Tessa practically hurtled herself threw the door, much to the chargin and great relief of her fiance and her... fiance's parabaitai. Jem sat wide eyed on the edge of the bed as if Tessa had just caught him stark naked, which she supposed in some way she actually had as it was obvious both boys were in various stages of readying themselves for bed. Jem sat stark and pale in a long night shirt and Will stood in in the middle of the room in his worn out trousers and undershirt, his hand caught in mid air, ready to ring his curly mess of tendrils out before Tessa had come barreling threw the door. She felt herself flush as it occurred to her she never seen Jem's feet before and Will's wet hair made her feel like she had caught him in a vulnerable moment. For her own sake she pushed those thoughts aside and launched into her plan of action.

"We must leave and leave now" she said firmly, steadying herself for the impending argument about to ensue.

"Tess-" interjected Will - having recovered from his momentary shock he gave her a once over and sliently thanked Alania for gifting Tessa with a new outfit. "First, what are you wearing and secondly just where would you like for us to go at the moment?"

Tessa paid Will no mind and turning to her betrothed, "Please Jem, we should return to the Institute well you're well enough to stand." She regretted the words as soon as she said them, but she could remorse later. No matter what she was had no intentions of finding out the ending to Alania's story.

Jem's eye shifted to Will then Tessa and back again "Slow down love," he said good naturedly, reaching out his hands for Tessa to take and she did so gladly, happily noting that for once they were warm. "You'll have to tell us why first."

Tessa looked back at Will just in time to watch a pained expression slide off his face before he replaced it with his usual mask.

"Alania, she's not our friend, she using us for something. I saw it, in her room a picture book with a thousand words in hundreds of languages. We were there. All of us. You, me, Will."

Jem's brow furrowed. "There? Where?"

"In her picture book!" Tessa's voice rose with her own exasperation.

"So your telling me we're starring as the titular characters in some girl's diary?" Will asked, eyebrow raised if he thought all of this was terribly amusing.

"She told me to my face that we were already a part of her story book. How does she even know who we are? Will, she just met Jem and I this morning, how is it possible we were already in the story book before she even had time make it home?"

Will frowned, It was creepy but he didn't think Alania has malicious intentions. Jem had pulled Tessa down to sit by him on the edge of the bed and Will shuffled that ragged armchair forward. He knew Tessa wouldn't rest until they had a strategy and the sweat forming at Jem's hairline told him they better hurry up.

"Then we need to figure out why." Will said, as if the phrase solved everything.

Tessa appeared like she would ring his throat, "Why? Quite frankly I have no intention of finding out the ending, and Jem can't stay here,"

"Quite frankly," Said Will, mimicking her tone, "Don't you think I'm aware Jem can't stay here. Why do you think I even brought Alania here in the first place - to get us out obviously."

"What you did is bring us into trap."

Will's eye blazed and he leaned forward in his chair, "I don't see you trying to help Miss Gray. You who disappear without a word for hours, you an unexperienced fighter and even worse warlock. What would we have done if something happened to you, you might as well have just thrown yourself to the wolves."

Tessa felt the sting of his word threaten tears but she wouldn't let them fall. "I found out her alterior motive, whatever's in that book isn't something I'm willing to let Jem or myself die over!"

Will reeled back, catching that she had deliberately excluded him from her sentence, he breathed readying himself for the next blow but a hand on his chest stopped him

"Enough." Jem's quiet voice was laced with some unintelligble emotion, but it was enough to quiet the both of them.

"Alania's the best chance of making it out of here and Will's right we need to figure out what's in that book, even if it means learning how the story ends," His tone softened as he turned to look at Tessa, "I know you're trying to protect us Tess, but we're shadowhunters. We must face this head on.

"but-"

"Even if we left now, we're miles away from the insitute and out of proper weapons. We'd be stting ducks" said Jem, smirking at Wil''s digusted face at the very mention of those damned aquatic mammals. "Whatever threat Alania poses, we're still safest here."

Tessa quieted, defeated.

"Then we need a game plan."

*** Author's note: Hello. My apologies for such an incredibly short chapter. Just wanted to say the story is not abandoned. Between my deteriorating health and the bitch that is covid 19 I can say definitvely that 2020 has kicked my ass. Depsite this lets look forward to the future, for ourselves and our protagonists. Thank you.