River of the Dead: A Shadowhunter Fanfic

Chapter 4

The dream was unlike the dream she had the night before. She was in a large open room, and Autumn recognized it as the London Institute drawing room from when she went there for a Christmas party.

The room was empty except for Autumn and a white cat lying peacefully in front of the fireplace. This dream was much more peaceful, the fire gave off a warm radiant heat and the pleasant smell of apples and cinnamon filled the air.

Suddenly, a boy appeared in front of the fireplace. He did not look frightening at all, with his smile bright. He looked probably sixteen or seventeen, his hair was black and his eyes were a great shade of blue.

Then Autumn realized that there was another boy sitting on the floor, stroking the cat's fur in his lap. His hair and eyes were a dark brown.

"W-Who are you?" Autumn stuttered.

The black-haired boy spoke first. "My name is Will Herondale. I was born in the late 1800s, although I am very much deceased. I lived an extraordinary life of love and sacrifice..." he paused, and his eyes were full of memory and sadness. Then he held his hand towards the brown-haired boy. "This is Jem Carstairs,  my parabatai. He too, lived a life of love and sacrifice and pain. He can otherwise be known as Brother Zachariah."

Autumn remembered reading about Brother Zachariah in her Shadowhunter History textbook. His Brotherhood was reversed from his by the touch of Jace Herondale's heavenly fire.

"Why am I here?" she asked.

Jem Carstairs spoke. "Autumn Lightwood," he began. "You have been given a great power by the demon Lilith, the power of necromancy. It is a dark power and as Lilith intended for it to be used as evil, Will and I are here to help you use your ability for good."

"Necromancy?? You mean I can speak to the dead?" Autumn asked. Every moment felt real, and Autumn wished it hadn't. "This... this isn't real. Why would Lilith want me? Why me? You have the wrong person... I.."

"No. You have dark demon blood in you, Autumn." Will took a step forward.

"But... but how? If I had the demon blood all my life, why am I only seeing you now? If you're dead, how are you still talking to me? When did you die?"

Will looked very patient. "Some things... cannot be told to a living being, for their own good. I can tell you that I died at age 76, and I appear as a 17 year old boy because that was the high peak of my life, or the most important. I had two wonderful children and a beautiful wife, although she is immortal and still living on Earth.." he looked sad, and Autumn noticed Jem's face tighten and his eyes fill with sorrow, too. "Her name is Tessa Gray. I assume you know her from your warlock studies."

"I.." Autumn's head ached. The voice inside her head told her this was real, this was all real, but Autumn wanted so badly to believe that it wasn't.

"I know this is quite stressful to take it, dear," Jem said, his brown eyes meeting hers."But it will be simple enough soon. You must have plenty of questions, but I'm afraid you will have to wake up now."

"Yes, it is time to wake up. When we begin our training, you will know exactly how to speak with the dead without having to be asleep," Will said, and placed his hands on her shoulders. "It's going to be okay, Autumn, darling."

Autumn awoke with a huge headache. She could remember her dream clearly, she could remember Will's blue eyes and Jem's steady gaze. Something--that Autumn didn't know--was telling her that everything was real.

Autumn glanced at her digital clock. 4:21 A.M. It was way to early to wake up, but too late to go back to bed.

She stumbled out of bed, rubbing her throbbing forehead and reached for the door when she heard voices. She quickly recognized it as Chris's and her mother's.

She grabbed her stele on her desk and quickly drew a Hearing rune on her wrist and pressed her ear to the door.

"...run the Institute? What about your children? You can't be this selfish, Ms. Lightwood..." said Chris.

"That monster is not my child, and River is stupid for sticking up for it," Emilia said. "If he is going to side with that thing, I don't want to be near him."

"She's a Shadowhunter," Chris snapped. "You can't possibly be leaving the Institute. Where do you plan on going anyway? Who will run it then?"

"I'm going to live with my brother at the Miami Institute in Florida," Emilia replied matter-of-factly. "Who will run it entirely depends on the Clave."

Autumn couldn't believe her ears. Her mother was leaving? And it was all her fault.

She heard the wheels of Emilia's suitcase rolling down the hallway and Chris's sigh. "Aren't you going to say goodbye to your children?"

"No," was the last thing Autumn ever heard her mother say as she disappeared through the front door.