that he keep his limbs away from the flames for the time being. That was how, at about seven in the evening, they were all sitting on the ground, in a circle around the fire they had made from driftwood on the beach, and were telling stories as though it were All Hallows Eve.
It helped the atmosphere that the sun was setting on the water. It looked like a dragon's eye, its twin reflected in the azure water, ever changing. The sky was a brilliant array of deep purples, bright scarlets and burning oranges, as though the very air above them was on fire. Even Will, who normally had no time for things like views felt strangely in awe of it.
The most interesting thing was, they had no need to tell fictitious stories with morals or happy endings. As the night drew in around them, they told stories of their lives, of monsters in the mind and the real world that had been overcome; the inventions that worked brilliantly and not so well; the happy times that they had often forgotten about. No-one breached the topic of loss, one they were all too familiar with. As the fire lit the faces of the people around him, Will had to wonder at the effect this trip had had – bringing them all closer together, even if just for a day.
Jessamine was the first to ask a question that hadn't crossed anybody else's mind. "Where are we to stay tonight?"
Everyone but Magnus froze, images of sleeping on the sand leading parades in their heads. Magnus merely smiled. "Five minutes that way," He said pointing in the opposite direction to the store, "is a-" he paused, "I think it's called a Chalet, that has our names on it."
Everyone flashed a grateful smile to Magnus, and gathering up their belongings had Magnus lead them there, with Jem pragmatically running back to douse the fire.
Their accommodation was most certainly an oddity - a wooden house with one floor. The front door had a carpeted corridor, which branched of to a kitchenette and living area to the right, and opposite, a small room with a pair of (as Magnus had referred to them) wooden bunk beds and a window looking towards the sea. At the end of the corridor were two more bedrooms - one with a double bed and a pair of bunk beds, and the last with two single beds. It was decided after one minor debate and a major application of common sense that Jessamine and Tessa should get the first bedroom, Charlotte, Henry, Will and Jem share the second, and Magnus and Gabriel share the third.
"You can have the lower bunk," Jessamine said to Tessa. "I can't possibly sleep with all that dust on the carpet."
So a few hours later, Tessa was in an unfamiliar room with unfamiliar thoughts, and when she closed her eyes, tried to think of home.
Tessa was locked in a dream, a nightmare. It wasn't at first. Tessa had been flying between thin, wispy clouds without a thought for how it was possible, or with any fear for the ground so far below. All she knew was the joy of flight. The sky was the blue of midday, and the sun warmed her skin pleasantly. Tessa was quite literally dancing on air. Suddenly the sky turned grey, and the weak light outlined the thickening clouds in shades of white and charcoal.
It was not until the clouds began to gather and rain began to fall did Tessa feel the fear. The drops were red, the rain transforming into a downpour, drenching her in what Tessa knew was blood.
Tessa felt herself slip, and as suddenly as the rain, she could not fly. She fell, mind first, then body. That was the worst thing – her mind knew it was too late, but her body was convinced she had wings to save herself.
Turning head over heels, pushed by the bloody storm, Tessa could do nothing but stare at the ever-closer earth. Looking straight down she saw a figure, arms wide open to catch her.
Tessa's heart sang with relief, and she smiled. She wondered if it was Nate, come back to her. Or Will, who would pretend he wouldn't save her at all until the last moment. Maybe it was Jem, who would try to catch her even before she was in reach.
As the ground and the figure became nearer and nearer, Tessa recognized her saviour.
A clockwork monster already covered in scarlet blood, holding a glinting knife in its metallic hand. She screamed as she landed but-
Tessa bolted upright in bed, millimetres away from banging her head on the bed above her. She was drenched in cold sweat, shivering uncontrollably. That had been a horrible, terrifying dream, and Tessa was irrationally grateful to have been woken. But what had woken her?
Tessa thought about the end of the dream, even though it made her flinch to do so. There had been a bang, like someone falling into something. Jessamine was snoring gently above her, and the corridor was quiet. Shakily, Tessa disentangled herself from the sheets and walked the few paces to the window. Pushing aside the curtains, she leant her elbows on the windowsill and looked out. The beach was doused in the light of the full moon – the sand could have been moon dust, the waves made from quicksilver.
Everything was still and calm. Tessa sighed. It had most likely been a bird of some sort. Resolutely, she forced the nightmare to the back of her mind and tugged the curtain closed. It snagged on a nail protruding from the wall. It was then she saw someone walking through the sand. Tessa pressed her nose to the glass, squinting through the darkness to see better. A quite tall boy, she thought, and gasped as he turned. Dark hair and black markings on his pale hands.
Will.
Forgetting about wearing only a thin cotton nightdress and just having been roused from sleep, Tessa spun on her heels and ran straight through the door. Pausing only to unlock the front door, she ran out into the sand, slipping on the uneven surface. Actually, the closer she got to him, the more she wondered why on earth she was following him in the first place. Tessa looked ahead again, and watched Will walk through the water to the rocks. Tessa paused. She hadn't met an unreasonably small amount of Shadowhunters, but she was fairly sure none of them could have walked on water. Narrowing her eyes, she saw that the water only came up to his knees. It was low tide.
Tessa watched as he heaved himself up onto the flat planes of the rocks, and curiously, lay down on them, staring straight up at the sky.
She had reached the edge of the water herself, and reluctantly carried on, tensing up as the freezing water lapped around her feet. Tessa was glad the night was warm; else she would fear catching hypothermia from the water that would have felt more at home in the Atlantic circle. It was curiosity, she decided. Curiosity and the fault that lay with Will for always being so mysterious and piquing the said curiosity that made her act so impulsively.
The journey through the water was surprisingly quick, although it was disorienting to not be able to see your feet through the waves that created a faceted effect on the water. Tessa held her breath as she stopped about a pace or two from Will.
His bare feet were crossed at the ankles, and suddenly Tessa wondered if Will was at all ticklish. He had one hand lying open by his side, the other behind his head as a pillow, Tessa assumed. His hair looked tousled, as though he'd woken unexpectedly too. His lips quirked upwards in the first gentle smile she had seen on him. Tessa fought back a laugh. If only he could have been this quiet when he was awake!
Despite her efforts, a small giggle escaped, and Will instantly shot upwards, the dagger poised in his hand matching the glint in his dark eyes, eyes that widened in genuine surprise when he registered it was Tessa standing in front of him, no doubt looking as petrified as she felt. Tessa had had more than enough of knives, swords or daggers lately.
"By the angel, Tess!" Will exclaimed, letting the dagger drop with a clang into the rocks. "Don't sneak up on me like that."
"I wasn't sneaking," Tessa protested. "I was merely taking a walk." It was true, she reflected. Tessa found it impossible to sneak anywhere when her every step was heralded by dozens of ripples on the water, and she was walking, albeit more slowly than usual.
Will remained unconvinced. "What are you doing here?"
Tessa didn't want to talk about her nightmare. She could still feel the blood-rain on her skin, and had no wish to re-live the experience. "As I said, I was taking a walk."
Will's eyes travelled downwards and another smile was painted on his face, this one full of trouble and mischief. Reclining on a stone worn smooth through time, he asked casually, "You are aware you aren't part mermaid, are you not?"
"They're real?" Tessa exclaimed, mildly puzzled at the sudden change of topic. "I thought-" Belatedly, she understood what the question was aiming at. Tessa looked down and to her dismay saw that she was soaked up to the middle of her thighs, her white nightdress had turned translucent and was clinging alarmingly close to her legs. It was scarcely better than the swimming costume she had donned during the day. Tessa felt the blood rush to her cheeks, and thoroughly wished she had just stayed in bed. Just as she was about to accuse Will of being every kind of inappropriate, Tessa spotted a dark thing moving towards Will's head. Perhaps a half meter away, and using multiple legs to creep closer.
A crab. With sharp pincers.
"Will," She said carefully. "You may want to move."
The crab inched closer.
Will grinned lazily, lacing his fingers behind his head. "I don't think I do. I'm rather enjoying the view."
Lascivious fool. Tessa thought. It would serve him right to-
Will yelled out obscenities the likes of which Tessa had never heard before. The crab, deciding it didn't like this new intrusion in its territory had smartly clamped its pincer onto Will's hand.
He stood up and managed to dislodge the crab, throwing it over the other side of the rocks. However, at the same time he had unbalanced himself. Will teetered on the edge of falling, a surprised expression in his face. He could have been an angel, about to take flight.
Tessa reached up to steady him (not that he deserved her help) and he took her hand. Will's feet slipped on the uneven rock and he fell straight into the water, pulling Tessa down in the process.
Tessa emerged from the water spluttering and trying not to panic. Blinking the water out of her eyes, she could just make out the blurred figure of Will beside her, completely drenched and laughing. He stood easily, looking for all the world like a water nymph, muttering to himself, "If Jem could see me now, he'd never let me live it down."
Tessa, although interested in how many other situations like the present one Will had been in that Jem knew about, she could not stop the inevitable sneezes that came.
It seemed to alert Will to the fact that Tessa was still half-submerged in the water. Mirth subsiding, Will held out his hand and pulled her up.
He was much stronger than she had expected, and Tessa found herself held tight in his arms. He body tensed as a memory flashed before her eyes. Will, soaked with holy water in the attic of the Institute. He was almost the same. She could feel his every breath, and the heat radiated off him.
Tessa unwillingly looked into his eyes, and disengaged herself from his touch. There was none of the fervent madness in his eyes that matched the night sky almost perfectly.
"Thank you for helping me up." She said civilly, though it was he that had made her fall in the first place. She was growing conscious of the cold seeping into her limbs.
Will's face creased up with laughter again. "Thank you for helping me down." He said, looking at her through slanted eyes. For the second time in as many minutes, Tessa glanced down at herself and felt the urge to lie back under the water again. Her nightdress may as well have been made from spider webs, for all the good it did her. The material clung to her more than Jessamine's most tightly laced dress.
Crossing her arms over her chest, she did the only thing that would make her feel even the slightest bit less mortified. Tessa kicked up water at Will, splashing him thoroughly. Then Tessa giggled once more. He looked like a drowned rat, no longer the handsome and aloof hero. Just like any other boy.
"Tessa…" He said warningly, pushing his ebony hair out of his face.
Tessa splashed him again, and ran, hearing his laughter ring out behind her.
It took five more splashes and two miniature tidal waves for them both to call a truce. "Enough!" Tessa said between laughs, "Or I shall end up with the flu!"
"Or demonpox," Will agreed, bracing himself on the rocks. Tessa made to get out of the water, but stopped to look pointedly at Will.
He held up his hands in mock defeat. "All right, all right, I won't look." Will said, turning away. Tessa climbed upwards, grateful there were footholds without slippery moss covering them, always keeping an eye out for crabs. She lay on her back, supported by two relatively flat rocks. "I'm decent." She called out, feeling silly.
"Really? What a shame."
Tessa rolled her eyes at the expected reply. She heard Will scale the stone, guessing from the close proximity of the sigh that escaped him that he had laid his head just by hers.
Tessa looked up at the sky. The uncountable silver stars were beautiful. She had seldom had the chance to see them, as both New York and London were lit brightly, if sporadically, by lights. They glimmered at her, as if to say 'welcome home', thought the truth was she had never been further.
"Thank you." Will murmured.
Tessa was startled out of her reverie. "Whatever for?"
He paused. "For reminding me I am human." This served only to confuse Tessa.
"What do you mean?" She asked, turning over and propping herself up on her elbows to study Will's upside-down face.
He looked at her for a long moment without saying anything. Then he closed his eyes. "We are always Shadowhunters first. It is easy to forget that underneath the blades and the laws, we are human beings. We are often considered to be both more and less than that."
Tessa considered his words. She understood, better than she wanted to say. In the past weeks it had been more and more difficult to recognize what she had in common with the people who could see nothing of this world. Jem had said much the same to her, on Blackfriars Bridge, that Nephilim were ever only that – servants to the blood they had been born with.
"'All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players'."Tessa said, thinking it appropriate.
"You and Shakespeare are right."
They watched the stars dance through the night until morning came.
James Carstairs sat on the soft sand of the beach, watching what was unfolding before him. He had woken perhaps five minutes after Will had left. Normally, Jem respected his privacy. However, they were in an unknown place, and it would be easy to get lost or worse.
Now, Jem watched his Parabatai, his dearest friend, find solace in the girl that had come into their lives like a blazing comet. Jem should have gone inside when he had recognized it was Tessa with Will, but something inside him begged to stay.
They would need each other, after he'd gone. Jem thought he heard Will's laughter, such a rare sound, and he smiled. Yes, she would be good for him. Jem leaned back and reached out his arms, trying to cup the stars in his hands. Beautiful things, yet so distant.
Just like the two people only dozens of meters away.
Just as unreachable.
"Must we go back?" Charlotte asked ruefully. She had everyone assemble outside their accommodation at first light. Oddly, Jessamine, Gabriel and Magnus were the last ones up, which would explain why Tessa, Will and Jem seemed more tired.
It was Magnus who answered her. "I'm afraid so. I would adore staying here, but our duties call us back to our city, and to our own time."
Charlotte had momentarily forgotten that they had been displaced more than a century out of their own time. But, as Magnus drew the appropriate symbols and marks, she was glad to be heading back to what was normal and known.
But, she thought as the wind began to tear at them, carrying the unmistakable scent of the sea, this was by no means a wasted journey. Charlotte was pleased to see the break had done the younger ones in particular some good. It was the life of a Shadowhunter, to be burdened with so much so young, and they had embraced it, even Tessa who was practically a fledgling in her knowledge of their world.
But there was hope. Charlotte gripped two hands either side of her, she closed her eyes and held on to the hope that good prevails, and that whatever would come, it would not be the end of this happiness.
So, how was that? I hope it made you smile - Gabriel's and Will's antics are usually entertaining :-) Please drop a review to tell me whether you liked it, or if anything needed tweaking.
Thank you for reading :-D