In Dreams
I promised my Google Group I'd post something for them when we hit
5,000 members. So here's a deleted scene from Clockwork Prince and, at the
bottom, a line from City of Lost Souls. The CP scene never actually shows up in
the text and I've redacted some spoilers.
The
darkness came and went in waves that grew ever slower. Tessa was beginning to
feel lighter, less like an awful weight was pressing her down. She wondered how
much time had passed. It was night in the infirmary, and she could see Will a
few beds away from her, a curled figure under the blankets, dark head pillowed
on his arm. Brother Enoch had given him a tisane to drink once the [redacted]
was cut out of his skin, and he had fallen asleep almost instantly, thank God.
The sight of him in that much pain had been more harrowing than she could have
imagined.
She was
in a clean white nightgown now; someone must have cut away her blood-stiffened
clothes and washed her hair before bandaging her — it lay softly over his
shoulders, no longer twisted into rat-tails of tangles and drying blood.
‘Tessa,”
came a whispered voice. “Tess?”
Only
Will calls me that. She opened her eyes, but it was Jem seated on the side of
her bed, looking down at her. The moonlight spilling through the high ceilings
turned him almost transparent, an ethereal angel, all silver but for the gold
chain at his throat.
He smiled. “You’re awake.”
He smiled. “You’re awake.”
“I’ve
been awake here and there.” She coughed. “Enough to know I’m all right besides
a crack on the head. A lot of fuss about nothing —” Tessa’s eyes dropped, and
she saw that Jem was carrying something in his hands: a thick mug of some
liquid that sent up a fragrant steam. “What’s that?”
“One of
Brother Enoch’s tisanes,” said Jem. “It will help you sleep.”
“All I’ve been doing is sleeping!”
“All I’ve been doing is sleeping!”
“And
very amusing it is to watch,” said Jem. “Did you know you twitch your nose when
you sleep, like a rabbit?”
“I do
not,” she said, with a whispered laugh.
“You
do,” he said. “Fortunately, I like rabbits.” He handed her the cup. “Drink just
a little,” He said. “It is right for you to sleep. Brother Enoch says to think
of the wounds and shocks to your spirit as you would think of wounds and shocks
to your body. You must rest the injured part of yourself before you begin to
heal.”
Tessa was dubious, but she took a sip of the
tisane anyway, and then another. It had a pleasant taste, like cinnamon. Barely
had she swallowed the second mouthful when a feeling of exhaustion swept over
her. She lay back against the pillows, listening to his soft voice telling her
a story about a beautiful young woman whose husband had died building the Great
Wall of China, and who had cried so much over his loss that she had turned into
a silvery fish and swum away across a river. As Tessa drifted off into dreams,
she felt his gentle hands take the cup from her and set it down on the bedside
table. She wanted to thank him, but she was already asleep.City of Lost Souls
“He is a Shadowhunter,” said Jocelyn. “His loyalty will be to Clave and Covenant.”
“He’s my friend,” said Magnus coldly. “His loyalty is to me.”
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