Scars of her Blood • Shadowhunters

Chapter 23: No harm done

Celia nearly fell off the window sill when the bang of the door woke her up. She had not even realized she had fallen asleep. Somehow, Celia still managed to end up on her feet. César stepped into the office, followed by Cyril Eloi, the door being held open for them by Alonzo. Celia immediately gestured towards the door:

"Cyril, be so kind and get right out again."

"Celia, I have a meeting with him right now.", César said, "what are you even doing here?"

"Cyril!", Celia insisted. Compared to César, who Celia only got along with because she had to, she actually liked Cyril. He was a quiet man, but he did his job well. And unlike César, he had been at the duel! Celia glanced over at Alonzo, who understood and pulled Cyril out of the room, since he still had not moved on his own.

"It's for the better, Señor.", Alonzo mumbled and firmly closed the door.

César looked like he could not believe what was happening:

"Celia, seriously, what is this?"

"Is your phone broken?", Celia kept ignoring his complaints.

"No...?"

"Were you kidnapped four days ago?"

"No, I was not. You are being ridiculous!"

"And you have been a ghost for the last week!", Celia yelled, knowing she was exaggerating. All the stress came rushing into her, making her lose control over her composure, "I have been trying to contact you since the duel, which you also did not attend as a matter of fact!"

"I had other things to attend to, so I send Cyril in my stead.", César has raised his voice as well, "and I have not received any calls from you in the last few days."

"Well, that is impossible, because I called you like a hundred times!"

César pulled out his phone, clicked around on it and shoved it into Celia's face. The missed calls list was full, but Celia's number was nowhere to be seen. Celia shook her head:

"So what? You can delete those."

César sighed:

"And why would I do that?"

"What do I know?!", Celia threw her hands in the air, "I am not surprised by anything at this point! I would have never thought that Salvador would try to kill me either."

César scoffed:

"Salvador? Trying to kill you?"

"The duel, César...", Celia growled, "... the one that you permitted."

Now, César was outright laughing. Celia starred at him. She could not believe that this was his reaction.

"You are being paranoid, Celia!", César took a deep breath, "as I said, I was not at the duel because I had something more important to attend to. I assumed you could handle yourself. I did not get your calls afterwards, I swear. But I am here now, at your full disposal, so what did you want to discuss?"

"I already said it: Salvador tried to kill me with this duel."

"He did not. That was not his intention -"

"You were not there!", Celia screamed, "the first one was weaker than a twig, and then Diego came in, was way too easy to defeat, just to trigger a death match."

César put his hands on her shoulders, but Celia shrugged him off right away. He sighed:

"Diego had a personal grudge against you, you know that. Patricio Tamayo was fighting in the duel because he volunteered, he wanted to prove himself to his family in some kind of youthful ambition. This is all explainable in an easy manner, you are seeing ghosts."