Here is chapter 7! Hope you all like it!
For the London Institute's shadowhunters, Friday could not come fast enough.
When it finally did, they were again gathered around the dining room table, along with Magnus, and were planning how best to infiltrate Mortmain's lair and discussing, more heatedly, who would be allowed to come along.
"You CANNOT leave me here, I want to go help Tessa!" Cecily protested. "I've been training for a while and am perfectly capable of defending myself."
"Cece, you have never been in a single battle before in your life, and I will not let your first be against an army of clockwork beasts!" Exclaimed Will.
"And Sophie, you aren't even a shadowhunter, there is no way in good conscience that we could send you along," said Charlotte.
"Speaking of that..." began Henry. He pointedly glanced at Charlotte's bulging stomach.
"Oh, no. You are not making me stay here," said Charlotte.
"But darling, what about the baby?"
"Tessa is like my own daughter. You can't tell me that I can't go help her. What if—" she broke off. "What if... I have to see her again, no matter what happens, and what if she—"
"Charlotte, we are going to bring her back here," said Will. "Of COURSE you will see her again. There is no room for the possibility that you won't."
"OK, fine, I will stay, but Sophie has to, too." said Charlotte. "That's my condition."
"What? I—" Sophie stopped when several glares were pointed in her direction. "Ugh, fine."
Will turned to his sister. "Cece—"
"No, don't even try. I am coming to help, whether you let me go willingly or I have to sneak out of here after you all leave and meet you there. Your choice."
Will looked pleadingly at Jem for help. He could only shrug. Cecily was a very determined girl.
"Well, you all can do whatever you like, I am not going," declared Jessamine.
"But Jessie, you are an extremely talented fighter, on par with all the men in this room," said Charlotte. All the men looked at Charlotte with doubt in their face.
"It doesn't matter. I am not going. Ladies do not fight." And she left the room, her point being made.
"Well, at least Magnus is coming," said Jem.
Mortmain was in a good mood as he walked around outside. He knew that he was close to breaking Tessa, she hadn't been fed in four days. He smiled. It was not at all an attractive smile.
"Soon, dear father, we will be reunited, and the shadowhunters will pay for what they did to our family."
As he headed toward the door, something fell on top of his head.
An apple core.
He looked up and saw that he was above Tessa's room. He growled, an inhuman noise, and thought. He only had one person that could possibly give Tessa food. She was the only other human in the house.
He stormed through the front door, good mood gone completely. He called out for one of his masterpieces, giving it orders to fetch the girl.
She will pay.
She has no idea how she saved me.
Because the girl gave her the apple, Tessa was given a brief reprieve from her torture, and for that she could never repay the girl. She had thrown the apple out the window in the hope that it would land in the bushes and Mortmain would never find it. The last thing Tessa wanted was to get her in trouble after all she did for her.
She resumed staring out the window, focusing on, as always, the points of the Institute. She had never realized how much she missed all of them.
Will and Jem were in the weapons room preparing to leave. They would be going to rescue Tessa soon, along with Gideon, Henry, Magnus, and Cecily. The Clave refused to send any help on the grounds that this was more of a rescue mission than an assassination attempt of Mortmain, which was true. The goal was to get Tessa, but if Mortmain ended up dead along the way, then all the better.
"Alright, so does everyone know the plan? We go in, and Will and Jem will go find Tessa, following the corridors that DO NOT MAKE NOISE. The rest of us will fight off the clockwork creatures to prevent them from going after the boys," explained Henry for about the millionth time. Will didn't mind, though. He was just glad he would be the one to go get Tessa. "After you get Tessa, you either come back the way you came, or jump out the window if it isn't too high. If you go with the latter, get Tessa to the carriage and then one of you must come back and let us know so we can start our retreat. Got it?"
"Yes, Henry," said Jem. He had just taken a large dose of his medicine to prevent any problems during the mission.
"Then let's go."
The blonde girl snuck out of Mortmain's fortress and unlocked the front gate. On her way in, she didn't lock the front door. As she walked towards the kitchen, a hand snaked its way around her arm in an iron grip. A clockwork creature.
"Master wants to see you," it hissed.
Yes, it's a cliff-hanger. There's only a few chapters left and I can only do so many more :) Sorry that it is a bit shorter than some of my chapters, but I hope you all liked it!
