Better Angels

Chapter One: Victoria

Chapter One

Victoria

As I walked the halls of the Institute everything was black and white. I suppose that is what it would be like as you wander your home in the dream realm. But is it the dream realm? Or is it where people go before they die? I know I’m dying I can feel my life force slowly draining and it becomes harder to keep my ghostly eyes open in this place. If I just close them will I feel the pain no longer? The pain is unbearable. The fragile connection that I still have with my body brings back every cough and body spasm that my body has. I can hear them talking about me. Magnus telling them that it is my secret to tell them when I can, but will I ever get the chance to? Magnus protects me even though he knows that there is only a sliver of a chance that I will make it through this.

I pass Church, our fluffy gray cat who is over one hundred years old, his eyes seem to follow me. Maybe he can see me; from what I understand is that around 1878 he was being used as a sacrifice by the Dark Sisters, who were warlocks, but then my ancestor and Jace’s ancestor saved him, James Carstairs and William Herondale. I guess some pretty strong magic was used on Church because he comes up to me and purrs, maybe he can see the dead. I continue past Church. Something is tugging at me and I have to follow it even as Church yowls at me. I throw a glance behind me and smile at him only then does he calm down.

I hear ghostly piano music playing in the ballroom. Is that where I was meant to go? I don’t have to push the door, I just pass through the oak doors. The piano lies in the center of the massive ballroom that had not be used in two years.  Such beautiful dances and parties used to be held here. The painted mosaic of two angels reaching out to each other is shrouded in the dark. The shadows seemed to be cowering from the only light that comes from two people with angel wings protruding from their backs. I flinched away from the light. Angels? How could such magnificent beings be in our Institute? Slowly I made my way to the piano where the two sat. From their builds I could tell that one was a woman and the other a man. I tried my best to stay out of their light for every time I touched it I could feel the poison in my blood writhe in pain. I walked around the piano hoping to get a glimpse at their faces. But I knew them already. These two angels were my angels. Jonathan Christopher Herondale-Lightwood and Clarissa Adele Fray-Morgenstern. Jace slowly tapped away at the piano as Clary laid her curly red head on his shoulder. Tear stains could be seen on both their faces. Was I so deathly ill that they would cry over me. Their light stretched towards me causing me to cry out in pain and leap back. Jace’s playing faltered as he looked around him.

“Did you hear that?” Jace asked. Clary nodded slowly and quickly scanned the room with her green eyes. Green and Gold were looking for me.

“Hello? Jace?” I called. Jace jerked his head around and his gold eyes narrowed and searched where I was standing.

“Who’s there?” He shouted. The light around him quickly expanded as if protecting Jace from and evil presence which I suppose is me. I was caught in the light once more and fell to my knees in pain. Jace and Clary’s eyes widened. They could see me? “Victoria,” Jace whispered in wonder. I let out a whimper. It burned. Their gazes. Their light. I stepped out of the light, but it kept stretching and reaching for me. Was it trying to reclaim me?

“Victoria, please stop running,” Jace pleaded with me, but if he knew how much pain he caused me would he then tell me not to run? They stood up simultaneously, so quickly that their movements were just blurs, causing the piano bench to fall over. Another surge of power coming faster and faster towards me. Soon I was backed into the corner of the ballroom with nowhere else to go. I sobbed as the light touched and burned me. My veins were on fire and there was no hope of escaping the pain.

“Please tell the light to go away!” I cried through my pain. Jace gave Clary a confused look before whispering something to her. She nodded before giving me a pitying look and left the room slowly shutting the door behind her. As she left so did some of the light leaving me in my own dark corner, and leaving me alone with one of my dearest friends who happens to be an angel. Jace took a cautious step towards me. The light did not follow him. He kneeled in front of me his inner light forming a glow around him and his wings folded into his back.