a struck link // christopher lightwood {3}

twenty-five // thrown

After far too long, they finally let Filomena out of the Infirmary. The healing runes had done the best they could. She had scars. She would always have scars now, and a bit of a limp, but with enough exercise and training, she would run and fight again.

She left her bed in the Infirmary just in time for someone else to be brought in.

The scene was chaos and it took a long moment for her to realize what was going on. The man wounded was Thomas Lightwood. There in the doorway was Alastair Carstairs, gripping the arm of a sagging Ariadne, her hair down from its patrol-safety braids and hanging in her face. If he let her go, Filomena thought, she might fall away from him and crash to the floor. Behind him, Gabriel held the Institute's telephone, yelling confusedly into the reciever.

"What happened?" Filomena asked, shouting out to anyone who would hear her. "What is happening?"

"Another double attack," said Cecily, drawing her aside. "Ariadne caught Thomas with Lillian Highsmith—he was trying to heal her, but the runes wouldn't take. She assumed he was the killer and attacked him. She might have killed him had Alastair not miraculously been there to pull him off. Pluto has the real killer tied up in the parlor at their lodging house and Dash comatose and too unstable to be moved to the Institute. We're sending someone to treat them there."

"And—"

"Where's my brother?"

They both jumped and whirled. There was Eugenia Lightwood, her face hard, green eyes blazing.

"He's in the Infirmary," said Cecily. "He'll live, he's stable—"

"What happened to him?"

"Ariadne mistook him for—"

Eugenia shoved Cecily aside. She strode across the room, grabbed hold of Ariadne, and shoved her out into the hall.

Cecily shouted. Everyone jumped in to pull them apart. Eugenia threw Ariadne into a hall table. She hit the floor and rolled onto her side and her face met Eugenia's steel-capped boot. Crunch.

Cecily grabbed Eugenia by the arms and hauled her back, yelling in panicked Welsh. To Filomena's surprise, Gabriel understood her. He picked up Ariadne, now little more than a crumpled hull, and bore her into the Infirmary, the doors slamming shut behind him. Cecily wrestled Eugenia through another door, and then only Alastair and Filomena remained in the hall, staring at each other in shock.

✧ ₊˚⋆

Da came to pick up the baoban sidhe looking hollow and heavy. Pluto handed her over as emotionlessly as they could. God, god how many times in the last hours had they sat there and wanted to just deal the same wounds to her that she dealt to Dash.

The baoban sidhe still hadn't given Pluto her name. Pluto doubted she ever would.

"How's Dash?" Da asked.

"Still out," said Pluto. "We don't know when they'll come around. If they'll come around. But they're stable now and breathing." Pluto shook her head, sighed, closed her eyes. "I'd like to keep them here. I think it'd be easier, and better on them, than trying to take them to the Infirmary."

"Okay. Then we'll do that."

"Speaking of...Saoirse's watching them, and...do you think I could go with you? Back to the Institute?"

"Oh, sure." Da reached out, wrapping an arm around his daughter's shoulders. "C'mon, let's go."

✧ ₊˚⋆

It didn't take long for Pluto to remember why she hated carriages. No suspension. No shock absorption. Headaches. Nausea.

"You're okay?" Da asked.