Fire and Flame

Gone

The wedding is supposed to be special. 

The day where dreams comes true. 

The happiest and most memorable day for a girl.

Yet as Tessa walked the down the aisle, despite the beautiful, golden dress. Despite her friends waving and smiling at the side. And despite seeing the groom, shining like witchlight as she came towards him, she could not any of those. Instead, she felt half dead, as though she'd lost part of herself in the rose petals, freshly fallen onto the floor, marking the path to her future. 

She couldn't help but feel this way when she saw the best man standing beside the groom. He had a look that was as familiar as a mirror, and a face that haunts her nightmares. On the outside, he seemed to be overjoyed for his parabatai's good fortune, but because she knew him so well, she could just see the sadness in his eyes, the tension that marked his shoulders. Seeing him like this, she couldn't help but wonder whether or not she made the right choice.

~~~~*~~~~

He watched her, walking towards him, bouquet in hand, marrying another. Seeing her, he can't help remembering the first time they met, when she crashed into his life and made it extraordinary. When they first touched, their first kiss, and the way it felt just to be near her. He glanced over at his parabatai, he can't help but feel a pang of hate, followed closely with a sharp stab of guilt. It was his brother's wedding, he should be happy for him, but couldn't quite manage it. He really thought he had a chance to be with her, after all the time they spent together, the jokes they shared. 

He put those feelings away, however,  as they exchanged rings, something not normally done in the Shadow World. By the time they finished their vows, he had convinced himself that this marriage was for the best. Tessa would live forever, whereas he could not even guarantee tomorrow. When they looked into each other's eyes and kissed, he couldn't help but feel as though the world was crumbling down around him, until he was nothing more than a speck of who he once was.

~~~~*~~~~

Tessa's first child wasn't even born when Jem passed away. No one would remember the silver-haired boy that once roamed the halls of the London Institute. No one left to remember the bond between Will and Jem, brothers in arms and of heart. No one knows the dent his passing left in Tessa's heart, and the sad violin music she keeps hearing drifting down the halls at night, when their is no one left to play. She used to understand the music as clearly as words, but faded, and becomes only a part of her imagination. Will, though hurt, never gave up trying to cheer Tessa up, giving her gifts in form of books. Overtime, they became close, and one day, almost 12 years later, she finally said yes. 

She would always feel a piece of her missing, but piece of her awakened. Even now, she doesn't regret her decisions. Never regret loving the two boys that influenced her life in ways she could not imagined. How could she regret any of it, watching the red-haired Clary Fairchild dancing with the ever sarcastic Jace Herondale, looking and acting so much like Will. Looking at their obvious love, she remembered.

 She remembered the bright eyed boy that crashed into her prison and saved her, who's love for books could only be matched by her own. She never thought she'd fall for a guy like him, but he snuck up on her, and stole her heart, in a way only he could. She remembered the soft violin music that she heard first in her dreams. He came upon her like a cloud of mist, drifting towards her until he was all she could see. 

She looked back at the pair and smiled, really smiled, and felt complete for the first time in centuries.