"Hes Nephilim," said Woolsey. "And youve never cared for them. How much did he pay you to summon Marbas for him?"
"Nothing," said Magnus, and now he was not seeing anything that was there, not the river, not Will, only a wash of memories-eyes, faces, lips, receding into memory, love that he could no longer put a name to. "He did me a favor. One he doesnt even remember. "
"Hes very pretty," said Woolsey. "For a human. "
"Hes very broken," said Magnus. "Like a lovely vase that someone has smashed. Only luck and skil can put it back together the way it was before. "
"Or magic. "
"Ive done what I can," Magnus said softly as Will pushed the latch, at last, and the gate swung open. He stepped out onto the Walk.
"He doesnt look very happy," Woolsey observed. "Whatever it was you did for him . . . "
"At the moment he is in shock," said Magnus. "He has believed one thing for five years, and now he has realized that all this time he has been looking at the world through a faulty mechanism-that all the things he sacrificed in the name of what he thought was good and noble have been a waste, and that he has only hurt what he loved. "
"Good God," said Woolsey. "Are you quite sure youve helped him?"
Will stepped through the gate, and it swung shut behind him. "Quite sure,"
said Magnus. "It is always better to live the truth than to live a lie. And that lie would have kept him alone forever. He may have had nearly nothing for five years, but now he can have everything. A boy who looks like that . . . "
Woolsey chuckled.
"Though he had already given his heart away," Magnus said. "Perhaps it is for the best. What he needs now is to love and have that love returned. He has not had an easy life for one so young. I only hope she understands. "
Even from this distance Magnus could see Will take a deep breath, square his shoulders, and set off down the Walk. And-Magnus was quite sure he was not imagining it-there seemed to be almost a spring in his step.
"You cannot save every fal en bird," said Woolsey, leaning back against the wal and crossing his arms. "Even the handsome ones. "
"One Will do," said Magnus, and, as Will was no longer within his sight, he let the front door fal shut.
Chapter 18: Until I Die
My whole life long I learnd to love.
This hour my utmost art I prove
And speak my passion-heaven or hell?
She will not give me heaven? Tis well!
-Robert Browning, "One Way of Love"
"Miss. Miss!" Tessa woke slowly, Sophie shaking her shoulder. Sunlight was streaming through the windows high above. Sophie was smiling, her eyes alight. "Mrs. Branwel s sent me to bring you back to your room. You cant stay here forever. "
"Ugh. I wouldnt want to!" Tessa sat up, then closed her eyes as dizziness washed through her. "You might have to help me up, Sophie," she said in an apologetic voice. "Im not as steady as I could be. "
"Of course, miss. " Sophie reached down and briskly helped Tessa out of the bed. Despite her slenderness, she was quite strong. Shed have to be, wouldnt she, Tessa thought, from years of carrying heavy laundry up and down stairs, and coal from the coal scuttle to the grates. Tessa winced a bit as her feet struck the cold floor, and couldnt help glancing over to see if Will was in his infirmary bed.
He wasnt.
"Is Will all right?" she asked as Sophie helped her slide her feet into slippers. "I woke for a bit yesterday and saw them taking the metal out of his back. It looked dreadful. "
Sophie snorted. "Looked worse than it was, then. Mr. Herondale barely let them iratze him before he left. Off into the night to do the devil knows what. "
"Was he? I could have sworn I spoke to him last night. " They were in the corridor now, Sophie guiding Tessa with a gentle hand on her back. Images were starting to take shape in Tessas head. Images of Will in the moonlight, of herself tell ing him that nothing mattered, it was only a dream-and it had been, hadnt it?
"You must have dreamed it, miss. " They had reached Tessas room, and Sophie was distracted, trying to get the doorknob turned without letting go of Tessa.
"Its all right, Sophie. I can stand on my own. "
Sophie protested, but Tessa insisted firmly enough that Sophie soon had the door open and was stoking the fire in the grate while Tessa sank into an armchair. There was a pot of tea and a plate of sandwiches on the table beside the bed, and she helped herself to it grateful y. She no longer felt dizzy, but she did feel tired, with a weariness that was more spiritual than physical. She remembered the bitter taste of the tisane shed drunk, and the way it had felt to be held by Will -but that had been a dream. She wondered how much else of what shed seen last night had been a dream-Jem whispering at the foot of her bed, Jessamine sobbing into her blankets in the Silent City . . .
"I was sorry to hear about your brother, miss. " Sophie was on her knees by the fire, the rekindling flames playing over her lovely face. Her head was bent, and Tessa could not see her scar.
"You dont have to say that, Sophie. I know it was his fault, real y, about Agatha-and Thomas-"
"But he was your brother. " Sophies voice was firm. "Blood mourns blood. "
She bent farther over the coals, and there was something about the kindness in her voice, and the way her hair curled, dark and vulnerable, against the nape of her neck, that made Tessa say: "Sophie, I saw you with Gideon the other day. "
Sophie stiffened immediately, all over, without turning to look at Tessa.
"What do you mean, miss?"
"I came back to get my necklace," Tessa said. "My clockwork angel. For luck. And I saw you with Gideon in the corridor. " She swal owed. "He was . . .
pressing your hand. Like a suitor. "
There was a long, long silence, while Sophie stared into the flickering fire.
At last she said, "Are you going to tell Mrs. Branwel ?"
Tessa recoiled. "What? Sophie, no! I just-wanted to warn you. "
Sophies voice was flat. "Warn me against what?"
"The Lightwoods . . . " Tessa swal owed. "They are not nice people. When I was at their house-with Will -I saw dreadful things, awful-"
"Thats Mr. Lightwood, not his sons!" The sharpness in Sophies voice made Tessa flinch. "Theyre not like him!"
"How different could they be?"
Sophie stood up, the poker clattering into the fire. "You think Im such a fool that Id let some half-hour gentleman make a mockery of me after all I been through? After all Mrs. Branwel s taught me? Gideons a good man-"