Lady Midnight from Mark's POV

Entry Two

 I don't know how, but I ended up on the roof. All I needed was a place to be alone for a few moment, the window was open and it was just so easy, one step out and a little jump and I was all alone. Or at least for a little while, within the first minutes of my peace a blonde head of hair popped up and was followed quickly by the rest of girl. Emma Carstairs. That was the name my brain supplied, but it still didn't feel quite right. The Emma I knew was a cheeky twelve year old that I used to help train, not an independent seventeen year old. Though there wasn't much debate on who this girl was the second she started talking, she got was tough and got straight to the point and there was no denying that that was Emma in a nutshell. She wanted me to come back down, she said I was freaking out my family. But there was no way I was coming back down, inside I was choking on dead air and being crushed under the weight of all that building, it was so unlike the open sky I had cherished in the Wild Hunt. When I told Emma this she nodded like she understood and said she would sit with me until I was ready to go back in. The thing is though that in all the time I had known Emma she could never stay still or silent for long. So she talked, and I talked a little too. Unlike Cristina, Emma couldn't seem to hold back her questions. Questions about faerie and how I felt here and what I thought of ley lines (lines that amplify magic, both good and bad) flowed out of her like a glacial spring, but then she asked one question that I couldn't answer. I wouldn't answer. It started out softly but then grew a razor sharp edge.

"You are loved here Mark, were you loved in Faerie?"

I wanted to say yes, but the world wasn't that simple, the world is a labyrinth. I couldn't tell her about Kieran, those memories were mine only and that meant I had no answer. Instead I dug for a different topic, something that would distract Emma, and all I came up with was ley lines. Emma wanted nothing more than to investigate these lines in hopes they would give her information on her parent's murderer. But when I suggested this little outing to the ley lines, Emma wavered . She didn't want to go without Julian, her parabatai. I guessed I was going to need to do a bit more convincing to get her to leave Julian behind, so I did the only thing that came to my mind. I stepped off the roof, I had barely fell a foot before I let my fingers wrap around a window sill and let my body hang twenty feet off the ground. I told her to come with me or I would let go. Emma started scrambling down the wall in a flash.

It brought me a great deal of joy to see Emma light up when I pulled the dark sheet off my motorcycle, our ride to the ley lines and my steed during my time in the Wild Hunt. I almost laughed at her first question; does it fly? This girl was born for adventures and she was ready to have one. When I told her yes she could barely contain her happiness, but she tried very hard to keep her composure. Weapons first, that was what she said as she sprinted over to the Institute's parked car and dug out a stockpile of various weapons and gear. Emma made quick work of attaching a belt of blades and daggers to her hips, swinging a glinting sword over her back and tossing me a few of her spares. I could hardly protest as she swung onto the bike and turned to me, "I want to drive."she said and I knew I had no choice in the matter. Without any delay I swung on behind her and quickly explained how to drive without killing either of us. I scarcely managed to get my arms around her waist before she took off, hurtling through the sky at mach ten and screaming with delight.

It felt indescribably good to by soaring through the open sky again and for a moment I couldn't believe I had ever thought about letting this kind of freedom go. I could imagine the Wild Hunt surging around me, the frenzied roar of the horn and the thundering of hooves. Out here there were no mandates created by cruel Shadowhunters with their flashy outsides and dead hearts, no words to keep you rooted to the ground. No stone faced adults telling me the law is hard, but it is the law. Out here I could forget about the burdens that waited for me back in the Institute's clutches. I almost didn't tell Emma to land when they reached the ley line convergence, I just wanted to keep flying and tasting the blood of the sky, but guilt weighed down on me like a blanket and I told her to land.