Hey all I know I know its been a long while. It's been a few months and i want to say I'm so sorry for the long periods of time in between updates. But i haven't got a huge amount of time to write like I used to. But writing this has been creating some nice creative flow that I havent had in a while.
Anyways! I guess a recap is underway because I dont think anyone remembers everything from the past 6 chapters.
Recap: Madeleine Bellefleur has a secret that she wants to share with Jocelyn. At the start of term, she notices movement in the trees near the school. Jocelyn persuades Luke to have one on one training with her, which includes rainy night rendezvous in the Brocelind forest. Stephen Herondale unexpectedly moves to idris to finish his last year at the academy and catches Amatis' eye. Amatis and Luke worked for the Fairchilds over the summer.
Alright folks! Enjoy the chapter!
Luke watched as Jocelyn slid down the slick, muddy hill. She was grinning ear to ear, somehow cheerful looking in the harsh blue witch light that she held above her head. Luke, rather apprehensively, made his way down the hill, as cautious as Jocelyn was careless. After dinner Luke had been rushed by Jocelyn around the school, grabbing a few weapons and his gear, shaking his head with Madeleine when he told her where they were going while he waited for Joss to finish getting ready. It felt more like a night out than a possibly deadly hunt.
"Where was the movement you two saw?" Luke yelled over the pounding rain, hoping that this venture would end as soon as possible.
Jocelyn rolled her eyes at him and pointed to the edge of the forest surrounding the school like a barrier. Luke peered into the brush, but with the pouring rain dripping into his eyes, he could barely make out the school behind him. Jocelyn was soaked and covered in mud already, her feathered hair now plastered to her cheeks. "Let's get this over with, yeah?"
Luke nodded and took her extended hand that she offered him, pulling him closer into the witchlight. He wasn't a huge fan of what the light provided for possible enemies, but it was so dim and heavy Luke doubted he would be able to see Jocelyn if her face was two inches away from his. The mud squelching under their boots, the two friends pushed past the brush. Joss lowered the light near the ground, though Luke saw no evidence of tracks.
"Where did you see it again?" Luke nearly whined, the cold slowly entering his bones.
"It was somewhere right around here!" Jocelyn paced around the area, heading further into the forest.
"Well maybe whatever it was left when it started raining. Most animals take cover when the weather gets bad." Luke inched closer to the clearing, hoping desperately that Jocelyn would give it up soon.
Jocelyn shook her head and didn't respond, pushing further into the wild forest. Luke shivered and folded his arms against his chest, trying to retain any body heat he had left. Now under the protection of the trees, the raindrops were fewer but much heavier. A few heavy droplets landed on his scalp and oddly felt warm. Perhaps the hypothermia was already setting in! Luke realized the witchlight was getting dimmer and dimmer and the last thing Luke wanted was for Joss to get lost in the woods. "We should turn back!"
Jocelyn suddenly whipped her head towards him, like she had just barely realized he was there, that she had actually dragged him here with her. Her eyes widened, "Lookout! Above you!"
And like an idiot, all Luke could do was turn his attention to the canopy of trees above his head.
Jocelyn
Jocelyn's morning began with Madeleine touching her witchlight, throwing a harsh, bluish glare over the entire room. She groaned loudly, stuffing her face into her pillow.
"Jos, you've got to get up. I know you had a late night with Luke, but we've got our workout in ten minutes. And you can't miss it." Madeleine shook Jocelyn's shoulder again before pulling off her nightclothes and stepping into her gear.
Jocelyn moaned again and shifted to lay on her back, her hands covering her eyes still. Her head pounded and felt off balanced on her shoulders. "What happened last night?" she asked weakly.
"You and Luke went to investigate the moving bush, remember?" Madeleine's voice was full of disapproval. "And even though the storm ended up flooding the basement, you still wanted to go look."
Flashes of the previous night filled her mind. Luke sliding down the hill covered in mud, them laughing and shouting over the roar of the rain, the haunting look of the trees at night in witchlight. Jocelyn shuddered, remembering exactly what had happened. She had bravely (now Jocelyn thought it stupidity more than anything) entered into the forest with her witchlight held high above her head. The floor was thick with squelching mud that pasted her boots with chunks of dead leaves and twigs. The rain collected in the canopy above into large, cold drops that would occasionally fall on her scalp and slide it's way down her spine. She had been more than a little creeped out. After all, she had done countless exercises in that forest killing demons that had been let loose by her own teachers. There was no rule, but students avoided the line of trees that surrounded the school, as they should. Which Jocelyn and Luke could now testify to.
"So did you actually find anything?" Madeleine asked, already changed completely into her gear and pulling on her boots.
Jocelyn sat up and blinked away the vertigo from the action. "Yeah, I think so."
"What do you mean by that?" Madeleine frowned, looking Jocelyn over with concern. "Are you okay?"
"I've been better." Jocelyn admitted as she stood up. Her head swam and for a moment she thought she might pass out. Jocelyn waited for the ground to stop moving to step toward her wardrobe. "It was an injured werewolf."
"What? Did you see it? Who was it?" Madeleine pounced her immediately.
"It was hiding in the branches when we got there. It was dripping blood all over Luke, which is when I finally noticed it.. And I'm sure it's not the werewolf that you . . . you know. Are looking for." Jocelyn informed her.
Madeleine sighed and sat on her bed. "That's good. It could be from a completely different pack for all you know. And he wouldn't scout out anything himself. He would send one of his underlings to watch."
"It was female and I don't think it was looking for trouble." Jocelyn added, not wanting to fuel her friend's obsession with werewolves. Of course, Jocelyn couldn't blame her. If half her family had been killed by the worst werewolf Alicante had ever seen, she'd jump to conclusions as well.
"Well if you didn't get any real proof, why do you look like you lost a fight?"
Jocelyn flushed in embarrassment, the last memory of the night clarifying why her head pounded so badly. "I turned around too quickly to tell Luke about the werewolf and dropped my witchlight. While I was looking for it, I somehow ended up slamming my head into a tree trunk."
Madeleine smirked. "Well that explains the huge lump on your forehead.
"Serious?!" Jocelyn rubbed her bruise wincing at the large size. "Not the worst I've had, but ew. I look like I have a plum growing out of my skull." She whipped out her stele from her unpacked suitcase and quickly drew a healing rune on her arm. Slowly, the ringing headache
reduced to only a small pulse.
"How did Luke fair with the downworlder then?" Madeleine asked in a quiet undertone as the two friends left their dorm and headed down the dark hallway, a dreary drizzle still coming from the dark bluish sky.
Jocelyn frowned and racked her brain. "I honestly can't remember. I think I knocked myself out."
"Well how did you get back to the room?"
"I'm assuming Luke helped me up, maybe? I don't know. I guess we'll both have to wait for the story during training." Jocelyn felt tired and achy being up this early, with some random events happening last night that fogged her memory. She didn't like the feeling, and was eager to grill Luke the minute she saw him.
Out on the lawn her classmates were already in their warm ups, jogging laps and then periodically stretching. They molded into the group without their instructor noticing, Jocelyn thanked the angel silently. The rune had healed her aching head and now Jocelyn was ready to work her muscles as hard as she could. By the time warm ups were through, Jocelyn had confirmed that Luke was not present for class.
It became especially known when attendance was called and the silence after Amatis's name was loud and clear to her. Luke's sister rolled her eyes and said something derisive to her friend next to her, and the attendance rolled on. "Is Luke okay?"
Madeleine looked worried, her normal harsh gaze was even more severe as her eyes scanned the tree line 100 yards off.
"I'm sure he's fine." Jocelyn whispered back, not at all sure what had become of her friend. "He's probably just sleeping in."
The workout continued for another hour or so before they were released to their next class. Madeleine pulled her aside. "You go check out the woods area for any sign of what happened after you blacked out and I'll go check Luke's dorm. There's not enough time to check together. Meet up outside of runes class, yeah?"
Jocelyn nodded and immediately ran in the opposite direction of the school. The hill was even worse now than last night, the downhill stretch completely covered in mud. Jocelyn tried to pick her way down as clean as possible, but once she had slipped, there was no other way to go down but sliding. Jocelyn didn't bother cleaning herself off as she moved past the bush that had drawn the curious attention of Madeleine not even 24 hours ago.
Jocelyn was not the best tracker, but it was obvious to her there was some sort of struggle. Rainfall had collected in boot prints that could only have been Luke's from the large size, and so Jocelyn followed the pair that travelled further into the woods. The trail hadn't gone much further when it stopped. She searched the canopy above her, looking for any clue as to where the werewolf could have hidden. Jocelyn closed her eyes, trying hard to sort through the flashes.
She definitely remembered turning around and finding Luke covered in the werewolf's blood. It definitely could have been this spot where he stopped when he heard her warning. Jocelyn carefully surveyed the rest of the area, noticing luke's tracks widening and veering of in random patterns. It was here that Jocelyn's heart skipped a beat. There were two sets of tracks now. Joined in Luke's boot was a large paw print, bigger than any normal dog or woodland animal.
Madeleine ran up the stairs two at a time, thankful for her lanky height for once. She almost slipped once or twice from the mud students tracked in, but quickly regained her balance, bolting down the hallway and the wing that housed all the shadowhunter males. Without so much as a knock, she barged into Luke's room. "Where the he-"
Madeleine cut off her curse when she found only Malachi dressing out of his gear and practically jumping out of his own skin. "What do you want?!"
"I-I'm sorry. I'm just looking for Luke...He didn't show up for morning training?"
"That's because he isn't on campus anymore." He stated matter of factly, pulling off his vest and quickly covering up in a polo.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Madeleine folded her arms and leaned against the door, trying to look as severe as possible.
"Well he never came back to sleep last night after Jocelyn grabbed him and if he's not showing up to classes, or in his dorm then I daresay he probably isn't on campus. Unless he's being expelled by the Dean right now-"
"Thank you Malachi!" Madeleine suddenly had a brilliant idea and took off running again, leaving a grumbling Malachi to shut the door and finish changing.
Amatis
Amatis crumpled into her seat for runes. Maybe she was a terrible sister, but by the angel, how hard was it show up to the first class? Everyone was there, except for Luke. The dregs probably had better attendance this morning than the actual shadowhunters. Her fellow classmates continued to chat and claim seats before class began but Amatis really couldn't find it in her to be sociable. She quickly noticed several of the older students, a few of the Ravenscars, whispering and smirking at her with her least favorite person in the world, quite possibly, Carina Ashdown.
There was nothing that Amatis could really pinpoint from where her dislike stemmed. To her own admittance all she could say was that it was borne of standard, girlish jealousy that has plagued so many before. Carina's blonde hair flowed perfectly with such volume that it bounced and shone in any light and she was perfectly curvy in every way Amatis wasn't. It also didn't help that her summer fling was Amatis' best friend's betrothed.
Anna Highsmith sat next to her and slightly smiled, following her line of sight. "I'm sorry if he embarrasses you, but you shouldn't get too caught up in it."
Amatis sighed exasperatedly and began doodling with a marker."You're really sweet but honestly, my entire family has been an embarrassment. There's no way I can get rid of this stupid stigma of Graymarks."
Anna shrugged and nodded. She was tall and graceful, with shiny light brown hair that glimmered gold after a hot summer. "Maybe, but I don't think you'll ever be a shame to the Graymark line. Our destinies are very little influenced by our families."
Her eyebrows crinkled as she gave it some serious thought. "That might be more true for mundanes, but shadowhunter lines...I mean. You can't escape them."
Patrick Penhallow suddenly slipped into a chair beside Anna, smiling at her and pecking her cheek quickly before leaning back in his chair easily. "Hey babe."
Amatis snorted and almost shook her head as Annamarie smiled passively, tucking a golden streak of hair behind her ear. "Missed you. What have you been up to?"
He sighed pathetically and ruffled his blonde messy hair. "I was so bored last night. Where were you?"
"Oh we had a little girl's night before term started. I thought I told you?"
"How was your summer, Pat? Did you do anything exciting?" Amatis interjected, too irritated at how forgiving Anna was to her faithless boyfriend of 2 years and 4 months.
Patrick glared at her. "Compared to your summer of scrubbing toilets, I'd say yes. I had plenty to entertain me."
Annamarie sighed and slumped in between the two. "Play nice you two, there's plenty of me to go around."
Amatis muttered for only Anna to hear, "There's plenty of Pat to go around too as long as you aren't looking."
"I'm not arguing about this again with you" Anna hissed right as their teacher swept into the room.
"Alright class, steles and heads up!" Their instructor, a young man with straight, longer hair, called attention. "This will be a fast paced class, nothing like the immature drawings you were used to last year. The better the drawing, the stronger power you can draw from it. So, let's begin. Start with opening your books-"
The door slammed open, Jocelyn bursting in. "Sorry I'm late er...Mr…."
"Wrayburn, thank you. Please take a seat you haven't missed anything."
Jocelyn nodded, flushed and completely covered in mud. "As I was saying, get out your books and turn to page 33-"
She had barely taken her seat when another disturbance called the classes attention to the door. Madeleine halted to an abrupt stop from her obvious sprint to the class. "I'm terribly sorry, it won't happen again Mr.-"
"Wrayburn!" Jocelyn chimed in, making the class chuckle at the distractions.
"Right, Mr. Wrayburn." Madeleine heaved her book bag over her shoulder and sat down behind Jocelyn, whispering something in her ear before settling into her seat and pulling out the class materials.
"Anyways, please turn to page 33 for our lesson-" Mr. Wrayburn began trying to pull back the attention of his class once again, but Amatis found it hard to pay attention to her drawings on paper. Normally Jocelyn and Luke were inseparable. And Jocelyn was a devoted student, albeit a tardy one, but usually influenced her poor, smitten brother to make it at least to class. Maybe he had gotten into some kind of trouble…
Amatis glanced around the room, paying more attention now to her classmates. After morning training and warm ups, the school split off into 3 different sections: the dregs, upperclassmen and the underclassmen, who had only been attending at most 3 years. Her classes consisted of the same people the majority of the time, with minor side classes and random field trips that were by year.
It looked like the two main troublemakers, Harvey Featherstone and Barty Ravenscar, were present and unusually innocent looking. Maybe Luke had just been mixed up in something on his own. The two boys were Luke's age and had brown hair and similar facial structure, like their families had been interbreeding for one too many generations. In fact, Amatis was sure they were currently in laws somehow. They both had a million siblings all cooped up in London: something had to have happened.
Amatis' attention drifted over to the attractive british boy who had spoiled her book from yesterday, Stephen. He looked much less like a mundane now in his gear. His hair was still spiky however and she wasn't sure if it was his eye color that was so alarmingly blue or the black eyeliner that made them pop. He kept glancing over his shoulder, and for a minute Amatis thought he was looking at her. But, it became very obvious quickly that he was staring at a different girl, just past Amatis.
Yet another Ravenscar and Featherstone duo were the older sisters her age, Amanda and Erica. Amanda was beautiful with curly black hair and normally large brown eyes, but today Amatis could see her swiping her bloodshot eyes discreetly. Erica looked down right furious next to her, practically shooting daggers as she glared at Stephen. Amatis was distracted momentarily from her brother's whereabouts by this silent feud going back and forth as Amanda looked more and more devastated.
If Amanda ever had a boyfriend, Amatis was the last person to have found out as the other two girls were exclusively friends with each other. Apparently there was a lot more going down at the London Institute than what her british classmates let on. Amatis tabled the drama for another time however, and focused her attention on her brother's two most favorite people, Jocelyn and Madeleine.
Jos was scraping the dried mud off her boots on her desk legs while Madeleine whispered quickly to her. Neither girl even bothered to pay attention to the lesson that Mr. Wrayburn was trying so hard to teach and capture the young shadowhunter's attentions. But just like that, Mr. Wrayburn dismissed them and sighed, sitting defeated in his chair. Amatis waved goodbye to Anna and ignored Patrick as she climbed over her chair towards her boss's daughter, yanking on her arm. "Where is Luke? Is he okay?"
Jocelyn chewed on her lip, shaking her head. "He's in the infirmary right now. He has a couple of scratches so they're not sure if it's maybe...um...they think it might be from a downworlder."
Her mouth dropped open. "What?! How did a downworlder get on campus?!"
Madeleine and Jocelyn exchanged worried glances. "We're not sure, but once Luke comes to I'm sure he'll be able to give some answers."
Amatis shook her head and stormed out of the classroom, the two friends following behind her. "I'm going to see him now, before there's nothing left of my brother."
"They're not positive-" Jocelyn tried to console her, but cut off when Amatis' stunning glare cut her off.
"You're supposed to be his friend, aren't you? Why weren't you with him when-" her throat swallowed anything else she wanted to say, mostly because all she was really thinking about was how she was his sister, and how had she been acting terribly so far on the first day. And now maybe her little brother was going to be taken away from her, her only family left in the world that counted.
"I was there." Jocelyn admitted, her hands folded and twitching nervously. "It really is my fault…" her voice was breaking, just like Amatis, and suddenly she felt horrid for putting blame on the poor girl.
"Let's head up to the infirmary. I'm sure the dean will excuse our absences for next class." Amatis suggested much more gently.
Madeleine draped her long arm around Jocelyn's shoulder and led the way up the staircase and down the hall, the double doors at the end of the hallway bringing Amatis so much dread and guilt she didn't know if she could handle it.
What do YOU think happened?! All will be revealed next chapter! Stay tuned for the next chapter and don't forget to review!
-Laur