The Mortal Instruments and The Infernal Devices Crossover
Chapter 9: To Love is to Destroy
Author's Note:
If you haven't read The Mortal Instruments (City of Bones, City of Ashes, City of Glass, City of Fallen Angels and City of Lost Souls) as well as The Infernal Devices Trilogy (Clockwork Angel, Clockwork Prince and Clockwork Princess), all by Cassandra Clare, I advice you not to read this. Be spoilt at your own risk.
I think this passes for one of the longer ones, so here it is as promised.
Just when I thought I'd be ending this story in two chapters,
I've suddenly decided to extend it. I hope you don't mind, loves.
Inspiration is kind of everywhere.
Magnus Bane had left the institute without having to see Tessa. She must have awoken early and decided to walk, so he didn't bother. Alec hadn't showed up at breakfast, perhaps he didn't want to say the awkward goodbyes to him. Magnus didn't want to stay long in the Institute. It was a refuge for only the nephilim, nothing else.
He now carried the yin fen wrapped in Manila paper. His bond with Tessa had surpassed years that he almost hadn't noticed how close they became. Of course he had his own personal concerns, but that didn't affect anyone—and to Magnus, that was fine.
He was walking towards the street near his apartment when he received a message on his phone: just a text asking him to call when he was available. It could be Alec, but the young Shadowhunter wouldn't go such lengths trying to talk to him.
He stepped inside his apartment and impulsively made the call.
"Hello?" The voice of a young woman said. It was familiar.
"Tessa?" Magnus replied.
There was a pause, then a sharp intake of breath as if in pain.
"No," the girl replied, "this is not her."
It was now Magnus' turn to be puzzled.
"Is this a prank? I am a vengeful man, I swear." He replied, hoping to scare the little girl trying to pull a phone prank on him.
"Magnus," she said, the sound of her voice meant she had known him before. His suspicion slowly faltered and he was now filled with sudden alarm. "It's Lucie. Lucie Herondale."
Tessa awoke to the smell of Earl Grey.
She had thought she was just in Magnus' apartment, and all that happened earlier was just a dream. Yet she realized that it had been real.
She was lying on the cold, tiled floor and her back ached. The room was painted in all black, and the light was dim, making it harder to see with a throbbing head.
A woman in her early forties sat on the sofa in front of her, a tea set arranged carefully on the side table. Tessa tried walking towards the woman, but then she felt herself smack on the thin air, like there was an invisible wall in front of her.
"I won't try that if I were you," The woman said. She had a light brown hair like Tessa's, but her eyes were the color of the sky. "the thing is, I can't reach you from here, so be thankful."
The surge of memory had filled Tessa with horror. It was the same position she had been when she was in Mortmain's possession. It may have been part of those years of memories, but it was the one she least wanted to remember.
"Where am I?" Tessa asked firmly.
"Nowhere should you know of." The woman replied. She appeared to be leafing through a thick leather-bound book that was positioned on her lap.
If there hadn't been an invisible wall between them, Tessa would have pounced on the woman and choked the truth out of her. Right now, she didn't have any option.
"It's no use when I couldn't escape," Tessa replied quickly.
"Surely, why do you still ask?" The woman replied, "so glad it worked, what I did with that fancy Warlock of yours."
Tessa swallowed at the reminder of Magnus. What they did to him had been so cruel. He wasn't doing anything against Sebastian, except maybe helping the Shadowhunters. Other than that, he wasn't planning on causing any direct damage. Perhaps Sebastian knew that Magnus was a solid ally that he had needed to get rid of.
"Are you one of them?" Tessa taunted the woman on the sofa.
"What?" The woman replied.
"Morgenstern's slave of a Shadowhunter. You do know that's your purpose."
The woman sounded hurt, "That's why we should take the side that is surely going to win, Morgenstern's." She said. Tessa had heard someone say the line before, like a faint memory of a conversation she had. "Of course, I thought you might have actually met one of our Warlocks. Really interesting for you to pretend like that."
She remembered the beautiful Warlock who talked to her in the Pandemonium. It had been impossible for a Warlock to tell if the demon blood in her was dominant. They had known she was back in New York way before she came to the Institute.
"Jonathan's really interested about you," The woman said, "said he wanted you on his side the moment he knew you were alive."
Tessa was about to reply when the door swiftly opened, and the pale face of Sebastian came in. "Now, Amatis, don't be rude to our beloved Tessa. She will be of help to us,"
Sebastian walked swiftly yet with so much confidence and grace that it had almost alarmed Tessa. His hair shone bright under the rather dark lighting and his eyes glowed in a strong color of green—just like Clary's. Though there was something about his eyes that didn't reflect the same gentleness and affection that his sister gave off.
"I hope she is," Amatis fell back on the sofa. "We wouldn't want a waste of space and energy if you ask me."
"If you can make me cooperate," Tessa quickly replied with such boldness she hasn't used in a while.
Amatis shot her a look that would have made Tessa flinch, yet she remained calm.
Sebastian sighed. "Of course you will," he moved to grab something from behind the door—no, it was someone, and threw the person on the floor. "I like manipulating feelings. They make you do things beyond anything you have dreamed of doing."
Tessa saw the slender young man, with his hair dark and his skin pale. He looked up at her, and Tessa gasped.
Sebastian grinned. "To love is to destroy."
There, behind the dark hair pasted on his forehead and his cheek caked with blood, were tawny eyes that were the same color as Jace's.
She had whispered his name, "James."
"Mum," James whispered. His accent hadn't changed at all. He still looked like he was in his mid-twenties. Then Tessa realized why she had thought James looked so young for his age. She never thought her immortality as a Warlock could be inherited by her children.
Sebastian kicked him right at his ribs, Tessa heard a bone or two crack.
James cried in pain.
"No!" Tessa shouted. "Hurt me as much as you want but do not touch him!"
"Oh really?" Sebastian just grinned at her, "So unfortunate that I didn't have the other one. She looked just like her father, didn't she? Except for the hair, maybe."
Tessa was now on her knees, her eyes that were filled with tears moved from her bloodied son to the menacing Sebastian.
"Where is she?" Tessa hissed.
"Left her with a few of the Raveners, quite poisonous by the way" He answered with satisfaction, "She had the nerve to save her brother. She didn't know she was throwing him into a pit with more pain than just being ripped apart."
The tears flowed from Tessa's eyes. She was now reaching helplessly for her son. "James," She whispered in between sobs. Still reaching for him, as if her love and mourning would eventually burn away the barrier between them, she whispered again, "James, I am so sorry."
Sebastian was looking down at them, an evil smirk crawled upon his strong features.
"Mum, no," James' voice was now barely a whisper, "I am sorry for not saving Lucie, mum. I lost her. I shouldn't have lost her."
"Glad to tell you that she wasn't armed," Sebastian smirked, "didn't give much of an effort to end those decades of suffering."
He kicked James once again. This time, his cry was louder.
"Stop it!" Tessa insisted.
James was now heaving, the sweat was mixing with the blood on his face.
"We need to go," Amatis rose from her seat.
"Are we already?" Sebastian asked, "I guess we'll have to cease this family reunion for now."
He took James by the arm and started dragging, Tessa noticed that it looked broken.
"Do not hurt him," Tessa was now trying to stand, "Hurt him and I will not do as you wish!"
Sebastian ignored her and dragged James away from the room. By the looks of it, her son had now lost consciousness.
Amatis followed them out of the door and slammed it shut.
Tessa fell back and crashed on the floor. She had lost Lucie and now James was facing eminent torture. Sebastian may hurt her physically all he wants, but the pain in James' eyes were beyond crushing her.
Sebastian had finally found a way to make her pledge her allegiance to him.
Tessa found the bracelet on her wrist, and remembered the eyes that were Will's. The enemy has manipulated her love for the people dear to her. Slowly, she closed her eyes and whispered, in between soft sobs of pain and helplessness. "Will," She sniffed, "by the Angel, Will, I cannot possibly do this alone."
"Where are you?" The voice had been insistent and worried.
Lucie's feet hurt and her sight began to falter, "I do not know."
The Ravener demon had somehow pierced her ankle. She was pinned underneath it when she had tried to push James out of the way.
"What do you mean you don't know? I need to go after you. Give me a landmark." Magnus' voice was steady, but she could hear the alarm underneath.
"Magnus I think I'm in front of the Institute," Lucie whispered, her head was spinning. She tried walking towards the entrance, but she fell. "I'm trying to get there."
"Are you sure, Lucie?" Magnus now panicked. "Keep the phone up, I will use the tracking spell. Do not faint. I will personally kill you if you did."
Lucie could not think straight anymore, the venom must have reached her brain seconds ago. She tried walking towards the door again, and repeatedly fell.
"I'll call the institute. Stay on the front porch and move towards it if you can. Lucie—"
But she now dropped the phone and her head hit the overgrown grass. Her vision was foggy but she could still see the door to the Institute.
It opened, and a dark haired man stepped out of it.
He was running towards her.
For a moment Lucie thought that she was now a step nearer to the afterlife. The figure looked so much like her father, as if asking her to come with him.
She had never felt so willing to die then.
Here it is. Done at one sitting if you ask me.
I think I need a day off each chapter. Would it be much if I upload only one every two days?
I need to rest my mind so I could come back at you with more creative stuff. Like this one. Sort of.
Keep reviewing, loves!
Your encouragements are important to me.
