The Mysterious Carstairs Boy

Chapter Two: A Fae Brother

Voices filled the air around Will Herondale as he blinked his blue eyes to get accustomed to the sunlight streaming in through the library's bay window. Charlotte leant over him, her waving hair tumbling over her shoulders, a look of concern on her face.

    'Now, I know us Herondales are awfully handsome, but before you make any advances on me you'll have to negotiate with Tessa,' Will gave a crooked grin, pushing himself up to a sitting position, his palms digging into the rug beneath him.

    'Don't be ridiculous,' Charlotte rolled her eyes, exasperated with him as she often was, 'I was checking you were alright. Are you?'

    These words triggered something in Will as the memory flooded back to him of why exactly he'd passed out – an action very unlike him. Jem. Jem had been at the door. 'James, Jem. Jem's here,' he said, scrambling onto his feet and staring around the room wild-eyed. Thankfully, Shadowhunters could recover quickly from most ailments, because after the knock he'd taken most mundanes would be dizzy trying to stand so soon after.

    'I think we need to have a talk.' Charlotte seemed to be trying to look anywhere but at Will, instead flitting her gaze across the wooden bookshelves which lined the room floor to ceiling.

    'Where is he?' Will hadn't much patience on a normal day, and in these circumstances even less so.

    'Oliver, you can come in now.' Charlotte called, her quiet voice raising to the commanding tone if often did when she was required to show her authority.

    The boy who looked exactly like Jem pushed through the door and slowly shuffled into the library, his cheeks flushed and looking as if he'd rather be anywhere but in the room with the other two Shadowhunters. On a better inspection, Will realised that there were some slight differences between this boy who stood before him and Jem. For a start, this boy's hair had a gentle wave to it, and he appeared to be about an inch shorter than Jem. Plus, where the yin fen had made Jem thin and occasionally frail looking, this boy's shoulders were much broader, broader even than Will's own. The biggest difference was in the way the boy held himself, a confidence in him - despite his obvious embarrassment at the situation – that Jem himself didn't tend to show, preferring to be more unassuming; indeed, dear Sophie had previously described Jem as a steady flame, unwavering and honest. After what appeared to be an age of staring, the boy – or Oliver, as he should really be called – spoke, 'I am Jem's brother. I'm Oliver Carstairs. I need your help, there is no one who could help me better than my brother's parabatai.'

    'That's impossible, Jem has no immediate family left.' Will shook his head, running a hand through his hair as he began to pace up and down the library. In that sense, Jessamine, Jem and him had been the same: none of them had any family left, not really. They'd been each other's family. Jem was his brother. Whoever this boy was had to be lying.

    'Just listen to him, Will,' Charlotte said, her voice soft as she sat herself down in the tall, brown armchair in the corner of the room, nodding at Oliver to continue.

    'My parents had to give me away, Jem was only four years old at the time, he never remembered me. I was seven. They made a deal, my parents, with the demons who would later k-kill them.' Oliver stumbled over his words, his eyes flashing with a pain Will hadn't spotted in them until that point, 'the demons gave me to the Seelie Queen. I do not know why. They hid me from the mundane world, training me secretly as a Shadowhunter but without letting me leave. Until six months ago that is. They told me my brother was dead and something happened, though I'm not permitted to say what, they cast me out.'

    'Why am I meant to believe this? Why did you come here?' Will's confusion was slowly turning to anger as he came to a halt in front of Oliver. How dare this boy appear on his doorstep and come with these crazy stories? How dare he use Will's love and care for Jem against him in this way.

    'You must believe this because in your heart you know it to be true. I had to get used to the mundane world before starting the search for my family. I heard whispers amongst the downworlders about a Carstairs who had come from Shanghai. I knew it had to be my brother. The whispers then led me to you, William Herondale.' The more Oliver spoke, the steadier his voice became, lifting his chin almost haughtily in the air.

    'What are we to do with him?' Will turned to Charlotte now, at a loss for any more responses to Oliver.

    'We help him, he's one of our own,' Charlotte said this as if it were the most obvious answer in the world, 'let me take him up to one of the guest rooms whilst you take it all in. I'll come back for you in a moment.' The pale look on his face and the shock that continued to pass through his body must have been less concealed than he thought. Charlotte stood and grazed Oliver's arm on her way past him, beckoning him to go with her. And they did, the library door shutting silently behind them and leaving Will on his own with the crackling fire.

    Four small words escaped his lips before he flopped down wearily onto the armchair Charlotte had vacated seconds earlier, a sigh escaping him as he spoke them, 'Jem has a brother.'

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