Main Characters belong to CC; I made up some; others are allusions to the works of other creators who I will thank all together in the end.
"I find that the story is not as tragic as you made it out to be." said the Professor. "I ask that you not waste my time with some sappy romance."
I looked at him aghast for a moment. "This" I said slowly "is no sappy romance. The tragedy is coming. The tragedy is always coming. But it is even more tragic when we are happy first. This is also not a story. This is a history. This is real. This is the story of my-"
I stopped myself. I cannot tell him yet. I can only tell him when the darkness is about to consume me. Tomorrow night, he will discover the truth. Not today.
I motion to the paper, and tell him that there is much to be done. We continue.
It was cold. It was always cold down there. This was where he belonged-deep, below the earth, away from people. He wasn't worthy of their love, their sight, their acknowledgement. This wasn't his fate alone though. This was the fate of the hundreds like him, all trapped here underneath, in the dark, dank cold.
He was not alone. He was never alone. Even in the darkness, there eyes glowed, judging; wondering what he was doing here; contemplating terrible acts; finding out the deep truths.
He was not alone.
Next to him a pair of green cat eyes sat. They looked lovingly upon him. Sometimes, they would even caress his mind.
He didn't know how long he had been there. Time didn't exist.
One day the green eyes disappeared.
He screamed, begged, and pleaded for their return, but there was no answer. The other eyes just kept on staring. The darkness hushed his voice; the darkness hushed everything.
He was alone. He was going to die.
Alec awoke with a start, drenched in sweat and panting. "It was just a dream" he told himself "just a nightmare." Even though he knew that it wasn't real, he couldn't get the idea out of his head. The idea that he was going to die, that Magnus was going to die, and that they would be trapped together deep underground in a dark dank place.
Alec could never go back to sleep after an event like that. He immediately rose from his bed, and began the preparations for the day.
Even though it was early, he found that the day was packed and Carstairs was already up with a schedule for him. His day involved a number of annoying meetings with small nobles here and there. Towards the end of the day he noticed three meetings that made his heart quicken: an hour with Clary, an audience with the Queen, and dinner with Magnus.
"Dinner?" He questioned. "This must be Izzy's doing somehow. I wonder what lies she told Cartsairs for that to happen."
As he made his way down to the meetings, Alec was distracted by the prospect of having dinner with Magnus. His thoughts were quite suddenly interrupted when he tripped on his way down the steps. He was barely able to grab on to the railing on the side. He made a mental note to be much more careful on these stairs, they were extremely precarious, and one misstep could lead to a long fall.
After safely reaching the meeting rooms, Alec spent the majority of his day in a daze, barely noticing the things that were said in the various meetings; rather, he was completely distracted by the thoughts of what would happen this evening. He was embarrassed when Simon interrupted him to ask him if he was even paying attention. At the time, he had been thinking of what it would be like to kiss Magnus at dinner.
Unfortunately for him, though, the next person he was meeting with was Clary. He hadn't seen or heard from her since she walked in on them. He did his best to sit firmly in his chair, but the lines of worry took their place on his forehead. This was a conversation he didn't want to have.
"Your Highness, may I sit?" Asked Clary.
"Please" Alec responded "Do not be so formal with me, take a seat."
"I'll only take a minute of your time. I just have to go over a few things."
Alec noticed that this entire time, Clary never once looked directly at him.
She began to ramble on about planning dinners and designing various pieces of art. In there she said something about the ancient rune language of Idris. None of that mattered to Alec. He only wanted to know if she had told anyone. Magnus had assured him that she hadn't, but he had to be sure.
Clary broke off and said, "You're staring at me."
Alec quickly turned red and said, "Oh I'm sorry."
"I didn't tell anyone. I won't tell anyone. You saw what you saw, and I saw what I saw, but I think it might be best if both of us forget what we saw entirely."
Alec stared for a moment; this was more than he could have ever expected. It was the perfect solution.
He gave her a soft smile and said, "I for one have no idea what you're talking about. I haven't seen anything at all."
"But you saw me and- oh, right. You saw nothing. I haven't seen anything either."
With that Clary, flashed him a sheepish grin. They talked a little bit about nothing, and then she left. Unsurprisingly once they were both out of each other's earshot, they breathed a sigh of relief. Neither of their secrets would be coming out.
Alec then moved on to the part of the evening he was dreading the most: an audience with the Queen. He wondered what psychotic accented things she would say.
When he entered she muttered rather loudly, "Late again, the ungrateful bastard. Gave 'im a nice place in my house I did, and he ain't even 'ave the decency to thank me!"
"Thank you, your Majesty."
"'Ere you are, Adam. You look to 'appy for some'un 'ose been here for a few days. I dun like it, not one bit. Them bastard servants not puttin' salt in your porridge yet are they? Soon enough."
"It's Alec, your Majesty."
"Nobody cares, boy. Not while me arse is still on this throne, bloody uncomfortable chair it is. Anyway, you're 'ere because you need to find a bloody wife and get some babes, ugly though they will be. How old are ye? 13?"
Alec's face slackened. He had forgotten entirely about that particular duty. He shifted uncomfortably on his feet, looked downwards and whispered "I'm 18, majesty."
"18!?" she shouted "Already so old! I'm going to 'ave to find you a wife soon. I think that Morgenstern girl will do well."
Alec's head shot up, and he looked directly at the Queen. "What Morgenstern girl?" He thought to himself "Does she mean Clary!?"
"Hmm yes," the Queen said to no one in particular "the red haired Morgenstern girl will do just fine."
Alec's eyes were nearly popping out of his head at this point. The Queen had said red haired; she meant Clary.
Then the Queen looked directly at him and spoke "What are you still doing here? Don't you have places to be, things to do? Go find the girl, she's to be your wife soon."
All the blood had drained from Alec's face. He silently turned away and walked out of the room. His mind swam with thoughts. Thoughts about how stupid he was; thoughts about how idiotic his fancies about Magnus were; thoughts about how annoying Izzy was for dragging him away from reality; thoughts about how angry Jace would be when he found out that he had to marry her.
Taking more care this time, Alec climbed the steps to his room, forgetting entirely that he had dinner with Magnus. When he opened the door to the antechamber (which had been entirely set up for a romantic dinner for two-the work of Izzy no doubt) he found Magnus sitting there on a chair in a purple shirt that sparkled, bringing out the green in his eyes and a pair of dark black pants so tight that left nearly nothing to the imagination.
For just a moment, his mind was emptied of the thoughts that resulted from the previous conversation.
Magnus got up and started moved towards him swiftly. Alec began recalling his soon to be betrothal to Clary, and tried to move out of the way, but Magnus was too fast. Before he could do anything, Magnus was on him, his arms locking them in an embrace, his eyes pulling Alec deep in the emerald crystals, his lips gently pressing into Alec's.
It was too much. Alec gave in to the kiss, and slowly parted his lips for Magnus' tongue. His unwillingness and inhibitions were gone, soon they were tightly pressed up against one another. Their lips moving in sync as they consumed all they could of each other. From deep within Magnus' throat, Alec heard a growl. It was accompanied by even more ferocity from Magnus.
Alec pulled back, and looked down at his feet as he panted for breath. He couldn't do this. It would only serve to hurt him further.
Magnus gently took his hand and sat him down at the table. He reached over and gently pulled Alec's face up. Then in a soft voice that almost resembled a purr, he asked "What's wrong?"
At the sound and touch of Magnus' gentleness, Alec's eyes started to fill with tears. He sniffled a little, and then looked at Magnus.
Whispering, he said "We-I can't do this anymore. The Queen told-I have to marry someone. I have to marry Clary. We can't do this. I-"
Alec stopped and saw Magnus. His shoulders had dropped; his head was sinking from his neck. His mouth had turned upwards, as if tasting something foul. Wrinkles had appeared all over his face, and Alec could see the beginnings of tears forming in Magnus' eyes.
"I knew this was too good to be true" Magnus said.
Alec couldn't bear to see Magnus in that state. Something deep within him, drove him to take Magnus' hand, to warm it slowly within his own, to slowly cup Magnus' cheek, to caress him gently, and to lightly begin kissing him again.
Once again passion overcame them both, and they began to kiss with more ferocity than before. Despite all that, they both were also crying. With tears flooding down their cheeks, they broke off the kiss and just embraced. They wanted nothing more than to be with each other in that moment, to feel the other's body pressed against his own.
Magnus muttered, "The Queen can go fuck herself, you're mine."
Alec gave Magnus a weak smile.
Magnus then whispered seductively in Alec's ear, "Your little smile melts my heart blue-eyes, and I barely know you."
Alec's hand took Magnus' and started to drag his body towards Alec's room. There he looked Magnus in the eye and asked him if he would stay the night, if they could hold each other till they slept. Magnus only nodded.
Together they climbed into bed, and folded into each other. There they lay; there they slept, together feeding off the other's warmth; together, knowing that they belonged to each other, and that the morning would bring the beautiful feeling of two bodies pressed together and the faint scent of sandalwood.
I hope you enjoyed the past three chapters! Things are still pretty busy, so I'm not going to be publishing as frequently as I used to. Special shout out and thanks to MyGhela for all the wonderful reviews! I'd love to hear the rest of y'alls feedback too!