A collision of hearts
By: Writheworth
Chapter 4: Long version
A/N: Please forgive me for the long wait and this extremely short and unsatisfying chapter! I've not been feeling very well, in addition to suffering from a severe case of writer's block.
Thank you so much for the reviews. Belive me, they mean a lot. If it weren't for them I would've probably given up.
Also: you can really help me out by leaving suggestions or requests of what you want to read about in the upcoming chapters. It can be a fight, a date, or anything you can come up with! Help me to recover from writer's block!
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"I thought you were going out."
Alec watched Isabelle as she sat down opposite to him with some left-overs from the indian restaurant a few blocks from the institute.
"I was. Clary grabbed me as I was walking out the door." She watched her brother seriously. "Luckily enough for you."
"I didn't need your help." Alec answered irritably.
"He was threatening to cut off your arm, and almost did by the look of your shoulder." She said, looking at him in disbelief and gestured to his wound.
Alec covered it with his hand. He had refused any runes, not wanting to rid himself of the pain just yet. His soft spot for Jace often made his anger towards him disappear too easily, but the pain now kept it alive, burning inside him.
"Will you just tell me why he's acting up?"
Isabelle sighed and put down her fork.
"Do you remember the attack?"
"Apparently not all of it." He answered grumpily.
He remembered striking down a demon and then seeing Clary pinned to a tree, her arm and blade not long enough to reach out and pierce the creature which held her. But before Alec could act he also saw Jace, fighting two demons fiercely, but not noticing a third one quickly closing in from behind. That meant two people had been in deadly peril
For Alec the choice had been simple. Within a moment he had reached Jace and separated the third demon's head from its body. He had turned around, meaning to help his parabatai further, but then… Nothing. That's where his memory failed him, and only pain and a few faint glimpses of Magnus were left.
"I remember beheading a demon and then turning towards Jace, but after that it's black."
"So you don't know what struck you?"
"No, but I'm certain my back was clear, so I must have faced it, but the wound can't have been deep, because there's no scar left after Magnus' healing." Alec said, sure of himself, and lightly touched his chest where he thought the wound would have been, trying to remember.
Isabelle shook her head. Alec looked at her, trying to understand. He urged her to elaborate.
"It was a Garwak demon."
Alec opened his mouth to ask what that had to do with anything, but then realized… Garwak demons had a feature similar to cockroaches; cutting off their heads did not stop them, their bodies could live on. Alec had overlooked this detail in his hurry to save Jace. The demon must have temporarily fell down, leading Alec to thinking his back would be clear if he turned around. That mistake he had almost had to pay for with his life. That explained why he hadn't seen the scar - it was located on his back.
"By the angel, of course! But wait, what has that got to do with Jace?" Alec asked, baffled.
Isabelle looked at him as if the answer was obvious.
"He was extremely close to losing two of the people he loves most and I think he blames himself for it. If he had watched his back you wouldn't have had to choose who to save. You would have saved Clary."
Alec snorted.
"You would have." Isabelle said decidedly. "So by choosing Jace, you risked Clary's life and almost lost your own. What makes it even worse is that Jace was the one who insisted that she joined us. None of this would have happened if he hadn't brought her along. He's trying to pin the incident on you, though secretly blaming himself."
Alec shook his head in disbelief. It wasn't as if Clary had died; she hadn't even received injuries big enough to leave scars.
"But you got to Clary in time, you saved her." He protested.
"Barely. But that's not the point. It could have gone really bad. We're lucky Magnus was available to help out."
Alec sat quiet, thinking through this new information. If all this was because of an inner conflict of Jace's, then it would be hard to fix.
He sighed, burying his face in his hands.
"What am I supposed to do?"
"Talk to him." Izzy said, shrugging her shoulders. "It might help. Probably not, but you know, it's worth a try."
"I won't go down on my knees, begging for his forgiveness for having done nothing wrong." He said angrily.
Isabelle sighed, giving up.
"Fine. But no more fights." She said sternly.
"You're not my mother."
At that moment Alec's pocket started vibrating. He fished out his phone and saw Magnus' name on the screen.
"Thanks for the chat." He blurted out.
Alec left a confused Isabelle alone in the kitchen and hurried through the corridor with his phone still buzzing in his hand. Locking his bedroom door behind him and leaning against it he flipped open the phone and put it against his ear.