ᴛʜᴏʀɴᴇᴅ ʀᴏꜱᴇ ━ will herondale

- chapter nine

9

[ lady belcourt ]

TESSA WAS ONLY HALFWAY down the corridor when the trio caught up to her — Will, Rose, and Jem, the two boys walking on either side of her and Rosela next to Jem. "You didn't really think we weren't going to come along, did you?" Will asked, raising his hand and letting the witchlight flare up between his fingers, lighting the corridor to daylight brightness. Charlotte, hurrying along ahead of them, turned and frowned, but said nothing.

"I know you and Rose can't leave anything well enough alone," Tessa replied, looking straight ahead. "But I thought better of Jem."

"I don't know whether that's an insult or not." Rosela remarked, glaring at both Tessa and Will.

"Where Will goes, I go," Jem said good-naturedly. "And besides, I'm as curious as he is."

"That hardly seems a subject for boasting. Where are we going?" Tessa added, startled, as they reached the end of the corridor and turned left. The next hall stretched away behind them into unprepossessing shadow. "Have we turned the wrong way?"

"Patience is a virtue, Miss Gray." said Will. They had reached a long corridor that sloped precipitously downward. The Valois girl found the familiar walls bare of tapestries or torches, and the dimness made her quite jumpy.

"This corridor leads to our Sanctuary," said Charlotte.
Then she went on about how the place was the only part of the Institute that is not on hallowed ground. How the place is where they meet with those who cannot enter and how it is difficult to enter or exit the room without possessing either a stele or the key.

"And you, Miss Gray, should be grateful Charlotte did not shelter you in such a place where the corridors are dim." Rosela sneered, as her eyes squinted through the hallway.

The Gray girl ignored her, "is it a curse? Being a vampire?" Tessa asked.

Charlotte shook her head. "No. We think it is a sort of demon disease. Most diseases that affect demons are not transmissible to human beings, but in some cases, usually through a bite or a scratch, the disease can be passed on. Vampirism. Lycanthropy—"

"Demon pox." said Will.

"Will, there's no such thing as demon pox, and you know it," Charlotte said. "Now, where was I?"

"Being a vampire isn't a curse. It's a disease," Tessa filled in. "But they still can't enter hallowed ground, then? Does that mean they're damned?"

"That depends on what you believe," said Jem. "And whether you even believe in damnation at all."

"But you hunt demons. You must believe in damnation!"

"I believe in good and evil," said Jem. "And I believe the soul is eternal. But I don't believe in the fiery pit, the pitchforks, or endless torment. I do not believe you can threaten people into goodness."