Distractions - Chapter 51: Chapter 51
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Never in Everest's life had she been more grateful to be practically squished between two people. Alec was on one side of her, hand holding hers tightly, and Magnus was on her other side, arm wrapped around her waist. She had no idea the two of them were so clingy, but so was she so it was fine. Besides, Alec had almost just died and Everest had just gotten back from being kidnapped so it was understandable.
"How'd it go with Aldertree?" Alec asked Magnus.
"Well, the man didn't disappoint. In his own charming, inimitable way, he informed me that I will indeed be punished, but the form of punishment is yet to be decided." Magnus gave the two of them a tense, rueful smile.
"All for trying to save my life." Alec shook his head. "Jace may have been the one to pull me out, but I did feel you there. And it did make a difference. So...thank you."
Alec and Magnus smiled sweetly at each other in a way that made happy chimes go off in Everest's head.
"Thank you for not dying on me," Magnus quipped. "So, uh, how's Jace?"
"He's hanging in there," Everest said. "He should be back soon, assuming Aldertree gets his trial set and started soon. Once he grabs the truth sword—"
Alec cut in, "Soul Sword."
"—yeah that, it'll be revealed that he was never actually on Valentine's side and he'll be able to come home."
Alec glanced around, rolling his bottom lip between his teeth. When he spoke, his words were slightly shaky. "Look, um, I know that with everything that's been going on, I...we haven't had a chance to..."
"Go on that first date we never had?" Magnus prompted.
"Right, yes."
Everest wanted to squeal, they were both so awkward and adorable. She probably wasn't much better, but she liked to think she could be a little bit less awkward if she tried.
"I know a place in SoHo that has some of the best lamb kebab you'll get outside of Marrakesh," Everest suggested, recalling the quaint restaurant with the adorable cat that liked to sit outside by the door.
Magnus's gaze turned thoughtful. "Or we can Portal to Marrakesh. You hungry?"
Everest inhaled loudly. "That sounds brilliant and fun. I'm in."
"Starving." Alec smiled and opened his mouth as if to say something else, but then someone cut in.
"Hey Alec." Everest looked behind Alec to find a man with light brown skin and dark hair slicked back gesturing to the Ops Center. "Demon briefing in the Ops Center. All hands on deck."
Alec sighed. Both his and Everest's gazes landed on Magnus when he spoke.
"My dear Raj. You're looking well." Everest tilted her head in question as the man walked away and Magnus smirked.
"Rain check?" Magnus proposed. He was so understanding it was absurd.
"Yes, yeah." Alec's eyes flashed with worry. "Is that okay?"
"Go battle your demons, Alexander," Magnus told him with a smile.
"Go see what they want," Everest told him. "They'll keep pestering you until you talk to them anyway."
They watched as Alec walked away and then Everest turned to Magnus. "Who was that?"
"Who? Raj?"
"Yeah, the guy that just got Alec."
Magnus chuckled and started to walk towards the front doors. "I may or may not have blasted him into a wall."
Everest gasped. "Really?" Magnus nodded. "He looks like he deserved it."
"Oh, he did." Magnus didn't elaborate, so Everest didn't push.
They stepped outside into the sunlight. Everest leaned her head back, soaking in the warm light.
"I can't wait for things to slow down so I can just be here, in the quiet sunlight with you and Alec," she whispered, lips twitching into a smile.
Magnus hummed, bumping her shoulder lightly with his own. "Well, things might not slow down for a while. But, that doesn't mean we can't enjoy this moment right now."
Everest exhaled slowly, leaning against Magnus's arm ever so slightly, just enough to feel their arms touching, but not enough to put so much of her weight on him that she was all but falling.
"Everest?" a meek voice asked from behind them.
Everest sighed, though it sounded rather like a growl, and turned with a customer service smile plastered on her face.
"Yes?"
"You're needed in the Ops Center for a debriefing." the Shadowhunter who had been speaking ducked back inside, and Everest just stood there blinking.
She was internally screaming as she turned back to Magnus with an apologetic look. "I'm sorry. I wanted to enjoy the moment but now I have to go do things."
Magnus grabbed her hand and squeezed it gently. "It's all right, we enjoyed the moment we had. There will be other moments for us to enjoy. Now go do your job."
"It's not my job," she told him with a grin. "Not yet anyway."
Magnus just grinned back and squeezed her hand one more time before she walked back inside. She went to the Ops Center and found Alec and Izzy waiting for her.
"What burned down this time?" she asked, giving Izzy a brief side hug.
Trigger Warning: Mentions of death, weapons, and guns
"There was a demon attack downtown. A mundane is dead because of it," Izzy told her grimly.
"Shit," Everest breathed out. "What are we going to do?"
"We're going to investigate it and see if we can tell what kind of demon caused the attack," Alec told her. He tossed her a Seraph blade. "I know you prefer your gun, but keep that with you in case you have to fight in close quarters."
She nodded and tucked it in her belt beside her gun. "Got it." She glanced at Alec and Izzy, who both had weapons prepped and ready to go. "Shall we?"
"We shall." Izzy smirked and looped her arm around Everest's and together they marched off, Alec following a few steps behind them.
"Demon attack downtown. One mundane dead," Izzy announced as the three approached Clary, who was standing by Jocelyn. Everest had forgotten that her mom was awake. She could already tell that an interesting conversation was in her future.
"And since we don't have Jace, Everest can't go on a mission without at least one fully trained Shadowhunter, and you need to leave the Institute before Aldertree kills you for being annoying, you're with us." Alec rolled his eyes at the eager expression on Clary's face.
Trigger warning over
"Wait. You want me on your team?"
"It's not my first choice, but we're a man down and everyone else is on patrol. So gear up."
Clary eagerly followed after Alec, nearly jogging to keep up with his long strides.
"Everest, wait!"
Everest turned at the sound of her mom's voice. Izzy turned with her since their arms were still looped together.
"Yeah?"
Jocelyn hesitated for a moment. "I'm glad you're back." Everest gave her a small smile. "Can we talk when you get back?"
Everest nodded. "Yeah. We probably should have talked years ago, but yeah."
Izzy tugged Everest, whose feet felt as if they were glued to the wooden floor, away from Jocelyn and back to Alec and Clary.
"You alright with her?" Izzy murmured, rubbing Everest's wrist gently.
"I will be."
...
"It's so gross," Everest complained.
Trigger Warning: Death, blood, weapons, guns, violence
She was holding the box of samples Izzy had collected from the corpse. The moment Izzy had seen the corpse, her eyes had lit up and Everest knew immediately that she would be put on keeper duty—a job that required her to hold open bags for samples and not lose said samples.
Everest nodded at Luke as he approached.
"It's one nasty demon," Izzy mused. "Punched a whole right through his chest."
"With strength like that, I doubt it's done," Luke said.
"Nothing in the immediate area," Alec said, walking up to them.
Izzy stood up, taking the box from Everest and snapping it shut. "We're taking the body back to the Institute. I'll run some tests to see what kind of demon we're dealing with."
Trigger warning over
"Clary, Everest, and I will check the perimeter." Alec and Everest started walking towards Clary, who had been watching the mundanes. "Hey, Fray! We got demons to hunt. Come on."
As Clary fell into step beside Alec and Everest, Everest glanced back slightly and saw Luke giving her a nervous look. She wondered what that was about.
"Most important thing: don't slow things down. If things slow down, we all get killed. Another thing: don't get killed. I'd have an army after me if either of you, especially Everest, got killed. I don't want that," Alec said sternly as they turned a corner.
Clary gave her a look as if to say why is he like this? but Everest just shrugged. They were on a mission, of course Alec was serious.
"Sounds reasonable," Clary muttered.
Alec held his arm out to stop the twins from going any further and grabbed Clary's arm. Everest watched as he drew an unfamiliar rune onto her sister's arm.
"What's this for?" Clary asked as Alec held his hand out for Everest's arm.
"It lets you see the demon's heat signature." He lowered his voice so that Everest was the only one who could hear him. "It's rather overwhelming because you see everyone and everything's heat signature. You don't have to have the rune if you don't want to."
Her mind filled with images of reds and oranges and blues and yellows, the colors that always showed up on thermal cameras. Was that what her vision would be? The nails on her right hand dug into her thigh as she tried to push images of her breaking down in panic and overwhelm into the little box of negatives in the back of her mind.
She shook her head, finally managing to push the images away. "I want to," she told him earnestly. "I want to help."
He nodded and she was so grateful that even though he must have realized that she had immediately thought of all the things that could go wrong if she got overwhelmed, he still let her make her own decision and didn't force her to do anything she didn't want to do.
"Alright. Let me know if it gets to be too much and I can make it stop, alright?"
She nodded again and winced at the burning sensation she hadn't quite gotten used to. She blinked rapidly and rubbed her eyes vigorously when her vision was suddenly full of bright yellows and faint oranges. Not what she was expecting.
"Woah," she said. Clary nodded in agreement.
"First time can be sensory overload," Alec told the two, rather dazed, twins. "The trick is to focus. Try to filter out everything unimportant, hone in on the heat signature."
"How? I can't see anything but bright yellow." Everest scrunched up her nose.
"Patience."
"Easy for you to say," Clary told him. Everest was rather startled, though pleased, to hear that there was no actual malice behind Clary's words like there had been when the two of them had originally been shot into the ShadowWorld. "For someone who hasn't been training all her life, this stuff is impossible."
"You're doing fine, Ritz," Everest scoffed playfully. "You're the one who apparently killed a demon in a club while Gino and I laid on top of the van complaining about life."
"It's still impossible," Clary grumbled as they began walking again. Everest made sure not to look directly into street lights or the lights in shop windows. She learned the hard way that doing that was asking to have your vision gone for a moment or two.
"Impossible just means try again. Not that you have to worry about that. You'll be out of the field soon." Clary and Everest shared a look and then glanced at Alec. "You're going to Idris."
"The Shadowhunter homeland?" Everest asked. Alec nodded. "When, why, how, and by who was that decided?"
"Your mom is being reassigned to Idris so the Clave can keep an eye on her," Alec explained.
"Mom wants us to go with her," Clary added. "She would have told you herself but you weren't here and then the mission happened. She was going to tell you, I swear."
Everest exhaled slowly. "I believe you." She slowed so that she was half a step behind the other two. She didn't think they noticed. "Are you going?"
"Are you, Ev?"
"I asked first."
"I'm older."
"That doesn't mean jack squat now that we're adults, Ritz."
"I'm still older."
"And I still asked first."
"Ugh. I don't know."
Everest glanced at her sister sharply, her face contorting uncomfortably when she was met by the harsh fiery colors of her sister's heat signature. She focused extra hard for just a moment, but it was enough to make the colors around her sister disappear.
"What do you mean, you don't know? I thought you wanted to go spend the rest of your life with Mom once we got her back."
Clary sighed, then shrugged. "I thought I did. But I don't know. So don't get too excited about throwing me a going away party," she said, the last part directed at Alec.
"Honestly, I think you'd like Idris. Both of you would. It's amazing," Alec said, a faint wishfulness to his words.
Everest bumped his shoulder. "Maybe you could show me one day?"
He smiled a little. "I'd like that."
Clary fake gagged, though Everest knew she (along with Izzy) was a complete and utter shipper of 'Malecrest' as Clary, Izzy, and Simon had dubbed her, Alec, and Magus. "Yeah? I bet that it'd be pretty amazing to get me out of your hair, huh?"
"I didn't say that. You did."
Everest laughed.
...
Clary started running across the street and Alec and Everest had to run to keep up with her. Alec began to scowl at Clary's unexplained running.
"Alec, Everest..." Clary said softly once they caught up. She was staring intently at the dark spot by an alleyway.
Everest followed her gaze and knew what she was looking at immediately. There was a massive patch of purple coating the entrance to the alley.
"That's not good, is it?" Everest asked, hand going to her belt.
"No."
Trigger warning: Blood, gun, weapons, mentioned death, panic attack, overwhelm, mentioned and implied injury
Shit. There was blood. There was a lot of blood. It pooled in the alleyway like puddles of crimson wax and Everest hated it.
Everest drew her gun, her hand poised to flick the safety off, and Alec and Clary drew seraph blades. Everest could feel the weight of the seraph blade and four knives (Izzy had insisted) on her belt and in her boots. For whatever reason, the weapons made her feel both safer and more vulnerable. Never in her life had she been so armed, so ready to fight. Sure, she often had her gun with her (though usually only if she had Luke or another adult that was licensed to carry a gun), but having a gun she rarely used was different than carrying five blades and a gun on a mission to find a demon. She supposed she'd have to get used to the feeling of carrying weapons everywhere and having to be prepared for most any situation, but she wasn't sure she would be able to.
They stalked forward carefully, Alec much more gracefully than Clary or Everest, until they walked behind a dull blue dumpster. As her gaze landed on a figure curled up behind the dumpster, the heat signature rune wore off. She blinked rapidly and rubbed her eyes harshly at the sudden return of normal colors. And then she gasped.
Behind the dumpster was a girl no older than fifteen with long black hair and in a yellow t-shirt and jeans. Had Everest not noticed the one detail that made the girl so startling, she would have thought she was just a random teenager on her way to or from hanging out with friends. However, she did notice that detail. It was rather hard not to, considering that detail was the fact that the girl's hand was covered in blood, as was half her forearm.
"What happened? Who are you?" the girl demanded, shaking violently and her voice wavering even more violently.
"It's okay, we're here to help," Clary said, trying to calm the girl.
"It's a classic possession hangover," Alec explained quietly. Everest was fairly sure she had heard that line somewhere in a movie before. "Once the demon leaves the body, they have no memory of what they did."
Everest's shoulders drooped as the girl's breathing started to quicken.
"Is this blood?" the girl demanded.
"Just...try to keep calm," Alec said quickly, stuttering slightly. He clearly wasn't used to comforting strangers.
Clary knelt down next to the girl, Everest following a moment later.
"Hey, don't look at your hand, okay? Just look at me or my sister," Clary told her.
The girl was gasping sporadically at this point and Everest was worried she would pass out soon if she didn't calm down even a little bit.
"I don't understand. What's going on?"
Everest glanced down at the broken concrete beneath her feet that wasn't stained with blood and other substances that she didn't want to know the name of, and then at Clary. Clary's eyes flickered between Everest and the girl, then Clary's mouth twisted in a silent question. Everest nodded in answer. Clary rose and Everest took her place closer to the girl, but not so close that she panicked even more. She sat down gingerly, taking care not to sit on a blade or in a puddle of unknown substances.
"I know nothing makes sense right now. But I can help you, so can my friends over there. I promise, okay?" The girl nodded, but her breathing didn't slow down. Everest glanced at Clary, who was standing by Alec now, and raised her eyebrows. Clary mimed making a phone call and shrugged her shoulders, indicating that she didn't know if an ambulance was called.
Everest shifted so that she was sitting criss-cross and made sure that her posture was as friendly as possible. "While we wait for help, do you want to play a small game?"
The girl shrugged.
"Alright, let's play a game to keep your mind busy then. So what we do is we name five things you can see, four things you can hear, three things you can feel, two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste. It doesn't have to be things you can see, hear, smell, etc. here right now. It can be things whenever and wherever." Everest smiled gently. "I'll go first. I can see the graffiti on abandoned buildings, the post it notes on my wall, the glitter all over my friend's house, raccoons trying to get into the house, and my friends being dorks. What are five things you can see?"
"My bookshelf...the sunrise...my favorite show...rainbows...Pride flags."
Everest's smile widened. This kid was awesome, besides the whole 'possessed by a demon and killed someone' part.
"I love those things. The next part is four things you can hear. I can hear the train going by, people laughing, rainstorms, and my favorite music."
"I can hear...cats, cars, pages turning, and...streams."
"Three things I can feel are: my fuzzy blankets, my boyfriends' soft shirts, and my uber soft plushies." She chuckled. "I like soft things, if that wasn't obvious."
The girl's breathing was slowing down and she actually smiled a little. "Me too. I can feel the road under my skateboard, my Hello Kitty pajama pants, and my brother's hoodie strings."
Everest hummed. "I can smell coffee brewing and sandalwood shampoo." Internally, she grinned at the not so subtle reference to the shampoo in Magnus's shower.
"I can smell cookies and the forest after it rains."
"Ooh, that's a good one. I don't know if that one could ever be beat." Everest hummed again in thought. "I can taste...green Skittles."
"I can taste my grandma's baklavas."
By then the girl was breathing at a normal rate and Everest could hear an ambulance on its way. Everest smiled kindly at the girl.
"Help is nearly here, so I'm going to help you up and get you to the ambulance so that you can get checked over, alright?"
The girl's face fell and she nodded silently. As the sirens got louder, Everest hoisted the girl to her feet and helped her to the mouth of the alley. A quick glance behind her revealed that Clary and Alec were hiding behind a grimy blue dumpster.
The sirens grew far too loud for Everest's liking and then went silent. She glanced up. The ambulance was there. She passed the girl to the paramedics and gave her most reassuring smile to the girl as she was led into the vehicle.
"Did you find her?" one paramedic asked.
She nodded. "Yeah. I was walking home from my sister's when I found her."
"Do you know if she's hurt at all? Is the blood hers?"
Everest shook her head. "I don't think she's hurt besides being shaken up. She can't remember anything about what happened. I'm not sure if the blood is hers or not, but I don't think so."
The paramedic nodded and thanked her before hopping into the back of the ambulance and closing the door. The ambulance disappeared into the New York streets a moment later.
Trigger warning over
Trigger warning for brief mentions of blood
"You're good at helping people," Alec told her softly as he stepped up to stand next to her.
"Comes with babysitting for five years."
"You've got blood on your jeans," was what Clary said when she stopped to stand by Everest.
Everest gaped for a moment before all but throwing her phone at Clary so that she could take a picture to show her. Sure enough, there was a faint splatter of blood on Everest's jeans.
"No," she whined. "I like these jeans. Now it looks like I bled everywhere."
Trigger warning over
Without a word, Alec took off his jacket and handed it to Everest. She shrugged it on easily and was pleased to see that it might as well have been a short duster on her.
"Thank you," she told him honestly.
She went up on her tiptoes to give him a kiss since his hunting boots gave him an extra two to three inches of height on her, but he still had to lean down quite a bit. His arm wrapped around her waist and she smiled into the kiss.
A cough broke the moment. They separated and turned to see Clary pointedly avoiding looking at them. "Still here you know."
"I know. I just don't really care," Everest told her sister. She turned back to Alec and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tightly. He wrapped his arms around her too and they just stayed like that, Alec and Everest hugging and Clary hiding her inner fangirl by avoiding looking at the two.
And then Everest's phone rang, ruining the moment.
"I feel it deep within, it's just beneath the skin. I must confess that I feel like a monster. I hate what I've become, the nightmare's just begun. I must confess that I feel like a monster."
Everest sighed and turned in Alec's arms to answer the call, cutting off Skillet's Monster. "Hello?"
"Escritora?" Raphael croaked from the other end.
"Raphael? Raphael, what's wrong? Why do you sound like you were half killed again and sent through a deep fryer?"
"I need your help, Escritora. Please."
"Where are you?"
"Vermont Street. Second shady alley on the left."
"I'll be there in ten. Please don't get even more hurt, Phae."
"I won't."
"Good."
Everest hung up and tucked her phone in her pocket, fear and worry filling her face. "I have to go."
Alec nodded and smiled faintly. "I figured as much when you went stiff as a board when you answered the phone. Go help Raphael. Make sure he's alright."
"You're sure it's alright?"
"Yeah, I'm sure. Fray and I got this. Besides, even if I don't exactly like Raphael, he's clearly important to you, so you should go check on him."
Everest hugged him briefly before hugging Clary in goodbye as well. "I'll be back soon. Make sure Dusk doesn't get so obsessed with the samples that she forgets how to function."
"We'll be fine," Clary assured her. "Go help your vampire brother."
Everest spared one last look at Alec and Clary before darting off in search of Raphael.
...
"Oh, Phae," Everest whispered. Her eyes stung with tears as she rushed forward and hoisted Raphael off the dirty alley ground. "What happened to you?"
Trigger warning: Blood, injuries, mentioned torture
Raphael grunted in pain as she draped an arm over her shoulders. He was covered in burns, fresh, bloody burns. It made her heart cry and shatter to see her brother so hurt. She had never seen him so hurt, so weak. He was always the strong one, the one who was never hurt.
"Aldertree," he gasped out. "UV rays. He burned me with them."
"He's dead," Everest hissed, wincing when her skin became sticky with Raphael's sweat and blood. But the pained cry Raphael let out was so much worse than any discomfort she had.
Trigger warning over
"Where do I take you?" she asked as they reached the mouth of the alley. "The Hotel, Magnus, somewhere else?"
"Magnus's."
And then Raphael passed out.
"Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit!" Everest squeezed her eyes shut against the tears, but one slipped out anyway. It was hot against her skin and only served as a reminder of all that had been harmed recently. "Damn it."
Everest dragged Raphael through the streets until she found a corner that was suitable to hail a taxi on. She managed to flag down a taxi and give the driver Magnus's address, hoping desperately that whatever stopped mundanes from noticing the ShadowWorld would stop the driver from seeing Raphael's poor condition.
"Looks like your friend had a bit too much to drink, eh?" the driver chuckled.
Everest forced a weak, barely there chuckle. "Yeah, something like that."
The entire drive to Magnus's, Everest spent frantically pressing Raphael's jacket (which he'd kill her for later) against his deepest wound on his chest. She had no idea what the driver saw, but frankly, she didn't care. All she cared about was getting Raphael to Magnus and making sure he'd be alright.
She stumbled up the stairs with Raphael pressed as closely to her side as possible to minimize the possibility of him falling back down the stairs.
She rang the doorbell once, twice, three times. "Please, please, please be home," she chanted in a whisper. "Please be able to help."
"Coming!" Magnus shouted through the door. Everest breathed out in relief.
Trigger warning: Blood, injury, mention of torture, overwhelm
Magus's face filled with pain and anguished regret as he saw Everest, covered in both a stranger's blood and Raphael's blood, essentially carrying Raphael, who was covered in burns and blisters.
"Oh Raphael," Magnus breathed out.
"I didn't know where else to take him and he said to come here," she explained, desperately trying to keep her grip on Raphael.
"Oh my poor boy," Magnus murmured. "Here, hand him to me. I'll help him."
Everest passed Raphael to Magnus and closed the door behind her as she watched Magnus set him on the couch. Her eyes were full of tears and her face was pinched in an effort to hold back said tears.
"What happened to him?" Magnus demanded as he gathered balms and ointments.
"I don't know everything, but he said that Aldertree burned him with UV rays."
Everest moved further into the apartment and stood in the doorway, careful not to get blood on anything.
Trigger warning over for everything except blood
Blood trigger warning still applies
Magnus closed his eyes and visibly shuddered before returning to Raphael's side. He glanced up at Everest for a moment, scanned her appearance, and then inclined his head towards his room. "Go get cleaned up. Shower, take a bath, do your hair, cry, do your makeup, yell and shout at the mirror, change clothes, whatever you need to do. You're no help to him in that state, and I don't want you to run yourself into the ground with worry."
"But—"
"No. No buts. Go relax as best you can and clean up. I will let you know when he's awake if he wakes before you're done." Magnus's expression softened slightly upon seeing the few tears that had fallen. "Please, Everest. It will help you feel better, it will help Raphael not be so worried when he wakes up, and it will help me feel better knowing that you're alright and not feeling like a mess because you're covered in blood."
"Okay."
Everest cast one last glance at Raphael before slowly trailing into Magnus's room. She walked into the bathroom and slipped off her boots so that they wouldn't stain the floors any more. She turned the faucet on as hot as it would go and scrubbed viciously at her skin. Flecks of red slowly left her arms and hands, staining the water pink and leaving her arms and hands red from being scrubbed so hard.
Trigger warning over
Once she was no longer full of coiling disgust for her horrible state, she wandered back into Magnus's room in search of clean clothes. She hoped he wouldn't mind.
She managed to find a pair of sweatpants that looked only three sizes too big, and an old Ramones shirt that was incredibly soft, as well as a pair of fuzzy socks.
She slipped back into the bathroom and turned the shower on, not waiting for it to warm up before slipping in. The icy water hit her skin like ice pellets, but she didn't care. She was numb to the cold water, too busy trying to process everything that had happened.
It had all been going fine until she had learned that her mom was being reassigned to Idris and wanted Everest and Clary to go with her. She didn't want to leave New York, she didn't want to leave her friends. She didn't want to leave Izzy, and Jace, and Gino, and Raphael, and Roslyn, and Alec, and Magnus, and everyone else behind. She loved her life in New York; she didn't want to leave it.
'That's it,' she thought. 'I'm not going.'
She wouldn't go to Idris, not even if Clary and her mom both begged her to go. She had a life in New York she wouldn't, couldn't, leave. She wasn't Clary, she couldn't make friends everywhere she went. She couldn't just up and leave the friends she had and ruin the relationships she had built. She wasn't like that, she wasn't Clary.
Her skin burned as the water finally heated up and Everest flinched when her knees popped like a can of biscuit dough when she finally turned around so that her back was towards the water. She hadn't moved in too long apparently.
Hot water that was nearly scalding cascaded over her head and down her back, soaking her hair and dripping onto her face as she ran her hands through her hair. She grabbed a random bottle, hoping it was shampoo. It wasn't. It was sandalwood body wash. She reached for another bottle. This one was shaving cream. She grabbed a third bottle and at last found what she was looking for: shampoo, even if it was also sandalwood scented. It wasn't that she disliked the smell, it wasn't a bad smell, she just missed her shampoo that smelled like rain and the summer.
She massaged her scalp, closing her eyes and trying to come up with dialogue for one of her stories. It wasn't working. So much for distracting herself.
She huffed and searched for conditioner once the shampoo was rinsed out. She worked it in and while it sat in her hair, she scrubbed her body viciously with a wash cloth and then used the body wash. Angel, she hated the feeling of dried blood on her skin.
'I sound like a Shadowhunter,' she realized with an audible gasp. 'What on Earth?'
She wasn't upset about sounding like a Shadowhunter, especially since she supposed she was an actual one by then besides having the angelic power rune. In fact, she was rather pleased with the new revelation. She was just too tired to deal with it or properly accept it at the moment.
The water had run cold again by the time Everest stepped out of the shower, shivering at the distinct temperature change and immediately reaching for the fluffy rainbow towel hanging on the wall. She wrapped herself up tightly and wiped off the mirror that had fogged up completely.
She glanced at her hair in relative despair. She didn't want to do her hair, didn't want to spend forever blow drying and styling it. But she didn't want to braid it either, she didn't have the energy to keep her arms up in the air that long. Everest patted her hair dry with a hand towel and called it good.
She slipped on the too big clothes, marveling slightly at how soft they were. She rolled the waistband of the sweatpants a few times, though they were still slightly baggy, and rolled the sleeves of the shirt to make sure she looked a bit more presentable.
Everest thought back to what Magnus had said about doing her makeup and glanced at the makeup on the counter. He wouldn't mind if she used a bit of eyeshadow and mascara, right?
As if on cue, someone knocked at the door. "Cupcake?" Magnus called.
"Yeah?" Everest set down the palate she was looking at.
"Just wanted to check in, make sure you were alright."
She smiled. How was he so sweet? "Yeah, I'm good. Just trying to ignore the mess of my hair."
"I can help you with your hair when you're done if you'd like?" Magnus offered, voice wavering ever so slightly in hesitation.
"That'd—that would be nice, thank you." Everest hesitated, then asked, "Would I be able to use some of your makeup? Just, like, eyeshadow and mascara and stuff."
Everest nervously tapped the beat of Skillet's Monster on her thigh as she waited for Magnus's answer.
"Of course you can." Everest sighed in relief. "I wouldn't have suggested you do your makeup if I didn't mean that you could use my makeup. I'm pretty sure you don't have a makeup bag with you after your mission and bringing Raphael here."
"Thanks," she said honestly, smiling even as Magnus's footsteps faded away.
Everest selected a neutral eyeshadow palette, a clear lip gloss, mascara, and an eyeliner pencil. She did simple brown eyeshadow, lining her eyes thinly with the eyeliner. She had to admit, however, that she put as much mascara on as she did in Grade Eight. (Which was a lot.) She added some lip gloss and shook her head vigorously, not unlike a dog, causing her hair to fly about her face and land in wild places.
She hung up the towel after wiping up the small amounts of water on the ground and then made sure that the bathroom was tidy. She left the still relatively warm bathroom and winced at the cold air from the rest of the apartment.
"...punishing me at the same time," Magnus was saying when Everest walked into the living room.
Raphael was sitting on a black chair, wincing and curling his upper lift in a sneer as blue tendrils of Magnus's magic crept across his face and healed his injuries. Magnus glanced up and their gazes met for a moment. Everest could have sworn she saw amusement on his face.
"I am going to smack you if you do that to me again," Everest said, marching up to Raphael and, after getting a discrete nod from Magnus, scooping him up in a massive hug. "I was scared out of my mind, Phae."
"I'm sorry Escritora," Raphael said. He wrapped his arms around Everest and she could feel him melting into the hug, less tense than before and certainly a lot less bloody. "I didn't mean to scare you."
"I know."
Raphael pulled away from the hug and gave her a once over. "Are you in Magnus's clothes?"
That explained Magnus's amusement. The clothes were obviously too big for her and she was practically drowning in the clothes.
"Yes," she said confidently, "they are."
"You look cute," Magnus told her with a smile. He pulled her into a hug and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "You should wear my clothes more often."
"They're comfy," she told him honestly. She turned to Raphael again. His nose was scrunched up, likely at the display of affection. "Would you like to fully explain what the hell happened to you?"
Trigger warning: mentions of torture
Raphael sighed and settled back into the chair. "Aldertree called me in for questioning about Camille—"
"One, I don't know who that guy is. Two, Camille can go meet a piranha's mouth," Everest interrupted. Magnus and Raphael both smiled faintly.
"Aldertree is the new head of the Institute and is a horrible person. He's the one that arrested Jace," Magnus explained.
Everest felt something move in her hair and her hand flew up to figure out what it was, only for Magnus to lower her hand for her. "It's just my magic braiding your hair back. You're alright."
She nodded.
"Thank you Magnus," Raphael said. "Anyways, I didn't have the answers he wanted so he activated some kind of feature on the chair I was in that locked me in place. Then he used a concentrated UV ray to burn my skin until he deemed it 'enough.'"
Trigger warning over
Everest was sure she had a look on her face that was full of disgust and confusion and anger and practically screamed 'I will spontaneously combust in anger if something is not done.'
"I like Lydia better than him and I haven't even met this Aldertree guy," she grumbled.
Her phone buzzed once, twice, three times before she finally grabbed it from the counter to check.
Dusk:
Get here quickly.
Something's wrong.
Not entirely sure what, but we'll need your help when we figure it out.
"No," she groaned, dragging the word out like a tired teenager. "Why can't life be simple?"
"It would be boring," Raphael quipped.
"If nothing happened, you would be too bored to function. What happened?" Magnus asked.
"There's something wrong at the Institute and Izzy doesn't know what."
Neither Magnus nor Raphael looked particularly surprised at that information, more exasperated if anything.
"Go. Save your sisters or do whatever it is you have to do," Raphael told her. He made shooing motions. "We'll be fine here."
"I'm holding you to that," Everest said as she pressed a kiss to Magnus's lips.
She gathered her things and slipped on Alec's jacket, making her outfit even more comical. "I'll see you later, Phae, Mags!"
"Bye Escritora!"
"Goodbye Cupcake!"
...
The Institute was quiet when Everest got there. It was weird.
She ran up to her room to change into clothes that fit properly and went to find one of her friends. And then the alarm started blaring. And people started running.
"No," she said forcefully as she almost got knocked into the wall by a random Shadowhunter.
Everest started running when she spotted a flash of red hair. It was Clary. She followed her sister to a training room the size of her old apartment and found Alec, Izzy, and Lydia there too. Speaking of Lydia, Everest needed to apologize to Lydia for shooting her. She didn't think she'd done that yet.
Trigger warning: blood, death, injury
"Oh my God, Welkie!" Clary cried out.
Who was...oh. It was probably the guy on the ground with a hole punched through his chest.
"What happened?" someone across the room with their hand covered in blood muttered.
"Classic possession hangover," Clary and Everest chimed together. They all, even Lydia, gave Everest smiles upon seeing her.
"Hole punched right through his chest," Lydia commented.
"Just like our mundane in the morgue," Izzy added.
Alec kneeled beside the corpse and shook his head. He froze and then scoffed. It wasn't a condescending or amused scoff, rather it was a scoff full of disbelief and shock. "The demon's in the Institute."
Trigger warning over
...
"Activate emergency surveillance. Victor's unreachable. I've ordered the Institute be put in quarantine until we kill this thing."
Everest was really glad that Lydia was on their side and not Valentine's. She was scary when she meant business.
They all started getting weapons, besides Everest that is, since she already had her weapons on her person.
"I don't get it," Clary said, strapping a belt on. "How did the demon get past the wards?"
"Same way it got in without setting off this." Izzy held up her ruby necklace. "It must have some advanced cloaking ability. It hid in the dead body and let us do the rest."
"I hate when demons are smart," Everest grumbled. "I didn't know demons could do that."
Alec frowned. "Until now, they couldn't. This new form of possession, cloaking ability, targeting the Institute, it's..."
Clary gasped. "Valentine. His experiments. Mom told me about how he was determined to create a super being that could defeat the Clave. It's what he tried to do to Jace."
Everest shifted uncomfortably as she recalled the blood that Valentine had drawn. She still didn't really know why he had done that, much less what the tests would reveal. She both wanted answers and didn't. She wanted to know what was so special about her that made Valentine do blood tests, but she was also terrified of what those answers might be.
Izzy's expression turned thoughtful. "Both victims had damage to the prefrontal cortex. The demon must be feeding on negative emotions. Anger, hate, rage. Causing the host to act violently on those urges."
"So we continue to scan for venom and heat signatures. Try and narrow down the host before it strikes again," Alec said without room for argument.
Lydia pulled up a hologram of the Institute. "Alec and Everest, you take the living quarters. Clary and Izzy, you two take the utility tunnels."
"I'll stay with you," Raj, who had showed up at some point Everest didn't remember, offered.
Lydia looked like she wanted to gag. "This day just keeps getting better."
Everyone started to walk away but Everest called out to Lydia.
"Hey, could you wait a moment Lydia?" The blonde turned expectantly. "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry."
"For what? You're not the one who almost married the guy who has two partners."
Everest chuckled. "No, but I did shoot you. Twice. In the arm. And I'm sorry."
"Why did that sound painful for you to say?" Lydia raised an eyebrow, though she was smiling.
"I'm just tired."
"Fair enough. Why don't you go do your rounds with Alec and then we could maybe get coffee once you're done?"
Everest nodded. "That'd be nice."
They shared a smile and then Everest joined Alec in the hall.
"You were very polite," he mused. "I'm impressed. I thought you were going to hit her or something."
Everest laughed. "I'm not going to hit Lydia. I might hit Aldertree whenever I meet him, but not Lydia. She's cool."
Alec smiled. "Yeah, she kind of is."
They scanned the living quarters twice before deciding to go back to the Ops Center to let Lydia know that they didn't find anything.
Alec stopped dead in his tracks. "Do you hear that?" Alec asked.
Everest stopped too, listening intently. Then she heard it: the sound of fighting that wasn't from training.
Trigger warning: fighting, injury, weapons, guns
Alec took off towards the noise and Everest followed, drawing her gun. It was Lydia and Raj fighting. Raj had Lydia on the ground, arm twisted behind her back in a way that had to be breaking it.
"Lydia!"
Alec shot Raj in the leg and Everest shot his other leg as Lydia scrambled away. Raj crumpled to the ground, bleeding, and a swirling mass of black smoke escaped his mouth and flew into the air vent above him.
Everest and Alec fell to the ground beside Lydia and Everest couldn't help the wave of deja vu that washed over her. At least this time, Lydia was conscious.
"You're okay," Alec told her. "You're okay."
"Help her to the Infirmary," Everest told him, helping him get Lydia to her feet. "I'm going to find our sisters."
He nodded, though he looked hesitant about letting her wander around on her own. His expression cleared, however, when she walked past Raj's unconscious form and—very pettily—kicked him in the ribs. Two laughs, one belonging to Alec and the other belonging to Lydia, filled the hallway as Everest left it.
She walked around the Institute, gun out and ready, as she searched for Clary and Izzy. A dull noise that wasn't dissimilar to what wind rushing past sounded like from inside a car filled the hallway she was in. Everest looked up, spotting a swirling mass of black and grey rushing towards her. She didn't even have time to yell before the world went dark.
"How'd it go with Aldertree?" Alec asked Magnus.
"Well, the man didn't disappoint. In his own charming, inimitable way, he informed me that I will indeed be punished, but the form of punishment is yet to be decided." Magnus gave the two of them a tense, rueful smile.
"All for trying to save my life." Alec shook his head. "Jace may have been the one to pull me out, but I did feel you there. And it did make a difference. So...thank you."
Alec and Magnus smiled sweetly at each other in a way that made happy chimes go off in Everest's head.
"Thank you for not dying on me," Magnus quipped. "So, uh, how's Jace?"
"He's hanging in there," Everest said. "He should be back soon, assuming Aldertree gets his trial set and started soon. Once he grabs the truth sword—"
Alec cut in, "Soul Sword."
"—yeah that, it'll be revealed that he was never actually on Valentine's side and he'll be able to come home."
Alec glanced around, rolling his bottom lip between his teeth. When he spoke, his words were slightly shaky. "Look, um, I know that with everything that's been going on, I...we haven't had a chance to..."
"Go on that first date we never had?" Magnus prompted.
"Right, yes."
Everest wanted to squeal, they were both so awkward and adorable. She probably wasn't much better, but she liked to think she could be a little bit less awkward if she tried.
"I know a place in SoHo that has some of the best lamb kebab you'll get outside of Marrakesh," Everest suggested, recalling the quaint restaurant with the adorable cat that liked to sit outside by the door.
Magnus's gaze turned thoughtful. "Or we can Portal to Marrakesh. You hungry?"
Everest inhaled loudly. "That sounds brilliant and fun. I'm in."
"Starving." Alec smiled and opened his mouth as if to say something else, but then someone cut in.
"Hey Alec." Everest looked behind Alec to find a man with light brown skin and dark hair slicked back gesturing to the Ops Center. "Demon briefing in the Ops Center. All hands on deck."
Alec sighed. Both his and Everest's gazes landed on Magnus when he spoke.
"My dear Raj. You're looking well." Everest tilted her head in question as the man walked away and Magnus smirked.
"Rain check?" Magnus proposed. He was so understanding it was absurd.
"Yes, yeah." Alec's eyes flashed with worry. "Is that okay?"
"Go battle your demons, Alexander," Magnus told him with a smile.
"Go see what they want," Everest told him. "They'll keep pestering you until you talk to them anyway."
They watched as Alec walked away and then Everest turned to Magnus. "Who was that?"
"Who? Raj?"
"Yeah, the guy that just got Alec."
Magnus chuckled and started to walk towards the front doors. "I may or may not have blasted him into a wall."
Everest gasped. "Really?" Magnus nodded. "He looks like he deserved it."
"Oh, he did." Magnus didn't elaborate, so Everest didn't push.
They stepped outside into the sunlight. Everest leaned her head back, soaking in the warm light.
"I can't wait for things to slow down so I can just be here, in the quiet sunlight with you and Alec," she whispered, lips twitching into a smile.
Magnus hummed, bumping her shoulder lightly with his own. "Well, things might not slow down for a while. But, that doesn't mean we can't enjoy this moment right now."
Everest exhaled slowly, leaning against Magnus's arm ever so slightly, just enough to feel their arms touching, but not enough to put so much of her weight on him that she was all but falling.
"Everest?" a meek voice asked from behind them.
Everest sighed, though it sounded rather like a growl, and turned with a customer service smile plastered on her face.
"Yes?"
"You're needed in the Ops Center for a debriefing." the Shadowhunter who had been speaking ducked back inside, and Everest just stood there blinking.
She was internally screaming as she turned back to Magnus with an apologetic look. "I'm sorry. I wanted to enjoy the moment but now I have to go do things."
Magnus grabbed her hand and squeezed it gently. "It's all right, we enjoyed the moment we had. There will be other moments for us to enjoy. Now go do your job."
"It's not my job," she told him with a grin. "Not yet anyway."
Magnus just grinned back and squeezed her hand one more time before she walked back inside. She went to the Ops Center and found Alec and Izzy waiting for her.
"What burned down this time?" she asked, giving Izzy a brief side hug.
Trigger Warning: Mentions of death, weapons, and guns
"There was a demon attack downtown. A mundane is dead because of it," Izzy told her grimly.
"Shit," Everest breathed out. "What are we going to do?"
"We're going to investigate it and see if we can tell what kind of demon caused the attack," Alec told her. He tossed her a Seraph blade. "I know you prefer your gun, but keep that with you in case you have to fight in close quarters."
She nodded and tucked it in her belt beside her gun. "Got it." She glanced at Alec and Izzy, who both had weapons prepped and ready to go. "Shall we?"
"We shall." Izzy smirked and looped her arm around Everest's and together they marched off, Alec following a few steps behind them.
"Demon attack downtown. One mundane dead," Izzy announced as the three approached Clary, who was standing by Jocelyn. Everest had forgotten that her mom was awake. She could already tell that an interesting conversation was in her future.
"And since we don't have Jace, Everest can't go on a mission without at least one fully trained Shadowhunter, and you need to leave the Institute before Aldertree kills you for being annoying, you're with us." Alec rolled his eyes at the eager expression on Clary's face.
Trigger warning over
"Wait. You want me on your team?"
"It's not my first choice, but we're a man down and everyone else is on patrol. So gear up."
Clary eagerly followed after Alec, nearly jogging to keep up with his long strides.
"Everest, wait!"
Everest turned at the sound of her mom's voice. Izzy turned with her since their arms were still looped together.
"Yeah?"
Jocelyn hesitated for a moment. "I'm glad you're back." Everest gave her a small smile. "Can we talk when you get back?"
Everest nodded. "Yeah. We probably should have talked years ago, but yeah."
Izzy tugged Everest, whose feet felt as if they were glued to the wooden floor, away from Jocelyn and back to Alec and Clary.
"You alright with her?" Izzy murmured, rubbing Everest's wrist gently.
"I will be."
...
"It's so gross," Everest complained.
Trigger Warning: Death, blood, weapons, guns, violence
She was holding the box of samples Izzy had collected from the corpse. The moment Izzy had seen the corpse, her eyes had lit up and Everest knew immediately that she would be put on keeper duty—a job that required her to hold open bags for samples and not lose said samples.
Everest nodded at Luke as he approached.
"It's one nasty demon," Izzy mused. "Punched a whole right through his chest."
"With strength like that, I doubt it's done," Luke said.
"Nothing in the immediate area," Alec said, walking up to them.
Izzy stood up, taking the box from Everest and snapping it shut. "We're taking the body back to the Institute. I'll run some tests to see what kind of demon we're dealing with."
Trigger warning over
"Clary, Everest, and I will check the perimeter." Alec and Everest started walking towards Clary, who had been watching the mundanes. "Hey, Fray! We got demons to hunt. Come on."
As Clary fell into step beside Alec and Everest, Everest glanced back slightly and saw Luke giving her a nervous look. She wondered what that was about.
"Most important thing: don't slow things down. If things slow down, we all get killed. Another thing: don't get killed. I'd have an army after me if either of you, especially Everest, got killed. I don't want that," Alec said sternly as they turned a corner.
Clary gave her a look as if to say why is he like this? but Everest just shrugged. They were on a mission, of course Alec was serious.
"Sounds reasonable," Clary muttered.
Alec held his arm out to stop the twins from going any further and grabbed Clary's arm. Everest watched as he drew an unfamiliar rune onto her sister's arm.
"What's this for?" Clary asked as Alec held his hand out for Everest's arm.
"It lets you see the demon's heat signature." He lowered his voice so that Everest was the only one who could hear him. "It's rather overwhelming because you see everyone and everything's heat signature. You don't have to have the rune if you don't want to."
Her mind filled with images of reds and oranges and blues and yellows, the colors that always showed up on thermal cameras. Was that what her vision would be? The nails on her right hand dug into her thigh as she tried to push images of her breaking down in panic and overwhelm into the little box of negatives in the back of her mind.
She shook her head, finally managing to push the images away. "I want to," she told him earnestly. "I want to help."
He nodded and she was so grateful that even though he must have realized that she had immediately thought of all the things that could go wrong if she got overwhelmed, he still let her make her own decision and didn't force her to do anything she didn't want to do.
"Alright. Let me know if it gets to be too much and I can make it stop, alright?"
She nodded again and winced at the burning sensation she hadn't quite gotten used to. She blinked rapidly and rubbed her eyes vigorously when her vision was suddenly full of bright yellows and faint oranges. Not what she was expecting.
"Woah," she said. Clary nodded in agreement.
"First time can be sensory overload," Alec told the two, rather dazed, twins. "The trick is to focus. Try to filter out everything unimportant, hone in on the heat signature."
"How? I can't see anything but bright yellow." Everest scrunched up her nose.
"Patience."
"Easy for you to say," Clary told him. Everest was rather startled, though pleased, to hear that there was no actual malice behind Clary's words like there had been when the two of them had originally been shot into the ShadowWorld. "For someone who hasn't been training all her life, this stuff is impossible."
"You're doing fine, Ritz," Everest scoffed playfully. "You're the one who apparently killed a demon in a club while Gino and I laid on top of the van complaining about life."
"It's still impossible," Clary grumbled as they began walking again. Everest made sure not to look directly into street lights or the lights in shop windows. She learned the hard way that doing that was asking to have your vision gone for a moment or two.
"Impossible just means try again. Not that you have to worry about that. You'll be out of the field soon." Clary and Everest shared a look and then glanced at Alec. "You're going to Idris."
"The Shadowhunter homeland?" Everest asked. Alec nodded. "When, why, how, and by who was that decided?"
"Your mom is being reassigned to Idris so the Clave can keep an eye on her," Alec explained.
"Mom wants us to go with her," Clary added. "She would have told you herself but you weren't here and then the mission happened. She was going to tell you, I swear."
Everest exhaled slowly. "I believe you." She slowed so that she was half a step behind the other two. She didn't think they noticed. "Are you going?"
"Are you, Ev?"
"I asked first."
"I'm older."
"That doesn't mean jack squat now that we're adults, Ritz."
"I'm still older."
"And I still asked first."
"Ugh. I don't know."
Everest glanced at her sister sharply, her face contorting uncomfortably when she was met by the harsh fiery colors of her sister's heat signature. She focused extra hard for just a moment, but it was enough to make the colors around her sister disappear.
"What do you mean, you don't know? I thought you wanted to go spend the rest of your life with Mom once we got her back."
Clary sighed, then shrugged. "I thought I did. But I don't know. So don't get too excited about throwing me a going away party," she said, the last part directed at Alec.
"Honestly, I think you'd like Idris. Both of you would. It's amazing," Alec said, a faint wishfulness to his words.
Everest bumped his shoulder. "Maybe you could show me one day?"
He smiled a little. "I'd like that."
Clary fake gagged, though Everest knew she (along with Izzy) was a complete and utter shipper of 'Malecrest' as Clary, Izzy, and Simon had dubbed her, Alec, and Magus. "Yeah? I bet that it'd be pretty amazing to get me out of your hair, huh?"
"I didn't say that. You did."
Everest laughed.
...
Clary started running across the street and Alec and Everest had to run to keep up with her. Alec began to scowl at Clary's unexplained running.
"Alec, Everest..." Clary said softly once they caught up. She was staring intently at the dark spot by an alleyway.
Everest followed her gaze and knew what she was looking at immediately. There was a massive patch of purple coating the entrance to the alley.
"That's not good, is it?" Everest asked, hand going to her belt.
"No."
Trigger warning: Blood, gun, weapons, mentioned death, panic attack, overwhelm, mentioned and implied injury
Shit. There was blood. There was a lot of blood. It pooled in the alleyway like puddles of crimson wax and Everest hated it.
Everest drew her gun, her hand poised to flick the safety off, and Alec and Clary drew seraph blades. Everest could feel the weight of the seraph blade and four knives (Izzy had insisted) on her belt and in her boots. For whatever reason, the weapons made her feel both safer and more vulnerable. Never in her life had she been so armed, so ready to fight. Sure, she often had her gun with her (though usually only if she had Luke or another adult that was licensed to carry a gun), but having a gun she rarely used was different than carrying five blades and a gun on a mission to find a demon. She supposed she'd have to get used to the feeling of carrying weapons everywhere and having to be prepared for most any situation, but she wasn't sure she would be able to.
They stalked forward carefully, Alec much more gracefully than Clary or Everest, until they walked behind a dull blue dumpster. As her gaze landed on a figure curled up behind the dumpster, the heat signature rune wore off. She blinked rapidly and rubbed her eyes harshly at the sudden return of normal colors. And then she gasped.
Behind the dumpster was a girl no older than fifteen with long black hair and in a yellow t-shirt and jeans. Had Everest not noticed the one detail that made the girl so startling, she would have thought she was just a random teenager on her way to or from hanging out with friends. However, she did notice that detail. It was rather hard not to, considering that detail was the fact that the girl's hand was covered in blood, as was half her forearm.
"What happened? Who are you?" the girl demanded, shaking violently and her voice wavering even more violently.
"It's okay, we're here to help," Clary said, trying to calm the girl.
"It's a classic possession hangover," Alec explained quietly. Everest was fairly sure she had heard that line somewhere in a movie before. "Once the demon leaves the body, they have no memory of what they did."
Everest's shoulders drooped as the girl's breathing started to quicken.
"Is this blood?" the girl demanded.
"Just...try to keep calm," Alec said quickly, stuttering slightly. He clearly wasn't used to comforting strangers.
Clary knelt down next to the girl, Everest following a moment later.
"Hey, don't look at your hand, okay? Just look at me or my sister," Clary told her.
The girl was gasping sporadically at this point and Everest was worried she would pass out soon if she didn't calm down even a little bit.
"I don't understand. What's going on?"
Everest glanced down at the broken concrete beneath her feet that wasn't stained with blood and other substances that she didn't want to know the name of, and then at Clary. Clary's eyes flickered between Everest and the girl, then Clary's mouth twisted in a silent question. Everest nodded in answer. Clary rose and Everest took her place closer to the girl, but not so close that she panicked even more. She sat down gingerly, taking care not to sit on a blade or in a puddle of unknown substances.
"I know nothing makes sense right now. But I can help you, so can my friends over there. I promise, okay?" The girl nodded, but her breathing didn't slow down. Everest glanced at Clary, who was standing by Alec now, and raised her eyebrows. Clary mimed making a phone call and shrugged her shoulders, indicating that she didn't know if an ambulance was called.
Everest shifted so that she was sitting criss-cross and made sure that her posture was as friendly as possible. "While we wait for help, do you want to play a small game?"
The girl shrugged.
"Alright, let's play a game to keep your mind busy then. So what we do is we name five things you can see, four things you can hear, three things you can feel, two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste. It doesn't have to be things you can see, hear, smell, etc. here right now. It can be things whenever and wherever." Everest smiled gently. "I'll go first. I can see the graffiti on abandoned buildings, the post it notes on my wall, the glitter all over my friend's house, raccoons trying to get into the house, and my friends being dorks. What are five things you can see?"
"My bookshelf...the sunrise...my favorite show...rainbows...Pride flags."
Everest's smile widened. This kid was awesome, besides the whole 'possessed by a demon and killed someone' part.
"I love those things. The next part is four things you can hear. I can hear the train going by, people laughing, rainstorms, and my favorite music."
"I can hear...cats, cars, pages turning, and...streams."
"Three things I can feel are: my fuzzy blankets, my boyfriends' soft shirts, and my uber soft plushies." She chuckled. "I like soft things, if that wasn't obvious."
The girl's breathing was slowing down and she actually smiled a little. "Me too. I can feel the road under my skateboard, my Hello Kitty pajama pants, and my brother's hoodie strings."
Everest hummed. "I can smell coffee brewing and sandalwood shampoo." Internally, she grinned at the not so subtle reference to the shampoo in Magnus's shower.
"I can smell cookies and the forest after it rains."
"Ooh, that's a good one. I don't know if that one could ever be beat." Everest hummed again in thought. "I can taste...green Skittles."
"I can taste my grandma's baklavas."
By then the girl was breathing at a normal rate and Everest could hear an ambulance on its way. Everest smiled kindly at the girl.
"Help is nearly here, so I'm going to help you up and get you to the ambulance so that you can get checked over, alright?"
The girl's face fell and she nodded silently. As the sirens got louder, Everest hoisted the girl to her feet and helped her to the mouth of the alley. A quick glance behind her revealed that Clary and Alec were hiding behind a grimy blue dumpster.
The sirens grew far too loud for Everest's liking and then went silent. She glanced up. The ambulance was there. She passed the girl to the paramedics and gave her most reassuring smile to the girl as she was led into the vehicle.
"Did you find her?" one paramedic asked.
She nodded. "Yeah. I was walking home from my sister's when I found her."
"Do you know if she's hurt at all? Is the blood hers?"
Everest shook her head. "I don't think she's hurt besides being shaken up. She can't remember anything about what happened. I'm not sure if the blood is hers or not, but I don't think so."
The paramedic nodded and thanked her before hopping into the back of the ambulance and closing the door. The ambulance disappeared into the New York streets a moment later.
Trigger warning over
Trigger warning for brief mentions of blood
"You're good at helping people," Alec told her softly as he stepped up to stand next to her.
"Comes with babysitting for five years."
"You've got blood on your jeans," was what Clary said when she stopped to stand by Everest.
Everest gaped for a moment before all but throwing her phone at Clary so that she could take a picture to show her. Sure enough, there was a faint splatter of blood on Everest's jeans.
"No," she whined. "I like these jeans. Now it looks like I bled everywhere."
Trigger warning over
Without a word, Alec took off his jacket and handed it to Everest. She shrugged it on easily and was pleased to see that it might as well have been a short duster on her.
"Thank you," she told him honestly.
She went up on her tiptoes to give him a kiss since his hunting boots gave him an extra two to three inches of height on her, but he still had to lean down quite a bit. His arm wrapped around her waist and she smiled into the kiss.
A cough broke the moment. They separated and turned to see Clary pointedly avoiding looking at them. "Still here you know."
"I know. I just don't really care," Everest told her sister. She turned back to Alec and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him tightly. He wrapped his arms around her too and they just stayed like that, Alec and Everest hugging and Clary hiding her inner fangirl by avoiding looking at the two.
And then Everest's phone rang, ruining the moment.
"I feel it deep within, it's just beneath the skin. I must confess that I feel like a monster. I hate what I've become, the nightmare's just begun. I must confess that I feel like a monster."
Everest sighed and turned in Alec's arms to answer the call, cutting off Skillet's Monster. "Hello?"
"Escritora?" Raphael croaked from the other end.
"Raphael? Raphael, what's wrong? Why do you sound like you were half killed again and sent through a deep fryer?"
"I need your help, Escritora. Please."
"Where are you?"
"Vermont Street. Second shady alley on the left."
"I'll be there in ten. Please don't get even more hurt, Phae."
"I won't."
"Good."
Everest hung up and tucked her phone in her pocket, fear and worry filling her face. "I have to go."
Alec nodded and smiled faintly. "I figured as much when you went stiff as a board when you answered the phone. Go help Raphael. Make sure he's alright."
"You're sure it's alright?"
"Yeah, I'm sure. Fray and I got this. Besides, even if I don't exactly like Raphael, he's clearly important to you, so you should go check on him."
Everest hugged him briefly before hugging Clary in goodbye as well. "I'll be back soon. Make sure Dusk doesn't get so obsessed with the samples that she forgets how to function."
"We'll be fine," Clary assured her. "Go help your vampire brother."
Everest spared one last look at Alec and Clary before darting off in search of Raphael.
...
"Oh, Phae," Everest whispered. Her eyes stung with tears as she rushed forward and hoisted Raphael off the dirty alley ground. "What happened to you?"
Trigger warning: Blood, injuries, mentioned torture
Raphael grunted in pain as she draped an arm over her shoulders. He was covered in burns, fresh, bloody burns. It made her heart cry and shatter to see her brother so hurt. She had never seen him so hurt, so weak. He was always the strong one, the one who was never hurt.
"Aldertree," he gasped out. "UV rays. He burned me with them."
"He's dead," Everest hissed, wincing when her skin became sticky with Raphael's sweat and blood. But the pained cry Raphael let out was so much worse than any discomfort she had.
Trigger warning over
"Where do I take you?" she asked as they reached the mouth of the alley. "The Hotel, Magnus, somewhere else?"
"Magnus's."
And then Raphael passed out.
"Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit!" Everest squeezed her eyes shut against the tears, but one slipped out anyway. It was hot against her skin and only served as a reminder of all that had been harmed recently. "Damn it."
Everest dragged Raphael through the streets until she found a corner that was suitable to hail a taxi on. She managed to flag down a taxi and give the driver Magnus's address, hoping desperately that whatever stopped mundanes from noticing the ShadowWorld would stop the driver from seeing Raphael's poor condition.
"Looks like your friend had a bit too much to drink, eh?" the driver chuckled.
Everest forced a weak, barely there chuckle. "Yeah, something like that."
The entire drive to Magnus's, Everest spent frantically pressing Raphael's jacket (which he'd kill her for later) against his deepest wound on his chest. She had no idea what the driver saw, but frankly, she didn't care. All she cared about was getting Raphael to Magnus and making sure he'd be alright.
She stumbled up the stairs with Raphael pressed as closely to her side as possible to minimize the possibility of him falling back down the stairs.
She rang the doorbell once, twice, three times. "Please, please, please be home," she chanted in a whisper. "Please be able to help."
"Coming!" Magnus shouted through the door. Everest breathed out in relief.
Trigger warning: Blood, injury, mention of torture, overwhelm
Magus's face filled with pain and anguished regret as he saw Everest, covered in both a stranger's blood and Raphael's blood, essentially carrying Raphael, who was covered in burns and blisters.
"Oh Raphael," Magnus breathed out.
"I didn't know where else to take him and he said to come here," she explained, desperately trying to keep her grip on Raphael.
"Oh my poor boy," Magnus murmured. "Here, hand him to me. I'll help him."
Everest passed Raphael to Magnus and closed the door behind her as she watched Magnus set him on the couch. Her eyes were full of tears and her face was pinched in an effort to hold back said tears.
"What happened to him?" Magnus demanded as he gathered balms and ointments.
"I don't know everything, but he said that Aldertree burned him with UV rays."
Everest moved further into the apartment and stood in the doorway, careful not to get blood on anything.
Trigger warning over for everything except blood
Blood trigger warning still applies
Magnus closed his eyes and visibly shuddered before returning to Raphael's side. He glanced up at Everest for a moment, scanned her appearance, and then inclined his head towards his room. "Go get cleaned up. Shower, take a bath, do your hair, cry, do your makeup, yell and shout at the mirror, change clothes, whatever you need to do. You're no help to him in that state, and I don't want you to run yourself into the ground with worry."
"But—"
"No. No buts. Go relax as best you can and clean up. I will let you know when he's awake if he wakes before you're done." Magnus's expression softened slightly upon seeing the few tears that had fallen. "Please, Everest. It will help you feel better, it will help Raphael not be so worried when he wakes up, and it will help me feel better knowing that you're alright and not feeling like a mess because you're covered in blood."
"Okay."
Everest cast one last glance at Raphael before slowly trailing into Magnus's room. She walked into the bathroom and slipped off her boots so that they wouldn't stain the floors any more. She turned the faucet on as hot as it would go and scrubbed viciously at her skin. Flecks of red slowly left her arms and hands, staining the water pink and leaving her arms and hands red from being scrubbed so hard.
Trigger warning over
Once she was no longer full of coiling disgust for her horrible state, she wandered back into Magnus's room in search of clean clothes. She hoped he wouldn't mind.
She managed to find a pair of sweatpants that looked only three sizes too big, and an old Ramones shirt that was incredibly soft, as well as a pair of fuzzy socks.
She slipped back into the bathroom and turned the shower on, not waiting for it to warm up before slipping in. The icy water hit her skin like ice pellets, but she didn't care. She was numb to the cold water, too busy trying to process everything that had happened.
It had all been going fine until she had learned that her mom was being reassigned to Idris and wanted Everest and Clary to go with her. She didn't want to leave New York, she didn't want to leave her friends. She didn't want to leave Izzy, and Jace, and Gino, and Raphael, and Roslyn, and Alec, and Magnus, and everyone else behind. She loved her life in New York; she didn't want to leave it.
'That's it,' she thought. 'I'm not going.'
She wouldn't go to Idris, not even if Clary and her mom both begged her to go. She had a life in New York she wouldn't, couldn't, leave. She wasn't Clary, she couldn't make friends everywhere she went. She couldn't just up and leave the friends she had and ruin the relationships she had built. She wasn't like that, she wasn't Clary.
Her skin burned as the water finally heated up and Everest flinched when her knees popped like a can of biscuit dough when she finally turned around so that her back was towards the water. She hadn't moved in too long apparently.
Hot water that was nearly scalding cascaded over her head and down her back, soaking her hair and dripping onto her face as she ran her hands through her hair. She grabbed a random bottle, hoping it was shampoo. It wasn't. It was sandalwood body wash. She reached for another bottle. This one was shaving cream. She grabbed a third bottle and at last found what she was looking for: shampoo, even if it was also sandalwood scented. It wasn't that she disliked the smell, it wasn't a bad smell, she just missed her shampoo that smelled like rain and the summer.
She massaged her scalp, closing her eyes and trying to come up with dialogue for one of her stories. It wasn't working. So much for distracting herself.
She huffed and searched for conditioner once the shampoo was rinsed out. She worked it in and while it sat in her hair, she scrubbed her body viciously with a wash cloth and then used the body wash. Angel, she hated the feeling of dried blood on her skin.
'I sound like a Shadowhunter,' she realized with an audible gasp. 'What on Earth?'
She wasn't upset about sounding like a Shadowhunter, especially since she supposed she was an actual one by then besides having the angelic power rune. In fact, she was rather pleased with the new revelation. She was just too tired to deal with it or properly accept it at the moment.
The water had run cold again by the time Everest stepped out of the shower, shivering at the distinct temperature change and immediately reaching for the fluffy rainbow towel hanging on the wall. She wrapped herself up tightly and wiped off the mirror that had fogged up completely.
She glanced at her hair in relative despair. She didn't want to do her hair, didn't want to spend forever blow drying and styling it. But she didn't want to braid it either, she didn't have the energy to keep her arms up in the air that long. Everest patted her hair dry with a hand towel and called it good.
She slipped on the too big clothes, marveling slightly at how soft they were. She rolled the waistband of the sweatpants a few times, though they were still slightly baggy, and rolled the sleeves of the shirt to make sure she looked a bit more presentable.
Everest thought back to what Magnus had said about doing her makeup and glanced at the makeup on the counter. He wouldn't mind if she used a bit of eyeshadow and mascara, right?
As if on cue, someone knocked at the door. "Cupcake?" Magnus called.
"Yeah?" Everest set down the palate she was looking at.
"Just wanted to check in, make sure you were alright."
She smiled. How was he so sweet? "Yeah, I'm good. Just trying to ignore the mess of my hair."
"I can help you with your hair when you're done if you'd like?" Magnus offered, voice wavering ever so slightly in hesitation.
"That'd—that would be nice, thank you." Everest hesitated, then asked, "Would I be able to use some of your makeup? Just, like, eyeshadow and mascara and stuff."
Everest nervously tapped the beat of Skillet's Monster on her thigh as she waited for Magnus's answer.
"Of course you can." Everest sighed in relief. "I wouldn't have suggested you do your makeup if I didn't mean that you could use my makeup. I'm pretty sure you don't have a makeup bag with you after your mission and bringing Raphael here."
"Thanks," she said honestly, smiling even as Magnus's footsteps faded away.
Everest selected a neutral eyeshadow palette, a clear lip gloss, mascara, and an eyeliner pencil. She did simple brown eyeshadow, lining her eyes thinly with the eyeliner. She had to admit, however, that she put as much mascara on as she did in Grade Eight. (Which was a lot.) She added some lip gloss and shook her head vigorously, not unlike a dog, causing her hair to fly about her face and land in wild places.
She hung up the towel after wiping up the small amounts of water on the ground and then made sure that the bathroom was tidy. She left the still relatively warm bathroom and winced at the cold air from the rest of the apartment.
"...punishing me at the same time," Magnus was saying when Everest walked into the living room.
Raphael was sitting on a black chair, wincing and curling his upper lift in a sneer as blue tendrils of Magnus's magic crept across his face and healed his injuries. Magnus glanced up and their gazes met for a moment. Everest could have sworn she saw amusement on his face.
"I am going to smack you if you do that to me again," Everest said, marching up to Raphael and, after getting a discrete nod from Magnus, scooping him up in a massive hug. "I was scared out of my mind, Phae."
"I'm sorry Escritora," Raphael said. He wrapped his arms around Everest and she could feel him melting into the hug, less tense than before and certainly a lot less bloody. "I didn't mean to scare you."
"I know."
Raphael pulled away from the hug and gave her a once over. "Are you in Magnus's clothes?"
That explained Magnus's amusement. The clothes were obviously too big for her and she was practically drowning in the clothes.
"Yes," she said confidently, "they are."
"You look cute," Magnus told her with a smile. He pulled her into a hug and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "You should wear my clothes more often."
"They're comfy," she told him honestly. She turned to Raphael again. His nose was scrunched up, likely at the display of affection. "Would you like to fully explain what the hell happened to you?"
Trigger warning: mentions of torture
Raphael sighed and settled back into the chair. "Aldertree called me in for questioning about Camille—"
"One, I don't know who that guy is. Two, Camille can go meet a piranha's mouth," Everest interrupted. Magnus and Raphael both smiled faintly.
"Aldertree is the new head of the Institute and is a horrible person. He's the one that arrested Jace," Magnus explained.
Everest felt something move in her hair and her hand flew up to figure out what it was, only for Magnus to lower her hand for her. "It's just my magic braiding your hair back. You're alright."
She nodded.
"Thank you Magnus," Raphael said. "Anyways, I didn't have the answers he wanted so he activated some kind of feature on the chair I was in that locked me in place. Then he used a concentrated UV ray to burn my skin until he deemed it 'enough.'"
Trigger warning over
Everest was sure she had a look on her face that was full of disgust and confusion and anger and practically screamed 'I will spontaneously combust in anger if something is not done.'
"I like Lydia better than him and I haven't even met this Aldertree guy," she grumbled.
Her phone buzzed once, twice, three times before she finally grabbed it from the counter to check.
Dusk:
Get here quickly.
Something's wrong.
Not entirely sure what, but we'll need your help when we figure it out.
"No," she groaned, dragging the word out like a tired teenager. "Why can't life be simple?"
"It would be boring," Raphael quipped.
"If nothing happened, you would be too bored to function. What happened?" Magnus asked.
"There's something wrong at the Institute and Izzy doesn't know what."
Neither Magnus nor Raphael looked particularly surprised at that information, more exasperated if anything.
"Go. Save your sisters or do whatever it is you have to do," Raphael told her. He made shooing motions. "We'll be fine here."
"I'm holding you to that," Everest said as she pressed a kiss to Magnus's lips.
She gathered her things and slipped on Alec's jacket, making her outfit even more comical. "I'll see you later, Phae, Mags!"
"Bye Escritora!"
"Goodbye Cupcake!"
...
The Institute was quiet when Everest got there. It was weird.
She ran up to her room to change into clothes that fit properly and went to find one of her friends. And then the alarm started blaring. And people started running.
"No," she said forcefully as she almost got knocked into the wall by a random Shadowhunter.
Everest started running when she spotted a flash of red hair. It was Clary. She followed her sister to a training room the size of her old apartment and found Alec, Izzy, and Lydia there too. Speaking of Lydia, Everest needed to apologize to Lydia for shooting her. She didn't think she'd done that yet.
Trigger warning: blood, death, injury
"Oh my God, Welkie!" Clary cried out.
Who was...oh. It was probably the guy on the ground with a hole punched through his chest.
"What happened?" someone across the room with their hand covered in blood muttered.
"Classic possession hangover," Clary and Everest chimed together. They all, even Lydia, gave Everest smiles upon seeing her.
"Hole punched right through his chest," Lydia commented.
"Just like our mundane in the morgue," Izzy added.
Alec kneeled beside the corpse and shook his head. He froze and then scoffed. It wasn't a condescending or amused scoff, rather it was a scoff full of disbelief and shock. "The demon's in the Institute."
Trigger warning over
...
"Activate emergency surveillance. Victor's unreachable. I've ordered the Institute be put in quarantine until we kill this thing."
Everest was really glad that Lydia was on their side and not Valentine's. She was scary when she meant business.
They all started getting weapons, besides Everest that is, since she already had her weapons on her person.
"I don't get it," Clary said, strapping a belt on. "How did the demon get past the wards?"
"Same way it got in without setting off this." Izzy held up her ruby necklace. "It must have some advanced cloaking ability. It hid in the dead body and let us do the rest."
"I hate when demons are smart," Everest grumbled. "I didn't know demons could do that."
Alec frowned. "Until now, they couldn't. This new form of possession, cloaking ability, targeting the Institute, it's..."
Clary gasped. "Valentine. His experiments. Mom told me about how he was determined to create a super being that could defeat the Clave. It's what he tried to do to Jace."
Everest shifted uncomfortably as she recalled the blood that Valentine had drawn. She still didn't really know why he had done that, much less what the tests would reveal. She both wanted answers and didn't. She wanted to know what was so special about her that made Valentine do blood tests, but she was also terrified of what those answers might be.
Izzy's expression turned thoughtful. "Both victims had damage to the prefrontal cortex. The demon must be feeding on negative emotions. Anger, hate, rage. Causing the host to act violently on those urges."
"So we continue to scan for venom and heat signatures. Try and narrow down the host before it strikes again," Alec said without room for argument.
Lydia pulled up a hologram of the Institute. "Alec and Everest, you take the living quarters. Clary and Izzy, you two take the utility tunnels."
"I'll stay with you," Raj, who had showed up at some point Everest didn't remember, offered.
Lydia looked like she wanted to gag. "This day just keeps getting better."
Everyone started to walk away but Everest called out to Lydia.
"Hey, could you wait a moment Lydia?" The blonde turned expectantly. "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry."
"For what? You're not the one who almost married the guy who has two partners."
Everest chuckled. "No, but I did shoot you. Twice. In the arm. And I'm sorry."
"Why did that sound painful for you to say?" Lydia raised an eyebrow, though she was smiling.
"I'm just tired."
"Fair enough. Why don't you go do your rounds with Alec and then we could maybe get coffee once you're done?"
Everest nodded. "That'd be nice."
They shared a smile and then Everest joined Alec in the hall.
"You were very polite," he mused. "I'm impressed. I thought you were going to hit her or something."
Everest laughed. "I'm not going to hit Lydia. I might hit Aldertree whenever I meet him, but not Lydia. She's cool."
Alec smiled. "Yeah, she kind of is."
They scanned the living quarters twice before deciding to go back to the Ops Center to let Lydia know that they didn't find anything.
Alec stopped dead in his tracks. "Do you hear that?" Alec asked.
Everest stopped too, listening intently. Then she heard it: the sound of fighting that wasn't from training.
Trigger warning: fighting, injury, weapons, guns
Alec took off towards the noise and Everest followed, drawing her gun. It was Lydia and Raj fighting. Raj had Lydia on the ground, arm twisted behind her back in a way that had to be breaking it.
"Lydia!"
Alec shot Raj in the leg and Everest shot his other leg as Lydia scrambled away. Raj crumpled to the ground, bleeding, and a swirling mass of black smoke escaped his mouth and flew into the air vent above him.
Everest and Alec fell to the ground beside Lydia and Everest couldn't help the wave of deja vu that washed over her. At least this time, Lydia was conscious.
"You're okay," Alec told her. "You're okay."
"Help her to the Infirmary," Everest told him, helping him get Lydia to her feet. "I'm going to find our sisters."
He nodded, though he looked hesitant about letting her wander around on her own. His expression cleared, however, when she walked past Raj's unconscious form and—very pettily—kicked him in the ribs. Two laughs, one belonging to Alec and the other belonging to Lydia, filled the hallway as Everest left it.
She walked around the Institute, gun out and ready, as she searched for Clary and Izzy. A dull noise that wasn't dissimilar to what wind rushing past sounded like from inside a car filled the hallway she was in. Everest looked up, spotting a swirling mass of black and grey rushing towards her. She didn't even have time to yell before the world went dark.
End of Distractions Chapter 51. Continue reading Chapter 52 or return to Distractions book page.