Chapter Nine

The room went silent at the patriarch's words, their eyes wide. Briefly, Jace remembered waking to feel his parabatai rune burning only to find Alec and their parents gone.

He remembered being relieved when his rune didn't fade, even as concern tore at him because Alec was still gone. Remembered weeks of fuzziness on his brother's end of the bond, something that only happened when the other was unconscious or actively blocking him. Hoping that he had managed to anger his brother rather than Alec having been unconscious all that time.

He remembered when the three elder Lightwoods had returned to the institute after nearly a year in Idris, baby Max in tow. The way his baby brother had looked to Alec before he had accepted them and how Alec had seemed almost reluctant to let him go. At the time, they'd likened it to Alec's over-protective big brother tendencies going haywire over the new baby, and yet he could distinctly remember the way his brother's eyes had tightened when Maryse had introduce Max as their brother, the pain in his gaze and it made his own heart ache.

It all made sense...and yet he still didn't understand.

"How did Alec have Max? He's a man." He blinked, turning to Magnus who had asked the question before it could escape his lips.

Robert frowned at him, then sighed. "What I say can never leave this room. If the Clave found out, Alec will either be imprisoned, killed, or worse."

They all nodded and he observed them for a moment then sighed.

"Alec is one of Mihael's blessed. A male shadowhunter gifted with dual fertility. This means that he has a higher chance of either impregnating a woman or becoming pregnant if his partner is male. Because of this, he possesses the internal reproductive system of both as angels are essentially genderless. When we found him, he was already pregnant with Max, although we discovered when he awakened that he'd been unaware of this when the child's father turned on him."

"Valentine almost killed him because he discovered the truth and tried to arrest him." Max interrupted softly, lying curled in Maryse's arms.

All eyes turned to him and he looked away. "Alec told me that he discovered the truth through his tutors and tried to arrest Valentine, but was punished for his "disobedience". He didn't fight back, said he was sure he would have died had Valentine not decided to stop." His lips curled downwards, kaleidoscopic gaze dark and angry.

"He loves him."

"He almost killed him!" Clary protested and to their surprise the child glared at her.

"He experimented on your mother, and she stayed. Don't you dare judge my mother!" He snarled, and this time the entire room saw the way his gaze lit up a burning orange-red. "For all the hell that man put him through, he has rarely told me anything bad about him. In fact, just listening to the things he says, he gave more of a damn about Alec than anyone in this room has tried to in years! I don't condone anything he has done, nor what their relationship, but the fact remains that while all of you were so goddamn focused on your own lives, your own problems, Alec found someone that cared about him enough to put him first! Now we need to get him back before Valentine manages to lure him back in!"

Up above them another lightbulb burst and Isabelle turned to her parents, who were watching their grandson, wide-eyed.

"Why, exactly," she began, voice cool and harsh, "does Max have magic?"

Neither of them offered an answer.

*/*

Samael had betrayed him.

Even as he sat atop his throne in Edom, he couldn't help the way his grace ached at the betrayal of it's mate.

For eons, they'd been everything to each other, their Creator distant, though loving. It had been Samael that had praised his light, and his stars. Samael, whose warmth kept his darkest secret at bay, despite knowing nothing of its existence.

So why?

Why hadn't he just listened to him?

Why had he been so cruel, snapping his wings and throwing him from the Silver City that he'd helped craft for the younger Angels.

Why had he chosen everyone else over him?

And why did it hurt so much?

His grace was like a festering wound in his chest, abyssal wings frayed by edom's flames at the edges, even as the flames curled lovingly around him.

After all, they'd been his own creation, an imitation of the warmth of Samael's grace, yet too hot for most to stand.

A low mournful croon left his lips at the thought, and found himself distantly wishing for an end.

Anything was better than the half-life his mate had doomed him to.

*/*

The Darkness was growing stronger.

Before, in the Silver City, he'd managed to keep it all at bay, hiding the few instances that slipped through as bouts of foul temper.

Yet here, surrounded by the other Fallen and the twisted souls of the human too impure for the Silver City, he could feel it growing stronger, more easily drawn to the surface. He'd also discovered the true purpose of his imprisonment in the infernal plane.

Punishment.

He was to punish the humans that landed in his realm, and with each passing day, each pound of flesh exacted he felt the Darkness weigh more heavily on his grace. His eyes, once starbursts of color had darkened to a deep bloody crimson, his hair falling in dark, soot colored waves down his back, the stars once studded throughout them, dimmed or edged with hellfire. Meanwhile permafrost dusted the tops of his wings, burning cold crystals tipping them.

He wanted to hate it, to hate them and yet he felt nothing.

He'd gone numb.

*/*

Fear.

The concept of it was not nearly as foreign to him as many would believe and yet he was still stunned to see it directed at him by the legions he commanded and the humans that landed in his realm. He knew why, though.

The Darkness had taken over.

Very rarely was he lucid enough to lament this fact, his days spent in a haze of redredredredred and beggingpleadingpleaseno as he lost himself. It was terrifying, and yet he knew it would only get worse.

Perhaps that was what had led him to where he was, deep inside his own mind, standing before a cage only two beings knew existed.

"Heylel," Murmured a voice, long forgotten and yet still as silky as it had always been. "Oh, Light Bringer , what have they done to you?"

"Amara," He greeted, hollowly. "I have a request for you."

There was a pulse of curiosity from his prisoner and his lips twisted into a brittle, broken parody of a smile and it knew what he would ask before he could even do so.

Mourning and anger pulsed through their connection followed by pain and understanding, acceptance.

"It will be done."

Moments later a burning pain shot through him akin to what he'd felt was he Fell, then...there was nothing and he-

He woke up to find stunned dark eyes staring down at him.

He laughed.

*/*

Alexander was Heyel.

He'd known this since regaining his own grace and memories, had known it when he'd breathed a sliver of his grace into the younger man's mouth to awaken that dormant grace within him and yet…

He couldn't believe it.

He'd watched as the glamour the other wore fell revealing the light shimmer coating his skin, raven hair gaining a dusting of star dust and permafrost (which was new), he watched as the runes shifted a new range of them carving their way across his skin into a pattern he remembered his love gaining after their battle with Amara so long ago.

Wings, black as pitch and dusted with the same stardust and permafrost burst from the other's back, their ragged tips coated in sharpened ice, then with a gasp, his love awakened and instead of starburst eyes, he found himself staring into burning crimson.

He'd expected many reactions upon their gazes meeting.

Anger.

Betrayal.

Hell, even an apology and yet Hey-Lucifer had always been one for surprising him.

The beauty laughed.

A bitter, broken sound edged with hysteria and madness, he laughed as if the universe had turned him into a cosmic joke and laughing was the only way he could react without crying.

And he didn't stop.

No, he laughed even as tears escaped his eyes, as the sound began to resemble sobs more and more, he laughed.

"Lucifer?" He whispered and the other barked out another dry sounding giggle.

"Can you still not say my name, beloved?" His lover responded and he swallowed thickly, closing his eyes pained as he gave in to his request.

"Heylel," He rasped, feeling his eyes burn with tears he had no intention of shedding.

How had this happened?

What had broken his fierce little love?

And why did that hurt so much, when he'd tried to do the same to him when he was still just Alexander?

"My light," He rumbled, their mother tongue falling from his lips as if it had never stopped. "What has happened to you?"

The other hummed softly, something dangerous dancing in that crimson gaze. Something that made the hair at the back of his neck stand up because he had always been the more dangerous of them. The darker one.

"Samael," The archer murmured, his lips curling into a vicious smile, even as his eyes slid closed. "You will regret not killing me."

Unbidden, Valentine felt his heart clench in his chest.

Somehow, he didn't doubt it.

*/*

"Are you alright?"

Max stiffened at the question, turning to find the High Warlock that his mother was infatuated with watching him with warm, compassionate eyes.

Since learning of his true parentage (well, of his father) months previous, he had been wary of the Warlock. When his carrier had started talking about the man more, his voice soft in a way it only was when he talked about the early days of his relationship with his father, he'd begun to research the man.

What he'd found was far from reassuring.

A string of lovers, many of which he only kept for a few days. Powerful, with a strong dislike of nephilim and known for his party lifestyle. He hadn't been able to imagine that Alec would be able to change the man.

Yet, it wasn't all damning.

The warlock was known for helping shadow-worlder children in need, for helping mundanes when they needed and even occasionally shadowhunters. He was smart, worldly in a way Max's own mother was not and he just-

He hadn't wanted his carrier to get hurt again.

So he'd observed them.

He'd watched as his mother opened up around the man, the softer side of his personality peaking out cautiously around the warlock. Watched as someone else showed Alec that he deserved to be put first by someone, even as their siblings ran around after Max's half-sister.

He watched as mother began to fall in love again and he was happy.

Yet, he was also cautious.

Bane kept his cards close to his chest, and even when he let down some of his walls around Alec, there was always something scared and hurting lurking in his gaze.

Perhaps he'd had a Valentine of his own in the past.

Whatever the case, it made him wary because he knew if spooked the man would push Alec away and he didn't think his mother would be able to take that pain a second time.

It would destroy him.

"Maxwell?"

He jolted, blinking at the older warlock, remembering that he'd asked a question. Deciding to trust the man, he told the truth.

"I'm worried. Alec had a lot of mixed feelings for Valentine...and I don't think even he knows what all of them are. But I do know that he still loves him, even if that fact makes him feel guiltier by the day."

The other sighed, something old and haunted in his eyes.

"Falling in love," He began, softly, "can be the greatest wonder a person will experience and yet, if that love is betrayed, it will take even longer for the heart to recover, even if it will always have feelings for the one that broke it. Valentine, if what you told us was correct, was the first person Alec allowed into his heart. It is understandable that part of his heart still belongs to him."

Max nodded, looking up at the man, whose gaze was distant.

"He was starting to fall in love with you too, Bane. If you leave him in Valentine's grasp I will never forgive you."

The older man chuckled and turned to leave the room. "Come, I have a few things I want to teach you about magic."