"This is getting ridiculous, Chris. Honestly, Alec loves me and the kids. Stop thinking he's going to hurt us," Christopher Shadowwood said to the fey girl who was the mother of his children. She merely rolled her eyes at the foolish mortal boy—man now, she supposed—who had much too much faith in something that was based on lies of omission.
"Really, Christopher. Alexander Lightwood is a man of much gossip among the Downworlder and Shadowhunter communities alike. He dated a warlock. A very powerful warlock, at that," she said, still thinking that Chris was an idiot.
"I know that, Chrisalai. Just because you don't like him doesn't mean he's a bad person," he said, getting tired of the age-old argument. He sat down on the grass like he used to do when he and she were still hopelessly in love.
"I didn't say that he was a bad person. He's just someone I don't want around my children," she pouted at him. It was his turn to roll his eyes.
"Well, it's a little late for that, as I married him. A decade ago, actually. I know that time means nothing to you, but to Ash, well, she doesn't know anything else. Rory trains with Alec's parabatai. Alec is a part of their lives," he said as she scrunched up her nose in a disappointed fashion.
"Married? Now, why would you do that?" She asked. Chris sighed. This, too, was an argument that Chris did not feel like having again.
"Because I love him and he loves me. It's really not complicated," he told her as he unpacked the picnic basket full of food from Taki's.
"Right, because someone who kissed a warlock in front of the Clave was suddenly in love with you a year later," she said, her voice full of sarcasm, "and Taki's, really?" Chris shrugged, unfazed by her snobbish look towards the food.
"Hey, don't complain. If you would have called ahead and let me know that you were back, I would have gone shopping. Deal with it. And he does love me," he said, half kidding. The banter between the two was always easy, and that didn't change when she decided to leave him.
"All I'm saying is that he hasn't told you who he was with. I'm fey, Christopher. I know how to deceive with omission and I can recognize it from a mile away," she said picking at a piece of...something.
"I never asked. He was at the center of two wars. He was trying to leave it behind him," he told her. Once again, she just rolled her eyes.
"Okay. Now tell me, how are our children?" Chrisalai was many things, but a bad mother, Chris thought, was not among them.
She did leave when they were little, and Ashleigh may not remember her, but she did not leave them alone. She arranged to have them protected by all the fey who lived in the parks, and the mermaids in the rivers. She had made it clear that they may be Shadowhunters, but they were also fey, and, therefore, granted safety in Faerieland if the need arose. Though it took forever to convince Alec of it, Chrisalai had not abandoned her children.
"I did follow your wish of having Ash trained away from everyone else. According to Alec, she's going to be quite the archer. Rory helps train at the Institute," he told her grinning. He didn't really like to brag, but he was quite proud of his kids. Chrisalai smiled. She was proud, too. Maybe that Shadowhunter was worth something after all.
"According to a few of my friends, Ashleigh spends a lot of time in the parks around the city," Chrisalai said to him. He nodded.
"She's a bit out of her element when it comes to people. She feels more comfortable in the parks. Alec's taken to training her there instead of at the Institute or at our house. She's talented but as no one to test her," he told her back, clearly concerned about his daughter's shyness.
"What about Alexander? Does he not test her?" Chris laughed.
"Alec's her dad. Of course not." Chris watched as the fey girl tensed as he referred to Alec as their daughter's father.
"She is not his," she whispered. Chris sighed.
"Yes, she is, Chris. Alec loves her as much as I do, as much as you do," he whispered, taking her hands.
"She whispers to the plants, Christopher. She told them that a man came to your house yesterday. She did not know who he was, the fey that she did not know were listening to, they knew," she said, mostly to herself. Though he now looked much older than her, she still saw the younger man she had fallen in love with. She did not wish to break his heart.
"Alec has many friends, Chris. It could have been Simon. Ash has never met him," he said. She shook her head quickly.
"It was not the no-longer Daylighter. It was a warlock by the name of Magnus Bane." Even to Chris, the words sounded forced, as though she didn't want to tell him, but still thought that he needed to know.
Alec had told Chris about his past love, of course. Chris knew that Alec had married him even though he still felt love for the warlock. And maybe that was a mistake, but it had turned out okay for both of them. Alec wanted to forget, and Chris...Chris wanted a family. It had worked out well for both of them as they truly fell in love. Chris hadn't pried. And maybe that, too, was a mistake, because Chrisalai was nearing tears as the name Magnus Bane left her lips. It was one that Chris knew; he heard his son say it often enough.
"He's a friend of Rory's, Chris. I'm sure it's fine," Chris told Chrisalai in a whisper. He hated how this girl could make him doubt a decade of happiness.
"Magnus Bane, a friend of my son? I sincerely doubt it. Last I heard of the man he was sleeping his way through all the black haired blue eyed males in New York because a pretty Shadowhunter broke his heart—"
"Chrisalai, you are hardly the spokesperson for proper behavior," he said to stop her rampage. She stopped speaking and sighed.
"I told you it would be temporary, Christopher. Do not go blaming me for you not heeding my warning," she said, running her hands through her hair.
"Temporary? We have children. Two of them. And don't even pretend that you didn't fall for me as hard as I fell for you," he told her standing up. She didn't deny it. Fey couldn't lie. "Now, unless you can come up with a topic of conversation other than my husband cheating on me, I will be going." He brushed the imaginary dirt off his gear and walked away from her.
"Just ask him, Christopher, what role Magnus Bane played in his life. You won't believe me though I cannot lie. Perhaps you'll believe him, was the last thing that he heard.
Christopher Shadowwood told himself that he didn't believe a word that the faerie girl told him. He told himself that she must have gotten the wrong information. Alec was loyal. That might as well have been his middle name. Alec didn't know how to be anything else. Everyone from Jace and Isabelle to Clary and Simon had told him as much when he and Alec had started dating. He wanted to believe it so badly. He wanted to believe that Chrisalai was wrong. But she had gotten under his skin, and made him doubt Alec. It was terrible, this reaction. He felt as though he should have more faith in the man he married. He had had faith enough to drop everything and go to Alec's side before he even knew him.
Back then, however, Chrisalai wasn't there to make him question anything.
Chris walked home as these thoughts flew through his brain.
The first thing he noticed when he got close to home was Rory screaming. It had been years since the boy would yell like that.
"How dare you? He loves you," was all that Chris could hear. He entered the house to see a man that he just barely recognized talking to his daughter.
"Ash, who is this?" He asked her. She simply glared at the man and said,
"Magnus Bane." Chris felt shivers go down his spine. Rory was yelling again, but this time, Chris couldn't decipher what was being said.
"Listen to me, Rory. I do love him. I love your father. You know that" Chris could hear Alec say.
"Really? Then why were you kissing that stupid warlock?" Chris's eyes glanced to Magnus. He was shocked to see that there was remorse in the man's face.
"You must be Christopher. I apologize. I had not intended for this to happen," Magnus said quietly.
"What did happen?" Chris asked just as quietly.
"I came to my senses after 12 years of being heartbroken, only to act like an idiot. I only found out that he was married yesterday. I should not have come again," Magnus replied. Chris let out a sad chuckle.
"No, perhaps not. Please leave." And Magnus, for once in his life, did as he was told.
Chris had never known Chrisalai to be wrong. And it broke his heart that she still wasn't.
