The Infernal Devices Rewritten

Chapter 3 - To the Last Hour

Chapter 3

To the Last Hour

Through the gaps between people's shoulders, Evan could see Jem leaning against Will and the carriage, his head bent and sticky red stuff dripping down his chin and his shirt. Jem's eyes were closed, but Jem's mouth was pulled into a tight frown. Jem was a perfect actor - something Evan never thought he'd be. She guessed that he was just particularly skilled with the gift of art.

Will's hand was on his parabatai's shoulder, his head bowed next to him as if he was trying to listen to anything Jem may say. Tessa was next to Jem, fighting a smile as realization dawned on her. As soon as Jem's hand engulfed Tessa's, he sat up straighter saying to Will, although through the silence, his voice carried, "I am stronger when Tessa is here, you see. I told it to you."

Evan ducked her head as she slipped around the other side of the carriage to avoid Will and help Henry load the journals. After the adrenaline slipped away, Evan could feel how sore her muscles were and that the cut in her head was one of three - one was in her hairline, another on her eyebrow on the same side of her face and the last one was across her cheek. Not to mention the burns from the demon ichor.

Will was going to kill her.

"What happened?" Evan jumped to see it was only Cecily. Her wrist was mending, wrapped in a makeshift cast.

"Hi!" Evan whispered, motioning for her to be quiet. "How was demon slaying?"

"I suppose I should be asking you that," Cecily said just as quietly. Henry unpacked the rest of the journals, handing the bag back to Evan with a "Thank you" and slipping around to join the 'older kids' (as Evan's mother would have said). "What happened?"

"Uh, Mr. Lightwood kind of had two guardian demons stashed in his desk and Henry and I didn't know." Evan said, taking her hair out of her braid, hoping to obscure the injured part of her face.

"You killed a demon?" Cecily hissed lowly, her blue eyes wide.

"After it dumped a bookshelf on me!" Evan said defensively. She gestured to her cuts, "That's what happened here."

"And the burns?"

"It jumped back the first time," Evan whined quietly. "Rude, right?"

Cecily looked at her for a second before giggling. "Oh, Will is going to have a fit."

"I know!" Evan said. "Do you know which carriage he's going in?"

"Will is driving Jem and Tessa back to the Institute now to 'get his medicine'." Cecily quoted.

"Was it bad?" Evan asked her friend, ducking around the carriage as Will came around to look for her. Cecily caught up to her as Henry told Evan to go back inside and take a few more photographs of the room, with a slightly sly and sympathetic smile. "On it!" Evan said brightly, jogging up the steps with Cecily on her heels.

"Rather awful," Cecily said as they climbed the steps to the study. "Blood everywhere, horrid coughing - he collapsed, you know."

"Poor Jem," Evan sympathized, taking out the camera once more to snap more pictures of the INFERNAL DEVICES wall while Cecily watched from the window and Will and the Institute's carriage rattled out the front gates. "He gone?"

"Aren't you worried it'll scar?" Cecily asked with a roll of her eyes.

"No," Evan said. "Charlotte asked the Silent Brothers for something that would heal demon ichor burns a while back, remember?"

"You should have gone with them," Cecily said. "Hopped in the carriage before it went too fast."

"I'm not Indiana Jones, Cece," Evan laughed, handing her one picture.