I awoke the following morning to a foreign, although not entirely disagreeable, sensation of warmth and security. I hadn't felt this comfortable in years, not since I was a little girl and had crept into Mom's bed during the night. But the body currently pressed against mine was definitely not that of my mother's, although Jem did give me the same sense of calmness and safety—as well as certain other, very different feelings…

I opened my eyes and slowly raised my head, blinking owlishly at the light that poured in through the curtains. The sky was a bright, otherworldly blue, and the sight alone was enough to raise my spirits. Although I remembered the events of the previous evening all too clearly—the spider, my accidental kiss with Will, and the ensuing panic attack—I didn't feel overwhelmed by any of it, as if they were merely facts rather than memories.

Jem stirred next to me, and I smiled, brushing silvery hair out of his face as he opened his eyes, a flicker of confusion crossing his features before realization dawned on him. "Abby," he said, his voice croaky and hoarse from sleep, "I thought…I thought you would leave."

"Of course not," I replied. "I told you that I would never leave you."

Although we were both still fully clothed, we had been sleeping very close together, our bodies just touching despite the large bed. "I have not slept so well in months," Jem confided to me, but there were still dark rings around his eyes, marks that would never completely disappear no matter how much sleep he got.

I had to admit that I hadn't slept so well in a very long time either, despite my ever-growing dread and the realization that I was in love with him. In fact, I couldn't remember dreaming at all. "Jem," I said hesitantly as we sat up, the loss of his light touch almost a physical ache, "I hope that…this…" I gestured awkwardly between the two of us, "…isn't too…improper. It's one thing for me, being from a century in the future where social norms are different, but for you…"

"Abby, I realize this is not a very gentlemanly or even proper thing to say, but social norms are not high on the list of my priorities at the moment," Jem said firmly. "Yes, it is strange for someone such as myself to share a bed with a girl behind closed doors, but I daresay that stranger things are occurring all across the world at this very moment. Besides, we are Shadowhunters, with a different set of rules than mundanes, and most importantly, you are not just any girl."

His words did little to reassure me—he hadn't grasped what I was really talking about. "Well, I just wanted to say that I—I meant what I said, before. I do…" Closing my eyes tightly, I dove in and took the plunge. "I want you, Jem, and I mean that in every sense of the word. I don't know how much time I have left. Someday I'll be gone, and I'll regret never having the courage to…" Giggling nervously, I babbled, "I know I already said this, but when I said 'Soon', I meant it."

"Ah," Jem said quietly, and I ventured to crack open one eye. His own eyes were soft, full of something that just might have been desire. "I did not broach the topic before, Abby, since I did not want you to feel pressured, but please believe me when I say that you have echoed my thoughts exactly. I…" His voice cracked, and now it was his turn to clear his throat. "Want you too. I never believed that I would fall in love and find someone who would care for me in such a way back, so please forgive me if I…overstep the bounds of propriety. It was never my intention."

"Love," I breathed—there was that indescribable word, finally uttered out loud. "I love you, James Carstairs," I said, because I knew it was true and therefore I had every right to say it.

"Thank God," Jem murmured, and his hand moved up to cup my chin, tilting my head toward him. "I have loved you ever since you arrived at the Institute, àirén. The moment I first saw you, covered in blood and wearing the oddest outfit I had ever seen, I knew, instinctively, that you were going to be an integral part of my life. And then when Will asked you what you were wearing and you replied 'clothes' without a hint of sarcasm, with that puzzled and lost look in your eyes, I knew I could fall in love with you. When you told me, 'I would rather read music than books', I knew I would fall in love with you. And when I asked you why you hadn't questioned me about Will and you replied that it was none of your business as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, despite the fact that you had every right to, I knew I had fallen in love with you. Will is my parabatai, my soul, but you are my heart. If I knew I only had one day left to live, there is no one I would rather spend it with than you."

I couldn't speak, and Jem dropped his hand from my chin to my wrist, pressing it against his chest where I could feel his heart beating steadily under my palm. "I am wholly yours. Every part of me belongs to you."

Relief flooded through me. "I don't think you need to worry about the bounds of propriety with me," I whispered, unable to say anything else, and suddenly we were kissing, Jem's mouth hot against mine and my hands running through his rumpled hair, and my heart swelled at the way he could literally erase all the problems from my mind—

But he could not erase problems from the outside world, and we reluctantly pulled apart when there was a sharp knock at the door and Will's voice called, "Are you awake, James?"

Startled, I tried to stand up, but Jem, lips twitching, held me still as a moment later the door swung open and Will stood silhouetted in the light shining in from the corridor. He took one look at us and his eyebrows shot up. "Good heavens!" he exclaimed in mock horror. "I would never have expected this sort of behaviour from you two! And here I was thinking you were purer than driven snow—"

"Oh, do be quiet, Will," Jem said good-naturedly, pulling me upright. I was pleased to see that there was, for once, no ire in Will's eyes directed towards me. He seemed to have finally accepted Jem's and my relationship, for better or for worse. "Abby and I were just about to head downstairs to breakfast."

"Is that what they're calling it now?" Will asked, though his eyes with glittering with heady amusement. "A rather vague euphemism, I would say, but—"

Jem gave me a gentle nudge, signaling that it was time for me to make my escape, and after a grateful grin at him I scurried past Will out of the room and across the corridor to my own, where I quickly shut the door behind me and leaned against it, suddenly grim. How was I supposed to explain the matter of the spider to Will and Tessa? They surely had enough on their plates without another thing to investigate. And I didn't want Jem to always act as peacemaker between Will and I, even if he was used to it.

God, Jem was in love with me. In love! I had spent sixteen years thinking that I was too ugly, too weird, too boring, for anyone to ever take a romantic interest in me. And now, my life had been so utterly, completely changed, that really it shouldn't be at all surprising that I was now in some strange alternate universe where a boy could fall in love with me.

I finally pushed myself off the door and walked across the room to my suitcase, where I was dismayed to discover that the dress I had packed at random was one of my most intricate ones, with laces that even Sophie would have a difficult time tying up. No wonder it had been stuffed into the very back of my wardrobe. There was no way I would be able to put it on myself. I supposed I could wear my dress from yesterday, but it was wrinkled from spending the entire day on the train, and there was still a tea stain on it from when I'd jumped up from the dinner table.

I glanced around the room for a bell to summon one of Starkweather's maids, but after I saw none and certainly didn't want to go trudging around the manor in a dressing-gown looking for them, I sighed and slung the dress over my arm before quietly slipping out of my room and down the corridor to Tessa's bedroom, knocking twice and hoping she was awake.

Tessa opened the door a moment later, her hair still undone and in her dressing-gown herself. I noticed that the circles under her eyes looked just as bad as Jem's and she was much paler than usual. "Hi, Tess," I greeted her as she ushered me inside. "Are you all right?"

"Yes," was her first answer, but after a dubious look from me she relented, "I did have terrible nightmares, but they do seem rather silly in the morning. I suppose it was just my imagination…but what about you, Abby? You ran upstairs quite quickly last night."

I nodded, unable to keep anything else from her. "I saw the spider again last night," I confided. "On the window in the dining-room. I'm sure that…that Mortmain has created more and sent them after me. Tessa, I…on the night that the automatons attacked the Institute and Nate was trying to escape, he told me that he had been the ones who sent the spiders after me."

Tessa had gone very still, her large eyes fixed on me. "He did?" she asked. "Why on earth would he do that?"

"I have no idea," I admitted. "But it's been bothering me since then. Listen, I saw him in the Pandemonium Club, the day before you came to the Institute. He was lying to you—to everyone. He wasn't captured by Mortmain. He was at the Pandemonium Club, on Mortmain's orders, I suspect."

For a moment, I wondered if Tessa was going to cry; her eyes turned glassy, and her shoulders slumped as if all the air had gone out of her. Just as I was about to put a hand on her shoulder, she composed herself, meeting my gaze again with a strong fierceness. "I should not be shocked," she said, a hard edge to her tone. "He has betrayed us—me—so many times that I should have been expecting him to lie. But—"

"He's your brother," I said gently, and this time I really did hug her, in a gesture that wasn't nearly as awkward as I feared. "You have every right to be upset."

"I should not be thinking of him, Abby," Tessa said in a small voice. "He has taken his side, and I mine. If I could cut off all ties with him…" But she trailed off, unable to finish the sentence, and we both knew she was lying.

Still, it had been a relief to unburden at least one of my problems. I stepped back from her and gestured to my dress, hoping it would lighten the atmosphere. "Would you mind acting in the role of Sophie for me?" I asked, as lightheartedly as I could. "There's no way I could tie up the laces on my dress myself, and I'm still getting used to the fashion in this era…"

Tessa, kind as she was, complied, and as she was fastening up the back of my dress I ventured to tell her about Benedict Lightwood's visit just days before, and his suspicions that he saw right through Charlotte's lies as well as mine.

"You must tell Charlotte," Tessa said at once, stepping back and looking intently at me.

"I know, but she already has so much to deal with," I groaned. "I don't want to burden her with anything else…"

"But this concerns her as well as you," Tessa pointed out. "She should be able to think of some way to deter him."

I swallowed hard, unable to take a calming breath since I was now encased tightly in a corset. "Yes," I said quietly, wondering if he'd sent Gabriel and Gideon as spies as sorts under the guise of training Sophie and Tessa. "I suppose you're right."

As it turned out, I was able to help Tessa with her dress too, although I wasn't nearly as adept at tying laces as she was. Trying to distract her from my agonizingly slow work—I'd been in Girl Scouts but had never managed to master knots—I asked, "Did you learn anything from Starkweather last night?"

Tessa paled, and I immediately regretted my question. "Yes," she said after a long moment. "He told us that Mortmain lived in a place called Ravenscar Manor, not too far from here. We are going to explore it today and search for anything he might have left behind."

"Do I get to come along?" I half-teased. "Or am I stuck in here all day with only old Starkweather to keep me company?"

There was no hint of humour at all in Tessa's eyes as she replied, "If you did not wish to go, I would have found some way to bring you along."

Despite the beautiful day, the mood in the dining-hall was very somber indeed when Tessa and I entered. Will appeared to have reverted to his usual black disposition, staring daggers at his toast while Jem tried to lighten the atmosphere. He greeted both of us warmly, though Tessa had to sit next to him if she wanted to keep up with their engagement pretense. His eyes kept darting over to me, though, and I thought I detected a hint of extra warmth in his smile.

Starkweather swept in just as I was finishing my toast, looking as disagreeable as ever. "The carriage is waiting for you in the courtyard," he said gruffly. "You'd better cut a stick if you want to get back before dinnertime; I'll be needing the carriage this evening. I've told Gottshall to drop you straight at the station on your return, no need for lingering. I trust you've gotten everything you need."

"Yes, sir. You've been very gracious," Jem replied quickly. Starkweather gave Tessa one last glare before sweeping out of the room like an oversized vampire.

As soon as he was gone, Will raised his head; as usual, he only had eyes for one person. "Eat quickly, Tessa, before he changes his mind about the carriage."

"I'm not hungry," Tessa mumbled, avoiding his gaze. I stared between both of them curiously; had something happened that I didn't know about?

"At least have tea," he said, in almost a friendly way, and pushed his own cup towards her. I waited for her to refuse, but after a moment she reached over and took it, still not looking at him. Jem and I glanced at each other, and shared a knowing look.

To everyone's great relief, we left the York Institute soon after breakfast, and in no time at all we were seated in the carriage with Gottshall as our driver, riding through wild, untamed countryside. The grass was a brighter green than I had ever seen it, waving gently in the breeze, and sheep dotted the fields—a perfect depiction of England. I cast my gaze out to the horizon, wanting to drink in as much of the scenery as possible before I was stuck in dark, rainy London again.

When the outline of another manor rose in the distance, Jem called for Gottshall to stop, and the carriage immediately ground to a halt. Tessa, as usual, asked the question that was foremost on my mind: "But we're not there yet. If that's Ravenscar Manor—"

"We can't just roll right up to the front door; be sensible, Tess," Will said lightly as he jumped out of the carriage and helped her down, with Jem and I following suit. I was more than pleased that no mention had been made of our unintentional kiss. Perhaps Will was trying to forget about it just as much as I was. "We need to get a look at the place. Use Henry's device to register demonic presence. Make sure we're not walking into a trap."

"Does Henry's device actually work?" Tessa asked cautiously.

Nobody had a proper answer, so we all lapsed into silence as we started down the road. It was quiet here, so quiet that I could feel the weight of silence literally pressing onto my ears. I'd gotten the same isolated feeling whenever I'd been in the Californian desert; it made me shudder and reminded me of the motel, which had felt similarly removed from the rest of the world.

I felt Jem's fingers brush the back of my hand, as light as a butterfly. "City lasses," he teased, and with a laugh I realized that Tessa and I were wearing identical expressions.

"I was thinking how odd it would be to grow up in a place like this, so far from any people," she remarked.

"Where I grew up was not so different from this," Will added, startling everyone. "It's not so lonely as you might think. Out in the countryside, you can be assured, people visit one another a great deal. They just have a greater distance to traverse than they might in London. And once they arrive, they often make a lengthy stay. After all, why make the trip just to stay a night or two? We'd often have house guests who'd remain for weeks."

Jem, Tessa and I all exchanged bewildered glances; this kind of divulgence was unusual for him. Thinking on his feet as usual, Jem broke the sudden hush. "I share Tessa's view. I have never lived in anything but a city. I don't know how I could sleep at night, not knowing I was surrounded by a thousand other sleeping, dreaming souls."

"And filth everywhere, and everyone breathing down each other's necks," retorted Will. "When I first arrived in London, I so quickly tired of being surrounded by so many people that it was only with great difficulty that I refrained from seizing the next unfortunate who crossed my path and committing violent acts upon their person."

"Some might say you retain that problem," Tessa said dryly.

"I think I'm going to go with the majority here," I interjected as Will, shockingly, laughed. "Maybe it's just because I was born in a large city, but it's too…quiet here. I'm used to noise."

"There's noise for you," Will replied shortly as the rattling of wheels became audible. Jem grabbed my arm and pulled me down in the long grass, where an enormous manor house, twice the size of the York Institute and every bit as grand, came into view.

"Someone's living here," Jem muttered as the carriage clattered past our hiding place. "Perhaps if—"

But he never got to finish his sentence, for it stopped at the base of a hill and a young girl hopped out. She was wearing a dark blue dress, a color that I would later realize was the precise shade of Will's eyes, and her black hair blew around her in the wind.

Next to Tessa, Will made a choking, gasping sound, and as we all turned to look at him he breathed out, "Cecily."

"Who on earth is Cecily?" Tessa asked at once, long after the girl had disappeared into the manor. "Will—"

He didn't answer, and finally Jem had to intervene. "Will, you must speak to us," he said urgently. "You look as if you've seen a ghost."

"Cecily—"

"Yes, you've said that already," Tessa snapped, and I gave her a sympathetic look. The look on her face was similar to the one I'd had when Jem had invented their engagement story.

"My sister," Will finally answered, never tearing his eyes away from the house. "Cecily. She was—Christ, she was nine years old when I left."

"Your sister," Jem said, and understanding colored his tone. But Will didn't even look back at his parabatai—he was already on his feet, hurrying down the hill. Alarm flashed across Jem's face and he scrambled to his feet, running after his friend. "Will, don't—"

Will pushed Jem's arm away from him, the first time I'd ever seen his harshness directed towards him, and said desperately, "If Cecily's there, then the rest of them—my family—they must be there as well."

Tessa and I stood up as well, rushing toward them as fast as we could in our dresses. "But it doesn't make any sense that your family would be here, Will," she panted. "This was Mortmain's house. Starkweather said so. It was in the papers—"

"I know that," he spat.

"Cecily could be visiting someone here—"

"In the middle of Yorkshire, by herself? And that was our carriage. I recognized it. There's no other carriage in the carriage house. No, my family's in this somehow. They've been dragged into this bloody business and I—I have to warn them." Will looked almost like a deer caught in headlights as he spun around and began down the hill again.

"Will!" Jem shouted, and grabbed the back of his coat. Will turned around and shoved him away. Anger flared up inside me, and I started towards him, but this time Tessa held me back. "Don't, Abby," she said breathlessly. "There's nothing you can do."

And she was right—Jem seemed to be handling the situation quite well on his own. With astonishing strength, he yanked Will backward and yelled, "You've held back all these years—you can't waste it now—"

Something must have snapped inside Will, for all of a sudden both boys were rolling down in the hill in a tangle of bodies, each fighting for dominance of the other, and Tessa and I watching horror-struck from the crest of the hill—until Will was pinned against a large rock, Jem holding him down.

"Get off me," Will shouted. "You don't understand. Your family's dead—"

"Will," Jem said, as calm as it was possible to be in that situation. "I do understand. And unless you want your family dead too, you'll listen to me."

For the first time, Will seemed to realize what he had done, and he went as pale as Tessa had been earlier. In a choked voice he gasped, "James, you can't possibly—I've never—"

"Look," Jem said in a low, dangerous voice, and pointed at the top of the hill. "There. Look." Tessa and I followed his gaze, and I staggered backward as I saw an automaton standing like a guard over us, with no trace of human features in its face.

"By the Angel—" Will gasped. I grabbed Tessa's arm and we both began backing away from it—although it technically did us no good—and we pressed close together as if we were a pair of rabbits cowering away from a fox.

"That thing's been following us; I'm sure of it," Jem explained. "I saw a flash of metal earlier, from the carriage, but I wasn't sure. Now I am. If you go tearing off down the hill, you risk leading that thing right to your family's door."

"I see," Will said resolutely. "I won't go near the house. Let me up. I swear on Raziel's name."

Jem hesitated, but I could see his resolve weakening.

"Let me up," Will demanded in a stronger voice, and when Jem did so, he went tearing off again—but this time in the direction of the automaton instead of the house. Jem swore, the word sounding foreign on his tongue, before following after his parabatai.

"Jem!" Tessa and I shrieked in unison, and we immediately tore after him. I was still unused to running in dresses, and after Tessa had helped me up for the third time I motioned for her to go on alone. We had almost reached a copse of trees, and I would have rather stayed out in the open than become lost in the woods.

"Tess, go," I told her after I'd fallen down yet again after twisting my ankle. There was no use in me running anymore, and I didn't fancy the idea of going into the forest.

She looked torn, her hand on my shoulder. "I cannot leave you here by yourself—"

"I have my seraph blade," I said, wincing as I pulled it and my stele out of my pocket. "I can take care of myself. I'll only slow you down. Go and find the boys."

It took her another moment of persuasion, but she finally lifted up her skirts and darted away, casting fearful glances back at me as she did. I appreciated her concern, but the only other person that could be useful in a fight was her. I would only drag her down, and briefly entertained the notion that I might even have asked her to be my parabatai if she was a Shadowhunter.

I was able to draw an iratze on my ankle, and after another moment I was able to stand, good as new—and unluckily, just in time to notice a scurrying in the grass around me. Stuffing my stele back in my pocket, I brandished my seraph blade and took several steps backward, wishing that the grass wasn't so damned long.

My heart nearly stopped when I saw the now terribly familiar black spider, instantly recognizable even as it scuttled through the dirt. But I was ready this time: I gripped the handle of my seraph blade and plunged it down, straight through the spider's abdomen. With a horrible screeching noise of metal gears grinding to a halt, it stopped moving, speared onto the bottom of my weapon.

I wasn't sure how long it had been before Will, Jem and Tessa came into sight again, each of them splattered with blood and dirt. Will didn't even look at me, trudging straight through the grass back to the road, but Jem and Tessa helped me up, Jem whispering unfamiliar but soothing words to me in Chinese when he saw the spider. I leaned heavily against him and smiled at Tessa, who looked even more troubled than usual.

"What happened?" I was finally able to ask, staring ahead at Will, his dark head bowed and his hands clenched into fists at his sides.

"We managed to destroy the automaton," Jem explained in a low voice; I could feel the vibration of his throat when he spoke. "It told us it was a warning from the Magister. According to it, we must stop our investigation or Will's family shall pay the price."

It was then I understood that Will's horrid mood was due to worry about his family, such a sickening and awful worry that I couldn't even begin to imagine it. And it was then that I think I finally understood that Will Herondale had a heart after all.

"It's going to rain," Jem observed, staring out the carriage window. The blue sky from that morning had given way to dark, oppressive clouds, and I could see that the fields some way off were already completely soaked. We were on the edges of the storm, just managing to outrun it.

I shivered in response; it was cold in the carriage, and Jem wound his arm around my shoulders. His skin was freezing as well, but even so, the warmth of another body was enough to make me feel better.

"Cecily," Tessa said thoughtfully, speaking for the first time. "Your sister—she looks like you."

He didn't react.

"Are you cold, Will?" she asked again. He merely shook his head and continued staring out the window, as still as a statue.

Tessa threw a desperate look toward Jem, and he leaned forward. "Will," he began in his most unthreatening, sympathetic voice. "I thought…I thought that your sister was dead."

"My sister is dead," he replied, and his accompanying stare was the coldest yet, so icy that I buried my face in Jem's shoulder, not caring what anybody would say about that.

The train ride back to London was nearly silent. We sat in the same places as we had the previous day—Tessa and Will by the window, Jem and I by the doors. Tessa slept for most of the ride, and I stared blankly at the wall above Jem's head, pretending I wasn't looking at him. He tried to get Will to speak, whispering, "Me specta, me specta." Look at me, look at me.

But Will never did, and I was just beginning to doze off myself when Jem abruptly stood up and left the compartment. Forcing my aching muscles to obey, I jumped up after him. He sensed my pursuit and stopped just outside the corridor. I reached for his hand and he squeezed it reassuringly—we didn't have to worry about keeping up appearances here. "Where are you going?" I asked as we passed numerous compartments filled with men and women just coming back from their weekend trips to the country.

"To get a cloth for yours and Tessa's hands," Jem explained. I glanced down at my free hand, and was amazed to see that it was covered in dirt. How had I not noticed that before?

"Sorry," I apologized, trying to take my hand out of Jem's. But he held on firmly, leaning over to kiss my jaw as I found myself pressed against the wall, just around the corner from the nobility's compartments. This was dangerous territory we were skirting into, but it only made the thrill more pleasurable as I kissed his jaw in return before moving to his mouth. We kissed softly for a moment before Jem reluctantly pulled away and whispered, "Soon," under his breath, causing my heart to race at ten times its normal speed.

He ducked into the bathroom to grab a cloth and run it under a washstand before coming back over to me and running the cloth over my fingers, caressing my wrist as he did. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm worried about him," I confessed, staring up into his silver eyes. "Will, I mean."

"He'll snap out of it. He always does," Jem tried to reassure me as we made our way back to our compartment. But this time was different, and both of us knew it.

Will and Tessa had been locked in earnest conversation just before we arrived, and by the time we sat back down they had lapsed into silence again. "A miracle," Jem said wryly. "You got him to speak."

"Just to shout at me, really. Not quite loaves and fishes." Tessa frowned at Will, who was now trying to pretend that they hadn't been speaking.

"It's a start," Jem said, handing the cloth over to Tessa, who took it gratefully.

"Jessie would be horrified," she said as she washed her hands. "She'd tell me I had charwoman's hands."

"And what, pray tell, is dishonorable about that?" Jem asked. "I saw you and Abby chase after us and that automaton creature. If Jessamine does not know by now that there is honor in dirt and blood, she never will."

Tessa grinned. "Thank you. I doubt I was any help at all, and probably a hindrance, but thank you all the same."

"That's what we're training you for, isn't it?" They shared a smile, but this time I didn't feel jealous at all. There was no hint of anything deeper than friendship in their eyes, nothing past the "bounds of propriety", as Jem had called it earlier today.

Tessa dropped her voice to a murmur as she asked him, "Have you any idea what could have happened? Why Will's family would be living in a house Mortmain once owned?"

Jem shook his head. "I do not, though it makes me think that the game Mortmain is playing is a long one. Somehow he knew exactly where our investigations would lead us, and he arranged for this—encounter—to shock us as much as possible. He wishes us to be reminded who it is who has the power." But before he could say anything else, he broke into a coughing fit, his breathing rattling and shallow. This finally caused Will to look over at him, alarm visible in his eyes. I leaned forward and placed a hand on Jem's knee, urging him to respond.

He straightened up and gave us all a kindly smile, though it was clear he was shaken. "Just some dust in my throat."

Tessa and I exchanged a worried glance, but it didn't get any farther than that as the screech of the train's brakes became audible. Before it even stopped, Will was on his feet, leaving the compartment and jumping down onto the platform. Jem made to follow him, but seemed to realize that he couldn't abandon us and sank back down onto his seat.

"But Will—" Tessa began, staring apprehensively after him.

"He'll be all right. You know how he is. Sometimes he just wants to be alone. And I doubt he wishes to take part in recounting today's experiences to Charlotte and the others. Will can take care of himself, Tessa." Jem's tone was kind but firm.

She still didn't look convinced, but glanced away from him and out the window, her grey eyes troubled. I met Jem's gaze instead, and we shared a plainly worried look. I was surprised that I was concerned about Will too; we'd certainly never shared more than a few minutes of amicability, but I had evidently slowly grown to care for him as well.

Jem reached out for me, and I took his hand, giving it a tight squeeze. He smiled tiredly at me, and I longed to kiss him and ease at least some of the anxiety from his mind. But that was impossible here, in such a public place, and so I had to settle for resting my head on his shoulder as he slid open the door to the compartment and helped me out of the train. We waited on the platform for Tessa, and when she finally arrived the three of us silently collected our luggage and went to meet Cyril. None of us spoke again all the way back to the Institute, but it was clear that our thoughts were currently very similar.