Fragile Hearts (TID - Will Herondale fanfic)

Chapter 24: The Periwinkle Demon

Will looked up as Eleanora entered the room, then back down at the parchment he was busy reading.

His eyes were getting tired, and he was skipping past words. He found that his thoughts were often wandering back to Eleanora and what had happened last night.

"Did you learn anything from Magnus?" Charlotte asked Eleanora eagerly.

Eleanora dropped into the seat next to Jem, pushing her let down messed up hair back. "No. Nothing. Mortmain certainly is hidden, no doubt."

"What if there's a spy amongst us?" Jessie said, looking not very discreetly at Caspian.

Will looked up. "There's a possibility." He looked at Eleanora and Caspian, eyes narrowing in pretence. It hurt to look at Eleanora, thinking of when she ordered him to not call her "Nora".

He had never felt more hate towards Gabriel than he did then.

Eleanora and Caspian both clutch at their rings simultaneously, looking at each other with a frown.

"What was that?" They both asked at the same time.

"What was what?" Tessa said.

"Nothing," Eleanora said, shaking her head, taking her hand off the ring. "Just shock."

"And amusement," Caspian said. "You think we're spies?"

"You think Ella's a spy?" Jessie said, looking at Will incredulously. "She- she saved me and Tessa! Well, sort of. But if it weren't for her, we may well be dead!"

"I never said that," Will dismissed.

Jem eyed him. "Ella and Caspian aren't going to betray us. We all know that. For you guys to suggest such things is unbelievable."

"I agree," Tessa said confidently, scowling at Will.

Will ignored her.

"Charlotte, I think we're wasting our time," Jessamine said, breaking the silence that had settled between all of them.

"Jessamine, there is no need for you to remain if you do not wish to," Charlotte said in a pained voice. "I must say, I doubt any of us was expecting your help in this matter, and since you have never much applied yourself to your studies, I cannot help but wonder if you even know what it is you are looking for. Could you tell a binding spell from a summoning spell if I set the two before you?"

Charlotte's sharpness surprised Will. It was rare that she was like that to them. "I want to help," Jessie said sulkily. "Those mechanical things of Mortmain's nearly killed me. I want him caught and punished."

"No, you don't." Will, unrolling a parchment so old that it crackled, squinted down at the black symbols on the page. "You want Tessa's brother caught and punished, for making you think he was in love with you when he wasn't."

Jessamine flushed. "I do not. I mean, I did not. I mean- ugh! Charlotte, Will's being vexing."

"And the sun has come up in the east," said Jem, to no one in particular.

"I don't want to be thrown out of the Institute if we can't find the Magister," Jessamine went on. "Is that so difficult to understand?"

"You won't be thrown out of the Institute. Charlotte will. I'm sure the Lightwoods will let you stay. And Benedict has two marriageable sons. You ought to be delighted," said Will. "Wait. Not Gabriel. Eleanora is all over him already."

"What did you just say?" Eleanora looked up, scowling so viciously that Will thought she could kill him by that look right there and then.