Chapter 14

Blaine raced up the stairs of Magnus' apartment building and hurried down the hallway before shoving the door out of his way. He stumbled in his haste to get inside, but quickly caught himself and pushed the door closed behind him without turning back.

"Kurt!" he exclaimed in excitement, seeing his boyfriend sitting up on the couch. The boy was slouching slightly against the pillow that was propped up behind him to make him more comfortable. "How are you feeling? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he insisted, but couldn't help the soft groan that left his lips as he struggled to sit up straighter. He waved off Blaine's attempts to help him. "What are you doing here anyways? Shouldn't you be hunting demons or something?" Kurt asked with a small smirk, obviously trying to lighten the mood.

Taking a seat on the furniture by Kurt's legs, Blaine's lip perked up at hearing his boyfriend's sarcasm returning and a surge a relief rushed through him.

"Magnus called me, told me you were awake." He rested a hand over where Kurt's knee was under the blanket that was covering his lower half and rubbed his thumb back-and-forth. Shrugging, Blaine continued, "I needed to see for myself how you were doing. You had me scared to death there, Kurt . . . Seeing that demon pounce on top of you–"

"I know. I'm sorry," Kurt jumped in, interrupting Blaine's rant. The mundane shook his head slowly. "I don't know what I was thinking, following you up to the roof. I should have just waited in the apartment." His eyes lowered to his lap. "You would think I would have learned my lesson after following you into that alley and being jumped by that vampire."

"That is why mundanes are usually kept in the dark about this stuff." Blaine turned towards the sound of the voice to find Magnus strolling out of his office and over towards the couple. "The Downworld can be a dangerous place if you're not prepared for it. Learning quickly would be wise."

Kurt nodded slowly in agreement, his eyes never leaving the warlock as Magnus set down a small glass jar with pale yellow liquid on the side table behind him. A tiny cork was pressed inside the mouth of the bottle as a cap.

"Alec is going to need you at the Institute soon, Magnus," Blaine warned, deciding to ignore the anxious look in his boyfriend's eyes for the moment and pulled his worried gaze away from Kurt to give the warlock his full attention. "He's arranging the transfer of one of their prisoners to Idris. He's going to need you to create the portal for them."

"Sure." Magnus nodded in understanding. "And who is it that Alexander wishes to transfer?"

" . . . Valentine," Blaine sighed after a moment of hesitation, surrounding the prisoner's name. He was going to find out soon anyways.

The amusement in the warlock's eyes disappeared as his expression morphed into one of apprehension.

"Who's Valentine?" Kurt asked as the portal Magnus had just stepped through disappeared.

Blaine shifted into a more comfortable position on the couch. "The Institute had been after him for awhile. He hates Downworlders," he emphasized. "He wanted to find away to banish all of them . . . Kill them."

Kurt furrowed his eyebrows in thought. "Why?" he asked slowly, dragging out the word. "I mean, I haven't known about this world for long, but the few Downworlders I have met . . . They seem okay. Not like the monsters I would have pictured them as being."

Blaine just shrugged his shoulders, hoping his boyfriend wouldn't push the subject anymore. The last thing he wanted to talk about right now was Valentine's history.

"Do all warlocks have demon eyes?" Kurt asked suddenly, breaking the silence that had settled over the room.

Blaine stared at the boy through narrowed eyes. "Excuse me?"

The mundane averted his eyes, his cheeks taking on a pink tint. "I don't think he knows I saw them, but when Magnus was healing me . . . his eyes changed. They turned yellow."

"Oh," he exclaimed, scooting back to use the armrest as a back brace. "It was probably his warlock mark."

Kurt blinked in confusion. "Warlock mark?"

The Shadowhunter nodded. "All warlock's have at least one mark. Some distinct or strange physical feature that identifies them."

"Really?"

Blaine nodded. "The most common ones resemble parts of animals; horns, scales, webbed hands. I've even seen a few with different skin colors; green and blue. Most warlock's choose to hide their marks with glamours."

"So, Magnus' mark is . . . yellow eyes?"

Blaine smirked at the boy sitting across from him. "They are probably cat eyes . . . I think that's what Alec said. Although, I've never seen them for myself."

A week had past since Kurt had woken up after his attack. He had returned back to his own apartment and was slowly gaining his strength back.

Blaine was walking down the hallway of the New York Institute when his phone pinged from his pocket. Fishing it out, he couldn't help the grin that crossed his face as he read over the text message from his boyfriend.

Without looking up from the device, the young Shadowhunter blindly knocked on the closed office door in front of him and waited until he heard the soft reply from the other side before letting himself in.

Alec Lightwood was sitting behind his desk, frowning at a piece of paper that was in his hands. He glanced up long enough to identify his cousin as the intruder, before turning back to what he was reading.

"Blaine," Alec greeted shortly. "How is Kurt doing?"

"A lot better," Blaine noted. "I visited him at his apartment this morning before coming in to work. Those ugly black marks that had covered his chest after the demon attacked him are starting to fade."

Alec nodded his head once to show he was listening. "That's good news."

Blaine frowned and slipped his phone back into his pocket as he approached the massive desk that sat in the room. "Is something wrong?" he asked, folding his arms across his chest.

A huge sigh left the man's lips and he leaned back in his chair as he placed the piece of paper down. "I just received a notice from the Inquisitor. Valentine escaped from his cell in Idris a couple days ago."

Blaine stiffened at the news. "H-he's gone?" The question came out just above a whisper. When Alec didn't respond, Blaine's jaw clenched. "How? I thought it was impossible to escape from their jail cells."

Alec leaned forward again and tapped the piece of paper that was lying in front of him on his desk with his fingers. "After their investigations of the incident, they believe Valentine must have had some help."

"Like, from other Circle members?" The look in Alec's eyes was all Blaine needed to know his suspicions were accurate. Shaking his head, the young Shadowhunter continued, "But what about their Circle Runes? I thought the new wards in Idris wouldn't let them pass with them on."

Alec shrugged. "We had to remove Valentine's rune to get him in. If they thought that was what they had to do to free their leader . . ."

Blaine bit his lower lip gentle in thought. "So . . . What do we do now? Should we warn the Downworlders?"

Alec let out another sigh, his desk chair groaned in protest as he leaned back again. "No . . . Not yet, anyways. I mean, we still don't know where the Soul Sword or the Mortal Cup is, and now with Valentine's escape . . . We don't want to create panic amongst the Downworlders. The last thing we need right now is an uprising."

Blaine frowned. "Even from Magnus?"

"Especially from Magnus," Alec snapped, and Blaine flinched back in surprise at his cousin's hostility. "He has just started to act like himself again," he continued, lowering his voice. "The last thing Magnus needs right now is to know that the man that helped to cause him so much pain is currently free again."

A soft knock came from the door that Blaine had left ajar.

"Am I interrupting something?" Magnus asked with a raised eyebrow from the doorway, sensing the sudden tension that washed over the room at his appearance.

"No. No, of course not," Alec replied after an awkward pause. The warlock sent him a confused look which Alec did his best to ignore.

Taking this as his cue to leave, Blaine said a quick goodbye to his cousin before squeezing past his roommate to head back to their shared loft for the night, leaving the boyfriends alone in the office.

Sensing Magnus' eyes still on him, Alec did his best to ignore the intense stare of his boyfriend as he folded up the newsletter from the Clave and stuffed it back into the white envelope that it had come in.

"Lost track of time?" Magnus asked suddenly. A hint of amusement was in his voice, letting Alec know that the Downworlder was letting the awkward moment pass without questioning it.

The Shadowhunter sighed as he realized why the warlock had shown up at the Institute. "I missed dinner, didn't I?"

"Only by a few hours," Magnus noted with a small shrug. A smirk was playing on his face as he studied Alec, so he knew the warlock wasn't mad about being stood up.

Guilt spinning in his gut, Alec stuffed the letter into the top draw of his desk to worry about later and stood to walk over to Magnus. "I'm – I'm so sorry. Really," he stuttered out before leaning forward to give the man a quick kiss. "It's just . . . it's been so crazy here and–"

Magnus gave a short shake of his head. "I understand."

"I can't believe I forgot," Alec groaned, and Magnus rested a hand gently on his shoulder in comfort.

"It's okay, Alexander," the warlock insisted. "If we can't go to the Cape, I'll just have to bring the Cape to us."

With a snap of the Downworlder's fingers, a rush of air blew through the office before a fancy dinner table magically appeared in front of them; decked out with expensive food, a couple wine glasses, and a burning candle. Romantic music had even started to play from somewhere, which Alec decided not to ask about.

"Lobster tails and champagne," Magnus explained, stepping up to the table to retrieve the two glasses and handed one to Alec as he joined him, "to toast to a successful Downworld meeting."

The couple clanked their glasses together before each taking a sip of the alcohol.

"So, it went well?"

"Relatively," Magnus admitted, taking a seat at the table. Pulling out his own chair, Alec followed suit. "But, as you know, the Downworlders barely trust the Clave to begin with. And the Seelie Queen was going on and on about how the Clave is nothing but a bunch of liars."

"That's harsh," Alec forced the words out of his mouth as he scanned the arrangement of food that sat before him and tried to swallow down the guilty lump that was now settling in his stomach.

"Yes, well, Luke and I assured them that now that you are the Head of this Institute; and are implementing a policy of complete transparency, change was on the way."