✓ | Silent Shadows ⋆ Will Herondale [1]

CHAPTER TWENTY: HEAL

◤You, cruel, cruel being. I am beginning to think you actually enjoy dwelling on other's pain.◢

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CHAPTER TWENTY: HEAL

ADRENALINE coursing through Marie's veins was a feeling she had deeply missed. It was almost addictive, the way tingles touched every single part of her body, making her movements swift and graceful as she ran through the crowd of clockwork creatures, stabbing them with the tip of her sword and kicking them with all the force she carried in her muscles.

A grinding sound of metal on metal broke through the damp air, signalling that Shadowhunters have been successful in their attack. To say that Tessa felt relieved when her eyes spotted Marie in the crowd, tall and fierce as she kept on destroying the machines, would have been an understatement.

Other Shadowhunters were following in suit. Henry was swinging his seraph blade, slicing open the chests of automatons, sending them back to their dark dimensions. Beside him, Will furiously waved his weapon, tearing apart the creatures that dared threaten his parabatai.

Bright sparks of blue and silver flew through the air, almost like there was an invisible fountain that gave birth to them. Under the sparks, Marie looked almost like Heaven's emissary, sent to Earth to save the human kind from death. The brunette crouched down to Tessa's level, extending her hand to the fallen girl.

"Tess, what happened?" Marie examined her friend's skin by gently tilting her head. Tessa could only manage to stare, far too dazed and overwhelmed with what was happening around her. "Are you hurt? What about Jem?"

As if some magical word had been spoken, Tessa had awoken from her slumber. "I'm not hurt, but Jem, he collapsed. There!"

The shape-shifter girl rose her hand in the air, guiding Marie's eyes to the place where Jem had been. Crumpled in the shadows beside the Institute's door, the silver-haired warrior laid motionless.

The sudden change in facial expression and color of Marie's face had been fascinating and far too fast. In the time span of several seconds, the flush-pink color of her cheeks turned to chalk-white and the focused hazel irises dilated in fear.

Wayland Shadowhunter did not hesitate in lifting Tessa from the cold ground and ushering her to a safe place, making sure to allow her eyes to search for the young obsidian-haired Shadowhunter boy.

Almost as if an invisible source connected them, Will and Marie's gazes collided. Both were filled with anxiety and fear for their friends and family, and perhaps that was the reason of Will's fast reaction to Marie's signal.

The boy's eyes found his parabatai in no time, his voice gradually becoming louder as it called upon Thomas to assist him in carrying Jem Carstairs away from trouble.

Thomas, tousle-haired and serious, kneeled down by Will and with joined forces, they lifted Jem to his feet, hurrying inside without glancing backward. Their trust in others to protect them had been great; they knew their family always had their backs.

And just as that, sudden silence embraced the Institute's sacred ground. The clamor and noise disappeared almost as quickly as it came, leaving only destroyed clockwork pieces behind, shattered and broken in the courtyard as a warning sign to all those who dared raise their hands on the Nephilim.