Scars of her Blood • Shadowhunters

Chapter 55: The Velázquez Manor

 "That went well...", Benicio mumbled. Celia swallowed hard.

"How is Ophelia?"

"Despite having endured a couple days of torture she should be fine for the most time."

"I'll ask her if she knows where Valentine and his entourage went. Then you take her to Mexico and I'll finish this up here."

"Are you sure you want to do that alone?", Benicio immediately sounded worried. Celia sighed:

"I am fed up with all of this, Benni. I want this to end. And Eileen has tried to kill me countless times. She won't succeed now."

"Well I have personal stakes in the fact that she doesn't. So let me help.", Benicio gave Celia an annoyed side-eye. She rarely got one like that.

In the infirmary, Ophelia had woken up again and greeted Benicio and Celia with a sad smile. Celia went to give her a short hug:

"I'm sorry this happened, Ophelia... I should have paid more attention to you."

"It's okay.", Ophelia mumbled into Celia's shoulder. Celia let go of her:

"Are you sure?"

Ophelia nodded.

"Do you know where Eileen went? Or even Valentine and Jonathan?", Benicio asked carefully. Ophelia shrugged:

"Eileen kept talking about having to get something from the Velázquez manor, but I don't know what Valentine's plan was. In the end, they were just all yelling at each other that something had gone wrong and that they had been discovered."

Celia was impressed with how calm Ophelia was. At the same time it eerily reminded her of the numbness she felt herself when it came to things like this.

"I'll let the Clave deal with Valentine then. If Eileen is at the manor, it will be at least an ironic stroke of fate."

The Velázquez manor referred to a villa on an island off the coast of New York. The villa that Celia and her family had been hiding out in twenty years ago. The villa, that Celia's family had died in.

Benicio glanced at her once more:

"Are you entirely sure about this?"

Celia nodded:

"Take Ophelia to Mexico."

It was not hard to find a Warlock to portal Celia to the island. Even though he was reluctant, the right amount of money and letting him catch a glimpse of her family crest were enough to do the trick. When Celia stepped out of the portal on the small dock that was the only other way to get onto the island, she immediately knew that she was not alone here. The Circle had tried to set the villa on fire after killing the royal family. It had rained that night, so the fire had not gotten far. Only a few parts of the building were charred, but over time, most of it had started crumbling to pieces anyways. It was overgrown, rubble laying everywhere.

What was going to happen tonight right here would be incredibly ironic. And it would be worth it. Worth everything.

Celia walked into the big entrance hall and kicked one of the bigger pieces of rubble with her foot, making it slide over the floor with an unnerving sound. The faster Eileen knew that Celia was here, the quicker they could get this over with. If Celia's plan was to work she needed to get Eileen into the position she wanted her in before the sun started setting. She looked around. The domed roof of this hall had holes everywhere, through which the sun was shining in, leaving specks of light all over the floor. It could have almost been beautiful. Almost.