Wow, so are you guys ready to kill me yet? I know, I know, I haven't updated in a loooooong time. But hold your fire! I finally have gotten around to chapter 4. How you will enjoy it!

Will's POV

"What are you going to do, William?" Cecily said quietly to me as I wiped soot off her face with a wet cloth.

"What do you think I'm going to do, Cecy?"

She let out a groan. "William, he'll kill you!"

"No. No, he won't. He knows that I am a viable pawn and will continue to use me in any way he can."

"Not if he can't find you." Cecily grasped my arms. "Look at me, Will." I avoided her gaze and continued to cleanse her. "William, look at me." I stopped what I was doing and looked into her eyes. "We are safe here, Will. This cottage-you said he doesn't know its location?" I shook my head. "Exactly. He will not be able to use you again if he can't get his hands on you."

"There is more than my thirst for revenge at hand, Cecily."

"What do you mean?" she said, raising an eyebrow.

I stood and went to the wash basin. Few candles were lit in the kitchen. I was not sure how long the cottage had been abandoned, but I did not want to draw attention to it in any case.

"I destroyed a young woman's life in order to save yours. I gained her trust, however temporarily, and lost it when I handed her over to Axel." I ran a hand down my face. "If any harm comes to her it is my responsibility, my fault. I would be unable to live with myself knowing that, even if it meant that you were safe."

I heard the bed creak and turned to see Cecily lying down on it, watching me steadily. "You aren't very familiar with this woman- why do you care so much for her? You cannot tell me that it is only guilt, brother."

I looked away. Could I really be surprised that she knew me so well? She was my sister, after all.

"I've seen something in her that I've never seen in any woman before, Cecily."

There was a long pause, and I turned to look at her. She had fallen asleep, head lightly propped up against the pillow, her black hair cascading down her shoulders in dark waves. She was so beautiful. It was unlikely that she was even aware of that.

Or perhaps she was. Occasionally she tended to be narcissistic.

I gripped the counter. My brain was battling my heart, the first saying to stay and protect Cecily, the second telling me to go the hell after Tessa.

A straightened up and turned around. I'd never really been the kind of man who listened to his brain.

Tessa's POV

"Wake up."

My eyes shot open, but I didn't move.

"I said wake up you bloody bitch!" It was definitely Marcus. My instincts were telling me to roll over and look at him, but I knew I couldn't.

"Bloody hell…," he muttered, and I heard him fiddling with a key ring. He was coming in. "Why's the master got to order me to feed the scum in the middle of the bloody night…"

The metal door scraped against the ground as he opened it and entered my cell.

I heard a rattling sound as he placed my dish on the floor. "You've got food, here, you-"

He never finished his statement.

I shot straight up, knocking the back of my head into his face. I heard a cracking sound as I made contact with him, and he shouted, but I didn't turn around to see if he was bleeding. I needed to get out.

I ran out of the entrance of the cell, swinging the cell door shut behind me.

I would have loved to pause for a moment and savor my victory, but there was no time for that. I did have to pause, however, because there were three dark halls ahead of me, leading in separate directions.

And I had no idea which one would lead me to an exit.

I risked the center hall, but heard voices echoing down the stone walls and the scuffling of boots on the ground. "Not that way," I muttered, and turned around, heading for the hall to my left.

There was no light anywhere. No lanterns on the wall or even torches, which would look quite appropriate for a setting such as the one I was held captive in. "What kind of foundation has a cellar as complicated as this?" I wondered aloud, then decided to keep my mouth shut in case there was anyone nearby.

I'd been walking for at least three minutes when I heard shouts down the hall. "The bloody bitch broke my damn nose!" That was Marcus.

"What direction did she go in?" That sounded like Axel.

"I'm not sure, sir, my face is swollen so I-"

"Do I look like I give a damn that your face is swollen?!" Axel screamed. "Your pay was relying on her, you fool. And perhaps your life."

I almost felt guilty. I didn't want any blood on my hands, even someone's as cruel as Marcus's.

But I couldn't think about that now. I began to run.

The hall went on and on. I could have been missing doorways, entrances to other hallways, but I couldn't see, couldn't-

I collided with another figure and shrieked, but a hand cut off my sound of exclamation. Not a dirty hand, however, like most of Axel's men…

"Miss Gray?"

It couldn't be. "William?" I inwardly scolded myself- he had used formality, why had I not?

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry-"

I shoved him away. I couldn't see him in the dark, though I could feel how close his body was to mine. "Sorry? Sorry for tricking me into trusting you simply so that you could get your pay? Perhaps get out of a debt of some sort? Spare me. I don't want your apology, and I don't want your help."

And that wasn't a lie. I didn't want his help. But…I needed it.

"I returned to rescue you, and I intend to no matter you're input."

I jutted out my chin, though it was a useless action given the darkness. "How do I know that I can trust you?"

"You don't. I suppose you'll just have to take the risk."

And with that, he grabbed my arm and dragged me down the hall.

"How do you even know where you're going?!" I exclaimed. Will was turning corners and guiding me up stairs with no light available at all. "If it weren't for your hand, I wouldn't even know where you were!"

I heard a light chuckle escape him, though it was quickly lost to his panting as we raced through the darkness. "Perhaps I'll tell you sometime."

"Of course you will," I told him hotly. "You owe me anything I ask. You did serve as an ally in my kidnapping."

I once again heard a brisk laugh. "Now there's the superior woman I was expecting the first time we met."

He stopped, and I collided with his back. "Where-"

"Hush," he whispered. I did as I was told as he listened for footsteps. "They won't find us if we move quickly, but if we stay here much longer we'd be no better than captured."

I smelled something awful, my senses more open now that we were no longer running. "What is that smell?" I whispered to Will.

In answer, he opened a door and led me into a cold room with dirty windows. "This is the servants' kitchen," he explained. "And directly outside is the pig pen and stables."

"What an awful place to have a kitchen!" I said, placing my hand on a nearby table and instantly regretting it; it was covered in dirt. "Though you'd think this being the servants' kitchen it'd be cleaner."

"Sadly, Axel doesn't often give them the chance to clean anything that wouldn't service him."

I stared out the window in a moment of silence. The moon shined brightly in the sky, causing white light to pour through the windows. It was beautiful really. The moon could make even the darkest places less solemn.

"So I've noticed that we aren't on ground level," I said, turning towards Will. He was staring at me with an odd look in his eyes, but quickly recovered and straightened his jacket when I spoke to him.

"You're quite the observer, aren't you, Miss Gray." He walked over to an opening a few feet away from me. "No doors up here but this one."

I joined him and looked at the opening. "But it's not a door at all."

"I know." And with a movement so swift I could not have avoided it, he picked me up and shoved me feet first into the hole.

I squealed all the way down as I slid through what smelled like rotting food and human waste. I was covered in it by the time I reached the bottom, where I splashed into a whole slew of it. I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs, but I knew that that would draw attention to our location, and no matter how disgusting my current situation was, I couldn't risk that.

I had almost gotten over what happened when Will came sliding out the shoot only to land right on top of me, squishing me down into the waste. He looked down at me. "Might I say that you've never looked lovelier?"

"You threw me down a garbage shoot!"

"Of course I did. I doubt that you would have gone willingly."

I wanted to hit him, and I did, right in his shoulder. He chuckled and rolled off of me. "Come along. We best steal a horse before they find us."

"Steal a horse?" I whispered loudly. "Why, how on earth did you get here in the first place?"

"Ran half the way," Will said as he stood up, then offered me a hand. "Hitched a ride on the back of a carriage the rest."

"Oh," I said, accepting his hand. "Well, I suppose I should thank you-"

Angry shouting was heard from inside the mansion, not far from us. "Save your thanks for later. We've got to get out of here."

Will led me to the horses' stables, where he saddled up the strongest horse there. "Hello, Balios," he said, patting the horse's snout. The horse nudged him affectionately.

"You- you know the horse?" I asked, quite surprised.

"Of course I know the horse," he said, mounting Balios's back. "He's mine." He reached out a hand for me, and despite all the questions I wanted to ask him, I took it and hopped up behind him.

He squeezed the horse with his legs, and we stormed out of the stable. But we headed not towards the stone road, but towards the dark forest that I was not familiar with in the least.

"Why are we going this way?" I shouted over the sound of the horse's galloping. "It'd be faster to return me home if-"

"You're not going home," Will shouted back. "That is a guaranteed location. He'll find you again. You must hide, somewhere you are sadly not familiar with."

"But-"

"Tessa! Please trust me. I owe you, remember? This is my attempt at saving your life. Don't make it more difficult for me."

After that I was silent, and I clung to him as we rode into the deep forest.

Will's POV

It had worked. I couldn't believe it had worked. We escaped.

Tessa clung tightly to my waist as we rode, and I couldn't say that I was displeased.

"You smell, you know," she muttered into my shoulder.

"You don't exactly smell like a bouquet of roses, either," I replied.

"What did we even slide through? Don't answer that. I don't want to know."

"Rotten eggs, sour meat, human waste-"

"I said I didn't want to know!"

I smiled to myself. We'd been riding for some time, and the path became overgrown and bumpy. I pulled on Balios's reins to stop him. "We have to walk from here," I told Tessa. "Balios can maneuver himself around the overgrowth, but not easily with us on his back. Not if we want him to-"

Tessa was already sliding down. "Mr. Herondale," she began, using formality, I knew, only to create a dramatic effect. "I have been tricked, kidnapped, locked into a cold, dirty cell, and shoved down a garbage shoot, all in the past 24 hours. I think I can handle walking for a little while." And with that, she turned and flounced off down the path.

I jumped off of Balios, but kept hold of his reins to guide him. "She's a piece of work, isn't she?" I said to the horse.

Tessa was indeed doing quite well hopping over logs and shifting around stray branches. Balios decided that he found something interesting to eat and stopped to investigate it. I let him be for a moment and took a few quick steps to catch up to Tessa. I steadied her with a hand on the small of her back when she wobbled while trying to step across a ladder of twigs.

"I don't need your help, thank you very much!" She continued and stepped up onto a particularly slimy log. The slime did itself justice and caused her to slip, which produced a squeal from Tessa as her back neared the ground.

I caught her before she landed flat on her back. "You should be a little more careful, Miss Gray," I told her, holding her gaze. "Don't think yourself so familiar with these woods."

I straightened and she rose with me. "I, on the other hand," I continued, lifting her over the log and doing so myself, "Know these woods quite well." I stepped ahead of her. "So perhaps you should follow me at this point-"

I took a single step forward and felt something close around my ankle. Something slithered across the ground, enveloping Tessa and I into a net that dragged us up into the air. Before I knew it we were both hanging upside down, bodies pressed together and faces only an inch apart.

"Oh yes," Tessa said casually. "I'm so glad you're familiar with these woods. Much more than I am."

I opened my mouth to deliver a witty comeback, but found that I had none, and snapped it shut. We swung back and forth for a few minutes in silence before Tessa spoke.

"So how are we going to escape from this contraption, Captain Clever?"

"Well," I said, attempting a shrug, although it didn't work very well thanks to my shoulders pointing south. "I suppose we should just hang around here for a while."

Although the net did confine us, it did not prevent Tessa from punching me in a very sensitive place.

And there it is. Next chapter will be up as soon as I can get to it. Sorry for the long wait! Reviews please?