CHAPTER FOUR

A Song of Promise

Jem could hear very well each time Winnie's silverware hit her plate with a clink. He could hear her leg shaking beneath the table, and the sound of her boots tapping against the floor. In fact, everyone could hear it. The entire dining room was silent with the exception of her. Even Cecily was staring at her oddly. Tessa looked up inconspicuously from the stew she had not really been enjoying, but she could not bring it in her to stare at the white-blonde haired girl sitting in front of her who looked too focused on eating.

Charlotte glanced at her but it was the moment she opened her mouth to ask what was wrong that Winnie finally had enough.

"So I supposed that none of you were about to tell me that Jem was engaged?" she blurted out, staring at Charlotte in particular but despite her outlash, there was no anger in her face. She was simply hurt. She did not feel like she had been made a fool out of, but it was very unsettling to return to the place she called home only for her to have a sense of her against the Institute overwhelm her.

"With the exception of myself, of course," Will added unhelpfully. But he had been sitting right next to her on the table and was excused from her accusations since there was truth in it. Yes, it had taken a day for him to come out with it but at least he had. She faced Henry.

"Not even you, Henry!" she exclaimed. "I thought you out of everyone would have told me so."

He blinked, thrown off guard by her statement. "Me? Why me?" was his only defense.

"You tell the entire world the most miniscule fact and yet you missed the huge one that –"

"Don't blame Henry, Winnie," Jem sighed, speaking out for the first time since the dinner had started. "It is my fault. I thought we had established this already." They had spent nearly two hours in that room and although Tessa nor Will had interrupted, often she walked by to hear Winnie groaning and Jem murmuring something soft and what they guessed to be consoling.

Winnie couldn't look at him in the face so she averted her eyes to Will. "I bet Bridget knows of the engagement too!"

"Why of course she does," Will said as moved his plate and reached across the table to where the basket of bread was sitting, "she's cooking for the wedding. Not that I recommend it after this meal of soup and stone rolls." To further emphasize his points, he tore a piece of the bread with his teeth and chewed thoughtfully before nodding and concluding, once again, that it was like a rock.

Winnie ignored him – she was stuck on his earlier words. "Wedding?" she repeated and this time, she had to stare at Jem. "And when was this supposed to take place?" she asked quickly. Will wondered why the date of the wedding had not been touched upon during their conversation but he remained quiet, waiting for the answer as well.

The couple exchanged a glance. "It…we're not sure yet," Jem admitted sheepishly.

"With everything going on with Jessie and Mortmain, you don't have to have a specific date," Charlotte added with a kind smile. If she could, she would have reached out to the older of the two boys, but both looking equally troubled. "We should just think of everything as before or after our goals."

Even at Charlotte's advice, Jem and Tessa still looked unsure. Winnie's eyes moved between the two before she shook her head, making a sound that was either a groan or sigh or even a laugh before she stood up. Will stared after her and then sighed to himself before he took another bread roll and got up. "Tantrums," he muttered.

Charlotte couldn't help but smile. Will could say whatever he wanted but it did not change the fact that he had gone after her. Even Cecily had her eyes narrowed at her brother. "I don't understand what the big deal is. It wasn't as if Winifred actually loved you," she speculated, looking at Jem then turning to Charlotte for a confirmation. Jem looked down, moving the things along his plate. Henry cleared his throat and Gideon looked away awkwardly. Behind him, Sophie ducked her head.

Charlotte sighed. There was plenty to sigh about that dinner.

Tessa had to ask too. "Did she?" she repeated after Cecily, curious about the answer herself.

There was yet another audible pause.

And then Jem sighed to himself, eerily similar to the way Will had, and got up silently. "I suppose I should go talk to her. Excuse me." He gave Tessa an apologetic look, touching her hand for a moment.

And just like before, they all watched as he left the dining room and disappeared into the shadows of the corridor after Will and Winnie. Charlotte let out an exhale, feeling more at ease now that the subject of the topics weren't present. She knew that Tessa, as the bride to be, deserved a completely unbiased answer. Will would have said a casual sure she was obsessed with him while Jem would have said in that kind way of his that she was just young and passionate. But Charlotte was perceptive and would relay it much better from an outsider's perspective.

Henry beat her to it.

"Oh of course, Winnie loved Jem," he said the moment the silver-haired boy left the room. Charlotte gave him a sharp look but he simply shrugged as he leaned back. "But they were childhood friends and Jem had shown her kindness when Will and Jessamine had not."

It all sounded very reasonable to Tessa. Being a girl with only an older brother who was although kind, he was also her only company aside from her aunt, she perhaps would have fallen in love quite easily with an outsider that would show her the kindness that Jem had. In fact, she did. With Jem. And by some miracle he returned those affections…of course it all sounded very neat and novel worthy now that she had removed Will from the equation but she preferred it that way. Before she only had her books and characters as companions, and now she had Jem and the Institute.

She wondered if Winifred, moving into London, had any other friends too – whether they be from the books Tessa had sought out, or music like Jem had. She did notice that Tessa had been reading Poe…

"Now that's not fair, Henry," Charlotte reprimanded with a frown, "although it is true that Jessamine and Winnie quarrelled here and there, Will was mostly kind to her as well but she does not love him in the romantic sense."

"Sweetie, I think you have that one event scarred into your mind of that night Will had read to her to help her sleep."

Ah, that makes sense, Tessa thought, perhaps it had been Will who –

"To answer your question," Charlotte continued, looking at Tessa and then Cecily, "although it was a little more than an infatuation, it is not something to undermine. And we have all known Winnie for a long time, I know that she will bear no grudge against you." She looked at Tessa warmly, smiling. "So you have nothing to worry about."

But seeing the way Sophie could not meet her eyes, Tessa doubted it.

So Sophie and Winnie both loved him because he was kind.

And she wondered if she was any different, and what made her the one he chose to marry.

0-0

"No, no – not that!"

The sound of Will groaning startled him, only making Jem walk faster until he at last arrived up into the training room. Although he had only allowed less than a minute in between Will's departure and his –

His thought was cut short as the door slammed open and Winnie walked out in a rush, her hand over her back and he saw her sliding in her sword into its sheath.

The Zweihänder, the two-handed long sword. It was a weapon Jem knew belonged to her parents, and their parents, and their parents before that – tracing back to the medieval period where its age was carefully concealed beneath all of the beautifully smith adama. Evidence of her Morgenstern lineage was obvious on the family symbol encrusted into the hilt of the sword and the fact that it was, technically, a seraph sword with a hilt of blessed iron and with runes encrusted in silver –

Only the Morgensterns would ever be wealthy enough to afford such a weapon. A weapon to fight off demons, fair folk, lycanthropes and surely vampires as well.

He knew that any human would have trouble wielding the sword but despite the girl's frame, she was still a Shadowhunter and with strength runes marked all over her body, she easily placed it back into scabbard. She was dressed for demon hunting – clad in black, a stele lodged onto a heavy belt and he could see daggers and knives tucked in her boots. He reached out, his hand on her arm. "Wait, Winnie –"

"Will!" she called out over him, "come now!"

"You two are going out?" Jem inquired dubiously. Will looked very bothered, frowning, and also not in gear. He was armed, of course, Will was always armed but it was obvious he had no intention of going demon hunting with the girl.

"No, we're not," Will said, his eyes hard. "You're upset. You'll be careless."

"You're discrediting my ability to kill demons because I'm upset? By that logic, you would have to be a mundane, Will!"

He rolled his eyes. "Say what you will but I won't support this ridiculous endeavour."

"Why?" she asked quickly and then something flickered in her eye before she turned around sharply in her heel, and changed the topic immediately. Facing Jem, she strode up to him until they were not even an inch a part. He could see each fraction of her face – dark gold lashes framing eyes so intensely black that it melted with the pupil, fair skin and a wide mouth that was usually in a mischievous smile but was now pressed tight in earnest frustration as her eyebrows pulled together – as she rushed another demand out. "Why do you love her, Jem?"

He opened his mouth but she cut him off immediately.

"Is it because she has patient, gentle eyes – and both of them?"

Her tone was exasperate but genuine, and his expression was that of torture.

"Or is it because she isn't a Shadowhunter, a warlock?"

Will had enough. "Winnie –"

But she only held a finger up to him. "It's not because she's American, is it?"

Now, Jem was sighing.

"Or is it because she reads? A quiet girl?" she asked quickly, her eyes bright, "because in that case, by the Angel, Will might as well love her too!"

He froze.

"That's enough." Will grabbed her harshly and with a deft hand, disarmed her and dropped the stele to the ground. "You are behaving like a spoiled, irritating little brat, Winnie."

Only further exemplifying his point, she stared at him. Then she turned around quickly, stomping out anyway, leaving Will and Jem staring after her. Will's jaw was still tight, his breathing long and laboured, forcing his heart to calm down. But hearing her say those words…out loud and in front of Jem

It was the silver haired boy that sighed and rubbed his face tiredly. "She's going to get herself killed," he stated, looking at the stele on the ground.

Will's mouth twitched, but this time, he would not go get her.

"She went too far."

And Will thanked God that to Jem, her last comment had not fazed him at all along with her other accusations.

0-0

Despite Will's comments that she could look after herself - that she would not run into serious danger - Jem could not help but be worried when the clock struck three in the morning and there was still no sign of her coming.

It was in his instinct to worry about Winnie and Will the way Charlotte worried for the four of them. Without her stele, she could not activate some of her runes and he doubted that with the rush of the way she acted upon him entering the room that she had already traced them in. She was strong, yes, but she was alone.

His worry was evident in his playing. Instead of being in his room with the violin, this night, he decided to go into the music room where the sleek, grand piano sat in the corner of the room. Although his favour went towards the bowed instrument, he was equally able to play the piano. Often the two stringed instruments went in conjunction.

Pale, long fingers moved across the ivory keys as he played through harmonies with effortless ease. But seeing his fingers move, he thought about Winnie.

It was the native German girl that had brought her love of the piano here – he learned it through her. She had once told him that all Morgensterns were expected to learn an instrument, even if they were a Shadowhunter. After all, it was her fellow German and Shadowhunter composer Johann Bach that discovered that even demons were reactive to certain tones and notes if played in the right succession.

He could remember their childhood very clearly: of Will being annoyed as a ten year old Winnie took Jem and sat him down on the piano bench, teaching him all the notes when Will wanted Jem as a sparing partner. Regardless, Jem learned quickly, of course, but never as well as Winnie. Even with her little fingers, she was able to move so quickly and so elegantly and smoothly with completely assurance that Jem was nearly spellbound at the sheer amount of talent it took for the girl who could barely reach the pedal to play such a piece.

It had been early morning – and raining, the usual. But there was just a peek of white light streaming through the windows and onto the keys as Winnie, not even five foot tall at the time, sat hunched over the piano, her blonde hair falling over her shoulders, eyes narrowed and lips puckered. Jem had been standing behind her, looking over her hands and admiring them whereas Will had stood at the door, staring wide eyed.

If he recalled correctly, she had been playing Bach's second praelidium.

He sighed. Those days were so much simpler and now, seven years later, he was engaged and she was…

She was here.

He stood up quickly, spinning around in his seat but she was frowning at him. She was also completely unharmed but the black ichor on her clothing and the stench said otherwise about whatever demon she came in contact with. "You never did get those trills quite right," she said quietly as she came to sit next to him, "which for the life of me, I cannot fathom since you've played so much more difficult pieces on your violin."

Somehow, although reeking of rotting corpses and stained in black blood, her usual nearly white hair darkened with dirt and God knew what else, Jem thought that she looked elegant sitting next to him on the piano. Her hand - with the black rune still visible, dirt beneath her nails and something sticky on her silver Morgenstern ring - touched the keys but she didn't press down on them.

That one note rung, echoing around the room. Neither of them spoke. ,

"I'm sorry," she apologized quietly, "about what I said earlier. I was upset." She would not meet his eyes.

He smiled, feeling a certain warmth from her first approach at peace between the two. Although Winnie never had that problem with him particularly - Winnie gave in nearly every single time when it came to the silver haired boy - she would always wait out an argument with Will and made him apologize first. "I would apologize as well but I know we would go in circles."

She didn't say anything for a moment, but when she responded, she let out another sigh. "You understand my frustration though, don't you?"

"I do."

Seeming satisfied with that answered, she pressed down on D sharp. And then again.

And then Jem pressed the same note on the next octave.

She couldn't help but smile. And she played it again – this time in a pair of eight notes, and a single one on two octaves and just as before, Jem returned it to her in a higher pitch. Before she knew it, he had left the bench and stood behind her as he so often did in their childhood and she shifted towards the centre of the piano. With fingers outstretched, her thumb and pinky fingers moved, pressing the same notes on different octaves and descended down the piano.

Next thing she knew it, she was playing the étude by Franz Liszt that he wrote based on Paganini's violin compositions.

And Jem watched with that same pure amazement as her hands moved at an incredibly speed up and down the piano, playing with such a sharp and crisp clarity as the left hand smoothly played through the chords that accompanied the right hand as it raced back and forth between the higher octave notes the piece always went back to. And the trills. The trills that Winnie had spent much of her early teenage years groaning and slamming her hands into while crying out that my fingers are too weak!

He wondered if she was wearing any other runes now.

Shadowhunters were gifted with speed and agility and feats that would have to be trained hard for among humans – and he knew that she was talented in the piano partially due to those inherited abilities but even that could not result into the way Winnie played Liszt's third étude.

Somehow, the minutes flew by and he was completely lost in that very moment. In that dimly lit room, listening to the piano, watching her play. And Jem could not count the amount of times he suddenly realized that he had not been breathing.

When she reached her last series of such an intensely played notes and was about to finish with the last chord –

She stopped and groaned.

Purposely butchering the last chord in frustration – he was sure she could play it so he knew that he was the cause for it - she stood up and turned around and startled Jem out of the peaceful minutes with her groan. "Jem, I don't know what to do."

"What do you mean?"

She looked back at the piano, flexing her fingers, before turning that single dark eye back to him. "Am I supposed to give you up – to just leave?" She clenched her fingers together.

He sighed and sat her back down, his hands gently pressing down on her shoulders until she was back on the bench and staring up at him with one, visible eye. His silver eyes held her gaze. "You know that if there was a way, I would always have you here."

"So I'm supposed to watch as you get married to this other girl, and have children and love her?" she asked quietly, feeling as if her heart was being stretched – one half down her stomach, the other up through her throat. She felt sick at the idea of it, of watching Jem grow old –

But then again, there was no guarantee that he would be alive a year from now.

She hated herself for even having that thought, but a very dark, very selfish part of her was whispering death will take him away from you – and Tessa.

He looked away from her, straightening up but as always, her eye continued to follow him. When he didn't say anything, she did.

I cannot let him go.

"I won't."

His pale eyes flickered up to hers in confusion. "Winnie?"

"I won't let you marry her," she repeated quietly, getting up and then he was thrown back into the reality of the situation. That gentle side of Winnie that was so reminiscent of his childhood surrounded by the complex piano piece she had at last nearly perfected was wiped from his mind and was replaced by this: the dark room, the dust, the disgusting stench, and the Shadowhunter girl dressed in the blood of demons staring at a tall, frail silver haired boy with an intensity enough to burn a torch.

"I know that love is not selfish, Jem, but the day you marry her will be the day I die."

It was a promise.


So the general consensus was JemJemJemJem...and one lone, Will. I won't tell you where I want to end up with this, but I hope that there will be some readers by the end of this to see anyway!

School's busy but I have several chapters lying around so updates once in awhile. Thanks for reading! Reviews would be lovely :)