The phone rang once, twice, then three times. Com'on, Magnus muttered through gritted teeth. The phone lay just out of his reach as he lay curled up on the floor. Blood was pooling all around him like he was drowning in the sea. The tangy smell made him want to gag, but he could feel his throat slowly closing in on itself. In a couple more minutes, he wouldn't be able to breathe. She was his last hope.
Magnus couldn't see the phone, but he could hear the loud drones of the tone continuing in a repeated pattern. By seven rings, the blood had made it's way into his eyes, cutting him off from the world of sight. He told himself not to panic, but it did nothing to stop his frantic leg kicks. His magic was almost gone.
"Magnus?" His heart almost skipped a beat. The sound of her voice was deafening compared to the dead silence around him.
Magnus tried to open his mouth to speak, but his throat had already decided he didn't need the oxygen. All he could muster was a wheeze. His arms shook where they lay useless by his sides as all his fury and hatred and shame was released from him. It was all his fault they were stuck in his mess, and when he tried to make amends, his body refused to save his life.
"Magnus are you there?"
Was he there? The man dying on the floor had just sold his boyfriend out to Jonathan Morgenstern. Was he really fit to calling himself the great Magnus Bane, High Warlock of Brooklyn? His arms had stopped shaking. If he was so powerless he let a shadowhunter steal his powers, he wasn't a warlock at all. He was no better than a mundane trapped in a fantasy. He didn't deserve Alec. He didn't deserve friends. He didn't deserve Tessa and Jem and Will. All of it had been someone else because he never deserved their friendship. He hoped she would just hang up and let him face his sin. Let him dieā¦
"Jem."
And all of a sudden, energy filled Magnus's tired form. It coursed through him like the magic Jonathan stole, pulsing through his heart and behind his closed eyelids. He didn't know where he'd gotten the power to speak, or why his body needed to speak to her after his mind had given up. But Magnus was lying. Jem, or rather, Brother Zachariah had gone back to stop Jonathan even with the wound he had sustained. But not just then. Jem had been fighting for his life ever since he was a boy. His parents murdered, the demon drug controlling his fate, Jem had no choice but to fight. And he put up a marvelous fight. Magnus to this day had never seen someone with so much determination. If Jem could spend eternity as a Silent Brother and still fight for the lives of his loved ones, then Magnus could too.
"Jem? Is he alright?" She sounded frantic now. "Magnus, are you alright?"
"New...York...Institute. Jonathan-" And Magnus's heart gave out, sending him into a whole new kind of darkness.
A/N: Wow, where to the apologies begin. So sorry for having you wait this long. Any excuse I can make won't amount to even the slightest form of forgiveness I deserve. I had so much going on, I didn't have time for writing. But now, I'm somewhat back. I will write when I can, but I'm having the largest case of writer's block in the universe! Any suggestions would be fantastic! I just wrote this little piece about a half hour ago so those readers still interested could have a taste of new material. Anyway, please, please, please review. More reviews will help me write and more ideas will help me write faster. Now it is time for me to finally go to bed. Night :)
