"What I don't get is why we can't just ask Magnus!" I heard Clary complaining from next door to Jace. I bit down on my lower lip in irritation, but didn't do anything to retaliate.
"Because Magnus doesn't know," snapped Magnus, who had obviously just materialised out of nowhere from the sound of somebody- probably Clary- letting out a gasp of surprise and mild annoyance when he suddenly spoke. I had become properly aquatinted with the whole of 'Team Good' now, which consisted of; Simon, Jace, Clary, Magnus Bane- a glittery warlock, Alec Lightwood (who just so happened to be going out with Magnus), Jordan and another girl called Maia. Incidentally, Jordan and Maia were werewolves. Now there's a surprise.
"'Why are you speaking in the third person Magnus?' Simon asks curiously," Simon said, laughing even after I heard Magnus slap him. I turned my attention back to my reflection to scrutinise myself further. I had, reluctantly, allowed Clary to thrust me into some alleged form of 'fashionable' attire that made me feel extremely self conscious.
"That's the price of fashion!" I mimicked in Clary's chirping tone- I wasn't very fond of her. That or I wasn't very fond of the fact Simon used to have a thing for her. I could see why; Clary was very glamorous and unconventional in her looks. I gritted my teeth in jealousy, ruefully wishing I had the same alluring quality that she apparently had. After having showered earlier on in the day (after the dress picking, of course), I had then been dragged out and sat in front of a mirror by Clary and Maia for a complete makeover. I glared morosely at my reflection, further examining the dress I had been plonked in. It had long sleeves on the arms and the hem of the dress was about two or three inches above my knee. The material was black and lacy, meaning I had to wear another (but thinner) sleeveless black dress underneath so you couldn't see anything too revealing through the material. I liked how the lace looked on the bare skin of my arms, as the intricate patterns woven into it stood out starkly against my fair skin. I hadn't allowed Clary to straighten my hair, so it was left in its usual curls. However, I did concede at one point and allow Clary to grip back sections of my hair so it didn't fall into my eyes. The shoes she had picked for me were some simple ballet flats and I gratefully slipped my feet into them. At least Clary had drawn the line at high heels and excessive makeup- I only had a very minimal amount of mascara on. I gave my reflection one last despairing look then flounced out of the bathroom. The reason I had to get dressed up was that we were visiting the highly prestige Seelie Queen, who apparently would know what I am. And in order to actually meet with the Queen, we had to attend the masquerade ball she was hosting. According to Jace, the Seelie Queen was not to be trusted and it would be best not to visit her by travelling into the Fair Folk realm. The Fair Folk, or the fairies as they were better known as Simon had helpfully told me, were another form of Downworlder. They were seemingly keepers of great knowledge and would know what kind of species I was, from what Jace had been telling me. But still not to be trusted. Anyone who supposedly was allied to Sebastian was someone I could never trust. I found everyone else in the hall, dressed up similarly to how I was- in mostly black and white. My eyes flew over to where Simon was stood and I quivered ever so slightly. He looked elegant and as always handsome in a black suit that complemented his physique, a white creaseless shirt and... High top shoes. I tried to conceal my smirk when I saw them.
"You look nice," Simon told me, a slight insinuation of nervousness coming from the tremble in his voice when he said it. I blinked up at him and smiled modestly.
"As interesting as budding teenage romance is, we ought to be going," Magnus announced, while examining his glittery nails.
"It's not a budding romance," Simon replied quickly, making me flush with embarrassment and hurt.
"No, more like teenage angst;" Jace chipped in unhelpfully "Any kind of drama is amusing in my books, especially yours Bloodsucker,"
"You know you're really irritating right?" Simon said bitterly
"How dare you even insinuate that I am anything but perfect?" Jace said with mock horror and hurt. I rolled my eyes and when I looked across the room I saw Alec doing the exact same thing. I decided I liked Alec. He was similar to me in the sense that he was on the fringes, watching everything going on silently, too shy to contribute much to the conversation. But of course there was also that fight in him that all Shadowhunters seemed to have. Magnus, on the other hand, was loud and boisterous. His dramatic makeup and obsession with glitter only solidified these personality traits. He was definitely likeable though. Him and Alec made an odd pairing, being opposite ends of the spectrum. At the same time, however, their personalities complimented each other and they were clearly in love. My reverie was interrupted when Clary handed me a black masquerade mask to put on at the party. It was etched with patterns alike to those on a butterfly's wing. A masked ball on Halloween night- this was going to be interesting. I was going to find out who I really was. I was going to find my place in the world. Everyone started to move towards the door then. Striding out of the apartment, in Simon and the others wake, I felt excitement and anticipation and happiness that I hadn't felt since my parents had died. If only I'd known everything was going to completely shatter, then I would have stopped myself from feeling it in the first place.
"Glamour's are a type of spell that makes everything underneath the Glamour invisible to those who are none-the-wiser" Jace told me once we reached an old, run down looking church structure on the outskirts of New York "What you've got to do is peel it away, and then you'll see what's underneath for what it really is," I closed my eyes, clearing my mind as I did so. I tried to focus on my breathing and my surroundings instead of the clamour of voices going on in my head telling me how ridiculous it all looked. When I opened my eyes again I almost staggered backwards. Towering above me was a glorious and exquisite building with marble columns and walls. It had the architectural structure of an old roman construction.
"That's brilliant," I exclaimed, beaming at the others. They all just smirked at me and put their masquerade masks on. I followed their example with my own. Someone slid their arm through mine and I was gratified to see it was Simon. He gave me a shy, apologetic look and then relaxed when I didn't remove my arm from the link. With that, we strode up the cobblestone pathway up to the door. It was made of a gnarled oak wood and had a large brass door knocker on it. Jace was the one to rap at the door and we all stood back warily, waiting patiently for it to open. I was about to say something when the door was flung open and a man with green skin ushered us in. Maia, who was standing on my other side prodded me and gave me a stern glare that told me not to gape at him. As soon as I looked away from him I was blown away by the interior of the building. It, like the exterior, was entirely made out of marble which shone in the light from the massive glass chandeliers suspended from the ceiling. There were large pillars everywhere and a set of stairs leading to a platform an outer balcony. Spanning across the middle section of the ceiling was a huge skylight, through which light from the moon seeped into the building, casting a pale illumination across the floor. There were people scattered around, all wearing masks and expensive gowns and suits. Some people- fairies I guessed- had wings protruding from their backs, others multicoloured hair and skin. Obviously the other types of Downworlder had attended the ball, as I could tell from the gracefulness of the vampires and uncivilised, wolfish behaviour of the werewolves. The one thing that perturbed me was the fact that there were some very human looking guests strutting around the room too...
"Mundanes," Jordan said, as if reading my mind "I'm guessing they were brought here as guests, or lured in,"
"Isn't that against the accords?" Clary asked, her face scrunching up in concern. The accords were, as I had been informed earlier, the rules set down by the Shadowhunters that Downworlders had to abide by unless they wanted to 'get a knife lodged in their stomach' as Jordan had nicely put it. It seemed unfair to me that the Shadowhunters could be as ruthless as they wanted to be without any sort of repercussion and Downworlders couldn't, but I hadn't mentioned it.
"Not unless one of them gets hurt, no," Jace replied for Clary- he was looking agitated and there was tension in his limbs.
"Oh, fabulous!" Magnus trilled, his voice dripping with sarcasm "Let's get mingling," so we mingled. I tried to stay close to Simon, but it was difficult seeing as I couldn't actually tell if it was him or not because of the masks. Eventually, I stopped trying and instead followed Clary and Maia to a table with a bunch of drinks littered across it- it was easy to recognise Clary with her bright red hair. We kind of just stood around, not talking, searching through the crowd for the Seelie Queen. Apparently, she was immediately recognisable even to those who had never seen her before. One of those auras about her, Clary had said. I took a glass from the table and traced my fingers around the top of it, not planning on drinking it. I needed something to occupy my hands with. I often fidgeted when I was nervous. I peered across the room and saw Magnus and Jace talking to a woman- the Seelie Queen. It was quite clearly apparent from the way she held herself and tossed her hair. Jace and Magnus had their faces drawn into grim expressions whilst they spoke to the Queen. I shuddered at the sadistic look in her eyes. Clary and Maia had also noticed the exchange and were completely transfixed by it now. I felt someone slid in beside me, so close their arm touched mine. I shifted slightly, and turned my face up to see who it was, expecting it to be Simon. It was not. It was a tall man with short, spiky hair and many rings that adorning his ears and fingers. I couldn't see his features behind his masquerade mask, but I could see he had piercing, icy eyes. I gave him a disgruntled glare because of his overtly close proximately to me and shuffled further away from him. My head felt suddenly very heavy and my eyelids drooped. I glanced down at the drink in my hands- it didn't look like water anymore and instead was a translucent blue liquid. I felt the man's glare on me again and when I met his eye this time it was like a switch had been flicked in my mind. With no conscious decision to do so, I took a sip of my drink. I no longer felt the man's arm against mine and leant back onto the table behind me for support. Everything in the room was suddenly too bright and my thoughts were swirling around in my head like an incoherent torrent. Simon was suddenly stood in front of me, grasping my shoulders in his hands. His lips moved, forming words of worry. I shook my head, trying to convince him that I was fine and brushed off his hands from my shoulders. I staggered away, wanting to be out in the refreshing, outside air again. I was still absent-mindedly clutching my drink in my hand. Simon materialised in front of me again and this time his expression demanded my full attention.
"Laura, don't drink that," he said, ripping off his mask as he did so "Last time I had a fairy drink I was turned into a rat,"
"A rat?" I echoed dreamily. I dangled the glass in front of my eyes and examined it- was it meant to be blue? I overlooked the speculation and continued to make my way to the door, ignoring Simon's protests. I needed to get out of here, I needed to be outside. It was as if it was essential thing I had to do. No choice in the matter. The compulsion to do so was dragging my feet towards the exit. Everything I saw was covered in a foggy veil and my vision kept zooming in and out of focus. This time, when Simon stood in front of me, I shoved him out of the way. He looked strangely crestfallen, but I ignored it. I was at the door now. I pulled it open and stepped outside, greeted by a refreshing breeze. My senses were now feeling completely blunt and I just wanted to give in to the fog blanketing my mind and go to sleep. A shout came from over my shoulder and I whirled to see Simon screaming at me, horror dawning on his face, his features etched with disbelief. His fists were pounding against the air, as if he were banging an invisible wall. The glass slid from my hand and burst apart into shards on the floor, spraying the liquid contents upwards. I tried to start towards him but my legs felt too weak to even take a step forward. I whipped my head up to look at Simon, my face aghast with terror. Suddenly, a pair of cold hands slid underneath my arms and lifted me from the ground. I tried to scream for Simon but the only thing that came out of my throat was a wrenching choke. Every muscle in my body went slack and limp. I could still see Simons face, contorted in fear as he yelled for me. His deep, silky brown eyes were gleaming with tears. And then the door of the building slammed shut, cutting me off from him. I felt my head loll back and then the darkness folded over me, dragging me into its depths.