Valentine Morgestern

Valentine Morgenstern - Part 12

Over the coming weeks Lucian and I worked together in secret to thwart the uprising. We began sending out messages to the representatives chosen by the Clave to sign The Accords. We started with the lycanthropes since they should be the easiest to persuade onto our side seeing as Lucian was a lycanthrope.

We sat one day beneath a tree on the edge of the wolf camp and penned the letter to central lycanthrope representative whom Lucian had only heard of but never met. His name was Morgan Scott and he headed the Praetor Lupus in London. He was the most prominent lycanthrope Downworlder who had been invited.

"This should begin to persuade him," Lucian said as we scanned over the letter in which we pleaded him to believe that Valentine planned to slaughter all the Downworlders who went to the Accords. We had even proposed that we would meet him in person if that was what he required to believe our case.

We scrawled a copy of it and got to work on our letter to the children of the night, the fey and Lilith's children. We planned to send them to the central figures and got to work on things that needed to be planned.

"What do we tell them we've actually planned?" Lucian asked uncertainly.

Now he asks I thought with a touch of irritation. I bit my lip as I readjusted how I was propped up against the tree. I felt the rough bark on the back of my neck as I looked up into the thick foliage above my head as I thought.

"We tell them to bring trusted friends who won't tell of our plans. Outside the Accords Hall we arm then with weapons. As many weapons as we can we'll arm them with. The children of the night will have their teeth, the fey are vicious in a fight, the lycanthropes will have their claws and teeth and Lilith's children are warlocks so they'll have their own brand of magic. Obviously well arm them too," I paused as I considered the many ideas that I'd been formulating for the last three weeks. "Where do we get the weapons though? We can't have people aware that were buying large quantities. It's suspicious."

Lucian screwed up his nose in thought and pondered the idea long and hard. "I'll get me,beds of the pack to buy them. We'll spread the items around different shops and no one will be any wiser. We can hoard them here in the camp and it will be guarded permanently. The nephilim don't come out this far anymore."

"Okay. I'll fund it by pawning my jewellery. Any Downworlder will add to our collection of weapons, I'm sure." A strand of my red hair fell over my face and I tucked it behind my ear quickly.

Lucian glanced at his watch. "You've been here too long. Get back to Alicante!"

I nodded and took off, not even looking over my shoulder at him.

Heading back through the forest took more time that usual as panic struck me. Paranoia had set in too. What if Valentine knew what I was thinking? What if he knew of my plans? I needed to be the obliging wife that he wanted. I could pretend to be that love sick fool that I'd once be. I could flatter him into thinking he was the most incredible man in the whole world despite what I thought about him and his experiments in our cellar. I could pretend to love him all the while hating him for what he'd done to Jonathan. I just needed a plan.

I arrived home thanked my Mother for watching Jonathan then started into dinner preparations. I made stew and ignored it whilst it cooked in the pot. I kept my body busy to keep my mind at ease.

I lifted Jonathan and carried him around as my resolve to even fight against Valentine extended to this. I was going to destroy him from inside the ranks to outside them.

"Evening Lynn," Valentine said upon his return.

"Evening," I said as I looked up from feeding Jonathan. Jonathan had a big fistful of my hair in his grasp. I chose to do what all loving mothers do and chuckled as I gently removed it from his clutch before kissing his hand gently even though it pained me to do it because I knew he wasn't even human.

"How was your day?"

"Good, yours?" I asked as I carried on feeding Jonathan. I brushed his white blonde hair back and looked into his black eyes and felt my stomach churn.

"Great Lynn." Valentine took a chair and drew it up beside us and he played with Jonathan's fingers, distracting him to make him easier to feed.

We must have looked like the perfect family. The doting Mother feeding her child, the child eating it's dinner in a fairly well behaved fashion, the Father sitting there too cooing over his child. A perfect image until you look below the surface. A Mother who despised her own child, a child who was more demon than human and a Father who have created a monster for a son in pursuit of a perfect Shadowhunter. Always look below the surface, never take anything at face value. There is always more than meets the eye.

"So Lynn, are you feeling better?" Valentine asked as we sat over our dinner whilst Jonathan sat on the floor and played with his toy seraph blade.

"Yes actually much better," I said as I let my most natural pretend smile slip onto my face. The smile made me feel like I was wearing a mask.

"Good. I've been so worried about you." I saw Valentine black eyes shine at the prospect of me feeling better. He was glad that I was okay.

"So nothing fresh with you?" I asked as I looked at him from under my eyelashes.

"Not much."

We made light dinner conversation and Valentine took Jonathan for a bath then fed him his night time bottle whilst I did the dishes. I pondered over my get out plan. What to do if he found out I was plotting against him. It struck me that it should be easy to get Ragnor on side. A potion to do something. I'd never hold up under torture. I'd spill everything. Valentine couldn't know until the very last second that I'd been against him. He couldn't know that I was working against him even now. Then again he didn't know yet and I'd been nervous but my nerves were fading slightly. I was growing confident again.

I was jolted out of my thoughts by a hands being rested on the sides of my waist. I jumped and spun round to face Valentine. I flushed with colour because I couldn't deny my physical attraction to him even when my mind was protesting. You can't help who you love but you can learn from your mistakes in love. I was learning but still hadn't learnt enough.