IF WE MAKE IT THROUGH THE NIGHT

Rating: K+

Authoress: Loki

Notes: So... a lot of things happened in CoLS but I am not going to say what because WARNING! THIS FIC CONTAINS SPOILERS FROM WORD 1 - IF YOU HAVE NOT YET FINISHED COLS DO NOT READ THIS! TURN AWAY RIGHT NOW!

For this reason I am writing additional notes at the bottom of this ~ Also preserves spoilers for the fic too.

Italics: Quotes from Cassandra's work
Normal: Fiction~

Please review! I am a review whore! AND PROUD!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything but the plot.

CHAPTER 1: CUTTING TIES

"I'll be out all day," Magnus said. "Come and get your things out of the apartment. Leave your key on the dining room table." His eyes searched Alec's face. "It's over. I don't want to see you again, Alec. Or any of your friends. I'm tired of being their pet warlock."

Magnus swung open the door to his apartment and felt himself almost hesitate to step inside. He wasn't sure what to expect. Part of him expected to hear the hiss of the shower or the fresh scent of sandalwood blowing out from the bathroom door in clouds of steam. A little of him expected muddy footprints trodden into the wooden floorboards, dotted here and there with splatters of demon ichor. A little more of him expected a smoking crater from a vengeful demon or sibling of a certain Shadowhunter, and there was a tiny fraction of himself that was expecting bright blue eyes framed with ink black hair that was damp from the snow that had been falling since that afternoon. But most of him didn't expect to see anything at all.

If he knew Alexander Lightwood well enough, he knew that he wouldn't take too long to abide by Magnus' wishes.

He had left returning to his apartment as late as he could; finding various Downworlder haunts to just sit in when his errands hadn't proved a long enough diversion for him to stay away from his apartment, letting the scents of smoke and alcohol breeze over him as he tried to calm himself. Stop himself from breaking down. He wondered whether admitting that was more trouble than it was worth.

He closed the door and flicked his slim fingers over the lock, hearing latch snap viciously. His gold-green cat-like eyes glanced around his apartment swiftly and came to rest, almost involuntarily, on a small silver key winking at him on the polished surface of his dining room table. He stepped over to it almost hesitantly and felt a sting twist in his chest.

The tiny key reflected light like a blade and subconsciously Magnus raised a hand to the left of his chest and rubbed it slowly. Brown hair tangled with blood and dirt flashed behind his eyes with dark, black tunnels in the middle of a pale face flushed with energy and what must have been delight as the woman - Amatis, Luke's sister - brandished the knife and sank it into his chest. The area twinged and he grimaced softly.

The wound area didn't hurt any more, he had healed it and traces of the incident were lost to the eyes, but his memory surfaced and brought it out like a persistent worrying at an old tooth that wouldn't just fall out and be gotten rid of. It wasn't like Magnus hadn't been stabbed before. He was over eight hundred years old, of course he had been stabbed before and he had been in battles before - the Uprising being just one example in the recent past.

But it unnerved him that he had been so close to dying. Just a few inches. That was all it would have taken. Had Amatis stumbled or swung the knife at a different angle, then perhaps he wouldn't be here to remember it. He'd be just another body to be burned and slowly forgotten. He was just a warlock after all. No matter what status he found himself. Brooklyn could easily find another High Warlock.

He passed his hand over the key, his chipped nail polish flashing silver in the light, then dropped it. He gave the key a lingering gaze before stepping out of his shoes and padding barefooted into his bedroom. He lay down on the canary yellow sheets and draped a golden arm over his eyes. His skin was cold and damp from the snowfall and his eyelashes were coated with melted snowflakes. He wasn't just cold on the outside though. He felt a chill run through him, the lone key now flickering behind his eyelids.

He saw a hand closing around it and swinging it up above a dark head in an arc like a knife. It plunged back down and before he opened his eyes a flash of bottle-glass-blue shot out from the black head. Magnus made a low sound in his throat and sat up, blinking at the soft sheets thrown over his bed.

Chairman Meow mewled softly from the door and Magnus sighed, scratching the leg of his pants to beckon the cat forward. The cat scampered over to him and the Warlock stroked his back. The tabby purred loudly and arched his back to match Magnus' strokes.

"At least one person isn't going to betray me.." he murmured softly, stroking the Chairman and scratching behind his ears. He shook his head, scooping the cat up and lying back onto his bed with Meow perched on his chest. He continued to stroke him gently, mildly amused at the bliss the cat was clearly showing; leaning into Magnus' hand and narrowing his green eyes, purring like a motor. He sighed.

"All for a Shadowhunter... I knew I was right to try to promise myself I wouldn't get involved with them again..." As if in reply, Chairman Meow gave a soft sound and nudged his master's nose with his own tiny pink one. "I told you, didn't I." Magnus continued, poking the cat's nose. "I said to you I wouldn't... no matter how charming... or how helpless..." He found the cat staring at him and pouted softly. "What?" he asked incredulously. Meow simple mewled and laid down on Magnus' flat chest. The Warlock chuckled briefly, earning several claws in the chest and shook his head. "Yeah, you're right I never finished promising."

Shadowhunters. After Will and Jem he had promised himself that he wouldn't get involved with them again. More importantly their personal business. Because when you got to know them, you got to care about them. And when you got to care about mortals, they broke your heart.

It was almost ironic that they should be the ones to get him killed if he helped them and the battle had just about proved him right. It was a vital hit that he had needed though. That last push it took just to make himself absolutely clear that Camille had been telling the truth about Alec: That he had been planning to strip his immortality. To his dismay, the vampire lady had been right. That had been the final cut of the thread that was tying him to Brooklyn. The final push that had sent him over the edge. Alec was officially a threat to his life and he had no plans to stick around waiting for that to happen. So he broke up.

The only reason he was staying in Brooklyn - in contact with the Nephilim at all was Alec. Now he was just tired of it all. He'd told Simon this on a whim, and even at that point he had been doubting his reasoning because of what Camille had told him. Now he was going to live up to that and run away before it was too late.

He knew the darkness was coming. It was clear to all Downworlders that it was - they could all sense it and Magnus had dreamt about it countless times. Blood. Lots of it. Darkness. It was coming. He knew it like he knew the how good glitter made him look but the Nephilim seemed either oblivious or ignorant, it was difficult to say. But it was this very reason that had determined his leaving and was why he had spent all day severing his ties with his regular customers; telling them he was going out of town for a while and not specifying where he was going. Only one thing he assured was that he wouldn't be back for a long time. Nobody knew where he was really going and he preferred it that way.

He had intended to do the same with the Nephilim - possibly with Maryse in private as he guessed that she would be most likely to understand the meaning of 'I'm not going to help you anymore'. But he had really struggled with the thought of visiting the Institute again. He didn't want to run into certain people and perhaps talking to the mother of these certain people wasn't the best way of going unnoticed, so he thought that he would simply slip away in the hopes that they would get the message. He figured that Alec would tell them about their break-up soon enough or at least once they realized that Magnus wasn't going to reply to them. He doubted that it would take them long to begin calling him for some petty little thing.

He sighed heavily and pulled Chairman Meow up to his face, despite the cat's discomfort with the action, and nuzzled his face with his forehead. "It's just you and me again, Chairman." He grinned lightly at the cat and sat up, placing him on the floor. "We'd better start packing though.. if we want to get a head start... no doubt they'll start calling within the hour." Meow simply mewled in agreement and stalked from the room.

Word Count: 1547

A/N: So.. I kinda have two theories about what will happen with Magnus in CoHF... He's either going to flee, like he implied he would when he told Simon about his reason for staying being Alec, or he'll stay because he's hung up on Alec. Even if it doesn't happen, this I thought would be fun to write about so~
Here's my interpretation~! Haha

Teaser for a future chapter:

"Then why are you here?"
"To tell them what I just told you." Magnus pushed a stray hair behind his ear.
"You couldn't have just ignored them?" Alec snapped, spitefully. Magnus laid his cat-eyes wearily on the black haired Nephilim.
"Don't play games with me, Alexander."

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Love Loki xxx