Chapter One
The night was cold and dark – no stars or moon at all in the sky. The only light came for the streetlights which illuminated the empty, frozen street. It was the coldest night in decades and not a single person risked being outside in case they experienced frostbite, London University Campus was deserted – save for all but one person. That figure was bundled up tightly against the cold, with only his eyes being exposed, but they kept their gaze firmly on the ground as he kept to the shadows; as if he was worried that the light would expose him to someone he preferred not to meet. He stopped when he reached a building – to be more accurate, the staff offices – in the middle of campus and quickly walked up the steps to the front door. Pulling out a sharp tool and working at the lock for about one minute, while glancing around nervously every now and then, possibly looking for witnesses, before hearing a soft click and carefully opening the door. The mysterious man quickly moved to the alarm beside the door and within a couple of seconds had it disabled. Sticking his head outside the door once more, he anxiously scanned the surrounding area once more to make sure that the alarm hadn't alerted any security in the area. After hearing no feet running in his direction or seeing any bodies jump out from the shadows, he softly closed the front door.
Putting the light on his phone's flashlight app to low, he quickly and silently moved down the large, empty corridors, occasionally glancing at one of the brass plaques beside each door which announced who each door and what was behind it belonged to, just to make sure he hadn't taken a wrong turn. He had almost reached the end the end of the hall when he found the room he was looking for and after carefully checking to make sure there were no secret witnesses, pulled out his lock-picker and got to work on picking the lock again. After hearing a click, he quickly entered the room and flicked on the light switch.
The small windowless room was then flooded in a bright artificial light showing the massive piles of paper, as well as the best printer, laminator and photocopier that money could buy. The man or really boy, obviously deciding that it was safe to, removed his hat and lowered his scarf from the bottom half of his face. The light made his black hair seem even darker and his blue eyes look deeper than the darkest sapphires. He looked like a man on a mission to fix the injustices of the world; but if a professor or member of security discovered him and questioned why he broke into the staff offices and was in their photocopier room, William Herondale's answer would have been more of causing injustice in the world, rather than fixing it.
Moving quickly to the photocopier by the side of the wall, he flicked a couple of switches and watched as it whirled to life. Reaching into his jacket, he pulled out a leather-bound small book, with various corners having been turned in. Punching in a few numbers on the photocopiers keypad; he opened the small book to the first turned down page and placed it face down as the machine then produced copies of what was written on the pages. It took over an hour to do the whole book and by that time the pile of paper used reached three feet high and he used a massive amount of ink (Will was busy thanking his lucky stars, that he had worn gloves to disguise his fingerprints and worn a hat and scarf to disguise his face from the hallway cameras). When the very last page was finished, he turned off the photocopier, tucked the book back inside his jacket, placed his hat and scarf back on his face, gathered up his huge pile of sheets and snuck out of the room, down the hall and into the freezing December night.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The next morning at the University's most popular coffee shop 'Java Jones', Gideon Lightwood waited for his brother Gabriel so they could go over their plans for the winter break. Their father Benedict wanted them and their sister Tatiana home for the holidays; but honestly Gideon couldn't imagine a worse hell. Benedict Lightwood was a very cruel person and incredibly degrading to any living being that wasn't a rich, white, western male. He had always instilled beliefs in his children that the Lightwoods were better than anyone else and that you should act like it. It wasn't until the boys started to attend a private boarding school in their late teens that they realised that everything their father taught them was a lie. That not everyone was like their father: cold, manipulative and back-stabbing. Gideon had managed to change his views completely before it was too late, and nowadays wanted very little to do with his father. The only reason he was even considering going home for the holidays was for Gabriel's and Tatiana's sake's who would still listen to and obeyed their father. They were still under his spell and as the older brother it was his job to make sure that their father wasn't going to get them to do some evil scheme that would rise the Lightwood name up in the business world. Not only that, but his father had some very disturbing interests and Gideon made it his wholehearted intention to make sure his siblings didn't get involved.
Just then a firm hand clasped hand around Gideon's shoulder, snapping him out of his thoughts and turning around he stared into the green eyes of his brother Gabriel. 'About time' Gideon laughed, before embracing his brother in a hug. 'I've barely seen you since Halloween!'
'Well you know me, Gideon' Gabriel laughed, 'I've been very busy: studying, working –'
'Continuing your feud with William Herondale?' Gideon added as the two brothers joined the line of people waiting to order their drinks. His sibling's obsession's with the Herondale boy (for different reasons of course) was something that Gideon could never understand. He had only met the boy less than a handful of times and couldn't find any reason why his siblings acted the way he did around him. To him the boy was very funny and had a love for sarcasm but also had a caring side and a strange fear of ducks. He was also extremely popular and had several girls fawning over him because of his good looks. His sister Tatiana being one of them.
Tatiana Lightwood has had a crush on Will for over a year now, despite the fact that Will has barely spoken more than two words to her over the year and a half that they've spent on campus together. His sister wasn't really one to be reduced to a mess over a boy, but with Will, Tatiana had taken the expression 'lovesick puppy' to a whole new extreme. Nowadays ninety percent of the words that came out of her mouth was about Will and once when Gideon had opened one of her notebooks that she had left behind at his flat, had found it contained nothing but poetry (not very well written either) about Will and how their destined to be together. The notebook was even signed 'property of Tatiana Herondale'. Girl had it bad.
Gabriel however was the opposite. While Tatiana worshipped the ground Will walked on, Gabriel probably wouldn't even spit on the guy if he was on fire. Gideon knew that the two boys didn't get on – you'd have to be living in an entirely different universe to miss that – but he also knew it wasn't the full on hate that most students on campus believed they had. The two boys just extremely disliked each other and for that part spent most of their time either insulting the other or just avoiding them. Gideon wasn't exacting sure of the details about why this dislike for each other started though. All he knew was that it happened in the first week of first year when Will embarrassed Gabriel at a party in front of a girl he was trying to impress and Gabriel immediately got his own back by using Will's strange fear of ducks against him. The boy's feud has continued to this day, thankfully never leaving the stage of insulting each other and spreading rumours. Gideon didn't even want to think of the damage control he would have to do if the duo had entered the stage of physical violence. That would be the point of no return.
'I do not have a feud with William Herondale' Gabriel denied as the brothers ordered their drinks, black coffee for Gideon and chai latte for Gabriel. 'It's just that I don't like the guy. At all. Because he is an annoying, selfish jerk who loves to victimise others. A feud would suggest that I hate him, something –'
'That everyone in the university believes you do. Everyone thinks that you both hate each other and are planning the other's demise' Gideon interrupted, not willing to listen to his brother's denial over his dislike of the Herondale. 'Besides I didn't come here so you could deny that you don't like Will Herondale, I came so we could discuss our plans for the winter break.'
'I know what you're trying to do Gideon' Gabriel interrupted 'you're going to try to convince me and Tatiana not to go home to Father's for the holidays, and to spend it in London with you.' Gabriel looked exhausted as he said this, years older than his twenty-one years. It was the same every time the holidays rolled around. Gideon would spend days trying to convince them not to return home and stay in London. Sometimes he stayed just to please Gideon, other times he went home. Tatiana would never listen to Gideon's pleas and always went home where their father doted on her. Whenever Gabriel made the decision to return home, Gideon would always come with him and would spend the break warily watching their father as if he didn't trust him alone with him and Tatiana. It always made Gabriel irritated to be honest. Why bother coming home if it looks like you're just going to start World War Three with the only parent you had left?
'Look Gabriel, come on, you and I both know that we can't keep going back and forth to Chiswick forever' Gideon argued as they collected their drinks and went to sit down. 'We're growing up and within a year or two; we might have even left the country. Father should know by now that he's got to start letting us go, otherwise it's only going to become harder for him to deal with not being able to see us within a couple of hours.'
Gabriel opened his mouth to argue back, but at that moment he stopped dead in his tracks, causing an unsuspecting Gideon to bump into him and spill his coffee all down his front. 'Aw Jesus Gabriel, look what you made me do! You're lucky this jacket is black, but it's so hot!' Gideon moaned, using his napkins to try and squeeze the piping hot drink out of his clothing. Gabriel however didn't seem to hear him. Instead he moved closer to the bulletin board and was staring at one of the notices in shock. Moving up to join his brother, Gideon glanced up at the notice board to see what had grabbed his brothers attention and almost immediately saw it. On large A3 paper an obviously photocopied sheet was stuck to the middle of the board and at the top in official stationary markings read 'The Diary of Tatiana Lightwood' what followed was lines of his sister's handwriting detailing one of her deepest secrets. 'Oh my God' Gideon moaned, closing his eyes not even wanting to read any more. In his head he cursed his sister for using personalised stationary. If she didn't insist on using it and these sheets still went up, at least she'd be able to deny it! But now everyone knew one of Tatiana's deepest secrets and there was nothing she could do about it.
Moving quickly, Gabriel ripped the sheet off the board and scrunched it up into a tight little ball and dropped it into his drink, watching as the hot liquid turned the paper to mush. Sighing Gideon turned to face Gabriel who was watching the sodden sheet of paper with fierce concentration. 'How many more do you think there are?' he asked quietly. That got Gabriel's attention as he turned to face his brother, 'more?' he echoed quietly. 'Yes, more Gabriel, if there's one floating around, there's most likely others as well.' Just as Gabriel opened his mouth to reply to that, Gideon's phone buzzed in his pocket, signalling that he had a call coming in. Fishing it out of his pocket, he glanced at the caller ID, before shooting Gabriel a worried look. 'It's Tatiana' he said and clicked the accept call button.
Gideon couldn't make much out of the call because of Tatiana's horrific sobbing. He guessed she had seen the pages, or a friend had informed her what had happened. All he could make out from the crying and the sniffing and the jumbled together words were 'Herondale', 'campus centre' and 'reading it out'. Ending the call, he looked over at Gabriel, who was waiting with baited breath. 'Do you have a name?' he asked sternly. Gideon nodded once. 'Herondale' he said 'and from what I could make out, he's in Angel's Square, reading the whole thing out loud.' With a growl, Gabriel flung his drink in the trash and the two brothers stalked out of the coffee shop and towards campus. 'I swear' Gideon heard Gabriel mutter under his breath, 'William is going to die a slow, painful, duck-related death.'
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The square in the middle of campus, commonly nicknamed 'Angel's Square' because of the giant angel statue in the middle, was usually covered in students, studying on one of the benches, seeking shelter under the tarps, walking from end to another as a short cut. But today all students were gathered towards the statue of the angel in the middle of the square. The brothers didn't even have to question why. They could hear William Herondale' voice before they could see him. The boy was probably using a megaphone to ensure as many people as possible knew every embarrassing thing about Tatiana. The boy was currently mocking Tatiana's crush on him, calling her 'crazy' and 'who would want to date her?' causing several cries of approval to come up from the crowd. Gideon then felt a wave of rage wash over him. All his sister had done was have a crush on the guy, was that so bad?
If Will's actions made Gideon mad, they made Gabriel lose it altogether. With a war cry of 'HERONDALE!' Gabriel charged straight through to the statue. Students then scattered like sheep once they saw Gabriel barging through and they all parted to reveal Will Herondale standing at the base of the statue with a small leather book (he assumed it was Tatiana's diary) in one hand and a mega-phone in the other. Will barely had enough time to turn his head when Gabriel rugby tackled him onto the ground.
Students then immediately gathered around the fighting pair, making bets and crying out for their favourite to win. Gideon tried to push his way through the mob but they were packed so tightly together that it was impossible to move. Just then however, a large CRACK then erupted through the noise. Several people winced and began to back away. Now that it was quieter Gideon could hear someone moaning in pain. Pushing his way through, he spotted Gabriel on the ground holding his arm and looked to be in a lot of pain. From the loud crack that Gideon heard, he was willing to bet that Gabriel's arm was broken. Will on the other hand looked absolutely fine. Well, Gabriel had managed to get a knocks in that would certainly leave some pretty painful bruises. Slowly the Herondale boy got back onto his feet and for a second, Gideon almost thought he was going to attack him, but at that moment, two figures burst out from the crowd and started to drag him away against his wishes.
'Let go!' Will cried, struggling against his captors, 'I mean it you two, let me go now!'
'Not likely' one of the two said. Looking up, Gideon saw that they weren't university police like he originally thought but a boy and a girl around Will's age bundled up tightly against the cold. The boy appeared to be of Asian descendent with black hair with a silver streak running through it. And the girl, the girl. She was beautiful, with dark brown hair and luminous dark hazel eyes. She had a slender figure and a scar running down one side of her face. She was quite frankly the most beautiful girl; Gideon had ever laid eyes on. And she and the other boy were currently dragging Will Herondale away from them. 'We are so sorry' the other boy apologised, looking like he wanted to be anywhere else but here. Gideon could barely take his eyes away from the girl. How could he not have noticed her before? He wanted to go up to her and ask her for her name, but another moan of pain from Gabriel brought him back to his senses, and helping his brother to his feet, he then lead him in the direction of the hospital, his arm looking well and truly broken.
