Em had never been shot, but she imagined if she had it would have felt like this. Pain and shock rippled through her entire body, crashing in paralysing waves as she struggled to breathe. Her legs felt like lead. As soon as they'd noticed the light, Magnus and Jace had sprung apart. Jace was sat on the sofa, shaking his head groggily, while Magnus, now standing, had turned to face Em. He stared at her for a moment in horror and then started towards the door.
"Em, I..." he began. Em's body unfroze. She backed away from him with Nephilim speed, stopping only when she hit the door frame with a dull thud. He paused, his eyes wide with shock and confusion. Em felt anger bubble up inside her. How could he do this to her? Now, when she needed him. How could he betray her?
"Don't come near me," she said, straining to keep her voice low and level. "I don't want you near me". He blanched at her words, flinching as if she'd screamed them. His hands clenched at his sides, sending a spray of stray sparks onto the wooden floor ,but he didn't move any closer.
"Is this your girlfriend?" Jace piped up from behind Magnus. "I'm sorry for the inconvenience, I'm usually more discrete with my affairs". He sounded drunk. No surprise there, Em thought.
As Magnus spun around to face him she stalked away from them. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the warlock twirl his fingers in an agitated manner, conjuring a blue ball which he threw into Jace's chest. He sat up a little straighter, blinking. When she reached the bedroom Em slammed the door shut with a force that shook the entire door frame. She grabbed her stele out of her bedside table, drew a hasty closing rune on the wall and then went over to the wardrobe and started pulling out clothes. A few moments later Magnus knocked on the door.
"Em, please open the door." his voice was muffled. When she didn't answer he tried the doorknob which shook but didn't give way. A minute later a series of blue sparks fizzled through the keyhole, but they were as ineffective as the doorknob. "Emmeline, please?" He said her name sadly.
Em felt a jolt of sympathy, which was quickly extinguished. She wasn't the one who had been making out with Jace Herondale in their living room two minutes ago. She grabbed a large black duffel bag out of the cupboard and stuffed her clothes into it, along with her toothbrush, laptop and favourite seraph blade. Zipping it closed she glanced once around the room and then walked over to the wall, erasing the rune with a swipe of her stele.
Magnus almost fell through the door. He righted himself and then froze when he saw Em with her bag. At some point he'd managed to find his velvet jacket and was now wearing it buttoned up wrong, though he didn't seem to notice.
He pointed to the bag. "What is that?" He asked quietly. Em brushed past him and walked calmly towards the front door. The living room was now empty, Magnus had obviously gotten rid of Jace. "Em", the warlock said, a panicked edge rising in his voice, "what are you doing?" She ignored him and reached for the doorknob.
"TALK TO ME!" suddenly a web of crackling blue electricity spun its way across the door, blocking Em's way. She spun around to face him.
"What?" she narrowing her eyes. "Breaking my heart isn't enough, you're going to trap me in here with you too?" He looked back at her, shocked.
"But Em, you need to let me explain, I didn't mean to -"
"No", she interrupted tiredly. "I don't need to let you do anything Magnus. Right now I don't owe you anything." She closed her eyes, dangerously close to losing the resolve that had just about stopped her from collapsing into a hysterical, sobbing mess. "Let me go, please".
Magnus studied her face sadly for a minute and then waved his hand, dissipating the net of magic. Em turned and without looking back, left the apartment.
. . .
Magnus watched in shock as Em walked away from him, slamming the door after her. He was still trying to extract the last couple of minutes from the scrambled mess inside his head. The last thing he remembered was at the party, it had been coming to an end and Jace Herondale had approached him to ask if he'd be interested in taking on a job for the New York Institute, something about summoning a demon to get information for a case. After the rest of the guests had left they'd sat down to talk about it over a couple of drinks. Next thing he knew Em was standing by the door, he was on top of Jace and his beautiful velvet jacket was on the floor.
Magnus strongly suspected that the drinks had been tampered with, probably by one of his faerie guests. They loved to play with other people's relationships and emotions, the messier and more complicated the better. Destroying his life would be no more than an evening's entertainment to them. It would explain why Jace had been so bewildered after as well, mortals had more of a reaction to fae magic than warlocks or vampires. Magnus had cleared his head with a quick healing spell and sent him on his way before he could say anything else to Em. Not that it had done much good.
He dropped onto the sofa and cradled his head in his hands. He was over four hundred years old, he should known better than to drink something that had been left out. Hell, he was a powerful warlock, he should have been able to resist the spell. Maybe he could have if he hadn't been so drunk already. Maybe he would have been able to think of something to say to Em too, anything to get her to stay. It had all happened so quickly.
"What have I done?" he said aloud as he massaged his throbbing temples.
. . .
Em strode down the hallway, ignoring the copper smell, and pushed the button for the elevator. The doors opened with a ping and she stepped in.
"Well, this is awkward," said a voice from behind her.
Perfect. Just perfect.
She turned to face Jace Herondale. He looked a little dishevelled, the black shirt he'd been wearing was missing a few buttons and his hair had been ruffled out of place. Em grimaced, remembering it was Magnus' hands that had done the ruffling. She turned away from him and pressed the button for the lobby.
"We didn't do anything you know." He said, running his hand through his hair. "I mean, we did… a bit. But not that. I know it kind of looked like we maybe had, but we didn't. It was just …kissing." He trailed off as Em shot him a withering look.
"I'm not gay by the way" He blurted out. She looked at him again. "I know, shocking right, with my impeccable fashion sense? My brother is. And his husband, of course," He flashed her a smile. "They're actually on their honeymoon at the moment, that's why I came to ask Magnus about the job for the Institute. Alec's Head of the Institute so usually it'd be him, but he's not here so it was me." When Em didn't respond he continued. "Actually I think we may have been drugged by the faeries, I saw them offering some very suspicious-looking cocktails to one of the vampires at the party. God knows what they put in the rest of the drinks." He shrugged.
"I know," Em said.
"You do?" He looked surprised. "Because you were yelling at Magnus like he had actually cheated on you. Not that I'd blame him of course," he winked. "Few can resist my charms".
"I'm sure," Em rolled her eyes and turned to face him full-on. "First, I didn't yell at Magnus. Second, it was obvious you were drugged but that doesn't change the fact that I just walked in on you and my boyfriend playing tonsil hockey and third, faerie love potions bring out your true desires, they can make you act without inhibitions but they can't enchant you to do something against your will."
Jace shifted on his feet nervously. "Wow. I'm going to have to have a very uncomfortable conversation with Clary when I get back".
"Don't worry," Em raised an eyebrow at him, "With someone as utterly shallow as you, I'm betting the only thing they picked up on was your vanity. Getting the most powerful person in the room to make out with you is probably quite the ego trip". The lift pinged open and she stormed across the lobby, leaving Jace to massage his bruised ego.
Em exited the apartment block, walked three blocks to the nearest hotel, booked a room with a nice view and rode the elevator up to it in blissful silence. Once she was safely inside her suite she threw herself on the bed and cried her eyes out. Some hours later, after the tears had stopped falling and her whole body ached from sobbing she picked up her phone, dialled the London area code and waited. After three rings a voice on the other end answered.
"Tessa," she said into the receiver, "I need your help".
A/N - So... I know it's a bit random having Jace involved in that way but I didn't want to use Alec because then I'd just want to write about Malec. My thinking is that this takes place in an AU where Magnus met Em around the time he would have met Alec and as such, didn't really hang out with the NY Shadowhunters or get to know them aside from having a business relationship.
As always, reviews and comments are treasured!