AN: I know it's been a while. But I am updating now, and I will update more frequently. Anyways you know the drill.

A few hours ago

"Magnus, what are you doing?" Jem had only been alone with Magnus for a few seconds, but Magnus was staring at him intently. Jem was only wearing pants because Tessa hadn't wanted to change in front of him which he didn't mind because he was sweating now and a lot.

"What do you think of Tessa?"

Jem was surprised by this. The girl had only left a few seconds ago, and it was possible that she was still outside capable of hearing Magnus's rude words. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, what do you think of her? Do you find her beautiful? Annoying? Intriguing? Would you invite her to a romantic restaurant where she will kiss you at the end of the night? Or would you take her to the pigs and show her what you really think of her?"

"I could never be so rude as to take her to the pigs!"

"So then you choose the romantic dinner."

"I did not say that either."

"You did not have to. Your eyes spoke a lot more than your mouth did. Although, your mouth did also do a lot of talking. So tell my Jem what do you think of the brown haired beauty? Also Will is right, my hair is closer to black." Magnus said and he smirked at Jem, but Jem only stared at him mouth wide open.

"How could you have possibly heard that?"

"Oh I went inside of your head and just happened to glance at a few memories here and there." Jem could now see his glow more clearly and he felt as if his body were on fire, but the fire wasn't burning him. Magnus must have noticed it too because he automatically said, "Oh calm down. The only reason I went in your head was to make sure that you weren't planning on revealing our secrets. I needed to make sure that you were a sincere person at heart. And I found my answer. You're far more sincere and trusting for a knight who works alongside the prince and the king. If you want to survive, you're going to want to lose some of that."

"Would you rather I be more like the king? Not trusting anyone who even utters the word magic?" Jem now felt himself sweating far more than before.

It had not been this hot before. Jem thought to himself.

"No, the king would be an extreme. Perhaps you should be more like Will. Trusting, but on guard."

"Will is going to be a king someday. I will never have to live up to such high expectations."

"When Will is king who do you think he will choose to be right beside him throughout everything?" Magnus did not wait for an answer, "He will choose the only person in this kingdom that he trusts more than anything else in this entire world."

"Perhaps, but only if I live long enough." Jem said looking downwards at his feet and he saw the glow calm.

"Oh please do not be so arrogant. I was obviously speaking of myself." Magnus said and he saw him taking steps toward Jem.

Jem chuckled and he looked up at Magnus who was now only a few inches away from him. For some reason, Jem wanted to look away from his intense eyes, so he payed attention to the potion he was holding. "What's that meant to do?"

"It's meant to put out fires."

"It won't be very useful. It's a very tiny bottle."

"One drop of this and an entire forest will cease to burn." Magnus said holding the potion up.

"Will it heal the burn marks?"

"No, it does not heal. It only makes the fire die down until it is no longer there."

"And what if I burn someone? Do you have anything to heal them?"

"Of course I do." Now Magnus gently touched Jem's shoulder and Jem felt something go through him that made him shiver. Probably magic. He thought to himself.

"Magical and non- magical of course." Magnus said letting go of his arm abruptly.

"So how do I get rid of this magic without setting anything on fire?"

"You don't. The magic will find a way to leave your body one way or another. You can't really control the magic inside of you because it's not really yours. Think of it as a parasite that has temporarily trapped itself in your body. Except that the magic doesn't want to be trapped in your body, it wants to be released, and it will most definitely find a way out." Magnus said walking over to his cabinet of potions and he found a purplish liquid and began to mix it with the other potion that he had been holding.

"Wait, so then what is the point of keeping me here?"

"Jem, your body is burning up right now because it knows that there is something in you that it needs to get rid of. That's why you're sweating so badly. Of course, once it realizes that sweating won't work, it'll find more creative ways of releasing fluids from your body. It will keep on doing this until it goes to more extremes like making you throw up blood. Hopefully, the magic will have burned it's way out of your system by then, but I need to make sure that you don't die or set the kingdom on fire in the process."

"I can't control the magic, but I can still set things on fire?"

"Think of it like this: whenever you feel overwhelmed by an emotion the parasite will also feel that emotion and it'll react to it the only way it knows how: Fire. Lots of it. The safest thing to do is to keep you away from civilization until the magic has simply left your body the good old boring way."

Jem ignored Magnus' last statement, "Is that why you're giving me the potion? So that if I do get overly emotional, the potion will automatically stop the fire."

"Oh no. The potion is a safety precaution."

"I haven't even burned anything yet." Jem said.

"The table you're leaning on seems to be on the verge of starting a fire.

"What?!" Jem turned around and found that the table had begun a small fire where he had been leaning. "Magnus, why didn't you say anything?"

"It didn't seem as if it was bothering you and the fire hadn't even started yet. I wanted to see how long it would've taken you to realize you were burning the table at all. Funny, when I touched you, it felt very hot, feverish even, but my skin did not begin to burn." Magnus stared at Jem again trying to figure out some puzzle about him, but Jem was too occupied with the fire to really notice.

"Magnus, we need that potion! Now!"

"Calm down this potion is only a safety precaution. The fire is not even close to being dangerous."

"Well we need to put the fire out somehow!" Jem said and he panicked as the magical fire seemed to only increase.

Jem looked at Magnus pleadingly, but Magnus only rolled his eyes and walked towards the fire in the desk that began to increase exponentially. Magnus sighed from annoyance and picked up a towel and simply laid it over the fire causing it to die down completely.

"There. The fire is gone. Will you please stop your whining?"

"I thought that a fire caused by magic would need- I don't know- some sort of magical way to extinguish it."

"A fire is a fire. Please Jem next time you start one do not gawk at it with fear hoping the eight- hundred year old warlock will come to your rescue."

"You're eight-hundred years old?" Jem said and was now gawking at Magnus.

"Oh nevermind. Lie down on the bed. And try your very hardest to not burn anything while you're at it."

Present

"My king! I am so sorry. I did not mean to. I swear on the angel that I did not mean to. I sear on-

"It is alright my girl. It was only an accident." The king responded ending Tessa's blubbering. He took off the jacket that Tessa had spilled wine on and handed it to her, "See? It only got my coat. There is no need to worry."

"I will clean it right away my king. I will not sleep until the stain is not visible on your coat." Tessa was feeling a fear that she rarely felt. It wasn't fear for a loved one but for herself. Tessa was actually worried that the king was going to harm her- right here- in front of everyone. Of course, if the king didn't harm her, then the blonde knight- Frederick- would beat him to it.

"My dear there is no need to worry about such ridiculous things. How about you go and rest. There are other servants here tonight who will manage perfectly fine." King Herondale said taking the coat back. Tessa was surprised by his kindness, but she immediately nodded then remembered what Jasmine had said.

"Princess Jasmine wishes for me to accompany her to her bedroom in order to help her get ready for her rest." Tessa said and the king gave Jasmine a look that Tessa couldn't decipher. It was intense and filled with power and control. If King Herondale would have given Tessa that look, she might have literally, physically shrinked.

Princess Jasmine looked at Tessa apologetically before saying, "It is fine servant, I will manage on my own."

"Of course not before you and I dance my princess." King Herondale said, and he didn't have to look at her the way that he had before because Princess Jasmine nodded and allowed herself to be led away by the king.

Tessa resisted the urge to rip the king's arm from Jasmine's waist and instead turned to look at the prince and the knight who were standing before her. She slightly curtseyed before saying, "Thank you gentlemen. I shall excuse myself." she turned to walk away and she automatically froze when she felt rough hands grab her arm.

"Excuse me miss, but I do not think that you should be walking the night alone. I will join you." It was the knight- Frederick.

"Oh please Frederick. If you leave, then who will take care of finishing the bottles of wine? I can walk the servant back as I do owe her from my discretion from before." Prince William said and held out his arm for Tessa to hold.

"I assure you my prince that I have barely had any wine to drink. You do not need to worry. I will keep the girl safe." Frederick now turned to look at Tessa, and she hated that his eyes looked sincere. It only made her shiver.

Will looked at Tessa's stiff posture and at her arm that was still being held by Frederick, "Oh but I do worry. Come servant I do not offer my arm to just anyone, you know?" His words were cruel, but he smiled at her the same way he had when he saw her in his room. Tessa immediately pulled her arm away from the knight's grasp and held onto Will's arm and they both walked away from the feast.

Tessa was thankful that Will was there because she wouldn't have really known how to get back to her room. Tessa was planning on going through the kitchen which would have led her to the dining hall and from there she would go to the hallway where all the lords, nobles, and lesser royals rested, and she remembered that there was a staircase at the end of that hallway that took her to where the horse stables were, and she remembered how to get to her room from the horse stables. It would have taken her perhaps half an hour- if she didn't get lost along the way. Will had gotten her outside in less than five minutes, and she could already see the horse stables which meant that she would be in her room in only a few more minutes.

Tessa stopped walking for a moment and looked up at Will who looked confused that she had stopped walking. There walk had been silent, even though she knew that there were many words that needed to be said. She told herself to say what she needed to say. She had to apologize for the way that she had treated Will, and she had to do it now before her pride or fear took over.

"Prince William you should know-" Tessa stopped herself realizing that Will at the exact same time had said, "Tessa I am sorry for-

"My apologies Tessa, please go ahead." Now Tessa didn't want to say anything until she knew what he had been thinking, but she had to apologize.

"Will- I mean Prince William- I am sorry for yelling at you before. It was wrong of me. I was upset but not at you, exactly. I saw something horrible, and it left me feeling horrible, and I shouldn't have accused you of being selfish or whatever I had accused you of. I had no right, and it will never happen again. I understand if you do not wish to forgive me, but I do ask that you do not believe a single word that escaped my mouth. I assure you that I am not- regularly- so uneducated to be so rude to you."

"Tessa- you don't- I never thought that you were uned- there is no need for an- ahh damn it." Will looked at Tessa's pleading eyes for a moment, "I believe you." he finally said.

Tessa smiled a beautiful smile, but Will did not truly deserve it. Tessa hadn't been the only one that had said gruesome words.

"Tessa, I am also guilty of speaking horrendous words to you when you did not deserve it. I allowed my pride to control me, and I acted in a arrogant, snobbish manner. I also had no right, but you were distressed, I was simply rude and the words that I said to you were utterly wrong. I shouldn't have threatened you Tessa. I do not care how many times you yell at me, but I shouldn't have yelled at you the way I did. Is there anyway that you could ever forgive me?"

"Of course Will- I mean Prince William." he laughed at her and felt a strange surge of deja vu. Jem had done almost the exact same thing.

"Tessa, please, call me Will. If you call me prince, my ego will only grow. Plus when you say "William", you make me feel like an old man who yells at little children for laughing."

"How could you ever feel like that? I am sure that in that scenario you're the little boy running around laughing at the idiot servant girl for dropping a glass of water." Tessa said and Will chuckled.

"Yes and Magnus can be the old man yelling at all of us. Also the servant girl wouldn't be an idiot. Actually, she would be quite intelligent and make sure that the clueless little boy was put in his place."

"Yes and the little boy will keep the girl from priding herself so highly."

"I do not even think that I am capable of such an impossible task." Will said and he wished that this would have been how their first interaction would have been like.

Tessa laughed and playfully smacked Will then she took back her arm really suddenly. Will saw the instant regret and the second apology ready to come out of her mouth, but he stopped her before the moment could ruined, "And there it is," Will said as if he spoke to an audience of people, "Tessa- the intelligent, prideful, servant girl, putting the clueless prince back in his place." Tessa smiled embarrassed, but Will was glad that she no longer looked as if she wanted to take back their entire conversation.

"We should keep walking. Sophie is probably waiting for me to come back, and knowing her, she'll come marching into the court demanding my exact location." Will nodded and began walking at a slow pace.

"Yes, Sophie is very good at getting royals to talk." Will said smirking.

"Sophie knows more gossip about the lives of the nobles and the royals than they do about themselves."

"Sophie does have a certain charm when it comes to gaining the trust of the occupants of the kingdom. Jem is the same way. He always knows exactly what to say to get people to trust him. I, on the other hand, seem to know exactly what to say to get people to lose whatever trust they had in me."

"Will that isn't true. Jem isn't the only one capable to getting people to trust him." Will stopped walking this time, and he turned to look at Tessa and she looked at him smiling another beautiful smile. It reminded him of the one she had given Jem when they had been with Magnus.

"Magnus!" Will suddenly yelled out loud and Tessa's eyes widened.

"I guess Magnus also has that quality but why you are saying his name so loudly is a bit weird-

"No. Sorry, I meant that Jem is still with Magnus, and I promised him that I would have checked on him because he told me that he felt sick."

Tessa's eyes widened even more than they had before, "Right, of course you did, but are you sure that he is feeling well now. His headache seemed to be pretty bad at the time. It's possible that Magnus gave him something to sleep so that the pain wouldn't affect him so much."

"You could be right, but I have to go just to make- wait. How did you know that he had a headache? You had already left by the time I returned."

"How did I know?" Tessa said and it sounded as if she was talking to herself rather than Will, "How could I possibly know that Jem had a headache? See, you are correct that I- Tessa Gray- was not in the room at the time that Jem announced his headache. Nope I was not in the room. I also was not listening from outside because that would not make any sense. I most definitely could not have been hiding in the closet because that also would not make any sense. However- however? However! However, Sophie had been in the room at the time, and she told me all about what had occured. Yes, Sophie the woman who knows everything told me because- because we're friends and we tell eachother all different kinds of things. I did not simply assume that Jem had a headache. That would have been quite ridiculous of me. No, not ridiculous, completely idiotic." Tessa said and it seemed that the last few sentences were mostly for herself than for Will. Although Will knew that she was lying or at least she took way too long to figure out her story, he found her to be more amusing than untrustworthy.

"Either way," Will said trying to hide the smile on his face, "I should still go check on him. I'll take you to your room first so that poor Sophie does not cause a stampede looking for you." Will joked, but Tessa's eyes were still filled with panic.

"How about I join you? Sophie could very possibly still be with Thomas, and I do not wish to be alone." Tessa said and she hid her eyes from Will which he did not enjoy considering how enticing they were.

"How could I possibly refuse to spend more time with someone as intelligent as you Tessa?"

"Perhaps the boy is more clueless than we think because he continues to call me intelligent. Even though in the span of a few hours, I have broken a glass of water in front of the prince, cut myself with those same glass shards, and spilled wine on the king. Tomorrow, I will have accidentally shaved off my hair and poisoned the horses."

"Do not give the girl any ideas. Something tells me that she is capable of more than meets the eye."

"Oh Will, you have absolutely no idea." Tessa said and smiled at him once more before they began walking towards Magnus.

"Will, perhaps you should let me go in first. It is possible that Magnus is indecent or sleeping. I'll go in and make sure that we can even go in." Tessa said hoping that Will would listen to her ridiculous excuse.

"The light is on. He is most likely awake." Will said ignoring Tessa's words completely and began to open the door.

Magnus was holding Jem's head and pouring a liquid down his throat. Jem was covered in blankets and he was shivering visibly. Will only paused for a moment before he went running to Jem's side.

"What happened to him?"

"He has a fever. He'll be alright as long as he continue to drink liquids and lot of them." Magnus said and set down the glass of liquid he had been giving him onto the table.

Tessa went to Jem's side and put her hand to his forehead and flinched at how hot it was. "Magnus is this- normal?" Tessa said not wanting to ask her full question: Is it normal that Jem is burning up this badly because of the magic in his system? Or should I be worried?

Magnus seem to understand her because he answered, "For his current condition, a fever is completely normal. You two should probably leave and come back tomorrow. We definitely don't need anyone else catching the fever." Magnus said and he motioned with his eyes to Will who was only looking at Jem's state in absolutely horror.

"Will, Magnus is right. We'll come back tomorrow." Tessa walked over to Will and she wanted to touch his shoulder, but she wasn't sure if he would appreciate the gesture so her hand awkwardly hovered above his shoulder. Magnus noticed this and snorted, but Will didn't even seem to have heard a word that any one of them had been saying because he stayed there staring at Jem frozen.

Tessa tried again, and she leaned closer to him whispering in his ear still not touching him, "Will, he'll be fine. Magnus knows what he is doing, but he needs to be able to work, and we'll just get in his way." Now Tessa did put her hand on his shoulder, but she didn't even notice that she did it until Will abruptly turned and flinched away from her touch. Tessa immediately dropped her hand feeling embarrassed that she even thought of doing such a thing to a prince. As if she could bring comfort to the Prince of Alicante.

Will's expression was unreadable, but he didn't ignore her this time, "Till tomorrow then." he said and walked away. Tessa smiled weakly at Magnus and sneaked one more glance at Jem before turning to follow Will.

Will has only ever seen Jem that sick when they were younger, and Jem had problems with his heart. Jem took medicine for that now, so it was not as serious as it used to be, but Will was always cautious. Always making sure that Jem was not straining himself or forcing himself to go on further than what he had to when they practiced combat. He hadn't been surprised that Tessa was the one to take him out of his negative thinking. He had been surprised that she had actually followed him even after he had rudely left. She was still trailing behind him even though he was trying to get rid of her. He had already been rude to her in the morning, and he didn't want to make that mistake again right now. With the way he was feeling, he could probably cause conflicts between kingdoms with only a few words.

"Tessa please just go back to your room." Will said hoping she would simply listen.

"I can't. I don't know how to get there." That made Will stop and look at her.

She didn't look as if she was lying or just making excuses like she had been those other times. She actually didn't know how to get from place to place in the castle. Will sighed and walked over to her until they were standing face to face. She was almost as tall as him, but she still had to slightly incline her head to look at him.

"Will, I understand that you're upset, but I would be very grateful if you would take me to my room."

"How long have you been in the castle?"

"About a month."

"And you still don't know your way around?"

"I spend most of my time in the horse stables and also this is a very big castle. I can't simply go exploring. Charlotte keeps us in a very tight leash."

"Fine, but pay attention to where we are going because you will not always have someone to be your guide."

"I will." Tessa said defensively, and Will turned away from her and began walking in a different direction than before. Tessa sighed knowing that whatever friendship she thought had been building between them was for sure never going to happen.

"Hurry up. I do not wish to wait on you." Will called out but kept walking.

Definitely never going to happen. Tessa thought before saying, "I am going!" and began to run towards him.

They walked in complete silence. Tessa hated it. She wasn't going to be the one to break it this time, though. She had no reason to apologize to Will this time, and she was sure that he would not apologize for his behavior, so she distracted herself with remembering the hallways and staircases that they had taken to get to her room. They had already passed the horse stables and were already, practically there.

She thought about telling him that she was fine from here. That he didn't need to keep walking her, but she didn't want to be the first one to break the silence. She, decidedly, kept her mouth shut and focused on the darkness ahead of her. She could still see the doors to the rooms, but they were very dimly lit. She didn't even see her room until they were a few feet from it, and she stopped abruptly at her sight.

The door was open. Completely open. Sophie would never leave the door open if she had gone inside. None of the other servants had a key to her room. Unless someone didn't use a key. Now, she tensed not sure what to think. Who would want to go into a servant's room? What did she have that someone else might ever possibly want? Not even Nate would do this plus it was too late and he would be sleeping.

"What's wrong? Is that your room?"

"Tessa nodded unable to form words. Will looked at Tessa, but Tessa was waiting for someone to leave her room and give her some answer as to why the door was open right now.

"Stay behind me. I'll go in first." Tessa listened noticing that Will's hand was now at his sword.

They walked slowly to the room and Will was slowly pulling out his sword his it's sheath. When we walked in, there was a dark figure in the corner. Tessa couldn't really make out the shape until she realized that it was two figures. One was laying down- not moving- and the other was crouching over them crying. Tessa quickly grabbed a lantern and lit it using the candles that were outside. Instantly Tessa recognized both figures in her room. One was Sophie: she was the one crying over the other figure. She was covered in blood, and her clothes was ripped and she looked slightly injured from her shoulder, but she didn't seem to care about that or that someone else was now in the room with her. She stayed with her hands holding the body of the man who Sophie loved more than anyone. The body of a man who had only been kind to Tessa since the moment she met him. Who Tessa never saw utter a negative word about anyone. The man who did not deserve to die this way. It was Sophie's fiance. Thomas.

AN: Please leave me comments: NEGATIVE or POSITIVE. Both will really help. Like I said before, I will update more frequently. Thank you for reading 3