When You Say Forever, Chapter 2
Magnus looked at the ball of fur sitting at the foot of his bed. It seemed as though the cat was the only thing in his life that stuck around lately... Not that he had much of a choice after Magnus had decided to keep him around. He felt so selfish using his magic to keep the cat around for these fifty-odd years, but he couldn't help it. He needed some kind of companionship that wasn't going to run away, like that mangy dog he'd had before.
"Your birthday is coming up, Chairman Meow," he said, curling his toes against the cat's white fur. "Fifty-seven?"
The cat purred and nuzzled his face against Magnus's feet, tickling them and making Magnus smile.
"I'll have to throw you a big party. With those blue drinks you like... With the rats..." The fur ball's ears perked up and he licked a paw expectantly.
"You'll have to promise not to run off this time, though," he said, looking at the cat sternly. After all this time, it was sometimes as though they could speak to each other and actually understand.
"And you can only play with the rats... No eating them. I don't need trouble."
Chairman Meow looked about as disappointed as a cat could look and hopped off the edge of the bed, mewing in an agitated manner as he sulked out the door.
"You'll appreciate me eventually..." Magnus mumbled, raising a hand and summoning some paper and a pen to begin planning the party.
He had been throwing parties frequently over the past ten years or so... It wasn't because he enjoyed them all that much. He usually didn't even like to be acknowledged as the party's host, but he was waiting for something.
He lowered the paper into his lap and dared to think the name that hadn't passed his lips in more than a hundred years...
Alexander.
He had been thinking about him increasingly over the past few months, wondering if he had been born yet, if he was in the city, as he was supposed to be... He wondered if he would look the same or if Magnus would have to search for him.
He knew the rules of the spell by heart, since he had made sure of it ninety years ago, thinking that the spell would take effect much sooner. Instead, he sat here a hundred years later, wondering if the spell had never worked at all and he had let Alexander go for nothing.
No, he thought, stabbing the paper with the pen. He did not die in vain.
You're right, said a voice in the back of his head. He died for your selfishness.
Magnus rolled his eyes. The guilty conscience thing was really starting to get older and older. He had beaten himself up enough over it in the past century, he was tired of hearing that little voice trying to stir up drama.
In reality, though, he wasn't sure if he actually believed his spell had worked. Magnus had always been to afraid to see if any Alexanders had been born to Shadowhunter children... Though he didn't even know if he would have the same name.
And no one had ever shown up on his door claiming to remember being in love with him in another life.
If only, Magnus thought, looking down at the invitations.
Instead, he'd have to continue letting in these strangers, fellow Downworlders, who probably only liked to come to his home because of the great parties he had tendencies of throwing. Well, at least there was one thing he knew he was good at...
--
Alec approached Clary and Jace, who were standing outside of Taki's. He was exhausted, but he felt at ease as soon as he saw that Jace was perfectly unscathed after meeting with the Silent Brothers.
"Hey," he said, ignoring the girl and walking over to Jace. "Izzy's on her way. She's bringing the mundane."
Several minutes later, they were all crammed into a small booth and Isabelle was openly trying to discuss the business that Clary and Jace had been on in the Bone City.
"We got a name," Jace answered her without a second thought, "Magnus--"
"Shut up!" Alec scolded him, hitting him with his menu and looking around to see if anyone had heard. No one seemed that interested, but you never knew in places like this.
"This place is full of Downworlders," he explained. "You know that. I think you should try to keep the details of our investigation secret."
"Investigation?" Isabelle laughed at him, mocked him. "Now we're detectives? Maybe we should all have code names."
"Good idea," Jace said, closing his menu and putting it down on the table. With a completely serious face, he said "I shall be Baron Hotschaft Von Hugenstein."
Alec nearly choked on his water. He coughed and spit it back into his glass, hoping that he wasn't drawing any unnecessary attention to himself.
Several minutes went by without any further excitement... The waitress took their orders, Clary asked stupid questions, and then Jace got up to flirt with the waitress.
"He really shouldn't tease the wait-staff like that," Isabelle said, rolling her eyes in Jace's direction.
Alec, who had been trying not to stare at Jace as he did so, looked at his sister. "You don't think he means it? That he likes her, I mean."
Isabelle shrugged off his question, taking a sip of her drink and simply saying "She's a Downworlder."
Alec, who would be about as low as a Downworlder if the Clave ever found out his secret, couldn't help but pity the poor waitress. He knew Jace's charm and his charisma and the way that it could make a person fall. He sighed, looking down into his glass. He didn't want to drink it, since most of it was backwash, but his mouth suddenly felt dry as he thought of what would happen to Jace if the Clave found out that he was so interested in Clary.
It was obvious, of course, that he liked her. And even though they could only assume that she had Shadowhunter blood, she hadn't been raised that way, and he knew that she wouldn't be able to stay around. She'd be gone soon, things would go back to normal. But what if Jace decided that he didn't care if she was a mundane? What if he cared enough about her to sacrifice his potential standing in the Shadowhunter society?
She's only been around a few days, he told himself. Stop thinking about him being stripped of his marks...
He joined into the conversation sometimes, trying to act like nothing was wrong. He seemed to do that a lot lately. Ever since he had realized that he harbored such an impossible crush on Jace, he had been over-thinking everything he did or said. It was like he needed to think about what he was supposed to do before he could actually do it, like he was somehow changing his own fate.
Not that he believed in fate... He was a Shadowhunter. He probably wouldn't meet a very good fate, so why think about it?
"Wait." Isabelle straightened in her seat, reaching into her purse and fidgeting around in it. She paused for a moment and said "What did you say that name was? The name in Clary's head?"
"I didn't," Jace replied. "At least, I didn't finish it. It's Magnus Bane." He looked at Alec, grinning triumphantly as though he had just won something important, just by saying the name. "Rhymes with 'overcareful pain in the ass.'"
Alec looked down into his coffee cup and muttered a few choice obscenities to the dark liquid. He felt like he had heard the name before, but he couldn't place it.
"I'm almost totally sure..." Isabelle pulled a bright blue piece of paper out of her bag and unfolded it. "Look at this!"
Alec held out his hand and took the paper from her. He looked down at it curiously and then shook his head, not seeing the point. "It's a party invitation. For somewhere in Brooklyn..." He scrunched up his face. "I hate Brooklyn."
"Don't be such a snob," Jace said, taking the paper from him. He looked down at the electric blue and then straightened in his seat, looking at Isabelle with surprise, "Where did you get this, Izzy?"
"From that kelpie in Pandemonium... He said it would be awesome. He had a whole stack of them."
Alec looked back at the paper, not understanding what Jace was making such a fuss about. Then he saw the tidy scrawl at the bottom of the invite: Magnus the Magnificent Warlock.
Oh.
That must've been why he recognized the name. Isabelle must've mentioned the party at some point and he had simply shrugged it off.
What if I had remembered? he wondered. Maybe Jace would be looking at me like that...
Alec shrugged off the question and tried to turn off that voice in his head entirely, though he knew it wouldn't be gone for long.
He was right... The voice wasn't gone for long.
That night, when Clary and Isabelle came down dressed for the party, he saw the way Jace looked at Clary. He felt something pull in his chest, wishing that someone would look at him like that. No, the voice said. You want him to look at you like that.
He shook his head and then waited quietly until it was time to go.
I hate Brooklyn, he thought to himself as they walked through the streets.
After they found their destination, marked by nearly a dozen vampires' motorcycles (that Jace took pleasure in sabotaging with holy water), he watched as Isabelle pressed the doorbell. He looked at the name on the plate, the only one, and felt a strange fluttering in his stomach.
Isabelle moved to press the buzzer a third time and he stopped her without thinking. She gave him a funny look and he swallowed, simply saying "Don't be rude." He didn't know what made him stop her... Who really cared? He was just a Downworlder, wasn't he? What could he do to them?
"Alec--" She started, but she was interrupted by the door opening.
--
Magnus pulled the door open, wondering who else could possibly be coming. He had thought that all of his guests arrived half an hour ago.
However, when he opened the door, his breath caught in his chest.
Alexander, he thought.
"Magnus? Magnus Bane?" Said the girl standing in front of the small group.
"That would be me."
He looked over all of them and then back to Alexander. His hair was longer and he was about a year younger than he had been... But it was definitely him. And they were Shadowhunters. It had to be him. Had he remembered? Was that why they were here?
Don't get your hopes up only to have them crushed, he thought. And then he noticed who else was with them... Clary Fray... Damnit... Something must've happened.
His hopes fell as quickly as they had flown. You've never met either one of them, he reminded himself. You don't know why they'd be here.
"Children of the Nephilim," he said, trying to sound casual. "Well, well... I don't recall inviting you."
The girl held out an invitation, waving the blue paper in front of him. "I have an invitation. These are my friends."
He took the invitation from her and pretended to look upset. "I must have been drunk," he said, opening the door and stepping aside. "Come in. And try not to murder any of my guests."
"Even if one of them spills a drink on my new shoes?" Asked the blonde in the group.
"Even then," Magnus said. He saw the stele in the boy's hand and snatched it from him, just as he used to take Alexander's weapons from him. He hoped that it would trigger something in Alexander's memory, but he didn't let it be known that it was strictly for show. "As for this," he said, sliding the stele into the boy's jeans pocket, "keep it in your pants, Shadowhunter."
He turned around and started up the stairs. When he didn't hear them all following, he turned around and said "Come on... Before anyone thinks it's my party." He let his gaze linger on Alexander for a moment before he turned back around and continued up the stairs.
It was a while before the blonde Shadowhunter approached him with their business. When the blonde was finished gloating about the fact that he had destroyed the vampire's bike, Magnus decided to ask why they had come in the first place, even though he had a feeling he knew...
"So is that why you wanted to crash my party? Just to wreck some bloodsucker bikes?"
"No," the blonde said. "We need to talk to you. Preferably somewhere private."
Magnus raised an eyebrow. He peeked at Alexander, who was looking around the place. This wasn't about him... He didn't seem to have any idea who Magnus was. He looked at Clary, who didn't have a clue, either, but seemed to know that he knew her somehow. Why does it never work the way I want it to? he wondered.
"Am I in trouble with the Clave?" He asked, knowing the answer.
"No," the boy said.
"Probably not," Alexander said. Magnus saw the blonde kick him in the ankle, making him jump, and was tempted to do something, but didn't. You don't know him, he reminded himself, Stop being protective.
"No," the boy repeated, and Magnus wondered if he could read his mind. "We can talk to you under the seal of the Covenant. If you help us, anything you say will be confidential."
"And if I don't help you?" He mused.
"Maybe nothing. Maybe a visit from the Silent City."
Magnus shuttered. "That's quite a choice you're offering me, little Shadowhunter."
"It's no choice at all."
"Yes," Magnus replied. "That's exactly what I meant."
He lead the three of them to his bedroom. When you thought about bringing Alexander in here, he thought silently, You didn't think it would be like this.
"Nice place," the blonde said. "Guess it pays well, being the High Warlock of Brooklyn?"
"It pays. Not much of a benefit package, though... No dental." Magnus closed the door, leaned against it, and crossed his arms. "So. What's on your devious little minds?"
"It's not them, actually," Clary said. "I'm the one who wanted to talk to you."
Magnus looked at her. "You are not one of them. Not of the Clave. But you can see the Invisible World." God, I sound like a psychic on Oprah, he thought.
"My mother was one of the Clave," she said. "But she never told me. She kept it a secret. I don't know why."
"So ask her," he said.
"I can't. She's... She's gone."
Magnus was intrigued, but didn't show it.
"And your father?" He asked, though, again, he knew the answer he'd receive.
"He died before I was born."
He sighed. "As Oscar Wilde once said 'To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose both looks like carelessness.'"
Magnus wondered how she knew to come to him. After several more moments of arguing, in which Alexander said nothing, the girl mentioned his signature.
Damnit.
"My signature... I knew it was a folly when I did it. An act of hubris..."
"You signed my mind?" She asked.
He raised his hand, signing his name in the air. It stayed for several moments before it faded away as the girl stared at him.
"I was proud of my work on you," he said. "So clean... So perfect."
Alec listened in slight shock as the Warlock explained what he had done to Clary's mind. It was crazy that one person could do something like that... Completely control what a person would and would not remember.
Well, he thought. He's not the High Warlock of Brooklyn for nothing...
When Magnus began to talk about being damaged, about his own troubled past, Alec felt the same fluttering in his stomach that he had before, only this time there was an added sense of sadness to it. He sometimes felt like he was damaged, but it was nothing compared to what Magnus had been through...
"It wasn't your fault," Alec said. He didn't even realize he had spoken until Magnus's hazel eyes were locked to his. "You... You can't help how you're born."
He felt his cheeks starting to burn, hoping that he hadn't said too much.
"I'm over it," Magnus said.
Several minutes later, Magnus seemed to have an idea for helping Clary. He opened a copy of the Gray Book and set it down in Clary's lap.
From where he was standing, Alec had a pretty good view of the book and could clearly see the rune for remembrance. Clary seemed to focus on it for a few moments, and Alec did as well... He suddenly felt the overwhelmed with the thought that he was forgetting something important, that he needed to remember something... And then Clary began to turn the pages at an alarming speed for someone who was seeing runes for the first time, and Magnus took the book away.
"That's enough," he said, closing it and slipping it back onto the shelf. "If you read all the runes at once, you'll give yourself a headache."
"But--" Clary protested.
"Most Shadowhunter children grow up learning one rune at a time--"
Alec zoned out for several moments, staring at the book and trying to remember whatever he could have possibly forgotten. He had seen that rune dozens of times... Why did it feel so strange now?
"--The Silent Brothers have the sword... the cup, and the mirror were in Idris, at least until Valentine came along," he heard, snapping him out of his daze.
"Nobody knows where the mirror is. Nobody's known for ages," Alec said, hoping no one had noticed that he had been off in another world for several minutes. And then he faded back into staring at the book...
And then he heard Magnus speaking again, breaking him from his thoughts and making him stare at the colorful Warlock.
"He suffered a grave defeat, and he hardly seemed—seems--the type of man to suffer defeat gracefully."
Their eyes met.
"Were you at the Uprising?" Alec asked without thought.
"I was." Magnus was holding Alec's stare, looking at him with an intensity in his eyes that made Alec want to look away, but he refused. "I killed a number of your folk."
"Circle members," Jace interjected, "Not ours--"
"If you insist on disavowing that which is ugly about what you do," Magnus said, still holding Alec's gaze, "you will never learn from your mistakes."
Alec looked away quickly and plucked at the coverlet of Magnus's bed. "You don't seem surprised to hear that Valentine's still alive..."
"Are you?" Magnus replied.
"So you won't help us find the Mortal Cup?"
"I wouldn't if I could," said Magnus. "Which, by the way, "I can't. I've no idea where it is, and I don't care to know. Only a fool, as I said."
Alec straightened and said "But without the cup, we can't--"
"Make more of you, I know. Perhaps not everyone regards that as quite the disaster that you do. Mind you," Magnus added, "if I had to choose between the Clave and Valentine, I would choose the Clave. At leas they're not actually sworn to wipe out my kind." He looked back at Alec, who looked away when their eyes met. "But nothing the Clave has done has earned my unswerving loyalty either, so no, I'll sit this one out. Now if we're done here, I'd like to get back to my party before any of the guests eat each other."
When they got back to the party, there was a sufficient amount of drama involving the mundane. Apparently he had been stupid enough to drink something, even after Isabelle told him not to, and had gotten himself turned into a rat.
By the time Clary had found Simon, argued with Jace, argued with Magnus, argued with Jace again, and then fought with Magnus some more, Alec just wanted to go home and never think about the night again.
They were finally leaving. Clary had put the rat in her backpack and they were almost out the door.
"Don't want to overstay our welcome," Jace said, addressing the fact that Magnus saw them leaving.
"What welcome?" Magnus asked. "I'd say it was a pleasure to meet you, but it wasn't. Not that you aren't all fairly charming, and as for you--" he said, looking at Alec and winking. "Call me?"
Alec's eyes opened wide and he tried to say something but his mouth just wouldn't cooperate. He could feel his face, neck, and ears getting warm, but he couldn't move or say anything. And then Jace pulled him toward the door, Isabelle following close behind. Once they were outside, Alec could feel how hot his face was, the blood pooling just beneath his skin.
Alec walked several yards with Isabelle before they realized that Clary and Jace weren't right behind them. Isabelle, slightly buzzed, was whining about how worried she was about Simon.
"If anything had happened to him, I—I don't know what I would have done..." She sniffed.
"Probably whatever it is you did before," Alec said, frustrated with her sudden interest in the mundane. "It's not like you knew him all that well."
"That doesn't mean I don't--"
"What? Love him? You need you know someone to love them."
"But that's not all it is," she defended. And then her tone changed as she asked "Didn't you have any fun at the party, Alec?"
"No." He answered.
"I thought you would like Magnus. He's nice, isn't he?"
"Nice?" Alec laughed. "Kittens are nice. Warlocks are--" He paused, trying to think of something. "not." Lame.
"I thought you might hit it off," she said. "Get to be friends."
Sure, friendship is exactly what you were thinking. "I have friends," he said, unconsciously looking back in Jace's direction.
Sure, friendship is exactly what you want, he shook his head and sighed. Why don't things ever work the way I want them to?