A/N: Sorry it took so long, school and blocks and all, you know :)

CHAPTER XVII

A Tale of Two

"Anything?"

A sudden male voice broke through the silence that filled the library, bar the lone sound of pages being turned.

"No" I sighed, turning yet another page. I had no idea how much time had passed since we had started the search and, of course, we were getting no where. Julian and Emma didn't even know what they were looking for and I was none the wiser, there in lies the problem. Until I figure out what happened, we were completely and utterly stuck. Judging by the Sun, we had been sat here at least an hour. I was impressed by the extensiveness of the book I was currently skipping through, apparently -though unsurprisingly- actual Shadowhunter codex's were significantly more detailed than the ones they sell in W. . Though that didn't change the fact that it was still no help, so far at least. "I mean how hard can it be? How many demons are there anyway?" I threw my head down in defeat onto the open pages of the book.

"Well if you care to remember that an entire race was created to defend you mundanes in an eternal battle against the entire demon race and we've been doing so for the past thousand years, I'm gonna say a lot" Emma sneered sarcastically.

"It was a rhetorical question, Einstein" I bit back, the stress and sleep deprivation finally taking its toll.

"A what?" she scoffed.

"A rhetorical question"

"Yeah?" she raised her eyebrows.

"Seriously? They teach you Shadowhunters a million different methods of a beheading but not the meaning of a rhetorical question?"

"Funnily enough, we've had better things to worry about like, I don't know, keeping the universe from plunging into the deprave dominion of demon rule"

"Enough!" Julian shouted, shutting the cover of the book he was reading with a echoing slam, "We're not going to get anywhere like this. November, I know you're stressed and frustrated but the demon that did that to Darcy is going to be in there somewhere, you just need to be patient" he looked over at me with a calm, though slightly disgruntled, and somewhat pitiful expression, shifting his tone from a shout to a more gentle chiding like he was afraid if he shouted at me I would break (in any other circumstance, I would roll my eyes about this point) then moved his gaze over to Emma, "And Emma, just... stop being yourself for a little while at least" he sighed and Emma actually did roll her eyes.

"Every second I spend in here flicking through this damn book is one more second that Darcy's life is in danger. I can't just sit here and let that happen. This is my fault!"

"Blaming yourself is going to solve nothing, November" Julian's eyes tried to catch mine, "The best thing you can do for her is find out what did this to her"

I sigh, finally meeting his gaze.

"You're right. I'm just not getting anywhere with this"

Julian stood up from his chair with a groan of old woodwork and walked over to stand behind the chair I was occupying. I looked back down, suddenly focusing intently on the book again. He places a hand on the back of my chair, leaning over to inspect the book I was studying.

"Well" he sighed, "what do you remember about the demon?"

I said nothing, my heartbeat in my ears.

"I know that, for whatever reason, you don't want to talk about it. But you were the only one there who is capable of telling us anything that could help us now"

My hand tightened its grip around the seat of the chair. Knuckles white. The words in the book before me nothing but a collection of lines connected together on a page.

"November. Talk to me. What are you hiding?"

"It spoke to me" I blurted out suddenly.

Julian's body jerked back at the sound of my voice like he hadn't expected it.

"The demon?" he asked.

I nodded.

"That's not so unusual" Emma interjected from across the table with a shrug.

I had to take her word for it. Julian stood still.

"What did it say?" his voice was soft, he looked down again at me. I met his gaze momentarily before it was drawn off to the far corner of the room as I was taken back to earlier that morning. The corrupted, contorted sound like poison seeping into my brain. Sounds and lines twisting and curling in around eachother in my mind. The harsh, brusque slur of the voice. Hisses, vowels and consonants.

"Want to save your friend, one of terror?"

I didn't realised I had spoken the words aloud until my gaze refocused on Julian's ghostly expression. He was as white as a sheet.

"What?" I ask in confusion.

Nothing.

"What? What is it?" I whip my head around to behold Emma, her jaw was set with an expression similar to Julian's on her face.

"God. Will somebody say something?! Why are you looking at me like I just spoke parseltongue?"

I though at least that would evoke some ignorant sneer from Emma. I had used the Harry Potter reference without thinking and surely it would have usually provoked a response from her along the lines of "can't you even speak like a normal person, mundane?" but it had fallen on dead ears.

"Julian?" I glance back upwards to see that he still hadn't moved. His face was shocked, pale and... scared? What on Earth has got him afraid? I haven't suddenly sprouted horns have I?

After a moment, he gulped and then -finally- he spoke. His voice was low and gruff.

"November. What you just said. That wasn't English"

I furrowed my brows. It wasn't? Sure, I had taken G.C.S.E. French but I was far from fluent. Miles from subconsciously slipping into the language in normal conversation.

"It wasn't any language"

Okay, now I'm freaked out. What the Hell is he talking about?

"It was a demon language"

Shit.

"H-how?" I stammered, feeling my blood run cold once more.

"That is an excellent question" a new voice ringing from the entrance of the room snapped the room out of its trance. I heard footsteps make their way over to the table. I slowly drew myself from my shock to look over. It was Tessa. She had taken the time to change from her pyjamas into casual clothes and it looked like she had re-done braid too, her hair hung over her shoulder in a long, neat plait of thick brown hair.

"Julian. Emma" she nodded in their direction, "Take this time and go and change out of those pyjamas. This is going to be a long day and it would be for the best that you be dressed appropriately for it. November and I will continue this alone"

Emma exited the room almost immediately with a firm nod towards Tessa, Julian seemed more reluctant, hesitating under Tessa's fixed stare before following in Emma's footsteps.

And then we were alone.

I shifted in my chair so I was sitting on it sideways, with one knee drawn up to prop in from of me. I dropped my head upon it.

Voices swarmed inside my mind. My own. Darcy's. Emma's. Julian's. Tessa's. The demon. The morning already felt like it had been an eternity. Yesterday felt years away. Last night's nightmare, weeks. Nightmares were the least of her problems now.

In my peripheral vision I saw the Tessa's shadow move towards the bookshelves beside the window seat, the one that I myself had been perusing all those weeks ago, the day after Halloween. My birthday.

The harsh rays of Sunlight beam brightly through the stained glass of the window. Shedding light of the minuscule flecks of dust floating, it seemed, in a wave of their own in the space that the shadows didn't reach. When I was younger, I used to think those tiny specks that danced in the light were fairy dust.

Something catches Tessa's eye and she looks down suddenly, curiously. A smile of unexpected joy stretches across her profile as she reaches down to recover something from the floor. The book I had dropped that time before and completely forgotten.

"Oh, my-" I stammer in apology, "I'm sorry, I dropped that accidentally and just left it there. I shouldn't have been so careless with objects that aren't my own, I'm sorry..."

I marked her expression curiously. She was smiling down with a countenance of fondness and nostalgia at the ancient copy. But deep in her translucent grey eyes I could see old pain and sorrow swimming, resurfacing after years of floating at the sea bed.

"No, it's quite alright" Tessa uttered softly, almost speaking to the book itself.

She seemed to be lost in another time, seeing the ghosts and touch of a distant past unknown to me.

She remained like this for minutes stretching through the peaceful silence of reminiscence. With each second of the beautiful silence that ticked past my curiosity grew, gradually growing stronger and braver than the cautious and anxious feeling writhing in my stomach, urging me to speak,

"...A Tale of Two Cities..." I muttered quietly, my voice just easing through the gentle silence, leaving it unbroken, afraid to startle Tessa. I know how lost you can become in your own world and all about how harsh the shock of reality could be as you're awoken to it, "A favourite..?"

"Yes" she breathed, full of raw emotion, "This book was- is, mine"

She smiled and hugged the book tenderly to her chest, reaching out for the touch of a ghost. Embarrassment and guilt flooded through my body, filling my cheeks at the shame of reading something so personal and precious to her.

"Oh, I- I'm sorry. I shouldn't have-"

"No, no. It's quite alright" she kindly brushes off my renewal of apologies yet again with a smile, "You couldn't have known"

Despite her words, shame still hotly branded my cheeks, no doubt turning them a telling hue of bright red. I was about to apologise once more when Tessa continued,

"Have you read it?" she asked, "A Tale of Two Cities?"

"Yes- No" I reply, "No, I never finished it..." my brow furrows as I try to recall why I never came to finish the book. It wasn't like me to abandon a book and I loved the story, the characters... so why? My eyes squint in confusion, "But I loved, adored it. I don't know why I never finished..." my voice trails off, reaching through my scattered memories for an explanation.

"Well..." Tessa's voice interrupts my fruitless attempt at recollection, "Here"

She extends her arm to reach to where I am sat, sideways at the table with the book in her hand, offering the beautiful copy to me.

I'm speechless, astounded.

"No. No" my words come out raw with shock and disbelief, "I couldn't possibly!"

Is she serious? Is she mad?

"Please"

She closes the gap between us, takes my hand shaking in refusal and places the book in it. I stare up at her in amazement.

"But-" I stammer for the words, "This clearly means so much to you... how could you just, give it to me?"

She smiles warmly.

"Because I know you'll treat it well. I recognise the loving look in your eyes and just by the way you hold that book, know that you will treasure it and keep it safe. And the things I cherish most from the past always have a way of finding their way back to me"

Her calm, grey eyes fill over with love and adoration, staring into the face of someone dear her in her memory. Who, I knew not.

"I'll make sure it will" I say, my voice still airy and soft with disbelief but ringing with determination, "You have to hold closely to the things that you hold most dear..."

Sadly, my memory does not fail me now and pain begins to creep back into my eyes at its resurfacing. Tessa glances curiously down at me but I move my gaze to the precious book now sitting in my lap, cradled in my arm. I brush my free hand gently, fondly over the ageing copy then hug it close to my chest. I won't let this slip through my fingers. What Tessa had unconsciously done in her kindness, is give what is clearly one of her most cherished items to a girl that loses, breaks and burns everything she loves.

"Not this time"

I breathe the words, uttering the promise to myself. Never again.

Tessa seems to check herself, snapping out of some preoccupying thought. She comes towards the tables, pulls out a chair and sits down beside me.

"Now" she says almost tentatively but with a fixed air of determination, "Tell me everything that happened this morning"

My stomach plummets and my heart leaps to my throat. I feel all the oxygen in my lungs leave me and I suck in a tight, shaky breath. When I exhale, I begin my story.