Disclaimer: Cassandra Clare owns everything.

Tessa's POV

Cecily was standing in the room, her chin held high, her gaze much too intelligent for a fifteen year old girl. She had Will's blue eyes, if only lightened a little more.

Will stood up so abruptly that the chair he had been sitting on tipped over and clattered to the floor. Nobody seemed to notice. We were all staring, wide-eyed, at the girl who just walked in.
"By the angels...Ceci? Is it really you?" Will breathed.

Cecily smiled a breath-taking smile – but it did not reach her eyes.

"Brother, have I really changed that much?"

Will laughed a disbelieving laugh, and walked over to embrace her tightly. Jem and I looked at each other and smiled, as Charlotte went back to her seat.

"I'm glad that they're united again," Jem said softly.

"Me, too. He has one more person in his life that he cares about now. He missed Cecily a lot, didn't he?" I grinned, looking at the siblings, who were talking now.

"He really did," Jem nodded.

I glanced over at Will and Cecily – Will was reaching over the table to butter some bread for her still talking, but she was staring straight at me. I blinked in surprise and offered her a sweet smile.

Her head suddenly jerked – as if shocked, a motion much too unnatural for a human – and she didn't smile back. There was something in her eyes that bothered me – the light blue a little too empty for a child's.

I crinkled my eyebrows and looked away as Will sat back down, offering her the bread.

Jem looked at me, his face worried.
"Are you alright, Tessa?" he placed his hand on top of mine and searched my eyes, looking from me back to Cecily.

I smiled and nodded. "I'm fine. Just feeling a bit light-headed, is all. I think I'm going to go back to my room now. You stay here and finish dinner, alright?"

"Are you sure? I could accompany you -"

I shook my head. "I'll be alright, Jem. Really. Finish eating."

He nodded. "Feel better."

I stood up, and Will cocked a head to me, eyebrows crinkled, and I just waved him off. He continued talking to Cecily, who didn't even glance my way.

I waved to Charlotte and Henry, and told Sophie that I was going back to my room. She nodded and told me she would be there in twenty minutes to help me change into my nightgown.

I walked down the dark Institute corridors, thinking.

Thinking about Will and Jem.

Will, with his wavy black hair and dark, piercing blue eyes, pronounced jaw line, straight nose, and full lips.

Jem, with his glowing silver hair and eyes, soft face, and gentle smile.

The thought of both of them made my heart clench and flutter, and I bit my lip. I reached up and took the necklace Jem gave me out, and stared at it.

The thought of marrying Jem made me so extremely happy, yet so extremely distressed at the same time. Did I really want to marry Jem, knowing that in a few years, my heart would be broken?

And not to mention all of those moments with Will...all of those moments where we kissed, and touched, and embraced...did those mean nothing at all to me?

Of course they didn't. They meant everything to me.

But so did Jem.

I shook my head.

"Make up your mind, Tessa! You can't have both of them. It's either one or the other, and one already proposed to you, and you've said yes," I scolded myself, walking again.

I paused at my door, hand on the doorknob, looking back at the dining room.

"But something tells me that I'll never forget the other one – there's something about those midnight blue eyes that just pierce the soul," I whispered.

I slipped into my bedchamber, and took Jem's jade necklace off. I stared at it, the stone warm from my chest. I thought of Will's hurt face when I told him that I was engaged to Jem.

How he staggered back and collapsed into the chair, his face in his hands.

But most of all, I remember how he professed his love to me, the fire making his blue eyes burn with passion, his cheeks rosy, his lips saying that he's loved me from the very beginning.

I stared at my hand, which was still bandaged up. Nobody but Sophie knew about my burn, and we had been making sure to dress me in my long-sleeved gowns to cover the evidence.

I shook my head and set the pendant down.

I just didn't know what to think about anymore.

Suddenly, my door clicked open, and I looked up.

"Sophie?" I asked.

But it wasn't Sophie who walked in – it was Cecily.

"Oh!" I exclaimed, startled. "Cecily...it's nice to meet you. I'm Tessa, by the way. Tessa Gray. Will's spoken a lot about you, we're glad that a new Shadowhunter is finally here...we were getting a bit lonely..."

I trailed off as I saw she closed the door, and was just standing in my room, no expression on her face, no words coming out from her mouth.

When she had been talking to Will, her lips had been upturned into a soft smile, and she had kept up light conversation with him. Did she despise me? Did I do something to upset her?

"Cecily? Are you alright?"

I cautiously crept closer, holding a hand out.

Her mouth opened, and her head jerked unnaturally again. A spark flew out.

I crinkled my eyebrows.

A spark?

I looked closer at her hair, and it seemed to shine unnaturally. It was a little too black – a little too perfect.

"The Magister. Has told me. Not to make light conversation. With. Tessa Gray."

Cecily's head jerked again, and more sparks shot out.

I gasped loudly, and stifled a scream.

The Magister? Sparks? What was going on?

But then I realized.

Cecily wasn't the real Cecily.

Cecily was an automaton.

So Mortmain has found out a way to make the automatons even more realistic looking than before. So realistic that she fooled everyone – Charlotte, Jem, Henry – even Will, who had known Cecily since she was born.

The thought frightened me, and Cecily started taking jerky but swift steps towards me.

I backed up, pushed into a corner.

I shrieked, loudly.

"Do not. Scream! The Magister. Will be very. Happy once you. Are his. You will always. Be his." the automaton said.

I presume that he never figured out how to make his automatons work realistically for a long period of time, then, since its voice was robotic and gravelly now.

"No!" I screamed. "I will never be his! I don't belong to anybody! I am Tessa Gray, and the Magister does not own me!"

I was tired of hearing it, and rage shot up my spine.

The automaton did not reply, but came closer. It reached out a flesh-covered hand and took some of my hair, clenching it in-between its fingers.

"Such fine hair. The Magister. Will be pleased." it said.

It spoke in clipped sentences, its voice coming more and more unnatural by the second.

Then, it yanked down on my hair, hard, and brought me to the ground. It slammed a hard, metal elbow down on the back of my head, and black dots swam around in the corners of my eyes.

I screamed again.

"Will! Jem!" I shrieked.

The automaton ripped a piece of fabric from my bed sheet, and gagged me.

"You are. You are. You are -" its head jerked, and it brought a hand up to its throat. After a while, it started talking normally again. "You are only making this more difficult on yourself."

It pulled out a knife, and knelt down beside me.

I whimpered, trying to get out from under the automaton's grip. I wriggled and squirmed, but it was no use. I couldn't get free. It was pinning me to the ground with only one hand, and it felt like I had a ton of bricks on my chest.

"The Magister wants you back alive. But he never said. He never said unharmed." the automaton stated.

It brought the knife down on my arm and carved out a design.

I was screaming through my gag, tears pouring down my cheeks now. I could hear shouts and pounding footsteps out in the hallway now. I kicked out with my legs, and it collided with the wall, making a loud bang, letting them know where I was.

"Tessa!" I heard Will shout.

The automaton looked back at the door, and quickly and jerkily walked over to it, releasing me. It pulled Cecily's long black hair off with a horrid, scratching noise, and used it as a rope to connect the doorknob to a part of my mirror so that the knob could not turn. Then it dragged the dresser over and blocked the door.

I used this time to undo the gag, and I took greedy mouthfuls of air, my corset making it hard to breathe.

"Will! Help -"

I was cut off with the automaton coming in and jerking the knife down. I rolled over onto my side, trying to avoid the knife, which would have ended up in my stomach. I looked over at my left wrist – and saw that it had carved TM into it with the knife.

The Magister.

I tried to wipe it away, but all I did was smear the blood and make the cuts sting even more. The back of my head was throbbing now, and I could feel warm, sticky blood sliding down through my hair from when the blasted thing elbowed me.

I heard Will, Jem and Charlotte shouting outside, pushing on the door. I could see the hinges coming loose, the dresser moving inch by inch.

I looked around, looking for something to defend myself with. All of those lessons with Gabriel didn't go to waste, thankfully. I grabbed one of my books, which was laying on my desk, and flung it as hard as I could at the automaton's head. But it didn't even jerk. It just steadily walked closer to me, bloody knife in hand.

My heart was beating so fast I could hear it in my ears, and I was sweating in my heavy skirts. My long, thick brown hair tumbled down to the small of my back in tangled waves, and I pushed it out of my face impatiently, trying to remember what Gabriel had taught me about automatons as my head spun.

Aim for the creases in the metal.

So I grabbed a pencil and charged towards it, and plunged it into the side of its neck.

Still, it did nothing.

I cursed myself and vowed to keep a knife in one of my drawers from now on.

It grabbed me and pushed me back against the wall, holding me there by my hair. As it was pulling, the wound on my head got larger.

I sobbed in pain.

The bald head with large, light blue eyes started at me now, completely expressionless. I knew that it was going to have a starring role in my nightmares soon, and I closed my eyes.

Let it take me.

Let it take me to the Magister.

Maybe I would slip into unconsciousness and escape this pain.

Will, Jem, Charlotte and Henry would be safer without me around the institute, anyway. I slumped in defeat, my body sagging.

I felt the knife go to my arm again, the cold metal piercing my skin.

It carved out more letters, and I couldn't help but scream out in agony, even louder now. The pounding got louder and more insistent.

Finally, finally the doors burst open, and Will and Jem were the first to rush in, weapon belt around their waists.

"Tessa!" they roared together, sprinting up to the automaton. They grabbed it by its dress, and Jem pulled out a blade from his belt.

Charlotte was helping him, and Henry was fiddling with a device in his hands, standing in the doorway, his wild ginger hair sticking up everywhere.

I fell to the floor, sobbing, sticky with sweat and tears.

"Tess," Will went over to me, kneeling in front of me. "Oh, Tess..."

I looked down at my arm, and saw that the automaton had carved two more words. It now read: Property of TM.

I shouted and tried to wipe it away, but again, the blood simply smeared over into one crimson streak, and my arm burned.

"Will!" I wailed, looking up at him. His eyes were burning with fury, concern, and passion.

"Get it off me, please, get if off me!"

"Tess, it's going to be alright. We have to get you out of here, there are probably more automatons outside, and they'll be attracted to the noise of a fight. Can you stand?"

I tried to get to my feet, but I was trembling too violently to hold myself up.

Will sheathed the blade he was holding and scooped me up. I hid my face in his chest, exhausted and hurting.

He looked to Jem and Charlotte, who were at my window now, looking at the rows of automatons outside of the Institute's walls.

Jem nodded.

"Go, Will. Take her someplace safe, and stay with her. We can handle this."

"Are you alright today, Jem? Have you taken enough...?"

"I can do it, Will. Go!" Jem shouted.

But I was barely listening to them.

I had removed my head from Will's chest, and all I could do was stare at the form of the now dead automaton - its bald head, its wide, gaping light blue eyes, its ripped-up dress...suddenly, my eyes went to its arm.

Because on its arm was imprinted, Property of TM.

Just like mine.

Hi, guys! [: I really hope you liked this chapter...this will be a multi-chap, and I'm really excited to be writing this story for you all!

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Thank you so much for reading!