Clockwork Prince (The Infernal Devices 2)

Mortmain had done something to his family, she thought. As he had to hers. That bound them to each other in a peculiar way, she and Will. Whether he knew it or not.

"Whatever it is that Mortmain has been planning," she heard herself say, "he has been planning it a long time. Since before I was born, when he tricked or coerced my parents into making me. And now we know that years ago he involved himself with Will s family and moved them to Ravenscar Manor. I fear we are like chess pieces he slides about a board, and the outcome of the game is already known to him. "

"That is what he desires us to think, Tessa," said Jem. "But he is only a man. And each discovery we make about him makes him more vulnerable. If we were no threat, he would not have sent that automaton to warn us off. "

"He knew exactly where we would be-"

"There is nothing more dangerous than a man bent on revenge," said Ragnor. "A man who has been bent on it for nearly three score years, who has nurtured it from a tiny, poisonous seed to a living, choking flower. He Will see it through, unless you end him first. "

"Then, we Will end him," said Jem shortly. It was as close to a threat as Tessa had ever heard him make.

Tessa looked down at her hands. They were a paler white than they had been when she lived in New York, but they were her hands, familiar, the index finger slightly longer than the middle one, the half-moons of her nails pronounced. I could Change them, she thought. I could become anything, anyone. She had never felt more mutable, more fluid, or more lost.

"Indeed. " Charlottes tone was firm. "Ragnor, I want to know why the Herondale family is in that house-that house that belonged to Mortmain- and I want to see to it that they are safe. And I want to do it without Benedict Lightwood or the rest of the Clave hearing about it. "

"I understand. You want me to look out for them as quietly as possible while also making inquiries regarding Mortmain in the area. If he moved them there, it must have been for a purpose. "

Charlotte exhaled. "Yes. "

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Ragnor twirled his fork. "That Will be expensive. "

"Yes," Charlotte said. "I am prepared to pay. "

Fel grinned. "Then, I am prepared to endure the sheep. "

The rest of the lunch passed in awkward conversation, with Jessamine moodily destroying her food without eating it, Jem unusual y quiet, Henry muttering equations to himself, and Charlotte and fell finalizing their plans for the protection of Will s family. As much as Tessa approved of the idea-and she did-there was something about the warlock that made her uncomfortable in a way Magnus never had, and she was glad when lunch was over and she could escape to her room with a copy of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

It was not her favorite of the Bronte sisters books-that honor went to Jane Eyre, and then Wuthering Heights, with Tenant a distant third-but she had read the other two so many times that no surprises lay between the pages, only phrases so familiar to her they had become like old friends. What she real y wanted to read was A Tale of Two Cities , but Will had quoted Sydney Carton to her enough times that she was afraid that picking it up would make her think of him, and make the weight of her nervousness greater. After all, it was never Darnay he quoted, only Sydney, drunk and wrecked and dissipated. Sydney, who died for love.

It was dark out, and the wind was blowing gusts of light rain against the windowpanes when the knock came at her door. It was Sophie, carrying a letter on a silver tray. "A letter for you, miss. "

Tessa put the book down in astonishment. "Mail for me?"

Sophie nodded and came closer, holding out the tray. "Yes, but it doesnt say who its from. Miss Lovelace almost snatched it, but I managed to keep it from her, nosy thing. "

Tessa took the envelope. It was addressed to her, indeed, in a slanting, unfamiliar hand, printed on heavy cream-colored paper. She turned it over once, began to open it, and caught sight of Sophies wide-eyed curious gaze reflected in the window. She turned and smiled at her. "That Will be all, Sophie," she said. It was the way she had read heroines dismissing servants in novels, and it seemed to be correct. With a disappointed look Sophie took her salver and retired from the room.

Tessa unfolded the letter and spread it out on her lap.

Dear sensible Miss Gray, I write to you on behalf of a mutual friend, one William Herondale.

I know that it is his habit to come and go-most often go-from the Institute as he pleases, and that therefore it may be some time before any alarm is raised at his absence. But I ask you, as one who holds your good sense in esteem, not to assume this absence to be of the ordinary sort. I saw him myself last night, and he was, to say the least, distraught when he left my residence. I have reason for concern that he might do himself an injury, and therefore I suggest that his whereabouts be sought and his safety ascertained. He is a difficult young man to like, but I believe you see the good in him, as I do, Miss Gray, and that is why I humbly address my letter to you- Your servant, Magnus Bane Postscript: If I were you, I would not share the contents of this letter with Mrs. Branwell. Just a suggestion.

M. B.

Though reading Magnuss letter made her feel as if her veins were full of fire, somehow Tessa survived the rest of the afternoon, and dinner as well, without-she thought-betraying any outward sign of her distress. It seemed to take Sophie an agonizingly long time to help her out of her dress, brush her hair, stoke the fire, and tell her the days gossip. (Cyrils cousin worked in the Lightwoods house and had reported that Tatiana-Gabriel and Gideons sister-was due to return from her honeymoon on the Continent with her new husband any day now. The household was in an uproar as she was rumored to have a most unpleasant disposition. ) Tessa muttered something about how she must take after her father that way. Impatience made her voice a croak, and Sophie was only just prevented from rushing out to get her a tisane of mint by Tessas insistence that she was exhausted, and needed sleep more than she needed tea.

The moment the door shut behind Sophie, Tessa was on her feet, shimmying out of her nightclothes and into a dress, lacing herself up as best she could and throwing a short jacket on over the top. After a cautious glance out into the corridor, she slipped out of her room and across the hal to Jems door, where she knocked as quietly as she could. For a moment nothing happened, and she had the fleeting worry that he had already gone to sleep, but then the door flew open and Jem stood on the threshold.

She had clearly caught him in the middle of readying himself for bed; his shoes and jacket were off, his shirt open at the col ar, his hair an adorable rumpled mess of silver. She wanted to reach out and smooth it down. He blinked at her. "Tessa?"

Without a word she handed him the note. He glanced up and down the corridor, then gestured her inside the room. She shut the door behind him as he read Magnuss scrawl once, and then again, before bal ing it up in his hand, the crackling paper loud in the room. "I knew it," he said.

It was Tessas turn to blink. "Knew what?"

"That this wasnt an ordinary sort of absence. " He sat down on the trunk at the foot of his bed and shoved his feet into his shoes. "I felt it. Here. " He put his hand over his chest. "I knew there was something strange. I felt it like a shadow on my soul. "

"You dont think hed really hurt himself, do you?"

"Hurt himself, I dont know. Put himself in a situation where he might be hurt -" Jem stood up. "I should go. "

"Dont you mean we? You werent thinking of going looking for Will without me, were you?" she asked archly, and when he said nothing, she said, "That letter was addressed to me, James. I didnt have to show it to you. "

He half-closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them, he was smiling crookedly. "James," he said. "Ordinarily only Will call s me that. "