Distractions

Eight: Demon Summoning and Babysitting

Trigger Warning!!! Later in the chapter there is gun usage! If you're not comfortable reading that, skip the part between the bolded words. (There will be a note before the part so you know when to skip.)

Third Person POV:

Everest walked beside Izzy and her sister as they entered an abandoned warehouse. Jace and Clary had their Seraph blades drawn, Izzy had her whip ready, and Alec had an arrow drawn. The Shadowhunters had given Everest weird looks when she didn't draw any weapon, but Clary knew why she didn't have a blade. Everest was much more comfortable with a gun than a sword or dagger any day and she almost always had her gun with her.

"Magnus's lair is right behind that fence," Jace told them.

"Magnus lives in a warehouse?" Everest's mouth quirked at her sister's question.

"Don't think so Ritz."

"Not exactly. Warlock glamour," Jace corrected her.

Izzy held up a hand. "Something's wrong. It's far too easy to get this close."

"His protective wards must be down." Jace looked like someone just told him Izzy had poisoned someone with her food. He had that 'of course that's what happened' look on his face.

Alec turned to the twins. "You. Don't get in the way," he told Clary. "And you, stay behind us and don't get yourself killed."

Everest would have laughed at Clary's offended look if the situation wasn't so serious. She wasn't going to lie, it felt kinda good that Alec didn't just tell her not to get in the way, but basically just told her to be careful. Not that she would listen—she had a habit of only listening to instructions like 'be careful' for a few seconds before she did something not careful at all.

Everest heard the sound of fighting and her head shot up towards a ledge, her hair smacking her sister's face. Two men were fighting on the ledge and one stabbed the other through with a sword. He grunted and fell to the ground, a little girl rushing towards him.

Everest ran forward, the others at her heel. She reached the girl first, kneeling beside her as she begged for the man to wake up.

"Daddy! Daddy? Daddy, get up, please!"

Everest's heart broke as she heard the girl's cries. She knew how it felt to have someone taken from you before your eyes and be able to do nothing about it.

"Watch out!" Clary shouted as she kicked a man away from Everest and the girl.

Everest hauled the girl up and they ran behind Clary.

"Get her to Magnus," Clary told her twin.

Everest nodded. She turned to the girl and motioned with her head to a cart of wood behind them. She led the girl behind the cart and crouched down to her level.

"Hey Kiddo," she smiled at her despite the situation. "My name's Everest and I'm going to get you out of here, alright? What's your name?"

"Zoe," the girl said in a small voice.

"Alright Zoe. When I say go, you and I are going to follow my friends and we're going to get you to Magnus." Zoe nodded and Everest watched her sister and friends deal with the Circle member closely. "Go."

Trigger Warning! Gun usage in this next part. Skip to next bolded lines if you need to!

The girl and Everest went after the others, but they were walking too fast for the two to keep sight of them. They lost them in the maze of hallways and storage. Everest heard footsteps all around them and instinctively knew they were not her friends'. She took a deep breath and pulled Zoe closer to her.