Hi all! Sorry that it's been so long since my last update on absolutely any of my stories! I have a lot of Plans (*insert trademark symbol here*) for this story and these OCs! (Yes, it's okay to be scared by what that means!)
Let me know your thoughts! Please remain patient with me as I definitely am still just as busy as ever before. I will try to update soon, but I make absolutely no promises about that. Thanks for being understanding!
James wanted nothing more than to go to bed, or at the very least to be able to curl up in the library and read. It had been a very long week, and the last thing James wanted to do was to train, but that was exactly what he knew he needed to do. So he'd ended up in the training room completely alone yet again. They'd been working on hand-to-hand combat, and James knew that he was decidedly the worst out of their group when it came to this. Just as he knew he always was no matter what sort of combat they were working on in training.
James closed his eyes and tried to rid his mind of the images that seemed to be continually playing through his head. His father had visited their training session that day, and naturally he had done so at the exact moment that James had lost his footing and all but tripped into George's fist. Now all that James could seem to think about was the look on his father's face as he seemed to realize just how awful his son was at fighting. His father had come to offer help, but he'd been rigid the entire time that he had instructed James in how to keep his balance.
It had been very clear to James that he was just as horrible as he'd always thought he was. So now here he was, thinking about what his father had told him all but a million times, trying his hardest to correctly do what his father had tried to explain to him. James couldn't help but think of the way Charlie moved, as though she was born to fight, even without the aid of runes. He tried to imitate the way she moved, the way all of his cousins moved, even Max. But nothing seemed to help him in any way.
"What's going on?" James had been so focused on his training that when he heard his Uncle Alec's voice from behind him, he couldn't help but jump. When he turned around, he wasn't at all surprised to see that Alec's gaze was carefully trained on him, studying his every move and expression much in the way Rafael always seemed to do. "Why are you training this late?" Alec asked, his voice much more gentle than James would have liked for it to be. "And by yourself," he finished, motioning for James to follow him.
Alec sat down, leaning against the wall, patting the floor beside of him to indicate that he wanted James to sit with him. As soon as James sat down, Alec passed him a water bottle. "Take a break," Alec said, waiting for James to take a drink before continuing. "You deserve to relax, James, you know that right?" James slowly nodded after several seconds, but he didn't speak up, sensing that his uncle was going to continue. "You know you can talk to me, right? About anything at all." The last part was a statement instead of a question, and it caught James slightly off guard.
It took James several more seconds before he finally answered, finding his voice for the first time since his uncle had entered the room. "I know that, Uncle Alec," he said, trying to keep his voice as even as possible, trying his hardest to keep from giving away everything that he was feeling. "I need the training, that's all. I just know I need the practice so I like to come in here when I have the room to myself. It helps me focus better when I'm alone." He waited through the pause that he had known was coming, the pause that indicated that his uncle was analyzing what he had just said, working through the situation before him.
"What makes you think you need the extra training?" Alec eventually asked, his voice void of anything that might tell James how his uncle was feeling. "You talk as though you're in need of more practice than your sister or any of your cousins. Why is that?" James sighed, knowing that he wasn't going to get out of explaining himself, no matter what might happen from that moment forward. He could try to lie to his uncle, but even if that was something he would be willing to do, he knew that Uncle Alec would see through it. Uncle Alec might not comment on it at the moment, but he would be able to sense what was really going on.
So it didn't take long for James to realize that his only option was to be completely honest with his uncle, no matter how hard that might seem to be for him to do. "I talk as though I need more training than everyone else because I know I do need it," James replied, training his eyes on his feet, gathering the courage to speak once more. "I know you saw me trip today, and you and I both know that it certainly wasn't the first time I've messed up like that in training. It's pretty common actually. Everyone else seems to have been born for fighting, and then there's me, constantly tripping over my own two feet and pushing my glasses back into place."
Alec considered this in the same way he had before. James was surprised when his uncle's hand moved to cover his own hand that was resting on his knee. "If I had a dollar for every time I'd ever messed up in training, I'd be set for life," Alec responded, his voice softer than it had been before just moments before. "Not to mention the number of times I've messed up in a real battle. No one is perfect, James. Some of us struggle with fighting more than others. That doesn't mean you need to compare yourself to them. I can easily see that you're improving every day, and that's all that matters."
James tried to tell himself that Uncle Alec was right, but at the moment, he really didn't want to think rationally about the situation. "Tell that to Dad then," James replied, registering the bitterness in his voice. "He's the one who seems to expect me to be perfect. I'm just trying to live up to everything he seems to expect, but I'm not sure that anyone could ever live up to it." James tried to hold back his emotions, but now that he was finally talking, he couldn't seem to control it anymore. "I train by myself every day because, when it comes down to it, Dad and I both know that I need all the extra training I can get."
At first, it seemed as though Alec was going to begin to argue with him, but then he got up, and James was greatly confused. Alec reached down to help James up, the ghost of a smile on his face. "Why don't we go get some pizza? Just the two of us?" Alec asked, and James couldn't help but smile as he followed his uncle out of the training room. Of course Uncle Alec knew exactly what to do to cheer him up.
James was slightly surprised that they were able to make it through dinner without any interruptions. Almost as soon as they had left the pizza place, Uncle Alec's phone began ringing, something that didn't surprise James in the least. He quickly followed Alec as he motioned for James to change direction with him, apparently turning toward wherever the person calling needed him to go. "You ready for a routine demonic activity call?" he asked as he hung up the phone, smiling as James swallowed the lump in his throat. "Don't worry," Alec continued, his smile spreading. "I know you're ready for it."
It was easy to listen to Uncle Alec because James knew that his uncle was being sincere. Uncle Alec didn't say anything that he didn't truly mean, and he certainly wasn't one to warp the truth in any way. Of course, it was easy to listen to his uncle until he actually saw the situation at hand. James watched as they rounded a corner to see the reason Alec had been called, all but gasping as Alec stopped in his tracks. It took a lot to surprise Alec enough to do this, and James knew that the scene before them was worse than he himself probably thought it was.
When Uncle Alec had said "demonic activity," James hadn't expected to see his Uncle Magnus at the source of the activity. He knew that Max, Rafael, and Maddie were still at the Institute, and he'd simply assumed that Uncle Magnus was as well. But now here he was, staring at Uncle Magnus who was talking to a man he'd never seen before. This man looked eerily like an older version of Uncle Magnus, but whoever he was seemed to be a lot more of a problem than James had first thought he was. The expression on Uncle Alec's face told James that the situation before them was certainly much worse than what he could tell from what he could see. Not to mention the fact that he had his arms around a young Shadowhunter girl, not much older than Sophie and Anna, a knife to her throat.
"Alec!" the strange man exclaimed, his voice inexplicably causing chills to run down James's spine. "How nice of you to join us, Magnus was just catching me up, telling me about your lovely children." There was something in the man's tone that told James that he was insincere, something that told him that the situation at hand was terribly wrong. "I'm assuming that this," the man continued, lazily throwing a hand toward James. "Is one of Jace and Clary's. The red hair is a dead giveaway." James's eyes shifted to the ground, suddenly self conscious, suddenly wishing that he hadn't agreed to go with Uncle Alec.
"No," Uncle Magnus began, his voice firm and to the point. "Magnus was just leaving." His tone left no room for negotiation, but the other man didn't seem to be phased by it at all. James watched as Uncle Magnus froze, his whole body tensing as the knife slid ever so slightly across the girl's throat. James couldn't help but wince, the fear in the girl's eyes all too evident. "Right after you let her go," Uncle Magnus finished, his eyes never wavering for a moment.
The man shook his head, a smile growing across his face in a way that made James terribly uncomfortable. He'd never seen such an awful smile. "Come on now, son, this reunion is just getting started." James automatically reached for his seraph blade, finally understanding exactly what was happening, but Uncle Alec reached out a hand to calm him, motioning for him to stay back. The man before him was very obviously Asmodeus, which meant that he was the source of the demonic activity, and it meant that they were also in a lot more trouble than James had first believed.
His father had told him that Asmodeus was trapped in Edom, that he could only get out if someone summoned him. James couldn't help but wonder what kind of twisted person would be willing to summon Asmodeus, but he also couldn't keep from wondering why Asmodeus found the need to make himself look like Uncle Magnus. James knew it was most likely a trick of the mind, something he did because he knew it would bother both Uncle Magnus and Uncle Alec, but that didn't make it any easier to him either. "Magnus, what's going on?" Uncle Alec asked, his voice much colder than James had ever heard it before.
"Magnus and I were just coming to a little agreement," Asmodeus replied, his voice far more relaxed than Alec would have thought it could be. "Weren't we, son?" he finished, his voice becoming cold in a matter of seconds. He was challenging Magnus, and even James could easily see that. After a few seconds that seemed to stretch into hours, Uncle Magnus finally shook his head, rejecting whatever his father's offer was.
What happened next happened far too quickly for James to properly follow it. The girl was on the ground before Uncle Magnus and Uncle Alec could reach her, the knife slicing her throat far too quickly for James's eyes to register. When James finally looked away from her, he was surprised to see that Asmodeus was gone. Uncle Magnus was by the girl's side seconds later, but James knew that nothing he could do would be enough. Before James had the time to decide what he wanted to do, Uncle Alec was in front of him, blocking his view. "James, I need you to go home now. I'll be right behind you, I promise. Just get out of here for me, okay?" All James could do was nod, knowing that he needed to listen to his uncle.
James was slightly surprised when Uncle Alec found him in the greenhouse. For as long as he could remember, he'd been coming to the greenhouse whenever he needed to get away from the things that were going on around him. But then James remembered that this was a habit he'd apparently picked up from Uncle Alec himself, so he simply tried to flash a smile as Uncle Alec sat down beside of him. When Uncle Alec didn't say anything at all, James decided to speak up despite the wavering in his voice. "He killed her. Without hesitation. Without any sort of remorse at all. He just killed her."
Uncle Alec sighed as he moved to wrap an arm around James, and it was then that James realized that he was shaking. "He's a demon, James," Alec said, his voice far from the sort of calm that it normally was. "They don't have any sort of feelings, least of all remorse for absolutely anything that they do." As he spoke, Alec's voice became softer, as though he was slowly remembering something. "It's absolutely horrid, trust me, I know. Nothing will ever compare to watching someone innocent lose their life. I just need you to know that I'm here if you need to talk about what happened tonight."
James couldn't help but lean into his uncle at that, his emotions suddenly overwhelming him in waves. But James involuntarily found himself wishing that his father was by his side, and he idly wondered whether or not Uncle Alec had spoken to his parents about what had happened yet. James was just about to ask Uncle Alec when Rafael all but burst into the greenhouse. "Dad, we need you right now," he said, his voice much more frantic than James had ever heard it. "The Clave took Papa to Idris. They're questioning him because of the murder; they think he was working with Asmodeus."