Author's Note: Thanks for all of the wonderful reviews! Please, keep them coming. Enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 13: Wayland Manor
Three weeks later

When Stephen first moved into the Fairchild Manor, he was under the impression that his room was in a separate wing all by itself, while Jocelyn, Valentine, and Celine had a rooms closer to the steps leading down to the kitchen. It wasn't until the morning after the encounter in the library, when Stephen followed Celine upstairs from breakfast, that he discovered that the door to Celine's quarters was a mere 20 feet down the hall from his own. There was a time Stephen would have thought the arrangement was suspicious. Now, he just thought it was convenient.

It had been three weeks since that time in the library and Stephen had spent each and every one of those 21 nights sneaking into Celine's room as soon as Valentine had retired to his room. Every morning, Stephen snuck out. He sat across the table from Celine every morning at breakfast and tried to forget about what they did the night before. If Valentine noticed, he never said a word. Valentine was too busy taking Michael out hunting, as well as Robert and Hodge and the Pangborns, more than once. Valentine never took Stephen, which Stephen would have thought suspicious at one time. Now, Valentine leaving for six hours a few nights a week was convenient.

Stephen paced his bedroom, twirling a dagger in his hands. His body felt hot, his muscles tense. He had already taken a shower and shaved after spending half the day sleeping. Autumn had descended onto Idris, filling the days with gold toned sunlight and the nights cool and crisp. Stephen's bedroom was frigid. He should have built a fire in the fireplace, but he wasn't planning to spend the night in his bedroom.

At midnight, a clock downstairs began to chime. Stephen dropped the dagger onto his bed and walked out of the room. It was a full moon and Valentine had gone hunting with Michael and Robert. Stephen didn't need to sneak down the hallway, yet he did anyway, avoiding the creaky floor board beside one door, being careful not to trip over the rug a little further down. He arrived at Celine's door, turned the doorknob, and walked inside.

"You just had it last night," Celine said. "You can't need it again." Stephen gazed at Celine, who lay on her side in her large bed. She was dressed in red lingerie. He would have never thought lacy thongs and bustiers would have turned him on the way they did. Stephen's mouth went dry at the sight of red lace and so much cream colored skin. Celine was the sweetest addiction to have.

"I can't… I need it again," Stephen said. He crossed the room and crawled onto the bed. Stephen brushed a few locks of hair off of Celine's left shoulder and kissed her there. He placed another kiss at the base of her neck and continued to move his lips along her neck, all the way up to her ear lobe. He felt himself start to stiffen before Celine even laid her hands on him.

"You've had it every night for the past three weeks," Celine mumbled. She rested her palms just beneath his collar bones. Stephen tensed beneath her hands, then relaxed. He hadn't fought anyone or anything since that night in the prison and was beginning to feel agitated as a result. Luke had died a month ago, but all Valentine did was take others hunting for nothing more than demons. Valentine made Stephen want to hunt and kill, and was now leaving him out in the cold. If not for the sure fire release of being with Celine, Stephen might have lost his mind.

"I just want you," Stephen said. He kissed her lips and straddled her body. Celine pulled his shirt off and raked her nails down his spine. "Come on, Celine." He was imagining how hot it would be to fuck her without taking her lingerie off. That was the stuff of fantasies.

"No," Celine said. "Lay down on your stomach. I want to do something different." Stephen threw himself onto the bed. Celine opened a drawer in the bedside table and pulled out a bottle of massage oil. She drizzled some on to her hands, then straddled his legs as she began to knead her fingers into his tense muscles and bones.

"You beautiful fucking… goddess," Stephen groaned. Celine laughed.

"We should get to know one another, you know," she said.

"I'm Stephen," Stephen mumbled. "Stephen... William..."

"We've been sleeping together for three weeks. Do you have a plan for the future?" Celine asked.

"I was hoping to spend the night. I don't have any firewood and my room is cold since it faces the west," Stephen said. Celine gave up.

When she was finished massaging his back, Celine had Stephen roll onto his back. Then, she straddled his waist and began to massage his biceps, as well as the muscles across his chest.

"You think they would fade," Celine said. "Your runes, I mean."

"Not the permanent ones," Stephen said.

"Well, none of them really are permanent, are they?" Celine asked. "Some can be removed?" Stephen looked down to see her fingers lingering on the wedded union rune over his heart. They had been naked together every night for three weeks. Stephen had traced his lips over Celine's few runes, and she knew the location of each of his. They never discussed their runes, not before now, anyway.

"It's not like they would fade. I'm still…" Stephen began. "I'm still married, Celine. It's not official yet." Celine climbed from the bed and tossed Stephen his shirt. "What did you expect? That we would start fucking and I would suddenly be not married to her? That sex with you would render my marriage to Amatis null and void?"

"Well, it did, didn't it?" Celine asked. Stephen raised his eyebrows. He wasn't about to revisit the night he threw his whole marriage away. "I just wanted more than sex, you know that." Celine climbed back into bed and sat beside Stephen. "Tell me how you feel."

"Aroused," Stephen said.

"We've been making love for three weeks, and all you feel for me is arousal?" Celine asked.

Stephen was feeling other things for Celine, things he wasn't ready to admit, even to himself. He wasn't in love with her (but could, potentially, love her). That first time in the library had just been sex, and the second time in her room had been more sex, but the third time, Stephen found himself caring not just about the sex, but the part after the sex, where they lay together naked on the cool sheets and Stephen fit his body around Celine's. They fell asleep using the same pillow and moved together during the night, so that they each had a bit of skin touching the others. Sometimes, Stephen merely rested his chin on Celine's shoulder, and other times, he would open his eyes to find her hand on his stomach. It was always the same. At least, in sleep, they were together

"You can't expect me to answer that honestly," Stephen said.

"Then don't answer it at all," Celine said.

After that, there was nothing left to say. Stephen was invited to stay but Celine seemed angry about something, and so he returned to his own cold bedroom, where he passed the night in a troubled sleep. Early the next morning, Stephen went downstairs and met Celine, Valentine, Jocelyn, and the Fairchilds in the kitchen. After the meal, Stephen went out to the barn to tend to Nicias. He groomed her, mane to tail, until her black coat gleamed impressively.

"She's beautiful," Valentine said, walking into the barn.

"She's one of a kind," Stephen said. He was working a tangle out of Nicias's mane with a small comb. The task distracted Stephen from Valentine, who stood beside him. The Circle hadn't met since Luke's memorial. They would meet tonight at the Wayland Manor.

"Your mother is here," Valentine said. "Would you like to come up to the house?" Stephen looked up at the house and wondered what his mother must have been thinking, showing up here. There was no doubt as to why she had graced the threshold of Fairchild Manor.

"Have her come down to the pasture," Stephen said. He led Nicias outside and released her into a small, fenced in pasture. He saw Valentine walking up to the house, passing a woman dressed in a long, dark coat along the way.

Stephen was waiting beside the fence when Imogen walked up to him. Her hair, which was the same fair blond that Stephen's was now, had a tinge of grey to it. Imogen still retained the air of confidence she garnered during her time as head of the London Institute.

"Stephen," Imogen said.

"Mum," Stephen said. He kissed her on the cheek, then looked out into the pasture.

"Amatis wrote to your father and I," Imogen said. Stephen gripped the fence rail. Gossip spread like fire throughout Alicante; it would have only taken two solo trips to the grocery store for all of the town's people to realize that Amatis Herondale was living alone. Stephen planned to tell his parents about his divorce, but for Amatis to do it for him? That was humiliating and well deserved.

"Yes, mama," Stephen said.

"You're getting an… annulment?" Imogen asked. "You're invoking the six month rule? You do realize that you can't divorce and remarry every time you encounter difficulty in your marriage, correct? Once you're divorced, you can never go back to her."

"I don't want to go back," Stephen said. "It was a mistake, marrying her. She's better off without me."

"You love her," Imogen said. "I know your father never liked her, and I know… what with the baby… but you can work around that. There's no shame in adopting. Why, your great- great grandfather adopted a child, and your own father…" Marcus had to be adopted in order to be raised Herondale. Marcus saw shame in adopting for that reason.

"I just want a clean break. We married young and stupid, Amatis and I. It's better this way," Stephen said. "She's not the woman I remember marrying."

"We never are the people we were on our wedding days," Imogen said. "Maybe, Stephen, you were the one who changed."

"I cheated on her," Stephen said, "please don't tell Father. I just didn't want her anymore and I found someone else. Someone who could forgive me for my mistakes. And now, it's better this way. You can't convince me otherwise."

Imogen started to speak and stopped. She had always loved Amatis. On Stephen and Amatis's wedding day, when Amatis didn't have a mother to button her into her dress and fawn over her, Imogen was there, acting in her mother's place. When Stephen asked Amatis to marry him, Imogen was the second person Amatis told, after Luke. Imogen had three daughters, but she always held a special place in her heart for Amatis.

"There's no shame in trying until it works," Imogen said.

"It never will work," Stephen said. He felt his eyes fill with tears and knew why he avoided thinking about Amatis and all he'd left behind. When Stephen thought about leaving Amatis, his heart throbbed and his throat hurt. It was physically painful to think about Amatis. He thought he might get over it after three weeks of spending the night with Celine, but the pain never went away.

"You just keep in mind, you're welcome home anytime," Imogen said. "Don't worry about your father. I can handle him. We would be happy to have you back."

"I don't know what I'm going to do next," Stephen said. He saw a flash of brown and glanced up to see a tiny falcon flying overhead, trying it's wings out for the first time.

"You're still my son," Imogen said. She put an arm around Stephen and held him close. "No matter what you do, you are still my son."

Later that night Stephen dressed in warm clothes and left the house with Jocelyn, Valentine, and Celine. Celine was carrying Jonathan in a sling across her chest, so Stephen didn't have a chance to get close to her. It was a short walk through the woods and over a hill to another estate.

The Wayland Manor was a large white house, stacked high instead of long, with at least three floors and windows spaced neatly every few feet. Michael lived there with his parents, who were both avid supporters of the Circle.

"It's huge," Stephen said.

"They got it from a warlock family back in the 18th century, rumor has it," Celine said. "Spoils, you know."

"Spoils," Stephen said. He nodded. Celine used that word to mean so many different things. "Is something the matter?" Celine fixed the little hat Jonathan was wearing to keep his head warm. She seemed so at ease with a child, and even more with a child like Jonathan, who seemed to radiate tension. She would make a lovely mother.

"Nothing at all," Celine said.

"Well, I want to fix it," Stephen said. He wanted to say more but they had walked into Michael's backyard. A fire was lit and was surrounded with tables covered with food. Robert and Maryse were there, as was most everyone else. As usual, everyone greeted one another like family.

After a meal, Stephen sat between Michael and Celine by the fire as Valentine led the meeting. Stephen expected Valentine to finally divulge his plan for the Accords to everyone, but he didn't. Instead, Valentine discussed the demons he had killed with Hodge, Robert, Michael, and the Pangborns. Valentine seemed relaxed that evening and Stephen struggled to pay attention to him. He was instead distracted by the rune in the center of Celine's back, close to her neck. Stephen couldn't see what it was without seeing the whole rune, which made him want to see the whole rune, as well as Celine's long spine which ended in the cleft of her tight bottom…

"And now Michael is going to tell us why he and Stephen no longer work in the Gard," Valentine said. He sat down and Michael stood up.

"Stephen and I were working in the Prison. It was a typical night: we did our usual lock down, then, we had to feed the vampires their blood. I was carrying the box, Stephen was distributing," Michael said. "When we got to the last cell the vampire in it grabbed Stephen's hand, pulled him against the cell bars, and bit him on the wrist. Had I not been there… I shudder to think what might happen. It happened so fast. The vampire just… went crazy. Stephen could have died. I could have died… It could have been anyone, really. It was just…horrifying." Michael shivered and sat down beside Stephen.

"That's a perfect example of how volatile these Downworlders can be," Valentine said. He was shaking his head. "To bite the hand which was feeding it…" Stephen felt words sticking in his throat. He looked over at Michael, who only patted Stephen on the hand and gave him a reassured smile. Michael hadn't bothered to say that the vampire wing had been on edge before the attack even occurred, or that the vampire who attacked was Romulus Alabaster, who had been in prison for the past 40 years and wanted to die. Michael didn't even say that it was Stephen who stuck his hand beneath the bars of the cell. Michael told Valentine what Valentine wanted to hear. "And just look at what happened to Lucian."

Jocelyn lifted her head, looked at Stephen, and averted her eyes back to Jonathan. Her look was fleeting, but it told Stephen what she had said to him on the night of his Initiation: Stop him.

"What happened to Luke?" Stephen asked. "You never told us." Valentine stared at Stephen from across the fire. The flames licked up, distorting his face, but never his eyes. Stephen saw Valentine's eyes, cold, dark, glaring, all the way across the fire.

"You know what happened," Valentine said. "It was a werewolf. We went to talk with them. Things got out of hand."

"How?" Stephen asked. "You never told me how things got out of hand."

Robert was seated beside Valentine. He cleared his throat and shifted his weight. Robert had been friends with Luke in the way that a Lightwood had friends: they spoke often at parties. Luke dated Maryse before she married Robert, but that was a very long ago.

"How?" Robert asked. "How did Luke… come to die?" Valentine frowned at Stephen. Stephen knew he might pay dearly for this later but it was worth it, watching Valentine sweat.

"The werewolves claimed that we, The Circle, were violating the Accords. They had our names. They were going to turn us in," Valentine said. "One thing led to another. Words were exchanged. There were only three werewolves; Lucian and I could have handled them. I killed the first and started on the second, but in that time… Lucian was attacked and died soon after. I burned down the cabin we were at to destroy all evidence and came straight to Alicante, where I told Stephen and Amatis."

"Why didn't you bring someone else?" Robert asked. "I thought we agreed to hunt in groups of three."

"He was my parabatai," Valentine said. His eyes filled with tears. "We'd hunted together so many times before. I thought it might be… okay. Then, I lost him. We lost him." Stephen felt something twist in his heart. It wasn't anger, but perhaps heartbreak. Luke had died only four weeks ago. That wasn't enough time to move past a death like that.

Celine shivered beside Stephen. She lifted a hand to wipe a tear away. Stephen put his arm around her and pulled her into the warmth of his fleece coat. For a little while, everyone sat in silence, until a wolf somewhere far off began howling. Then Valentine climbed to his feet and tossed another log on the fire. Sparks floated into the sky, where they faded out one by one.

"I've learned of some awful news. There is a family of werewolves several miles from here who have been taking humans to feed on," Valentine whispered. "I've been observing them for several months. They are violating the Accords by killing innocent mundanes. From what we heard from Michael's story, there's no telling what these… creatures… could do. Perhaps, we should begin to avenge Lucian's death. It will do us no good to sit idle. We must act. My Circle, I ask you, no, I beg you, to stand with me as we begin our campaign of war against those who have killed our own. I want to kill these creatures and to make them suffer the way we have. Who's with me?"

Everyone's hands went up.

After the meeting, everyone went to do what they usually did. The women went to tend to the children and talk quietly, while Stephen and Michael had a few beers and started talking about Shadowhunter Academy. Robert was a year older than Michael and hadn't gone to the same session as Michael, so he sat by, a pinched look on his face, as Michael recalled all of the boyish pranks he and Stephen pulled on everyone in their dorm.

The moon was beginning to descend towards the horizon when Valentine told Stephen they were going home. They weren't walking for very long before Valentine told Celine and Jocelyn to go on ahead. Jocelyn told Valentine to behave, which caused Valentine to laugh haltingly. Stephen walked with Valentine in silence until he could no longer see Jocelyn or Celine.

"You were a bit out spoken at the meeting," Valentine said. Stephen nearly tripped over a tree root. He nodded. "I like that about you, son. You aren't afraid to ask questions."

"It wasn't the time or place to bring up Luke," Stephen said. "Forgive me." Valentine smiled.

"You must take me for a complete fool," he said.

"Beg pardon?"

"Do you really think I haven't noticed you going in and out of Celine's bedroom at all hours of the night? Do you think I not hear the bed scraping against the floor as you nail my sister every single night?" Valentine asked. He grabbed Stephen by the throat and slammed him against a tree.

"Nail?" Stephen gasped.

"Fuck," Valentine said. "I told you to keep your cock out of my sister and yet you fuck her every night." Valentine squeezed Stephen's throat tighter, and Stephen swore he might have wet himself. It was entirely possible. Oh, all of the times he giddily made love to Celine, and now this… Stephen couldn't decide whether or not he deserved this.

"Forgive me," Stephen managed.

"Are you in love with her?" Valentine asked.

"No," Stephen said. Valentine squeezed his neck tighter. "Yes." Valentine released Stephen, who collapsed onto his knees on the ground.

"The last guy didn't love her, not nearly enough, though he fucked her often as well," Valentine said. "I see how you are with her. You put an arm around her, keep her warm… you care about her. Right?"

"I care," Stephen said. He looked up to see Valentine towering over him.

"So you can appreciate that I care what you do with her. My sister isn't someone to fuck. She's a woman to love, to marry, and to have children with. Do you catch my drift?" Valentine asked. Stephen nodded. "I said, do you…?"

"Yes," Stephen said.

"So keep that in mind. If you plan to keep fucking my sister, perhaps you should marry her because if you get her pregnant before you marry her, I will kill you. Do you hear me?" Valentine asked.

"Loud and clear," Stephen said.

"Good boy," Valentine said. He patted Stephen on the head, then grabbed him by the arm and hoisted him to his feet.

Once back at Fairchild Manor, Stephen took a long, hot shower. He thought about Celine, and tried to come up with the right words to say. He needed to break up with her, to end their torrid affair. They weren't going in the right direction, he and Celine. Stephen wanted sex and Celine wanted more than just sex.

Then there was the thing that Valentine had suggested: that Stephen marry Celine. It was the perfect, fail proof plan: Stephen could divorce Amatis and marry Celine. There would be lots of sex, perhaps a grandchild or two to appease his parents. It could be a good marriage. Stephen had already married young and stupid once, there was nothing stopping him from doing it again. If it didn't work out, there was always the six month rule. Stephen could cheat or go insane or propose moving to Antarctica and he would be free and clear.

Once the water ran cold Stephen climbed out of the shower and dressed in his pajamas. He left the room, not bothering to sneak down the hall this time. Stephen pushed open the door to Celine's room to find it lit with candle light.

Celine looked up from her seat on the bed. There were a few crumpled tissues around her, and across her lap lay a calendar, which was odd. Most Shadowhunters told the passing of days with moon cycles and half of the time Stephen didn't know what day it was. He knelt beside the bed to see Celine's eyes filled with tears.

"Why are you crying?" Stephen asked.

"I'm late," Celine replied.

Author's Note: Thanks for reading! What do you think? Please review!