Hellooooo there! I've got a few chapters stored up and ready to go, so I'll be updating fairly regularly :P. Thank you again to the people who have been reviewing (50 reviews-yayyy!)- it's really great to hear what you think and the compliments and comparisons to Cassie Clare are truly amazing :). Well, hope you like this chapter- first appearance of another favourite character, and a bit of a cliffhanger at the end ;). (R&R to tell me what you think of that part...you'll know it when you get to it :P.)

A few replies again to the guest accounts:

Monica: Aww, thanks so much! Haha yeah let me know if you start your fanfic. Sadly, Sophie and Gideon are absent from this chapter, but there's some somewhat depressing mentioning of Will x Tessa for you here...sorry bout that :(

Guest: Thank you! Haha, it's good to know I've been living up to expectations- hope this chapter doesn't disappoint :P. I've got a little bit of Will here for you, so enjoy :)

FloridaGirl: Wow, that's so nice of you to say! Being kinda realistic about the whole situation is exactly what I was aiming for :) it annoys me when I read something where things are magically forgotten too. As for the real Clockwork Princess though, I bet Cassie's got something far more sophisticated and bittersweet in store for the poor characters :P.

Guest: hehe thanks! And yes indeed, where is Gabriel? Hmmmm...well we'll find out about that quite a bit later. He's a bit of a Mystery Man for now ;)

Guest: haha :P here's an update! Thanks for reviewing- but please, don't contemplate suicide :P self destruction is never the answer.

"Cecily!" Jem cried out, tumbling to the floor in an instant. The dark haired girl smirked down at him, one foot on either side of his sprawled limbs, putting him at her mercy. He had only just walked through the training room door when she had attacked him from above, leaping down from one of the roof beams and knocking him down.

"Got you," she said, spinning the guarded blade in her hand and touching it lightly to the pulse jumping at his throat. Jem blinked up at her, a smile playing at his lips.

"That was well done," he said. "Will has been teaching you well." "Will didn't teach me that," she said, holding out a hand to help him to his feet. "I've been experimenting." "Rather painful experiment," he remarked, rolling back his shoulder blades where they ached from hitting the floor. Cecily watched him with a slightly guilty look. "I thought that it would take a lot to harm a trained Shadowhunter," she said by way of apology. Jem waved his arm.

"I am not a trained Shadowhunter. Not yet." Cecily drew back, dropping his hand from hers. "The way you fought that Automaton, I find that difficult to believe." "Likewise." Jem inclined his head. "I know you are well familiar with the sword, and are more than capable with utilising your body to defend and attack. I thought that I might show you what I can of throwing daggers. They can prove quite useful for longer distance quarrels." Cecily made a face. "I don't much care for killing from a distance," she said. "It seems…disrespectful, in a sense, to keep your distance, to refrain from looking them in the eye or acknowledging their courage when you fight." "Even when it is a demon you are fighting?" Jem raised an eyebrow. "Even then. Laugh if you will," she shook her head. "I do not care if you think me foolish for it." "Well, I do not." Cecily looked at him measuredly for a moment before she grinned at him, eyes glinting. That glint was so familiar to Jem, for he had seen it in Wills' own eyes, and yet to see them in Cecily's reached him like it never had with Will. Wills' eyes had always been shaded. Hate, anger, sarcasm, bitterness, loneliness, amusement. Cecily simply looked cheerful. She looked radiant, as beautiful as any woman Jem had ever seen, and as happy and sure of herself as any person in the world could ever be. He shook aside this thought, of course. Tessa was the only woman in his life now. Now, and forever, he chided himself silently, a smile on his lips as he did. Catching himself, Jem cleared his throat.

"Shall we begin, then?"

"Who could possibly be here at this hour?" Charlotte grunted under her breath as she strode towards the Institute door, Henry cowering in her wake. "I don't suppose you lied to me about the time of the meeting to? I don't suppose they are all coming here now-" she broke off amid her anger to blink in surprise at their visitor. She had been so sure, when she had heard the summoning bell chime, that she would be met by the faces of the Enclave members. Instead, a tall, thin man wearing suspenders, a ridiculously tight jacket, and a long hanging necklace stood under the frame, an amused expression on his face.

"Magnus Bane?" she managed, flustered. "Whatever are you doing here? That is to say, I was not expecting you." "Judging by your outburst, I would guess you were expecting someone far less charming than myself, " Magnus said with a sly look. "I was walking by when I thought that I would step in, check up on all your Nephlim affairs."

"Check up on- that really won't be necessary," Charlotte managed firmly. Watching Magnus examine his fingernails carefully, she could not say that she liked the Warlock. Warlocks had always frightened her- not that she would ever admit it to anybody. They had a kind of power originated from all that was demonic in the world. It was true that she knew some fine warlocks. Merely, she did not like their power in general. Magnus seemed like the kind of man who would use it to frighten or to entertain. That frightened her even more.

"Were you really walking by?" Henry said timidly. He shrunk back when Charlotte turned to glower at him. "You just don't seem very wet." Charlotte turned back around, studying Magnus. Indeed, Henry had a point. "Did you use magic?" Charlotte said in a guarded voice. Magnus grinned at them before pulling something out from behind him. She started, but it was only a dripping grey umbrella.

"Close enough, Charlotte, dear," he said breezily. "And now, if you would be so kind as to let me past the threshold. It really is quite chilly outside. Never fear, it was one of your young ones who I wish to visit." He set the umbrella leaning against the doorframe, making it clear that he did not intend on leaving any time soon. Sighing, Charlotte stepped back to let him inside.

"Just be gone before the three o'clock," she warned him.

"Enclave meeting to go to?" Magnus enquired.

"Yet another," Henry said before Charlotte could deny it. She stepped on his foot. "My, you do lead such short, structured lives, don't you?" Magnus mused. "Well, on that note, I will leave you to it. I have business with one of your younger ones. Although, let it not be said that I left you both without a word of congratulations." He winked in Henry's direction. "It's about time you two had one on the way." Charlotte's mouth was left half agape as the giant warlock swept past them both, disappearing in a swirl of his coat. "What in the name of Heaven," Charlotte muttered, shaking her head as she watched after him. Sometimes the things that happened in the Institute were so strange that she felt the need to pinch herself just to confirm reality.

"James, for god's sake-" Will stopped abruptly, blinking. "Magnus?" "William." The warlock bowed his head, not seeming all too interested in the other mans' shock at his presence. He just stood there, welcoming himself into the Great Library, where Will stood, a frail old book in his hand. "I must say, I was surprised to find you here alone. I rather imagined I'd find you frolicking through flowers surrounded by family and pretty girls, given the situation with your false curse. Well, a pretty girl. How are things with the lovely Miss Gray?" The look on Will's face was enough to finally capture his full attention. It seemed that in that moment, he could not have said anything worse. The eyes he had last seen full of hope were now sick with misery, muscles more heavily corded, but skin pulled tight across his face. Will looked worn down to the core.

"There are no things with Miss Gray," he said dully. "Henry and Charlotte are doing god knows what for the council, Jessamine is in prison, and Jem is training Cecily. My presence is rather unwanted in any regard." "I had heard that your sister had joined the Institute," Magnus said carefully. Finding out the full length of what had transpired since they had last seen each other was going to be difficult and tiresome, that he knew. He had seen wild animals with the same look as Will. They would growl and fight until they were exhausted. He took a seat on one of the sofas near the fireplace there, unlit despite the chilly weather. "Are you not pleased?" For a moment there was silence. Then, "Not pleased? My parents," Will choked, "have been left alone in a manor house that Mortmain has let them live in, surrounded-guarded- by automatons, with a dead child, and two others who have left them. No. I am not pleased. Cecily should be with them. She had a choice and she chose wrong." "Well, however right or wrong it may have been, neither of you may go back now. If I were you, I would waste no time holding grudges. Here is your chance, Will. Your sister has come to find you." "She came to be trained," Will went on. "I tried to train her- I tried to take my chance, but she chose Jem. Just the other day, she refused to return to safety and fought an automaton with barely any training. Since then, she has asked for Jem to train her instead of me. She has no use for me." "Don't be so dramatic," Magnus said calmly. By now he was soundly seated in an armchair. Will, despite the presence of a second one, remained pacing on his toes. "It is often difficult to be trained by family in such a respect. That does not mean she despises your presence." Will scowled.

" In any case, I suppose that none of it matters much to you," he said. "Very well, Magnus. I know well that you have come to claim the favour that I owe to you. Name your price."

Magnus waved his hand. "I haven't come to get favours from you, Nephlim. I merely stopped by to see my hard work paid off. Now that I am here, I see that it has not done as I had thought it would." He peered at Will almost accusingly. "Warlocks," Will cursed to himself. "Look, I'm sorry that you have been disappointed. But I will not allow any pity to prevent me from payment. I am a Shadowhunter, Magnus. We do not let debts go unpaid." "Look at yourself, then, Shadowhunter," Magnus said. "Look at your own pity. Are you going to tell me why I did not find you frolicking through a field of dandelions, William? Are you going to tell me the whole truth?"

"No man frolicks through dandelions," Will said stubbornly. "Least of all in London. It rains far too much to consider the damage to ones' clothes that would cause." "You said that there are no things with Miss Gray," Magnus said, purposely slowly. "What exactly does that mean?" "Exactly as it sounds, Magnus," Will said wearily. "I was wrong. She has no feelings for me." Magnus paused mid-thought, eyeing the boy.

"Come again?"

"You heard me." Will ran his fingers through his hair, slamming the old book he held into a tight space in one of the shelves before finally dropping into the chair beside Magnus in resignation. "I was mistaken." "That night on the balcony," Magnus began, but Will cut him off. "She asked me never to speak of it again, you know," he said. "I promised her that I wouldn't. I intend to keep that promise, if you don't mind. I have no wish to shame her. What she did was under the influence of a foreign drug- magic." He all but spat the word. "She never would have touched me so otherwise." "That is not what the pink drinks do," Magnus protested. "It is….alike to the effects of common alcohol. It numbs the senses. But it does not change what one wants…or loves." "Magnus-" Will's voice sounded stretched thin, and if he did not know him better, Magnus would have thought he was about to cry. "Of course, she may be reluctant to trust you," Magnus pressed on, "but you must give her time. Be patient. I am- almost certain that she does possess some feelings for you, William. Why, when I escorted her back to the Institute that night, after you ran after that cursed demon of yours, she expressed the upmost concern for-"

"She is engaged, Magnus!" Will almost shouted, a vein pressing in his forehead as he leaned forward to bellow in the other man's face. Magnus was frozen looking at him, expressionless in the face of his outburst. "She's engaged to Jem Carstairs." He went on, not quite as loudly, but wild enough. "My parabatai. I told her that I loved her and she….she loves him. She's marrying him. They're…and I will have no one. Jem will not want my company. Tessa barely stands in a room with me as it is. I thought that I had been given a chance, Magnus, and I thank you for what you've done- but now I find that perhaps I do not have a choice anymore. I have worn my mask for five years. Perhaps it is too late for me to take it off. Certainly, it is too late to hope that Tessa might come to love the person underneath."

"Engaged," Magnus repeated. He had lived so many years, and would live so many more, that he could not possibly be shocked. Still, his eyes filled with pity for Will Herondale when he looked at him next. "I had not expected so much." Will said nothing, only gazed into empty space, his eyes unfocused on anything in particular. "But," Magnus went on, "it is not the end of the world."

"I know that," Will said shortly, and Magnus felt a wave of relief; and just a hint of pride. After all his struggles, he had well feared that this might've served as the last straw for Will.

"You do?"

"The world simply does not favour me," Will replied. "It never has. I may well be ruined, but the world is not. And Jem is not. And nor is Tessa." He said her name the way he had said it before, when he had come to Magnus for help; as though it were so precious yet so painful and deadly all at once. And that was exactly what this girl was to him now.

"It is not the end for you," Magnus clarified. "With a face like yours, and a heart now as well- you will have no difficulty in-"

"Finding someone to love me?" Will said. "Finding someone else? She said that to me, you know. She felt sorry for me. Must everybody look at me with pity in their eyes? Everybody who knows the truth…"

"Will," Magnus said, suddenly alerted to something.

"Magnus?" Will said, raising an eyebrow.

"Speaking of the truth…how much of this have you told James? Does he know?"

"About the curse?" Will said, knowing that was not what Magnus meant, but biding for time all the same. Magnus shook his head, his expression serious.

"About Tessa."

The longer Jem trained the more he grew bemused by the girl who was with him. Cecily was so like Will, yet so unlike him at the same time, it was curious to witness. While her flashes of confident grins and playful remarks reminded him of his parabatai, there wasn't such a bitter edge underneath it all- as if Cecily truly was just a condensed body of energy and enthusiasm. She never tired, either. While Jem was hiding pants beneath his breath, Cecily breathed easily and quietly as she countered his attacks and launched her own. Like Will, she was ruthless with her attacks. The difference was, she was more impatient. She waited in the shadows, not moving, for mere seconds at a time- although those seconds were enough for her attacks to come unexpectedly. Will would have taken more time, enjoying the suspense, perhaps whistling to goad his opponent. Stop comparing her to Will, Jem scolded himself. He ought to know that a person's family did not define them. He ought not to judge or compare. Indeed, if it was anybody else but Will's sister, he would not have made such comparisons at all. It was only that Cecily seemed to be everything that Jem loved about Will, without the mystery and the anger. He knew that Will was not happy about it- though he could not imagine why- but he enjoyed Cecily's company in the Institute. She was a friend in a gloomy place. She was- right in front of him.

Jem heard a crash of metal and winced as he saw his own sword clatter to the ground some feet away, and a sharp, cold point at his neck caused him to turn his head and look into a pair of glinting blue eyes.

"Gotcha," Cecily said, her voice softer than usual, she seemed to speak with her eyes as well. They were beautiful eyes, Jem noted. They spoke of the darkest night and the brightest day all at once, and it was as though she was at the center of it all, still smiling, in sadness and in joy. When Jem did not speak, she paused for a moment, looking at him, before taking the tip of her knife away from his skin. Jem cleared his throat.

"That was well done," he said. "Will has been training you well." His eyes flitted to hers, and again he was struck by their beauty; they seemed to hold so much depth. Yet she was so young…well, that was not precisely true. Cecily was only a year younger than Tessa, and Jem was marrying her.

"Will has been throwing knives at me with the ferocity of a wild grizzly bear," Cecily said, "it's just nice to be able to train with somebody more subtle about technique. That's what I was really worried about. Thank-you, Jem. I can see why Will chose you. To be parabatai, I mean."

"Thank-you, Cecy. That…it's so kind of you to say," Jem said, because it was. Cecily smiled at him, then raised an eyebrow, stepping closer to him.

"What I don't understand is why you agreed."

"Pardon?"

"I cannot claim to know him now, but back when I did- Will was…difficult. Mad, even. Parabatai bonds are supposed to be two-way. What's in it for you?"

"How did you know it was not I who asked Will for the bond?"

"Because no one would ask to love Will." Jem studied Cecily's face, momentarily stunned by blunt and terrible words she had just uttered, but more so by the matter-of-fact tone with which she said it.

"One cannot ask to love anyone, really," he said gently, suddenly unsure of what to say. It was unsettling. Jem was not always certain in himself, it was true, but usually he at least knew what to say to other people- understood them properly. Cecily was still a mystery to him.

"Apparently," she replied, her voice very gentle. She was watching him, just as he was watching her. As if she were trying to puzzle him out, and was intrigued by what she found. For a moment, both of them were quiet, just standing, intent on uncovering some kind of truth from each other. Then Cecily spoke, a strange edge to her voice. "You really love him, don't you? You love my brother."

"He is my brother too," Jem said, because it was true. "Of course, I do."

"And you love Charlotte. And Henry. And Sophie. And you loved Thomas and Agatha- I've heard you speak of them with that look in your eye. And you love Tessa Gray." At mention of Tessa, Jem's heart fluttered in his chest.

"Yes."

Cecily stepped back clumsily, almost tripping over her own feet, and when Jem steadied her he realised that her eyes were now shining with tears. Horrified at what he might have done to upset her, Jem released his grip and began to apologize.

Not that he was ever able to finish. It all happened so quickly, he could not have said for certain how it happened- all he knew was that one minute he was holding a weeping Cecily in his arms, the next, her arms were entwined around his neck and she was kissing him fiercely.

...*inappropriate cupcake*. Gawsh. Well, this is a bit of a scandelous situation. What's an engaged Shadowhunter to do? R&R to find out!

Side note: so sorry about Magnus. I simply cannot do him justice *hangs head in sparkly, sparkly shame*.