Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended
Author's note 1: to the lovely KB, to Hani and to the other Guests who are reviewing, thank you so much for your kind words! When I read stuff like "I wish that I had this in paperback" my heart melts :)
Author's note 2: ladies and gentlemen, this chapter and the one that will follow on Wednesday, are the reason why this fanfiction will be completed before Lady Midnight is out. We know Cassie will mention the fairies a lot and also introduce the Unseelie Fairies and of course I have no idea how they will be! So, since I tried my best to stay true to the story (except a couple of things that weren't really explained and that I imagined), I want this over before I read the book and I feel the need to start thinking about how to change my fanfiction. I would be crazy enough to do it! To anybody familiar with D&D, or the concept of a Dark Elf, you'll recognise what I did here. Happy reading! :)
"It can't work, not like this." Magnus said when Kaelie announced her decision to guide Clary and Jace to the Unseelie Court.
"What are you talking about?" Alec asked turning to his boyfriend. "Why shouldn't it?"
"First of all, we would put Kaelie in danger and we can't afford it. If by chance anyone finds out she went to the Unseelie Court with us, her cover is blown. The Seelie Queen will know she's betraying her, she'll move both William and her daughter and we'll never find them again."
"Why would the Unseelie King—" Isabelle started, but Magnus cut her off.
"The question is, why not? He would probably not alert the Seelie Queen about Shadowhunters trying to outwit her, but another fairy betraying her kind? That's on another level and it would bring chaos into the Seelie Court. Stirring up conflict is something the fairies like a lot, and the Unseelie fairies most of all."
"We'll have to take that chance." Jace replied. "Kaelie is the only one who can guide us to the Unseelie Court."
"And on that note," Magnus gave Jace a meaningful look. "You and Clary are not going. I will."
"What?" Alec eyes widened.
"We can't send Jace and Clary, it would be like waving a red flag telling the Seelie Queen they're trying to find a way out. If I go, it's less suspicious, I can think about a couple of reasons I would like to go there."
Jace and Clary exchanged an alarmed look. Letting Magnus go maybe would be safer for them but neither one was accustomed to just wait on the sidelines. Besides this was about their son, they couldn't just stand back and wait for someone else to do the dangerous job in their place.
"Magnus, I don't think—"
"Clary, I'm just not letting you two go." The warlock firmly said. "I'm not watched like you are, and certainly a Downworlder paying a visit to another Downworlder is less conspicuous than a Nephilim doing the same thing. Besides, I have an insider there."
That shut them all up and they just stared at Magnus in disbelief. The warlock looked troubled, like he was thinking about unpleasant memories. It was kind of weird seeing an ashamed expression in Magnus eyes but there it was.
"There was a time in my life when I wasn't feeling exactly... joyful. I was tired and sad and angry." He shook his head and rolled his eyes. "I was also definitely young and I tended to exaggerate a lot. That's when I met Spyra. She was an anomaly in her race, an Unseelie fairy who wished to see the outside world. She liked to mess around with mundanes, play with their emotions, generally leaving a trail of broken hearts behind her."
He looked at Alec and then continued. "She lived with me for a while, we were like partners in crime. It was a crazy period... I had so much anger in me that I was glad to be able to pour it out somehow: I found it fun. I'm not exactly proud of it."
Nobody replied and Magnus sighed. "The point is that Spyra and I did a lot of things together and when she was finally recalled to the Unseelie Court we were sort of friends: the creepy, evil kind of friends. She gave me something of hers, a goodbye gift and also a proof I really knew her, should I ever need to go and find her again."
"And if you manage to contact her, you think she could grant us an audience with the King?" Clary asked cautiously. This way they could have Kaelie show them the way and then go away without been seen, while Magnus asked for his former friend. And if he really had an insider vouching for him, there was a good chance the King would be more willing to talk to him than he would be to her and Jace.
"Probably." Magnus shrugged. "I saw her for the last time more or less two hundred years ago, but I'm pretty sure she remembers me."
"Two hundred years ago?" Isabelle asked. "Are you sure she's even alive?"
"Fairies have a long lifespan." Magnus replied just as Kaelie was about to do the same. "And if she was dead, her gift to me would have decayed. When Simon came up with his idea about the Unseelie Court the other day I went to look it up: it's still perfect."
"And why haven't you talked about her sooner?" Alec asked, his face void of emotions.
"Because I didn't want to remember and I hoped it wouldn't be necessary." Magnus eyes were sad now. "Alexander, there are a lot of things I'm not proud of, things I did that I regret. Spyra is one of those things. She's the perfect example of what an Unseelie fairy is: cunning, gorgeous, wicked, evil. And when we were together, I found her attractive precisely because she was like that. I guess I was tired of trying to be a good guy."
The room was silent for some moments while the two men looked at each other. Everybody knew that Magnus' past was a sensitive topic for Alec, one of the reasons they broke up all those years ago. In the end Alec just sighed, shaking his head. "Well, sometimes I wonder when your past experiences will stop being a problem, you know? But now we don't have the time for this and anyway I'm not going to make the same mistake I did years ago. The past is past and what counts is the here and now. We'll talk about this later."
He stopped, apparently only then recalling they weren't alone and that a perfect stranger was among them: not ideal for a private talk. He went back to business, taking a step to his boyfriend.
"So the plan is letting Kaelie show you the way, then she leaves and you go look for this Unseelie fairy?"
"More or less." Magnus nodded.
"Alright. So when do we leave?"
"We?" The warlock raised his eyebrow.
"Well, of course." Alec grinned. "Or do you think I would ever let you go alone? Forget about it."
Magnus started to argue but Alec cut him off with a playful smile. "Besides, I want to meet this evil fairy. Who knows, maybe she could tell me some details about your life as a bad boy. It could be interesting."
Magnus opened his mouth to reply but for once nothing came out as he looked surprised at his boyfriend. Then he slowly smiled and winked, his eyes passing him a silent message of love and the promise of a very interesting time where he could show Alec everything about him being a bad boy—when they were alone, later.
As Alec caught the shocked look on his friends' faces, he at least had the decency to blush.
"Well, this isn't what I was expecting." Alec commented once they entered the bathroom of a high-class restaurant. It was the female section but they were glamoured and anyway it was empty.
It hadn't been easy to persuade everyone that Magnus really was the better one to pull this off and since they had to wait until nightfall to leave, it had been a long day of discussions. Jace was the worst one, resisting till the last minute but that was understandable: he was a man of action and part of his punishment by the Queen had been to just stand on the sideline and watch Clary be the one to do the dirty job, unable to lift a finger to help and protect her. Of course now that his secret was out in the open he was itching to do something, anything other than stand still and wait for news. In the end it was Clary who took his hand and squeezed it, telling him that if she had to stay back, then she needed him right beside her or she wouldn't stand it. And everybody knew that Jace wouldn't be able to deny Clary anything, especially now.
"I know it's hard to believe but this once was a sacred place for the Unseelie fairies." Kaelie said, looking around and bringing Alec back in the present. The bathroom was neat and even faintly scented with a vanilla perfume but the mirrors, with their elaborate frames, weren't reflecting their images. "They would come out on moonless nights and dance around a huge rock that was standing right here. Then mundanes came and, well, they started building around here. The rock is gone, but its magic remains, it's embedded in the place and during the night it opens the path for the Unseelie Court. When you're good to go, I'll make you shift in the Court."
Alec frowned. "Must it always happen by magic? I thought the majority of the Fair Folk wasn't a magic user."
"We aren't." Kaelie nodded. "But the power of coming and going from the Courts it's in our blood, it's part of being a fairy. We can all do at least that, even if we don't grasp the rest of the fairy magic. Shifting in the Unseelie Court isn't that natural because I'm a Seelie fairy, but I can still do it."
"I wondered about that." Magnus told her, tapping his chin with his index finger. "Aren't you like different species of the same race? Spyra is the only Unseelie Fairy I ever saw, but she's quite different from you, physically speaking."
"Let me guess, dark blue skin, white hair, red eyes?" Kaelie smiled when Magnus nodded. "There's a reason mundanes always called us the Light Fairies while the Unseelie were the Dark ones. They live underground, their magic is mostly earth and fire based while ours prefers air and water. Their connection to the earth is the reason their appearance is so dark and why they rarely come out of their Court."
"So we can expect something like a cave?"
"I don't know, that's a part of the Fairy Kingdom I never visited. I just know how to enter."
"Well," Alec said after a moment of silence. "Shall we? And let's hope this isn't just some elaborate trap."
"Alec…" Magnus started but the blue eyed Shadowhunter interrupted him.
"I'm sorry, but what's happening it's too huge for me to just jump in and trust anybody." He turned to Kaelie, his posture definitely stiff. "You may be helping us, but I'll trust you when we have Will back, not sooner. I know what Jace promised you and I'll honour my parabatai's word about your safety. I just don't know you enough to blindly trust your word yet."
Kaelie sighed but she nodded. "I get it, I really do. I wouldn't trust anybody as well, were I you. But I'm not leading you into a trap and I'm not deceiving you, my neck is on the line here, just like yours. If my brother or any fairy finds out what I'm doing, I'm as good as dead."
"This isn't going anywhere." Magnus said with an air of finality. "Trap or not, we're still going. We don't have a choice, time is running out." He turned to the pixie. "Shift us and then go away. I glamoured you so nobody can recognise you but let's not put my magic on the test in this case. When we're done, I'll portal us out."
Kaelie nodded and nobody added the obvious: if they didn't come back, Jace and the others were to assume they were either prisoners or, more probably, dead.
Kaelie was gone. True to his words, Magnus had sent her away as soon as she made them shift into the Fairy Kingdom and now he and Alec were alone. They weren't in a pretty place: it was a cave, dark and damp, low enough that they just needed to raise their hands to touch the ceiling. The only source of light was Alec's witchlight and they were proceeding cautiously, minding where they were putting their feet.
"So," Alec asked, keeping his voice low. "You never told me what made you so mad that you befriended an Unseelie fairy."
"Is this really the time for that, Alexander?" Magnus looked at him but the Shadowhunter didn't turn, all his senses intent on catching the smallest change around them.
"At least now Alicante isn't collapsing around us and I'm not asking why you didn't call me back." Alec answered, a hint of humour in his voice.
Magnus rolled his eyes, hiding a smile. He loved that side of his boyfriend, he loved how he managed to draw out the fun side of him during the years they spent together. Alec was almost a different person now and he loved him more than ever. He shrugged, thinking about those dark years but decided to explain anyway: this was Alec, and he trusted him with his life.
"It was a lot of things together, but mainly it all goes back to two events: the discussion about the Accords in 1857 and your ancestor, Edmund Herondale."
"Herondales everywhere." Alec muttered, shaking his head. "Didn't you know a William Herondale as well?"
"William was Edmund's son." Magnus nodded. "I suppose Jace named his son after him, when he learnt about his lineage from Tessa, years ago. You come from Cecily Herondale, William's sister, and Gabriel Lightwood."
"William was Jace's father middle name. Maybe that's another reason why he chose that. Anyway what happened to Edmund Herondale to piss you off so much?"
"The Nephilim cast him out when he fell in love with a mundane girl." The warlock stopped moving, recalling that awful day when he heard about Edmund for the last time. "I was at the Institute the day they stripped him of his Marks. I heard his cries, his grief and pain. They told me that if I tried to help him, they would kill me."
Alec turned around to look at him, but didn't say anything.
"It hadn't been a good time for me: I just met Camille, just sent her on Ralf Scott's way and the Shadowhunters demonstrated once again how they really regarded us Downworlders. But when I heard Edmund, when I couldn't do anything to help him, something in me snapped. I started thinking that if the Nephilim, our supposed protectors, were so heartless to punish a boy just because he had fallen in love, then there was no hope. If respecting the rules meant only sorrow and pain, then what was the point? I was never a good boy but I crossed the line that time and never looked back until it was almost too late."
There was a long moment of silence, but then Alec squeezed Magnus arm and nodded. "The Law can be hard, I know. There are reasons for what we do, but that doesn't mean I like it. Between me and my siblings, we certainly defied enough rules to prove that. What made you change your mind?"
Magnus smiled sadly but never got to answer as the earth around them started trembling and the shadows on the cave walls ran around like crazy, concentrating in a spot that gradually grew larger and larger, until it took a human form.
Alec stood before Magnus, drawing his seraph blade and quietly naming it. It shone in the dark, brighter than any witchlight and allowed them to see the shadow detach from the cave and calmly walking to them.
It was a woman, a gorgeous fairy with sharp features, bright red, blazing eyes and a skin so dark it was almost black. Her white hair was framing her oval face and a smirk was on her lips.
"Yes, Magnus." She said, coldly smiling at the warlock. "What made you change your mind?"
Magnus sighed and moved from behind Alec, a resigned look in his eyes. "Hello Spyra. It's been a long time."
"Indeed." The fairy smiled again, sending a cold shiver down on Alec's back. That wasn't the kind of smile he would define as "friendly". "Why don't you tell your pet to lower his glowing toothpick so I can properly greet you?"
Pet? Toothpick? Alec took a step forward, ready to reply, but Magnus hand on his arm stopped him. They discussed this before, they knew the Unseelie fairies were always trying to pick up a fight and they decided to let Magnus do all the talk. Alec was there merely for protection.
"He won't attack unless someone tries to harm me. Look at him as my personal bodyguard."
The fairy raised her eyebrow. "Things change, uh? You couldn't stand the Nephilim when we met."
"Yeah, well, it's been two hundred years." Magnus shrugged, picking up something from his pocket. It was a brown leaf, dead and withered with a burned S on the front. "Do you remember this?"
Spyra raised a hand to pick the leaf and watched Alec with amusement as the Shadowhunter repressed the instinct to slap her hand away. "My token. It's what lead me to you, as soon as you entered the Unseelie Court I was aware of its presence. Took you long enough to miss me, warlock."
To Alec's surprise, Magnus laughed. "Spyra, trust me when I say I never really forgot about you. But you're a dangerous company and I think I exhausted all my bad boy cards in those few years with you."
"That's a pity." The fairy advanced, winding like a snake and put her hands behind Magnus neck, licking her lips. "You had so much potential…"
That was too much. Alec stepped forward and separated them. "Hey, hands off my man, fairy."
Spyra widened her eyes and then burst out laughing. "Oh Magnus, really? A Nephilim? Is he a good fuck at least? He must be, or you wouldn't lower yourself that much."
"That's enough Spyra." The warlock cut her off before Alec could say anything, but he could see the dangerous glint in his eyes. He had to take control before this went too far. He pointed his finger to the leaf in Spyra's hand. "Do you remember why you gave me that?"
"Yes, yes, I do." The fairy was still laughing but it was a cruel sound, a sarcastic one. "You saved my life, I owed you one, blah blah blah. Is that why you came, to collect the debt? And here I thought you missed me."
"I need to talk with the King, Spyra." Magnus said, straight to the point. "I need an audience and I need him to listen to me. Can you make it happen?"
That stopped the fairy. Her red eyes studied the warlock and then the Shadowhunter. "Interesting. Downworld reasons or Nephilim ones?"
"Both actually. We need the Unseelie King's knowledge on something important."
"It must be, if you're desperate enough to come here, after the peace treaty." She never stopped studying them, suddenly all business, then she turned to Alec. "Do you really think the Fair Folk will help you with whatever you need after the way you treated us?"
"Yes, I know nobody is friends with the Nephilim lately, not after the last war." Magnus replied without missing a beat. "They call it the Cold Peace for a reason."
"Well, it was their own doing." Spyra shrugged. "Nobody forced them to basically destroy us. No wonder the rest of the Downworlders can't trust them anymore. In the end, the Shadowhunters were always more about revenge than forgiveness, something the Shadow World didn't want to be reminded about."
"I had nothing to do with it, Spyra." Magnus held out his hands. "If anything, I was the only one who asked for mercy but they didn't listen. I'm a Downworlder, just like you are, and that's why I'm here."
"With a Nephilim pet." She noted.
"He wouldn't let me come alone." Magnus admitted. "But I'll send him away if this will grant me an audience with the King."
"No way!" Alec exploded, unable to hold his tongue any longer. "I'm not leaving you here alone, forget about it."
"No, no, don't worry Pet." The fairy smiled, an evil glint in her eyes. "I'm always up for some fun and a Nephilim begging our King for something is bound to be very funny."
"I'm not going to beg anyone." He replied, his jaw set.
"Oh you will, Pet…" Spyra smiled again. "My brother will want you grovelling on the ground before he even listens to what you have to say, and then he'll have you lick his boots while he thinks about your questions."
"Spyra." Magnus said, a quiet threat in his voice. "Don't overdo it. Besides I'll be the one to do the talking, not him. And since when the Unseelie King is your brother?"
"Why, he always was, Magnus, you just never thought to ask." She smirked and then turned around, walking away. "Come on, then, I can't wait to see how this goes."