Looking back, Alec should've seen that something was wrong.

He'd woken up to an empty bed for four mornings straight, and always found Magnus in the same place: at the dining table with a coffee or martini. He'd refused to accept Magnus's light excuses: "It is happy hour somewhere" but still managed to let it go. He'd known Magnus had been off for a while, but he hadn't persevered to find out why.

That was his mistake.

It had been a mind-numbingly long day at the Institute and Alec had finally been relieved of duty so he could go home. He realised with a jolt as he crossed the church threshold that the Institute had once been his home but now - home was with Magnus. And all he wanted to do was be there, with all the tiny things that made it home - Magnus's makeup all over the bathroom floor, his clothes mixing with Magnus's in their wardrobe, and how he now knew everything's place in the kitchen and how to use the shower. Alec jogged up the stairs to the loft and let himself in.

"Mags? You home?"

The following silence told him no: the warlock was probably out visiting a client. The entire loft was filled with beautiful warmth that Alec relaxed into, letting his fists unclench and shoulders down. He dropped his bow and quiver by the door and wandered into the living room, stretching and yawning. His blue eyes, the colour of the hottest fire, swept lovingly around the room, at all of the antiques and trinkets on the shelves. Two wine glasses stood on the coffee table, but untouched: the bottle's seal had not been broken. Magnus's favourite jacket lay over the sofa arm. He would never leave without it on.

"Magnus?"

Alec went to the kitchen door and felt his breath catch as he clapped eyes with a smashed plate and bowl, lying in pieces, abandoned on the tiled floor. The stillness of said kitchen was enough.

"Magnus!" A small exhale echoed through from the bedroom. Alec felt energy surge through his legs and he rushed in and saw a hand sticking out from the side of the bed on the floor, the nails painted midnight black. The white carpet was now stained red, shimmering - of course it was shimmering. This was Magnus. Magnus was bleeding.

"Oh god, Magnus." Alec rounded the corner and found his lover half-awake on the floor of their bedroom, his wrists bent and bone exposed to the air. His cat-eyes were showing, glazed over with pain but still a tiny spark of consciousness had decided to stay.

"Alexande-"

"No, no, no, shush." Alec pulled Magnus up onto his lap and cradled his head with one hand, the other hovering hesitantly over his stomach where the hilt of a knife protruded. "I have to call Jace and Izzy." Keeping Magnus steady, he dialled and tucked his phone between his ear and shoulder and took hold of the knife hilt. The small part of the blade that could be seen glistened with blood - Magnus had already tried to pull it out. Alec's heart tore.

"Hey, Alec. Is something wrong?" Jace's voice sounded strangely demonoid over a phone but Alec didn't think he would appreciate being told that. Beneath him, Magnus was trying with all his might to keep his eyes open, his face flushed from exertion and growing fever. Alec ran his hands through his hair as he explained everything he could to his parabatai.

"Magnus is hurt, really badly hurt, and I don't know what it is or what to do. There's a knife-"

"Alec, slow down. Me, Clary and Iz are on our way, just do everything you can to keep him awake, do you hear? Call Catarina, get her to portal over, she can help too. I'll see you in a minute, brother, hold on."

Jace rang off and Alec could picture him dressing hurriedly, shouting next door to Izzy and charging down the corridor to find Clary. Realising he didn't know Cat's number, he slid Magnus's phone from his jeans pocket and keyed in the pass code he knew by heart. He found her contact and put it on speakerphone, then threw the phone aside and looked straight into the beautiful cat-eyes of his dying boyfriend.

Magnus felt everything stop as he locked eyes with Alexander. He had always loved the colour of his eyes - it was what had set him apart from other Shadowhunters in the first place - they were blue, the blue that takes artists days of mixing and layering to achieve, the blue that turned turquoise in sunlight and silver in moonlight. He could sense the presence of Alec's hand on the handle of the weapon embedded in his stomach, jolting it painfully, making his breath turn ragged and wet. But the pain - the pain he had been in and felt before he had first heard Alec enter - did not compare. Part of that pain was the fear that Alec would find him dead, and knowing what that would do to him was unbearable. If he died now, at least it would be in his arms.

In the background, Cat was carefully explaining to Alec what he had to do. She was finding a place to portal but with the time Magnus probably had left, the seconds it took her to do so were crucial.

"Where's the knife?"

"In his stomach. I think it's blocking the blood loss but-"

"Alec. You need to get that knife out now. Blood loss I can deal with, but that knife could be poisoned. Remember we don't know who did this yet."

"What do I do?"

"Is Magnus awake?"

"Yes, but only just."

"Okay-"

The phone cut off as a tsunami of sound appeared in the living room. Catarina leapt out of the portal and shot to Alec's side. Her hands were sparking with magic: she took Magnus's wrists and draped them over his chest carefully, sure not to touch the exposed bone. Magnus growled slightly in pain and objection but as soon as his friend's magic surrounded them, he let out a breath and Alec felt him relax more. Under his pigmented skin and tan, he was pale as day, his makeup smudged and energy drained. Slowly, the cracked bones righted themselves and the skin of his wrists resealed, the cuts disappearing. Even with his hands healed, he would have to depend on Cat and Alec for help. And Jace, Clary and Izzy.

There was a frantic knock on the door that Alec recognised as Izzy's: Cat used her free hand to push him up to answer it. He dashed away from the door as soon as it was open, wanting to get back straight away, and felt his siblings and friend right behind him. Jace was by his parabatai's side as soon as he saw Magnus, knowing Alec would break if left alone. But looking further, he saw something was wrong.

"That knife is poisoned." He recognised the way the poison made a warlock's blood react: where it came into contact with the deadly metal, it turned darker and thickened. "Cat, we need to take it out. I'll do it, but can you..?"

Catarina knew exactly what he meant, and nodded, turning to Clary and Izzy, who had brought everything under the name of medical supplies with them, mundane and magical. She had plenty of magic left, but healing her friend would drain it very quickly.

"Clary, I need you to be beside me incase I need to take your strength. Isabelle, just… Get Alec to distract him and try to keep him still."

Alec looked up briefly at his name: his eyes were watery. Beneath him, Magnus was biting down on his lip, gripping his boyfriends' arms tight. Alec nodded to their instruction and started repeatedly running his hands through Magnus's hair, softening it in comforting motions. A word formed quietly just outside of his boyfriends' mouth so just Alec could hear it:

"Alexander?" The word was uncertain, disjointed, but it meant everything to Alec. His full name, and who he really was to Magnus. Alexander.

"Alexander," he nodded. "That's me, I'm here, love, just hold on. We're gonna fix you up, okay? I just need you to be strong for a little while longer, and then I'll be with you."

The realisation and dread crept into the golden irises of the warlock's marked eyes, but not before Jace could pull the knife from his body.

Alec could not imagine a sound worse than what he heard then. As a child, many sounds had scared him: the usual ones that made everyone's skin crawl: fingernails on a chalkboard, metal on ceramics, and for him, other sounds, subtle sounds, like the scratch of two weapons meeting in a battle. But this was unimaginable. His beautiful, sassy, hilariously camp boyfriend was in agony beside him, and the sound falling from his mouth left Alec with tears blurring his vision. Jace dropped the knife, his fingertips stained with blood and rubbed his parabatai's back comfortingly as both Alec and Magnus cried into each other. Catarina was holding him down with her magic but it was depleting fast. She ripped away her friends shirt revealing the bloody hole and immediately her magic sparked with anger, back to full strength.

"We have to find whatever did this," she spat as the wound healed. "This poison… Without knowing the type I won't be able to get rid of it, only slow it down. I'm not gonna heal him properly because if the wound closes then we can't draw the poison out."

"Me and Jace can try and track them using the knife," Clary offered. Cat nodded.

"Go," she said, but when Izzy got up to follow them, she took her arm to stop her. "Alec needs you here right now. Look at him."

Alec was rocking Magnus in his arms, his tone of the softness only meant for his boyfriend, completely devoted and heartbroken at the warlock's pain. Izzy took Jace's place rubbing her brother's back and shoulders.

"He'll be okay, big brother," she whispered. "They're tracking whoever did it now. That idiot doesn't know it yet, but they messed with the wrong warlock."