Swan Song - The Infernal Devices

Chapter Six

ENGLAND

present day
evelyn doyoung
-

Evelyn was pulled from the memory, like being dragged from a frozen stream. She panted inelegantly on her knees, crouched as if in a strange sort of prayer. The Silent Brothers stood as a coven around her, but Evelyn couldn't look. Instead she peered at the floor through her fingers, breathing from her nose.

"That can't be it," she said, finally and her voice sounded ragged in her own head, "There's not enough of it. I can't know nothing!"

The memory had confirmed danger, that was clear. It had come back to her, that same feeling of dread and anxiety, the one she has felt as she stood with her family upon her doorstep, preparing to face an onslaught of demons and enemies. Surely, if they had succeeded, she wouldn't be here.

And her thoughts flickered between her father, her mother and brother, each member warranting their own feverish worry. Evelyn wanted to scream, to cry until her skin was red and blotchy. Though, even in her panicked state, she recognised that was useless, an indulgence to herself. She didn't have that kind of luxury now with the morbid confirmation she had just received.

"No," Brother Enoch spoke, "It does indeed, make no sense. There is a block on the end of that memory. That is the furthest we can reach."

"Then what?" She rounded on the hooded Brother, "What do I do now? That means nothing to me. I am no closer to anything."

"That, however, is not true. The block is strong, it's angelic."

Evelyn's eyes narrowed, "You mean to say, the Angels blocked my memory?"

"Yes," Brother Enoch's voice reverberated even more eerily know in her head, her stomach growing cold, "There is only one who might remove it. I think you are aware of the next procedure, Miss Doyoung."

And unfortunately she was.

The door opened back into the corridor. Jem, who had been sitting on the floor jumped up, the chandelier light catching on his white blond hair.

"You needn't have waited for me," Evelyn said, pulling her hair away from her neck, still slick with sweat, "I could have found my own way back. Probably."

Jem shrugged, "No, but I wanted to. You need to go, don't you?"

"How do you know?"

She watched him, his face keen with barely masked curiosity. Jem was smiling, only a little but enough to make her truly forget his short betrayal at the breakfast table - it seemed so terribly small and unnecessary now. He was even lovelier when he smiled like that. She was probably blushing. Ridiculous. Anyway, her worry was at bay for the time being, shadowed by corse determination.

"You're fidgeting," he said, "I think you fidget when you're restless. I noticed this morning."

Evelyn said nothing, studied him and then very slowly nodded, as if finally making a decision. If she was going to trust one person during her time in London, then it would to be Jem. He matched her, his gaze over her skin.

The door to the Crypt re-opened, and Evelyn saw the cluster of hooded Silent Brothers glide out from within it's depths. In a split second, she grabbed Jem's wrist and pulled him with her into another adjacent dark corridor. Jem raised his eyebrows, and opened his mouth as if to speak.