"Oh, wow." Isabelle said after we were done explaining the past few hours' events. Alec and Magnus had gone to find her so that they could all hear my story at once. "So… our best fighter, besides me of course, is unconscious. Again." I nodded confirmation. "The Greater Demon has a ring that lets him control other demons thoughts. And to top it all off, he's not the only demon after it and they're going to start a war to take over the worlds."
"Yep, that's pretty much it." I told her. I was sitting on the edge of Jace's bed, as was Magnus. Isabelle paced back and forth and Alec stood leaning against a wall. I spared a glance at Jace's prone body lying behind me on the bed. In a gesture of unnoticed solitude, I reached behind me and wrapped my hand around his cold one. I didn't have time to worry, but that didn't stop me from doing so. I would trade anything just to make sure that Jace made it out of this alive and okay.
That's great, just great." Isabelle snarked in reply.
"Your sarcasm is not appreciated." Magnus commented, leaning against Jace's headboard. I noticed that he was wearing his usual rainbow pants with a matching glittery top. His spiked hair only added to the strangeness of the look.
"Well, look on the bright side." I put in. "We still have the Book of Shadows." I held it up. No one except Alec bothered to look up.
Isabelle looked like she was about to hyperventilate. "Calm down, Izzy." Alec told her. "Don't panic. We've dealt with worse before. Remember Valentine?" He sent an apologetic look to me as if I cared that my father was dead. It was actually a fact that I was very happy about.
"Yeah, well." She said pacing back and forth. "Your adopted brother isn't possessed by an evil demon commander intent on destroying the world in a great big demon fight." She had a point. Greater demons themselves were grappling for power and the werewolf had placed us all in the middle. There was only one flaw in her logic.
"Isabelle?" Alec asked gently. She stopped pacing.
"Yeah?"
"We're siblings. Jace is my brother too."
"Oh." A new expression crossed her face as she remembered Jace was in fact Alec's adopted brother. "I'm so sorry," she sighed. She sat down abruptly in a chair by Jace's bed. "I don't know what's wrong with me lately." We all looked at her. "Okay," she admitted. "Maybe I do."
"Is she always this hormonal or is it just a pregnancy thing?" Magnus asked his boyfriend in a whisper just loud enough for the whole room to hear.
Alec made a shushing motion, but it was too late. Isabelle heard Magnus. "I can't believe you," She said to Alec. "You told him?"
"You shouldn't be so surprised," the sparkly warlock said matter-of-factlly. "Alec and I are very close." He practically purred as he said the last words. "We tell each other everything."
"Well, I would appreciate it if you would leave my private business out of your discussions." Isabelle snapped.
"You don't have to be so antagonistic all the time." Magnus told her calmly, inspecting his nails as if they were suddenly interesting. "It's not becoming."
Isabelle's eyes narrowed defensively. "I am not antagonistic." She declared with a toss of her hair. "Am I, Alec?"
Alec looked uncomfortable. He didn't want to interfere on an argument between his boyfriend and his sister, especially when his sister was wrong. "Well…" he began. "You're, um, up-front. You tell it like it is." Alec was failing to comfort her. He turned to me for help. "Clary, what's another word for that?"
I looked at him like he was crazy before saying, "Antagonistic?"
Alec gave me another you're-not-helping look and lifted his eyes upward as if expecting help from there. "Who's side are you on, Clary?" Isabelle asked.
I knew she meant it rhetorically, but I thought about it for a minute. Finally, I decided. "Neither." I said firmly. "I'm… what's that country? Canada."
Isabelle raised an eyebrow. "Switzerland." She corrected. "If you're trying to be neutral, I believe the expression is that you're Switzerland. "
"Well, what if I wanted to be Canada?" I asked sulkily. "They have moose and police men on horses."
"That seems like a personal problem." Alec said his dark eyes serious. It was always hard to tell when he was joking, but I knew he was because that was a line that he had picked up from Jace. They both knew that it never failed to annoy me.
"Actually," Magnus said, lifting a finger with its bright canary yellow nail in my direction. "I've been to Switzerland and I'm pretty sure they have moose there." He tapped his finger to his chin thoughtfully. "Not so sure about the po-po."
"You went to Switzerland without me?" Alec asked. He sulked, managing to pull off the look a lot better than I had. His dark hair fell over his eyes which held a hurt expression.
"Darling," Magnus laughed. "I went to Switzerland before you born. Otherwise, I would have gladly taken you with me." Alec perked back up until Magnus added, "With your parents' permission of course."
"For some reason, I can't see the Lightwoods agreeing to let lover boy over there and his sparkly warlock go gallivanting off to Switzerland for a romantic getaway." I commented.
"Lover boy," Magnus laughed. "I like that." Alec scowled at me, then at Magnus. Apparently he didn't like his new nickname.
"Way to get off subject, guys." Isabelle shook her head at us. "One second, we're planning to save the world, and the next you're trying to leave the country. Do you even remember the point of this discussion?"
"No." Magnus answered running his hand over his hair as if to make sure it was still perfectly styled. "What were we talking about again?"
"Have I ever mentioned that I don't like you?" Isabelle narrowed her eyes at him.
"It might have come up once or twice." Magnus' cat-like eyes sparkled with suppressed laughter. "But everyone loves the High Warlock of Brooklyn. Just ask Alec." Alec didn't look like he was ready to agree with anything that came out of Magnus' mouth. He still looked mad about the Lover Boy comment.
"I, for one, do not love the High Warlock of Brooklyn." Isabelle said matter-of-factly. "And Alec looks more inclined to agree with me than with you."
Magnus looked to Alec for confirmation of Isabelle's statement. Then he put on his best sad face and said, "I'm going off to sulk. In a corner. Alone." The man definitely had a flair for the dramatic. He got off of the bed and headed for the door. We all expected him to go back and sit down, but he started to leave, looking woeful.
"Where are you going?" Isabelle asked.
"I told you I'm going off to sulk." Magnus said melodramatically. Isabelle gave him a look. "Fine, if you must know, I have to use the lavatory." He said it in such a dignified manner that at first I didn't realize what he meant.
"The what?" Isabelle asked.
"The restroom." He clarified.
"Your age is showing," Alec pointed out. Magnus' hand lifted involuntarily to his hair as if he expected it to turn gray and fall out. "No one uses words like that anymore."
"Even the High Warlock of Brooklyn has to go potty," Isabelle teased with a grin. Magnus didn't deign to reply as he made a sweeping exit.
Less than a minute later, Magnus made a much less sweeping entrance. "Maryse is coming down the hall." He said hurriedly. "We have to hide Jace." We all turned to look at Jace's unconscious body but none of us made a move to get him.
With a toss of her hair, Isabelle stepped forward. "Since no one else is taking the initiative, Alec get his torso, Magnus get his legs." Both guys followed her orders and took hold of Jace. They got him off the bed before they realized that they had a dilemma. Trying to breathe under Jace's apparently heavy weight, Alec managed to get out, "Where do we put him?"
Isabelle looked around. There was only one logical place to hide him. "In the closet," she said decisively. I felt like I was in some horror film where they hid the bodies in the worst places. My life seemed like a horror movie sometimes. Magnus and Alec deposited Jace's body on the tidy floor of his own closet. They just barely managed to close the door before Maryse came in the other one.
"Hello, everyone." Maryse said as she peered around the door. Her eyes slid over everyone in the room, stopping on Magnus. It was funny how she didn't seem to notice that Alec was leaning against Jace's closet door breathing heavily. "Always great to see you Magnus." Something about her tone said the opposite, but she and the warlock exchanged polite glances.
Maryse looked around the room for Alec, Izzy, and Jace. Not finding her third child, she asked the obvious question. "Where's Jace?"
Isabelle glanced slyly at Magnus before saying, "He went potty."
Maryse looked slightly surprised by her daughter's immature language, but seemed to forget about it as she said, "I just needed to tell you three that your father and I are going back to Idris for a few days. We have to go with the Penhanllows to give our report to the Clave."
Alec and Isabelle both nodded, taking the information easily. Maryse and Robert Lightwood spent more time abroad than they did at home, a fact that their children took full advantage of. "It's too bad Aline had to leave." Magnus let out a faint giggle and Izzy a derisive snort. Maryse either didn't hear or chose to ignore them. She continued. "That girl could benefit from the company of people her age."
"I assume you require my services," Magnus said gallantly into the silence that greeted Maryse's statement. "I would be happy to provide them." His tone was a little too sugary as he tried to schmooze his boyfriend's mom.
"You can start working on the portal. We'll be ready to go whenever you finish." Maryse said. She seemed happy with Magnus' presence now that she had need of him. "I need to go finish packing." With that parting remark, she closed the door behind her.
"You didn't have to do that for them." Alec reached for Magnus' hand as soon as his mom was gone. He looked intently at the older man, his expression conveying some message that it seemed only Magnus could read.
Magnus smiled indulgently at his dark-haired boyfriend. "I didn't do it for them. I did it for you." A dark red blush spread across Alec's cheeks as he seemed to remember that they weren't alone in the room.
"Excuse me while I barf." Isabelle interrupted, ruining the moment. "Now is not the time for all that lovey-dovey stuff. There will be plenty of time for that after Magnus makes a portal to send our parents to Idris and the rest of us save the world."
Magnus seemed to take that as his cue. "I believe I have a portal to make." He said. He took hold of Alec's hand and pulled the shadowhunter after him. "After you, Lover Boy." Instead, of making Alec mad like the nickname had before, this time a strange expression crossed his face.
"That's it!" He exclaimed.
"What's it? I thought you didn't like the name Lover Boy." I was confused.
"Yeah," Isabelle put in. "You lost us."
"A portal!" Alec said. He looked more animated than I had ever seen him, apparently convinced that whatever he had discovered was brilliant. "That's how we can find the demon. Even a Greater Demon can't go from world to world without a portal. If we find the portal…"
"We find the demon." Isabelle finished for him.
This chapter is short because the characters were being stubborn again (well, that and my brain is still on summer mode). I don't particularly like it, but it did make me laugh. Especially Alec's new nickname. And Jace being stuffed in a closet.