Any Other Name- Chapter 13
James could think of only one other time when he thought about challenging Magnus Bane, the high warlock of London. He was six years old, and Magnus insisted that if James didn't go to sleep when his parents told him, then he'd wake up one morning an old man. Being the stubborn child he was, James decided to test him and defied his parent's orders to go to sleep at night and instead read Mark Twain until the sky turned orange with the sunrise. That morning, he climbed out of his bed and walked into the bathroom only to find his hair had turned entirely gray, his skin was fallen and loose, and he had one tooth. His scream woke the whole house. His parents ran into his bedroom in their nightclothes with Lucie toddling in behind them. The odd thing was, they didn't see what he saw. All they could see was six-year-old James. Tessa cleaned up his tears and put him back to bed, and when he woke up several hours later, he looked himself again. He never defied Magnus Bane even when he got older and understood the warlock's clever sort of magic.
James watched as Cordelia struggled to bend over and tie her boot laces. Despite his desperation at keeping Cordelia from going to The Hell Ruelle, he couldn't stand there and watch her struggle to tie her laces. He knelt in front of her and gently pushed her hands away, and began pulling the locking the laces through the notches.
"It's not necessary for you to come along," said James, as he tightened the laces on each notch. "Magnus and I can get the key for you."
"No," said Cordelia, shaking her head, so her loose red curls brushed the sides of his face. The movement sent a waft of her scent towards him: primrose and verbena.
He inhaled deeply through his nose. "You don't trust me then."
Cold fingers touched his jaw and lifted his eyes until they landed on her. Her expression was soulful, and Ernest. It made something stir inside of him, shattering through the usual bitterness and anger that was his permanent state. "It's not that I don't trust you, James. I need to do this. I don't have much time—"She closed her eyes, and James knew she'd said too much.
"Time for what?" He pressed.
"It's not important." Her fingers dropped from his face, and she reached back down towards her shoelaces, but James was onto the next before she could reach them.
What was she not telling him? She never was a very good liar. Even when they were children, she tried to take the fault for something Lucie did to keep her out of trouble from their parents. Cordelia was too honest, too telling. There had to be more than reassessing the original Shadowhunter Codex for discrepancies. Still, he couldn't determine what else she'd want with an ancient manuscript with hundred of other copies readily and easily available to her.
"If you're doing this for my family, or Lucie, you shouldn't be," he said after finishing the laces on her second boot and rose back to his feet.
Cordelia stood with him, carefully and in considerably more discomfort. "What if I'm not doing it for anyone? What if I'm doing it for me? For my future?"
James searched her face for a tell. "Are you?"
"I'm more selfish than you think."
James recalled finding Cordelia hanging from a cliff, protecting Lucie with her own life, and shook his head. "No, you're not."
She crossed her arms and looked down at her shoes, so he almost didn't hear her when she spoke again. "You think you know me so well."
"I used to." He'd liked to get to know her now.
A smile lifted her mouth. "We were children then."
Just moments ago, he stood grappling with whether or not he could trust this grown-up version of the girl he'd dreamed about in his adolescence. And he watched her wrestle with the same, especially now that the Clave might have poisoned her against him. Except, it didn't seem at all like the Clave's opinion of Downworlders influenced her. She didn't wake up upset at the fact that she was nursed to health by Magnus, or lying on his lounge in the living room of his flat, or even that James had been the one to find her. It made him wonder.
"Yeah, but we're not so much different now, are we?"
She shrugged. "Do you still run around using baguette as swords?"
"When I'm with the right company, I might," teased James.
Cordelia grinned. "And what's the right company?"
James looked at the bright red curls that framed her face. "Red-haired rule followers."
"Oh, with Charles then?"
Shock and amusement stole a breath from James as he laughed. Moments later, Cordelia was laughing with him, and he'd spend the rest of the night trying to find a way to hear the sound again. "I can't think of worse company."
"I can think of one or two that might be worse." She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "For starters, Augustus and his tyrant of a father. He cornered me just before the attack and basically blackmailed me into being his date to a Clave event."
The room seemed to shutter around James at the thought of Cordelia being Augustus Pounceby's date to anything. "Really?" His voice broke, and he quickly cleared it. "Why—why you? Can't he ask someone who will willingly go with him? Difficult as that might be." Anyone. He could ask anyone else.
"He thinks the Consul's son and the Head of the London Institute's daughter could provide him with some sort of respect from his peers. Respect he can't seem to earn on his own." She rolled her eyes. James found some relief in how ridiculous she found Augustus. "He wants it to be a statement to everyone else."
"Yeah, everyone else," said James under his breath. More like a statement to James and anyone who facilitates with him still. If the Herondale's one ally was seen in any sort of relationship with a Pounceby, it might earn him loyalty and respect from those who still opposed him. It also felt like a giant statement to James, considering Pounceby walked around the Academy talking about the "Carstairs" girl. It seemed his bullying towards James got worse after the summer holiday James and Cordelia spent together after everyone went to Egypt. James always thought it was just another thing Augustus could tease him about, but now he realized it might have been laced with jealousy.
"What was that?" Cordelia asked, breaking him from his reverie.
"Hm?"
"What you just said," answered Cordelia. "Just then, under your breath, I couldn't quite hear you."
James shook it off quickly and did his best to casually take a seat on the arm of the couch. "What did you say to him?"
"I tried to tell him that I'm not interested," said Cordelia in a bitter tone, but that's when he started threatening me."
James stilled. "Threatening you how?"
"Well it's not really me he threatened," she said, and her eyes fluttered around the room nervously. "He says that the decision to have my father be the Head of the London Institute was divided right down the middle with his father's vote being the deciding one. He says that if I don't go with him, he'll have his father retract his vote and the position will go to the next candidate."
James clenched his jaw until his teeth hurt. He planned several ways to inflict pain upon Pounceby, but all of them ended with him in irons. As long as Pounceby ended up in some sort of infirmary or flat on his arse, he'd honestly find it worth it. He wanted to leave an imprint of his knuckles right between Augustus's beady little eyes.
Cordelia sat down next to him, trying not to be too close. "Honestly, what is taking Magnus so long?"
Magnus could take all night for all James cared, especially if it meant that he could sit and talk to Cordelia for several more hours.
She leaned around him to look at the hallway entrance where Magnus had disappeared through. Their shoulders brushed, and he pressed his lips together for a moment. "Tell him you're going with someone else."
He studied her reaction. Confusion crossed her face for a moment but then morphed back into amusement. "That wouldn't go over well considering he's the first person to ask me."
"What if this other person didn't ask you, but instead asked your parents?"
Cordelia arched an eyebrow. "Who did you have in mind?"
James shrugged. "I'll think of someone. Just don't agree to anything Pounceby says, especially if he threatens you And don't be surprised if someone shows up at the institute asking to escort you to this Clave event."
Cordelia seemed to brighten. "If you manage to pull it off, I believe you'll have rescued me for a third time. What would I do without you looking out for me?"
Their eyes met and held for a moment. James could see the steady fire that flickered in Magnus's fireplace reflected in Cordelia's playful expression. Was she flirting with him? Did she want him to flirt back? Of all the quick, witty things he's said to girls in the past, he couldn't think of one clever thing to say back.
Cordelia's gaze broke away when Magnus appeared in the hallway, dressed in a glittering pair of leather pants and a grey mesh top and fingerless gloves that had studs sticking out from each knuckle. His midnight-black hair was expertly pushed back away from his face to reveal blue eyebrows combed through with glitter.
Cordelia leaned into James. "You didn't tell me it was this kind of club."
Magnus grabbed a leather bag from the coat rack and hung the strap over his shoulder. "The Hell Ruelle is every kind of club. Are you two ready? My source says that Hypatia will be at the club tonight but only for an hour before she's due to leave again, so if we're going to make this happen, we need to leave now."
Cordelia stood, and James reluctantly followed.
Magnus threw a piece of cloth at Cordelia. "Hurry up and put this on. We should have left fifteen minutes ago."
"We were waiting on you—"started Cordelia, but Magnus just pointed at the bathroom across the room.
James stood by the door with Magnus while Cordelia got dressed and contemplated how the night had gotten entirely out of his hands. When he brought Cordelia back to Magnus's, he hadn't expected that it would somehow lead to them going to the Hell Ruelle to steal from Hypatia Vex— his employer. If she found out he helped them steal from her, then she'd stop giving him business— or worse. He had to stay hidden tonight.
"Penny for your brooding thoughts?" Asked Magnus from where he leaned against the wall by his front door. "Nevermind, not even I have enough money."
"Do you think we should disguise her somehow?" Asked James. "Just in case someone recognizes her and informs the Clave."
"Who from the Clave would be there to recognize her?"
"I've seen spies before," said James. "Hypatia is a constantly being investigated for something. I'm just trying to take the necessary precautions."
Magnus smirked. "How admirable of you. I'll see what I can do."
Cordelia emerged from the bathroom wearing an emerald green lace dress that hugged every curve of her body. She pulled at the hem, trying to get it to come down farther than her mid-thigh, where James's eyes seemed to lock on the caramel and golden tones of her exposed skin.
"A bit short isn't it?" She said accusatorially to Magnus.
"Quit pulling at it," said the warlock. "It's an antique."
"I'm afraid to bend over."
"Then don't bend over."
Cordelia looked to James with an exasperated expression, but he couldn't form a coherent thought, much less a whole sentence.
"Hold still," said Magnus as he walked towards Cordelia, his fingertips flashing with sparks of neon blue.
Cordelia started to back away. "What are you doing?"
"I said hold still!" said Magnus. "Unless you want me to change the whole shape of your face."
"My face—"
Magnus waved his fingers in a complicated pattern until Cordelia's once scarlet locks turned black as the river Thames on a moonless night and shrunk up to curl lightly upward around her jawline.
Magnus tilted his head and examined his work. "There. She's disguised. Can we go now?"
On the busy London street, Magnus led the way with James and Cordelia trailing a few paces behind him. Cordelia fidgeted with her dress underneath the long trench coat Magnus lent her to wear while they walked to the club. She continued to pull at the hem and then adjust the low neckline that would sink lower, exposing more of her breast each time she pulled the hem down. She looked absolutely ridiculous and painfully beautiful at the same time. James couldn't help but laugh.
"What's funny about this?" demanded Cordelia.
"Stop fidgeting," said James. "You look… fine."
"I feel ridiculous. What was wrong with the way that I looked before?"
"You looked like a Shadowhunter."
Cordelia opened her mouth to retort, but realization dawned on her face. "Right. I keep forgetting that's not a good thing around here." She straightened, giving up on the rising hem. "Is there a possibility of us running into someone at The Hell Ruelle?"
"There's always a possibility," said James.
A mundane walking in the opposite direction bumped into Cordelia and shoved her into James's side, nearly sending her off balance if she hadn't grabbed onto James's arm to steady herself. The man cursed over his shoulder and continued on his way.
Cordelia, still holding onto James's arm, scowled. "I thought the people in London were supposed to be polite and courteous."
"Not this part of London," said James before they hurried to catch up with Magnus.
Over the sound of the bustling city, filled with car horns, music, and late-night construction, James couldn't hear the sound of his name being called across the street. It wasn't until Cordelia's hand tightened around his arm as she pulled him to a stop that he was made aware of it.
"Oye, I caught you mate!"
James's breath caught in his throat as he turned to see who'd caught up to them. Out of breath from his run to catch up with James, a fae named Jasper, a reoccurring buyer from James, stood in front of James and Cordelia. "Fancy finding you here. Just my luck. Can I get a score from you—?"
"Not tonight," said James, cutting Jasper off. "I'm not working tonight."
Jasper's eyes widened, and he looked between Cordelia and James a few times. James resisted the urge to step in front of her and block his view in case he's questioned about who James was seen with tonight. The disguise was already proving to be a good plan.
"Right," said Jasper. "Another night then."
"Yeah, another night."
James's shoulder dropped as soon as Jasper turned and disappeared into the crowd. When he turned around again, Cordelia stared up at him guardedly. "Tell me again exactly what kind of business you're in."
A/N: Thanks for waiting with me through my holiday hiatus. I needed a break but I'm excited to get back into writing the rest of this story. I hope your holidays were wonderful and you enjoy this chapter.
Next chapter comes out 1/23!
