Distractions

Thirty-Five: Coffee Saves Lives

This chapter has a bit of everything from angst to fluff to chaos. It's such a fun chapter and I hope you enjoy it.

Trigger warnings: Addiction, withdrawal, implied/mentioned overdose, mass death (off page), weapons, sparring, mentioned relapse, bodies/corpses, one-sided fighting

She scrambled for her phone, grabbing at the grass around it instead a few times before she managed to pick up the device in her shock. There was no way. Why was she calling? Why after all this time? It was impossible. It was ridiculous. She hadn't had any contact with anyone since leaving. Why was she calling Everest? Why was she calling with a number Everest didn't know? Why now? Did she know what just happened? But how would she know?

"Everest? Are you still there?"

"What the fuck?" she demanded, words harsh and scratching her throat. Thankfully she was far enough away from Alec and Magnus that they couldn't hear her. She didn't know what she would do if they heard her speaking so angrily. It wouldn't be a fun explanation and she wasn't sure she was up for it just then.

The caller sighed. "I know you're angry, Everest. But please, let me explain myself."

"What is there to explain? You left New York because your family found you and you didn't want to be subjected to that life again. You shipped yourself off to a random country where you proceeded to not talk to anyone in any way for nearly two months. Two months, Roslyn! And everyone was mad at me for being kidnapped for a month." She scoffed, gripped her upper arm tightly. "Oh, and your brother is alive and bought a coffee maker for me so I didn't commit murder while I was kidnapped because he works for my father. Did I miss anything?" Her scathing words dripped with sarcasm. She could practically hear the other girl's wince. She couldn't bring herself to care all that much at the moment.

"No, you didn't," Roslyn said, reluctantly. "I do like the part where you drop that your father is alive and apparently an assassin, or at least works with one," she snarked.

Everest's head flew back in exasperation, the crown of her head grazing the wall painfully. She ignored it. "Well that's what you miss out on when you disappear for two months."

"And it's also what happens when Gino and you are part of a world that I wasn't, isn't it?"

She froze. How did Roslyn know about the ShadowWorld?

"What are you talking about?" she asked, a beat too slow.

"I'm talking about Valentine Morgenstern raising metaphorical hell against the Downworld." Everest's grip got tighter. "I'm talking about you being able to fight and take down two Circle members on your own with skill, not luck."

"Who's Valentine?" she tried, hoping that her friend had just heard these things through rumors. But she knew that rumors didn't travel that fast, not even in the ShadowWorld. Besides, how would she have heard the rumors in the first place? ShadowWorld rumors didn't reach the mundane world, at least they weren't supposed to.

Roslyn scoffed with bitter amusement, previous reluctance turning into harshness and defensiveness. "I'm talking about our best friend being a Seelie, about your brothers being vampires, your uncle being a werewolf, your boyfriend being a warlock. I'm talking about you and your twin sister being Shadowhunters."

It was then and there that Everest gave up pretending that she didn't know what Roslyn was talking about.

"How the hell do you know about that?" she demanded.