Chapter 1

It was just after midnight when Alec stumbled into his bedroom. For years he had considered this room to be his home, his sanctuary, but now it felt as impersonal as a hotel room.

This whole day had just been a cluster fuck of epic proportions. The Council Meeting with the Downworlders could not have been any worse. Seeing Magnus again had torn his heart out. He'd only managed to keep it together by the sheer strength of will.

With a frustrated groan, he kicked off his boots and lied down on the bed. The bed he had barely slept in the last couple of weeks, the bed that was no way near as comfortable as Magnus's bed... By the Angel, he missed him... And now Magnus had sided with the Seelie Queen, that deceptive little bitch that Alec wouldn't trust as far as he could throw her. Surely Magnus saw through her lies? He had to have known that the Seelie Queen only did what was best for the Seelie Queen, even at the cost of her own people.

With a strangled sigh, he rolled on to his side, staring at the sterile walls of his room. There was nothing personal here, nothing that screamed 'Alec Lightwood'. That probably was telling enough of who he was, but with Magnus, it had been different.

All his life Alec had been focused on his one true goal and that was becoming Head of the Institute. And now that he had accomplished that, he found that it held very little joy anymore. With Magnus, he'd finally come alive. Coming home to him in the evening, sitting down with a drink and chatting to each other about their day, after which they always ended up falling asleep in each other's arms...

But all of that was gone and Alec doubted if it would ever come back. Magnus had left him. Alec had truly believed that they would find their way back to each other again eventually, but after seeing him with the Seelie Queen, he wasn't so sure. By violating the Accords, Magnus had basically cut all ties to the Clave and the Shadowhunters, Alec included.

Alec hadn't informed the Council about the whereabouts of the mirror. He'd been planning to, but decided against it when he found out that the Seelie Queen would be leading the Downworld from now on.

And if things weren't bad enough, Valentine had tried to portal out of the city... Thank the Angel that Luke wasn't nearly as eager to bow to the Seelie Queen's every whim as Magnus appeared to be, because otherwise the Institute wouldn't even have known about Valentine's attempt to escape. But Valentine trying to leave the city could only mean one thing: he knew the Mortal Mirror wasn't in the Institute, even though Alec had no idea how Valentine found out about that. Was there another traitor among them? Well, if that was the case he didn't have to worry about being Head of the Institute much longer anyway. If another of Valentine's minions had managed to infiltrate the Institute under Alec's watch, he would probably be demoted and perhaps even lose his runes.

Well, at least they'd eliminated Jonathan, that was about the only thing that went well today.

Yawning, he rolled onto his back. He really needed to get some sleep while he could, but his mind just wouldn't shut down. Images of Magnus flooded his brain. It was no use, no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't stop thinking about him. Did Magnus miss him too? It certainly hadn't looked like it during the Council meeting. For the first time Alec had seen Magnus as Magnus Bane, the all powerful High Warlock of Brooklyn, in all of his aloofness, barely giving a mere mortal like Alec Lightwood the time of day. He hadn't even looked Alec right in the eye when Alec asked him if it was true that the Seelie Queen would be representing the Downworld from now on.

Maybe his feelings for you just don't run as deep as yours...

Magnus had had 17000 lovers, and even though Alec wanted to believe that what they had was special, he knew that when he would eventually die - provided they would stay together that long - Magnus would move on to have another 17000 lovers after him.

Because that's what immortals do... And hadn't his mother and father warned him that Magnus was 'a bit of a Lothario', even for a warlock?

With a frustrated groan, he pounded into his pillow. It was no use, sleep wouldn't come tonight, he was sure of it. He must have dozed off however, because when Izzy's screams woke him up, sunlight had started to creep through the curtains.

'For the Angel's sake, Alec! Wake up!' His sister sounded as if she was on the verge of a complete meltdown.

'Jeez, what -'

'There's a dragon, Alec! There's a dragon in Central Park.'