Magnus breezed into Taki's and practically danced towards Catarina, sitting on her own at a table near the back. She was easily spotted on account of her blue skin and green scrubs, her white hair messy and tied up in a loose knot. She smiled at him as he approached and nearly every head in the place snapped around to stare at him. I mean, he was truly magnificent to look at usually, but skipping along and deliriously happy he really must be a formidable sight.
"Oh dear, he said no didn't he?" Catarina teased behind a broad smile. Magnus rolled his eyes at her and removed his winter coat with a flourish before sitting down opposite.
"Am I too obvious?" Magnus asked, knowing that he was and couldn't help it, as he picked up a menu. He couldn't contain his grin today, not after last night when Alec had said "yes". Probably wouldn't be able to contain it forevermore.
"Oh Magnus, do you have any idea how happy it makes me to see you this happy?" she asked him, her face serene and sincere.
"Well, we just have to find you someone now!" he beamed at her, trying not to let her kind words make him too emotional. Catarina snorted at him and flounced away the short strands of hair that had fallen into her face. She picked up the menu and perused it, deliberately not replying. "I mean it. I have no problem playing cupid."
"Is that a threat or a promise?" she asked, looking at him over the top of her menu with a bemused expression.
Magnus pondered for a couple of moments before answering with a wicked grin, "both."
The waitress came up to take their order.
"Ice cream. I would like ice cream please. Lots of different flavours, just bring a selection," Magnus told her, to which he received a raised, questioning eyebrow from the waitress and a bark of a laugh from his friend.
"It has to be about twenty degrees outside!" Catarina observed. But he didn't care. It had got a lot colder today; yesterday had been fairly mild, but he hadn't really noticed the temperature. He looked at her petulantly and handed the menu back to the waitress without looking at her, in defence of his unusual order.
"I will have a tomato soup and a large coffee please," Catarina ordered.
"Oooh yes, I would like a large coffee too," Magnus chirped in.
"You are ridiculous sometimes," Catarina told him wistfully as the waitress disappeared.
"And sometimes I am so deliriously happy that I feel I must eat ice cream regardless of all other circumstances," he reasoned.
His friend fixed him with a warm stare and told him "I know," in a soft voice. Magnus thought he detected something behind her eyes then, some worry or panic or even a deep sadness. He hoped it wasn't anything he couldn't help with.
"What's wrong?" he asked her immediately. He knew her very well and had done for years and could tell something was up. She cleared her throat.
"Magnus, I saw something yesterday and I needed to warn you," she told him bluntly. He cocked his eyebrow at her.
"So you didn't want to meet me to squee over mine and Alec's engagement?" he asked, already knowing that she hadn't because it was not really within her character. He had hoped it was a personal problem about shifts at the hospital or something, but he had been deluding himself. She suddenly looked very on edge as if she hadn't slept. His happiness had dulled his senses and he hadn't picked up on it when he had first seen her.
"I'm just going to come right out and say it, because there is no point in beating round the bush."
He sighed and urged her on.
"I thought I saw Eris at the hospital on New Year's Eve."
Magnus almost fell off his chair.
"What?!" he yelled out. Everyone in Taki's looked around at them, so he hunched over the table to get closer to Catarina and continued in a hurried, panicked whisper. "Are you sure it was her? What on earth is she doing hanging around in New York!"
"Look, I am not sure it was her; I thought I recognised her but you know I have only met her once. And as for why she is in New York, I have no idea. I thought you had better know and prepare yourself because she is bound to pay you a visit. As for why she was at the hospital…"
"Oh god do I even want to hear this?" he asked, feeling nauseous.
"She was lurking down in the morgue. We got the body of a vampire in a couple of nights ago. I cleaned it all up, but I caught her sneaking around looking for it."
"How do you know it was that body she was looking for?"
"Because she told me."
Again, Magnus almost fell off his chair. He slapped his hands down with some considerable force onto the table, startling his companion and causing her to jump in her chair.
"You spoke to her?!" He exclaimed incredulously. "Actually spoke to her?"
"Well, she spoke to me. It wasn't really a two-way conversation. And when I said 'spoke', I meant more like demand menacingly that I produce the body for her." Catarina was now getting visibly annoyed.
"Oh god, what did you say?"
"I told her that the body had already been disposed of – cremated."
"And?"
"And what?"
"Well what did she say?!"
"She sort of sighed like it was a bit of an inconvenience and then told me to pass you on a message," Catarina told him almost nonchalantly, playing with a loose thread at her wrist.
"That does not sound like Eris."
"Hmmm, maybe it wasn't," she agreed. "I mean, apart from looking exactly like her and wanting to get in touch with you."
"What could she possibly want with me?!" Magnus bemoaned loudly.
"She wanted me to tell you to be careful – that she thinks your father is up to something and she was trying to find out what. She also wanted you to contact her if you had any information. She said you would know how."
"Information on what?!"
At that point their order arrived and Magnus was instantly glad he had ordered coffee. However, he didn't really feel much like ice cream anymore. Catarina shrugged her shoulders at him. She didn't know what Eris had wanted either, just that she was looking for something that was quite possibly to do with dead vampires. Magnus gave an involuntary shudder.
"Ice cream too cold?" Catarina asked him, trying to lighten the mood. He was jealous of her steaming hot bowl of creamy tomato soup right now; he was feeling frozen suddenly. Frozen inside rather than his actual body being cold.
"Just don't feel like celebrating now. Evil Warlocks do tend to put a dampener on things…" he bemoaned and swirled his spoon around in the ice cream that was starting to melt in the well-heated diner.
"Magnus" Catarina implored him and he looked at her glumly. "She didn't hurt me and I don't think she wants to hurt you. Maybe you should see her and hear her out. If she says it is something about your father…"
"A trick probably," he cut in. Catarina looked at him sternly.
"No," she said with conviction. "No, I don't think that it was at all. She seemed… Not concerned… but sort of on a mission? Does that make sense?"
"Oh, right, a maniac with a purpose that makes me feel a whole lot better…"
"Stop being a queen and eat your ice cream," she snapped at him.
Magnus looked her with faked hurt. "I am not a queen!" he said as camped up as he could manage. His friend laughed and scooped up some soup onto her spoon.
"You should get some chocolate sauce," she told him. "And try to stop worrying about it. I mean, it's serious and all that she has showed up, but I remember the last time you met her and as I recall you left her with a lasting impression."
Magnus grinned at the memory. Yes, he had surprised her with his abilities and scared her off. However, he had hoped she had been scared off for good and this clearly wasn't the case. He took a taste of the ice cream and the vanilla flavour washed through him and, as if it had some magical abilities (which in Taki's was a distinct possibility), reminded him why he was so happy.
"There, you see," Catarina observed happily. "Ice cream makes everything better!"
"I'd better take a few tubs then," he told her with a gloomy shrug. She was about to berate him for his pessimism again but he cut her off. "Thank you – for telling me awful news and then trying to make me feel better."
"Well, what are friend's for?" she said, contentedly sitting back in her chair and taking a sip of her mug of coffee.
"By the way, this doesn't guarantee you an invite to the wedding of the century. Just saying," he warned her as he ate some more delicious ice cream.
"Damn, you have uncovered my dastardly motives."
Alec worried at his cuffs nervously, not because his cufflinks were loose, but because he really didn't want to have to tell Magnus about Camille. Not tonight.
Not for as long as I live…
His fiancé – Alec was still getting used to thinking of Magnus as this – had surprised him with tickets to the Met to see Verdi's Falstaff. It wasn't one of his favourite Verdi operas, but Alec loved Italian opera and going to the Met was always a treat. Before Magnus, he had only ever heard records played on Hodge's really old gramophone, but Magnus shared his love of it even though he argued with Alec about German opera being better. Perhaps he would break the news to Magnus tomorrow morning and keep this night for themselves. But the message was urgent. Magnus would hate it if Alec didn't tell him – and soon.
However, heavy traffic and a long line at Ticket Collection delayed them and he didn't get a chance to say anything before the curtain came up.
During the interval though, Alec couldn't take the guilt any longer and spirited the Warlock away to a quiet area of the bar. Magnus briefly got excited that Alec had something planned for them, but his mirth fell short when he saw the worried expression on the Shadowhunter's face.
"Magnus, I have to tell you something and I don't want to, but I feel I have to," Alec started. Magnus suddenly looked like he had shattered.
"Oh god, please don't do this to me," he told Alec in a small voice that sounded thick with emotion, his eyes briefly losing their glamour and turning to their true beautiful feline gold-green.
"Do what to you?" Alec asked, confused by Magnus' outburst.
"Please don't tell me you don't want to marry me again. Because I really want to marry you and I can't take it…"
"Don't be silly, of course I still want to marry you," Alec told him in a half-exasperated whisper, cutting him off. Magnus's face softened with relief, like the sun coming out after a storm.
"Phew!" he told Alec with a wide grin, grasping hold of his hand and stroking the pad of his thumb affectionately over Alec's knuckles. "You had me worried for a second."
"Camille's back," Alec blurted, not being able to hold the information in any longer and having no idea how to phrase it nicely. The Warlock was physically shocked, almost jumping backwards in surprise. "Jia contacted me earlier to say that Raphael had received a note that he was convinced was from her – her handwriting and stuff. Raphael is back in New York now and he had been trying to contact us last night… But, well, we were kind of busy." Alec felt a slight flush creeping up his neck and spreading across his ears. And he waited then, in silence, to see his fiancé's reaction.
Magnus took a deep breath and held Alec's hand more tightly. "What does she want?" he asked, clearly struggling to maintain the calm in his voice.
"The note just said 'Help'," Alec told him truthfully. "But it was clearly addressed to me even though it was delivered to Raphael."
"To you?" Magnus said, surprise and worry etched all over his features.
"Nothing else has happened, but I am meeting with Raphael in the morning and, obviously, I want you to be there."
Another few seconds of silence passed between them, Magnus still squeezing his hand, and then the Warlock took another big breath and smiled at him lovingly. "I love you," he suddenly told Alec, as if the conversation they just had didn't actually exist. It caught Alec off guard and he couldn't help but smile back, tightening the grip of their hands.
"E tu sorridi," Magnus whispered, his eyes twinkling, absent of their glamour still.
"What does that mean?" Alec asked him innocently.
"It means, 'And you smiled' in Italian."
"Oh…?" It wasn't really a question, but it hadn't really made sense to Alec.
"And it is apt, if you stick around for Act Two," Magnus told him with a wry smile.
"Tell me it now," Alec urged, pulling the Warlock close to him and wrapping his arms around his fiancé's slim waist.
Magnus encircled Alec's neck with his hands. "Come ti vidi m'innamorai,"
"Something about love," Alec told him, certain he recognised the word. He knew a great deal of Latin and many of the words were very similar. Magnus nodded and drew him closer so that their bodies were pressed against each other.
"Come ti vidi m'innamorai – when I saw you I fell in love."
"Aw," Alec said and boldly moved his hand onto Magnus' backside, which earned him a raised eyebrow and a chuckle.
"E tu sorridi, perche lo sai," Magnus leant towards him and kissed him tenderly on his brow. "And you smiled, because you knew," he whispered into Alec's ear before kissing him lightly on the cheek.
When they walked back to the auditorium and took their seats for Act Two, Alec felt the pull in the pit of his stomach once more. "What about Camille?" he asked with trepidation. But Magnus gave him another smile and held his hand once more.
"Look, until we meet with Raphael tomorrow we don't know anything. Let's just enjoy tonight," he implored, raising Alec's hand to his lips and giving it a thoughtful peck.
"As an engaged couple," Alec added, unable to hide his smile as he said it. Magnus turned his head and trapped Alec's lips with his own just as the lights went down and the orchestra struck up the Entr'Acte.
When the line was sung towards the end of the Act they both smiled and held onto each other's hand tightly.
Alec's information about Camille had worried him more than he had let on, but he was determined to have that night with his fiancé and no one was going to stop him. Not Camille and certainly not Eris. However, now in the early morning light as he tried to bury himself down into the warmth of the bedspread whilst Alec pottered around getting dressed ready for the meeting with Raphael, Magnus felt guilty that he hadn't already told Alec everything he knew. Everything Catarina had told him about yesterday. Alec had told him about Camille and he clearly hadn't wanted to. Eris was a more pressing matter, far more important, and quite possibly linked to Camille's reappearance. But Magnus hadn't had the heart to tell him last night. But he was going to have to tell him this morning before meeting with Raphael.
Magnus took a deep breath. He hadn't meant to sigh, but it had sort of escaped in his frustration.
"What's wrong?" Alec asked him, immediately noticing. Oh, trust Magnus to have the most observant, lovely, wonderful, kind partner in the history of the world.
He smiled at the Shadowhunter. "I didn't want to tell you last night," he said simply. He watched Alec's beautiful blue eyes darken with concern and his nose wrinkle.
"What?" he asked, stopping in the middle of putting on a sock and coming over and sitting on the bed next to the Warlock.
"So I met up with Catarina yesterday," Magnus began, but then paused, wondering how to phrase what his friend had told him.
"Yes, your blue friend, I know. I like her," Alec told him encouragingly, clearly urging him to continue. It was comforting to know that Alec liked her though.
"Well, she had some information which, now I think about it, may be related to Camille's reappearance."
"And you didn't think of telling me this yesterday?" Alec frowned a little at him, but Magnus could tell he wasn't really annoyed.
"I'm sorry," Magnus replied softly. "She saw my sister lurking around the morgue on New Year's Eve, looking for the body of a vampire."
It kind of all rolled out at once.
"I'm sorry, what? Your sister?" Alec asked him, his brow furrowed in confusion.
"Yeah, on my father's side, if you get my meaning."
That stopped the Shadowhunter dead. "Oh," he said quietly as realisation dawned.
"Let's just say Eris is a nasty piece of work and doesn't belong in our lives. I have only ever met her a few times before and every time it almost ended very badly for me. However, she has been known to 'resurrect' vampires in her time. So after you told me about Camille I made a link. It can't be coincidence."
"Wait," Alec told him firmly, wrapping his hand around Magnus' in a wonderful and loving gesture that told the Warlock that he was here for him and that he would always be here. "So your sister – sorry, half-sister – is called Eris? I didn't realise you knew any of his other children…"
Magnus sighed. "Only her," he admitted with chagrin.
"And what did she do to you when you met her? What makes her so evil?"
It was a valid question, he supposed. But he really didn't want to worry Alec too much so thought he would just tell him about the most important meeting they had had, the very first time Magnus had met her.
"She helped me summon my father." Magnus chuckled at a memory that really wasn't very funny, out of nervousness more than anything else.
"And dead vampires?" Alec asked with a raised eyebrow. He wasn't pressing him: they had learnt together that Alec could not help being curious and Magnus could not share information about himself or his past easily. They were both working on those things and it had done wonders for their relationship. He was glad that Alec didn't often push him into revealing anything before he was totally comfortable with telling him.
"Eris' story is a tragic one. She was born a long time ago, way before me, and she was a Princess or something similar. Her people back then even took her with her Warlock marks and revered, almost worshipped her for her magical abilities, and she used them for good - to help them. And then Father Dearest saw how powerful she had become and decided to claim her for himself. He taught her the dark ways and her heart blackened. And then she fell in love with a soldier and he fell in love with her, despite the evil rotting away inside her." Magnus gave a short shrug, as if the story were bland and not tragic in the slightest. "She dealt with it the only way she knew how by then, poisoned as she was by Asmodeus. She turned him into a vampire so that he would be able to be with her forever."
Alec gasped. Considering their own rocky grappling with immortality, Magnus was sure Alec could understand in great and probably almost painful detail. Magnus hated where he came from, but he had to admit that his father had done him and Alec an enormous favour in taking away the particularly sore point of his immortality, with exceedingly good grace actually; because he had allowed Magnus to keep his body as it was rather than lay all of his years upon it and just start aging the mortal way from that point. He had no doubt his father was biding his time, however, and if Eris had suddenly showed up it may mean Asmodeus had got tired of waiting for Magnus to just die already.
"What happened next?" Alec asked him, still looking shocked, but with a slight spark behind the beautiful azure of his eyes that told him his fiancé was intrigued.
"Said love interest didn't take kindly to becoming Undead, so he killed himself. Obviously, I use the term 'killed' in the loosest sense of the word. He cut his throat and bled to death just after setting fire to the coffin he was lying in. Burnt to ashes. Gone. You know, really dead, not just a little bit dead. But Eris couldn't accept it. She brought him back."
"Whoa – what? How could she do that?"
Magnus didn't know whether he meant literally how she managed it or how she could do something so terrible to someone she had loved. He went with the former.
"Magic," he said with a weary grin. "It's hard that type of magic and very dark. Resurrection at the best of times – nice fresh mortal body and mortal soul that hasn't completely departed – always turns out badly. But a vampire who had committed suicide to the point that all that remained of him was dust? I would imagine with some difficulty. The thing with vampires is that because they are immortal, it takes longer for evanescence to occur. A vampire's 'being' or 'soul' or whatever you want to call it has the ability to stay clung to a bit of dust that was their body for a long time, depending on their age. A mortal cannot be resurrected from ashes."
He squeezed Alec's hand because he had started to pale.
"I should say that resurrection and necromancy are the most grievous of evils. It is dark magic. Or it is now. There was a time when there were types of resurrection magic that were pure and good. Or rumours of that type of magic at least. It doesn't exist now. Only the bad stuff."
"Wow, so we are talking like really evil…" Alec mused, his face still blank and white. "I mean the kind of evil that is made up of good intentions, but doesn't know better. Not like your father kind of evil, but still…"
"Yeah, still pretty bad."
"What happened after she brought him back?"
"He just killed himself again. But it wasn't until he stabbed her in the heart and told her that he hated her that she stopped bringing him back. Nothing worse than a soul being dragged back into their old body, apparently."
"And you think she has brought back Camille from the dead?"
Magnus considered this for a while. Eris was the only Warlock he knew of who could practice necromancy with any actual success, so if Camille was back then he was sure Eris had something to do with it. Of course, this prescribed to the idea that Camille had been truly dead in the first place.
"I don't know," Magnus told him truthfully. "But it seems like a pretty odd coincidence that Eris shows up in New York on the same night that you receive a letter from a dead Vampire."
"Well come on then, let's go and see Raphael and try to get to the bottom of this," Alec enthused. Magnus shot him a withering look and tried to bury down into the blankets once more. It was cold and he didn't much fancy meeting up with Mr Doom-and-gloom right now. But Alec pulled him up and out of bed, causing a sharp intake of breath as the cold morning air hit him.
Suddenly, Alec was kissing him. And then he immediately felt warmed. It was like Alec was a glorious ball of sunshine that radiated lovely, healing and comforting heat.
"I love you, and I am so so happy. You make me happy," Alec told him as he nuzzled Magnus' neck. "And no one is going to be able to spoil it. Not Raphael, not Camille and not your sister. I am high on bliss and don't intend to come down any time soon."
Magnus couldn't help but chuckle, as if his happiness was so overpowering it had to escape somewhere.
They walked towards the library hand in hand and happy despite everything going on around them. Raphael would project as it was daytime, even though it was that horrible ugly grey weather outside that looked like the sun was never going to reappear and he would probably have been perfectly safe stepping outside.
Raphael smirked at him when he appeared. He was literally the most annoying person on the planet, and was only smirking at Magnus because he wanted to make Magnus feel awful about being happy with Alec when there were dead vampires miraculously making reappearances. Magnus had a good mind to not invite him to the wedding. Grumpy bastard. But then Magnus thought about Ragnor. Despite himself, he missed the big green annoyance. Raphael was sort of his successor in a way, and Magnus would have wanted Ragnor at his wedding. Ragnor would be totally pissed off if Raphael ended up not getting an invite. Plus, with Alec the Head of the New York Institute, he may be forced to invite the Head of the Manhattan Vampire clan.
Stupid politics.
It was Raphael who spoke first. "I hear congratulations are in order," he said.
"Um, thanks…" Alec answered nervously.
"Enjoy your little trip?" Magnus asked him, trying to sound friendly and pleasant, despite the horrible expression on Raphael's face.
"Very much, thank you. Did you miss me?" he asked with a slight glint in his eyes.
Magnus snorted, "More like you missed me…"
"We don't have time for this," Alec suddenly piped up. Magnus liked authoritative and confident Alec. "If you two want to have a chat or an argument or… whatever this is then feel free. After we talk about that note."
"Fine with me – what do you want to know? I explained everything to the Consul the night before last, but would be happy to go over anything with you," Raphael told Alec. It was amazing the change this brought in his countenance, as if he had a deep respect for the Shadowhunter. A respect Magnus never could get out of him.
"Well I would like to see the note," Alec explained patiently. Raphael produced it from the pocket of his dark jeans and held it up so that he and Alec could get a better look.
"Obviously, I can only show it to you – if you want it then it is here at the Dumont." Raphael pointed at a faded, folded over piece of paper that had not been well looked after. It was dirty, creased and ripped in places. It looked like it had been through a washing machine. And then crumpled up and thrown down a garbage chute. On the side where it was folded, Magnus could see the address of the Dumont and Raphael's name in a bold black hand, and beneath it said 'FAO Alexander Lightwood of the New York Institute.' But that definitely wasn't Camille's writing.
Magnus looked at Raphael with a puzzled expression and the vampire gave him a knowing look, clearly recognising this was not written by Camille.
"This is not the interesting bit," he announced quietly before opening the paper up to reveal a flourish of handwriting, unmistakably written by someone who belonged to a different time.
Help.
Magnus could recognise this as Camille's hand instantly. He had seen a lot of her writing in the time he knew her and recognised the elaborate loops at the beginning of the 'H' and at the end of the 'P'. However, the writing looked hurried, panicked, not perfect like Camille's writing was usually.
"It's a different colour," Alec observed, as if he were musing to himself and he leaned in to try for a closer look. He was right; it wasn't the same dark black as the address on the front.
"It's written in blood," Raphael told them, trying to sound dramatic. He could feel Alec tense beside him.
"So you think she may be hurt?" Alec asked him. Trust Alec to actually be concerned for Camille's well-being.
"Ah, that is what is so interesting about this piece of writing," he told them with a conspirational smile. It was infuriating.
"Oh just tell us," he urged Raphael with an exasperated sigh.
"It's human blood."
"Human?" Magnus replied immediately. Alec had straightened up, as if he were poised for an attack.
"So Camille is writing her distress pleas out of human blood? Doesn't surprise me actually," he told Raphael candidly. The vampire gave him a contemptuous sneer, his default expression reserved only for Magnus when he believed himself to be far superior and wise. Which, according to Raphael, was all the time.
"But if she was distressed and really did need help then why would she use human blood to write a note?" Alec asked, his brow furrowed in a very cute way that made Magnus want to grab him and snog him. He resisted, however, on account of the company.
"Exactly," Raphael told Alec as he folded up the note and put it carefully back in his pocket.
"I'm sorry, am I missing something here?" Magnus had to ask them both, feeling a little annoyed that his fiancé and Raphael were sharing a 'moment' without him.
"Really Magnus, becoming mortal has definitely made you slower," Raphael told him with an apathetic arrogance.
"Think about it," Alec said as he turned to face the Warlock. "Camille is either in trouble because she is injured, dying… I mean, dying again… or whatever. In which case, how come she has access to human blood? If she did then she would be strong and wouldn't need my help at all. And if she does have access to it but only very little, then why waste it writing a note? But maybe the fact it is written in human blood is also part of the message. I mean, odd that she would only write one word but still have the capability to smuggle the note out and get it all the way to the Dumont?"
Ok, now he understood. Something didn't quite add up. However, no one could really tell what.
"Ah, your fiancé is paying attention at least. Why send it to the Dumont at all and address it to me so I would pass it on to you?" Raphael pondered. "It's not like she didn't know the Institute's address or anything."
"Maybe her messenger couldn't deliver it to the Institute. Or wouldn't," Magnus said with conviction, the idea of his sister's involvement potentially becoming clearer. Alec looked at him with agreed realisation and now it was Raphael's turn to be left out of the loop.
"Thank you Raphael, for bringing this note to my attention," Alec told the vampire firmly but hurriedly. Raphael looked visibly upset for a moment that Alec was putting an end to their discussion without letting him in on his own information. "I will be in touch."
God I love that man.
Magnus smiled blandly at Raphael, who scowled venomously back at him. Then he poked his tongue out at the vampire when Alec had turned his back and stalked away towards the library exit. It was childish but he was sure he made Raphael almost smile, so it was a tiny victory. He then followed Alec with long strides to catch up with him and they left Raphael's projection alone.
"So you think it was Eris who delivered the note?" Alec asked him immediately as he shut the door behind them.
"Truthfully, I don't know. But she wanted Catarina to tell me to contact her, so I guess that's the next stage."
"And are you going to? Contact her I mean? Do you want me to help…"
"No, sweetheart. I don't want you having anything to do with her. The less she knows about you the better."
"Magnus," Alec said a little sadly. "The note was addressed to me. I think she may already know who I am…"
"She knows you are the Head of the New York Institute. She may not know your connection to me. And it would be better it stayed like that. I can't have you in danger," he told the Shadowhunter sternly.
"I love you," Alec told him simply, a small smile brightening his features. Magnus smiled back at him, wanting to reassure him that everything would be alright and that he would deal with his sister and try to get to the bottom of everything.
"E tu sorridi, perche lo sai," his fiancé said and Magnus gathered him into his arms and held onto him tightly, never wanting to let him go.
A/N: Oh gosh! Another chapter for you and so soon?! Now I am spoiling you! As always, let me know what you think!
The reviews for the last chapter were great and it is good to hear how you would like the story to go too (thanks especially to Wolfie and ddiva for being so vocal about the plot! Much appreciated!). I hear you on the Simon front, but that is all I am saying for now!
